Hello forum members,

It's been a while since I posted something. Unfortunately I have to make my return with notice of a bug.

My mods:

- Dragonborn

- Hearthfire

- Dawnguard

- Unofficial Skyrim Patch

- Unofficial Dawnguard Patch

- Unofficial Hearthfire Patch

- Some of my own mods, that do not mess with quests.

I'm trying to start the Dark Brotherhood, and it does not seem to work.

After I ended Innocence Lost, the courier does not show up.

Many have reported similar bugs, but none of their solutions works for me.

I have tried using

setstage DBEntranceQuest 20

But this does not activate the courier.

I have tried going to the orphanage, and trying to adopt a kid. (But stop the adoption by saying Im a thief).

Someone noted that if you have HearthFire installed, the courier could be bugged because it has to deliver two letters at the same time. By starting to talk about adoption, the courier could become un-bugged.

This worked once.

For some reason I can not reproduce this. Not even when using "setstage DBEntranceQuest 20" before talking about adoption.

I can, however, give myself the mysterious note. When I do this, and also use "setstage DBEntranceQuest 20", I can sleep in a bed, and I get transported to the abandoned shack and With Friends Like these... seems to start normally.

However, I can not leave the shack. After I kill any hostage, I get an update that I should talk to Astrid. But Astrid says nothing more than "Brother". I can not talk to her, and she just keeps repeating "brother".

I tried

setstage DB02 200

So that my quest would end. But if I do this, Astrid just leaps from the closet, and stand remains still. I can talk to her, and she will explain me that she met her husband in "this" sanctuary. Despite not being in the sanctuary.

I can leave the sheck by using console commands, but when I do this I can not enter the sanctuary, as the entrance can not be activated.

Using

setstage DB02a 10

gives the same result. When I do that, I actually start DB quests, but I can still not enter the sanctuary.

Could anyone provide me with some inside on a fix?

Regards,

badboyd22

I managed to get past the With Friends Like these... quest.

Here is what I did:

- Start courier quest

setstage DBEntranceQuest 20

- Give character the mysterious node

player.additem 5224A 1

- Sleep in a bed

- Get transported to the shack

- Kill a hostage

- stop darkbrotherhood quest (Yes, "DarkBrotherhood" is a valid quest ID)

stopquest DarkBrotherhood

- reset darkbrotherhood quest

resetquest DarkBrotherhood

- Talk to Astrid

After this, It seemed to proceed as normal.

I'm however unsure about the consequences of these commands.

EDIT:

When the quest Mourning Never Comes start, Cicero was absent. The rest of the quest went well until I killed Dufont. The quest did not recognize him as dead.

So I used:

setstage DB03 40

After this quest ended, I had to eavesdrop on Cicero, who was not present in the sanctuary.

I used:

player.placeatme 1bdb1

This placed Cicero next to me. His AI package seems dysfunctional, as he would not talk while I was in the nightmothers coffin, and he was sitting in his room when Astrid barges in. But my quests would proceed when I talked to him.

You do not actually need to receive the letter from the courier. All you need to do is sleep somewhere and you'll end up in the abandoned house. Messing with the console commands is not something I recommend though, as it can cause script problems. I would suggest you reload your save to before you killed Grelod and proceed from there.