How do I persuade the guards at Northwatch Keep to let me rescue Thorald Gray-Mane during "Missing In Action"?

During the quest "Missing In Action", I tried to take a peaceful resolution to rescuing Thorald Gray-Mane and decided to persuade the guards at Northwatch Keep to let him go rather than rush in and kill them all. Unfortunately, when I got there, things got...complicated. There's no easy way into the Keep and the guards won't let me in without an order from the Imperial Guard. Does this mean I have to join the Imperial Guard to rescue him? Or is there some other way to persuade these guards?

To do it, you can try one of the following:

• Imperial Legionnaire Armor - Doesn't exist, of course. Legates wear the heavy version of Imperial armor.
• Light or Heavy Imperial Armor - Does nothing.
• Asking General Tullius - He says no.
• Completing the Imperial Legion questline - Tullius still says no.
• Adding the Imperial Order via console - Doesn't change the Thalmor's dialogue options.
• Siding with the Grey-Manes/Battle-Borns when you enter Whiterun - This just has minor effects on dialogue within Whiterun.

Nope! The only way to avoid bloodshed (at least as of the current version) is to just not fight back. That's possible, especially at higher levels, but as far as I can tell there's no real benefit. You can still complete the quest, as I did, by failing the no bloodshed portion and saving Thorald with force. Maybe next time the Thalmor will learn to just agree when two people show up at the door wreathed in flames and wearing the bones of dragons they've slain.

None of this should be shocking, as the quest can also glitch up if you exit the wrong door, or pickpocket and ask questions in the wrong order.

It is possible to do this mission, saving Thorald, and not incurring any negative Failed missions. But you have to be tricky. Here's how it's done.

The key is: do not attack any enemies. You can aggro them, but don't attack them.

Go to the north entrance to the inner Keep. Run inside and train every enemy to the Southern entrance of the keep. After you train everything to the South of the map, then run by them, healing yourself and run as fast as you can to find Thorald. At Thorald, unshackle him.

Now you can do one of two things. First, run back to the north exit. If you do this then you should have no problems as all the enemies are still trying to path back to you. The only issue with this is sometimes the game crashes when you exit this way with Thorald.

Second you can run through the mobs to the south exit. Or you can use your Voice Power to send all the mobs to the far end of the north hall. If you use your voice then they will all go up there and then you can just stroll by to the Southern enrance.

In either case, as long as you DO NOT attack any enemy, then Thorald won't either, nor will he be attacked by the enemy. Just run out with him, and once outside keep running till the enemies all leash back to the keep.

Done. No penalties.

It is possible to use the console to set Thorald free without failing the "no blodsheed" quest. However, even setting Rikke as a non essential and killing her to obtain the legate armor, there's no way to enter the Northwatch keep with the Thalmor's permission.

Basically, I put a "player.place at me" for Thorald, and once he's out, the quest will automatically update to "completed, set free Thorald". Now, this copy of Thorald is not moving, so you need to kill him and you are able to enter the NorthwatchKeep without failing the quest, getting Thorald to safety in an old fashion style -killing as many Thalmor as possible-.

I guess there must be a way to set him free, and send him to Whiterun once again. Since the Legate armor, or the walkthrough for this quest in the no bloodshed path is not clear, with the console is the only way to do it.

This quest seems to be unfinished — using the console, there are no dialogue options for the quest to have Tallius give the player the Imperial Order, nor any dialogue options by the Thalmor in response to that (there is, however, dialogue by your character). As near as I can tell, it is impossible to complete this quest using the non-violent approach.