Book "The Madness of Pelagius" is found in boss chest, its instantly marked as "quest item" but I have no clue for what quest, any hel

[Deleted31005User]

As title says, I found this book called "The Madness of Pelagius" in the boss chest in Geirmund's Hall, I have no idea why its there since I have no quest for it at all, the book is also marked as a quest item so I am afraid to just delete it from my inventory.

However, after googling endlessly about this book I found absolutely nothing about this book being a quest item.

I also checked the CK and TES5EDIT, nothing there that would indicate why this book would be in that chest, I looked in the CK in what loot the chest might give and the book simply isnt in the loot list.

 

I checked TES5EDIT with all my mods loaded on references:

-TreasDraugrChestBoss (the boss chest)

-Book3ValuableMadnessofPelagius (the book itself)

I found nothing on any of my mods that changes anything on these things.

 

Then I also checked in the CK on the quest: "dunGauldursonQST" since that was the boss in there, so I was thinking maybe the quest would spawn this book in the chest, just like Meridia's beacon can also spawn in any chest once you reach a certain level.

However, in this quest nothing pointed to this book either.

 

So needless to say, I'm at a complete loss now, especially since this book is only found in 2 locations in the normal game and when I go to these locations to pick up the exact same book then all of a sudden its not marked as a quest item, so then I have 2 of the exact same books (with same ID's as well), yet one is marked as quest item and the other is not.

I also used console to type "help madness" to see the ID of the book, there is only one ID of this book, so no other mod made a duplicate of this book, for good measures I even typed "player.additem 0001ACF0 1" to give me another copy of this book and this copy isn't a quest item, yet the other book is a quest item, if I then type "player.removeitem 0001ACF0 2" it removed both books from inventory, I did all this to make sure they are both the same book with same ID, and they are.

I also tested it with a save game from before I loot the boss chest, I went to Whiterun Dragonreach and picked up the exact same book from the interior there and its not marked as a quest item then.

 

So in essence, I can take this book from the normal game, or I can spawn it with console command and it wont be marked as quest item, yet this boss chest spawns the same book but when I loot it from there its marked as a quest item and stuck in my inventory with no quest in my log pointing to anything about it.

 

The only explanation I have left is some unknown quest spawns this book in that boss chest and marks it as a quest item, however I don't know which quest and I don't know of any way to search for it, all my methods to search for stuff in the CK or by means of TES5EDIT don't allow me to check all properties of scripts in all quests to see which specific quest might spawn this specific book, so now I'm stuck and don't know how to continue, I want to delete this book from my inventory but I'm afraid I'll break a quest, though I have no clue which quest this is even for.

 

 

If someone could explain some more about this book and why it appears in a random boss chest and why its marked as a quest item I'd appreciate it, google didn't help and my own searching didn't help either.

 

EDIT: culprit found, mod called "The Notice Board", it has a quest to collect books, even though the books spawn without actually taking that quest it seems, so I really shouldnt delete the book then and keep it.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Guest

[anjenthedog]

AFAIK, unless I'm mistaken, it's referring to the Solitude blue palace "pelagius wing" "Mind of Madness" quest. A google query on "Skyrim Pelagius" should provide links that explain it well.

[Deleted31005User]

anjenthedog, I know since most google links refer to that, however that "mind of Madness" quest has nothing to do with this book, I also checked that quest in the CK and nothing in the script references there spawn this book in random chests around Skyrim (like Meridia's Beacon for example), the book also isnt used or needed for "mind of Madness", so I don't understand why this book would then spawn in a random chest and be marked as a quest item, nor do I understand why if I load a previous savegame where I never looted this chest before and go to Whiterun Dragonsreach to pick up the exact same book and then its not marked as a quest item.

If this book really was involved in this "mind of Madness" quest, wouldnt it be set to quest item if I go pick it up in Whiterun then?

Also google says the book can only be found in 2 locations (Whiterun being one of them), and I even checked websites with all possible quest items and the book is not in those lists either.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Guest

[Deleted31005User]

If I look in the Meridia quest (DA09) in the CK it clearly says it spawns "DA09Gem" in containers, I see it in the properties there. So based on this I can look at the Mind of Madness quest in the same manner to see if it spawns the book in random containers as well...

If I then look at the Mind of Madness quest (DA15) it doesnt spawn in the book like this, its spawns 3 items (a hip bone, wabbajack, a key), but no book at all.

 

So my search continues, perhaps its another unknown quest? I'll check all my mods in TES5EDIT next and see what quests they might add and then check all script properties one by one in the CK, who knows I can find a clue like that, but I'm really touching in the dark at this point.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Guest

[anjenthedog]

Idk... It might be some older incarnation of the questbook for mind of madness accidentally provided by Cutting Room Floor, maybe?

[Deleted31005User]

I found the culprit, a mod called "The Notice Board" which has a quest that needs you to collect some rare books, I didnt realize these books would spawn even before taking the quest from the board, but apparently they do.

Now I just hope I can actually finish the quest and it won't get bugged, I'll also see there are updates for this mod so once I finish this book quest I'll update the mod as well.

 

Thank you for the help ajjenthedog, you allowed me to keep thinking and look towards other mods.