I went and recruited the two idiots that I was told to. Went back to the fort, walked in and all of the gates closed, leaving me and my companion in the anti room. The door that wasn't blocked was the exit door. WTF! Can't talk to either one of the idiots, because their busy at nothing. So, what is it that I am supposed to do now, stick my finger up my [censored]? What? This was a waste of $20 without a doubt.

No it's not. Your just being attacked by a bug, On Xbox it worked fine for me...

The entire game is "the Pits" not just Dawnguard.

Great! I love playing with bugs that never seem to get fixed by Bethesda. Still not worth the money. What a waste!

It's a bug, just reload or do the quests with a different character. No need to get all angry at it.

Reload a previous save. Simples.

Reload, you don't think I haven't tried that already? As for playing with a different character, I am not about to start a new game just to play Dawnguard, that's absurd.!?! How do I know my new character won't have the same problem? I didn't purchase Dawnguard to test bugs or spend countless hours troubleshooting. Incidentally, I am not angry, just very disappointed that I spent the money.

Just a suggestion, you could at least try it.

It's a bug. Every game has bugs. Bethesda games, more than most.

Even if Bethesda were amazing bug catchers, the chance of a particular bug happening is pretty slim. Also, you're on the PC, which means if you look and think hard enough chancer are you can fix it with a console command.

You found a bug. It's not a big deal.

It was my companion. I had to make her wait outside. Geez! Incidentally, I hate bugs because I hate troubleshooting.

Yeah and it's painfully obvious for everyone.

What?

I made about 4 characters to explore different aspects of the Dawnguard storyline. It's not as absurd as you think. Just have to be level 10 to flag the DG quest, and you can hit that just between the intro and Riverwood.

If you are seriously crying about bugs in a game that has been out for almost a year, and was bug-ridden since launch, you're late to the party.

In case you didn't know (if you already did, sorry), the closing gates are scripted. Just wait around, listen to what Isran has to say and he'll open the gates. If by chance Isran doesn't start talking, the gates don't open, etc, just reload outside the fort. Fixed it for me, I had a bug when Gunmar did not spawn inside the fort so his dialogue with Isran couldn't initiate.
It's just one of the many bugs, and luckily it's easily solvable, nothing to freak about.

Because raging at someone who is only trying to help you is actually solving your issue, right?

Does [censored]ing at him fix the problem?

Follow their advice. More often than not, what they've said actually fixes the problem.

But rather than expend any infinitesimal amount for effort to try out their solutions, you'd rather rage on the Forums... hope that helps your extremely minor and easy to fix bug issue.

Have a great day!

If that springs to mind as your immediate and only alternate option, I'd say you have bigger issues than a video game glitch.

You could try using the console since it seems you're on PC.


Open the developer console with the tilde key.
Left click on one of the NPCs and type "moveto player" (without quotation marks)
Press Enter
Left click on the other NPC and type "moveto player" (without quotation marks)
Press Enter
Close the developer console with the tilde key

They should then be nearby to talk to to advance the quest. As always save before using the developer console. If this fails to work then there are other methods I'm sure such as clipping through the barrier or simply forcing the quest to complete.

So true.

I appreciate everyone's comments--even the nasty ones. And, just so you understand me, I purchased Dawnguard to play not to troubleshoot bugs and glitches. Why is that such a problem with some of you, anyway? That said I do apologize for wanting things to work out of the box. I guess it is just the times we live in: "Buy now, fix later?"

It plays just fine for me. What are you doing wrong?

Well, now it seems that after retrieving the soul essence gem I can't get back to the stairs. There is no portal to go back through. However, you can jump down from there. Still, after doing so i have been unable to get back to the stairway. Last night I spent nearly an hour running around that cursed place trying to find the stairs to no avail. You can't even see it off in the distance anywhere on the map or visually. Anyway, this morning I deleted all of the saved games leading up to level 10 and started over again, much to my displeasure.

ROFL

Wanderer's Tip:

All roads in the Soul Cairn eventually lead to the same place. The Portal in, or the Watchers/Guardians little throne buildings.

Point is, from any location in the Soul Cairn, following any road can lead you back to the portal.

If all else fails, use the local map in your menu. The Marker still shows which way your character is facing. Follow the lit-up (unhidden) areas of the map (where you've already been), and it will leads you on a path back to where you came from. in the event that you've wandered all over and every place has been discovered, you can get back to the Portal by simply finding your way back to Valerica's prison/hideout. Walk directly away from the prison/hideout (follow the road), and it will lead you back to the Portal steps.

In the event that you are able to find the Portal steps but the Portal itself isn't there, then you have encountered a bug. Simply reload from a previous save and this issue will clear up.

Now, since you've already deleted all of your save files and have started over, use this for future planning/trips into the Soul Cairn.