I'm not sure if this would go in the general discussion section, but I figured it'd be safer in this section of the forum. I've run into what I believe is a slight glitch, which isn't terribly handicapping... but I'm wondering if others have had it and solved it. Didn't see anything by searching for it on google or this forum board.

So, basically, I have a character who I decided to -not- do any guild or main story lines. I'm level 40 and I've never joined any guilds, and I haven't even been to Bleak Falls Burrow. Finally though, I felt like I wanted some sneaking armor and felt I'd do the Dark Brotherhood quest line (given, I've done all the quest lines on another character).

So, I just started and was about to kill the woman in Dawnstar... when I realized the guards are hostile to me. However, looking into my crimes tab reveals no bounty (and even so, my lifetime bounty is a mere 262 gold or so). Sheathing my weapon does not make them open the dialogue to pay a fine or go to jail, and even though they attack first it's considered murder when I kill them. Not really sure what triggered it, and I never really go to Dawnstar or the Pale anyway. The last time I was there was probably to do the daedric quest, but they were fine while I was there and when I returned.

Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions? I tried reloading, entering a building ro reload the cache, and slaying the guards and coming back to just pay off the fine... nothing works. I'm powerful enough to just kill them, no problem, but it's a shame it's happened. And the patch that was just downloaded didn't fix it (would have been lucky indeed if it had).

My friend said he had a similar experience for Markarth, though he said that he had a payable bounty... but after paying it'd just show up again.

If u kill a person in the open, even though nobody sees it, guards and npcs sometimes become hostile due to the fact you kill the person in the open, and that person may cry out or yell etc. This happens all the time. Your best bet is to kill that woman in her house.
If you dont get what i mean, go to whiterun, hide behind a house, make sure no1 sees you. Then sneak attack using a bow onto a random npc and make sure it OHKO them. I guarentee you Guards will become hostile because,

even though you are not spotted when u assassinate, having a normal NPC suddenly drop dead = someone killed him/her, which results in hostile npcs. Quite a clever idea btw.


in markarth tat was a bug though.

Yes, I'm aware that can happen, but it isn't very applicable to my situation. I am literally fast travelling to Dawnstar from Ivarstead, and I've tried sleeping and going into buildings to pass time before my arrival. It seems as if the guards, albeit across the province, are hostile anyway. I haven't even touched the woman yet in Dawnstar, because the guards are permanently hostile upon arrival.