'The Forsworn Conspiracy' - Crash Solution.

So you've come across an issue on the quest line 'The Forsworn Conspiracy' in the city of markarth where the game crashes as you are about to be arrested by the guards at the Talos statue but aren't sure how to go about fixing the glitch? After a few hours of digging around on the internet forums I've found the remedy to this little problem, and since I have not seen a guide relating to this issue I thought I would post my solution here.

The Problem.

So you've entered Marthark and bared witness to a forsworn assassin by the name of Weylin screaming about the forsworn before trying to plunge his dagger in the back of a citizen 'Margret', While it has no real effect on the quest line if the dragonborn should intervene in this assassination you are rewarded for saving Margret's life.

After the event Eltrys will interact with the Dragonborn and give them a note, instructing the player to meet them at the Shrine of Talos, from there you will be told to obtain evidence of 'the conspiracy', Margret's journal from the silver blood-inn, Weylin's note from The Warrens and get the evidence about Thonar from The treasury House, And finally confront Nepos the Nose at his home. (just follow the quest arrows and play the quest as normal)

Now here is the problem, apon obtaining all of these for the quest your then instructed to return to the shrine of talos, unfortunately the guards are there to confront you (As well as already murder Eltrys, poor sod..) and make it known tothe player that they intend on pinning all the recent murders on the dragonborn, in order to advance the plot you need to interact with the guards, the fastest method would be to simply surrender and let them arrest you (killing them works but the cities guard outside will also attempt to arrest you as well so only kill them if you want their loot) but as soon as you select the option to be arrested, the game freezes, the music keeps playing and the audio finishes from the guard but the game is completely frozen and you will have to Ctrl + Alt + delete your way out of it, so aggravating!

The Solution!

As it turns out somthing in your inventory is upsetting the games coding! behold the culprit to your game bugging! Iron arrows.

Not only have these wicked projectiles ended the adventures of so many guardsman, but they now wish to want to end your adventures aswell young dragonborn!

What you need to do to advance the game is the following:

1) Upon encountering the guards in the temple, choose the option that you would rather die then go to prison.
2) Either kill them or run out of the shrine (i personally chose to kill them)
3) Open your inventory and drop all iron arrows from your inventory to the ground.
4) Approach a guard and sheath your weapon(s).
5) Surrender and go to jail.

With the sinister arrows removed, the guards will now be able to take you to the jail where you can now begin the follow up quest line: 'No One Escapes Cidhna Mine'.

That's it! + EDITS.

I hope this little guide helped any fellow Dragonborn that has had this issue!

It took me about 3 hours to figure out the whole situation (between trying different methods and such) as well as searching around the internet itself to find the specific bug and I know... it's rather odd fix.

I do not know if this will help, but i'll be happy if it helps even just one person out there.

Good luck in the prison and remember, don't drop the soap!

Armoured-Lemming!

Edit: Bloody hell it's been a few years since i last wrote this guide...
I've done a few edits and fixes to at least the more obvious punctuation, grammatical errors and other mistakes I'd left in here... hopefully now it will be more readable.

I've also retitled this guide to make it easier for people to find who are having this problem.

All the best, A-L.

A little Q & A!

Hi there folks!

I suddenly got alot of random comments out of no where on this old guide, but it makes me happy knowing its still helping my fellow gamers.

Rather then reply to all of them individually as well as to sate any future commenters curiosity I thought I'd give some answers to a few questions i get.

Q: How'd you figure this out?
A: Trial and Error for the most part, I tried reloading saves and even trying to start over from scratch worrying somthing in my game was corrupted, even got to the point where I just ran at the guards in just my underwear and from there it was trial and error to see what i could put back on and into my inventory before it crashed again, when somthing bugs you for that long, you just gotta find out what exactly the cause it!

Q: Why do you think the Iron Arrows cause this?
A: Because Bethesda.
Nah, honestly I couldn't tell you, it could be something in the games code more then likely... bugs, glitches and other oddities are pretty much synonymous with Bethesda for better or worse, and with games like Skyrim and the worlds being so huge, things are bound to slip through the cracks.

Q: I have this question about this other bug in the game...
A: As much as I would love to help, you'd be much better off looking online for the solutions, if your problem had happened to others, its more then likely going to have a discussion about it somewhere, one of the great perks of having such a massively popular game is the awesome communities that have often found a work around for your issue.
That being said if i happen to know a solution to something, I'll do what i can to help, but I'm just a guy with too much free time on his hands. :D

[TwilightYojimbo]

Dude, I spent more time than I should have trying to figure this out and your solution was the only one that worked! Bless you and all your future generations!

[rian gosling]

This worked in skyrim anniversary edition 1.6.1170, bruh bethesda really just copy and pasted Skyrim to a new engine along with all the bugs

[Greatest Pulse]

stupid thing is working, why

[Fried Glyphid]

Thanks mate. Was ready to pull my nails out trying to figure out what the problem was.

[Zlobotvor]

Awesome help, i was very frustrated with this damn bug. Getting rid of Iron Arrows is the way!!

[runestyr]

I've never seen this bug, probably because by the time I get to Markarth, my followers have got all the iron arrows. Thanks for what was probably hours of work it took to find the solution, and more importantly for sharing it!

[Khalahard]

Thanks mate, i was almost giving up of this quest line, i just droped all my iron arrows before entering the shrine an then just surrendered, it worked well.

[Dusty]

@Mistwraith Happy to help, friend!
I very much appreciate you actually going to the trouble of making an account just for that.
May you and your wife enjoy many adventures, inside and out of Skyrim together.

[Mistwraith]

Its even later then 2018, and I retrieved my account for the only purpose to thank you for the solution, Armoured-Lemming. I never have had this problem in my game, but my wife did. We tryed everything, even going there unmodded and naked, to no avail.
But lo and behold, the iron arrows where the culprit.
Now she can finaly proceed in this quest.
Thank you very much for this solution on her behalf, and from me.

[Dusty]

@Andomain Makes me happy after nearly 5 years this old guide is still helpful to players.
I guess the issue is not just exclusive to the iron arrows, though they seam to be the culprit in the majority of cases.
Good luck on your Journeys, friend!