Accidently attacked imperial guards, no witnesses, but still being attacked by other imperial guards?

[Alxndr]

So I was on my way to Whiterun and following the path from Riverwood I saw some imperial guards escorting a prisoner. I tried speaking to the guards and they told me to be on my way. I then tried speaking to the prisoner and the guards turned on me and started attacking me.

I killed them and got a message saying "not witnesses" or something like that. Anyway I made my way into Whiterun and now the guards are saying "I never should have come here" and immediately start attacking me.

I've reloaded a save from before I killed them and will just avoid them this time. But what's the mechanic for this kind of thing, is there a hidden cooldown timer or something or is that it? I'm like permanently hostile towards them if I do that again?

[Mugiwara]

I don't know whether you have mods and run USSEP or not, but there is a known bug in the vanilla game where if you trigger an action which has a bounty, that can affect dialogue options with npcs in such a way, that they are always hostile. The bug was so annoying because you could clear your bounty and it would still trigger in select circumstances.

You have already resolved it the best way possible without using mods however.

[Ihateeverybody]

It's less a bug as very bad game mechanic (and it isn't only in skyrim).

In the VANILLA Game. If you attack someone, it is instantly known. Animals count as witnesses. You will be attacked by Guards (even from opposing Factions). You will be attacked by General Busybodies (THE Companions, Vigiliant's of Stendarr, That Guy Tsalgar (wandering bard), Uthgerd the Unbroken, etc.)

That Prisoner will also count as a witness (If you don't free them, before the fight so he shifts from Follow and Not attacked Faction to Opposing Faction and attacks/attacked).

Its a really bad mechanic. Like I said, Fallout 4 and Starfield still have it.

9 times out of 10 you are better off just walking away.

But if you can't just walk away, know how to play the system. These are NOT Guaranteed to work but some things that help.

Let them hit you first. Each and every one. If you hit somebody first even though their buddies are beating on you, guess what. You still get the 40 bounty and likely 1000 per kill. Casters with summons still need to hit you first even though their summon hits you first.

When Clearing bounties. Save your game (manually) and smack a guard, then surrender (put away weapons), they IDEALLY Should try to arrest and fine you. IF it works it should clear most if not all bounty issues that gum up the works.

Remember that "its best to just walk on by". It really is. Its not worth it most of the times.

I am just one of those people incapable of letting stuff slide. So I have gotten good with the rules.

[The Zanzibarbarian]

Big Brother is always watching you.
With Imperials or Stormcloaks, I let them be. However... If you see the Thalmor doing the same, I normally kill them and no one blinks an eye because no one likes them.

[Morgan Fun Gamer]

I am not sure why the guards in whiterun started attacking you after the imperial guards they usually are freindly to me when I do this encounter but ususially when i see this encounter I usally free the prisioner and they will begin attacking me but it never gives me a bounty and when you talked to the prisioner did it give you a message to free him or just no messages because usally for me it gives me a message to free prisioner or leave prisioner or free prisioner and give items.

[Madao]

Originally posted by The Zanzibarbarian:

Big Brother is always watching you.
With Imperials or Stormcloaks, I let them be. However... If you see the Thalmor doing the same, I normally kill them and no one blinks an eye because no one likes them.

get illusion high enough to get silent casting. then go into stealth mode and cast fury (or the level equivalent version) on them and watch them murder each other.
way more fun and since you're in stealth and have silent casting, you don't get a bounty for using spells on them

[worm_master]

U got caught like i did, similar story to you, except I stole the horse out of Whiterun stables, 100% flawless, no message, no yelling, even managed to sneak "on to" the horse, so no 1 saw me at all, my sneak was unbroken the entire time..

Get on the horse, do wot I must, I FT back to WR, an as i appear the guards come hauling ass at me, and arrest me right-away, and take me to jail...... WTF??

I had jus left Riverwood, i'd killed the bandit outside Embershed, for extra cash killed those 2 pesky wolves an gone to WR, once there i didn't pick anything, hit any-one, or steal anything EXCEPT the horse..

I didn't have a bounty neither... weird..

THIS sounds like a console job, never heard "resetting bounty's" an faction status by console "breaks" the game..

Allways get hauled to jail, the skill loss is minimal, an if u jus started, not like u got skill experience to lose... hahaha you'll be free as a bird then, the Guards wont bother u again..

(I escaped) bad choice, WR was locked to me, I suspect any hold under "Imperial rule" would have been locked to me as well

[Daded]

I'll probably have the same. I treat a noble man. Later i crossed his paths again and then his bodyguards attack me. The first time i see him his bodyguards was dead. I met him twice in Skyrim he said he was going to Solitude to give a present to a rich lady.

[worm_master]

Originally posted by Daded:

I'll probably have the same. I treat a noble man. Later i crossed his paths again and then his bodyguards attack me. The first time i see him his bodyguards was dead. I met him twice in Skyrim he said he was going to Solitude to give a present to a rich lady.

lol I saw a "nobelmen" an imperial guard, the Nobelmen, woz snotty, an got my blades in his neck, then i killed the guard, an stole the horse... ha

Why u should always be nice to fellow travellers, coz u never know when 1's a master assassin.... or hungry...

[alexander_dougherty]

Animals are witnesses too, it only takes a rabbit or eagle flying overhead while you commit the vrime and you then struggle to find them.

[Kussin]

Yea, that always was a bit buggy for me with killing the last witness. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. I think, after getting rid of the last witness, waiting for 1-2 ingame days helped here and there. Might be a script stuck somewhere and needs time to update the informations. A simple full save and reload after it might help aswell.

[Melkolf]

Originally posted by Madao:

Originally posted by The Zanzibarbarian:

Big Brother is always watching you.
With Imperials or Stormcloaks, I let them be. However... If you see the Thalmor doing the same, I normally kill them and no one blinks an eye because no one likes them.

get illusion high enough to get silent casting. then go into stealth mode and cast fury (or the level equivalent version) on them and watch them murder each other.
way more fun and since you're in stealth and have silent casting, you don't get a bounty for using spells on them

To be frank you don't need Silent Casting provided you are sneaking and unseen by all; being able to dodge behind a convenient rock after casting doesn't hurt none either. Done it plenty of times, even in vanilla games, without local guards getting antsy.

However, as the prisoner invariably gets killed, I also prefer to hit those Thalmor thugs swaggering down the highways with this tactic although you need a spell higher than Fury to fully complete that little piece of passing fun.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Melkolf:

Originally posted by Madao:

get illusion high enough to get silent casting. then go into stealth mode and cast fury (or the level equivalent version) on them and watch them murder each other.
way more fun and since you're in stealth and have silent casting, you don't get a bounty for using spells on them

To be frank you don't need Silent Casting provided you are sneaking and unseen by all;

Except they hear you casting and are all looking for you, often they bypass looking and start attacking even though they shouldn't be able to see you.... Silent Casting is a major advantage if you are casting spells from sneak.

[worm_master]

I couldent do half. wot i do wid out quiet casting, Dagger in 1 hand, Orums aquatic escape, in da other.