Falkreath Land Purchase Option Will Not Unlock : V

» Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:45 pm

While I was fortunate enough to get into the betas for both Dawnguard and Dragonborn, and I thank you, I really wish there had been one for Hearthfire since it is the first time I have encountered this significant a glitch in the game. Basically, as the title mentions, I simply cannot get the Jarl or the Steward of Falkreath to open the dialogue to purchase land.

Here are the details of where I am at in the game:

Race: Khajiit
six: Male
Level: 66
Playtime: 200+ hours
Platform: XBOX 360, 60gb (white body with chrome disc tray); Game and DLC installed to HDD approx. 12.8 gigs free

I have literally completed damn near everything in the game (now including Dawnguard and Dragonborn). I am already Thane of the three holds in which land can be purchased. As such, I did not receive a letter from the Courier regarding land for sale from any of the three holds – the adoption letter was the only thing added to my inventory. Also, I have completed the Civil War quest line by siding with the Stormcloaks, so instead of the Jarl Siddgeir and Steward Nenya (who originally appointed me Thane), I have their replacements, Dengeir of Stuhn and Tekla respectively.

While I can occasionally get Tekla to open up a dialogue involving killing a dragon or a bandit leader (the one at Embershard Mine seems to be a particularly persistent thorn in the Jarl’s side), no matter how many times I’ve completed these quests, my only reward is a thanks and some gold. I have also completed quests of the same nature picked up from Valga Vinicia in Dead Man’s Drink, but those all end the same way as the ones given by Tekla. The dialogue for purchasing land just does. Not. Come. Up. Ever.

Dengeir generally greets me with a “You’re not as stupid as you look.” But given the backhanded nature of the comment, I don’t know if this means I have his favor or not. So I don’t know if continuing to do these quests will change anything – though I actually suspect not. Based on some things I found on the Interwebs regarding what is a fairly common glitch, apparently, is that there are some radiant side quests that if not completed might gum up the works. So I began running down the list of open quests to complete them all in hopes this might unlock the dialogue.

However, it seems the reason these quests are all still on my list is because I can’t complete them. Let me explain:

Named Quests

Repairing the Phial – After speaking with Quintus Navale, he asks me to bring him Unmelting Snow, some Mammoth Tusk Powder and a Forsworn Heart. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I already had a Briar Heart in my inventory when starting this quest, when I kill the Forsworn Briarheart in Sundered Towers, the quest does not commence after taking his heart. The quest arrow simply hovers over the corpse. If I travel back to Quintus with the items, he does not respond with dialogue that moves the quest forward.

Incidentally, when during Dragonborn Neloth asks for a Briar Heart, I went back to Sundered Towers. Sure enough the Briarheart was alive again and was still designated by the quest arrow when “Repairing the Phial” is selected. I hoped that maybe there was a slim chance that taking his heart might satisfy both quests. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Miscellaneous Quests

Return to Esbern – Okay, this one I can complete, but I don’t want to. Paarthurnax is just too cool. I can’t bring myself to kill him. I mention it merely for reference that it’s still active in case that means anything.
Collect bounty from Skald – Well, he thanked me and gave me gold, but the quest never completed. It’s still in my quest log, but Skald is not interested in talking about this subject any longer. In fact, after initially completing the mission, I had a quest arrow with the little doorway follow me around the map telling me where to collect the bounty. This did not persist past the first reload, but now I can no longer select it as an active quest despite the Toggle Active command not being greyed out in the menu. Neither Skald, Jod, Madena nor Bulfrek have any quest dialogues whatsoever. Incidentally, it should be noted that having this quest incomplete did not interfere with Skald offering me the plot of land.
Kill the leader of Uttering Hills Camp – This one’s kind of strange. After working my way to the leader I find him already dead. The quest arrow is there hovering above his corpse. I can search the body, but nothing comes of that beyond the loot. I fire an arrow into him, but being already dead, nothing at all changed. I even tried re-animating and then killing him again, but this did not satisfy the quest requirements either it seems. I reloaded the game and left his corpse there…
Find Rjorn’s drum – I have. I gave it back to him, actually. I don’t know why this is still in active quests.
Purchase a house in Windhelm – Oh, boy. From what I’ve gathered, speaking to Jorleif before completing the quest Blood on the Ice locks the player out of ever being able to purchase the house, Hjerim. He has the dialogue option for it, but will only respond with comments about some recent “unpleasantness” and that the house is not ready for purchase. I do not believe I ever initiated Blood on the Ice since it is neither still in my active quests nor the list of those I’ve completed. Consequently, I can never begin the investigation that completes this quest and opens the dialogue for purchasing the house.

The group of NPCs that is supposed to appear in the graveyard never show up. I have even gone as far to steal the key to Hejerim from Tova Shatter-Shield and unlock the door, but once inside this did not make the quest initiate either. When I search around the mansion, I find places that display the ‘A’ button prompt with the text “Investigate InvestigationTarget”, but pressing ‘A’ has no effect. I can pick up the “Beware the Butcher!” notices but no matter how many I obtain, again the quest does not initiate. I’m not 100% certain, but I believe this prevents me from becoming Thane as well.

Report Leifnarr’s death to his family – I would love to do this, but evidently I found Leifnarr’s body before getting this quest from his wife, Grosta, so his family never opens a dialogue string for me to report his demise. Grosta still mutters to herself about where he might be, however.

Investigate the Bards College – I have. I’ve completed this quest but it will not drop out of my list. Viarmo has the quest arrow over his head, but his dialogue options are only about how the war has affected the college and what he knows about dragons.

Ask Aldis for information about Angeline’s daughter – Seems simple enough, he’s right there in Solitude, but the problem comes with the fact that I’ve already sided with the Stormcloaks in the Civil War quest line before initiating this quest. In turn, Aldis, being an Imperial, has been removed from the map entirely. When this quest is selected, the arrow points to Solitude, and when you arrive it hovers above an open spot on the ground where Aldis would be standing when the Imperials still held the city.

While researching solutions to my problem, I found that some players were having difficulty getting the original Jarl of Falkreath, Sidggeir, to give them the land option because they had not completed a set of radiant quests called Rare Gifts. This is a set of requests for items from various NPC characters, among them is Aldis, all of which must be completed before Siddgeir opens the dialogue option. Now for his part Aldis needs a copy of the semi-rare book, The Mirror, of which I happen to still have a copy. There appear to be at least 3 copies of the book in the world, so I’m not 100% certain whether or not I’ve actually done Aldis’ segment of Rare Gifts.

This is just a theory, but since I cannot recall having talked to Aldis at all, I may never have done his segment of this quest, may have never given him the book and now I cannot due to the conditions I mentioned above. Perhaps, despite the fact that the Jarl of Falkreath has been replaced by Dengeir, the condition that all of the Rare Gifts quests need to be completed for the Jarl (or Steward) to give the dialogue option to buy land has been held over and is still in play? My basis for this theory stems from the fact that this is the only quest I mention that has any connection to Falkreath, albeit tangentially by Aldis’ connection to Siddgeir through the Rare Gifts quest and not directly to Dengeir and/or Tekla.

I must emphasize that given that reportedly I must reach level 70 before I’ll see a Legendary Dragon, I really don’t want to have to re-start a game just to get the last 2 Hearthfire achievements. Is there any way to loosen whatever criteria is necessary to get Dengeir and Tekla to sell me the final plot of land?