GameBanshee Forums

OK, so I've become a vampire. Not good. I've spoken to the witch at Drakelowe who tells me to find 5 empty grand soul gems (how DO you find the trapdoor in her fireplace?), I've travelled to the Mages Guild at Chorrol but: a) the guys there won't even talk to me let alone sell the gem to me as I'm a vampire, and b) my lock picking skill isn't good enough to break into the cases (if I even had enough lockpicks - where can you buy those?).

So, where do I get these gems from? Help!!

Uh oh. Yea I have the same problem than you do. Though some of the people at any mage's guild won't sell you any empty grand soul gems, some of them still possess them. What I am currently doing is I go through every mage's guild and just plain steal them.

My friend told me that you also need a plant (or maybe more than just one) called nightshade, I am not 100% sure, but be warned.

With lockpicking, you don't need to have a good skill in order to success. The skill is just to determine how many tumblers will go down if you fail. What you need is

a) patience
b) a steady hand
c) good hearing

If you try the lock tumblers enough times, you might notice how they go up/down on different speed. And sometimes you might hear a little extra-vague "click-click" sound and the tumbler goes up slowly. You should only try on those ones to make them stay up. Quicksave before trying

Basically you can succeed in opening every locked chest and closet with one lockpick, though it is much easier with many. Where you can buy those? Not a clue. Bandits usually carry them in caverns.

Search the forums, I believe that we had couple of very good threads where people described good ways of lockpicking. It really has nothing to do with your lvl, but with skill so give it a go.

just to help with lockpicking.
tap it till it goes up fast and the next time it will be slow.