Esbern Dialogue wont inetiate.

[gapper]

I completed the "A chance Araangement" for Bynjolf and expected some dialogue concerning Esbern's location. I did not get that. I did find Esbern, but all he says is he's not opening the door, that he's dangerous and that his friends will get me if I don't leave him alone. The Delphone dialogue does not start.

Did I miss something?

I completed "Diplomatic Immunity" the first of the Main Quest: ActII

 

[Dagmar]

Completing the quest A Chance Arrangement is not necessary to talk to Brynjolf about Esbern's location and you may have closed off the dialogue option with Brynjolf by doing that quest. You probably need to finish the next Thieves Guild quest called Taking Care of Business. This should reopen the dialogue option with Brynjolf and even if it doesn't you can speak with Vekel at the Ragged Flagon instead.

 

[gapper]

Thank you Dagmar for your post. I had already completed Taking Care of Business prior to my earlier post. No Esbern dialogue there. I spoke to Vekel and also did not get any dialogue regarding Esbern.

What the heck did I do or not do? I just can't get that dialogue to initiate.

I'm frustrated but I'm not giving up. Thank you again.

 

[Dagmar]

Bleh. It's more like what Bethesda didn't do, which is enough beta testing for the game. Just for clarification, what do you mean when you say the Delphine dialogue wont start?

 

[gapper]

Esbern is motivated to speak to me through a reference to Delphine. Otherwise, he just continues to say he is not opening the door and the quest wont start. I hope I'm making that clear.

 

[Dagmar]

So when you click on the Delphine dialogue choice nothing happens?

This may not help but try backing up your Skyrim.ini file and deleting it. It should be located at My Documents\My Games\Skyrim.

Then start the game again and see if it helps. If it does, do not restore the file until the quest is finished. Once it's done you can restore the original file.

 

[gapper]

That's the point. The dialogue refering to Delphine is never an option. Since none of the other character dialogues, in the Ratway/Riften, included a reference to Esbern, I'm assuming that that is the reason my encounter with Esbern wont proceed to the next quest. Esbern just keeps saying what I indicated in my first post.

A reference to Esbern being in the Ratway needs to happen before he will engage in conversation with me, I suppose. The quote, "remember the 30th of Frostfall" is never an option in my encounter with Esbern. He just keeps resisting my efforts. . . something hasn't, apparently, kicked in.

Your suggestion above makes me a little nervous at this point. I'm not sure we have clarification on my issue yet.

Thank you again Dagmar. I appreciate all your efforts.

 

[gapper]

Dagmar, I did as you suggested with the .ini file. Unfortunately nothing changed.

As I've researched this glitch and tried a number of things: disabling the door, going inside and sleeping on Esbern's bed for 12 hours and then spaming the "talk to Esbern" key, and a number of" setstage" codes. All to no avail. Bummer. I have half a notion to start the game over as a different race.

Anyway, thank you for all your help with my problem.

 

[Dagmar]

Doh you're on a PC.

Have you tried using the setstage console commands? Setstage mq202 160 is supposed to make him open the door. If that works and his dialogue options haven't changed then also try setstage mq202 170.

If you start a new character you might want to also reinstall the game first.

 

[Razer]

Esbern glitches out most times. I had the same prob. I reloaded from a past file and it worked then.

 

[gapper]

Hey Dagmar

Yes I have tried and tried the setstage commands. It has no effect. I don't know why, because I had success with it in a previous quest glitch, the "Arcana Revised" quest for the mage college. I had the book, but my journal kept indicating that I needed to get it. I used the command to advance the quest and it immediately fixed the issue. I was then able to deliver it to the college.

Is there a specific way to do the command? I've pulled the command up by hitting the tilde key, typed in the command: setstage mq202 160, as an example and hit enter.

This Esben thing is really a problem since I can't continue on the main quest with out it. Isn't that right? Is there a way around this quest?

 

[Dagmar]

You could try using setstage to finish the quest although I have no idea whether that will do anything in this case. Have you tried contacting support from Bethesda?

 

[gapper]

Well, I've gotten in contact with Bethesda through email, discribing my problem. Hopefully that will do the trick. Thanks for your help Dagmar.

Great name and picture, by the way.

 

[Necromis]

did you try the alternative of talking to the argonian bartender in the bee and barb? You can also talk to Velka the man in the ragged flagon.

 

[gapper]

Yes I did. I've been researching this for a while.
Anyway, Bethesda responded to my email within an hour. Here's what they said:

Thank you for contacting Bethsoft Support.

The issue that you are experiencing is a known issue and we are working diligently to fix it in upcoming patches. Unfortunately at this time we do not have an ETA on when the next patch will be deployed. Aside from loading a previous save file prior to reaching that point in the quest and trying again, the best thing to do at this point would be to keep an eye on our forums, as this is the best source of information for emerging issues and patch information.

PC - http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/forum/180-pc/

Bethesda Blog: http://www.bethblog.com/2011/12/01/skyrim-what-were-working-on/

Thank you for your time and patience.

Best Regards,
Mike S.
Technical Support

 

[Alyssa]

Hey, I saw this and thought "Maybe these people can help" Okay, so I've reashed the "Season Undending" Quest, I haven't taken a side in the war at all really, But neither Esbern nor Delphine is there. I figure they should be, but I've just sat in that durn chair for 10 minutes and they never showed up. Both are still alive, both are okay, but they're not showing up at the peace negotiations. Has this happened to anyone else? How can I fix this, because it won't let me finish the quest line until they're there.

 

[Alyssa]

I play on 360 by the way, and I'm kinda new to this whole "Gaming" thing so any advice would be appreciated ^_^'