0.10.7 "The Lost Child" k0c00y05 misplaced child

[Ra'Virr]

I ran into a problem with the quest k0c00y05 "The Lost Child" in a game started under version 0.10.7. I got the quest from the quest-giver and went to the dungeon he told me to visit, but I explored the entire place and didn't find the child. I tried using the console to teleport to it, but it said there was no quest marker at that location.

I went back to the quest-giver's city and asked around about the child. Townsfolk told me that the child was at a house, but then I could not ask about the location of that house.

I turned on the quest debug view, and it showed me that the child was in a house in town, which I visited and found the child. The child asked "Hello, are you a (player's race)? I am too, and my name is (child's name)." I took the child back to the quest-giver and got the reward.

According to UESP, the child should have been in the dungeon because my reputation with the Fighters Guild was under 10. I did not receive a letter saying that the child was not in the dungeon (and I spent several days outside before going into the dungeon, so I would have gotten the letter if it should have triggered). Furthermore, when I found the child in the house, the child's dialogue should have been different from what I got. I did lose Fighters Guild reputation for bringing the child back to her relative.

So, it looks like this quest is absolutely screwy at the moment. I've attached a save from before I went into the dungeon.

[Jay_H]

This isn't a bug per se, but just a bad idea on the part of classic. The child's location doesn't depend on your FG reputation, so many players have gone to the dungeon and never gotten the hint that the child won't be there. That's unfortunately how classic intended it:

However, sometimes the child won't be in the dungeon at all. If your reputation with the Fighters Guild is 10 or above, about seven hours after you accept the quest you will receive a note. It may be delivered on your way to the dungeon, or you may not receive it until you have already explored within if you were quick; in the latter case, you will only find an empty dungeon.

I intend to fix this, perhaps after the next build comes out, though I'm not sure what changes to make to the quest file yet.

[Ra'Virr]

Hm, OK. Either way, there are still a couple of bugs that you can see if you play with the save file:

• Asking around town for the location of the child and being told which house to go to won't add the residence to your list of topics

• If you ask an NPC about the child and the NPC offers to mark the residence on your map, the residence is not actually marked on the map

• The residence that the child is in is named differently in dialogue and for the actual building

I have a few suggestions for making the quest more intuitive if the child is being held in the safehouse. The problem I encountered, which I think is poor design, is that if you don't have high enough FG reputation to get the letter, then you'll have no idea what's going on because there is no NPC in the safehouse to explain what the real situation is (as UESP says there would be if you got the letter). I can think of a few ways to make the quest more intuitive:

• Simplest: Make it so that the child WILL be in the dungeon unless you have 10+ reputation with the FG, so you can just go in, grab the kid, and complete the quest with no FG reputation loss.

• Another simple option would be to make it so that receiving the letter is not dependent on your FG reputation, so you will always get the letter and be able to talk to the Fighters Guild NPC if the child is in the safehouse.

• An option that might be slightly more work would be to add an NPC to the house with the child if who can explain to the player what's happening if the player's FG reputation isn't high enough to get the letter. This would be important so that the player can understand that they may want to intentionally fail the quest: otherwise, they will have a sudden drop in FG reputation after completing the quest without understanding why (or even making the connection, if they didn't notice the drop in reputation until much later after completing the quest)

Would any of those be possible?

[Jay_H]

Simplest: Make it so that the child WILL be in the dungeon unless you have 10+ reputation with the FG, so you can just go in, grab the kid, and complete the quest with no FG reputation loss.

That's how I'd do it.

The residence that the child is in is named differently in dialogue and for the actual building

Not sure if it's related to this: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2730&p=31705#p31703

For each bug to report, I recommend making a separate topic. Otherwise they can be lost/forgotten.

[Ra'Virr]

Thanks!