I've made it through to Fathis Aren's tower and am standing right behind him in the alchemy lab, trying to sneak over to the chest to get the Arrow. I can't make it to the chest from where I am, since he's staring right at it (I did pickpocket him, while I was behind him -- for something to do while I wait). I also have another saved game where I'm by the pillar, outside of the lab, waiting. Do I need to wait until he comes OUT of the lab, before I go in?...or should I just stay put directly behind him, hoping that he turns and leaves? I've got a pretty high sneak, and he's only supposed to have a sneak of 5. And I've been waiting for him to move for a LONG time. lol Any suggestions?

Try using a Chameleon spell to walk up to the chest, or Telekinesis to loot it from far away. I used Chameleon.

I have a potion of chameleon, but it didn't work. :Sigh: I'll try it again.

Edit: Tried it a few times -- simply doesn't work. And I'm getting pretty irritated. Been crouching in that room for hours, waiting for him to leave. I've got a Sneak of 65 and (according to the Guide) he's supposed to only have a Sneak of 5?? No way.

[ May 02, 2006, 22:34: Message edited by: Spellbound ]

As counterintuitive as it may sound, try going in from his left, so that you're behind the table and infront of him. IIRC, the place should look something like this (please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn't have time to type it to scale or anything):
______________
----->------ |_| <- the chest
| _______
^ |______|
| FA
|--<---

Follow the dotted line.

If that doesn't work... I don't know, grab the arrow and run.

are you mage guild member?
if yes, you can just take it, no string attached.
if no, kill him.

I tried the other way once -- and it didn't work. But, I only gave it one try.

I am a mage guild member -- he turns hostile immediately -- it didn't matter.

Yeah, I had the worst time with this too. And I'm a agent (class) and moonshadow (constellation). But it didn't help at all, he saw me everytime. Since I thought the dungeon to get to him was waaaaaaaay too long, I was too bored to figure out the way. I juste put an invisibility spell on myself. I walked up to the chest and too the arrow (at which point I became visible again). I turned tail and ran, dodging his spells. I had high acrobatics, so I jumped on the pillars and slid off the wall, to the ground, ran out of the tower and lost 'em in the woods... slick.. :cool:

What I did was had 2 invisibility spells on me. I cast one before I went into his room, went over to the chest and got the arrow and then held the cast button while it was taking me back to the normal screen. It cast immediately and he talks to himself a bit but doesn't do anything.