Skyrim quest "Conjuration Ritual Spell" won't start

Question

I was hoping someone could assist with this problem. Phinis Gestor will not offer the quest. My conjuration is at a hundred and he still has no dialogue for it.

Does anyone know a console command to begin the quest or any sort of workaround?

Answer 1

Possible workaround

As with all problems in Skyrim, the best thing to do is to try and load an earlier save, or at least reload the game; however, failing that, you can get what you want with the console!

Console commands

I have not ever experienced this problem; however, there are console commands (on the PC) that allow you to skip to stages of a quest.

Stages of Conjuration Ritual Spell:

10 | Phinis Gestor has told me that in order to inscribe powerful Conjuration spells, he'll need a sigil stone from an Oblivion gate. To get one, I'll need to summon an Unbound Dremora and bend it to my will.
Objective 10: Summon and subdue an Unbound Dremora

70 | Phinis Gestor requires a sigil stone to inscribe powerful Conjuration spells for me. I subdued an Unbound Dremora and had it retrieve one for me, which I should now take to Phinis. Objective 20: Deliver the stone to Phinis

200 | Finishes quest I have subdued an Unbound Dremora and had him retrieve a sigil stone for me, which Phinis Gestor has used to inscribe the Master Conjuration spells. In exchange for doing this, he has given me the first of the spells.

You can then use the following commands to obtain the quest (the part you are currently bugged at):

SetStage MGRitual03 10

SetStage sets the stage of the quest, MGRitual03 is the quest (Conjuration Ritual Spell) and 10 is the part to set the quest to. I obtained the quest ID from the first page linked; however, you can also obtain the ID if you have started a particular quest by using showquesttargets. Similarly, you can view all stages of a quest (once you know the ID) with player.sqs MGRitual03