I'm having a problem with this part of the Companions questline. Just collected a witch head for the Blood's Honor quest then returned to the Companions' house where everyone is standing in battle stance. Tried speaking to Vilkas and it ended the Blood's Honor quest, but will not start the Purity of Revenge quest. I've tried waiting for over a month, leaving and returning, talking to all companions, and even picking fights with companions. They're all still stuck in battle stance. After picking fights with Vilkas and Farkas, now they will speak to me and offer those basic mini quests (beat someone up, retrieve an item, etc), but still stay in the positions they were in when I returned from the Blood's Honor quest.

I'm sure others have had this issue. Tried emailing Bethesda several days ago and got a generic answer of, "There's a patch coming, hopefully it will fix this."......Obviously didn't.

Anyone find a way to fix this or get around it? Otherwise, this means being a werewolf permanently...

Btw, I heard this has something to do with the Helm of Winterhold quest, which I have completed a month and a half (Skyrim time) prior.

I ran into this bug as well. If you finish Helm of Winterbhold before starting Purity of Revenge (which take place in the same dungeon), and you clear out the dungeon, then the Purity of Revenge quest will never start and you are stuck on the Companions quest line. I have hear various "fixes" that worked for different people (such as waiting a game month or attacking the Companions then runningaway and paying a bounty), but none worked for me. As far as I know there is no sure work around on the 360 if you cleared that dungeon during the Helm of Winterhold quest. PC Players have been able to use console commands to get Purity of Revenge to start. Some 360 players have had success saving their game to USB and gotten someone with a PC to load and use the console command before saving and sending it back for reloading on the 360. But unless you want to go to those lengths, I think we're stuck until Bethesda patches it.

Unfortunately, I had this same issue. It SEEMS to stem from the fact that Purity of Revenge will always take place in Driftshade Refuge up by Winterhold, but if a random quest picks it as a location or if you clear it out beforehand (Even DISCOVERING it could trigger this, I'm not sure) it can't seem to handle the conflict and it simply will not begin. Going there after the quest has bugged out seems to have no effect, either. The shards aren't there.

I had to ditch a 15 hour playthrough and start over (I started the Helm of Winterhold quest previously and it targetted Driftshade). I made sure I finished the companion quests as quickly as possible and tried not to go anywhere near Driftshade until it all finished up, and it worked fine on the second playthrough.

Ah ok, thanks guys. That's a bummer. Initially, I had not retrieved the Helm, but the quest was in my available quests. I tried to do things before visiting Driftshade and after, but no luck. Guess I'll be waiting for that fix too.

DMoosejaw, I figured that's the only instant fix for that.... I guess it's better to start over sooner than later. Glad you got yours to work on the 2nd try.