Skyrim talk:No One Escapes Cidhna Mine

Archives {{Template:FULLPAGENAME0/Line|1=Archive 1|2=|3=Nov 2011 - Feb 2012 }}

Bug ridden quest

• If you complete the investigation without reporting to Eltrys, he ends up dead in the Talos Temple and none tries to arrest you, with the quest marker hovering around his body. To advance, you need to "setstage MS01 100". It sets the next quest and teleports you in jail.
• But by using setstage, once in jail, the female orc doesn't talk to you and you can't get out of the cage, even though you have the key. It tells you to talk to a prisoner, but you're stuck. I ended up using "tcl" to go through the gate and the quest proceeded normally.

— Unsigned comment by 82.230.193.212 (talk) at 13:57 on 27 November 2011

I had something like this as well -- in jail, I could do things, but no one would talk to me or even approach the bars (and I didn't have any keys either, only a lockpick that didn't work). But since I'm a fairly high level magic user with Mage Armor and a pretty complete kit of Destruction magic, I started to lay fire runes on the floor outside the cell and fire Firebolt and Lightning Bolt spells at the orc and the two guards (you can't get the spells through the door but they will go through the grate at its left hand side). After a good dose of that and some Dragon Shouts, all the guards outside were dead, at which point the door behind me opened and I could access the prisoner I was supposed to talk to. He told me to get past Madanach by dealing with his orc -- I persuaded him -- and then went in and killed Madenach with Firebolt spells. This brought his pet orc and two or three others running in to kill me, resulting in a very tough fight that I would not have survived if I hadn't begun it with a Fire Rune in the passageway that set them alight before they got to me. Everyone's dead now and I can hardly wait to see what this nest of bugs has in store for me next..... --174.6.51.17 08:37, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Thonar attacks after I exit the ruins

(Sorry, I deleted the earlier parts of my bug complaint because I hadn't realized it was already written in the main article. This is regarding Thonar's hostility upon exiting the ruins on your own.) An alternate and (imo) easier solution to get your items back and stop him from attacking is by casting Calm on Thonar; the dialog then triggers and he gives your items back and acts as if he wasn't trying to murder you just seconds before. Will try to verify if this has long-term effects. Momatoes 13:16, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Worked for me (though I'd used up my magika battling the Dwarven Spheres and so had to run around and around a pillar till it recharged, with him after me trying to cut me down). It is ridiculous though, the most utterly glitched pair of quests I've run into yet in this game. --174.6.51.17 08:59, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Had you done (or just tried to trigger) Blood on the Ice at that point? I was lucky enough not to encounter any bugs on my first try of these two quests, save that when my shiv accidentally hit one of my fellow prisoners once while fighting the last Dwarven sphere the all went ballistic and decided to kill me, and for unarmored enemies they had a lot of health, and I hadn't touched the Illusion skill tree since you have to be a miser with perk points when not playing on pc (when will they fix that and quit their lies about no classes and make it reality?). So pacify didn't do a thing for most of them, and I had to reload the ruins part. I also waited before leaving the ruins to spare the entire city from massacre. Apparently only the guards and Muiri (who didn't interfere fortunately) are out at 2 am, so I sat back and watched the slaughter after looting Thonar.--Playerseekingbugs 07:17, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

More Xbox Bug >_<

I'be talked to people in the shrine. Had gotten attacked. Gone to jail. Escaped and got bounty cleared plus I was in the middle of a quest for the dark brotherhood. It was about talking to a guy in markarth and then killing him on" loose ends" (killing emperor quest and findin the gormet and stuff) so my bounty is cleared. Out of jail, have all my stuff, forsworn are fighting guards I go to talk to the guy and kill him. So I kill him and get 1000 bounty now. Need to go back to markarth to speak with a contact for The Dark Brotherhood forever mission. But get stopped by guards with only two options go to jail or fight. I can't go to jail because I can't escape because everyone is gone? What the hell do I do? HELP!!!!! — Unsigned comment by 108.20.167.158 (talk) at 01:20 on 7 March 2012

I was having this problem as well, and now I don't. The only thing I've done differently is download patch 1.5. I don't remember it specifically saying it solved that problem, though... Anyone have any thoughts? Obax 22:38, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

This quest has been updated a lot, this question is probably now too old to be answered accurately. And Obax's comment of going to the 1.5 patch possibly fixing this probably was the cause of the fix. --Morrolan (talk) 11:14, 10 April 2013 (GMT)

The three murderous guards in Talos's Shrine remain, awaiting their judgement!!

So, I went to the prison like a good kid, persuaded the orc guard and even forced myself into listening to the King in Rags (Madanach), but when it got to where I had to kill someone for him then that was my limit. Made short work of him and managed to get out through the tunnel facing a dwarven guardian and a guardian master with my bare hands, and finally Thonar appears and thanks me right after exiting into the city.

I'm not 100% sure if this is a bug, because other and more than I was not quite pleased with silver-bloods playing me into this and then simply thanking me for killing Madanach for them, I was entirely pissed off at seeing guards having murdered Eltrys for petty money and being all ok about it. So I went back to the shrine after finishing the quest and all, only to see they are still there with exact same dialogue,.. as you can imagine I killed them GLADLY, and paid 1k bounty (thieves guild kind) to the next guard rushing in. But generally I don't think that was ordinary, however I couldn't be happier about it :X

P.S: I think my self-justified rightous little experience might be useful for all you guys above that have same problem with the "reappearing dialogue". Just choose NOT to go to jail, when they attack you either kill one and submit or just simply submit by sheathing and un-sheating your weapon/magic and pay the fine. What I explained above definitely helped me out of that glitch and I didn't even know it was a glitch :). Now all the cute guards are back to "what do you need" and "go cast your fancy magic someplace else" verbal-abusing lines..makes them more lovely :D — Unsigned comment by 91.99.53.190 (talk) on 10 March 2012

I'm not sure what your point is, but this looks like something more suited to the forums. --Xyzzy ^Talk 06:20, 14 June 2013 (GMT)

Cannot complete quests/interact with inventory

This has been marked as a question that needs to be answered.

Once I entered the mine I was unable to obtain inventory from NPCs. To complete the quest I had to pickpocket the orc for the key to talk to Madanach. Ever since I have been trying to complete other quests and noticed that I was unable to interact with anything quest related(cant pick crimson nirnroot, cant activate Lexicon receptacles, etc). I do not have a save far enough back to just avoid the quest all together, so I am cursed with not being able to complete any more quests on my level 46 character. I was just hoping someone knew a fix for this on xbox 360. Pleaseeee — Unsigned comment by Shana (talk • contribs) on 2 April 2012

I noticed something...

When i first played skyrim and tried this quest ( i think after either patch 1.2 or 1.3); this quest wouldn't work as thonar attacked me when i left the mine after whacking Madanach.

I restarted recently and i'm not sure which patch did it; but i finally completed no on escapes cidhna mine today (whoot!)

does anyone know when it got fixed and if any other bugged quests have been fixed, in know blood on the ice was fixed with i think 1.5 or 1.6; not sure. — Unsigned comment by TiberiusMaximus (talk • contribs) at 23:40 on 9 September 2012

Angry goards...

can i please get help... the goards starts attacking me when i enter the shrine of talos the when entry is dead.. please help, i have tried anything... THE MS02 will not start.... — Unsigned comment by 83.108.125.3 (talk) at 16:02 on 1 November 2012 (GMT)

Quest freezes at start on Xbox

The game freezes in the Shrine of Talos after turning in "The Forsworn Conspiracy" when the guard says "no one escapes from Cidhna Mine". This should be when the the quest starts and you are taken to Cidhna Mine, but instead the game freezes with the BGM still playing. Waited five minutes and this did not change. Saying "you'll never take me alive" to the guards and attempting to yield does not work, as they will not accept your yield. Anyone else experienced this and any possible fixes? 24.186.30.227 02:45, 11 November 2012 (GMT)

How to ALMOST escape from Cidhna Mine through the FRONT door

Playing on Xbox 360, so no console commands available. And my character is quite the accomplished conjurer, already level 100 which means being able to have two summoned up and going at the same time.

First, just kill Madanach and get his key. That's actually pretty easy. Did I mention being able to have TWO summoned up and going at the same time? Anyway, then go around and kill everyone else in the prison as well. They're already scripted to die anyway if you're escaping on your own, and you don't need the distraction.

Up at the locked gates, arrows can slip in to hit you from the guards outside. And your spells (as well as arrows from the bound bow spell) can also slip OUT - which means summoned creatures can show up OUTSIDE the prison door. Amazing what fun two daedric lords can have out there. More importantly, at some point in the fun and excitement, Urzoga ended up in the little cage formed by the front door (which is open) and the mine door (which is closed). And then died there when my summoned daedra finally managed to kill her. (Note that I had to summon them more than one cycle - she's one tough orc - and the rest of the guards are no slouches, either.)

But then the doors switched - the front door closed and the mine door opened. Which meant that I was suddenly able to loot her corpse, as well as the corpse of one of the guards that my summoned daedra had also killed. It's a WHOLE lot more comforting going through the back door of the mine with steel armor, shield, mace, bow, and arrows...

I think there has to be a switch or something that throws is my guess, and it was triggered by her death. Agmen (talk) 01:24, 27 November 2012 (GMT) Agmen EDIT: There are two pull chains behind the opening to your right as you first go to enter Cidhna mine. The player is not (so far as I've been able to test) able to activate either of these chains. Either way, killing the guards close enough to the mine entrance so that you can loot them makes life easier.Agmen (talk) 16:09, 27 November 2012 (GMT)

Suggestions for a very bugged quest

First, before entering the temple of Talos for the first time to speak to Eltrys, make a save game. Second, at the least give the walk through a full read through including all notes and bugs. What you need to do is familiarize yourself with the bugs of which there are maybe 20, some of which may not even be mentioned in the bugs section. Third, follow the quest as outlined in The Forsworn Conspiracy. Pay attention to any unusual events. If any are noted, reload the starting save. Fourth. Make a save after each segment of the quest has been achieved without bugs. Revert to these new saves if bugs are noted. Fifth. Even when reverting to step by step saves, don't be surprised if the quest goes fut. 4 or 5 saves and a little patience should get you through. Sixth. After the completion of both quests, assess your character, take a walk through Markarth and chat with various people and visit a forsworn camp or two. It is even a good idea to have a chat with random Imperial soldiers and Stormcloaks. Look for unusual conditions with your character like inaccessible inventory or stuck quest items that have no business being stuck or even in your inventory at all. Check and see that all forsworn, guards and townspeople act appropriately.

The reason for the above is the quest is not only full of bugs, these bugs can affect your character and further game play, possibly cropping up several dozen quests down the road. Sniffles (talk) 10:20, 14 December 2012 (GMT)

PS Pay special attention to Thonar. He must complete all dialogue in the Forsworn Conspiracy correctly. If he doesn't, even if things seem to be going right, there may be some weird bugs, sometimes inexplicable, that can crop up later. Examples being the Thalmor in Understone Keep attack you on sight, guards have no dialogue, and people are missing from Silverblood Inn. Sniffles (talk) 10:32, 14 December 2012 (GMT)

All Quest Items in Skyrim

• This quest may cause other quest items in future quests to not appear in dead bodies, chests, or your inventory!
  • To fix this, all you have to so is:
  • 1) open up your counsel (`)
  • 2) put in the command: setstage MS02 250
  • 3) Hit ENTER to Execute the command
  • 4) EXIT out of your counsel (`)
  • 5) Replace current world state with all your previous saves (keep one save as a 'fail safe')
  • 6) EXIT the game
  • 7) Reopen the game
  • 8) DONE! All quest items will now be restored to the chests, dead bodies, travelers, inventory, ECT.

— Unsigned comment by 71.180.199.22 (talk) at 03:10 on 8 January 2013‎

I highly doubt that this quest can break everything so bad you basically need to restart your game. Stage 5 is very hard to understand, how exactly do you replace the world? This definitely needs more verification before it can be readded. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 03:17, 8 January 2013 (GMT)

Hostile Prisoners

The article mentions everyone but Grisvar will attack you after having attacked Madanach. However, last time I played it, all but the Orc attacked me, as if a random prisoner will not be hostile towards you ~ Dwarfmp (talk) 06:30, 8 January 2013 (GMT)

Forsworn temporarily stuck in combat mode

When I helped them escape on my current character, I waited before following them all out of the tunnel to confront Thonar. When I walked out to begin the fight while all useful NPC's were safely in bed, I discovered that a vampire and two death hounds were also involved in the chaos. When all guards in the area and the vampire and his hounds were dead, I noticed that all Forsworn save Madanach (I didn't find a body, so I think he must have ran out while I wasn't looking) were standing relatively near and facing the gate. They still had their weapons out and were shouting taunts as if they were in combat. Waiting for an hour fixed this after a moment, as they all put their weapons away and ran out.--Playerseekingbugs (talk) 05:58, 28 January 2013 (GMT)

If it's temp, it's not really a problem.

Chances are one of the guards has made it off the map and the Forsworn are seeking him out. Eventually they give up and leave. I had a similar happening when Thonar managed to run away with the Forswarn in hot pursuit. They stopped near the gate calling out. I just exited the city and they followed shortly after. I went back later and Thonar had survived and reverted back to pre-quest dialogue.

FWIW, AFAIK there is no requirement to follow the Forsworn out of the city, or even join in the fight. If you help the Forsworn, once you leave the ruins the quest is over. I stood by and watched most of the fight. I assume if you kill Madanach the quest ends when you get your reward from Thonar. 106.68.9.64 05:17, 30 June 2014 (GMT)

A bug with the dead nord in the water

The Forsworn brought him back to life. Not a zombie, alive. If I go into Markarth he is standing near the smelter, a man labeled "Nord." All he says is "Need something?" but he shouldn't be saying anything. They didn't just reanimate him, they cured his death. After looting Thonar I went back into the ruins, transformed into a werewolf and ran through Markarth looking for corpses of guards. This did turn the forsworn hostile but I got out of Markarth and left the hold. Did a few quests, I wanted to make sure the forsworn wouldn't still be there when I returned, I left the mines late at night to try to make sure the only casualties would be guards but those guys can still be there when you come back after quite a while. The forsworn were gone but the nord was standing there alive. Has this happened for anyone else? — Unsigned comment by Festuskreux (talk • contribs) at 22:05 on 11 February 2013‎

ps3 freezes when thonar speaks to me once i have escaped.

as soon as i exit the mine through the secret passage way thing, Thonar begins to attack me. i hurt him enough to force him to stand down on one knee, then i ran away. whenever i go back to markarth, however, he proceeds to speak to me and congratulates me for killing the guy in the prison (sorry, did this quest a while back) and gives me all my stuff back even though i already have it all (almost as if it duplicates it). my ps3 then decides that it wants to freeze, but instead it slows down to be very 'laggy' - i reckon it goes at about 0.5fps at this point, yet the music and background noise remains constant?

any help would be appreciated. — Unsigned comment by 89.241.227.196 (talk) at 19:40 on 13 April 2013 (GMT)

Contradictory Notes

• If you don't kill Madanach, you can follow him and his men after escaping Markarth. They will lead you to Druadach Redoubt, a Forsworn encampment and cave that is now friendly.

• Even if you side with Madanach, the other Forsworn outside Druadach Redoubt will remain hostile.

These 2 notes from the article seem to be contradictory. My experience was that the Forsworn at the Redoubt, both inside and out, became friendly after you helped Madanach. Maybe the editor who added the second note was experiencing a bug? --Xyzzy ^Talk 04:34, 24 May 2013 (GMT)

The phrasing of the original commentary seems to be what's causing your confusion. While the Forsworn at the Druadach Redoubt location are friendly regardless of whether or not they're indoors or outdoors, any Forsworn you encounter at other locations will be hostile. At least, that's what I've encountered with all my characters. Bruchette (talk) 05:25, 9 June 2013 (GMT)

That makes more sense, and matches my experience. Thanks. --Xyzzy ^Talk 07:09, 9 June 2013 (GMT)

Confused about the Key

So I read in the walkthrough that the key can be looted off of Madanach's dead body, which is the case if you kill him. The character I'm on has really poor unarmed combat skills though, so I was hoping to just pickpocket the key off him and take my leave without helping or fighting him. However, when I went to pickpocket him all that was in his inventory were his clothes, his note and a bottle of skooma. The note says to search the cell near his room but all I could find was a bucket and a tankard. I'm not sure if this is a legitimate bug or a scripting oversight, or even just me missing something obvious. Is there a way to do the quest the way I'm trying to, or does the key not appear in-game unless you either kill Madanach or help him? Bruchette (talk) 06:02, 21 June 2013 (GMT)

The key is scripted to only show up if he dies --ZinnLav (talk) 09:50, 27 July 2013 (GMT)

You can only get the key by killing him. If you help him, then he opens the door for you, you don't get the key. --Morrolan (talk) 21:08, 15 August 2013 (GMT)

Didn't give me back my bow...

I escaped the mine and when I got all my items back one very important item was missing. My bow. Just poof, gone. I can remake it easy enough since I've got plenty of Grand souls for enchanting and plenty of dragonbones to make a new one, but come on, really? Anyone else ever experience losing items to this quest? 98.180.28.50 01:28, 15 September 2013 (GMT)

As a general rule in the ES series, if the quest takes away your gear and you truly value it, store it away just in case. Besides that, I would say try to reload to before you did this quest to make sure he took the bow, but since it wasn't an artifact weapon, it's not the greatest issue. This is a commonly reported issues, particularly for quest items. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 01:55, 15 September 2013 (GMT)

Black Books not returned - moved from article

If carrying Black Books, they are not returned. Is it perhaps true that all non-core items (specific to DLC - Dawnguard, Hearthfire, etc.) aren't transferred correctly? — Unsigned comment by 69.247.195.103 (talk) at 05:30 on 5 October 2013‎

There is an unconfirmed bug in the article about an Elder Scroll not being returned, but you're the first to say that this can happen with Black Books. --Xyzzy ^Talk 05:34, 5 October 2013 (GMT)

There have been several reports of quest items being eaten by this quest and Diplomatic Immunity. It's never happened to me in either quest though so I'm not sure. I tend to suspect the culprit is mods at least some of the time. --Morrolan (talk) 05:58, 5 October 2013 (GMT)

If Black Books/Quest Items are not returned:

I had the bug in which my quest items weren't returned, however I killed Madanach after he gave me my items back, which made Thonor Silver-Blood reward me. He also returned my items and gave me his family ring. When he gave me back my items all missing quest items were returned. So, ideally, in order to fix the bug, kill Madanach right before leaving the Markarth Ruins. — Unsigned comment by 63.155.61.133 (talk) at 20:21 on 18 June 2014

According to the quest page, you should be able to get the quest items back just by going outside of the ruins. --AN|L (talk) 20:43, 18 June 2014 (GMT)

Gold Missing

I had completed the Cidhna Mine quest and saved , then stepped outside to see the Male Thonar or something? He gave me His ring and told me I was pardoned, But when I checked my inventory there was NO gold! I had more than 70,000 and nothing was there.

I reloaded and tried again to the same end.

NO gold.

I've never had this happen on the PC while doing this quest so I'm at a loss as to what to do, or should I just avoid this quest all together? I'm playing it on the ps3 atm, so no console command available.

-SpiritedTreasure — Unsigned comment by 66.142.142.151 (talk) at 20:13 on 7 November 2014 (GMT)

So basically you wish to report a bug? You are free to add any bugs to the bug section of the page. I see you also try to sign with a nick. This is only possible if you have a registered account on the wiki, _and_ if you also follow the instructions give above the edit box about how to sign a contribution. (You only sign on talk pages, of course.) —MortenOSlash (talk) 09:47, 8 November 2014 (GMT)

I've had this happen on PC, with USSEP, supporting Madanach, so I confirmed the bug. But my third retry run through today (because of the quest object bug that I've also reported), now I have more than before the quest started. There's something funky about the script reliability.
DayDreamer (talk) 03:35, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Are they supposed to respawn?

I completed this quest escaping with them fully intending to kill them once I was out. In Druadach I killed them all. I came back later and they were all alive again so I killed them again. Came back later to see if it was repeating or a fluke and they all back. Are they supposed to respawn?--68.62.55.57 04:51, 24 January 2015 (GMT)

By 'them', are you referring to the named characters in the mine, such as Uraccen, Borkul the Beast, and the other miners? GodRaine^Talk 05:13, 24 January 2015 (GMT)

He said he followed them to to Druadach so I'm sure it's just generic foresworn NPCs who respawn at the redoubt, and yes all generic npcs re spawn 71.68.41.99 18:20, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

PS3 They're already died

So I did some crime and got tossed in the mine and I killed everyone before I got the key from the Orc can I still complete this quest? — Unsigned comment by 50.51.36.117 (talk) at 19:45 on 8 February 2015 (GMT)

You should find the key on his body, and I think you can just pick the lock either way. You'd need to kill Madanach, but that's one possible outcome of the quest ~ Dwarfmp (talk) 00:09, 9 February 2015 (GMT)

markarth ruins

Why does it say in notes, that the mine is not accessible after the quest through the ruins? You can walk all the way through the ruins and back into mine after completing the quest. Is this a bug? Anyone want to check? Just curious. 71.68.41.99 04:36, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

Conflict with Thieves Guild special jobs fixed?

On the main page it says this:

• If you are doing one of Delvin's and/or Vex's special jobs, and you trigger this quest before you report back to them, you will be told you have failed the Thieves Guild quest when you return to them, because you were arrested.

However, I'm using the latest version of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch and this did not happen to me. I was able to complete Delvin's fishing job just fine, even though I stole the item prior to letting myself get arrested for this quest. He didn't tell me I'd failed, and I got paid as usual. I checked the changelog for the patch and can't find which version fixed it, since it's not mentioned, so I can't add a note to the page.FrozenWolf150 (talk) 17:16, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

Did a little testing. Jobs outside markarth hold are not affected (ofc). When resisting arrest and killing the 3 guards in the shrine, I failed vex heist job. When surrendering immediately, I could complete the heist job without any problems (pc, using uesp and mods). 85.226.49.75 10:29, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

Re-entering the Mine

There's a note that says:

• The Markarth Ruins remain accessible after this quest; however you cannot sneak back into the mine this way as the way back into Madanach's cell is closed off.

However, I just entered the mine via Markarth Ruins and still had Madanach's key on me so was able to go through the gate just fine and wander around the mine. Is this note incorrect or is my experience a one off? As far as I can tell, you only need to have that specific key to go through the gate, so if you haven't had it taken off you or lost it I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to go back in.

There's also a note saying that all inhabitants are scripted to die if Madanach dies, but only Grisvar and Braig were dead and the others were alive and hostile. Anyone confirm this? AyaHawkeye (talk) 18:51, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Cursed ring from "Well Met by Moonlight" is gone

Xbox360 with all patches, fwiw..

Had the cursed ring, now I don't. Can't wear other rings so I assume it's still active. 131.191.60.228 22:02, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

I've actually tested this exact scenario before, and could not produce this bug. But I would just recommend putting off this quest until you complete Ill Met by Moonlight, then. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 22:24, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Urzoga and Co. attack

The moment I'm teleported to the mine, Urzoga and the "not quite" guards attack me. Earlier the quest was working fine. I have nothing installed since then. MakBash (talk) 15:46, 7 October 2017 (UTC)

'Cannot take any action' bug, solved

Ran into this bug playing on PC, in which you get sent into the mine, but can't do anything. Can't draw your weapons/spells, can't shout, can't interact with anything. Thought it was a mod conflict, but no. Whatever the cause, the trigger seems to be the scripted transition of being sent to prison. I was able to play all the way up to killing the dirty guards at the Shrine of Talos. Instead of going outside and getting caught, I tried using console to end the Forsworn Conspiracy quest. This automatically sent me to jail too, but I now had full control. The only catch is that I also had to turn off clipping and walk through the locked gate, because Urzoga wasn't around to let me inside. Afterwards, I was able to complete this quest as usual. SonGoharotto (talk) 04:45, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

No One Escapes Cidhna Mine granted me the "Wanted" achievement

It is said on Notes here that this quest wouldn't grant us the Wanted achievement, but I just finished the quest and I got it. I do have USSEP though.

Friendly Forsworn Bug

The bug section regarding the non-hostile Forsworn: It has nothing to do with this quest. There is a small bug in how Forsworn are spawned for various random world encounter quests, and they sometimes very rarely spawn non-hostile - and once they do, the world encounter quest that spawns them breaks, and they don't de-spawn when you leave the area and the world encounter quest is supposed to end, my guess being because it doesn't end. I don't know WHICH quest it is - it may be one specific quest, or it may be more than that. However, once it happens, it can happen again. My guess is if the same quest starts again at the same location when you trot by it, a new team of Forsworn is spawned adding to the previous one, standing in the same spot, and the encounter quest breaks again because it never completed the first time, no enemies are generated for them to fight and they're not hostile to the player. I ended up with a group of nine milling about idly in the hills near Rorikstead. They showed blue on "Detect Life", and were more than happy to chat with me (though they didn't have anything to say, just random "hello" responses). So, when Nahagliiv spawned, I baited him over to my little team of smiling Forsworn. The battle was long and crazy, roaming all over the hills near Rorikstead as the Forsworn chased him and peppered him with arrows. Once done, I absorbed it's soul (to the awe of the nearby Forsworn), but only those that had died in the fight de-spawned later, the rest were all still there for the remainder of the play-through. THEN, I did the 'Cidna Mine' quest. Bottom line: The bug has nothing to do with the quest, there's something bugged in one or more of the world encounters for the Forsworn. The bug is otherwise harmless, and given the lore Madanach and the others relate in the prison if you talk to them, well, Forsworn that don't leap to the attack the moment they spot you certainly ARE possible in the Lore, so I consider it more a cute easter-egg than a bug, really. 174.28.39.102 05:15, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

I *think* I finished this quest successfully without killing anyone at the end and a peaceful Markarth

After lengthy study on this quest, and knowing I had to do it to proceed on another quest, I think I may have stumbled on a way to successfully complete without hostilities at the end. I tried all the various options and the one I had the most problems with was killing Madanach close to the door before he leaves, having his followers return through the door and killing all of them. I am able to finish that, loot everything including his note, read it, which advances the quest. However, every time I tried exiting, Thonar was not there. No one was there, no guards, no silver blood ring, no pardon from Jarl, nothing. However, all guards are friendly. The problem though, is the quest would not ever finish. I kept returning to the previous save and trying again. I tried the option of letting Madanach live, exiting with him, and watched as he and his followers killed nearly every guard in Markarth. The timing of this was 12:11am so not many citizens out and about. I found Thonar, dead, looted him and there was no ring, no pardon, again. At this point, I'm not sure if the pardon is an actual inventory item or what. Finally, throwing my hands up in the air (I'm in VR BTW so this is an actual thing), I tried this: I exited with Madanach and every time I do that, Thonar is indeed there with soldiers. The two sides start fighting. But every time, Thonar dies and I don't get what I am supposed to get. This time, just as the two sides started to fight, I turned around, and re-entered Markarth Ruins. Back inside, it was all normal, no one followed me back in and so I exited again. Now, no one was there, No Madanach, none of his followers, no Thonar, no soldiers. And.. the quest completed in my quest book allowing me to carry on with life. I walked past a few guards, they were friendly. It looks like I do not have a bounty. I went to find Thonar in the Treasury, he was actually there, his curmudgeon self but not attacking. Cannot get the ring, nor a pardon from the Jarl if it actually exists as an inventory item. That said, the quest is over in my book, the guards appear friendly, I appear to not have a bounty, and, after some careful checking, I BELIEVE I have all my special quest items returned. It is hard to tell because I had a lot of open quests, but the Black Books, Elder Scroll, and others are all there. It is possible some are missing and I wonder if that will come into play down the road. Also, Drysten is still hostile. I bumped into him down in Markarth and he started fist fighting me (I pickpocketed him in the previous quest). I have settings in VR changed to make melee very difficult because of all the accidental hits that were happening, so I may have to change those settings back, deal with Drysten, and then change them back again. Other than that, has anyone else had this strange turn of events happen and, if so, is this quest and its effects really over? I can always go back to a save and try again. — Unsigned comment by 68.8.44.60 (talk) at 23:43 on 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Confirmed: talked to Jarl in Markarth, he gave some related dialogue about Madanach but doesn't seem to care about me. His guards don't care, no one cares. I have all my quest items. Finished a quest and everything was there. Oh, and I went to go talk to Drysten and remembered I had a melee weapon from a mod so I equipped it. I beat him up, and he was okay and no bounty so hopefully he stops being so aggro on me.

Buggy quest the Cidhna Mine is, yes, buggy. But we got through this. — Unsigned comment by 68.8.44.60 (talk) at 05:32 on 24 January 2021 (UTC)