Locked out of Whiterun!

[Crystal013]

I could do with some advice please. Used an alternative start and got into Whiterun without any issues. Went to Helgen and saw the dragon, collected the dragon stone for the Riverside Trader Lucian and spoke with the blacksmith (forget the name) and got the quest to report to the Jarl. But when l got to the gates, I am expecting the guard to stop and question me, but no question was l asked. So I walked up to the gates and they are locked... l must have missed something for this to trigger the vanilla game. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Crystal013]

Ah sorry; I just reread what I had written; l collected the golden claw for Lucien and got the dragon stone for the mage who serves the Jarl!!

[Cousin Okri]

This has happened to me, too. The game isnt meant to run without you in Helgen, it seems, for even if those gates opened, Balgruuf wouldnt be there (what happened to me) If you want, you could always use the console, but il lwait for more answers before telling you about htat

[Avrie]

thats a weird one... I'm sure your about to get the littany of modding hints ;-) Have you brought up the consol and targeted the door then typed "unlock" First thing I would try. I've never heard of the gated being locked before.

Which opening did you pick, and do you have the patches and a sorted load order?

[GrimCat]

Which alternate start did you choose?

[Crystal013]

I chose brigand - got bored choosing the camping option near Helgen; as done that a few times. Would add I was able to enter Whiterun before I went off to Helgen. No issues with the load order; run LOOT when setting this game up and did the TES5Edit where necessary; game seems very stable.

[Crystal013]

To unlock; l presume you mean ~ then type unlock? Thank you all BTW for responding.

[Cousin Okri]

Yes, after clicking on the door. Make sure its the door, though. I've gotten fog or a flocwer in the way of me trying to use the console

[Fenris]

Not sure what to tell you, I use Arthmoor's Alternate Start and have done every start and never ran into that problem. Do you have USLEEP installed? Only use if you have all the DLCs, otherwise use the Unofficial Patches.

[Crystal013]

I was thinking of going to 'find' Havdar and seeing if that triggers completion of Unbound. I am away from the laptop at the moment (on the tablet) so will see if that quest is closed when I get back home. When I saw the Riverside Blacksmith and saw the prompt to say I had seen the dragon at Helgen and got the message to go warn the Jarl; I assumed Unbound was complete.

[Crystal013]

Ferris: am using USLEEP and all the DLC's - game seems very stable (in the past I have had issues with stability because I was not load ordering and using TES5Edit correctly - thank you Gopher!).

[Cousin Okri]

Off topic, but Gophers the best. I hate being taught how to install something by a 6-year old or a chinese dude reading off Google Translate.

[Dexter]

That happened to me a few days ago too. I am also using Alternate Start.

The guard that usually unlocks the Whiterun gate was missing, but I figured out where he was and he will still unlock the gate.

I had to go to Silent Moons Camp, which is NW of Whiterun across from Halted Stream Camp. The gate guard and several other Whiterun guards were inside the interior zone there for some reason. Just go inside and talk to him and he will unlock the gate from there.

If for some reason he is not in the same area as he was for me, you can use console to teleport to his location to see where he is, then reload a save to go speak to him. That is what I did.

Player.moveto dc9e4

[Uncle64]

That should not happen.
You must have something that blocks that quest and conflicts whit it.
Have you run LOOT?
If you run in to one like this mayor bug. Dont use console commands. You can actually mess up your save.
You should be free to pass in to Whitrun the only time the guard will stop you is when you have started the quest Unbound.
And when you using Alternate start mods that quest is bypassed you need to start it later.
Dont think even Helgen Reborn will mess up it. If you have that mod you should not read the book. Until you are ready to start it, when you read the book Unbound will start when you see Alduin fly away.

[Crystal013]

Thanks Dexter: this in itself becomes a new and almost unique quest :) Thanks for the advice; l will see what guards l can find!!

Uncle64; as l have written above in earlier posts; l have set up all my mods using LOOT. I do not use Helen Reborn, but thank you for your post.

[Avrie]

Originally posted by david753martin:

I was thinking of going to 'find' Havdar and seeing if that triggers completion of Unbound. When I saw the Riverside Blacksmith and saw the prompt to say I had seen the dragon at Helgen and got the message to go warn the Jarl; I assumed Unbound was complete.

There's your issue in a nutshell ... Read the book before you go to the cave. Alternately you're supposed to go to riverwood and warn them. But I found when talking to Gerder that sometimes "she doesn't believe me" because no one else has come ... I ran back to the cave last time that happened, and completed the first part of the quest with Hadvar. I think you should basically ignore the "warn riverwood" part and just go to the cave.