Probably shot myself in the foot here, seeing as I wasn't intending to do the Hermaeus Mora quest anyway, I started fussing with trying to get this done, and added the attunement sphere to my inventory, which got me partway to where I needed to go, but it wasn't until I was in the Tower of Mzark that I realized I needed a blank lexicon. So of course I just blithely added one to my inventory.

The Lexicon stand won't take it. I hit E and nothing happens. Concerned, I looked it up, and I can't find a solution, but I also discovered it crosses partway with a quest far ahead of where I am in the main quest... Did I just screw myself over? I hope not!

What do I do? I need the Elder Scroll to advance myself in the Dawnguard questline.

Do I have to go back through my saves (thus ruining my ability to get back to Blackreach easily) to remove both items, and then visit Septimus Signus anyway? (can I visit him anyway and see what that does?) Do I need to leave Blackreach and go back? (If only it was possible to tell Serana to buzz off for a bit, her wandering in circles asking me if I know what I'm doing when I clearly don't is wearing on my last nerve lol), do I need to go into the College of Winterhold and talk to the orc and THEN go back? Something else?

Help? Please? Thanks in advance.

p.s. I also tried the setstage console code, but that just gave me the quest to find it, and nothing else, and no marker. But I have a save right before it, so it's not a big deal to reload without that.

That's what I'd do.

Thanks Korthurn~! Yeah, I was afraid of that, because it's a LONG way back, but if that's what I gotta do, that's what I gotta do.

You're welcome. Good title, by the way.

Find Septimus, He knows You can know!

The Dragon Scroll is a requirement for the Dawngaurd Questline, but servitude to hermae Mora is not. Any of the lifts in Blackreach will take a character to the surface, but the Lift in Alfthand Cathedral is Your best Exit. Mzulft will not show up on the World Map for a character that has not inscribed the Lexicon.

If you don't have journal entries, adding items to your inventory won't help.

I usually end up finding Septimus and getting the scroll as soon as I can. You can hang onto it without it hurting anything for either questline.

I've tried adding quest items through the console with the quest active in my journal with no success.

Take the Forge Master's Fingers for example. The quest that makes you a bloodkin to the orcs. I got the quest with my forsworn character and of course who happened to be holding onto the fingers? a forsworn camp that's who. Now I had aligned myself to the forsworn faction. However... with a quest active that requires you to go into the forsworn hide out and retrieve something seems to overwrite that faction alignment. I did not feel like going in there and killing everyone so I added the fingers through the console.

It did not work. The game seems to require that you actually go, open the chest and take the fingers. I was forced to rush in and out of there while all the forsworn were hostile. Turning the quest in made them friendly again afterwards.

I tested this again with Kharjo's stolen moon amulet. I took the quest and then added the amulet to my inventory. He acted like I didn't have it so I had to go and physically get it.

There may be additional triggers you have to hit; whether items or locations. If there isn't an entry in your journal though, you usually can't do/turn in/get the dialogue for whatever the quest or item is for. I know in Morrowind there were a couple of quests where your character had to hit or pass a certain point in the ground/floor/area. If you didn't, the quest would never update in your journal and you couldn't turn it in to the giver.

I would just go and see Septimus, make a save before you enter his hideout, and try it and see. If it doesn't update the quest when he gives you those 2 items to get the scroll, you can just load the save from outside. Then use the console player.removeitem xxxxxxxx 1 for those two items you manually added and go back in and try again. It should work... should....

I had the same issue when I did Dawnguard early in my game, but I just went ahead and trudged through Septimus' quest to get what I needed anyway. I knew I could just tell Mora to take a leap if I wanted to, or just lie to him to get him to shut up lol.. whatever.