Hi. I am stuck on the very beginning of the quest "At the Summit of Apocrypha."

I have fully unlocked the Bend Will shout as the quest tells me to, and that is checked off of the quest list. The quest now tells me to simply read "Waking Dreams." When I open the book, absolutely nothing happens, it just sits on the first page. I cannot flip the page, I cannot do anything but close the book. Nothing happens.

I have gone and collected all of the other Black Books, completing each one. I have tried restarting the console, leaving to Skyrim and coming back to the island, I have tried pretty much everything I can think of, other than loading a previous save point, which is not an option. I have no available auto save that leads me to a time prior to this issue, and the last manual save available is about 90 hours worth of play time ago. The reason I did not try reloading a save point in the first place is that I thought I needed to collect the other books before it would let me move on with the main quest.

I am unable to complete the main quest for this DLC, which until now I have enjoyed thoroughly. This is extremely disheartening. If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

You do not by any chance happen to have two copies of Waking Dreams? If you only have one it might be time to clean the system cache and do a clean install of the game, patch and DLC's to see if it can manage to load your scene.
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1426775-starting-dragonborn/page__view__findpost__p__21895466

It would also be an idea to start manually saving a bit more if you want to get through Bethesda's bugs to finish anything. Autosaves are overwritten, you should not be depending on them to get past problems the game is bound to have.

I am unfamiliar with this method. It will not erase my saves, will it?

Also, the reason I have not been manually saving more often is that this is actually the first real bug I've run into, even after 215 hours of play time on this character. I suppose that I will start now.

Edit: Also I do only have one copy of Waking Dreams

Double Edit: Answered my own question. Let us pray this works.

Update: I followed every step in clearing my cache and deleting + re-downloading the DLC and updates; this has not solved my issue, the book still does nothing.

You deleted and redownloaded all the DLC? (All three of them if you have them all) And you installed the patch before downloading the DLC?

I re-downloaded the DLC before installing the update patch, because that is the order in which the steps are listed in the post you linked. I shall try it the other way around.

Also, might Cloud Storage being enabled have an effect on it, even though I am only loading data from my hard drive? You can tell how desperate I am by now, probably.

I do not use cloud storage so not sure how it works, but the game is already struggling so I would try to keep saving and save loading as easy as possible, keep it on the hard drive, no accessing anything via the internet.

Personally I think the instructions on the linked page are a bit out of order, the game needs the patch to integrate the DLC, so I installed the game, updated it with the patch and then redownloaded all the DLC in the original order. It fixed most of my problems, the ones remaining are honest bugs rather than the game not finding anything quick enough.

The following is what I have just done, in order:

• Deleted all of the Patch and Add-On data in my Hard Drive Storage
  
• Disabled Cloud Storage
  
• Started up Skyrim, Installed Updates Patch
  
• Installed Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn, in that order
  
• Loaded my most recent save
  
• Stared dejectedly at first page of still-dysfunctional book

So, no luck. Very disheartening.

When you downloaded Dragonborn, did you already have the 1.8 patch installed? The DLC will bug out a bit later on if you downloaded the DLC before the patch.

You cleared the system cache for all storage devices used before deleting and reinstalling?

Did you turn all the autosave options off and try to see if it loads?

Here is one more sequence to try:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1428133-main-quest-breaking-bug/page__pid__21928660#entry21928660

Also be sure you are reading it in SOLSTHEIM, if you read the books in Skyrim, nothing will happen, and it will tell you that you see a "visage of Solstheim" or something along those lines.

UPDATE:

@aussie500: The first time I downloaded Dragonborn, I did not have the patch installed. When I re-installed everything the most recent time, I installed the update patch before downloading the DLC.

Yes, I have cleared the System Cache for all storage devices before deleting and reinstalling (My Hard Drive is the only device now that cloud storage is disabled)

Turning off the auto save seems to have no effect on the book.

@Lottery Discountz: With great hope I have tried the method you shared, with no result. The following is what I did, in order:

• Fast-Traveled back to Skyrim
  
• Fast-Traveled to Whiterun
  
• Stopped right inside the gate and overwrote my manual save file while standing in Whiterun
  
• Waited a full day in game exactly 30 times
  
• Fast-Traveled back to Solstheim
  
• Fast-Traveled to Skaal Village, where I first tried to read "Waking Dreams" after fully unlocking the Bend Will shout
  
• Roared with great fury at the lack of success!

@DPredator: Yes, I am reading the book in Solstheim, as indicated above. I did try reading it in Skyrim once, out of desperation and curiosity, just to see what would happen. I got no such message, the book just opened to the first page and sat there until I closed it, just as it does in Solstheim.

The book still does nothing. I have finally received a response to the email I sent to Bethesda, and they replied by telling me to clear the cache and reinstall just as aussie500 suggested. They have also given me a number to call, so I will try that now and update this thread again whenever I have something more to report.

UPDATE:

Tech Support had zip for me, probably because there is zip left to try. Seems I am out of luck.

I have read that there is a http://gamethingdaily.com/2011/11/19/xbox-360-skyrim-saves-transferrable-to-pc/ to transfer 360 save files from the 360 to my PC. If I were to buy a PC copy of Skyrim and install everything on here, and then transfer my save file to the PC where I have access to commands and such, would that be a potential solution? I would gladly pay the price of the full game + 3 add-ons again, if it would allow me to finish this quest.

Because you originally installed Dragonborn without the patch, it is possible the problem now is part of your save file. The patch was needed to fully integrate the DLC with Skyrim and some game breaking bugs resulted from downloading the patch after Dragonborn. Others who installed Dragonborn then the patch had a glitch they also could not get past and the only way found to get past that was to do as you have done with a clean instal in the right order and go back to a save before the DLC was installed (or to do a clean save with the DLC uninstalled) and starting it all over again.

Probably not what you want to do after putting all that work into trying to finish Dragonborn. The thread where others had problems with DLC then patch is below.
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1429033-miraak-stuck-in-ethereal-state/page__st__30

How do I go about doing this? Honestly, I probably would start Dragonborn over if I can, if it means getting to stab Miraak in his big dumb face, especially if I get to keep all of the level progress I have made (I'm halfway through 59 now).

You have no earlier saves?

In the thread I linked to elderdrake gives a good description of how to get a clean save file, this would probably not be the way Bethesda would recommend restarting the DLC, but without a previous save it is the best you can do.
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1429033-miraak-stuck-in-ethereal-state/page__view__findpost__p__21937712

For this particular character, my last save is over 90 hours of play time ago. To start from that far ago would basically get rid of everything I have done since first starting the Dawnguard stuff months ago. I would rather try this clean save method and just start over Dragonborn.

I will go ahead and do this tonight, and I will update this thread again when I find out whether or not this has resolved my issue.

Thanks a million for the assistance.

Final Update:

Doing a clean save and completely restarting the Dragonborn DLC has solved the error. I proceeded directly through the main quest line, instead of dragging along as I prefer to do and did the first time. Everything went perfectly smooth.

I think that what caused my seemingly unique issue is that (perhaps in addition to installing the DLC before the update patch) when I first acquired "Waking Dreams" from the tomb below the Tree Stone with Frea, I re-read the book immediately after obtaining it, and went through the entire book's dungeon right up to the point where I got the second part of the Dragon Aspect shout. After I unlocked that shout nothing happened, of course. Now I know that this was when I was supposed to tame the dragon and ride to the battle with Miraak.

Lesson learned from all of this is that I should keep fresh manual saves for my game every hour or so, and I shall proceed to do so in the future.

I will spend the rest of the night catching up to where I was in the most identical fashion possible.

I thank everyone who participated in helping me to solve this issue, especially aussie500.

-Bolvir, the Thunderer

I'm having the exact same problem right now and dreading having to restart the entire DLC but you gotta do what you gotta do

Glad to hear you finally got to beat Miraak. I would keep that clean save file, just in case you ever want to do Dragonborn again for that character. And keeping the occasional save as you play is always a good idea, just in case something goes wrong.



Sorry to hear you were another victim sjb56, but on the plus side it might be more fun doing it the second time and noticing more as you play. Good luck.

Seriously? The only way to fix it is to delete the DLC all entirely? You've got to be joking!

BGS should patch there add-on that we paid 20$ for...

It was downloading the DLC before the patch that was released to integrate it into the main game that caused this bug and a few others, releasing a patch to fix something that was never broken in the first place would more than likely wreck everyone else's game.

Well, then do you have any positive output? Like how to possibly fix it? Ive read all the OP's doing... but which one ACTUALLY works?

Cause I don't want to waste 30-60 mins of my time trying to fix a game I shouldn't have 2...

If like a few others you have downloaded the DLC before the patch, your save file is glitched. You either need a save file before you downloaded the DLC, or need to do a clean save that is safe to start from. Just deleting and reinstalling the DLC will not solve the problem, although if you are having freezing, areas not loading properly and lag problems, clearing the system cache delting game, patch and DLC and doing a fresh install of everything would not be a bad idea, just remember to patch the game before downloading all the DLC again.

How to get a clean save.
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1429033-miraak-stuck-in-ethereal-state/page__st__30__p__21937712#entry21937712

And next time remember to check for a game update before downloading the next DLC, the DLC needs the patch to be installed first.