Does anyone know why the quest Blood on thin Ice won't start for me? This is my second time through the game and I can't seem to activate that particular quest. The first time through, it worked no problem. I went to Windhelm, I saw the crime scene in the graveyard, and ask questions, ect. This time, nothing. I've been to Windhelm countless times and I check every time I'm there, but there's never anything. I've heard that there are ways to "break" the quest, however I don't know any, but I'm afraid that I have done just that. I've been in the house that you can eventually buy later after I found the key on Mrs. Shatter Shield after her suicide. I took the butchers journals and left. I also took the strange amulet which turns out to be the Necromancers Amulet after you talk to the guy in the curiosity place. The only reason I went into the house in the first place was because the quest was not showing up and no one would talk about it. Only this time, there's no dialogue option to even tell him I have it, let alone sell it to him. What did I do wrong?

That quest is very bugged.. I'm not sure of a way around it either be warned the house is also bugged.. The first time I bought it I killed a beggar out of frustration.

Talk to a few people about it. Enter the city during the day. Dont fast travel to it... Walk up to the city and enter the gate. That did the trick for me. Has to be daytime. Might take a couple visits. I had a hard time with it.

Talk to the Dunmers about the murders.

As noted, try talking to other people before taking the amulet to Calixto. Jorleif and Viola Giordano would be my suggestions. Altho IMO taking it to Wuunferth is a better option than taking it to Calixto, but you might still need to talk to the others mentioned above before anyone will give you the option of showing them the amulet. Also if you go straight to Wuunferth I think you lose the opportunity to sell the thing to Calixto, if that matters.

If Tova has committed suicide, the quest will never start.

Technobabble: the alias for Tova needs to be filled for the quest to start, but it does not allow for disabled actors. Tova exists as two NCs, one live, essential one, and one dead. When you tell Muiri that you've killed Nilsine and Alain, the dead Tova is enabled and the normal Tova is disabled.

The quest is broken and buggy as hell.

It sometimes does'nt trigger, ever.

You're better off skipping it sometimes.
You get the house wihtout the quest if you side with the imperials anyway.
Unfortunately it bugs out then too, you can't buy stuff for it, sometimes.

How to Bypass the 'Blood on the Ice' Quest and Gain the Windhelm House 'Hjerim'

Press the Tilda key (~)

1. Click on Ulfric Stormcloak

2. Type in "setstage a7b33 10" without quotations and press enter.

3. Type in "completequest MS11" without quotations and press enter.

4. Close console screen by pressing the (~) key again.

5. Talk to the steward Jorleif and ask him about purchasing upgrades.

6. Scroll ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM and ask to clean the murder mess.

7. Open the console screen again by pressing (~).

8. Enter "df495.disable" without quotations and press enter.

9. Purchase any upgrades to the house.

You can buy this house with this method. But it will be buggy. there will be broken glass and blood.I think you shouldn't buy it. House in Riften is better

Yeah, the new Jarl of Windhelm is already in place, and he's already granted me permission to purchase property there. However, when I talk to the steward, (who is still the same) he says that the house is for sale, but isn't available just yet because of a recent "incident".

Did you start your new character after the 1.5 patch?

It took a few tries for me to be able to complete the quest. what bothers me about it is that I now own the house. It still has blood and bones all over the place.

Same thing happened on my second character. Also, the tossed furniture wasn't removed. I was so ticked because I think it's one of the better homes and taking the time to use the console to clean it up... too tedious. But hey, I had three other homes at that time so I got over it. I'm curious to see what happens with my current character.

My first character was on the side of the Imperials, and didn't have that problem. Hmm...

Did you buy the "clean up the mess" option from the Steward? Or was that never available? It should have been there with all the other decorating options.

Yes, bought that option. According to the wiki, it's a known issue, but the only solution that would work for me was disabling the crap with the console, and there was just too much of it. I even tried reloading a previous save (thankfully I save often) and buying the upgrades in a different order but no luck. Ended up just chilling back at Vlindrel Hall instead.

That's a shame. I never warmed up to Vlindrel Hall, but then I don't like Markarth so tend to go there only when necessary. The one time I became Thane there I got Argis and hardly ever went back... he turned out to be the best part of that deal IMO. I have a modded version of Vlindrel that I will be using this time around, but I haven't seen it yet so I don't know if I'll like it better or not. But my modded/expanded Hjerim is by far my favorite house, I made it the first and primary residence for my current character.

Yes, I LOVE Argis! (So much that I accidentally cloned him using the wrong console command, long story.) I prefer Vlindrel over most of the others simply because I prefer one-story player homes. (Proudspire is a beauty but those stairs drove me nuts.) Hjerim would be my first choice but it's the buggiest house in the game, especially since you have to do the buggiest quest in the game before you can get it. However, I am working on some Windhelm stuff now in the hopes of triggering Blood after the requisite visits and we'll see if I get better results this time around.

Which Hjerim mod(s) do you use? And I hope you'll give an update when you've seen the modded Vlindrel because I might try that also. (I'm stingy with certain types of mods and often only try those that people can explain WHY they like them - the comments on Nexus can be hard to navigate for useful impressions sometimes.) My characters all seem to love utilizing their homes, so it's an important part of the game for me.

....

I just imagined myself as the meat in an Argis sandwich. *faint*

Argis is the only housecarl I've ever had as a follower for any substantial length of time... I think my experiences with Lydia had just turned me off the idea completely. The one playthrough where I got all five housecarls plus the associated properties, I ended up sending three of the first four to the Blades just to get them out of my hair when I was at home and the one in Solitude I just left there because I so rarely used that house anyway (or at least the part that she hung out in). When I got the house in Markarth I think I took a shine to him because the VA was the same as Farkas IIRC, which tickled me. I was without a follower at the time and thought, okay, WTH, let's take him along.

I'm sure part of the reason was that I had leveled up considerably before I ever met him, but... yikes. He was just a TANK. I put him in ebony armor first and then some custom enchanted dragonplate with enchanted jewelry and ebony weapons as well and he was almost unstoppable. He once rushed ahead of me and killed an attacker with nothing but shield bashes. I'm pretty sure he one-shot a dragon once with his bow, his archery was just impeccable, to wit:

[img]http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9716/iseeyoumetargis.jpg[/img]

I simply adored him. Becoming Thane in the Reach is now a top priority for my current character just so I can have him around again. I've already got a beautiful set of Dwarven armor and weapons ready to go as his starter set. (It says something that I have two other housecarls already, and even when I took them as followers, all I did was improve and add to the basic steel set they already had, and replace their crappy default bows with improved Imperial models. But Argis... he just has a special place in my heart.)


Eh, the look of Proudspire doesn't really appeal to me. I don't like Solitude in general but I dislike Markarth more, even so I still found Vlindrel Hall (even vanilla) more appealing than PM. And you're right, those stairs are a PITA.


Believe it or not, I have done that quest 3 times with no problems. I must be the luckiest person alive.


Currently using this one and loving it:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9876

The Atronach Forge is a bit much IMO, but it's a separate cell accessible through a trap door so if I don't want to use it I can just pretend it's not there. Except for when I tell Erik the Slayer to "relax" and he goes missing, he goes down there and I have to go get him. I don't know what he finds so interesting down there, it's just a room with a magic forge in it and there's nothing for him to do. Unless he starts making me Daedric weapons, in which case, GO ERIK!


The one I have right now is this:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10339

Since I haven't been in the house yet, we'll just have to see. I've been through 3-4 Breezehome mods already with this character and may change again if the current one is too glitchy... usually I buy a house and go there first thing to inspect it, if I don't like what the mod does I just exit and find something else and then reload the save from before I bought the property and try again.

Deleted because my reply showed up with a bunch of html in it, was unreadable and I don't have time to fix the mess. Argh! Anyway, thanks for the links, Lyn1964! I'll try out the Hjerim mod.

I'm not sure if I had the 1.5 update before I started the second game. However, I was informed by PrinceShroob that it would be too late to save the quest "Blood on Thin Ice" if Tova Shatter-Shield had already committed suicide. I'm just trying to find a way to get the house without having to complete that quest. At this point though, it seems kind of pointless. I own all of the other homes and have made my permanent home in Markarth now, so I'm really not worried about the Windhelm house anymore. (Though I will miss the large display cases)

I'm qualified to buy the Windhelm house, but the Steward tells me it's not ready just yet due to an "incident" . What's up with that? How do I get around this so I can buy Hjerim now?

Have you started the Civil War questline? If you side with the Stormcloaks, you can get it fairly early in the War, but if you are Imperial it happens later.

I've noticed that after Blood on the Ice, the guards start commenting that there is a house available, even though you can't buy it yet.

_____

I just completed Blood, and this time it went like it did the first time (objectives out of order, but cleared on completion) and THIS TIME I used the key from Tova after the quest cleared to make sure the crap (random upturned furniture, etc) was gone before I went any further. Everything is gone except the blood, which is as it should be. Fingers crossed that when I do buy it, it will work like it's supposed to this time.

Now I just have to save up my septims and get my character over to kill an ice wraith so I can get started on getting my house!