Reluctant Steward quest not available

[Rookie (ZOE)]

For some reason, no matter how many of those stupid repeatable quests I do for Neloth he doesn't give the quest to find Varona (i've done it before so I know what it's about) and it's been REALLY annoying since i'm wondering what the heck could be wrong, anyone care to help remedy this? :<

[Docsprock]

Im pretty sure I had the same problem once. I forgot about it, then went back a long while after, and it was available.

Perhaps you need to be at a certain point in the Dragonborn quest?

[Rookie (ZOE)]

I'm actually all complete with the main Dragonborn questline, same goes for Dawnguard and the vanilla main questlines as well.

And alright, I just really hope it doesn't stay that way, it's really annoying after all since I had a similar issue with the infamously-unstable Companions questline before when I couldn't progress to start the Blood's Honor part of the Companions questline, can still remember the annoyance to this day that it brought to me...

[Rookie (ZOE)]

Still no Reluctant Steward quest, do I have to start a new character just to fix this...? :/

[Bomb Bloke]

Is Varona still hanging around Tel Mithryn? Have you spoken to her?

[Rookie (ZOE)]

Not that I can see, I check all four places in Tel Mithryn and not a trace of her can be found, thereby prompting the quest since i've even heard Neloth say his line about "ash-sucking Varona" not delivering his Canis Root Tea to him like she usually would do and yet no prompt for said mission when I ask him if he needs help with his research. All I can really see out of place is the weird skeleton resting in the territory of Tel Mithryn (not walking around or anything, just a static Skeleton) that doesn't go away after a while like most of the other corpses usually do of course, just plain odd since not once have I ever talked to Varona during my revisits to Skyrim both as my male and female Dragonborn and yet the quest usually started without any issues. Could it be related to TESEdit cleaning messing it up perhaps? :/ (skeleton as shown here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=678254762 )

[Bomb Bloke]

I doubt master file cleaning would have anything to do with it; people would've noticed before now.

The deal is that Varona should start out alive and well; she should also stay that way until you've spoken to her at least once, and then left the area. Really that first conversation is what triggers the quest (even if it doesn't go into your log at that point) - it should also be hard to miss, because she should try to approach you the first time you get near Tel Mithryn.

So let's find out where she is. In console:

player.moveto xx0177DD

... where "xx" is Dragonborn's formID (if you select any Dragonborn-specific content in console by clicking on it, the first two characters shown there are the same two you should use for Varona).

Be prepared to reload if you wind up somewhere weird, but where do you wind up? And if Varona is visible there, what state's she in?

If alive, I guess try talking to her, wandering away (eg back to Raven Rock), and then head back and see what Neloth has to say then.

MFG Console is very handy for checking NPC stats, by the way:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/44596/

If you target her in console by clicking her or entering:

prid xx0177DD

... then you can more easily track such things as whether she's alive or not later.

I'm not sure about the skeleton; I've got a vague memory it's supposed to be there, but I haven't been in the area recently myself. You could try checking its formID, I suppose (another thing MFG Console makes a lot easier - it'll actually translate the formID to a data file name).

[Rookie (ZOE)]

So strange... I used the handy warpto code and yet she's still alive behind Tel Mithryn, even though Neloth says his usual "Where is that ash sucking steward of mine?" which usually prompts the quest to find her remains Too weird... :/

[Bomb Bloke]

Ok, so as I was saying - talk to her, leave the area, then return. After having spoken to her, she should die once you get far enough away from Tel Mithryn.

[Rookie (ZOE)]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Ok, so as I was saying - talk to her, leave the area, then return. After having spoken to her, she should die once you get far enough away from Tel Mithryn.

I'll try speaking to her, though I doubt it'll change things much. Still find it surprising that she's even still alive to begin with, considering that I never talked to her once before and yet the quest begun as normal as my male and female Dragonborn before. That and plus Neloth already said the lines that usually prompt the quest to start as well, just so weird... :/