Has anyone else had trouble completing the Mage recommendation quest involving finding J'skar?

I find him and he just says go away. I've spoken to everyone I can find, but I must be missing something.

I read in a forum somewhere online that there is a known error on the PC platform, which is what I am using. I hope there is a way around this and that I am not just stuck never being able to complete this quest.

Please help.

Thanks,

Oliver

This should be in the spoiler section I think, but the answer I can give is this...
Have you dispelled the spell? Or did you pull the prank and got the book for the altmer mage.
If the book one talk to the altmer mage after 10pm downstairs in the MG hall and he should dispel the effect.
If that fails FT away and back, and maybe it will catch up.

I didn't think to post this in the spolier section, cuz I guess I thought it was a bug.

I still don't entirely understand the help given, cuz I have seen nothing to indicate those things exist or would help. Usually when you speak to someone (within the game) they will say to try or do something (like, "Hey, you should go get the such and such book and perform X")
I appreciate your response and will try to locate those things in an attempt to get past this.

Thank you,

Oliver

Speak to volanaro, (you might need to get his disposition up) he should then mention pulling a prank on Jeane the mission after that is pretty straight forward. If you are on pc you can just console the mission to be completed.

If you talked to Jean, she just wants J'Skar found. So if you have a "dispel" spell, go find J'Skar and cast it on him. He'll tell you you're no fun, but it solves the quest. I usually don't bother with the prank, but that's just me. There are enough quests already to do, so my mage isn't in the mood for pranks. If you don't have a dispel spell, you can buy one from Volanaro. If you can't cast one yet, then you're probably going to have to do the prank.

Me I would save then use a flare spell on him as I really don't wanna learn the spell that Volarano gives you because Unwelcomed Guest is better. It should make him reappear although you will have a 40 bounty.

Volanaro doesn't sell a Dispel spell; you'll want to visit http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Alves_Uvenim at the Leyawiin guild hall for a Dispel Other spell.

EDIT: using any hostile spell on him will get you expelled from the guild. Not worth the effort of getting back in the guild just to avoid finding a spell.

Actually, according to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Volanaro he sells a Greater Dispel Other spell. The downside to that is you have to be journeyman in mysticism to be able to cast it. So Alves Uvenim may be the better choice anyway.

This worked perfectly!

I guess I underestimated the value of personality, cuz I figured it had to have been a PC bug.

Thanks for the help!

- Oliver

I always make sure to get a Seductive Charm spell early on. There's a number of situations where casting it on someone is all you need in order to get something out of them. That's one of those situations there, another is buying a house in the IC. There's a few others where not even that is good enough, you need to have a high Personality on top of the spell, or a more powerful version.

If you're doing the Mages Guild Recommendations, then doing Bravil early gets you "Captivate" which is Novice level, so anyone can use it. That quest can be done without any pre-requisites (except for a small amount of gold) as the scrolls do it all for you. Then you're all set for Bruma, which gives you another spell to use, (Minor Latch Crack) although that one is Apprentice level. You get that spell even before you complete the quest.

Doing the Skingrad quest gets you a Weak Fireball spell at Novice level if you hit all the right dialog topics, again, before you do the work, so you can pick up the spell, use it elsewhere, and then come back to complete the quest later. Cheydinhal gives you another spell - Buoyancy - with two effects, feather and water breathing, again before completion.

Captivate is pretty weak compared to Seductive Charm though. Granted, if you don't have the right level for Seductive Charm it can come in handy, but that's never a problem for me. So I always go to the chapel in Chorrol and get it there. Even with that one though, there's a few checks I still can't get, like the Brotherhood Betrayed quest and the IC Corruption quest.

Glad to be of help