Alright, first off let me start off by saying if this is in the wrong area then please redirect it. I am going to bump this thread once every 12 only if there are no responses. (This is not the light glitch further down the cave.)

Fore TL;DR skip to bottom.

Alright so this bug really annoys me because I cannot find a solution to it and it's ruining the game for me. So far I haven't had any problems with Skyrim up until now.

Basically I am on the quest "Revealing the Unseen" witch is apart of the College of Winterhold series (forgive me if I misspell and name here and there, my xbox is in the other room, and I play on a small TV so I can barely read the names.

Here is what it is telling me to do currently:
"Mirbelle has told me that members of the Synod recently visited the College, mentioning the Staff of Magnus. They where last known to be heading towards Muzulft; they may know more about where to find the staff."

Here are my objectives, I have 2/3 completed.
"Search for Synod researchers" [incomplete]
"Find the ruins of Muzulft" [complete]
"Speak with Mirabelle Ervine" [complete]

I have found the ruins of Muzulft and when I walk inside there is a small room, with gears spinning, and what looks like a wounded Synod laying on the floor still conscious. I can't really read his name, and feel free to correct me on this but I believe it is "Govnus Pinius". There is a locked door behind him and to get the keep, I apparently need to get it from him some how. Whenever I try to talk to him, he replies as if he is busy and says things like "Yes?", "Need something?", "Hm?", and repeats those and depending on what time of the day it is he will say "Good Morning.", or "Afternoon.". This is the same for when I try to pickpocket him. I also tried going into the corner of the room, waited for 1 hour, then used the sneak feature to walk to him and still couldn't pickpocket him. I tried leaving the area and coming back later as well as waiting for 24-hours. Nothing has worked and I have grown very frustrated because I cannot finish my quest. I have heard rumors that you can revert back to your last save and then walk in and have it working again, or than you can leave the room and re-enter and he will be dead and you can search his body for the key. I have tried leaving and coming back but he is still the same and I cannot revert back to my last save because it I will loose over 8-hours of gameplay and that is a lot of time wasted for me.

I have made a video, so you can see where on the map I am and what exactly it looks like that I am doing.
This is the video I have made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFvEMjN4MPg&feature=plcp&context=C3a0e43aUDOEgsToPDskK2VcDxRbYtGkHRqX1hY5zC

If anyone at all is experiencing this glitch, please let me know I am not a lone, it would make me feel so much better for I have not seen any results for this glitch on Google or Youtube. If you know how I can fix this or get around this please let me know it is ruining the game for me. Thanks for reading, it means a lot.

Xbox Gamer-Tag: Bad Karma FTL

TL;DR - Revealing the Unseen Dying Synod bug/glitch, I think his name is "Govnus Pinius" and the dialogue is not working. If you know anything about this glitch please help!

***EDIT- The video may not work yet, just uploaded it around 10 minutes before I made this thread.

I haven't had that particular glitch. Have you tried killing him and then taking the key? Since he is supposed to die anyway you shouldn't glitch anything.

Yeah, I tryed killing him and he doesn't budge. If you watch the video it shows that. I have decided to take a break from Skyrim until this is figured out. It's an important quest that I need to complete to become an archmage.

Tried that?

Yeah I tried that, that's actually the only bit of help I found on google earlier today but when I walked outside no message appeared and he was still alive. I just hope i'm not the only one to have the problem persist because apparently that has worked or someone. I'm guessing he is supposed to bleed-out or just talk to him if he's still alive.

Anyone out there having this problem? :\

Try pickpocketing him?

Yes I have tried everything and I'm afraid i'm that i'm the only one with this problem. If that's true then I'm going to have to restart the entire game and hope for the best because they fix problems everyone is having and not just one person is having. My luck though. If you watch the video you will know I have tried pickpocketing.

Bump

I have had the same problem. I have read other threads on the site and many people are having the same issues. No one seems to have an answer. You can not kill him or pickpocket him. I'm hoping this is one of many glitches that will be fixed with 1.4.

I ended up having to restart and lost about 10 hours of game play. The only way to fix this is to revert back to the last save you have that is before you encounter him. Bethesda is [censored] at fixing glitches so I would'nt count on it.

I am having the same problem!

Wierd. Seems theres a few issues where characters become inpossible to interact with. If you send the Mage follower Illia back home the same happens with her, when you try an interact she will just say "need something" etc. Had a few other instances of this but nothing so game breaking as your instance.

This seems like a very prevalent problem. I myself have run into a myriad of quest-related issues on the XBOX 360 version, although all the other glitches have "solved themselves" after leaving, doing something else for a while, and returning to the glitched location. At this point, I have left and returned to Synod multiple times, and nothing has changed. I'm guessing we'll have to wait for a patch on this one. I'm sure Bethesda has put glitches that completely prevent you from progressing in the game as a top priority for 1.4.

I guess the lesson is, keep more recent saves as a backup.Think about what the longest amount of time you would consider acceptable to replay is, then always switch between manual save files so that none is from longer than that time- say, 3, 5 hours?
Not trying to be snarky, just played enough rpg's to know that's the best way to keep from screwing yourself if something goes wrong.

I didn't have this problem- the closest thing was the dying Khajit on the Hircine quest- when he died he went "Aah," slumped backward and threw a sword at me.

Well, he didn't "throw" it so much as the physics of his hand falling on it got a little too aggressive and sent it flying towards me, but it was pretty funny anyway.

this will probably not work but you could try and see if you could order a follower to attack him. Its worth a shot.

just saying, but it seems every xbox or maybe just disc have a new set of skyrim problems??? i myself haven't ever had any serious glitches, just lagging, short freezes a few comat glitches and stupid water screw ups >.> honestly i hope all of these random glitches are fixable

Yeah, that dude's supposed to start his spiel as soon as you walk in, and he should see you even if you're sneaking. Glitch. Revert to older save.
Hey, maybe you have an autosave more recent that the save you had from 10 hours before or whatever it was? Like from leaving the college or wherever else you left from to get to the ruins?

That's the thing, they might not all be. You know, the whole "huge game," "impossible to fix all the problems" stuff. I mean, everything each individual does in teh game affects the world in unique ways, so the idea of them being able to preemptively fix every possible thing seems impossible. How could they do it unless they were able to generate instances of every possible series of actions, in every possible combination, that players could make?

That's why I save often and have a system to keep backup saves for situations where things go screwy. Mind you, I only keep 3 manual and 3 auto saves, but the right manual saves, so I don't have to replay 2 days worth of the game if a quest goes screwy.