For some reason the Pawned Prawn is always locked, no matter what time of day it is. I did pick the lock to get in, but they always call the gaurds. It's been this way for several in-game days. Is this part of a quest/failed quest?

Did someone go and kill the shop owner?

I used to have this issue in Oblivion, i just fast avoided the door for a few days and came back i think 6 (ingame) days later and it was fixed.

Im not sure if that will work in Skyrim, but it did in oblivion

I don't know if this will work, but try this.
Pick the lock, wait for the guards to come, pay the bounty of gold, then go back to the shop and do what you want to do from there.
If this doesn't work, then go to another shop.

Shop keepers schedules can get out of whack, typically by Fast Traveling in and out of a city when their scripts tell them to move around.

Solution, go somewhere else, wait 73 game hours, then go back, wait until the middle of the afternoon and the door will probably open.

can anyone confirm if that will work for the Pawned Prawn or other shops that lock up??

I had this same problem, had to make a new save. ;(

Thankfully, it wasn't a game-breaking restart, because I was only in Riverwood.


Basically.. Alvor's house was locked. It was 12:23PM ingame, and I didn't know what was wrong

Going by instinct that it was a glitch, I waited hours and hours, 1 hour consecutively, until I had ended up waiting 4 game days. I don't know what happened, but it hasn't happened since I created my new character. :l

I noticed that also some NPCs have this issue.

One is the executor in Solitude. In my latest game, I have to break open into his house to talk to him. I found that by using "prid id + moveto player" will force him to resume his schedule after being teleported near my character. Unfortunately, the solution is only temporary. At the end of the day he will go back to his own house and remain stuck there again.

Could the Pawned Prawn be affected by the first quest for the thieves guild? And maybe fix itself or break future quests dealing with the Pawned prawn later?

I completed the quest where you need to enter the Pawned Prawn for the Thieves guild and it seemed to fix his shop! Its unlocked and open for business!

They sell skooma and hist every night around 12 or 3......not sure

I suspect this problem is somehow related to the infamous navmesh bug. The behaviour is very similar to the effects of that bug. This often happens to me after x hours of game play - a lot of NPC:s get stuck in certain cells and/or wont greet me. Some get stuck as if unable to initiate conversation with another NPC. They will stay that way the rest of the game.