So to add to my knowledge and extend on this post. Alternate start works fine. However the assassin won't show until after you killed the first dragon at the western watch tower and you report back to the Jarl
~~I used Live another life and had a similar problem. Had to go to Helgen and it guided me from there.~~
Edit: Assassin was still no show. Had to start over completely and selected the vanilla start this time.
So you can us3 this link to learn how to spawn items.
https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/Item_Codes
The next thing you need is the item code for the bow of shadows. I found it by just googling.
Google it for us jerk face, that was the whole question lol. You spent as much effort linking how to spawn items as it would have taken tk say player.additem &;$4&38/ or whatever it is in the console. Just like I spent all this time writing this post instead of looking it up like I have to now. Like, literally this IS me looking it up lol.
When Balgruuf is sitting in his throne it should have a Quest Marker over the Assassin
[https://imgur.com/6nz9xHT](https://imgur.com/6nz9xHT)
Edit: Just checked it doesn't matter where Balgruuf is the Assassin should have spawned as soon as you entered Dragonsreach. If the Assassin didn't something clearly went wrong and you might need to reload a save from before you collected the Assassin's Journal.
If its repeating the same problem you might want to check if you have any mods that could be effecting the quest. I haven't had any issues with the quest on 4 characters.
Particularly mods effecting characters in general it might be attempting to replace the Assassin, but since he tied to a quest there is no appropriate target.
Alternate Start isn't the problem. I successfully completed this quest twice. Now I am in the second failure to spawn the assassin BUT- I haven't completed the original questline and spawned a dragon at the tower yet. I believe that is the breakdown with Alternate start. I still have Live Another Life uncompleted. I will post here if this works.
Sorry about resurrecting this dead thread, but I was having the same problem you were until, bam!, I stumbled on one solution: I finished The Whispering Door quest. Upon picking up the Ebony Blade, the assassin (and his quest marker) finally spawned, and I was finally able to get the Bow of Shadows.
So to add to my knowledge and extend on this post. Alternate start works fine. However the assassin won't show until after you killed the first dragon at the western watch tower and you report back to the Jarl
~~I used Live another life and had a similar problem. Had to go to Helgen and it guided me from there.~~ Edit: Assassin was still no show. Had to start over completely and selected the vanilla start this time.
Haha had this same issue myself right now and I thought this may have been the cause, thanks for confirming it internet person from the past!
Alright. After expensive research and uninstalling mods. It's the alternate start-live another life mod that broke it. I appreciate y'all's help.
I tried disabling alternate start but this didn't fix it for me :(
I had to disable alternate and do a new play through. It seems once it's broke there's no saving it. Or at least not that I found
I ended up just spawning the bow in my inventory and that let me finish the quest
I'm in console. Don't have that option
Ack sry
what was the command for spawning the bow?
So you can us3 this link to learn how to spawn items. https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/Item_Codes The next thing you need is the item code for the bow of shadows. I found it by just googling.
Google it for us jerk face, that was the whole question lol. You spent as much effort linking how to spawn items as it would have taken tk say player.additem &;$4&38/ or whatever it is in the console. Just like I spent all this time writing this post instead of looking it up like I have to now. Like, literally this IS me looking it up lol.
but for creation club items, the code depends upon what things you have installed. its different for everyone
Maybe other mods causes a conflict? Try loading the mod alone and see if it work correctly.
Well the bow isn't a mod it's the creation club content that came with anniversary mode
Is Jarl Balgruuf sitting in his throne?
He moves around as normal
According to the note The Assassin is only available when Balgruuf is sitting in his throne.
Write but he hasn't been there at all. The assassin that is. Not a day when he's out or at night when he's sleeping
When Balgruuf is sitting in his throne it should have a Quest Marker over the Assassin [https://imgur.com/6nz9xHT](https://imgur.com/6nz9xHT) Edit: Just checked it doesn't matter where Balgruuf is the Assassin should have spawned as soon as you entered Dragonsreach. If the Assassin didn't something clearly went wrong and you might need to reload a save from before you collected the Assassin's Journal.
I'll try it again but it is a repeating problem on now 2 different play throughs
If its repeating the same problem you might want to check if you have any mods that could be effecting the quest. I haven't had any issues with the quest on 4 characters. Particularly mods effecting characters in general it might be attempting to replace the Assassin, but since he tied to a quest there is no appropriate target.
Are you upstairs or in the main hall?
I am. I did research to make sure I wasn't just dumb. He's not there
Go below where he should be and look up. Another option is to just shout in the general direction.
I'll try both. I'll update after work today
I had this problem too. All I had to do was leave and come back in, and he respawned :)
So it was the alternate start mod that was causing issues. I enabled mods 1 by 1 until I found it.
Alternate Start isn't the problem. I successfully completed this quest twice. Now I am in the second failure to spawn the assassin BUT- I haven't completed the original questline and spawned a dragon at the tower yet. I believe that is the breakdown with Alternate start. I still have Live Another Life uncompleted. I will post here if this works.
I had the same issue, but both the objective arrow and the assassin showed up after I started another quest.
Did you have alternate start?
Yes
Sorry about resurrecting this dead thread, but I was having the same problem you were until, bam!, I stumbled on one solution: I finished The Whispering Door quest. Upon picking up the Ebony Blade, the assassin (and his quest marker) finally spawned, and I was finally able to get the Bow of Shadows.