Arvak's owner missing

[Supermarine]

So I went to the Soul Cain for the first time. Roamed around and found, among other things, this weird pavillion with a horse's skull inside. As I picked it up, a quest prompted me to bring it back to its rightful owner.

I completed the objectives at the Cairn and then searched left and right for the owner to no avail. Then I searched YouTube and the Wikis and found it was a ghost that should be along the path, inside a smoky puddle.

I can't find him, and he's not there. The place is huge, but I did my best to look around for him.

What can I do to complete the quest?

Loading an earlier save is not an option---much has been done since then. Waiting and reloading is useless, I've tried that many times.

Please help.

[Mr. Monday]

If you don't have either the unofficial Dawnguard patch or the USLEP then I suggest getting the right one and seeing if that helps (a reload from before you entered the Soul Cairn may still be needed though).

If that doesn't help, or if you already have the patch then we'll need to see your load order.

[Supermarine]

Originally posted by Mr. Monday:

If you don't have either the unofficial Dawnguard patch or the USLEP then I suggest getting the right one and seeing if that helps (a reload from before you entered the Soul Cairn may still be needed though).

If that doesn't help, or if you already have the patch then we'll need to see your load order.

I have quite a few mods installed, indeed. The unofficial patches are some of them. Using regular Skyrim (not SE).

Mostly, I have not updated anything for like 2 years. I have been playing in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mode. Not even updated the Nexus Mod Manager.

So, a screenshot of the mods and load order might help?

Or are there any console commands that I can use to spawn the ghosts again?

[Eternie]

I'd still suggest you just probably haven't found the owner. If you have talked to Arvaks owner he will appear close to arvak's skull location. Howeverr if you hadn't found the owner first then he will probably still be in his original position.
Check the map here at UESP site .. for the locations.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Soul_Cairn_Horse_Quest

Only use console commands as an absolute last resort and never to solve a quest unless your prepared to bork your skyrim playthrough.

[Mr. Monday]

Originally posted by Supermarine:

So, a screenshot of the mods and load order might help?

No. Just use LOOT and copy the load order from it and post it here. Click on the three dots in the upper right to get to the option to copy it.

[Supermarine]

Originally posted by Eternie:

I'd still suggest you just probably haven't found the owner. If you have talked to Arvaks owner he will appear close to arvak's skull location. Howeverr if you hadn't found the owner first then he will probably still be in his original position.
Check the map here at UESP site .. for the locations.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Soul_Cairn_Horse_Quest

Only use console commands as an absolute last resort and never to solve a quest unless your prepared to bork your skyrim playthrough.

Well, it appears that the ghost indeed moved from its original place, but the map helped me with enough reference to find it.

Thank you!

[Eternie]

Glad it helped.
UESP always has helpful info. That's part of the reason I like giving helpful posts it forces me to look up info and find out more about skyrim and all it's nuances.