Problem with 'Mystery at Harlun's Watch' [Spoiler]

Ubertoaster · Post by **Ubertoaster** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:39 am

As of late, I have made it my main goal to complete the Fighters Guild quest chain and have worked tirelessly towards that goal. However, when attempting to complete the quest 'Mystery at Harlun's Watch,' I have encountered a major problem.

Towards the beginning of the quest, everything goes fine. I manage to find the town, talk to Drarana Thelis, slay the Will-o-wisps outside of Swampy Cave and clear the entire cave of trolls. But, despite my constant searching, I cannot find the bodies of the townspeople who have disappeared (making it impossible to finish the quest). Instead, whenever I make it to the designated area (marked by a dark green marker, of course) I only find a few skeleton and zombie corpses (which I have looted to make sure no notable items were on hand).

Obviously, this is a very frustrating matter and, as of this point, I have no idea what to do. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

(By the way, I play the Xbox 360 version of the game).

Xtreme_monster · Post by **Xtreme_monster** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:12 pm

Highlight to see there might be some spoiling in it.

Spoiler

hmm sorry but i cant recall what i did at that quest, though i can remember that i never killed any will-o-wisp, try looking the map and see if there is any part of the cave you havent been to, that is all i can say for now.

Xaine · Post by **Xaine** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:47 pm

This is a known bug, where if you clear out the cave earlier, before getting the quest, then when you do get the quest, the body is not there.

This has been fixed in the latest patch for Oblivion, and can be overcome by console codes - obviously speaking about the PC here.

Don't know how to get around it on the Xbox

Ubertoaster · Post by **Ubertoaster** » Mon May 15, 2006 4:32 pm

Thanks for your guy's input. However, I have come to discover that the quest can be completely by-passed, and since posting this thread, ascended to the rank of Guild Master.

Babytank · Post by **Babytank** » Sat May 27, 2006 7:37 pm

I'm having the same problems, so what exactly am I suppose to do? how do you by-pass the quest?

RPGamer06 · Post by **RPGamer06** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:39 pm

Ive been havin the same problem on ma Xbox 360. the cursor on the map points to the southern point of the cave but all i find is some skeletons and a couple of dead zombies. So if anyone has found a way round this or anything that'll help please post it! Ubertoaster can you plz tell me how you got round tha glitch!

Dyre Straits · Post by **Dyre Straits** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:17 am

Contrary to the post stating that the patch fixes this, I just now...after installing the latest official patch...have reached this same problem.

There are only some skeletons, a couple of zombie corpses and a troll in this area. I have to kill the troll, but, I've moved all the skeletons around trying to find something of significance. There is nothing else to be found.

So, I've saved my game at this point and will simply return to give a report and see what happens from there.

EDIT: Returned to Harlun's Watch to give a report and told to go find the missing people. Been there; done that.....twice. There is NO BODY where the icon indicates something 'of significance' should be. This is even AFTER I get the prompt to go investigate whether the trolls are responsible.

crummyrummy · Post by **crummyrummy** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:58 am

Darn I was all set to give you the consol controls to make the quest update, but you play 360....sorry dude, I had the same problem on PC....

Rudebwoy · Post by **Rudebwoy** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:07 am

Same problem here, on PC... Anyone having an idea to solve this?
This not the first time that a mission is "frozen", I had the same problem with the thieves guild: Ahdarji's stolen ring.(Spoilers!!)I had the ring(actually i had TWO Ahdarji rings), but I couldn't give it to the right person, she just kept sending me back to get it.Then i killed someone and had to pay blood price for it, and then the mission was completed...WTF?
Edit: Spelling

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:53 am

[QUOTE=Rudebwoy]Same problem here, on PC... Anyone having an idea to solve this?
This not the first time that a mission is "frozen", I had the same problem with the thieves guild: Ahdarji's stolen ring.(Spoilers!!)I had the ring(actually i had TWO Ahdarji rings), but I couldn't give it to the right person, she just kept sending me back to get it.Then i killed someone and had to pay blood price for it, and then the mission was completed...WTF?
Edit: Spelling[/QUOTE]

No swearing please

Anyways, take a looksee [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75332&highlight=player.setstage"]here[/url] (search function is our friend)

Rudebwoy · Post by **Rudebwoy** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:11 am

Im sorry if i offended anyone here because of foul language...
Well thanks, problem is solved, maybe I should introduce myself to Mr. Search Button in the future

Madd069 · Post by **Madd069** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:05 pm

[QUOTE=Ubertoaster]Thanks for your guy's input. However, I have come to discover that the quest can be completely by-passed, and since posting this thread, ascended to the rank of Guild Master.

[/QUOTE]

Please tell me how to bypass it.

~Luftblasen~ · Post by **~Luftblasen~** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:40 pm

grrr

I came upon this exact same bug last night! If anyone has some advice on how to bypass this problem for 360 please let us all know it is VERY frusturating

Arok2092 · Post by **Arok2092** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:46 pm

I ran into this problem for a little while on my 360 but by accident I overcame it. I'm not sure exactly what will work but here are a couple of things that I did differently than some people may have on this quest.

1. Just before this quest I did the daedric shrine Molag Bal which is where you have to free some Ogres for him. After having done that I accidently left about three of their guards alive, who unbeknownst to me had a rather personal agenda to wipe me off the face of the earth. Well anyway I went to the Harlun's Watch place and wiped out the Will-O-Wisps, went to where the bodies should have been and couldn't find them. Then the guardians from the aforementioned quest came upon me while I was sleeping. They chased me down but ultimately aided me in the clearing of the trolls. I escape them and later on get an entry saying all trolls have been cleared. Once again I can't find the bodies and I sleep to see if they will pop up. When I wake up the guardians are there again and this time I finally kill them. Again I sleep and finally one more troll attacks even after it said they had all been wiped out. After I kill this troll the bodies pop up right before my eyes.

2. So in short use glitch versus glitch. What I think happened is that some kind of bug caused a troll to fall through the map but for some reason after having killed EVERY OTHER LIVING thing in the cave it appeared. So try enlisting the help of followers. Dismiss them when it tells you the cave has been cleared and then rest next to where the bodies are supposed to be.

3. If none of this works try clearing your cache while the game is booting up by holding A.

4. Finally I'm done. Sorry this is so long and I hope it does help you. Good luck!

Ayleidata · Post by **Ayleidata** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:30 pm

Here are some bugs related to that quest:
If you have cleared out the Swampy Cave before receiving the mission, the dead bodies will not appear at the place the green marker points at, preventing you from finishing the quest. On the PC, you can use the console command setstage FGC10Swamp 40 and you will get the message that you found the bodies. The quest will continue normally from there. Warning: You should only do this if you actually have the quest, and ran into the described problem. Using this workaround at a different time may mess up your life in the Fighters Guild. You have been warned.
There have been reports of finding the bodies and clearing the cave but never triggering the "all clear" message. On the PC, you can use the console command set FGC10Swamp.trollsdead to 15. (If you get this bug on the Xbox 360 version resulting in you not being able to finish the quest, it is still possible to become the guild leader- just go back to Modryn Oreyn in Chorrol and accept the next quest)
The Mind and Body Ring is incorrectly leveled, causing it to be a better reward between levels 10-19 than at level 20 or above. The later Fighters Guild quest, Information Gathering has a similar glitch, but the object in this quest is better below level 10 than above it. Therefore, it is to your advantage to take a look at both rewards, decide which item you like better, and do the quests either above or below level 10.

Berba · Post by **Berba** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:45 am

I have the same problem, but i hasnt cleared out the cave before, i've just found it. I dont want to open the console, so is there a other way to complete the quest.????

I play on PC

travb · Post by **travb** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 10:43 pm

The Best advice on this bug.

For the best advice on this bug see:

Oblivion:Mystery at Harlun's Watch - UESPWiki

Which an earlier version was cut and pasted by someone else here above.

I don't think there is anyway to get around this bug.

Arok2092 wrote: 1. Just before this quest I did the daedric shrine Molag Bal which is where you have to free some Ogres for him.

This is the Oblivion:Malacath quest you are describing. Oblivion:Malacath - UESPWiki

Arok2092 wrote: Then the guardians from the aforementioned quest came upon me while I was sleeping. They chased me down but ultimately aided me in the clearing of the trolls. I escape them and later on get an entry saying all trolls have been cleared. Once again I can't find the bodies and I sleep to see if they will pop up. When I wake up the guardians are there again and this time I finally kill them. Again I sleep and finally one more troll attacks even after it said they had all been wiped out. After I kill this troll the bodies pop up right before my eyes.

2. So in short use glitch versus glitch. What I think happened is that some kind of bug caused a troll to fall through the map but for some reason after having killed EVERY OTHER LIVING thing in the cave it appeared. So try enlisting the help of followers. Dismiss them when it tells you the cave has been cleared and then rest next to where the bodies are supposed to be.

There is NO place to sleep in this cave, there is no bedrolls available, especially neat the body of Eduard Denile (not bodies). Oblivion:Swampy Cave - UESPWiki

Arok2092 wrote: 3. If none of this works try clearing your cache while the game is booting up by holding A.

This would have no effect.

Arok2092 · Post by **Arok2092** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:27 am

Allow me to clarify. I did not mean sleep I meant wait. (Its all the same to me in this game.) And I only threw the cache trick in there because that has helped me once or twice with a couple small glitches.

lakers24 · Post by **lakers24** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:38 pm

Problem with 'Mystery at Harlun's Watch'

Ayleidata wrote:Here are some bugs related to that quest:
If you have cleared out the Swampy Cave before receiving the mission, the dead bodies will not appear at the place the green marker points at, preventing you from finishing the quest. On the PC, you can use the console command setstage FGC10Swamp 40 and you will get the message that you found the bodies. The quest will continue normally from there. Warning: You should only do this if you actually have the quest, and ran into the described problem. Using this workaround at a different time may mess up your life in the Fighters Guild. You have been warned.
There have been reports of finding the bodies and clearing the cave but never triggering the "all clear" message. On the PC, you can use the console command set FGC10Swamp.trollsdead to 15. (If you get this bug on the Xbox 360 version resulting in you not being able to finish the quest, it is still possible to become the guild leader- just go back to Modryn Oreyn in Chorrol and accept the next quest)
The Mind and Body Ring is incorrectly leveled, causing it to be a better reward between levels 10-19 than at level 20 or above. The later Fighters Guild quest, Information Gathering has a similar glitch, but the object in this quest is better below level 10 than above it. Therefore, it is to your advantage to take a look at both rewards, decide which item you like better, and do the quests either above or below level 10.

ok im havin the exact same problem and this was probably the best answer for me..but i went to modryn oreyn and i dont hav the option to get a contract from him..this bug is really frustrationg me..plzz help me!!!