Question regarding books: "Restless Spirit" and "A Needle in a Haystack"

[Mac]

My question regarding those two quests is:

When is it the best time to acquire the Necronomicon book for the “Restless Spirit” quest? Before or druring the stay at the Monastery?

I’ve stolen it before and now the cabinet in the library druring the main quest is empty while I look for the book for one of the brothers. I’ve also heard it could be empty during the day and still be there during the night but I’m not sure if it’s true.

So is it the best to just steal Necronomicon during the stay at the Monastery in order not to cause potential bugs?

[TlitJ]

I’m at this point right now. I’m about to finish needle in a haystack and am debating grabbing that restless spirit book also. I have the monestary keys, so if I can keep those after finishing needle, I’m good. Anyone know if you keep those keys?

[flowbro]

If you keep the keys I can’t tell you, but i would strongly recommend to steal everything what you find.
The important items will then be found in the quest ordner of your inventory. And once they are there the monks won’t take them away from your quest folder.

@Mac you can get access to every item of your quest folder even when you are in the monestary

Summary

You have to sneak out of the monestary, near the big entrance there is this small room where you dressed up as a monk and where you left your belongings. There you’ll find everything you need. I strongly recommend to leave all your stuff in the chest and only take the quest items cause the monks won’t take them away from you when they prison you

[Potestaquisitor]

I never stole the book from the monastery when I played trough it. But you can re enter the monastery again later while doing the restless sprit quest. Enter through the way you escaped, cause that door you ran out the 1st time, will still be wide open (that’s if you saved Pious/let him go/sent him to prssion). go in at night at about 1 am. The monks are supposed to all be asleep but instead they are all sitting eating in the dining hall. Hot foot it to the library pick the “hard lock” to get into the restricted area and then pick the lock on the trunk to get the key that opens the locked cabinet in the library.

If for some reason the book is not there (because you stole it earlier or it’s bugged and not showing up on the shelf). Head down to the dining hall and look fo one of the novice monks in white (think he is near the top left of the table near the Windows ) croach down and stealth mug him - don’t kill him) he will have a second copy of the book in his inventory. Nab the book and hi-tale it out of there the way you came. The monks will run around in confusion after you mug the novice and gaurds will come, just be quick and head out the way you came in. There is a steep cliff and the gaurds can’t follow you. (This won’t affect your reputation in anyway). Then take the book now called Necronomicon11 back to the apothecary in rattay and the objective will complete and you can carry on with the quest.

Note: because all the monks were all eating all the time, till you mug the novice (cause I think it’s bugged lol). You have free rein of the monastery. I took a shit load of lock picks in with me and wore my darkest slealthiest clothing and ransacked the whole joint. Took a shit load of books aswell

Just save after you loot the moastary and/or you could not find the book before going and mugging the novice monk, cause you may mug the wrong one lol, in that cause just re load and mug the novices till you find the rite one that has the second version of the book.

Sorry for the edits. Typing on an iPad, auto correct sux and this forum is not so mobile browser friendly

[TlitJ]

So SPOILERS ahead:

I went ahead and stole the necronomicon book while doing needle in a haystack mission while i had both the monestary keys and the book cabinet keys. I did it after getting that first book out of the cabinet for the one monk since he says only steal the book i need and no others. As far as the monestary keys, I chose to help Pious escape and in doing that, he actually takes the monestary keys from me. Ultimately I decided to kill him once we were outside the monestary so I just stole those keys back from him. Don’t know if I’ll need them in the future but i have them now.