[SOLVED] Problem with a Dawnguard DLC quest: Lost to the Ages

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

* See comment #7 for how i solved it *

In the past when i played Skyrim, i stumbled upon one of the Glowing crystal shards[elderscrolls.wikia.com] without starting the actual quest.
For quite a time this shard was kept in my inventory till yesterday i've decided to try and do its quest, Lost to the Ages.[elderscrolls.wikia.com]

In short: The quest should start while reading a book called The Aetherium Wars[elderscrolls.wikia.com]. The thing is, that i may or may not started the quest by picking up one of the shards (right side i think), and since then i cant track down the original start of the quest, and now im stuck with it.
I was originally supposed to start the quest by reading a book, but i think that because i've found a shard too early, the book now doesnt trigger the quest.
The main problem is with Katria's journal[elderscrolls.wikia.com] which i should have found on her body at Arkngthamz, but i not shown, for obvious reasons.

Right now im have the posession of all the 4 shards by using the wiki to know where to find them, without a quest to guide me. I tried to keep doing this in the 'manual' way and to make the compass at the Ruins of Bthalft[elderscrolls.wikia.com], but i cant do it on my own. I need Katria to 'guide me through it'.

I tried to search the quest in the quest log but havent found it. Sadly the quest log seems to have a limited amount of quests that it can show (if anyone knows a mod which helps categorize quests in the journal in alphabetical order, now is a good time to talk).

So how do i force-start the quest? Is there a consule command to try?

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

Yes i did go there. She whispers twice before i see her and she tells me what happened.
I have an older save of which i tried to reset stuff with consule commands, like:

player.additem xx0146DB 1; spawning her journal
and
setstage DLC1LD 100; resetting to the first stage of the quest
and
setobjectivecompleted dlc1ld 100 1; completing the first objective of that quest

...but nothing seemed to change anything.
I wont gonna reinstall the dlc as its not that much important to me, and i rather not to erase all my process in Dawnguard obviously.



Basically, i have accepted the fate of 'bad quest start', and im now interested in a consule command solution. Something to trigger this mission all over. Do i need to get rid of my 4 shards before i try triggering the quest again?

[76561198133591931]

One shard is in Arkingthamz, one is at the dwarven bridge in The Reach, one is in the dwarven ruin whose name I can't remember off hand. It's the one where when you join the DB that girl in Markarth sends you to kill her ex-lover. That is the Drarven ruin. The last is in the Ruins of Mzulft Armory. Take them all to the Dwarven ruin next to the Imperial camp in The Rift. Kill the boss inside and make a piece of equipment. You have three options.

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

Before i finish the quest, i need to take all the 4 shards to the Ruins of Bthalft, then its made into a compass shaped and then i should do whatever i need to do with it.
This video shows what should happen (scroll to 11:50):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaZWHN2RbDE

My problem is that i dont see her there, nor havent seen her at all after she helped me in the first chamber. Also never had any quest marks in the map or journal objectives. Oh, and her body didnt have any journal.

I cant go on to Bthalft and place all the shards by myself. I tried and nothing happened. I need her to be there to start a conversation so i can keep the quest going.

What did u mean by three options?

[Factualious]

Originally posted by BlacKy:

...but i think that because i've found a shard too early, the book now doesnt trigger the quest.

I don't think so, at least not that alone... I found a shard before reading the book (The Aetherium Wars), or going to the Dwemer ruin, and didn't have a problem with the quest.

Looking through the wikis I see two possibilities for what may have happened:

1. Do you have the Unofficial Patches installed?...
   

   This quest may not start if, after installing Dawnguard, you have visited Mzulft or Deep Folk Crossing prior to reading The Aetherium Wars and the corpses at these locations have been fully removed from the game.
   
   PC Only This bug is fixed by version 2.0.1 of the Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.

2. • Katria's journal may be nowhere to be found. However, it is not required to complete the quest.
     
   • Reading The Aetherium Wars may not add the miscellaneous objective "Investigate Arkngthamz" to your quest log. Upon investigating Arkngthamz, "Lost to the Ages" may not be added to quest log, either, meaning that you will be unable to complete the quest.
     
     A way to fix either bug above is to reload a save in which you have not started the Dawnguard questline, then drop The Aetherium Wars and any crystal shards if you have obtained any, and pick the book back up and read it. The quest should start, and then you can pick up the shards.

   [/olist]
   

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

I do have all the unofficial patches for all the DLC's + the main game.

When i traveled into the places to pick up all the 3 other missing shards, Mzulft was already *cleared* in my map. I am pretty sure the shard i first obtained wad from Raldbthar (right piece), the 2 other areas were unexplored as much as i remember.

I dont have a previous save of before visiting Dawnguard DLC, and other people have suggested to reinstall the DLC but i prefer not to, as this quest isnt that important to me to lose all my progress in that DLC.

What i was looking for, again, is a consule command which could trigger this quest to start somehow (tried already wit hseveral commands but failed each time), best to set stage to where im meeting Katria's ghost in Ruins of Bthalft with all the 4 peices.

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

Solved!

The bug appeared to be that i have held one of the shards prior to starting the quest, and that made the quest to be untriggered. I knew it had a connection and i shouldnt have visit that area before starting this quest. The solution was simple, as i just needed to drop the shard (found at Raldbthar) before entering Arkngthamz and hearing her whispers for the first time.

They should make quest items on random encounters to be impossible to interact with.

Sadly, its now finished in an older save, so i still have the 4 pieces in my newer save, but since i have triggered her ghost to appear to me already, dropping all the pieces to the ground wont help (tried).

I guess this also explains how it was impossible to start the quest via consule commands.

Thanks anyone for helping.

[Rudi Gauss]

Originally posted by BlacKy:

Solved!

The bug appeared to be that i have held one of the shards prior to starting the quest, and that made the quest to be untriggered. I knew it had a connection and i shouldnt have visit that area before starting this quest. The solution was simple, as i just needed to drop the shard (found at Raldbthar) before entering Arkngthamz and hearing her whispers for the first time.

They should make quest items on random encounters to be impossible to interact with.

Sadly, its now finished in an older save, so i still have the 4 pieces in my newer save, but since i have triggered her ghost to appear to me already, dropping all the pieces to the ground wont help (tried).

I guess this also explains how it was impossible to start the quest via consule commands.

Thanks anyone for helping.

I know this is 2018, BUT YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO HAD A REAL SOLUTION FOR ME, it worked.

i lost 14 Hours, but that ok. i rather replay 14 hours than having a bugged quest.

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

hehe no problem man.
If the bug hasnt been fixed then its not an 'old bug' :P
Have oy used my method and it worked?

[nether888]

Originally posted by BlacKy:

Solved!

The bug appeared to be that i have held one of the shards prior to starting the quest, and that made the quest to be untriggered. I knew it had a connection and i shouldnt have visit that area before starting this quest. The solution was simple, as i just needed to drop the shard (found at Raldbthar) before entering Arkngthamz and hearing her whispers for the first time.

They should make quest items on random encounters to be impossible to interact with.

Sadly, its now finished in an older save, so i still have the 4 pieces in my newer save, but since i have triggered her ghost to appear to me already, dropping all the pieces to the ground wont help (tried).

I guess this also explains how it was impossible to start the quest via consule commands.

Thanks anyone for helping.

I know it’s 2019 but why was this glitch not patched for special edition but the glitch to jump the wall in whiterun was, also I reloaded a save before I touched any of the shards and got rid of any mod that even mentioned Aetherium and it still isn’t working for me and I’m dead confused as to why

[BlacKy #SlavaIsraelini]

This should be patched, but i think bethesda cares much about this quest or this game to patch it nowadays, so we're kinda dependant on the modding community to patch it, which wont help much because if you're aware of this glitch and wants a mod to patch it, you would know how to avoid triggering it in the first place, thus serving little to no purpose.

I'm actually playing skyrim again nowadays and when i saw one of those shards in one of the 4 areas, i knew not to touch it as it will cause issues whenever i trigger the quest with the book.

Best overall solution: skip the entire quest and just add the reward u want via console :D

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by BlacKy:

This should be patched, but i think bethesda cares much about this quest or this game to patch it nowadays, so we're kinda dependant on the modding community to patch it, which wont help much because if you're aware of this glitch and wants a mod to patch it, you would know how to avoid triggering it in the first place, thus serving little to no purpose.

I'm actually playing skyrim again nowadays and when i saw one of those shards in one of the 4 areas, i knew not to touch it as it will cause issues whenever i trigger the quest with the book.

Best overall solution: skip the entire quest and just add the reward u want via console :D

Game is about eight years old, no new stuff has come out for years, not many companies would still be patching games under similar conditions.

Now I will admit they are lazy, and didn't patch enough things when it was new, but every game has a point where it stops getting worked on.

[nether888]

Originally posted by BlacKy:

This should be patched, but i think bethesda cares much about this quest or this game to patch it nowadays, so we're kinda dependant on the modding community to patch it, which wont help much because if you're aware of this glitch and wants a mod to patch it, you would know how to avoid triggering it in the first place, thus serving little to no purpose.

I'm actually playing skyrim again nowadays and when i saw one of those shards in one of the 4 areas, i knew not to touch it as it will cause issues whenever i trigger the quest with the book.

Best overall solution: skip the entire quest and just add the reward u want via console :D

But I need to get in there to craft stuff for a mod, dammit Bethesda you rendered one of my mods useless, I wanted to play around with this Thor mod I found

I’ve just disabled almost all my mods to start this damn quest, if it doesn’t work I’m just giving up

[Edit] I gave up on the quest

[nether888]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Originally posted by BlacKy:

This should be patched, but i think bethesda cares much about this quest or this game to patch it nowadays, so we're kinda dependant on the modding community to patch it, which wont help much because if you're aware of this glitch and wants a mod to patch it, you would know how to avoid triggering it in the first place, thus serving little to no purpose.

I'm actually playing skyrim again nowadays and when i saw one of those shards in one of the 4 areas, i knew not to touch it as it will cause issues whenever i trigger the quest with the book.

Best overall solution: skip the entire quest and just add the reward u want via console :D

Game is about eight years old, no new stuff has come out for years, not many companies would still be patching games under similar conditions.

Now I will admit they are lazy, and didn't patch enough things when it was new, but every game has a point where it stops getting worked on.

Is it bad that Skyrim updated before I started playing just now

[(TTV)OnBrandRP]

Originally posted by BlacKy:

* See comment #7 for how i solved it *

In the past when i played Skyrim, i stumbled upon one of the Glowing crystal shards[elderscrolls.wikia.com] without starting the actual quest.
For quite a time this shard was kept in my inventory till yesterday i've decided to try and do its quest, Lost to the Ages.[elderscrolls.wikia.com]

In short: The quest should start while reading a book called The Aetherium Wars[elderscrolls.wikia.com]. The thing is, that i may or may not started the quest by picking up one of the shards (right side i think), and since then i cant track down the original start of the quest, and now im stuck with it.
I was originally supposed to start the quest by reading a book, but i think that because i've found a shard too early, the book now doesnt trigger the quest.
The main problem is with Katria's journal[elderscrolls.wikia.com] which i should have found on her body at Arkngthamz, but i not shown, for obvious reasons.

Right now im have the posession of all the 4 shards by using the wiki to know where to find them, without a quest to guide me. I tried to keep doing this in the 'manual' way and to make the compass at the Ruins of Bthalft[elderscrolls.wikia.com], but i cant do it on my own. I need Katria to 'guide me through it'.

I tried to search the quest in the quest log but havent found it. Sadly the quest log seems to have a limited amount of quests that it can show (if anyone knows a mod which helps categorize quests in the journal in alphabetical order, now is a good time to talk).

So how do i force-start the quest? Is there a consule command to try?

The ultimate fix is to just use console commands to force the game to start the quest.

[patrik]

I have made a YouTube-video where I show how I fixed this bug. Hope it helps you too!

https://youtu.be/NJTQBzCrn_w