This quest seems to be the single buggiest quest in the entire game - it has so many problems and ways to screw up that I'm amazed the quest was kept in the game.

DId Bethesda have some noobie programmer script this section or what? Must not have had much QA testing.


And btw - the patch did NOT fix the quest for me (I'd started the quest, but stuck in middle)


comments ? (keep spoilers out please!!!)

It's one of the more complex quests in the game, and many of the bugs associated with it involve timing problems (like missing the start of the quest).

I'm on Xbox 360 so I don't have the patch yet. Does anyone know if it changes the amulet in your inventory from "Strange Amulet" to "Necromancer's Amulet" if Callixto is already dead? I never spoke to Callixto about it, but i did speak to the court wizrd guy, who identified it for me as the Necromancer's Amulet. Despite that it is still stuck in my inventory as "Strange Amulet". I couldn't tell from the patch notes if that is addressed or not.

do you understand the term "Spoilers" ?????

It's really no worse than any of the other quests in the game. It's just got more steps and branches to get screwed up.

The quest itself is fine..but Bethesda basically did not check the various states of that mark the end of each phase of the quest.

The patch likely wouldnt be able to fix the quest if you have already started it, but should allow you to do it from the start. That's just my thinking though, cant confirm it. I personally didnt have any troubles doing this quest.

This is in the spoilers section of the forum, is that not already implied? If not, then you have my sincerest apologies.

can the quest mess up the ability to buy herjim?

well, it started out in the General section - although I'm not actually sure whether your post came before or after it got moved .

Got the quest reset - disappeared off the Quest page (resetquest ms11). Now to see if I can get it re-started and completed so I can buy a house

I think it didn't get enough testing. It's not so complicated that it shouldn't work fine most of the time and the problems with it should have come out in testing and have been fixed. There are a lot of things in the game that should have been caught and fixed through testing but weren't. But that quest, in particular, is pretty messy from start to finish.

Yes it does, at least for me. I am on Xbox 360 also. I have all the other houses and can't get that one because Jorlief keeps saying that it is not available yet.

Well, I've given up on getting a house in Windhelm - quest won't start after the reset. At least I don't have it listed anymore in the Journal

Most people have problems starting this quest. Here's how it works.

The culprit is a counter tied to a counter script that initiates the quest once the player visited Windhelm from 7pm to 7am. The problem with this counter is that...

...it's updated not when the player enters Winhelm but once the player enters the area AROUND Windhelm. So many people 'miss' the quest because the script initiates the quest even if the graveyard is not visited. Once the prerequisites of the quests are not met (speaking with the guard near the corpse) the quest is lost forever and so is the chance to get the house in Windhelm

-Resetting the counters doesn't work if the script already kicked in
-Setting the quest stage doesn't work either
-it's still possible to get the house via 'completequest ms11/ms11b' plus other commands

This also probably means that future patches are not going to resolve the problem unles a new game is started.

It does seem to be a really buggy quest and that's a shame because it's still pretty cool. After my first frustrating attempt, I read through on the Wiki and was able to get it to work. This last time, I got to the part where Wuunferth (sp?) tells me to patrol the Stone Quarter at night. Since it was the middle of the afternoon, I went to the outdoor market to sell some stuff and there's Calixto in broad daylight in the crowded market getting ready to take down his next victim. I kill him and nobody moves, nobody says a word, the guard stands there with his arm crossed . . .
Quest obviously needed some more work before release.

It will be interesting to look at the quest in the CK and see if there are any errors in logic or what have you that is giving people trouble. I managed my way through the quest without issue.

This quest has worked for me just fine the two times I have done it. I actually wanted the bugs so I could see what the issues are. I can see the places where it can mess up, it just has never happened to me.

I got caught out with the Viola and Calixto part. You are sent to talk to both, but if you go see Viola first it messes up the Calixto bit. But Calixto first, then Viola always works.
I think they just left a few holes in the coding, so do something out of the order they planned and it goes haywire.

Looking at the latest patch notes they went back and fixed all of those holes.

Amazing! I've played that quest about five times already: never had any problem with it.

Nope, it was already in the spoilers section when I responded. I do try to be conscious of that when posts are in the general section. Apologies if I shared information you were not expecting to see.

The quests broken for me. No idea what to do. Won't let me inspect the crime scene. Previous attempts would'nt let me talk to Roileif either.
It's a buggy piece of s**t that should'nt have got released in that state.
It looks overcomplex, quite frankly.

Going to try searching Calixtos house and business or killing him, see if it works. If I fail it, then it's a freaking result at least and in story and game terms the killings can't continue if he's dead.

that's interesting - mod must have moved it as soon as I posted it, - JUST BECAUSE IT HAD THE NAME OF A QUEST I guess - seems pretty idiotic to me

Be careful about killing him if you have not asked him to identify the Strange Amulet yet. I did that and now I am stuck with that thing in my inventory in its "unidentified" state.

This is what it seems like to me. I guess I must have hit the timing on all of it's parts just right, becasue it worked just like it was supposed to for me