Event progress can stall when swapping Companions in Isobel's Companion Quest, "A Mother's Request"

RaygunGoth

Unfortunately I stumbled onto a quest bug in Isobel's second Companion Quest, "A Mother's Request" — specifically, at the point in Gonfalon Bay where one must retrieve wine from alleged thief Halz and return it to the ship's clerk, Elzugoth. If you dismiss Isobel before entering the Outlaw's Refuge, it then becomes impossible to complete part of the overall quest. I was forced to abandon and restart from Navire Castle.

Behaviour observed on Windows/Steam, yesterday (2023-04-23) evening.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Progress through the quest until directed towards Elzugoth, in Gonfalon Bay (Objective: Talk to a Shipping Clerk)
2. Agree to gather Seathorn, rather than paying gold to 'make Elzugoth's problem go away'
3. Gather the required 3x Seathorn (with Isobel still active)
4. Approach (but do not enter) the Outlaw's Refuge in Gonfalon Bay. The specific step I took was to summon Ember instead of Isobel, and immediately enter the Outlaw's Refuge before Ember finished being summoned. Ember then appeared as normal once Outlaw's Refuge had finished loading.
5. Talk to Halz (still without Ember present), as per the quest marker/directions for hand-in. Note that his dialogue suggests he is satisfied, and that the quest will be resolved. However instead of resolving as normal, the dialogue will loop back around to his first lines of dialogue.
6. Exit the dialogue with Halz.

At this point the task is now considered complete according to the quest log — Halz will also address you as though you completed his stage of the transaction — but the 'quest items' space in inventory no longer contains Seathorn, and nor have you been handed any wine. Back outside, Elzugoth will consider the quest to still be in progress. The situation persists even after summoning Isobel into the Outlaw's Refuge, and trying the dialogue with Halz again.

RaygunGoth

Oops, typing error! In step 5, I mean to say that Isobel is the one who's still not present. I still had Ember summoned, though. 😅

RaygunGoth wrote: »

[5.] Talk to Halz (still without Ember Isobel present), as per the quest marker/directions for hand-in. Note that his dialogue suggests he is satisfied, and that the quest will be resolved. However instead of resolving as normal, the dialogue will loop back around to his first lines of dialogue.