Forsworn Conspiracy Bug (Spoilers)

[SUBJ3KT17]

So I recently encountered a bug with this quest where when I return to Eltrys in the Temple of Talos two of the guards are standing there near his body, but the third guard, the one that is supposed to talk to you, wasn't there. Without being able to initiate dialogue with said guard the quest will not update. I did some digging around and found other posts where people were having the same problem but no one seemed to know how to fix it. However, I have found a fix, of sorts, so I figured I'd share.

If the third guard will not show up it's likely because the game isn't triggering the script to make said guard go to the temple (which sounds obvious, but hear me out). Said guard will still trigger the quest update if talked to IN the Temple of Talos, so you just have to find out which guard it is and summon him/her to you. The guard you need is assigned randomly.

Step 1: Create a save in the temple.

Step 2: Kill guards in Markarth until you get "Forsworn Conspiracy: Completed" to pop up. The last guard killed was most likely the guard you needed.

Step 3: Open the console command and click on the dead guard you needed. His/her ID will show up at the top of the console command window. As long as you don't click on anything else, it will persist through the closing and re-openning of the console command, but you can always write it down just in case.

Step 4: Reload the save from Step 1

Step 5: Open the console command and enter "Prid <ID>" followed by "moveto player". For those unfamiliar with console commands, don't use the quotations or brackets, and the ID is replaced by said guard's ID number from Step 3. This will 'teleport' said guard to you in the temple.

Step 6: Talk to him/her and it should trigger the dialogue for the quest as if he had been there the whole time waiting for you. If not, then I recommend reloading the save from Step 1, just to be on the safe side, and looking for another solution.

This saved me from a rather lengthy reload, so hopefully it'll help you if encountering the same problem. Ironically, I had given up on finding a fix for this and started killing guards out of frustration when I got the quest update from killing a guard and decided to try this.

Good luck!

[alexander_dougherty]

Or leave the area, ie travel to another city like Solitude, then return, that would reload Markath including the guards, and put them in the right places.

There seem to be an awful lot of threads suggesting console commands to fix bugs at the moment. While sometimes Console commands are the best option, USUALLY THEY ARE NOT, they mess other things up, especially one like the move to player command.

[smr1957]

Do not do as the OP posted!

What else can one say? People ignore the pinned topics. They do not refer to the wiki. They post potentially harmful and dangerous information.

Then post again when their game is broken because they did not do what was and is necessary, and followed bad advice.

THE PINNED THREADS ARE PINNED FOR A REASON! READ THEM!

[SUBJ3KT17]

Actually it fixed the problem perfectly and didn't break a thing. I fully tested it before posting my solution. So instead of flaming someone for trying to help others, why not keep your thoughts to yourself?

PS. That's a rhetorical question.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by SUBJ3KT17:

Actually it fixed the problem perfectly and didn't break a thing. I fully tested it before posting my solution. So instead of flaming someone for trying to help others, why not keep your thoughts to yourself?

PS. That's a rhetorical question.

I answer rhetorical questions

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

While sometimes Console commands are the best option, USUALLY THEY ARE NOT, they mess other things up, especially one like the move to player command.

Console commands are a last option, if there is a solution that doesn't use them, then it's recommended to use that instead.

Too many times we (the regulars on this forum, of which both I and smr are members) are asked how to fix a bug, which turns out to be from a console command.
For example using the Move to player command on a named NPC, this does not move the NPC to you, it instead creates a duplicate, so there are two copies of the NPC. This is especially bad if the game kills the NPC, because of death scripts, you may now have a NPC who is walking around while the PC also thinks he's dead, which causes glitches down the line.

[smr1957]

Correction - It is placeatme command that Alex means and which creates a duplicate, not moveto (moveto moves the actual NPC or object to the player)

[tulle040657]

Originally posted by smr1957:

Correction - It is placeatme command that Alex means and which creates a duplicate, not moveto (moveto moves the actual NPC or object to the player)

glad you posted this I was just going to say I don't see anything he did that would break his game

that being said.

ALWAYS MAKE A HARD SAVE BEFORE USING THE CONSOLE

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by smr1957:

Correction - It is placeatme command that Alex means and which creates a duplicate, not moveto (moveto moves the actual NPC or object to the player)

Sorry, my mistake.

[SUBJ3KT17]

While I certainly understand your perspective on this, I also should mention that I didn't just randomly decide to start entering commands. I did do my research on the subject.

I checked the wiki and the only mention of this bug was that if the guard is killed before reaching the scene discussed above then you'll be unable to complete the quest.

I checked the forums for any mention of the bug and possible solutions, of which there seemed to be very little. Otherwise I wouldn't have felt compelled to create this thread.

I also understood the difference between the moveto and placeatme commands.

Lastly, I did list creating a save as Step 1 not only as part of the process, but also because as Tulle mentioned you should always save before using the console. I just didn't feel the need to spell it out.

In a perfect world, we'd never use the console to alter anything in the game and it'd run smoothly. Unfortunately, as beloved as these games are, Bethesda has a certain notoriety for bugs. Sometimes we just don't have many options available. This fix works. You don't have to use it, but at least it adds another option.

[smr1957]

SUBJ3KT17, we get so many people who don't know what they are doing, automatically recommending the use of console commands without any thought of the consequences, that we do get a little quick on the draw whenever we see it mentioned. And, unfortunately, we see all too many people breaking their games due to following bad advice. So please forgive us if it seemed we jumped down you throat on this. We do appreciate people giving well researched and knowledgeable advice - unfortunately, most of the time the advice is not well researched, not knowledgeable, and is more in the spirit of doing what is expedient, than in what is effective and correct.

So, my apologies for coming across as I did, and thank you for making an effort to be helpful - we need knowlegeable people who are willing to help.

[SUBJ3KT17]

I can and do appreciate that. I apologize if I became overly defensive. To be fair, I could have expressed more caution in my OP.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by SUBJ3KT17:

I can and do appreciate that. I apologize if I became overly defensive. To be fair, I could have expressed more caution in my OP.

Sorry, I was probably a tad too aggressive myself.

As smr says we've seen too many suggest things only for them to break people's games and the person who suggested them say "It was only a suggestion" or "it didn't break my game". I will also add my appreciation for you doing the research first, very thoughtful.

[DarkLustre]

Is this where you kiss and make up?

[Jneya]

I also had this bug, and researching lead me here. While following the instructions for the fix before entering the console commands, I kept getting this guard give me waringings about poking my nose in the wrong places, over and over each time I loaded the save. Then the guard would always quickly run up to the shrine of talos and enter, but as I followed him in he would not be there, only the two guards. So I just simply out ran him to the temple and entered first, this caused the guard to try to arrest me after giving me the previous warning. I will save at this point and see how it goes.

[Jneya]

Well I've experimented with 2 paths here, one is simply kill the guards and the quest is done, but the second path is much more intresting. Allow myself to be arrested and be sentenced to the mine for life adds more quests and content it seems, plus I get all my belongings and gear back from a chest but intrestingly enough is there is also a chest right next to your property and gear with what seems to have some evidence agaist those in charge, which I of coarse took all of. I have decided to proceed with this path as it is much more interesting and adds more to the game. Wish me luck lol.