How to start “Ill Met by Moonlight” if Sinding is already transformed

the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim

I was playing on my main save, looking for Daedric artifacts to get and realized I was missing the Ring of Hircine. My problem is when I went to the barracks in Falkreath, the guy (Sinding) was already in his wolf form and when I tried to talk to him, he wouldn't say anything.

When I spoke to the guard he said he knew I had something to to do with Sinding's escape, even though I never even played the quest on this save before (I've done it on another save). I've checked my completed quest twice and I don't know what's wrong? How can I start or advance the quest at this point?

Best Answer

I beleive that though this quest is usually started by speaking to Sinding in jail, this quest may be able to be started in other ways:

  • One of the villagers Mathies explains that Sinding killed his daughter while he was in werewolf form, and the reason he was in Falkreath was because he was looking for a great white stag outside the village (Hircine).
    • You may also randomly find a large white stag outside the village of Falkreath naturally - killing him should also start the quest
  • Fast travel away from Falkreath (Perhaps to Winterhold or Windhelm) and wait a week (in game). Go back and this should (hopfully) have reset the quest.

Unfortunately the wiki is not much help, as all it states for this case is:

Sometimes going directly to the jail in trying to start the quest by talking to Sinding, may result in finding him in werewolf form and unable to talk leaving the quest unstartable and uncompletable.

AS I have never played on PC myself, I don't know of any console commands that you might be able to use.