"Kill the Dragon Located At Mount Anthor" Quest Marker Wrong - and No Dragon

[Lady Aeleanor]

I've run into this bug at least 3 times in my current gameplay, every time this quest and location comes up. The quest marker appears some distance away from Mount Anthor - not even close. Yet, it shows on my compass as much further away, and INSIDE somewhere. I have no other quests active.There are no outside quest markers showing up on my compass, but shows on my map. If I travel to that quest marker that's showing on my map, there is no dragon. If I travel to Mount Anthor, there is no dragon in the vicinity. Nor is there one in a large radius around it. It seems it's just this location that has the bug. Any other "kill the dragon at such-and-such location" always has the proper quest marker and has a dragon there, either sleeping or flying around.

[DrNewcenstein]

Then there is a serious issue with your current playthrough and you need to start a new game.

[smr1957]

From http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Mount_Anthor Bugs section:

"The dragon sometimes doesn't spawn correctly. This causes the compass to point towards Markarth with the map pointing to the "correct" location. If you follow the marker into Markarth, it changes to the bold arrow and points toward the correct location, thus insisting your objective can be reached from inside Markarth.
Try console commands "prid 32AC2" and "moveto player" to have the dragon appear. You can confirm the correct id by checking the quest variables.
You can also skip the quest by using the console command "setstage BQ04 100", or "setstage FreeformSkyHavenTempleB 100"."

[Lady Aeleanor]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Then there is a serious issue with your current playthrough and you need to start a new game.

I don't think it's a "serious issue" at all. There are no other bugs in my game. 99.9% of quests (including any "kill the <bandit leader/master vampire/dragon> etc. work just fine with proper quest markers. I'm not going to start a new game (and by the way, I had the same issue in my previous game) since I'm level 53 and maxed at most of my skills.

[Lady Aeleanor]

Originally posted by smr1957:

From http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Mount_Anthor Bugs section:

"The dragon sometimes doesn't spawn correctly. This causes the compass to point towards Markarth with the map pointing to the "correct" location. If you follow the marker into Markarth, it changes to the bold arrow and points toward the correct location, thus insisting your objective can be reached from inside Markarth.
Try console commands "prid 32AC2" and "moveto player" to have the dragon appear. You can confirm the correct id by checking the quest variables.
You can also skip the quest by using the console command "setstage BQ04 100", or "setstage FreeformSkyHavenTempleB 100"."

Thanks. This worked!

[Space Fart]

I had a similar issue. So far I had a bandit leader not spawn and a dragon as well. I finished the quests with console commands but 2 at the same time might not be a coincidence in my case. I hope it ends in anything other than starting a new game. You can google how to finish bugged quests with console commands and if that doesn't help lemme know.

[smr1957]

Fantastic! Have fun!

[Lady Aeleanor]

Originally posted by Veshter:

I had a similar issue. So far I had a bandit leader not spawn and a dragon as well. I finished the quests with console commands but 2 at the same time might not be a coincidence in my case. I hope it ends in anything other than starting a new game. You can google how to finish bugged quests with console commands and if that doesn't help lemme know.

Thanks. I have resorted to console commands with this one before. I was curious about anyone else having similar issues.

[DrNewcenstein]

There are tons of other bugs in your game, I assure you, you just haven't encountered them yet.
They are cascading failures that will come to a head, and roll over like a wave crest and crash.

If this error appears in every new game, you have a serious problem, either with mods, or "cleaned masters", or some other wild edit someone on the internet suggested you make.

[smr1957]

Originally posted by Veshter:

I had a similar issue. So far I had a bandit leader not spawn and a dragon as well. I finished the quests with console commands but 2 at the same time might not be a coincidence in my case. I hope it ends in anything other than starting a new game. You can google how to finish bugged quests with console commands and if that doesn't help lemme know.

That is oftentimes not a good idea, except in certain circumstances such as OP's issue, where it is a proven and safe way to fix a bug. The reason is that by using the console to advance quests, you run the very real risk of not triggering specific and necessary steps needed by the game - and thus breaking the game.

If after looking on the wiki to see if the problem is a known bug, you do not see it listed, then the problem is a mod issue, and must be dealt with by troubleshooting your mod build.

[smr1957]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

There are tons of other bugs in your game, I assure you, you just haven't encountered them yet.
They are cascading failures that will come to a head, and roll over like a wave crest and crash.

If this error appears in every new game, you have a serious problem, either with mods, or "cleaned masters", or some other wild edit someone on the internet suggested you make.

In this particular instance, it is a known bug with a known solution. Though, if after checking the wiki you do not see a problem listed as a bug, then it is a mod issue, and Dr.Newcenstein would be correct.

[Space Fart]

I had almost the exact issue as OP, but twice and they were active at the same time. I have no idea when I took them unfortunately but it's almost a safe bet that my save is dying. I have been adding mods mid playthrough so no surprise there, I'm honestly surprised it's been going good for so long. I'm on my way to grab another bounty from Whiterun to see if it's really screwed or not. Good thing I can easily try this on a new playthrough as well to see if it's a mod or not.

[Lady Aeleanor]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

There are tons of other bugs in your game, I assure you, you just haven't encountered them yet.
They are cascading failures that will come to a head, and roll over like a wave crest and crash.

If this error appears in every new game, you have a serious problem, either with mods, or "cleaned masters", or some other wild edit someone on the internet suggested you make.

I have 1028 hours in the game on this playthrough. I have finished 95% of the quests in the main game and DLC. Finished every faction quest, including Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Companions. Dawnguard - everything. I'm now just riding around and doing random quests. This is the first quest bug I have run into.

Wiki describes it as a "known bug". Which means lots and lots of other people experience it. I don't have a "serious problem" with my game.

[Space Fart]

Yeah well I just got a bounty for a Giant and it spawned and all, worked flawlessly. What do you guys think, coincidence or not? I will keep playing this save until it breaks, and then I will keep putting it through the save cleaner as much as I need to until it wont work again unless someone has a better way to keep torturing this playthrough.

[smr1957]

Originally posted by Veshter:

Yeah well I just got a bounty for a Giant and it spawned and all, worked flawlessly. What do you guys think, coincidence or not? I will keep playing this save until it breaks, and then I will keep putting it through the save cleaner as much as I need to until it wont work again unless someone has a better way to keep torturing this playthrough.

Save cleaners will NOT fix a save.

Ilja:

"....Skyrim bakes script data to save file. There is no such thing as a clean save, when mod is removed. "Clean save" is for mod updates only. This includes work done with Save Script Cleaner. That tool cleans obsolete entries and orphaned scripts from the game, but script data will remain in the save file, causing Papryus to constantly check it and creating errors.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/343788552537617802/#c343788552538346202

Also:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/365163686057140233/?tscn=1504123538#c365163686058904424

And, again from Ilja:

"I believe that misunderstanding here is that people can not make a difference between closing active scripts from the game world and wiping Papyrus script data from Papyrus. Latter is impossible to make in a clean way."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/1495615865205745360/?tscn=1529568370#c1696043263497229374

You will need to start a new game. When you do is up to you to decide. When you do so, however, make sure that you thoroughly check your mod load for compatibility issues and for unstable mods.

In fact, when you do eventually start a new game, you may wish to post your LOOT sorted load order in the forum as a discussion, so that people can examine it for issues.

[Space Fart]

Damn it, as much as I dislike that it's good to know. Save cleaners have fixed a crash on load finished for me a lot of times however so I dunno what the cause was but just wanted to add that bit. I guess I'll just wait and see.