Can't find quest NPC (k0c00y06, A Mix-Up)

[jayhova]

Well I got that quest where your rep plummets because you are accused of a crime you did not commit. The problem I'm having is that one of the NPCs i'm supposed to find is not where I expect him to be (in the temple of Arkay I think). Is this a bug or am I missing something?

[Jay_H]

This is the third request for help we've gotten for this quest in 2 weeks It's an absolute nightmare to troubleshoot, so I can only recommend following the UESP walkthrough. Hasn't failed us yet.

I feel as though I should add a warning label to that quest at offer: "You assume all responsibility for this quest's consequences! All warranties void!"

[jayhova]

Where this quest breaks for me is talking to the priest. I go to find him and he is not in the location the NPCs on the street tell me he is. The other Quest NPCs are locatable but the priest is not in the temple. Can anyone confirm this? The UESP says that there is a bug in the letters as to where the NPCs are is this also true of NPCs on the street?

[Ferital]

I confirm there are several issues with this quest in DFU.

First, from your save, the real thief, Shernin is supposed to be in Damiriria, but in fact he is not, he is in Sentinel. This is the first issue, as he really should be in Damiriria (checked in classic).

Secondly, there is an issue regarding Shernin's location, which is supposed to be The Yeomfield Residence (in Sentinel). However, it is never marked on map when asking NPCs for Shernin's location, even when they say so. I managed to find it by checking many buildings, but the correct residence was called The Copperfield Residence, not far from The Order of the Candle. But then, inside the building, if you ask people, they will say "Shernin is around here in The Yeomfield Residence".

Third issue, when you find Shernin, you also discover the incriminating letter, but when you pick it, it does not appear in your inventory. So you simply can't finish the quest, as you need the information from the letter to do so. Also, I'm not sure Shernin is supposed to be there as well. Normally, if I remember correctly, only the letters are supposed to be at Shernin's location.

Last issue, but minor one: when you ask people about Shernin in "Tell me about", you will find he is related to a woman called M'olpta. This M'olpta can be found in Weeping Sunrise of Arkay. However, if you go to her, she will appear like Queen Barenziah (!):

bug_k0c00y06.png (1.5 MiB) Viewed 2511 times

[jayhova]

This is the third request for help we've gotten for this quest in 2 weeks It's an absolute nightmare to troubleshoot, so I can only recommend following the UESP walkthrough. Hasn't failed us yet.

Hey Jay it failed! I managed to show that this quest actually has bugs and it's not my incompetence. It's uncompleteable. OKay how do I fix this?

[Ommamar]

I have finished this quest but took a walk through, some searching and I am sure a bit of luck. If possible I would avoid it so if anyone asks "Are you <plateyname>" opt out by saying no. I am also not sure that my reputation in Sentinel fully recovered from it although I think it is suppose to be slightly improved once you complete it.

[JorisVanEijden]

Oh boy, lots of confusion.
Looking at that savegame:
Shernin is a priest whose home is "The Yeomfield Residence" in "The Flying Stag Hostel", auto-assigned by DFU. [_priest_home_]
He also has a home at "The Order of Arkay" in "Damiriria" assigned by the quest. [_priesthome_]
He was placed at "The Coppersley Residence" in "Sentinel" by the quest (cause he did it). [_thiefhouse_]

The second home is forgotten by the QuestMachine, because it only remembers their Home and the last location they were placed at.
So any time the quest text resources reference the priest's home with _priesthome_ or __priesthome_ you get "The Order of Arkay" or "Damiriria".
When the Quest system wants an npc to tell you about the Home of the priest you get "The Yeomfield Residence" and when it wants an npc to tell you the priest's current location you get "The Coppersley Residence" in "Sentinel".

The bug here is that DFU should not have created the local homes for the npcs.
The problem is that this auto-home-creation was put in place to solve other bugs.
I'm not sure right now what to do with this.

From the savegame I could not directly see why clicking on the letter would not put it in your inventory.
That would require more debugging than I have time for now.
The quest does place letter23 at the same location it places the guilty party.

[Jay_H]

This, like the Exorcism quest for the temples, is one I'm worried is going to require a complete re-write from zero. I think little fixes aren't going to cut it with this one.

[Ferital]

Oh boy, lots of confusion.
Looking at that savegame:
Shernin is a priest whose home is "The Yeomfield Residence" in "The Flying Stag Hostel", auto-assigned by DFU. [_priest_home_]

But you never any mention he can be found in "The Flying Stag Hostel".

He also has a home at "The Order of Arkay" in "Damiriria" assigned by the quest. [_priesthome_]
He was placed at "The Coppersley Residence" in "Sentinel" by the quest (cause he did it). [_thiefhouse_]

The second home is forgotten by the QuestMachine, because it only remembers their Home and the last location they were placed at.
So any time the quest text resources reference the priest's home with _priesthome_ or __priesthome_ you get "The Order of Arkay" or "Damiriria".
When the Quest system wants an npc to tell you about the Home of the priest you get "The Yeomfield Residence" and when it wants an npc to tell you the priest's current location you get "The Coppersley Residence" in "Sentinel".

The bug here is that DFU should not have created the local homes for the npcs.
The problem is that this auto-home-creation was put in place to solve other bugs.
I'm not sure right now what to do with this.

I'm not sure as well, I'm not familiar enough with DFU quest system mechanics. But the issue is quite big here since this make this quest almost uncompletable depending on the path. I checked in classic and the quest, while also a little buggy(I received one of the letters far too early), can be completed, no matter what the path is.

Regarding the buildings mismatch, this also makes DFU mixing "The Yeomfield Residence" and "The Coppersley Residence", however as you said, the first should be in The Flying Stag Hostel while the other should be in Sentinel.

From the savegame I could not directly see why clicking on the letter would not put it in your inventory.
That would require more debugging than I have time for now.
The quest does place letter23 at the same location it places the guilty party.

Another issue I forgot to mention is when you meet the witness, he should disappear right after raising an alarm which summons a knight in the current building. This plays perfectly fine in classic but in DFU, the contact disappears for half a second, then reappears and starts to flicker like that until you leave the building. Also, the knight does not appear. I could fix that but I don't have much time to do so at the moment so I prefer to raise this fourth issue regarding this particularly very buggy quest.

[Ferital]

I have finished this quest but took a walk through, some searching and I am sure a bit of luck. If possible I would avoid it so if anyone asks "Are you <plateyname>" opt out by saying no. I am also not sure that my reputation in Sentinel fully recovered from it although I think it is suppose to be slightly improved once you complete it.

This quest has many paths and some play relatively fine.