I just finished the "Loud and Clear" Thieves' Guild Quest and Brynjolf told me to speak with Maven Black-briar. I could not locate her, and there were no quest indicators to help, no matter how much I fiddled with the quest menu, etc. Therefore I assumed that I needed to be a higher level, or progress along the main quest further, before the next quest could be unlocked. I went off and completed several main and side questlines, until I did the quest with the party in Solitude - Maven Black-briar was there. Strangely, she seemed to recognize me. Cool, I thought, maybe now I can talk about that quest she owes me.... but no such luck. I finished the party infiltration quest, and eventually came back to the Thieves' Guild to check for the Maven quest again.

I discovered that "Loud and Clear" was no longer on my quest list, and, more disturbingly, the quest "No Stone Left Unturned" has "Become a full memer of the theives' guild" blank. I can still do side quests for the Thieves' Guild through Vex, etc, so I thought I was still in faction..... Anyways, I finally decided to google thieves' guild quests, and found out that Maven Black-briar should be waiting for me in the Bee and Whatever inn. So I go there, and she's there! Sweet! Except... now she acts like she doesn't know me at all. When I talk to Brynjolf or Mercer, they just tell me they're busy, come back later (no dialog begins,) and Maven only has two dialog options, neither of which are related to the quest. The quest essentially disappeared/died.

Soooo...I decide to try the console to fix the problem. This was something I had to do numerous times when playing through Oblivion to fix the game when it broke itself. After much fiddling around, I was able to find that
SQS - ShowQuestStage for TG03 (or, "Dampened Spirits," the next quest that Maven should start for me) - 0,10,20,etc were all set to 0. So I tried "setstage tg03 0", which should start the quest. Instead I get a row of output saying "GetInFaction >> 0.00", and nothing happens.

I checked the stages for the previous quests, tg01, tg02, etc, and there were the appropriate various 0's and 1's indicating what paths I had taken ( I assume ), but whenever I tried to setstage the Dampens Spirits quest, it always output "GetInFaction >> 0.00" about 8 times.

Can anybody help with this? I'm sure there was a bug that occurred somewhere along the way, but there was so much playing time between me initially not finding Maven, and then finally finding her in the Inn, that it seems impossible to pinpoint. Surely, knowing what quest and faction variables there are, there should be a way to fix this in the console? Any help at all would be appreciated, thanks!!

(PS - There are multiple Thieves' Guild faction variables in the console, and two of them differ only in the inclusion or exlusion of the " ' " symbol... lol.... what is that about? I just confuses the issue. If there is a problem with my faction settings, I don't even know which of the two I need to mess around with )

Looks like this isn't an isolated incident and probably a bug -

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615803-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/60999058

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/134891-thieves-guild-dampened-spirits-quest-bug.html

Bumping this before it gets lost amidst a bunch of useless posts.

I have the exact same problem.After finishing Loud and Clear,Bryjnjolf gives me my reward but doesn't trigger the next quest.I've tried anything from leveling up and coming up later to even attacking a thieves guild member then paying up to be accepted again(thinking that this might reset things).No luck,Dampened Spirits doesn't trigger.
Of course next step was to use the console to get the quest but I have the exact same error as you,which is the Getinfaction error.I can trigger any other quest with the console but not this one.
I truly believe something is very wrong with this quest and maybe the error means that somehow the player gets glitched and the game doesn't recognize him part of Thieves Guild and the next quest doesn't trigger.
The only solution is to either wait for the next patch and hoping that it will fix it or either use the console again to complete the quest "Completequest TG03" and then "setstage TG04 1" to trigger the next one after Dampened Spirits(tried this and it works).
I decided to wait for the patch because I don't want to skip any guilds quests.For now Im doing the Mage guild quests and hoping it fares better.
I've also looked around the net and people are having the same problem,from that PS3 thread it seems this isn't a PC specific problem.

Yeah just wanted to also chime in: I've got the same problem.

I'm also just waiting to see what happens. Hoping someone will figure out a solution that wont require reverting to a previous save. T'would be a bummer.

I'm going to keep bumping this so as to try and make sure someone on Bethesda's staff sees this post in time for any patch.

I got the same issue as well, getting same error code too. Also what has happened to me is that I still got "Talk to Bryjnjolf about joining the Thieves Guild" in my miscellaneous section of my quest log even tho I already have completed the first two actual Thieves Guild quests and I got access to all the Thieves Guild stuff.

I was thinking the same, I havent used all the console commands that much but maybe there is a command to enlist your charachter to different factions?
Anyways, hoping someone finds a fix on this one, I really dont like skipping quests(or even whole quest chains).

OK. So just brainstorming here. I went back (had to go way back) in my save game files to find a save that allowed me to initiate Dampened Spirits. I then compared my quest log from that save file, with the quest log from the following save file (a few hours later, when Dampened Spirits would no longer fire). Here are the changes between the two quest logs:

NEW QUESTS:
The horn of Jurgen Windcaller (quest begun)
Arniel's Endeavor (advanced to "acquire the staff")
Speak to Brelyna (under misc.)

COMPLETED QUESTS:
The Way of the Voice
Arniel's Endeavor ("deliver ten cogs to Arniel Gane")


I then loaded up the save in which Dampened Spirts fired ok, and went through all the quest log changes, completing all the same recorded actions, and trying to initiate dampened spirits via console at each stop along the road, quicksaving and reloading each time to clean the slate. Basically, I talked to a few people in the Mage College, and then went off and did parts of the main quest. And . . . I didn't find anything. I updated my quest log to match the state at which Dampened Spirits became broken, but I was still able to get it to load up fine. I WOULD always get "GetInFaction >> 0.00" spit back out at me when I did, but the quest would still fire fine. So that message may not be indicative of the problem.

**As a note. I did the entire Mage Guild questline before starting "the way of the voice" or going to the Thieve's Guild. Did you guys also do either the Mage or Companion questline before trying out the Thieve's Guild? Just trying to circle in on the problem's location.

I completed 4 or 5 Companion quests before joining Thieves Guild, havent joined Mages Guild yet(actually havent even visited the city where Mage Guild is yet). What I was wondering if this bug has something to do with the quest where you steal the horse(Frost) from Black-Briar Lodge, since you can interract with Maven in the middle of that quest, just an idea tho.

I completed Mages and Companions quests and still no change.So I don't think it has anything to do those.
I've also had an early save before joining Thieves Guild and I've done Luis and Sibbi quest differently this time,I've told Maven about the plot to steal Frost but still didn't affected anything in Thieves Guild missions,basically Dampened Spirits is no go.
That "GetInfaction" error is the only clue we've got that something is wrong since other quests don't have that error.

Having the same issue with this on my PS3. please help

This is what i found on http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/GetInFactioni:
Syntax:
[ActorID.]GetInFaction FactionID

Example:
GetInFaction MagesGuild

Returns 1 if the calling actor is a member of the specified faction.

So GetInFaction is a command to see if the charachter is part of specified faction, since we get error message code 0, I presume the game doesnt see us as part of Thieves Guild.
There is also a command http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/SetFactionRank that sets your specified faction rank and adds you to the faction if you are not part of it yet, this command might work but I couldnt find the Thieves Guild faction ID. I tried using ThievesGuild or TG, but neither works and as I said before I havent used the console commands that much before. Not sure if Skyrim uses the same commands/faction IDs as previous Elder Scrolls.

Personally i think alot of the quests in Riften are flat out bugged. Like i am unable to become Thane of Riften, i talk to the Jarl and she tells me to help people out and buy a house there, i complete both and the quest says talk to the Jarl but she has no chat option for becoming the Thane and the quest is stuck in my log. Also stuck on one of the ledger quests for the thieves guild for the one in the boarding house where the quest marks a box in the attic and i am unable to use the ledger behind the front counter in the room. I am just glad these are side quests that are bugged for me and not main quests.

Not so sure about that. Whenever I'm caught stealing by guards, I'm able to wave them off with the "I'm Thieve's Guild, bro" response. Likewise, when Thieves hold me up in the overworld, I can tell them we're on the same side and they'll leave me alone. As a note, the messages read "GetInFaction >> 0.00." This may be a check (asking, is it greater than 0?), or it may be a verification (yes, it is greater than zero). Not really sure how the console works in these matters.

I could absolutely be wrong, as I'm working on very limited information with barely any knowledge on the matter ( I feel like a 5 year old trying to build a spaceship with bacon and old copies of the New Yorker ) BUT I think we're facing a problem that's potentially more complicated than just "get me in the guild."

We should all keep plugging ahead though! It would be awesome if we solved this problem before the official patch is released. Would really make me feel "smart."

BUMP.

Someone has to already have snuck passed this problem with some genius console command work! I know this already seems more than broken until the January patch releases which will hopefully fix this issue, but there's gotta be some work-around. I tried a lot of methods, but I'm trying to think...

Bumping for all that is Kiin.

You have made it further than me in that quest, I can't make Brynjolf leave his stall in the market for love nor money and all he keeps telling me is to follow him it isn't far.
No thievery for me it seems.

Hi,

had the issue with Brynjolf not leaving his stall, too. What fixed it for me was to go to that underground tavern of the thives guild (dont know the English name of it) and to use the console command 'player.placeatme 0001B07D'. That makes him appear right in front of you down there and you can talk to him to start the quest.

I also had the 'Loud and Clear/Dampened Spirits' glitch when 'Dampened Spirits' wouldnt start after talking to Brynjolf to end 'Load and Clear'. What helped me here was the autosave that was made after entering the thives guild underground tavern - I loaded this one and made a normal save there. Then I restarted the game as it was not displaying water anymore (--> the pond within the underground tavern looked totally empty while there should actually be water in it). I loaded the savegame I just made out of the autosave and then talked to Brynjolf and it started 'Dampened Spirits' right after the conversation as if nothing happened. MAybe this helps anyone.....