User:Olaus/Keeping the Jagged Crown

A well known bug allows you to keep the Jagged Crown by reverse pickpocketing it onto Ralof or Hadvar immediately after receiving it, then turning in the quest (which is somehow possible despite not possessing it), then taking the crown back from them later. However this process requires you to be consistent which which side you pick three times: who you escape Helgen with, which side you initially join up with to do the Jagged Crown quest, and which side you join permanently by turning the crown over to them. An open question is whether it's possible to keep the crown somehow and switch sides.

Let's call the NPC you escape with in Helgen NPC A and his side in the war Side A. The other NPC and his side will be NPC B and Side B.

The moment you enter Helgen Keep NPC A, NBC B is disabled. If you warp to B's position, it will be in the keep at the door he goes in, but he won't be there. NPC A stays in Riverwood with his relatives at first.

If you initially join up with Side A, then NPC A will be present during the Jagged Crown quest and accompany the group through Korvanjund. If you join Side B to do the Jagged Crown, then NPC A will remain in Riverwood and NPC B will remain disabled.

The Jagged Crown can be reverse pickpocketed onto NPC A only if he is joining you on the quest. If you are with Side B and then go find NPC A in Riverwood, the reverse pickpocket will fail as it would with any other NPC. This suggests that the exception for pickpocketing the crown is a quest-specific script rather than some aspect intrinsic to Ralof and Hadvar. Perhaps they were meant to have a larger role in the quest at some point in design.

If you turn the quest in to Side B, NPC A will be immediately and permanently disabled. NPC B will then reappear during Battle for Whiterun, but not before.

Thus it appears that there is no way to ditch the crown except reverse pickpocketing it onto NPC A while doing the Jagged Crown quest with Side A, and then it's only possible to retrieve it by sticking with Side A.

Some things I have tried that failed:

• Selling the crown
• Dropping the crown
• Putting the crown into a container
• Reverse pickpocketing the crown onto anyone but NPC A while sided with Side A
• Giving the crown to a follower
• Telling a follower to loot the crown from the draugr
• Using the console to teleport to NPC A immediately after turning the crown in to Side B, or anytime thereafter
• Using the console to teleport NPC A to the player when turning in the crown to Side B
• Attempting to drop the crown during the dialogue for turning it in
• Placing permanent items onto NPC A to attempt to prevent him from being disabled
• Reanimating the Jagged Crown draugr and trying to make a follower loot the ash pile
• Zoning with the looted and reanimated draugr to see if it would generate a replacement

Ralof and Hadvar are essential, so they can't be killed, thralled, or looted by followers.

I didn't try doing one of the quests that results in item confiscation, but that probably wouldn't work, other quest items always stay with you.

At this point I'm out of ideas. Seems like short of just spawning it in with the console, the only way to keep it is to consistently keep to the same side in the war starting at Helgen.