The Pursuit refuses to start

[Mr. Nameless]

I've been trying for weeks to get this sonofabtich to work, but it seems that nothing I done will make The Pursuit quest work. I'm one of those dumb idiots who followed that guide where you steal the Chillren sword from that house early in the game. I accidentaly got the Mercer's plan way before I joined the Thieves guild. Now, after like 40 hours into the game I finished Hard Answers as normal, only to find out that the next quest won't start, it doesn't appears in my quest log. I look on the internet and load a recent save before that and return Mercer's plan and the sword back where I stole them initially, but it still didn't fix the problem, still no The Pursuit. So I follow Karliah and find her at the end of the Snow Veil sanctum where she shots me. I tried setstage tg07 0/10/20/30/40, resetquest tg06 and setstage tg06 200, nothing fixes it, tried to teleport her in the flagon but she just goes back to riften. I did that method where I try to make her knee in the sanctum, it worked, she shoot me again and the quest speaking with silence began, then I finished hard answers and the same thing happens. I'm in tears because this f***ing quest won't work, I have over 100 hours into the game, using Unofficial Skyrim Path, I have finished all the factions quests but the Thieves guild just won't work. I can't reload a save before I stole the plans because there's no save lol. Any help?

[CullPicker]

Mr. Nameless,

I finally got around to playing this game after 7 years too. :D We are in the exact same situation with this quest. Tried everything, absolutely every suggestion on the internet. Nothing worked. I decided to try some things on my own and, just 15 minutes ago, have been able to render "The Pursuit" complete and advance the questline. It's an insignificant let down to be unable to complete the quest considering all the headache trying to get it going, but advancing the questline is the better payoff.

I hope you, and everyone else having trouble with this questline will bennefit from this solution.
FWIW, I just now did this and paused the game to post. So, I don't know if it will break anything later. Hope not.

Also, just prior to taking these steps I installed the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch, downloaded from Nexus Mods, using Skyrim Mod Organizer. That completed the lingering "Become a full member of the Thieves Guild" quest stage.

To avoid confusion I will type ~ and enter for the keystrokes, commands in plain text, comments will be bracketed. I close/open the console often to see/verify results of the console commands.

Here is what I did after recompleting Hard Answers and sleeping for an in game week in Breeze Home. I went to Riften.

You probably won't need to do this first bit, even though I'm bypassing The Pursuit, I wanted to reset all variables. I had killed Vlad and left the garden gate at Riftweald Manor open long ago.

Close the gate at Riftweald Manor if it's open. From the alleyway or Vlad might aggro you if you are on the property.
~
prid 72b09 enter
moveto player enter
~ (closed console to see him appear. but he didn't)
~
enable enter (with prid 72b09 still indicated as selected)
~
(he appeared. and alive! yaay! he opened the gate, went into the garden and closed the gate)

Then, I entered the lower Ratway entrance Between the Orphanage and Blacksmiths's.
Went to the Ragged Flagon, Karliah was, of coarse, absent.
Standing in front of the bar, I moved Karliah, Brynjolf, and Mercer Frey (to make sure he was alive) into the Ragged Flagon:

~
prid 58f1a enter
moveto player enter
~
(Karliah appeared, dumfounded as expected)
~
prid 20545 enter
moveto player enter
~
(Brynjolf appeared, "sorry laddy, blah blah blah")
~
prid 22651 enter
moveto player enter
~
(Mercer Frey did not appear)
~
enable enter (with prid 22651 still indicated as selected)
~
(Mercer Frey appeared, acting innocent. lol. )

They each started heading for the Cistern. I ran ahead and waited at the door. Karliah arrived first and entered the Cistern. I entered the Cistern, (before Brynjolf and Mercer entered)
When both Karliah and I were in the Cistern:

~
completequest tg07 enter
~
~
sqs tg07 enter
(listed all stages incomplete "0" but quest complete banner flashed and the drum sounded.)

setstage tg08a 10 enter
~
(Success! The next quest in the questline "Trinity Restored" started! I ♥♥♥♥ a brick!)

I used the action key on Karliah and to my great delight she spoke! Saying something about speaking with Brynjolf. He had not made it into the Cistern yet, while oddly enough, Mercer was at his old desk as if nothing had happened. Just another day in the office. I moved Brynjolf into the Cistern, not wanting to pass the oppurtunity that this quest might work.

~
prid 20545 enter
moveto player enter
~

The quest continued normally, conversation completed, and Brynjolf is heading towards the exit.

Save (new save)
Save (new save)
and you bet your effin A...
Save (new save) lol

Good luck all!
/salute
JohnnyStLou

Edit (add): Finished the rest of the questline yesterday with minimal console interaction. Trinity Restored needed a tiny bit of console influence. The UESP Bugs section solutions worked fine. Under New Management also needed a little nudge. Had to move a couple of characters to the center of the Cistern, but then the quest proceeded normally. Glad to finally get through this questline. Now I'm going to destroy them for all the trouble. :D