Quest bugs - spoilers inside!

Thanks for the tip joxer!
If by "companion quests" you mean Companions in Whiterun, I have finished this quest line with no problems.
What I would like to know is if you can replace Ulfric Stormcloak (Jarl of Windhelm) with Brunwolf Free-Winter if your PC is a Breton and haven't joined Imperials or Stormcloaks…

Sorry can't help you with that since I'm not playing Breton char.

However, I forgot that I have a certain old quest unsolved, and it's liberating a prisoner from the Northwatch "ruin". But peacefully!
Now, I got that quest very early in the game and ought to solve it without bloodshed. Since I didn't take imperials nor stormcloaks path, that quest remained open as it's prolly needed to side with a certain faction to be able to solve it peacefully. But I've stumbled upon something that might be a bug related to that quest, in any case I couldn't believe my eyes. Since I'm unsure if it's a bug, I'll put it in spoiler tags:

Originally Posted by zahratustra
What I would like to know is if you can replace Ulfric Stormcloak (Jarl of Windhelm) with Brunwolf Free-Winter if your PC is a Breton and haven't joined Imperials or Stormcloaks…

I´m pretty sure you can´t, you have to

Race of your PC has no effect on quests besides some minor adjustments to dialogues, afaict.

Originally Posted by joxer
However, I forgot that I have a certain old quest unsolved, and it's liberating a prisoner from the Northwatch "ruin". But peacefully!

You can probably add this quest to the bugged ones.
I had been also postponing this quest expecting that joining one of the factions would open a peaceful solution, but I´m pretty sure such solution actually does not exist in the game, there certainly wasn´t one even after

Quest, "The Break of Dawn" at the end you find yourself high above Skyrim and when the dialogue ends you fall to earth *SPLAT!". You are suppose to be gently put back on terra firma and yes, I know there is the console option of God mode so if you do this quest save beforehand just in case. Plus some players dislike using the console for even quick fixes.

Ok, this seems to be a problem which crops up over and over and over again: exploring Skyrim player stumbles upon a place, clears it out and than is unable to finish some future quest because of it. It happened to me AGAIN in Riften "skooma" quest line. Cleared Cragslane Cavern before and even found two or three respaws during my second visit but it wasn't enough to complete "disrupt skooma supply" part of the quest.
Somebody said it before, but let me say it again: a game, where exploration is one of the main (if not THE main) selling points, should be robust enough to handle such eventualities. Bethesda really dropped a ball on this one!

This is pretty common with all really big open games.

Again, this is why buying the guide was to me essential to playing the game at release time (i.e. no good material on the internets yet).

Here's the drill.

- I stumble across a location.
- I look up the location in the guide.
- Just read the summary bullets at the top to minimize spoilage.
- If there is the mention of an unknown and non-"dungeon" (i.e. local only) quest, I skip the location.

I agree one shouldn't have to do this though. The game sometimes locks off areas if you haven't started the quest, but this isn't always the case…

What's the point of exploring if you are afraid to enter newly discovered locations? Guide is great to see that you haven't missed anything in your 2nd or 3rd play through but it shouldn't be an indispensable part of the game.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I agree one shouldn't have to do this though. The game sometimes locks off areas if you haven't started the quest, but this isn't always the case…

That would have been a solution if applied consistently. Even if only a part of an area relevant to a future quest was locked off it would save a lot of aggravation.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
What's the point of exploring if you are afraid to enter newly discovered locations?

Not afraid. Just a wee bit cautious. Like having my weapons out, in sneak mode, and a hush spell active.

And how this will help you to know which named NPC might be relevant to a later quest?

So true. So i save before each dungeon. Finish it, then read the guide to see if I did something bad (or missed something important). Then there's always an option for reload… if I care enough..

Yeah, so do I Thrasher. It's disappointing that's all…

Well i violated my drill For Crags??? Cave. I cleared it then tried to complete the Thane quest for Riften. It wouldn't complete after going back and clearing 3 respawned enemies. Thankfully the wiki had the console commands to fix it! Good luck if you're playing on a console…

Perhaps it doesn't belong here, but no matter as it starts the annoyance after solving a quest. Upon solving the whole Dark Brotherhood questline, instead of enjoying your new "base", same idiocy happens in that new base as in Winterhold. Visiting the new sanctuary by jumping there over the map, just as Winterhold, has probably 50% chance to spawn a random dragon. For god's sakes…

That reminds me, I'm not seeing the neverending dragons in Winterhold thing. I wonder if something specific triggers it that I haven't done yet? I think I've done most quests there including the college ones.

Dunno if something triggers it, but I can say only one thing.
Lucky you…

I have yet to see even ONE dragon at Winterhold after about 50 hours of play!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
I have yet to see even ONE dragon at Winterhold after about 50 hours of play!!

Probably haven't gotten past the "Dragons Rising" part of the main quest yet, right?

Hahahaha, I've killed about 10 dragons in various other places. Just none at the college!!

whaaaat? Well one COULD run/carriage straight to Winterhold without talking to the Jarl of Whiterun first…