Arcadia's Cauldron is Locked 24/7

[Iron Disciple]

SOLVED: Thanks for all the help. The 2 mods mentioned were the problem for me. I disabled "Run for your Lives" and "When Vampires Attack" and everything works perfectly.

Hi all,

For most of this year, Arcadia's Cauldron has been locked 24/7. I've searched the interwebs for months. All I have found is jokes, suggestions from people who haven't experienced it, and sympathy.

If you've experienced this and know how to fix it, please let me know. If there is a mod that forces shops to open, please let me know. All she ever says is "You aren't supposed to be in here" after I pick the lock, but otherwise she never opens up.

She isn't dead, away, hiding, dating Belethor, or anything of the sort.

If you know how to get Arcadia to open up (I have a delivery for her), please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[john]

You sure shes didnt die at some point and a nother one was reanimated in her place???, Check out the Hall of the Dead in whiterun to see if her body`s there

[Kiros]

Originally posted by Iron Disciple:

Hi all,

For most of this year, Arcadia's Cauldron has been locked 24/7. I've searched the interwebs for months. All I have found is jokes, suggestions from people who haven't experienced it, and sympathy.

If you've experienced this and know how to fix it, please let me know. If there is a mod that forces shops to open, please let me know. All she ever says is "You aren't supposed to be in here" after I pick the lock, but otherwise she never opens up.

She isn't dead, away, hiding, dating Belethor, or anything of the sort.

If you know how to get Arcadia to open up (I have a delivery for her), please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

She might be stuck in some sort of loop. You can go up to her, open the console, click on her, then type "disable" and then type "enable".
Just make sure you don't accidently type disable, and then leave the console, or get rid of her reference ID you got from clicking on her.

[hedgie_yozh]

Pick the lock and let her out.

[wowszer]

I had this happen, then found a mod that helps. The only problem I found was occasionally a quest requires that you kill someone, and this mod prevents it. But console commands fix that. Here is the mod.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112439946&searchtext=make+all+npcs+essential

[Iron Disciple]

Thanks for replies so swiftly!
But no, she isn't dead. She is inside her shop sitting in a chair. I start new games, leave Riverwood, go straight to Whiterun and her door is locked. All times of day and night.

I pick the lock and go in. I talk to her she only says "You shouldn't be in here." I can't buy from her or give her the item from the wizard in Dragonreach. I've picked the lock and she doesn't come out go in or anything.

I even stole stuff. She didn't react. I hit her once. She pulled out a mace and chased me outside, but a guard killed her. So I started a new game. If this were somewhere other than Whiterun (the center of Skyrim) I think I'd be okay.

I even used "addtofaction 5c84d 3" coupled with "setrelationshiprank 14 3" to make her a follower. She is a faithful follower, but with nothing to sell and if we go back into Aracadia's Cauldron, the only thing she'll say while in there is "You aren't supposed to be here."

Once we go outside, she's fine.

I have not tried "disable/enable" so I'll do that right now.

[Iron Disciple]

Tried "disable" and it makes her disappear. Tried "enable" and she reappears, but still no interaction.

Also: She isn't named "Arcadia" ... She is just "The Alchemist" which may be part of the problem. Any ideas?

[Dagg]

Are you using any mods? If you are perhaps one of them is causing a conflict.

[Iron Disciple]

Yes, I have mods running. I'll start disabling them and see if it changes things. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Kvargefar]

Did you find anything?

[Iron Disciple]

SOLVED: It is either "Run for Your Lives" or "When Vampires Attack" causing the problem. These 2 mods make NPCs run inside when danger arises. Run for... sends them in for dragons and the other one is obviously vampires. Anyway... disabling these 2 mods makes her open her doors again.

[Pablo]

Kick her door down.

[cfteague2]

hmm, those are handy mods tho.

I've had the "general store guy" in whiterun be locked before (the breton), Also the 2 rude elf clothing merchants in solitude are locked a lot of times. I had to pick the lock, they would tell me to get out. I'd get out, then "T" and wait for 24 hours, and it usually fixed him.

by any chance -- after you picked the lock -- did you try waiting a day or 2 for the merchant to go thru the night / day cycle and reset into "open for business" mode ?

if you did try that and it didnt work, nevermind. but it has worked for me in the past.

[Iron Disciple]

I did try the wait a few days rule, but eventually just settled on removing the run mods. For games where I join the Dark Brotherhood, I settle for using Babette to handle my alchemy needs. Otherwise Arcadia's fine without the "run inside" mods. They are great mods though. "All NPCs essential" is a nice fix for it. I'm playing with Alternate Start as a vampire right now though, so I'll let NPCs perish.

[Zefram Cochrane]

Originally posted by Iron Disciple:

SOLVED: It is either "Run for Your Lives" or "When Vampires Attack" causing the problem. These 2 mods make NPCs run inside when danger arises. Run for... sends them in for dragons and the other one is obviously vampires. Anyway... disabling these 2 mods makes her open her doors again.

I've heard that elsewhere, seems to be a bug with that mod(s)

[JustOnePepsi]

I don't think it's unique to those mods, as I had a very similar issue when I played the game on the 360. One of the shops in Solitude stayed locked for no apparent reason, and I would get kicked out by the owner if I broke in.

I also couldn't complete the quest where you retreive the Helm of Yngol for the guy in Windhelm because his house was always locked, he never left, and he'd always give me the same line "you shouldn't be in here" when I would break in and try to turn the quest in. Though I think that was a more specific bug as Bethesda fixed it with an update later.

I'm not trying to say that it's NOT those mods... because it apparently is if disabling them corrects the issue. I'm just saying I don't think the mods are the only possible cause of such issues.