Escaped Criminal (Radiant Quest Bug)

[Luthiel]

I've googled around and apparently this bug has occurred for others as well. Yet I am not playing this on my PC and I have no idea how to avoid it.

Okay so I had already captured and eliminated a criminal for Vilkas and was looking for another quest to complete I talked to him again. He then gave me another "Escaped Criminal" quest. Yet this time the marker showing the location of said criminal was pointing out of Whiterun. Not anywhere near The Reach. I exited Whiterun only for the marker to be pointing back inside.

I had saved earlier and re-loaded since upon reading about the bug I found out that after a while the quest might just switch to completed and terminate all other radiant quests from The Companions. Now I'm worried to ask for more quests but I do wish to complete the others. (ie; Striking Heart, Totems of Hircine, Dragon Seekers etc.)

Is there a way to get around this? Or am I destined to take the quest and search the vast lands of Skyrim for this one measly criminal?

 

[Gare87]

And still nobody have solution for this bug!?!?!?!??! I updated game to latest official and unofficial patch and this stupid quest still bugs, it bugs with no marker on escaped criminal, or it bugs with no marker on Farkas. And that solution from wikipedia dose not help to reset his quest to be able to do another one!!! Solution anybody, why this forum exist, for nothing!?!?!?!?!?!??!?

 

[Gare87]

Ok for everyone who is stuck with this quest, i completed it this way(i will write with caps on) TOOK THE QUEST FROM VILKAS, FIND AND KILLED A CRIMINAL, BUT IT BUGS ON ME WHEN I WAS NEAR JORVASKR(QUESTION MARK DISAPPEARED), SO I CAN NOT SPEAK TO HIM, THEN I LOADED AUTOSAVE AFTER CRIMINAL WAS KILLED, AND COMPLETED STAGE TROUGH CONSOLE "setstage cr07 20, setstage cr07 100".
So at short steps are: take quest from vilkas>find and kill a criminal(if he has marker on him)>tip in console(if criminal had marker on him and if killed) setstage cr07 20, setstage cr07 100. Thats it, quest is finished. It must be done in that way every time!

 

[JoeReese]

I've googled around and apparently this bug has occurred for others as well. Yet I am not playing this on my PC and I have no idea how to avoid it.

Okay so I had already captured and eliminated a criminal for Vilkas and was looking for another quest to complete I talked to him again. He then gave me another "Escaped Criminal" quest. Yet this time the marker showing the location of said criminal was pointing out of Whiterun. Not anywhere near The Reach. I exited Whiterun only for the marker to be pointing back inside.

I had saved earlier and re-loaded since upon reading about the bug I found out that after a while the quest might just switch to completed and terminate all other radiant quests from The Companions. Now I'm worried to ask for more quests but I do wish to complete the others. (ie; Striking Heart, Totems of Hircine, Dragon Seekers etc.)

Is there a way to get around this? Or am I destined to take the quest and search the vast lands of Skyrim for this one measly criminal?

I assume you found this page in your search? http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Escaped_Criminal

If not, that's probably the best advice anyone will have for you. If you're on PC, you could try some of the options they mention here (save first) but if you're on console, the options are extremely limited. I've had a few minor instances, where I went back to Vilkas and ran him through as much dialog as I could, in the hopes that the game thought he had more to tell me.

There is one mention, in this web link, of going to Aela and completing a task for her, to reset Farkas and Vilkas. You could try that, but unfortunately I don't know of anybody who will be able to say "All you've got to do is..." where console gaming is concerned. Reverting to previous saves seems to be both your first and last line of defense in most bug situations.

Gare, this forum exists in part for people to help each other with problems they encounter in the game, but it does not suddenly bestow all the knowledge of Bethesda programmers upon us. If we know the answer, we'll give it. If we have a guess, we'll offer it. If we don't know, we don't know. Sorry, but that's just life.

 

[NoxLady]

So I found this werid thing about the radiant bug and maybe how to get out of it. Also had the bugged Escaped Criminal mission, and figured the companion missions were over, so I married Vilkas. When I asked him about the mission, he didn' say "I already gave you a job, get to it", guess it restarted. Don' know why or how that worked, but you can give it a try and see if it helps. (I have the PS4 version, don' know if it' the same for other systems) Good luck to all

 

[alceryes]

There are some instances where having other radiant quests active can bug-out new ones.
I suggest loading an older save from before you took the bugged quest, finishing all other radiant quests, then go back and start the bugged one.