Bandit Leader does not appear...

[Eyeless Pilot]

I have a miscellaneous quest to kill the bandit leader in Ironback Hideout. I believe it was given to me by Falk Firebeard, the steward in Solitude (I could be wrong about who gave the quest, but it was definitely picked up in solitude). The Bandit Leader has disappeared, I am not entirely sure he was ever there, as the quest marker just points at the ground, in front of the fireplace in the collapsed hut. I've put in loads of hours since I began the quest, so I was hoping somebody could give me a console command to end the quest or summon in the leader, so I can get the quest out my bloody journal (and so it doesn't affect my ability to become a thane in solitude).

Any more details required just ask, I am running a ♥♥♥♥ ton of mods, so don't ask for a list.

And yes I am aware it could be a Mod that is causing this, I am also prepared to continue the game without it being resloved, if it is not possible.

[avenger]

You have the "completequest" console command but you'd have to get the quest name/description, and find its ID to do "completequest <id_here>".

You can probably find the quest by checking your journal, and getting some key word in the quest entry. I couldn't find anything helpful here with 'ironback' nor 'hideout'. The quest must have a peculiar description on your questbook that will help finding it in console.

From the help command ("help <keyword>") you will get probable quest names prefixed by the "QUST: " word (in the beginning of the result line). Then it will have the quest "raw name" followed by its ID.

For example, I wanted to find a quest related to Heimskr preaching. Luckily, with:
help Heimskr

I could find a QUST: line pointing to ID 0003A15A that looked like the quest I wanted.

You can check if a quest is active with
GetQuestRunning 0003A15A (replace by the quest you found)

And then you can force-finish it with
CompleteQuest 0003A15A

And you'll see the "Quest Completed: <name>" message on your screen.

There are also ways to dig thru quests' stages but I believe your quest has the two stages: 1 kill bandit 2: claim reward.

Alternatively, if you can find the bandit's ID, you can just
kill <bandit_ID>

And it will likely trigger the "claim reward" part of the quest.

You may lookup the quest name/description in google, I believe you will find details like the quest's ID and bandit's actor ID on pages like elder scrolls wiki. The same numbers/values from Skyrim (non SE) apply to SE. Or at least most of them!

Well, hope this helps! If you find the quest's ID or bandit's ID it will surely enable you to complete the quest even using all the mods you are!

[Eyeless Pilot]

nice one, thank you very much mate.

[Eyeless Pilot]

I've started digging into the console commands, using showquesttargets i can see all active quests, it doesn't look like this one has a keyword you can check for... unless it is one of the favour quests etc

[alexander_dougherty]

BE CAREFUL WITH CONSOLE COMMANDS, some are safe, some carry a risk that might break your game, others are guaranteed to break your game.

I'm not saying don't use them, just be careful, and avoid them unless you have a broken quest, like this one.

[Washell]

I'd try the most basic thing first: tcl, so you clip below ground level and behind rocks to see if the bandit leader ended up there, unable to get back to you.

[Void#151625]

allways backup befor you use any console commands since they have the risc of corrupting and breaking your saves!
but you can try just have a proper backup!

[Eyeless Pilot]

I'm aware of the dangers but thanks for the warnings guys.

[MasoodMS]

Hey if you're still stuck on this, check if you have the mod Warzones installed. That for whatever reason caused the bandit leader to despawn. Turning that off brought him right back for me.

[Eriane]

Ah yes, I hate it when that happens. I don't know about the bandit leader but I've experienced issues where NPCs didn't appear where they were supposed to appear and even after checking the wiki to make sure I did everything to the letter, they were just missing somewhere. Thankfully the console comes to the rescue :) Don't worry, you probably won't bug out the game for forcing an NPC to teleport to you, they will find their way back home by the next full moon anyway.

[Toes Malone]

For anyone who has this issue 4 years or later past the post like I did, use this console command

setstage bq01 100 if it was started by the steward setstage bq01 101 if started by the Jarl

[Edge_On]

Hello. For posterity this is the fix. The issue for me was that 3DNPC's places this bandit chief in the wrong cell. The reference target form is C635F, and the quest is "favor104" Simply use console commands "Prid C635F" then console "kill" the NPC. You could also just remove that edit in 3DNPC's esp. via xedit, then use "Prid C635F" then "recycleactor" then "disable" then "enable" consoles commands to get the Chief to respawn at his location. Fair warning though, the NPC in question is flagged as persistent which likely means it's tied to a quest. Really just a bad modding practice, but whatever.

[Fruman]

Originally posted by Toes Malone:

For anyone who has this issue 4 years or later past the post like I did, use this console command

setstage bq01 100 if it was started by the steward setstage bq01 101 if started by the Jarl

Mitico,risolto in 2 secondi

[Helsiera]

In case anyone else is having an issue with the above commands not being successful, i'll share the only thing which advanced the quest for me. Console:

setstage Favor104 15

I was at the step to kill the ironback hideout leader but she was already dead, with the quest marker over her head, and resurrect did not work, neither did kill, or the prid commands. the above command completed the quest for me and advanced to "Tell Ahtar the bandit is dead". ♥

[MOON LEGS]

Maybe you should make more save file entries. For instance, after you sleep (quicksave), walking through a door (quicksave), accepting a quest (new save), starting a dungeon (new save), etc. Then you can rollback prior to the quest and try again.

[Eyeless Pilot]

Originally posted by MOON LEGS:

Maybe you should make more save file entries. For instance, after you sleep (quicksave), walking through a door (quicksave), accepting a quest (new save), starting a dungeon (new save), etc. Then you can rollback prior to the quest and try again.

Yeah, 6 years after the original game game out, and a further 7 years since I made this post, I need advice on how to play it.