[SOLVED] HELP - Can't complete Lost to the Ages quest

[Sire]

I've retrieved all (four) Aetherium Shards but I can't activate the Dwarven Mechanism - It says I lack the required item.

What am I missing?

[Docsprock]

The Unofficial Patch(es)? It can be a delicate quest. Without the appropriate patch(es), you will not be able to finish the quest if you have found any of the pieces before the quest begins.

[Sire]

Originally posted by Docsprock:

The Unofficial Patch(es)? It can be a delicate quest. Without the appropriate patch(es), you will not be able to finish the quest if you have found any of the pieces before the quest begins.

I do have the Unofficial Patch mod installed and only found the Shards during the quest

[Docsprock]

Hmm, Mods? Sorted with LOOT?

[Bomb Bloke]

Does your quest log acknowledge you have 4/4 shards, or is that stuck on 3/4? Within your inventory, do all the shards have the same title?

[Sire]

Originally posted by Docsprock:

Hmm, Mods? Sorted with LOOT?

Of course, I even cleaned the dirty mods using TE5Edit the other day

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Does your quest log acknowledge you have 4/4 shards, or is that stuck on 3/4? Within your inventory, do all the shards have the same title?

The quest doesn't even appear on my journal anymore for some odd reason.
I dont even remember when was the last time I saw Katria's ghost to be honest.

Is there a way to reset the quest and start from scratch? Because I'd like to unlock the achievement tho

[Bomb Bloke]

Restarting most quests is a no-go; even if you reset the stages, that won't automatically put all the items you need back into position and so on.

Do you have a quest in your Misc section to "Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz"?

What are the responses to these two console commands?:

getstage DLC1LD_Misc
getstage DLC1LD

[Sire]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Restarting most quests is a no-go; even if you reset the stages, that won't automatically put all the items you need back into position and so on.

Do you have a quest in your Misc section to "Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz"?

What are the responses to these two console commands?:

getstage DLC1LD_Misc
getstage DLC1LD

nope

"getstage DLC1LD_Misc"
getstage >> 255.00
"getstage dlc1ld"
getstage >> 0.00

[Bomb Bloke]

That would indicate that the main Lost to the Ages quest never properly started in the first place. Are you sure you spotted it in your journal earlier, using that name specifically?

Given that only the misc quest has progressed, you might be able to fix things by resetting that one:

resetquest DLC1LD_Misc

After doing so, drop the shards, then re-read a copy of The Aetherium Wars (if you happen to still be carrying a copy around with you, drop that first as well), and see what happens.

If you can't drop the shards normally (they may be marked as quest items), you can force them to the ground with:

player.drop xx00575c 1
player.drop xx01433e 1
player.drop xx01433c 1
player.drop xx01433d 1

... where the "xx" in each line must be replaced with Dawnguard's identifier within your specific load order, which is the same two characters for all content in the expansion. If you click on eg the Dwarven Mechanism with the console open, the first two characters shown for its ID are the same as the ones needed for the shards.

You can also experiment with:

setstage DLC1LD <stageNum>

... where <stageNum> is a value from this table[en.uesp.net]. Stage 150 might be a good starting point to experiment with.

Be sure to keep a save from before the point where you start messing with the console. Fall back to it after any unsuccessful tests.

[Sire]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

That would indicate that the main Lost to the Ages quest never properly started in the first place. Are you sure you spotted it in your journal earlier, using that name specifically?

Given that only the misc quest has progressed, you might be able to fix things by resetting that one:

resetquest DLC1LD_Misc

After doing so, drop the shards, then re-read a copy of The Aetherium Wars (if you happen to still be carrying a copy around with you, drop that first as well), and see what happens.

If you can't drop the shards normally (they may be marked as quest items), you can force them to the ground with:

player.drop xx00575c 1
player.drop xx01433e 1
player.drop xx01433c 1
player.drop xx01433d 1

... where the "xx" in each line must be replaced with Dawnguard's identifier within your specific load order, which is the same two characters for all content in the expansion. If you click on eg the Dwarven Mechanism with the console open, the first two characters shown for its ID are the same as the ones needed for the shards.

You can also experiment with:

setstage DLC1LD <stageNum>

... where <stageNum> is a value from this table[en.uesp.net]. Stage 150 might be a good starting point to experiment with.

Be sure to keep a save from before the point where you start messing with the console. Fall back to it after any unsuccessful tests.

thanks for the effort but sadly it didn't work...

I'm currently re-doing the quest on a previous saved game.

EDIT: finally got the achievement, yay!!!