My Broken Quests...

[Valus]

I don't know if this is the case with anyone else, but I seem to have acquired a number of quests and tasks in my journal that have been broken and are now forever engraved into my quest log, and shall never be completed. I discovered them after I completed all quests I didn't finish while completing the main quest,

Arniel's Endeavor

Before I started the quest, I accidentally came across the dungeon where you find the courier and the "Keening" dagger, I took Keening, not knowing what it was, turns out it was the quest item for this quest, and now I can't advance further. I tried putting the dagger back on the courier but, of course, I couldn't because it was a quest item. On the plus side, I used Dead Thrall on the courier, and now have a follower with a Quest Marker over his head, now I'll never lose him.

Kill the dragon located at Eldersblood Peak

I guess I had already done this before I got the bounty letter for it. I check back at the peak from time to time, but the dragon just won't respawn.

Kill the Hagraven Petra

After I entered Blind Cliff Cave, I saw the Hagraven in a cage, not knowing it was a quest character, Melka. I thought she was just a regular Hagraven and would attack me if I opened the cage so I decided to clear out the dungeon first, then come back. After I came back I talked to the Hagraven and let her out so we could go kill Petra, which I already did. She then proceeded to lead me through the tower, which I already cleared. She then stops on the stairs before the room where Petra was. I tried pushing her, but she would just stay but on the stairs, so I dragged Petra's body to her, hoping in vain to invoke some kind of reaction, but nothing. I then re-animated Petra and Melka actually acknowledged her presence, I thought I fixed it, but they just stood there. So I killed Petra again, right in front of Melka, and turned her into a pile of dust, but Melka was once again standing idly on the stairs, nothing changed.

Investigate the Boethiah cultist

Not sure where this one came from, I have already completed all daedric quests including Boethiah, and it won't give me a map location.

So, how about you? Got any broken quests or tasks burned into your quest journal?

[Redguard_Master]

I have a multitude. They are all miscellaneous and mostly collect bounty related. I would really like this to be adressed in 1.6

[Mefris Elmek]

Arniel's Endeavor is broken as a whole and you have to do everything to the last letter.

She then stops on the stairs before the room where Petra was. I tried pushing her, but she would just stay but on the stairs, so I dragged Petra's body to her, hoping in vain to invoke some kind of reaction, but nothing. I then re-animated Petra and Melka actually acknowledged her presence, I thought I fixed it, but they just stood there. So I killed Petra again, right in front of Melka, and turned her into a pile of dust, but Melka was once again standing idly on the stairs, nothing changed.

Well, I completed "Waking Nightmare" before talking to Jarl Skald the Elder and now he won't make me thane or give me radiant quests.Very annoying.

[SuperSimoholic]

There should be an option to get rid of quests from your journal. And to re activate it, go back to the person who gave it to you in the first place - also quest disappear from your inventory and go back to where you found them/who gave it to you. that would make things easier.

[Hassan56]

"Well, I completed "Waking Nightmare" before talking to Jarl Skald the Elder and now he won't make me thane or give me radiant quests.Very annoying."

I know I'm late to the game here. Jarl Skald wasn't giving me the quest either. It made it impossible to become Thane or buy Heljarchen Hall. I went through all of my bounty quests. I had several open. I killed the bounty targets and claimed by rewards. I went back to Jarl Skald and he gave me the Thane quest and then subsequently the option to purchase the land for Heljarchen Hall.

I'd assume that you can only have one Kill the Giant bounty quests open (either killing & collecting the bounty or just collecting the bounty after the kill). Clearing it seemed to do the trick. (On PS3 platform)

Hope this helps someone else.

[Pancake]

I don't know if I was imagining things, but I swear I've finished "The Pale Lady" but the quest kept re-appearing again after I put the sword into the pedestal and was not retrieving it back.

[VaardenKopfh]

You are not hardly alone. Skyrim is so well programmed, even after the latest failure-coverup - oh, I mean patch, that I suspect nearly everyone has broken quests and/or items. At least everyone who didn't follow the questlines as the designers expected them to. Personally, I spent a great deal of time initially simply wandering and exploring. I didn't even pick up the main questline until I was about level 45. I now have at least 6 broken quests and carry about as many non-removable quest items.
How is it that I am carrying a book that I'm supposed to find for the librarian but cannot give it to him? I picked it up before the quest triggered. I cannot drop it. It is not in its chest (duh) and I cannot put it back there. The game doesn't believe its own data because I removed it from the chest when it was daydreaming. Now I have the book AND the quest and will carry them both forever. The missing trigger obviously is "book IS BEING removed from chest". How about "book IS IN player's inventory"? I should have not even had to DO the mission since I had the book in-hand when he asked me to find it!
That's just one of several issues and fortunately I haven't run into any that has COMPLETELY ruined gameplay. Yet. But I think if I had tried to join the stormcloaks, it would have...
No, too many programming houses today follow the most horrendous example set by Microsh't years ago - "Just get it out the door and let the (paying!) customers find our mistakes for us." Hardly any REAL beta testing happens these days. As a hardware AND software engineer with decades of EXP, I could go on and on with this topic but - I have a game to break. More.

[lmstearn]

This gamer had an issue with the mod Companion Vilja. The quest was to retrieve Count Vanessa's Necklace from Dead Man's Respite.
But I already had it in inventory! I handed it over to her, and she even wore it, but the quest remained unfinished.
And now get this- I take it back from her, and the quest is completed!

If you run this game on a PC, you can repair (or at least re-activate) broken quests with the Creation Kit.
I "repaired" a another quest (ruined by another mod) by introducing another trigger stage- and off she went.
It's completed now, but there are two entries for it in the completed quests log, and Papyrus still spits stuff about about some objects in the quest which I (nor the game) have use for anymore.

And the most painful thing of all- there is nooooo backtracking the quest stages. Not part of the game design.
I guarantee for that facility alone, the majority of Skyrim gamers would at least double their subscription.

[dzio]

For me the worst thing is not the quests broken by doing them out of order, but the ones that break for no reason whatsoever. Civil War, I'm looking at you... I had to abandon my Nord, because I saw no way to explain why she would stop halfway through liberating the Reach, roleplay-wise. And now the same thing happened with my Orc on the Imperial side (only it's the Pale this time). Fortunately she wasn't only about the war, so I could now take her to Fort Dawnguard (I made up a backstory that has her leaving the Legion after she was sent to guard some Thalmor prisoners while they were being tortured for information, which she couldn't do). It's annoying as hell anyway, I really don't feel like starting a new character, going through 20+ hours of gameplay with them and hoping that this time the questline won't freeze for no reason... Looks like I won't be winning that war anytime soon, for either side. :/

[TheHipsterWoodElf]

I actually get a kick out of how many of my quests are broken in the game. The quest to retrieve Red Eagle's sword reappeared recently long after I finished that quest, and one time when Farkas wanted to go kill a dragon I got a "Talk to Esbern" quest after we killed it. lolwut? I thought Esbern hated me. (That strange quest prompt made me fear for the safety of a certain someone and I went rushing to him to make sure he was okay) I also have the broken Boethiah priest quest and the broken Arcwind Point word of power (that one is annoying because now I can't ask the greybeards where other words are, and I have to cheat with wiki or just get lucky) I also have many quest items in my inventory that weigh me down (those stupid elder scrolls, Urag why won't you buy the other two?!)

[Crusader's Amour]

^ If you joined the Dawnguard you can give Dexion the other two scrolls.

[perylousdemon]

I actually get a kick out of how many of my quests are broken in the game. The quest to retrieve Red Eagle's sword reappeared recently long after I finished that quest, and one time when Farkas wanted to go kill a dragon I got a "Talk to Esbern" quest after we killed it. lolwut? I thought Esbern hated me. (That strange quest prompt made me fear for the safety of a certain someone and I went rushing to him to make sure he was okay) I also have the broken Boethiah priest quest and the broken Arcwind Point word of power (that one is annoying because now I can't ask the greybeards where other words are, and I have to cheat with wiki or just get lucky) I also have many quest items in my inventory that weigh me down (those stupid elder scrolls, Urag why won't you buy the other two?!)

The Red Eagle thing will keep happening if you keep reading the book. Just don't read it again after you've completed the quest the first time. Although the wiki claims this bug was fixed with an early unofficial patch, so maybe not.