I let Arvel the Swift survive our first encounter and now the quest marker isn’t moving beyond a particular door

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I allowed Arvel the Swift to live after the first encounter in the spider's chamber and now he has run off. I'm following the quest indicator to catch up with him, but it's getting stuck on a particular doorway, pointing at it even after I've gone through it.

How can I find Arvel and retrieve the Golden Dragon Claw?

Best Answer

I personally never let Arvel escape and always quickly kill him, but I found this information here which might help you out:

Once you free him it becomes clear that he has no intention of giving the claw over to you. He will instead run towards the next room and brush you aside.

Once he reaches the next room full of draugr, he will defend himself, but usually dies. If you save him from the undead, he will be killed by the spike wall trap or the swinging blades trap. If you get too close, he will also turn hostile. Regardless, it is impossible to keep him alive.[verification needed — see talk page] You may also kill him as soon as you free him, although low-level players may find him a useful distraction for the draugr in the nearby room. Arvel carries a journal describing how the claw came into his possession.

Here it says keeping him alive needs to be verified, but if I were you I would double check to make sure he wasn't killed by the draugrs or the spike wall. You're probably not finding him because he died somewhere in the dungeon and you might have missed him.

Let me know if this helped you, otherwise I'll try to find another solution for you.

Related Solutions

How to get Skyrim to recognize I don’t have a follower anymore

This is an issue many have experienced.

In the console, type the following:

set playerfollowercount to 0

Now the game will recognize that you no longer have any followers.

note: this only works on PC.

How many quest followers could one gather at once

So here's what I know you can do (name followed by the quest you should start but not complete):

People

Any normal follower (or, hey, Aranea Ienith can summon an atronach)
Delphine + Esbern - Alduin's Wall (Esbern can summon an atronach)
Brother Verulus - The Taste of Death
Mercer Frey - Speaking with Silence
Thonnir - Laid to Rest
Avulstein Grey-Mane + Geirlund + Vidrald - Missing in Action (the latter two should join you and Avulstein at Northwatch Keep)

Animals

Meeko (Meeko's Shack) or Stray Dog (random encounter)
Barbas - A Daedra's Best Friend
Horse (better yet, Shadowmere)

Summons

Two summons (with 100 in Conjuration and the Twin Souls perk). Some dead thralls can summon atronaches, so that gives your summons one summon apiece.

which brings the total to you, nine people, two dogs, a horse, two dead thralls and four atronaches. That's 13 permanent and almost everywhere (excluding atronaches and the horse) and 18 potential. This seems pretty hypothetical and I haven't done it myself, so feel free to correct me.

Other

There's also supposedly a glitch (patch status unknown) where you can dismiss your follower, hire someone else, then immediately return to your follower and rehire him or her. I don't know if people use it with the Dark Brotherhood Initiate(s) for a reason or because it only works with them.

Also Odahviing.