How to persuade the guards at Northwatch Keep to let me rescue Thorald Gray-Mane during “Missing In Action”

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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?

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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.

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