Spectral Assassin Companion bug.

[Nalixor]

So, during a dragon fight in Solitude I decided to summon my Spectral Assassin from The Dark Brotherhood (It's a summon which stays around until defeated). It gives you a buff with 23,000+ hours on it. However, my Spectral Assassin disappeared somewhere. He's nowhere in Solitude, or anywhere else. Because of this, and because he has no "home" to go to, I can't get any other followers at all, they all say 'It looks like you've already got someone with you.'

I found a way to dispel the 23,000+ hour buff (I tried advancing the timescale to like 20,000 - but that didn't work, the buff seems to be in real life hours) using "player.dispel <buff code>" but while that got rid of the buff, it didn't get rid of the follower I guess, since every companion still says 'It looks like you have someone with you'.

 

Things I've tried:

Dispelling the Buff (didn't work).

Summoning another Spectral Assassin and killing that one (didn't work).

Using player.placeatme <spectral assassin code> and killing it (didn't work).

Finding the damn summon (can't find him anywhere).

Fast travelling / resting repeatedly in case he somehow found his way back to me (nope).

 

Does anyone know of any console hackery that can make him go away while he's not present? Or some way of placing MY version of him at me (not just spawning another one)? Or some way of listing all NPCs in the area, or the game, with their codes so maybe I can place him that way?

 

This is frustrating me. I need companions to for various purposes (Boethia's Shrine, for one) and I can't get any to follow me. :/

[Person678]

I'm suffering the same problem. No idea what to do. Getting really frustrating, I want to take Lydia out again with me!

[marharth]

The assassin shouldn't count as a follower though.

 

I use a follower with him all the time.

[Harryoe]

console:

set playerfollowercount to 0