Skyrim talk:Hired Muscle

Can't Get Quest

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

Farkas won't give me the quest, he only has the option to follow me. Anyone else having this problem? Setstage cr04 doesn't work for me. (99.136.224.214 02:38, 29 November 2011 (UTC))

i have the quest but when i first did it i saved beforehand fighting Atar and then i ended up slaying all of them. so i failed. then i went back and did his b&e in the mine owner's house and got him whatever it was. he said thank you then just walked away with his men. so i never ended up completing the quest but when i hit show me on map where Atar is it just tells me he's at the Lover's Stone but i go there and hes nowhere to be found. so couldnt fulfill my contact. disgruntled, i am, to say the least. but now i am so far into the game that i would be rediculed for starting over. what should i do? — Unsigned comment by Gophersreign (talk • contribs) on 28 April 2012

Do you have a different Companions radiant quest active? You can only do one Companions radiant quest at a time. --Morrolan (talk) 13:56, 7 April 2013 (GMT)

Moved question

"I had a problem where there was a guy in a ship and all he says is you're not supposed to be in here. but he is the guy I'm supposed to intimidate. So, I attacked him, but he cannot be killed. What should I do?"

Don't know who you are, but you should be brawling with them to intimidate them, and killing them means you broke your guild quest. Also, don't put this on the main page, as it's not for asking questions, that's what discussion is for. --Ravage 16:42, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

The "guy" is probably Dorian. I had the same problem as above. I was supposed to intimidate Dorian, but he never leaves the ship, and never says anything but "You're not supposed to be here". I solved it by attacking him once in the ship (incurring a 40 gold bounty), then running out of the ship, and toward Solitude. When fairly far away, I ran back toward Dorian, and lowered my weapons by a guard. This cause the arrest dialog. I paid the guard to "look the other way", then immediately talked to Dorian, which brings up the brawl dialog. I brawled with him and won, which brings up the "quest completion" notice. Then I could pay my 40 gold bounty to the guard, and continue with the questline. — Unsigned comment by 67.118.197.188 (talk) at 04:23 on 31 January 2012

Faendal

I was tasked with muscling Faendal, who was my follower at the time. I turned around and beat him down right inside Jorrvaskr and successfully completed the quest. — Unsigned comment by 74.195.136.84 (talk) at 07:45 on 3 January 2012

Bizarre Domestic Violence

Depending on choice of spouse, players may be asked to intimidate their own husbands/wives, in their own home (in my case, Marcurio, living with me in Vlindrel Hall, Markarth. I am playing on PS3). Intimidating speech option doesn't just trigger a fistfight, but a full battle, with spouse using destructive magic, weapons, and self-healing. Spouse will yield eventually (if one of you doesn't die), but the "return to Farkas" quest ending will not trigger. Marcurio went straight back to being a sweetie, cooking me dinner, despite horrifically bloodstained walls and scattered furnishings. Repeat attempts at brawling will trigger angry speech, but brawl will not commence. Result: can go no further with the Companions, and things are really tense at home. 161.184.107.68 07:35, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

I think the spouse/follower as a target possibility is interesting enough to go on the main page, as a Note rather than a bug. I was certainly interested (and slightly shocked) to learn that I might be ordered to beat up my wife and friends by the honorable Companions. If others agree I will add a short note to the main page. Threepwood87 (talk) 22:34, 12 July 2013 (GMT)

Yes I think this should be put on the note section, just shocked I have to intimidate my follower at windstad manor. Templarphoenix (talk) 02:29, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

List of Possible Targets

The article doesn't state anything about which possible targets may be assigned. So far, I know of these:

• Acolyte Jenssen
• Anoriath
• Commander Maro
• Dorian
• Faleen
• Faendal
• Jervar
• Marcurio
• Severio Pelagia
• Xander

I'm sure there are others, and I'm wondering how the target is determined. Is it any NPC in the game, is there a certain "faction" the game uses, or what? Once we know how it's determined, the relevant info should be added to the article. Alphabetface 14:07, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Both Adrienne Avenicci and Ulfberth War-Bear are also targets. Baratron (talk) 19:53, 10 April 2013 (GMT)

Killing Your Target Because Another Quest Said So -- Does This Cause You to Fail?

Anoriath, a Bosmer merchant from Whiterun (who apparently has real trouble making friends) is a possible target for both "Hired Muscle," and "Kill Anoriath," a Dark Brotherhood contract. If you kill him because the Dark Brotherhood said so, does that cause you to fail "Hired Muscle" if he is the current active target? Has anyone run into this problem?Black jack king 00:34, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

If you see the quest stages, the quest will update to stage 30 or 40 depending on whether you or a dragon/someone else killed him. I'm pretty sure this fails rather than completes the quest, but either way you should be able to proceed normally through the Companions questline. --Velyanthe 01:09, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

You can brawl him first, then come back later after completing the Companions quest and kill him. As long as Hired Muscle isn't running when you kill him there's no conflict. --Morrolan (talk) 15:09, 21 July 2013 (GMT)

Wrong

When i did the hired muscle quest from farkas i had to beat up someone in solitude when i came back he asked: You cleaned that trouble in MARKARTH up yet — Unsigned comment by 77.166.160.62 (talk) at 13:33 on 13 May 2012

There's certainly nothing like this related to the quest, so it may be for another quest or something. If you could get me the exact quote, I'd be able to tell you more. – Robin Hood↝talk 22:44, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Harrald

I received Harrald to intimidate on this quest and every time I fought him he just said "You beat me fair and square" and never completed the quest. If I did it near people, they would continue to be in "fight mode" following me around and saying "get him!" and stuff even though Harrald had wandered off.

I fixed this by using the following console commands and the quest advanced to "return to Farkas"

setObjectiveCompleted CR04 20 1

setStage CR04 20

Andykimbrey 07:23, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

when does the game generate the target information

I'm having a serious problem I keep getting assigned faendal as a target except i used him as a scarifice to boethiah a long time ago. ive tried to reload several time and it keeps giving me faendal. i can go to boethiahs shrine and still find his body with a quest marker but theres nothing that can be done to solve this any idea what i can do to get another npc instead of faendal. +++++++ wait it gets weirder. i managed to trick out of fargas giving me the mission immeadiately by talking to aela and getting an animal extermination contract. but when i go out to greenspring hollow i find a dead sabre cat with a quest marker on it, its one i killed while exploring.

so on both questlines its giving me a target thats already dead making it imposible for me to continue.

and also i'm on console so the pc commands wont work for me. — Unsigned comment by 83.40.158.47 (talk) at 14:22 on 21 May 2012

I can't answer the question of when the game determines the radiant targets for these quests, but maybe you can try taking a quest from Varkas, rather than Aela or Farkas. Sorry I can't be much more help, but it's possible you may be able to take a quest from him which works for ya. ABCface^◥ 04:46, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Arcadia as Target

This is a slightly different bug - I received the dialogue to initiate the Brawl with Arcadia, but she did not start a brawl after the dialogue was finished. After reloading my latest autosave several times and coaxing Arcadia into several different parts of her house to see if her counter-leaning was somehow affecting her ability to punch my lights out, my game crashed completely. When I reloaded AFTER the crash, Arcadia immediately started brawling. Reloading from my earlier save, the problem seemed to be permanently fixed post-game crash as all situations that previously did not initiate a brawl were suddenly working.

The point of all this is, should there be a piece of advice in the Bugs section to the tune of 'if at first you don't succeed'...? Because this bug seems to be extremely vague and erratic, people might like to know that a little perseverance might pay off. Especially if the alternative is killing an NPC outright to auto-fail the quest, or to potentially lose the Companions questline altogether. Threepwood87 (talk) 22:51, 12 July 2013 (GMT)

Target already killed.

The Quest says to intimidate Ugthrad the Unbroken but she is already dead. I can't load up a earlier save because it was pushed out by the other auto saves. How can i get rid of the Quest to get other Quests. — Unsigned comment by 110.33.234.135 (talk) at 04:26 on 24 August 2013

Only option is an earlier save. What platform do you play on? Guard of Dragons^{Speak To Me} 08:12, 24 August 2013 (GMT)

hired muscle quest on PS3

My had me rough up Severio Pelagio but he was killed when I first entered city by a vampire attack and I cant get past the quest and I dont have an earlier save. What can I do? I really dont want to start a new game. Someone please help!

Nimriel would randomly exit brawl state

When Farkas ordered me to brawl Nimriel, I was able to speak to her and start the brawl, but at random points during the combat she would switch suddenly out of brawl-mode and go back to farming. However, my follower would continue to attack her, causing me to get a bounty. If I dismissed my follower or told them to wait, I would be able to restart the brawl, but Nimriel would still exit partway through. Eventually, I just killed her to clear the quest, but I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else. (I play on 360.) 69.132.11.9 20:10, 21 January 2014 (GMT)

Got This Quest in Ysgramor's Tomb after Completion of Companions Quest.

After completing "Glory of the Dead", Farkas, in Ysgramor's Tomb, offered this quest to the Player as if he was still an Companions Initiate in Whiterun. He stated "We also got a letter about someone needing some muscle right here in Whiterun."--Lmstearn (talk) 05:33, 11 April 2014 (GMT)

Nothing massive here, a minor slip-up in that you can get other quests off them at this point. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 18:11, 11 April 2014 (GMT)

Commander Maro after destroying the Dark Brotherhood

Not sure if this is a bug in my own game caused by some mods or it's consistent, but I got Commander Maro as a target for this quest, and when I go talk to him, no options appear. The only thing I get is the line about telling the emperor how cool I am. — Unsigned comment by 83.47.75.57 (talk) at 18:40 on 16 June 2014 (GMT)

Commander Maro After You Kill The Dark Brotherhood

In the Quest "Hired Muscle" I was given Commander Maro to rough up. I knew him already because I had done the mission in which you kill everyone in the Dark Brotherhood. After I got "Hired Muscle" I went straight to Maro's courters. I tried to talk to him but could not. He just kept talking about how he would tell the emperor himself what I had done. I hit him a few times and ran out of his courters which he never leaves and I ran far down the rode. I then fast traveled back to Dragon Bridge and saw that my companion was still attacking him. He fell from my companions blow which I then relized is that I got a bounty on me from himd being hit to the ground. But the bounty was for Maro's Crime Faction, I believe, which stumped me I had no way of paying them back since there aren't any guards around that are his. I tried a few different things but to no avail they all failed. I am currently playing on an Xbox 360. If anyone could help me I would be very thankful. -CJnGod

Intimidation Check

Notes section of the page says "There is a silent Intimidate check against the target as part of the quest's startup conditions. If it succeeds, you won't get the quest." What determines if you succeed or not? Is it speech/level based? If so what level do you need to start the quest? I tried using the sqv console command but I don't think it's mentioned in the quest variables for whatever reason. — Unsigned comment by Phobiczz (talk • contribs) at 22:18 on 6 May 2021 (UTC)

Which Hold?

I only got that quest once in over seven years of playing, to beat up Jervar of Whiterun. But wouldn't I be able to receive people in Falkreath Hold as victims right off the bat? That's where, unless I have an Alternate Start mod, every game starts: in Helgen, Falkreath Hold. The other Companion quest pages say similarly. DO they give you jobs only in Whiterun? 109.43.112.184 17:19, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Target's Disposition

Does the quest influence the target's disposition towards the player? Is it possible to lose a possible follower/spouse because they don't like me enough any more after I beat the snot out of them? 109.43.115.55 23:04, 22 June 2022 (UTC)