So I think I've finally encountered the dreaded Blood On The Ice bug. Apparently, you have to start the quest as soon as it "initiates" per the counter of going to Windhelm X number of times.

Is there any way to force start this quest with console commands? I'm not concerned about Hjerim too much, more so with the Necromancer's Amulet. Granted, I could simply console the amulet into my inventory, but I'd like to do the quest if possible.

Any workarounds to this?

I was going to say something about the fact that console commands won't help if it won't start, but then it hit me that you must be on PC. Why no use the unofficial patch, which should correct all the errors with this quest?

I've thought about it, but it also "fixes" a lot of other things that I would prefer it didn't.

Look, I'm not interested in being flamed (again) for this, but I ask: you'd stake the major fixes against one or two things you don't like?

You can easily dirty change the vanilla record using the Creation Kit in a new file, and load it after the USKP, undoing what changes the USKP made.