I am currently part of the Stormcloaks and just finished Rescue from Fort Neugard. The Jarl wants to make me a thane and is telling me to buy a house, but his steward is telling me the house is unavailable due to some unpleasantness. I have already completed the 5 quests to help people of Eastmarch.
From what I can see online, I need to begin the Blood on the Ice quest. It is supposed to begin by walking in the windhelm graveyard at night, however every time I go there I don’t see anyone.
Someone online said it’s possible to miss the scene that triggers the quest if you go into Windhelm and leave without triggering it, but I am hoping this isn’t the case. I am in Windhelm a lot because the Enchanting table, Blacksmith, and Fence are all in one location, so find it very convenient. The lady who is supposed to be murdered in the Graveyard (Susanna) is still alive in Candlehearth Hall, so I think I’m not bugged.
The wiki suggests that you have to “The quest will initiate after you entered Windhelm four times from another hold”, however I have entered and left quite a few times during the course of my game and know I’ve been here way over 4 times.
I tried pickpocketing the key, however I don’t automatically get the quest on entering the house, and there are a bunch of “Investigate InvestigationTarget” spots in the house. Also, I was reading the Butcher’s journal and he was saying he almost caught Susanna when she left Candlehearth, however I have never seen her leave Candlehearth. Perhaps my glitch is she never leaves? I’ll have to head to Windhelm on another character and check it out.
Also, I saw something online saying this quest won’t trigger if you go past 245 in-game days. Would someone be able to confirm this for me? (Have the XBox version, so waiting 245 days is annoying)
Can someone tell me the exact steps to begin this quest?
There are a few possibilities here, according to the uesp entry on the quest
The trigger may take some time as you’ll have to wait for the woman to be murdered. Personally I came across the scene in the day time while passing through the area, I did not wait in the graveyard (that may cause the murder to not trigger).
You can also try to trigger the quest by purchasing the house from Jorleif during the stormcloak rebellion quest line.
However, it is known (see the glitches section in the entry) that the quest is bugged and may not start at all, not even via the console. In this case then you are out of luck.