Finding Gaius Maro
Create a Backup Save. Skyrim is a massive game with various triggers and scripted events. This makes it a very good idea to create multiple save files to serve as backups in case something should go wrong. Do this before tracking down Gaius Maro, as this quest has a few bugs that could potentially prevent you from gaining the bonus rewards or even finishing it altogether.
Steal Gaius Maro’s Travel Schedule. You will first encounter your target, Gaius Maro, on Dragon Bridge. After he finishes talking to his father and the innkeeper of the Four Shields Tavern, Faida, he will begin roaming the various towns and villages of Skyrim. If you want to have a much easier time knowing where he will be at any given day, you can steal his schedule. You can find an in-depth guide to stealing his schedule here. If you don’t want to go through the effort of stealing the schedule, then here’s the schedule of places where you can reliably find Gaius Maro: Morndas—Solitude, Emperor’s Tower during the day and Castle Dour at night. Tirdas—Windhelm, the Palace of the King during the day and the barracks at night. Middas—Riften, Mistveil Keep. Turdas—Whiterun, Dragonsreach during the day and the Bannered Mare during the night. Fredas—Markarth, Understone Keep during the day and the Guard Tower during the night.
Find Gaius Maro. This task will be relatively easy once you have the schedule in hand. Just make sure to factor in the time it takes for you to fast-travel from the different points in Skyrim. Open the “Wait” window and check the current day. Compare it to Gaius’ schedule, and move to the town he will be moving into the next day. Now wait until Gaius walks into that town and you should be able to have a much easier time ambushing him. If you have a high enough pickpocket skill, you could just reverse-pickpocket Gaius to plant the letter on him while he is still alive.
Killing Gaius Maro
Assault Gaius. One of the ways to kill Gaius in the city is to just pull out your axe and kill the man in a straight-up street brawl. Seriously. Kill him, quickly plant the note on his body, and surrender to the guards. Serve the week-long jail time or pay the resulting fines for murder and assault, and you’re done with the quest. Simple, straightforward and brutally effective.
Provoke Gaius Maro. If you want a straight-up brawl without incurring a bounty, then you can actually provoke the man into striking you first. As long as Gaius lands the first blow, guards will ignore your duel and you’ll then be able to kill him without having a bounty placed on your head. To provoke Gaius, simply walk up to him, tell him that he will die and that the Emperor will be next. He’ll then pull out his sword and begin attacking you. Again, make sure he lands the first blow before retaliating; otherwise, the guards will strike a bounty on you. Kill him and plant the letter on his body. Provoke Gaius when the both of you are in full view of a guard. If you are dueling and a guard decides to walk in on your duel, you will incur a bounty if the guard sees you land a blow before Gaius does.
Snipe Gaius Maro. You could also kill Gaius Maro from afar if you have invested points in the archery skill tree, have a powerful bow and arrow on hand, and have prepared deadly poisons to coat your arrows with. Sneak to a place where no one can see you, coat an arrow with poison, and send it flying toward Gaius. Wait until the guards are done investigating his body and plant the incriminating letter on his body when the guards have moved on. Invisibility will make this method a lot easier if you can kill Gaius in one shot. Position yourself far away from Gaius before casting invisibility or drinking an invisibility potion. Nock an arrow, let it fly, and immediately get as far away from the crime scene as possible. If done properly, you should be able to kill Gaius without incurring a bounty.
Slay Gaius in his sleep. If you want a more nuanced approach to killing the man—avoiding combat and staying true to the stealthy approach of a Dark Brotherhood assassin—then you will want to do the deed when Gaius is alone. This will be hard as Gaius tends to stay in areas with lots of witnesses around, but not when he’s in the Bannered Mare. Breaking into his room in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun gives you a relatively safe opportunity to kill him in his sleep without anyone seeing you do it. Pick the lock to his bedroom, close the door, slit his throat, plant the note, and walk away.
Poison him. This will work if you have enough points in the pickpocket tree and have spent a perk point in the “Poisoned” skill. Reverse-pickpocket enough poisons on him, and he will die without you incurring a single septim in bounty. You can either buy powerful poisons or brew them yourself if you also invested points in alchemy. You can also reverse-pickpocket a frenzy potion on Gaius. Once frenzied, he will begin attacking the nearest target, often getting himself killed by the guards in the process. Just make sure to frenzy him when he is away from named characters, as you might end up inadvertently killing an NPC that would otherwise have been useful in the future.
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