Well after the death of Lydia, i went to the Tavern in Solitude and hired the nearest Mercenary, a white haired jovial sounding fellow I didn`t even bother to get the name of.

I won`t give away any spoilers, but I had to do a job for a diety. I took the merc as backup. We entered a dungeon and after fighting many spirits and hearing my Mercs respectful words for the dead, "Let`s leave a coin or two for dead, eh?" I thought he was an ok chap. I gave him a proper weapon and some armour to increase his survival.

There was a humongous battle with the head honcho (who had some kind of super-freeze spell). At the start of this battle I`d told the Follower to hold back and `Wait.`

After the battle I was whisked away by the Diety and told `Thankyou`.

But my grey-haired Follower was left behind, he did not Follower because he was told to wait. After I returned I went back to the catacombs to find him, but when I got to the final door, it was locked and cannot be picked. I was forced to leave.

Guess he`s now intombed down there forever.

Oh well, on to my 3rd Follower, whoever that will be...

Try waiting for a while. If he is still considered your companion, he should eventually "grow tired of waiting and leave your service." That should un-stick him.

Your companion will find his way home. If you order him/her wait and leave, after some time you get a message, that your companion is tired of waiting and is heading back home.

"Where did you go? Why did you leave me alone in there?"

"Sorry, I was whisked away by some sort of god-like entity."

"THAT'S your excuse?"

Wait for 3 days then he would either appear by you or be at the same place when you first hire him.

Hmm. ok. I`ll wait... maybe he somehow escapes.

Cheers, chaps.

That's weird, because if it's the quest I think it is, I did it for the first time last night and after trekking the length of the land tying up loose ends, I somehow had the feeling that I should tell Vigilance to wait outside (next to the campfire, it was some sort of snow that night). Like that feeling you get when you know there's a Nirnroot near before you can hear it.

I did it for the 3rd time last night, and finally remembered to release my follower before the end. She met me back in Whiterun.

BGS should include followers in the teleport, but I think you experienced a glitch if the door was locked when you went back. I've reclaimed followers twice, by just running back through the dungeon.

This doesn't work on "special" doors IIRC, but you could try opening the console, clicking on the door, and typing unlock.

I too had this happen. Cursed Meridia.

Eventually they just get tired of waiting and will return to their home/starting location.

This happened to me too with Faendal.