So I have just now got to where I have to meet Malborn at the Winking Skeever on my new character. When I try to talk to him he won't start a conversation. All he does is say the basic NPC lines. I have no idea whay this is happening. I have never had this problem before. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

He is also not marked with a quest marker. If anyone knows a solution to this I would be very thankful.

have you talked with delphine, check your quest journal has she given you the order to speak with him yet?

That she has! It's just when I go talk to him nothing happens.

reload you save?
thats all i can offer...

I might have to do that. Though my last save that I can find where this quest was working is 10 hours ago and I really don't want to go back that far. I'm going to do my best to try and find a solution if I don't find one then I am reloading. Thanks anyways for trying to help!

I know this is a couple weeks old, but I have the exact same issue and wondered if there was new insight on this.

I created this character when Skyrim was new (no patches) and have been very slowly playing it, while also playing other games, having to work, etc. I take my time, and just got to Diplomatic Immunity. Did the part with Delphine in Riverwood, did some other quests and explored for a while. Then went to do the "talk to Malborn" step to finish this quest.

No icon on the map for Malborn, and he won't talk to me--no text options, just the standard "What do you need?" and other generic one-liners.

I've gone back to Delphine, but she just says something like "I've told you all you need to know, I'll see you in Solitude" or whatever her blow-off line is.

I've tried various things like unchecking all mods (I'm not running that many, and don't frequently alter what mods I have installed), cleaning my save etc but Malborn will not talk. I've tried disabling him and readding him through the command console, but no go. The sad thing is, I do not have a save from before starting Diplomatic Immunity--I have about 10 or so savegames I cycle through, and I've spent so much time doing Thieve's Guild and Misc quests that I no longer have one from before DI.

I've tried using the command, but it won't work. I've tried using the command, but each time it just progresses me to a new, but still bugged, stage of the quest. For instance, I can get into the Thalmor Embassy, but then Malborn doesn't show up, and there's only like four NPCs there. If I spawn Malborn in the Embassy, he still won't talk, just gives generic lines.

I guess I can just keep using to complete the quest, but I really wanted to experience theq uest and know what was going on. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.