The quest "To Kill an Empire" won't start for me. I've finished "Recipe for disaster", reported to Festus Krex and completed all of Nazir's side contracts. But now I can't get any more journal updates and Astrid's dialogue only shows the "tell me about yourself" option. No way to continue the Dark Brotherhood questline. Also, Setstage DB09 5 does nothing for me...

No help? Really? -.-

Oh, COME ON!!! Seriously? Lot's of people reported this bug, yet nobody can give me a straight answer?

I got the same problem AND IT DROVE ME INTO ALMOST MAD PERSON.

I tried everything, I mean EVERYTHING.

I found the solution by installing Skyrim in another directory (buggy skryim left in C:, installed new one in D: and doing various tests to the skyrim in D:, andi think its a problem related with Wars in Skyrim mod...

And what I found is, once u have played quite a bit with WIS mod on, there is no fixing...

i started a new game (clean, no mod, no patch) did a very fast game play to dark brotherhood and the mission worked (without Wars in Skyrim) I made a save file prior to finish Recipe for Disaster and loaded Wars in skyrim and it didnt work, and after disabling that mod and reloading made the quest start. Once WIS is turned off, 1.4 patch seems fine, so official updates are not causing the problem.

It is obvious Wars in Skyrim has something to do with this quest bug.

Shouldnt have installed gameplay change mods.. they make game too unstable

JUST A REMINDER, IF U HAVE PROCEED THE GAME WITH WIS MOD UNTILL CERTAIN POINT, THERES NO WAY

Either of you using a custom race?

I'm having the same problem as Eyestabber. Is there a workaround or not?