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How to get pass Balreth Bug
So like many I killed Balreth just to have the npc disappear and making the quest unable to be finish. That said I found a way to get by it.
It involves abandoning the quest, logging off, and still some luck. By redoing the quest there is a chance the npc won't disappear. Now if Balreth is still dead and or doesn't spawn you need to log off wait a minute and log back in.
THEN if you do kill him and collect the essence and complete that part of the quest the portal to exit still might not appear. Thankfully you can join a group and teleport to a group member and it will count as "leaving ash mountain".
Not saying this will work 100% of the time, just that it what FINALLY worked for me.