Skyrim:Rescue Mission

Quick Walkthrough
# Speak to Skjor or Vilkas in Jorrvaskr.
# Travel to the randomly-determined location.
# Rescue the citizen from the location's enemies.
# Escort the citizen back to their hometown.
# Return to Skjor or Vilkas for your reward.

Detailed Walkthrough
Either Vilkas or Skjor has received notice that someone has been kidnapped, and the Companions have been asked to attempt a rescue.  He will send you to the location of the kidnapped individual and tell you to free them from the location and then escort them to their nearby home. See Radiant Options below for possible variations of this quest.

Note that this is a repeating quest: each time you go to Vilkas or Skjor (when told to ask a Companion for work), he will give a different version of the quest.

Radiant Options
This quest has several radiant options. The criteria used to select victims for this quest are:

The victim must live in one of the marked habitation areas listed below.
Must not have unique voice acting.
Must not be a part of the following factions: PlayerHousecarlFaction, The Companions, CurrentHireling, JobJarlFaction, or CurrentFollowerFaction.
Must not be marked as an Essential NPC.
The victim's faction can not be related to you.
Must be a unique character (excludes guards, etc.).

NPC Residences
The victim can be randomly selected from over 200 potential NPCs residing in one of the areas listed below:

 

Quest Locations
The radiant location is randomly chosen from 50 possible locations, amounting to a large fraction of the dungeons that contain boss-type enemies and have a place where a captive can be locked up.  The location will be limited to holds that you have previously visited, so early in the game you may only receive destinations within Whiterun Hold, but later in the game there are many more possible destinations.  All possible locations are listed in the table below.

{| class="wikitable vtop"
 
 
|- style="vertical-align:bottom"
!  } | Eastmarch !!  } | Falkreath Hold !!  } | Haafingar !!  } | Hjaalmarch !!  } | The Pale !!  } | The Reach !!  } | The Rift !!  } | Whiterun Hold !!  } | Winterhold !!  } | Solstheim 
|-
!colspan=10|A Bandit Camp or Bandit-occupied fort (21 possible locations)
|-
|  } | 
|  } | 
|
|  } | 
|  } |Frostmere Crypt
|
|  } | 
|  } | 
|  } | 
|  } | 
|-
!colspan=10| A Falmer Hive (9 possible locations):
|-
|
|
|  } |Lost Echo Cave
|  } |Chillwind Depths
|
|  } | 
|  } | 
|  } |Shimmermist Cave
|  } | 
| 
|-
!colspan=10|A Hagraven Nest (6 possible locations): 
|-
|
|  } |Orphan Rock
|  } |Ravenscar Hollow
|
|
|  } | 
|
|  } |Serpent's Bluff Redoubt
|
|
|-
!colspan=10|A Vampire Lair (3 possible locations):
|-
|  } |Mara's Eye Pond
|
|  } |Pinemoon Cave
|
|
|
|
|  } |Broken Fang Cave  Moldering Ruins 
|
|
|-
!colspan=10| A Warlock Lair (11 possible locations):
|-
|  } | 
|  } | 
|  } |Northwatch Keep
|
|
|
|  } |Darklight Tower
|  } | 
|  } | 
|
|}

Note that the categories for each of the location types above will list all locations with the given type of occupant, including locations that do not have a boss-type enemy or do not have place to lock up captives; therefore, some of the locations listed in the categories are not possible destinations for this quest.

Reward
 

Notes
 
If you complete this quest successfully, then the citizen you rescue becomes a friend of yours. This may affect thane quests and other aspects of the game.
Unlike most other radiant Companions quests, this quest starts immediately when it is offered, giving you no chance to refuse it.

Bugs
 
 
 You can use the console by targeting them and using  moveto player .
 
This might be resolved by entering their home, then leaving immediately. This fix is reported to not work for Heimskr. Heimskr might not spawn at the hostage point and will stay at the shrine, however, this might be resolved by fast traveling to outside Whiterun where he may actually be making his way to his hostage point where he can then be rescued and taken home.
 
 
The missing NPC might appear to be in an undefined spot that hovers over the map. If this is the case, it might be resolved by using the "jump over the wall" glitch in Whiterun. Follow the instructions found here to exit the city, and run towards the marker. If successful, you should be able to find the target NPC in a glitched area. Talk to them and then fast travel back to Whiterun.
In Whiterun the compass pointer might show that the person you are looking for is within the city (pointer without a gate), however on the map it shows them outside the city. Open the console in Whiterun and type in: "tcl" and run towards the target beyond the city walls. The target may be hovering in the sky, so check all directions once you reach the marker. Talk to them and then fast travel back to Whiterun. Open the console and type in: "tcl" again.  
Open the game console and type this in to force the next quest line:  . That will have them follow you (even though they do not exist) and fast travel to the location you are asked to go to, or somewhere nearby.
 
Open the console again and type in: "setstage cr08 25" again without quotes. It will tell you to go back to Vilkas and end the quest (which he will accept as complete).
 
 
 
 
 

Quest Stages