Help me kill Derkeethus

[Apostate of Hate]

I found Derkeethus in Darkwater Crossing begging to help him get out of a cave...despite being in plain daylight. For days he has followed me throughout the world, refusing to leave despite being mauled, set abalze, and left for dead. He aggros when hit, constantly trying to shank me.
I tried to kill him with console, he gets up.
I tried to set him non-essential, he keeps being immortal.
I recycleactor and reset him, he still shows up.

Help me kill Derkeethus, the foe more challenging than any other I've encountered.

[WoogieMonsutā]

He becomes a follower after you exit that cave where you found him, so it sounds like one of two things have happened:
- either you accidentally told him to keep following you when he said he was going home
or
- you rescued him by exiting the cave through the wrong entrance/exit, which caused you to miss the trigger that makes him say he's going home.

You can try going back to the cave and take him to the correct exit, or you can try to use the console with the setstage command to force the trigger to happen. The wiki page for the quest should list the different stages of the quest so you know which number to use.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Apostate of Hate]

Thing is I never have been in the cave he was supposed to be in. I found him roaming in the open-world. I tried to setstage his quest through each part and completed it. He still won't leave, nor talk to me. He simply follows me.
Everywhere o_o

[WoogieMonsutā]

Oh, in that case I see why you are so annoyed with him. If this was Fallout, I would say:
- open the console
- click him
- type disable and press the enter key
This effectively removes him frm the "visible" world, freeses him in that spot, and stops the world from interacting with him. He will technically still be in the spot you disable him, but he will be for all intents and purposes, dead and invisible, and out of your misery. I don't know if using this console command in Skyrim will have any long-term affects.

[Apostate of Hate]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot when I boot up next time. His quest is already pretty screwed up so I figure I can't hurt it anymore.
But yeah having an immortal, provokable follower gets tiring. Especially since he won't lose aggro against me unless I console reset him, so he became an immortal, hostile follower XD

[Remedy]

Just wanted to update this -- I had the exact same problem. Derkeethus ran up to me as I was following a river near a small troll cove. I got the mission to help him escape the cave... but I wasn't even near any caves. I could not get rid of this guy or talk to him.

I finally solved it by finding the "Darkwater Pass" cave that he was SUPPOSED to be in. As soon as I entered this cave he was no longer with me. I went and cleared the entire cave solo, and never found him (he was supposed to be held captive somewhere in there according to what I read). Anyway, I cleared the whole cave and exited it... still no Derkeethus anywhere in sight!

Next, I did a fast travel to a near by point and suddenly Derkeethus was next to me again, and he immediately said "thanks for rescuing me for the cave" and he took off and the quest completed. Note: If you want him as an ACTUAL follower you can chase him down and talk to him quickly before he runs off.

In short, clearing the Darkwater Pass and fast traveling to another location finally cleared this bug up for me.

[Apostate of Hate]

Ah, thanks for posting your solution! I eventually solved it by permanently rendering him invisible and unable to interact with the world so he was for all purposes a ghost that could follow me but wasn't detectable or able to interact.

Your solution was much kinder and didn't trap DerKeethus for eternity.

[Arc Trooper]

To me is sounds like he heard of your mighty Dragonborn exploits and wanted to join you on your quest as being the most annoying fan ever.

[Puppup34]

Derkeethus is essential, you cannot kill him with commands or anything. DO NOT GET DERKEETHUS DO NOT MARRY HIM I married him and he's got a bug where when you move to a house, he just runs to the darkwater crossing again. There's no fix, it's broken. I tried toget a divorce mod but then it wouldn't let me open Skyrim so I had to delete it. You can't kill him, the bug happens to most people if not all, and the only way to get him to stop running off is tell him to follow you and then tell him to wait which only works for a while until he leaves your service because you waited too long. Derkeethus basically is only useful for homecooked meals and the shop money

[Puppup34]

It's not worth it. I don't think you get much money at all. It's not worth it to do the quest.

[Puppup34]

Oh, also, there is a bug where when he kneels over, he will immediately get back to full health. You cannot kill him because of that bug. Useful for fighting though

[Puppup34]

So, if you see him start running after you say, "I think we should part ways." He is going back to Darkwater Crossing. Also, don't bother giving him anything because it will by default reset to his miner stuff and pickaxe

[naruhoodie]

Oh, I married the big softie. But I "tagged" Derkeethus by making him retrieve the Moon Amulet from its quest chest so the marker would point to him on the map. Then I tried buying his Miner's Clothes off him after marriage so he'd wear the actual armor I gave him, and dismissed him as a follower.

Well. It was fun watching the quest marker ping-pong from Whiterun and Darkwater Crossing constantly (he never stopped long enough in either place to get a cup of coffee!) Still, after a few game days I finally broken down and installed the Derkeethus marriage fix mod so my husband would stop racing across Skyrim half-naked

Now I've got him in Health Regen-enchanted Miner's Clothes with a nice enchanted glass sword to better watch the homestead with Rayya & Illia while I'm not having him as a follower. Sure, the marriage has taken some extra effort to make it work, but it's been worth it for me & my cuddlemuffin