Dark brotherhood "Bound until death" doesn't work. Help?

[Suzuki Joe]

The dark brotherhood quest "Bound until death" is in the first few main missions [not counting the redguard side quest giver] that Astrid gives you. It's a bit after Cicero tries to talk to the Night Mother.

The problem I have is this; The quest journal. When I first saw it, I thought that it only briefed you on missions in case you forgot how or what to do in them. Apparently it serves a greater purpose; you can't do any quests without it. When Astrid told me about the wedding and briefed me the details, there was no objective marker. So I thought "Maybe when I get to Solitude, one will show up." Nope. So I checked my quest log, and it wasn't there.
I read up on some forums, and people said that imperial sympathizers were having this problem, i.e. the people who chose the Imperial legion's questline, like I did. This is just a hypothesis at the moment, because OP didn't say anything about how that ties into cockblocking the mission. I fear I can't continue in the dark brotherhood questline without doing this mission. How do I get past this? How can I start the mission? I've composed a list of things I did. I really hate to use the console because that's where cheats are executed, but I knew I was using it for a different purpose. I still feel like I cheated, because I used the console at all.

Things I've tried:

Restarting Skyrim
Restarting Steam
Using console commands to force complete the mission
Killing the bride in her home [Doesn't work, she's an essential]
Restarting my computer
Clearing up other quests and restarting [To make room for the new one]
Bashing my head against the wall
Spending 7 hours straight on forums, to no avail

Please help.

[Grathagis]

I noticed you did not try reloading an older save before starting the quest.

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

I noticed you did not try reloading an older save before starting the quest.

I did, and it still didn't work.

[Grathagis]

Have you tried talking to the other Dark Brotherhood members after been given the order from Astrid ? They give suggestions as to how to do so. Also, a quest marker is not always given, or removed when in the actual area. Then you are supposed to figure things out yourself

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

Have you tried talking to the other Dark Brotherhood members after been given the order from Astrid ? They give suggestions as to how to do so. Also, a quest marker is not always given, or removed when in the actual area. Then you are supposed to figure things out yourself

You're supposed to ask for advice from everyone else? I thought that was just something that you could do, but didn't have to. On videos about the mission, they got it in their quest log straight away.

To test your other theory, I went to Solitude, and I went to the place where the wedding was supposed to take place, and no one was there. I went to the Bride's house, and tried to talk to her. Didn't work. I sneak-attacked her, but since she's an essential, she just becomes invulnerable to catch her breath for 5 seconds.

[Grathagis]

Okay. I checked the UESP wiki : http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Bound_Until_Death
and it seems you got a very rare bug for which apparently there is no solution.

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

Okay. I checked the UESP wiki : http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Bound_Until_Death
and it seems you got a very rare bug for which apparently there is no solution.

I checked the wiki, and it seems it mentions half the problem. The full problem is that there's no objective marker, or journal entry along with what the wiki mentions. Someone suggested on the forum that you provoke Astrid, and after you pay the big black guy the 500 dollar fine, you go back to Astrid. Didn't work for me.

Oh bother and befuddle... stuck here... STUCK! ~Cicero

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

Okay. I checked the UESP wiki : http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Bound_Until_Death
and it seems you got a very rare bug for which apparently there is no solution.

Might it be possible through even console commands that I can skip this "mission"?

[Grathagis]

You might try by using the console command : setstage DB05 200
Make a save first just in case. It might not work considering the seriousness of your bug.

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

You might try by using the console command : setstage DB05 200
Make a save first just in case. It might not work considering the seriousness of your bug.

That was the first console command I tested; this bug's a tough one to crack.

[Grathagis]

I do not know if you have them, but the Unofficial Patches normally fixes many bugs. In this case however I doubt it since that solution is not mentioned in the wikis, but it is always good to have them.
I hate to say it, but if your quest is so messed up that even console commands don't work, you might either have to give it completely up or go back a long way with reloading saves.
You might also look at your mod load order with LOOT. It is always possible one of your mod is causing these problems.

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

I do not know if you have them, but the Unofficial Patches normally fixes many bugs. In this case however I doubt it since that solution is not mentioned in the wikis, but it is always good to have them.
I hate to say it, but if your quest is so messed up that even console commands don't work, you might either have to give it completely up or go back a long way with reloading saves.
You might also look at your mod load order with LOOT. It is always possible one of your mod is causing these problems.

I think our problem isn't what's there, it's what's not there. I'm not sure how the console command works, but I assume it forces you into the quest; Astrid briefed me about the quest, but didn't give it to me, so I assume there is no quest.

As for m mods, I have spend dragon souls for perks and kill children mod. Braith and that one kid in dragons reach, and it's kind of fun to watch them fly into the air when you fus ro dah them. There was the better UI mod that makes your inventory look different. An error came up that said it worked best with another mod, but I don't have that one. Not sure how that would tie into the dark brotherhood, though. Also not sure where the mod load order comes into play.

[Grathagis]

Simply put: the wrong load order can mess up your game or cause crashes.
http://loot.github.io/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoyWugzZAw LOOT TUTORIAL

The problem with console commands is that once you start using them, you may have to rely on them to go further. Particularly when quests are dependent on one another.

[FMPhoenixHawk]

Well, this one just popped on me on my new game on the new machine. I never had this bug. I loaded a few new mods (Immersive Weapons, Immersive Armor, Frostfall, Fores New Idles in Skyrim, XP32 Skeleton, Immersive Armors for CBBE, and the 2K Textures.) with this game, because the system can handle it. I went back a few saves (To before Silence is Broken) and tried from there. Console command is not working. Really don't want to uninstall all these mods just to get the thing working, because I use a lot of them. I am using LOOT to sort the mods and the unofficial patches. Any help?

[Suzuki Joe]

Originally posted by FMPhoenixHawk:

Well, this one just popped on me on my new game on the new machine. I never had this bug. I loaded a few new mods (Immersive Weapons, Immersive Armor, Frostfall, Fores New Idles in Skyrim, XP32 Skeleton, Immersive Armors for CBBE, and the 2K Textures.) with this game, because the system can handle it. I went back a few saves (To before Silence is Broken) and tried from there. Console command is not working. Really don't want to uninstall all these mods just to get the thing working, because I use a lot of them. I am using LOOT to sort the mods and the unofficial patches. Any help?

I didn't think this post was able to be necro'ed, because I didn't even know it still showed up.

Literally the only solution is to start a new character. Or, if you have a save from before you started the Dark Brotherhood questline and still want to get something out of it, kill Astrid when she takes you to the shack with the 3 hostages. Other than that, your save is completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[FMPhoenixHawk]

Wound up having to restart a new PC anyway. Though, he's named the same and is basically the same character. The glitch didn't happen this time. I have a few other problems (Occasional crashes that write 0 KB crash reports, textrues randomly dropping out, usually in the Ragged Flagon, parts of a few mods not working correctly, etc.) and I can't find a solution short of ANOTHER restart, and really don't want to do that as I would like to finish the main quest eventually.

Also, half of Solitude and Riften are dead thanks to vampires. Guess I should have done Dawnguard first.