Black Door bugged - Cannot open

[epicchase]

I am on the way to join the Dark Brotherhood and the door doesn't offer the correct answer and an option, preventing me from entering. Is there a console command I can use to complete the riddle? Reloading old save doesn't work, restarting game doesn't work, it's in the save somehow.

 

Any solutions?

[GazzTempest]

I am on the way to join the Dark Brotherhood and the door doesn't offer the correct answer and an option, preventing me from entering. Is there a console command I can use to complete the riddle? Reloading old save doesn't work, restarting game doesn't work, it's in the save somehow.

 

Any solutions?

 

Have you tried clicking the door in the console and typing unlock?

[epicchase]

 

I am on the way to join the Dark Brotherhood and the door doesn't offer the correct answer and an option, preventing me from entering. Is there a console command I can use to complete the riddle? Reloading old save doesn't work, restarting game doesn't work, it's in the save somehow.

 

Any solutions?

 

Have you tried clicking the door in the console and typing unlock?

 

 

No dice. The door isn't "locked" it requires activating first.

[M107A1]

You have to be contacted by the dark brotherhood (spoiler by helping that one kid in windhelm i think and sleeping after you finish the quest)

[Valkasha]

You don't just walk up to the dark brotherhood to join them. They contact you or you don't join them. Try helping aventus arentino and then sleep on the horrible things you did.

[epicchase]

This isn't my first rodeo. I've done the quest line up to the correct point to join the Brotherhood, killed the prisoners, got the secret word from Astrid, and the door doesn't provide the option for "SIlence, my brother". I read that this is a rare bug and that reloading sometimes fixes it but I am unable to do this.

 

 

[mayhemking]

I am also looking for an answer. I've had this issue for the last month or so and I'm particularly attached to this character and play through. I've tried the various console commands listed on UESP for the quest With Friends Like These. They haven't worked so far. I looked up the Form ID for the scene that's supposed to start when I enter and I could COC if it comes down to it. Even better though, would be better if I could use console commands to target the door so that it will give me the correct password as an option. So far, I haven't been able to figure out the right way to do that.

 

So, if someone knows the correct ID and console command to advance The Black Door to the correct point in the quest, that would be appreciated. I've Googled this issue quite a bit and other people have had the same problem, but I haven't seen an answer that addresses this with specificity. The answers I've read either reference using the correct Black Door or starting the quest. However, that's not really the problem. My character is at the right door. My character is at the point in the quest where the correct answer should be an option when trying to enter the DB Sanctuary.

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[ACAkutare]

You're at the sanctuary down south, correct? Because if you go north to the dawnstar sanctuary, you can't enter. What is the question the door asks you? If it doesn't ask you "What is the music of life?", you're at the wrong Sanctuary.

[mayhemking]

You're at the sanctuary down south, correct? Because if you go north to the dawnstar sanctuary, you can't enter. What is the question the door asks you? If it doesn't ask you "What is the music of life?", you're at the wrong Sanctuary.

There is a bug where the correct door at the correct point in the quest does not give the correct answer as an option. The solution would be if there is a console command specific to the door. It would be hard to go to the wrong door. There's a quest marker for it and it's tied to a journal entry. Worse case scenario ~ COC DarkBrotherhoodSanctuary follower by ~ startscene 0006E26D. (DBFirstArriveScene). A preferred way to do it is if there is an on target command to kick start the correct door script.

Edit 1: That completely did *not* work. After tinkering with the DB quest line in my current save game for the last month or two, I'm ready to throw in the towel. This is only the second time that I couldn't fix something-gone-wrong in Skyrim. Since this will show up in Google and surely, someone else will have the same issue, my next step will be to abandon the With Friends Like These quest line and switch over to the Destroy The Dark Brotherhood quest. It's a less than ideal solution, but gaining entrance to the DB Sanctuary is necessary for two reasons (an un-DB related quest item and an un-DB related power). So to reset the DB quest line, I'll open the console, type stopquest darkbrotherhood, go back to the shack, set Astrid to non-essential (console setessential 0001bdb4 0 ), and then kill Astrid. This will start the quest Destroy The Dark Brotherhood, and I should be able to proceed through the game as normal, albeit not via the route I had initially intended. I haven't tested this yet, but it should work. Kinda a kludge, but it is what it is.

Edit 2: I just tested the above. By making Astrid non-essential and killing her, I was able to start the quest Destroy The Dark Brotherhood and after getting the correct passcode again, when I tried to enter through the Black Door, I was given the correct dialog option to select and was able to gain entry to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. At this point, for fun, and because I was just fast travelling to test, I wanted to see if I could get back on course on With Friends Like These using console commands. So I entered the DB Sanctuary and exited. I now have access. COC as described above, would not give me access through the Dark Door. (So that was no solution.) After I gained entrance, I used the console command player.addtofaction 1bdb3 1 so the Dark Brotherhood would not be hostile and attack me. I then entered prid 1bde8 to target Astrid and next typed resurrect to bring her back to life. Finally, I used the console command setstage db02a 10 to start the next Dark Brotherhood quest, Sanctuary. The game assumes that I had spoken with Astrid during With Friends Like These and in a normal game, would start immediately after gaining entrance to the DB Sanctuary and speaking with Astrid. I was then able to speak to Nazir and pick up contracts.

It was at this point that I turned off fast travel in Frost Fall, closed Skyrim, and deleted my testing autosaves. The only part missing is that Astrid is still in the abandoned shack. In theory, I should be able to use prid 0001bde8 and then moveto player, to place Astrid in the DB Sanctuary. So, when I'm ready to attempt the DB quest line again in this save game, this gives me two options. Either the Destroy The Dark Brotherhood quest line or continue the regular Dark Brotherhood quest line.

Ideally, I would have been able to just activate the Black Door with console commands, but I was unable to figure out a way to do so. The second best way, would have been for me to restart With Friends Like These from the very beginning, but unfortunately, this was not possible as the game saves the quest to the game save. Resetting the quest simply removed With Friends Like These from my journal.

I don't know if this issue was because of a bug or a mod, or a combination or installing and uninstalling mods, but the Black Door was not offering the correct dialog option when trying to enter the DB Sanctuary. Hopefully, the next person who stumbles across this issue will now be able to find this solution via Google and it will save them time and frustration.

Edit 3: In retrospect, using the console to fix the broken alias for the Black Door would probably be much easier. I can't test it, but I'm guessing that ssq db02 followed by ForceRefIntoAlias BlackDoorAlias would probably work. Unfortunately, I no longer have this older save file to test.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Mayhem King

[LUSITANER]

ssq db02 followed by forcerefintoalias blackdooralias achieves nothing. Still bugged