How to force start a quest with console commads?

[Chaith]

So I got stuck during "A blade in the dark quest" I killed the dragon, but Delphine didn't talk to me. I tried setting the stage backwards, forwards, none of it worked. I finally set it to complete but now I have no main quest. I tried setting the stage to the next quest but it didn't work. So how do I start the next quest? (diplomatic immunity)

[Seerk]

The best option would be to load a save made prior to completing this quest and try to end it again. Because there is no way of telling wether continuing will be no problem or if it'll make things worse...

[Chaith]

dang, thats far back. sigh.

[Seerk]

You could try the console command first though, but there's no garantue that it'll work.
You can start the wuest by entering "setstage MQ201 30" in the command console. Without the ".

[ShinyToyGuns]

See the Bugs section of UESP Wiki for A Blade in the Dark[uesp.net] quest.

UESP: Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages

[Chaith]

Originally posted by ShinyToyGuns:

See the Bugs section of UESP Wiki for A Blade in the Dark[uesp.net] quest.

UESP: Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages

I did the setstage thing several times already. Never worked.

[ShinyToyGuns]

You don't mention whether you absorb the dragon soul or not. Or whether there are any other visual / dialogue quirks.

In fact, which it is not clear which stage you get stuck at:

Does your objective say:

• 50 - "Locate the dragon burial site"
  
• 102 - "Kill the dragon Sahloknir"
  
• 150 - " Talk to Delphine"
  
• 200 -- Journal: "Delphine believes that dragons are coming back to life and that only the Dragonborn can stop them."

Killing Sahloknir, and absorbing his dragon soul, I would expect "setstage MQ106 155" would set the quest (MQ106 -- "A Blade in the Dark") correctly.

"resetquest" and "setstage" are not perfect undo / redo operations, if a given sequence does not work, so you may need to reload from a previous save before attempting another setstage sequence.

Finally, "resetquest MQ106", "setstage MQ106 0", "setstage MQ106 1", "setstage MQ106 200" followed by "setstage MQ201 0", and "setstage MQ201 30" should be a fairly heavy-handed method of finishing "A Blade in the Dark" (MQ106), and starting "Diplomatic Immunity." (MQ201).

Personally, I'd just go back to an old save prior to killing Sahloknir, and kill the dragon again, absorb the soul, and attempt talk to Delphine a second time, rather than heavily rely on console command hacking of the main quest. But that's personal preference.

Hopefully this helps.

[Chaith]

Ok so, I've killed sahloknir, absorbed his soul, looted him completely, then it said "Talk to delphine". So I went over to Delphine, but it didn't go into a scene where she let me ask questions. The only dialogue options were: "What's so important about me being Dragonborn?" and "Who are the Thalmor?". I will try your suggestion.

[Alonss]

Well, I know this is an old post, but i want to know if somebody could fix the bug? I used the setstage 150 155 106 200, mq201 0 30, but not work for me, and when I use resetquest, looks like Completed... I guess is maybe cuz I had a premature visit in thalmor embassy, I really mad about dat, cuz this save has at least 200h, but well, I think that I have to start a new save to see if dat was the reason...

[SaSuKEE]

Originally posted by Seerk:

You could try the console command first though, but there's no garantue that it'll work.
You can start the wuest by entering "setstage MQ201 30" in the command console. Without the ".

Thx for your help man, i hope i can continue my character without any problems, i do not need start the game again

[PerpetualNomad]

Necromancy is outlawed in Tamriel.

[High Society]

Hey guys,

I´ve started to replay Skyrim with mods, (for example alternativ start) and when spawned i didn´t get the mainquest in my journal. So i tried to activate it via Console commands, but nothing worked so if someone of maybe know an answer than please help me.

Sorry for bad english, it´s an 2nd language:)

[Lord Shados]

i did not realise that valdr (out of the blue i know) had a quest that i did not know about until i found his page on the eswiki, (he was killed by vampires Dang you dawnguard) i brought him back but i talked to him and he won't give me the quest what do i do (ps i want to get to the step after healing him)

[Darth Zweig]

Originally posted by Lord Shados:

i did not realise that valdr (out of the blue i know) had a quest that i did not know about until i found his page on the eswiki, (he was killed by vampires Dang you dawnguard) i brought him back but i talked to him and he won't give me the quest what do i do (ps i want to get to the step after healing him)

If you used the Resurrect console command i recommend loading a save prior to doing so and forgetting about this quest on that playthrough. That command is known to cause peristant issues in games. Something about how the game's scripts handle character deaths. A veteran on these forums could probably explain it better but I know Ive seen Ilja and others talk about this.

Sorry :(

[voehringer_nitron]

Don't mind the "NO!" I was just quoting a post where somebody suggested using the command. It had happened several times in a short period.

Originally posted by smr1957:

NO! How many times must the following be posted?
Resurrecting Named Characters
When an NPC dies, the game runs a death script - this cannot be undone. The only way to "revive" an NPC that the game has marked as dead is to load a previous save from before the NPC died. While resurrecting with the console may seem to work, the game still sees the NPC as dead, so dialogue, actions, and quests that depend upon that NPC will not run. Also, you should be extremely careful when using console commands, as they can break your game - and if you do use a command, always make a hard save before using the command.

(Note: These two mods help prevent NPCs being killed by Vampire or Dragon attacks:
When Vampires Attack by Arthmoor - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28235/?
Run For Your Lives by Arthmoor - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23906/? )

"You should never resurrect any named characters in Skryim. Game runs death scripts for each of them. Using resurrect command does not undo these scripts and there is no known way to reverse them.

Resurrecting character that has death script records in save file usually ends up badly. In best case scenario you get a useless NPC that is not tied to any quest and is cut out of the progress. In worse case scenario you get NPC that is comes constantly more and more bugged, tangling game scripts even further and ends up making a real mess out of your game.

Resurrect is among commands that has been classed as dangerous and should not be used in a game. It is a developer test command and should be treated as such. If you already made a mistake of using that command, then load a save before that." - Ilja

http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/405692758710158199/#c405692758710646756

Ilja:
"Skyrim runs death scripts to all named characters. Resurrecting them through console does not undo the script. As far as game knows, -character- is dead and remains that way.

Effects for using Resurrect command vary. Some characters may act and talk as usual, but very often - especially with merchants and quest characters - game will get bugged, when it is no longer running scripts to dead characters, but those (as being "resurrected") are trying to cause scripts to run."
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/351660338700199057/#c351660338700216175

AND:

"Problems with resurrect have bee documented far and wide in this forum. You will notice the conflict sooner or later, especially if merchant character dies."
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/351660338700199057/#c351660338700279973

See also:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/451848854987583992/#c451848855002328904

http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/451848854985133583/

[Zefram Cochrane]

startquest <questname>

Not all quests can be started manually though.