Lost follower due to joining The Companion

[DesUxSλsU]

How can I get my follower back? She's gone because I started the Companion quests.

The last time I saw her was in Jorrvaskr after accepting my quest, she was not in her armor I gave, but the default wear she had when I met her. I tried speaking to her and she just said "yes?" and did not give me any options.

Do I have to abandon the Companion route in order to keep my follower or is there another way out? Please let me know, thank you!

[gnewna]

Did this happen as soon as you joined the Companions (not normal) or was she dismissed when you started the quest... I think it's called Proving Honour, where you're told you've got to go to Dustman's Cairn for your Trial with Farkas (big Nord bloke with warpaint and long hair, everyone calls him stupid)? (normal).

If the second one, then after you do that quest you *should* be able to find her in whatever location she returns to when not following you - for example Lydia goes to Dragonsreach if you haven't bought Breezehome, and Breezehome if you have. If she's a vanilla follower, you should be able to find the location out by looking her up on the UESP wiki (google her name plus UESP). If she's a modded follower, hopefully the mod gives you some idea where to find her.

If the first one, well, something's gone wrong, and you'll need to figure out what. It's likely to be mod-related (please tell me you haven't uninstalled any mods and kept playing with saves that depended on them?) It would probably be a good idea to post your full load order if this is the case, or if she is either still stuck in Jorrvaskr with no dialogue or you can't find her in the correct location (sometimes it takes them a while to get home as they will walk) after a few days after completing the quest I mentioned.

[DesUxSλsU]

Well, the quest was a dungeon that I got the fire breath's second shout. She's not a modded follower, her name is Illia. The way it happed was, when I talked to the people in Jorrvaskr, and when the nord gave me a job, and decided to come with me to the dungeon, she did not follow me anymore and her dress got back to the default.

Now after finishing it, I did not find her in Jorrvaskr, nor Breezehome. Do you think I should go back to Darklight Tower and check?

[Dexter]

In vanilla Skyrim you can only have one follower at a time unless the second follower is an animal or Serana during a quest.

Once you start a quest such as the companions quest mentioned, a follower will join you and other followers are automatically dismissed.

Once you complete quests which assign followers, you should be able to recruit your lost follower again once the current follower leaves your service.

If you use a follower mod like AFT you can have more than one follower and up to 5, unless you specify 3 in the options.

[DesUxSλsU]

Alright, but for the second quest, no one came with me from the Companion and I don't have my original follower with me. Should I start it all over again or something or completely ignore the Companion route? Or maybe do all the quests and see what happens...

Though, I'll be losing a lot of things I gave to her which will be awkward. But I did save the important ones.

[Dexter]

Are you using the Unofficial Skyrim patches?

If not, if she is dismissed for any reason she can't become a follower again.

You can fix it by typing these commands into console:

prid 4b22e
setrelationshiprank player 4

You should install the unofficial patches to fix the problem though.

You should find her at Darklight Tower or along the road.

[DesUxSλsU]

Well, I am using SKSE for SkyUI, but I think other than that, the version currently is 1.9.32.0.8 I'll install the unofficial patch now.

But does that mean she will re appear next to me or in Breezehome after I restart the game or do I have to go to Darklight Tower?

[Dexter]

I am not sure.

The safest thing to do is find her first. She should be at Darklight Tower or on the road.

Once you find her save your game, then install the Unofficial Patches. Reload your save and speak to her and see what happens.

The same goes for the console commands. Wait until you find her first or you can teleport to her if you want.

player.moveto 4b22e

[DesUxSλsU]

Alright, I'll do that after finishing this dungeon then. We'll see what happens.

[DesUxSλsU]

Originally posted by Dexter:

I am not sure.

The safest thing to do is find her first. She should be at Darklight Tower or on the road.

Once you find her save your game, then install the Unofficial Patches. Reload your save and speak to her and see what happens.

The same goes for the console commands. Wait until you find her first or you can teleport to her if you want.

player.moveto 4b22e

Oh man, I did player.moveto 4b22e after finishing my second Companion related dungeon, and she was in the road outside of Whiterun, to the east of the two farms, heading to the Ritual Stone / Graywinter direction. I pressed E on her and she just asked "What do you need?" without giving me any menus.

Pickpocketting menu shows all my other items on her, including the dragon bones I stored on her, heh. Should I just update it with the unofficial patch and see what happens?

[Dexter]

Yeah, install the unofficial Skyrim patch. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19/?

You should consider installing the DLC patches too, if you have the DLC's, but you only need the main patch for your current problem.

[DesUxSλsU]

Alright I did it but nothing changed, I'm not that much into mods at the moment, but for some reason, I don't know I can't find the Update.esm, when I went to Data after launching Skyrim without SKSE, it only shows the high textures and SkyrimUnofficialPatch.esp, but no Update.esm or Skyrim.esm.

Do I have to get another kind of mod manager?

[Dexter]

It couldn't hurt using a mod manager. NMM is probably easier to use, but Mod Organizer is also an option.

You should also sort your load order with Loot.

If the patch didn't fix the problem, it may be because the problem is already there and you may have to use the console command I mentioned earlier to fix the problem first.

I checked my data files and I don't see Update.esm or Skyrim.esm either so that is probably normal, although I have 150 or so mods and just might be blind.

[DesUxSλsU]

Ok I think I got the unofficial patch installed, but the only dialog I see is "Follow me I need your help" and nothing else. I can't tell her to do something, and I can't access the inventory.

Also, before updating, I ran prid 4b22e, does that mess things up? I even ran from an earlier save, but the update just gives me this dialog, and I can't get her to stay with me forever for some reason.

[Dexter]

Using prid 4b22e only targets the NPC. It doesn't do anything negative. However if you also used the setrelationshiprank player 4 command then it may affect things.

You may have to release the follower and have her join you again.

[DesUxSλsU]

Well, the only dialog option is "Follow me, I need your help" and nothing else. Going to a building shows her wearing the armor I gave, but I can't access her inventory or even part with her.

Should I run the command? Also how do I know that the patch is running? will it show some kind of a version number?