The Man Who Waits - Can't Progress the Quest (Spoilers)

[Mk1]

I got the three Leaden Key quests, including The Man Who Waits, but I wanted to follow some side quests first.  So when I ended up at the Sanitarium, I did Aloth's side quest, followed up on the grimoire wild goose chase, and finally found out something suspicious was going on, along the way. However, I left before talking to the warden about it, since I didn't really feel like digging into the secrets of the Sanitarium at the time.

 

Now I came back  (probably ten or twelve hours later) to complete the sceptre pieces task, and decided I might as well continue with the Leaden Key quest - but when I talk to the warden/statue, he acts as if I'd already completed the quest (I get 3 conversation choices explaining to him what went wrong, none of which make any sense to me, since I have't played through the quest), and my journal doesn't update.

 

Is this game-breaking? Is there a workaround, short of going back and losing a huge amount of gameplay? 

[Mk1]

Looking around, I see there's a thread about this quest being bugged in other ways, with the Sanitarium turning hostile...

 

I never even got through the locked basement doors that (I assume) lead you to the bulk of the quest. My journal prompt is to go tell the warden statue that one of the animancers is up to something, and when I do, all I get are dialogue options as if I finished the quest by fighting through it, but selecting them doesn't cause the quest to update, it just stays open.

 

Anyway, bump.

[Metalicum]

I've got the same problem. The door remains locked and there is no way to open them, also the NPC on the right is missing as well. The statue does not talk to me anymore after this 3-choice dialog and here is no one else in the sanitarium to speak with. Considering that I basically use 1 save file, I can start all over again. 

[Mk1]

I've got the same problem. The door remains locked and there is no way to open them, also the NPC on the right is missing as well. The statue does not talk to me anymore after this 3-choice dialog and here is no one else in the sanitarium to speak with. Considering that I basically use 1 save file, I can start all over again. 

 

Now that I think about it, the NPC (Azo?) was never there either - I just talked to his assistant and found some stuff on his desk, which triggered the "go tell the statue" journal entry. Didn't realize that this was a bug at the time.

 

I have a feeling the fact I ran around doing other quests in the Sanitarium, and left to go back to the catacombs to finish up the grimoire quest, might have somehow messed up the quest trigger for The Man Who Waits.

 

Well, crap, there goes a huge chunk of gameplay. Ugh...

[Evange]

You should try uploading your save file for the developers to investigate. Your case is most unfortunate.

[Mk1]

You should try uploading your save file for the developers to investigate. Your case is most unfortunate.

 

I guess I'll do that when I get home. Missed the "how to report bugs" sticky, though given the magnitude of the problem - I'm assuming this is a complete game-stopper, since it's the main quest line - some kind of reply would be nice.

 

Especially in light of how messed up this quest seems to be to be in several different ways.

[Mk1]

OK, so apparently if I go back to a save from seven hours before (right after the Leaden Key visions in the temple), I can get the quest to initiate as intended.

 

I have a feeling I broke something before by either:

 

1. Looting Azo's office and finding incriminating evidence before speaking to Azo's assistant, which resulted in a journal update but (I think) screwed up the conversation options you get with the assistant.

 

2. Doing the above, but going back to the catacombs to finish the grimoire quest instead of talking to the head warden as prompted by the journal.

 

Let's see if I can complete it without something else going horribly wrong...

Edited April 6, 2015 by Mk1

[mipthehappy]

From what you have written, it sounds like you found the notes in Azo's room without first speaking to the High Warden, essentially skipping a step in the quest. The steps are to speak with the High Warden, find Azo's notes, then return to the High Warden to discuss - this then unlocks the door to the rest of the sanitarium. Perhaps skipping the initial conversation with the High Warden made the rest of the quest glitch out?

[Doppelschwert]

Huh, I just did the quest (worked fine for me), but I can't remember finding notes from Azo before heading into the rest of the sanitarium.

 

I spoke to the High Warden, then I spoke to several animancers, finally to Azo's apprentice in his room, who mispoke about the experiments. This enabled me to go to the High Warden again to get access to the rest of the sanitarium.

 

In the end, I guess it still boils down to first speaking to the high warden before doing anything else, because I did that and there was no problem.

[Metalicum]

From what you have written, it sounds like you found the notes in Azo's room without first speaking to the High Warden, essentially skipping a step in the quest. The steps are to speak with the High Warden, find Azo's notes, then return to the High Warden to discuss - this then unlocks the door to the rest of the sanitarium. Perhaps skipping the initial conversation with the High Warden made the rest of the quest glitch out?

That could be it. I hadn't expected talking statues so it was the last NPC I talked to. So I guess that by skipping the dialog and completing all conversations and side quests in Sanit. first glitched the game for good. 

[thomaskusk]

Mk1, on 06 Apr 2015 - 01:19 AM, said:

I got the three Leaden Key quests, including The Man Who Waits, but I wanted to follow some side quests first.  So when I ended up at the Sanitarium, I did Aloth's side quest, followed up on the grimoire wild goose chase, and finally found out something suspicious was going on, along the way. However, I left before talking to the warden about it, since I didn't really feel like digging into the secrets of the Sanitarium at the time.

 

Now I came back  (probably ten or twelve hours later) to complete the sceptre pieces task, and decided I might as well continue with the Leaden Key quest - but when I talk to the warden/statue, he acts as if I'd already completed the quest (I get 3 conversation choices explaining to him what went wrong, none of which make any sense to me, since I have't played through the quest), and my journal doesn't update.

 

Is this game-breaking? Is there a workaround, short of going back and losing a huge amount of gameplay? 

I have this exact same issue. Likely due to the same reason as OP.

 

1) unlocked the question "the man who waits"

2) went to the sanitarium and talked to warden

3) went downstairs and found the documents in Anzo's room

4) talked to the warden again and was told I could now go through the locked door in the cellar, which I didn't do at the time though

5) I went and did other quests and exploration

6) Returned to sanitarium, cannot open the door in the cellar and the wardan's dialogue is as if I have progressed in the quest.

 

I had a look around the forum, and while I can see several people with the same problem, I found no solutions to this, nor any developers who have responded to this particular bug either, nor is there anything in any of the pinned topics that is of help.

 

I checked my save games and I have to go 9 gamehours back in time to find a savegame where this bug hasn't been initiated, and that's just not an option for me.

 

So what's the verdict to this gamebreaking bug? Is devs looking for a fix, is there a workaround, and what can I do to help to get this fixed?

[thomaskusk]

I would still very much like a responce to this.

 

Or if nothing else advice.

 

1) Should I just go on with the campaign and come back to this later when it is hopefully fixed, running the risk that it won't be fixed.

2) wait and hope that this will be fixed at all running the risk of getting bored and in case that it don't get fixed having to wait for a very long time  

3) just admit defeat and that I have lost 9 hours of gameplay time and load back, which is a waste of my time and I run the risk of running into just another bug.

[riipah]

Just reporting that I just encountered the same bug (quest skipped to end). Hoping they'll fix it... Thanks for the investigation.

[Quazzl]

i have encountered the same problem, dont want to use a savegame 12h ago... please fix this with the new patch

[bcooper1993]

same issue, this happened to me some 30hours ago haha. i just fobbed it off and kept playing. I'm pretty sure my steps were:

talk to warden about downstairs

go downstairs, do the Grimoire side quest, leaving the sanitarium without talking to anyone else.

finish that side quest

door downstairs is locked

talk to Warden, who goes on about "what happened down there??" i was very confused and cant remember what option i chose.
now i cant talk to warden anymore.

my savegame is attached in that link. though this is from hours and hours after, i just left it and moved onto other things.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5DB2B0347EF9BD33%2116179

[elmaoroflson]

I also am having this issue. Will be happy to upload my savegame if it would help.

[elmaoroflson]

Any chance of this bug being fixed in 1.06?

[elmaoroflson]

So... No?