Dead Drop Order

[primaltickler]

Hiya Folks,

 

I recently returned to playing Oblivion, and after a week of tweaking and modding to my satisfaction I decided to stop messing around and play a run through. I hadn't played in a few years, and although I remember bits and pieces, time + mods has made it an entirely new experience.

 

So here is my problem - While wandering around the Imperial City countryside at lowly level 1 (OOO mod), I happened across a chest under a bridge. The chest contained 500 gold (!!) and instructions to kill someone. I thought, "Cool, I don't remember this! I must have found something meant for some assassin... well, I'll just do it and steal all his jobs!" Several days later I come to the end of that mission chain and discover I was supposed to do a ton of stuff before that gold and note were under the bridge.

 

Currently, I am on my second quest for Ocheeva (still a few away from even beginning the dead drop mission chain).

 

Out of curiosity I completed the dead drop missions through the black hand missions. After defeating the betrayer I am accused by the night mother of killing a brother and am sentenced to the challenge the next time I sleep. I am also locked in the crypt. the exit says it is magically barred and I need a key. There are no keys, and there is no place to sleep to meet my challenge. I tried using setstage commands, and the best result was I became the listener, but was still guilty and locked in the crypt. Stuck.

 

So, after that, I went back to a previous save before I completed dead drop 7. I plan on trying to do the missions in order and see if that gets me better results at the end. The problem I have is the prospect of A) I do all the missions and the same thing happens, or B) After completing dead drop 3 I am stuck because dead drop 4 is already done.

 

So, my choices are to go back to a save prior to opening that damn chest under the bridge (really don't want to do that), or putting in even more time and effort only to have to go back to a save previous to opening that damn chest under the bridge (really, really don't want to do that!).

 

Advice? Thoughts? Questions? Can anyone suggest any console commands that might get me through this by going forward from my pre dead drop 7 save? Also, has anyone had this problem? After an hour of google searches and forum scanning I see no mention of it. What would cause such a thing?

 

Thank you for any input, and yes, I know this is mess! Sorry if it is unclear, I was trying to explain a complicated problem briefly.

[Hickory]

I think it's console commands that have brought you to this. That chest should never have been there in the first place, neither would it have been if the quest variables had not got screwed up, and ended up enabling the chest (which is disabled until the prerequisite time).

 

Go back to choice 2, it's the only way of ensuring things don't get even more screwy down the road.

[primaltickler]

Thank you for replying, but console commands had zero chance of causing this. I had not used a single console command other than tdt prior to being in the Crypt of the Night Mother (loooong after finding dead drop 4 activated). So far as mods go, I have the uop, usip, ooo, qtp3, natural landscapes, Vilja, unique landscapes, deadly reflex, goddess store and a handful of races and requisite patches - none of which I can find any evidence of causing this. Oh well, I'm probably screwed out of many hours of game time. It's going to drive me crazy wondering what caused that chest to be there, but sometimes, well, you just have to accept not knowing and deal with it.

 

 

- added 3/2/2013 just in case someone comes across this with the same problem. After playing through the DB questline, I discovered when given dead drop 3, it registered as completed immediately (I have no idea why, but it does explain why dead drop 4 was activated prematurely). I found J'Ghasta, killed him, and it still gave me the normal message for completing the mission. I was then able to complete the questline correctly despite having done 4 - 6 first. After J'Ghasta, I skipped right to the orders in dead drop 7.

 

The reason I was stuck in the crypt was because I hadn't reached the point in the normal questline when LaChance informs me that I am no longer held by the 5 tenets - that's not just rhetoric, it actually changes how the game reacts to breaking them.

 

Lastly - while completing the questline correctly, I ran into another glitch I have seen mentioned in forums. The traitor (can't think of his name), did not enter the crypt and I was stuck. I went back to a save prior to entering Applewood farm and that seemed to fix it. The second time, the traitor entered the crypt, but once in he was frozen (humorously falling over stiff while shouting threats to everyone). Again, reloaded pre-Applewood save and played through. The third time everything worked out fine.

Edited March 2, 2013 by primaltickler