The Forbidden Tome

[MereFJ]

playing on se, got the first object Zenidius wanted, he wasn't there when I returned, went to all the quest markers looking for him,  now there's no more quest markers but also no zenidius???  not sure what to do. Especially since at least two of the dwarven ruins can't be entered, you can only visit the outside until you unlock them by getting certain quests (Avanchenzel and Irkthngd).

[MereFJ]

On 8/14/2023 at 6:58 PM, Mister X said:

 

Upon retrieving the item, the Gyro in your case, the quest first should ask to return to the point where you last have seen Zenidius. Only when you get close enough to that point, then the quest asks to search for Zenidius and should show the markers, too. That shouldn't be much of a problem, as those points always are on your way, back at the entrance.

 

Additionally, you never have to delve into any dungeon to find Zenidius, as he always will wait either outside or right at the entrance inside. It's only needed for the items and then he tells you what dungeon to delve into. I tried my best to avoid using quest locked dungeons for the items, too.

 

One change to former versions: The quest won't show a message in the top left that you've found Zenidius, it just continues to the next objective and tells you to talk to him. In that case the marker always shows Zenidius' location.

 

I did return to the point where I last saw him, and got an update to the quest saying he's left and I have to search for him.  I'm still having the same problem. I've visited everywhere, gone inside the entrance where I could, and now the quest marker has disappeared.  At Irkthangd marker was on upper door, but that isn't unlocked yet, and it disappeared after I went as high up as I could.  That dungeon doesn't actually load until you get the thieves guild quest. Zen was not outside with the bandits.  I went to Avanchenzel, and same thing happened, Couldn't get inside, no sign of Zen outside, and marker disappeared once I went near the entrance. And now there's simply no marker, and if I go to Urag, he just tells me I have to find Zen.

Edited November 7, 2023 by MereFJ

[sirloki28]

After I open the case Urag does his Shpeel but the AI package doesn't seem to trigger my camera turns slightly but I don't move, and the mod doesn't progress, any help would be appreciated. 

[Mister X]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:02 PM, sirloki28 said:

After I open the case Urag does his Shpeel but the AI package doesn't seem to trigger my camera turns slightly but I don't move, and the mod doesn't progress, any help would be appreciated. 

 

Based on those information I can tell you: the AI package did not fire properly.

Normally you should walk towards Urags counter to listen to his monologue, no idea why this doesn't work for you.

[xtro334]

On 11/6/2023 at 12:21 PM, MereFJ said:

playing on se, got the first object Zenidius wanted, he wasn't there when I returned, went to all the quest markers looking for him,  now there's no more quest markers but also no zenidius???  not sure what to do. Especially since at least two of the dwarven ruins can't be entered, you can only visit the outside until you unlock them by getting certain quests (Avanchenzel and Irkthngd).

 

I have same problem when I tried out the quest.

Tried to get quest for dungeon where he was last marked, but he did not appear then either.

[MereFJ]

On 6/19/2023 at 1:58 PM, Min said:

Hey! Glad to see my quest from so long ago getting some love between you and @naaitsab these days. . Congrats on the release!

Min, some of us really miss that original DD quest, it was a classic!!

[MereFJ]

On 1/5/2024 at 2:42 AM, xtro334 said:

 

I have same problem when I tried out the quest.

Tried to get quest for dungeon where he was last marked, but he did not appear then either.

hello, tried again on fresh save without magical college, got to the point where I retrieved the third item, Zen had said he would be at the college waiting on me, but he's not there, no marker any more.  So where did he disappear to this time??  I actually have the last object!!!

[Twilator]

Hi! I have a problem i with this mod. When I steal the key and then i steal the books I am not able to move my character and movement (even camera) is restricted. My character then stay on place and slowly walk into the wall. The orc stand up and stop far away from me. Nothing happens then and i am stuck and quest does not progress. Devious Deviants works fine. I have skyrim 1.6.640 and I am using nemesis.

[Mister X]

19 hours ago, Twilator said:

Hi! I have a problem i with this mod. When I steal the key and then i steal the books I am not able to move my character and movement (even camera) is restricted. My character then stay on place and slowly walk into the wall. The orc stand up and stop far away from me. Nothing happens then and i am stuck and quest does not progress. Devious Deviants works fine. I have skyrim 1.6.640 and I am using nemesis.

 

Upon closing the bookcase a scene should start where your character should get moved towards Urags desk. Maybe some pathfinding is broken, either reload an earlier save or try to wait for one hour, maybe that helps

[Xenoramos]

1 hour ago, Mister X said:

 

Upon closing the bookcase a scene should start where your character should get moved towards Urags desk. Maybe some pathfinding is broken, either reload an earlier save or try to wait for one hour, maybe that helps

I have same issue, my character walks towards walls\bookshelves, VERY slowly wiggling her way towards Urag, then after some time teleports to a middle of pathway and still turns to a wall. Even when eventually she's close to Urag, nothing seems to happen (once it actually did progress after like 5-7 minutes of random walking, but I had another issue with DD equipping, so I started anew after reinstalling)

 

It's completely fresh save file (started LAL with scenario to begin as the apprentice at college). Also every mod is installed via Vortex, no manual installs this time, also it's SE\AE 1.6.640

Edited February 11, 2024 by Xenoramos

[Mister X]

21 hours ago, Twilator said:

Hi! I have a problem i with this mod. When I steal the key and then i steal the books I am not able to move my character and movement (even camera) is restricted. My character then stay on place and slowly walk into the wall. The orc stand up and stop far away from me. Nothing happens then and i am stuck and quest does not progress. Devious Deviants works fine. I have skyrim 1.6.640 and I am using nemesis.

 

1 hour ago, Xenoramos said:

I have same issue, my character walks towards walls\bookshelves, VERY slowly wiggling her way towards Urag, then after some time teleports to a middle of pathway and still turns to a wall. Even when eventually she's close to Urag, nothing seems to happen (once it actually did progress after like 5-7 minutes of random walking, but I had another issue with DD equipping, so I started anew after reinstalling)

 

It's completely fresh save file (started LAL with scenario to begin as the apprentice at college). Also every mod is installed via Vortex, no manual installs this time, also it's SE\AE 1.6.640

 

Do you guys have any mod that alters the Arcaneum?

[Xenoramos]

9 minutes ago, Mister X said:

 

 

Do you guys have any mod that alters the Arcaneum?

I don't think so, I don't have many mods installed, but not sure if AE's "creation club" content could change something that seriously

[myhouseatl]

On 2/11/2024 at 11:00 AM, Mister X said:

 

 

Do you guys have any mod that alters the Arcaneum?

I have ultimate college of winterhold and it still works fine.  I am running 0.5.3.  I am working on the second item and haven't gotten far but, I walked close to the book cases, (Force walked) where Urag put me in stalks.  I do have a lot of mods, some script heavy but, I have a beefy machine.

[myhouseatl]

On 1/22/2024 at 6:25 AM, MereFJ said:

hello, tried again on fresh save without magical college, got to the point where I retrieved the third item, Zen had said he would be at the college waiting on me, but he's not there, no marker any more.  So where did he disappear to this time??  I actually have the last object!!!

I'm having this issue as well.  Have the third item, went to the college, no marker and no Zen, that I could find and traversing to the other markers made them disappear.  Is he supposed to be at the college?  Where do I look?

 

Edit:  Ok, don't know if this was intentional but, I went to every marker and thought, I'll go back to where I originally found him and he had returned.  I guess it's set up so you have to search all areas before you can go back and find him?

Edited April 20, 2024 by myhouseatl
Found Zen

[rycvda]

I've hit a brick wall with Urag. i got the book from Zenidius just for me to go back to Urag and only have the option to say i don't have the book yet. im honestly not sure what to do anymore after scouring the entire mod page and every comment for any possible solution.

 

so I'm posting this incase someone has a solution or can make this a bit easier as I've started looking for the quest id to manually progress it since that seems like its my only option at this point.

 

Edit: Problem solved for me, set the quest to the next step so i missed dialogue unfortunately but im no longer softlocked, still have no idea what happened with Urag tho.

Edited May 15, 2024 by rycvda
Found the id

[Mister X]

On 5/16/2024 at 1:35 AM, rycvda said:

I've hit a brick wall with Urag. i got the book from Zenidius just for me to go back to Urag and only have the option to say i don't have the book yet. im honestly not sure what to do anymore after scouring the entire mod page and every comment for any possible solution.

 

so I'm posting this incase someone has a solution or can make this a bit easier as I've started looking for the quest id to manually progress it since that seems like its my only option at this point.

 

Edit: Problem solved for me, set the quest to the next step so i missed dialogue unfortunately but im no longer softlocked, still have no idea what happened with Urag tho.

 

Yeah, the whole mod still is heavily bugged, TBH it was a project of mine to work a bit with other mod tools than Papyrus. So basically a project for learning stuff.

 

Sadly, I didn't have much time or interest in the past months to come back to this. Alas, if somebody is willing to fix the stuff, they are free to do so, as long as they credit me and Min. Don't know if I will get to it soon.

[Allen Harris]

8 hours ago, Mister X said:

 

Yeah, the whole mod still is heavily bugged, TBH it was a project of mine to work a bit with other mod tools than Papyrus. So basically a project for learning stuff.

 

Sadly, I didn't have much time or interest in the past months to come back to this. Alas, if somebody is willing to fix the stuff, they are free to do so, as long as they credit me and Min. Don't know if I will get to it soon.

I was going to get into mod building and fixing, but the Creation Kit crashes on quest dialog editing in Windows 11, and nobody knows how to fix it, so I gave up. Sadly.

[knotjuan]

On 5/15/2024 at 7:35 PM, rycvda said:

I've hit a brick wall with Urag. i got the book from Zenidius just for me to go back to Urag and only have the option to say i don't have the book yet. im honestly not sure what to do anymore after scouring the entire mod page and every comment for any possible solution.

 

so I'm posting this incase someone has a solution or can make this a bit easier as I've started looking for the quest id to manually progress it since that seems like its my only option at this point.

 

Edit: Problem solved for me, set the quest to the next step so i missed dialogue unfortunately but im no longer softlocked, still have no idea what happened with Urag tho.

What was the quest ID number?

[limonotu]

Currently using Ultimate College of Winterhold - an ICOW and OCW Patch

Does the modification of Arcaneum by those mods affect the start of the quest?

[belegost]

Went through, it was a wild ride, especially with fast travel disabled.

 

However Zenidius must've bugged out somewhere along the way, since he kept staying in Mzinchaleft all the time. Led to a situation where upon giving him the last object, the quest would update, he would claim to have given me the book,  but it was not actually added to my inventory. Urag did not recognise the quest was finished and Zenidious did not have any further lines, leading to a soft lock. I had to manually add the book via console in order to progress.

 

My assumption is he must've had his AI package borked when I used Defeat's call function to lure him closer to entrance. For clarification: if you use Defeat's surrender button on a neutral NPC he will run towards you and that is what I did to have him stand right at the door instead of further in.

I'm not sure how the quest is set up,  but after this he stayed in Mzinchaleft all the time, even when he stated he would be waiting at the College.

 

I'm planning on replaying the quest soon-ish on a different character, see if I get different results.

 

EDIT:

Now that I look through quest log, one of the objectives "Find Zenidius. Again..." is marked as incomplete and points to Mzulft, which I had never visited at the time because I found Zenidius at Mzinchaleft before going there. Seems like this may have been the cause for the soft lock.

Edited September 9, 2024 by belegost

[sleir564]

First of all
TL,DR

Help!
Is it possible to spawn special items with console commands?
Is it possible to use console commands to forcefully advance the quest?
What are the IDs to advance the quest using console commands?

 

Now for the long reading.

 

OK
two things: An initial report on how the mod is working for me and a cry for help

1) I have version 1.6.640.0, using Mod Manager 2 and a moderate amount of mods. I installed "The Forbidden Tome 0.5.3" in the middle of my playthrough from inside "The Arcanaeum" (I don't use any mod that modifies the structure of the place). The mission started normally, and all dialogues and animations occurred as expected (my character walks very slowly incorrectly, but this is definitely a bug from another mod).

 

So far so good, but...

 

2) I'm having the same problem that has been reported several times here. After getting the first special piece (special dwarven oil) Zenidius did not appear in any of the marked points on the map (the markings disappeared when he got close until there were none left).
Following reports from this forum I found him inside Mzinchaleft

Thanks, Myhouseatl S2

On 4/20/2024 at 8:35 AM, myhouseatl said:

Edit:  Ok, don't know if this was intentional but, I went to every marker and thought, I'll go back to where I originally found him and he had returned.  I guess it's set up so you have to search all areas before you can go back and find him?

 

I delivered the first item, he replaced my plugs and sent me to find the second item (special Dwemer Gyro).
And this is where I find myself stuck.
I finished exploring Mzinchaleft (previously I had only explored half of it, returning to Zenidius as soon as I found the special Dwarven oil inside a chest), but I didn't find the special Dwemer Gyro. Zenidius is still standing at the entrance, inside, Mzinchaleft.

Edit: I'm pretty stupid! your quest journal specifies which dungeon you must explore to find the special piece you are looking for!

 

At this point I have an idea of what could be happening and a proposal for a manual solution (which I would like help with):

I believe that as he mistakenly returned to Mzinchaleft I am looking for the special Dwemer Gyro in the wrong place, as Zenidius should be in another dungeon (maybe in Mzulft?).

 

proposed temporary solutions:
a) I would like to know if Zenidius makes a random journey or if he always goes through the same dungeons, perhaps even in the same order, so he could clear the dungeons and then return to Mzinchaleft to continue the mission. Perhaps even creating a save before entering the dungeons to avoid exploring them all beforehand and preventing special items from spawning.

b) Use console controls to add items. Using the "help special" command I did not find an item called "special Dwemer Gyro", but I found a "MESG: (51005907) 'special <BaseName>' ". I believe this is related to the quest item, but I don't know how to use "MESG" in console commands. This strategy has been used similarly in the past, causing Zenidius to to disappear when the player releases and picks up the item from the ground (which means that the objective was successfully completed and the quest continued). This, however, was done in version 3.0 when special items were just common items

 

On 6/22/2023 at 3:44 AM, DecadentApparition said:

b. When I approach Zenidius while already having that what he's going to request, I do get the option to give it to him right away (I never pick this option though as it's just too tame and boring for me). But I've also got the third option where the player charactress says something nasty and irritating and gets locked in some devious devices (that one's obviously my pick). Then, I get the objective to find the item I already have, and after I drop the item and pick it up again, Zenidius disintegrates into thin air right in front of me and I've got to go look for him again (often implementing the scenario from the 1st item of my little list). Don't really like that.

 

I would like to use this strategy, if possible, as it seems to me to be the one that has the least chance of causing future problems. For this I need to know if it is possible and how do I spawn the special items.

 

c) The third strategy is to advance the quest with console commands, but for that I need quest IDs.

 

like cited here:

On 6/22/2023 at 1:47 AM, Mister X said:

You can try the following:

 

open up the game console and type in sqv tftForbiddenTomeQuest. Search for an alias called ThirdPosMarker and copy its FormID to the following function:

player.moveto [FormID]

This should port you to the position where he should be after you've found a gyro.

(I didn't tried this yet)

 

and here:

On 5/15/2024 at 7:35 PM, rycvda said:

Edit: Problem solved for me, set the quest to the next step so i missed dialogue unfortunately but im no longer softlocked, still have no idea what happened with Urag tho.

 

I don't have much experience with this and I believe that the possibility of breaking my game is much greater, but it's a last attempt before I forcefully free myself from my devices, abandoning the quest and leaving it open.

However, I prefer to finish the quest before uninstalling it, as Mister X said that it clears itself when finished.

 

On 6/20/2023 at 4:06 AM, Mister X said:

New version v0.3.0

• ADDED optional xVASynth voiceover as extra download, needs main file
• CHANGED some dialogue
• CHANGED a chest so it now should work with older Skyrim versions, too
• FIXED quest now properly cleans up when it shuts down
• FIXED some typos and grammatical errors
• FIXED the quest ignoring conditional properties
• FIXED the search for a key hideout

Do not update while the quest is running! Best would be to update only if you've never started the quest before!

Making it "kind of safe" to uninstall this mod in the middle of a playthrough (I really liked the MOD 💖, and would love to see more DD quests, but at the moment the mod has bugs and I prefer to leave it off my list). So I intend to finish the quest and return to my regular gameplay.

 

Thank you to everyone who read this far
to those who could help
and to Mister X who committed himself to give us another adventure

 

 

Edit: I'm pretty stupid! your quest journal specifies which dungeon you must explore to find the special piece you are looking for!

Edited October 19, 2024 by sleir564
I discovered relevant information: your quest journal specifies which dungeon you must explore to find the special piece you are looking for!

[sleir564]

Okay, since yesterday I've tested a few things and I think I can leave some tips to help anyone who is stuck at some stage of the search.

 

Obviously, Zenidius likes to go back to Mzinchaleft, so the best thing to do is, after finding the first item (special Dwemer Oil) look for it in all the locations indicated on the map and go back to Mzinchaleft, he will be there.
When he asks you to look for the second item (Special Dwemer gyro) look in your journal at which dungeon you should look for the item (the dungeon name will be explained on the current objective).
Find the special item and search for Zenidius in all the indicated locations, leaving Mzinchaleft for last (Just in case).

When you find him the second time the objective "Zenidius Fund, again..." will not be complete, but the quest proceeds and he will send you to find the last Special item.

Do it and find him again for the last time

 Due to some bug, it won't give you the book, but you can add it with a console command or some mod, like this one.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/64653?tab=description
The name of the book is "Devious Devices: Restraints" (I spent hours trying to find this information, an item spawn mod did the job in seconds)

 

With the exception of these two setbacks, the rest of the quest works very well.

 

Some console commands that can help you are those already mentioned in my previous post

 

On 6/22/2023 at 1:47 AM, Mister X said:

You can try the following:

 

open up the game console and type in sqv tftForbiddenTomeQuest. Search for an alias called ThirdPosMarker and copy its FormID to the following function:

player.moveto [FormID]

This should port you to the position where he should be after you've found a gyro.

 

 

and I thought this guide was very good for looking for problems in quests, but I ended up not needing it, despite

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=446371882

 

 

Now that I managed to overcome the problems with the quest, I'm redoing it in a new game to see both paths, being stubborn and complacent just to see the different devices that will be inserted into the character

 

Thanks to Mister X, who committed himself to give us another adventure

to Naaitsab and Min (as credited in the mod description) for suporting the moder

[Ursur1major]

So since this one is still in Beta and noone is currently working on it, which version should I get? This one or Devious Deviants?

[Allen Harris]

1 hour ago, Ursur1major said:

So since this one is still in Beta and noone is currently working on it, which version should I get? This one or Devious Deviants?

You can actually install both. Which one triggers depends on which key you steal at the College, if I'm not mistaken.

[Ursur1major]

9 minutes ago, Allen Harris said:

You can actually install both. Which one triggers depends on which key you steal at the College, if I'm not mistaken.

Interesting, which one is prefered though?

Is this one complete enough?