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[Bug] Dead Lothander re-appears later

GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
edited December 2013 in Fixed
Observed behaviour: after obtaining the Geas Removal Scroll and giving it to Lothander to obtain his half of the antidote and the information about where to find Marek, I quickly killed Lothander (there's no rep loss) before he left (mainly in order to loot the second pair of Boots of Speed). I then confronted Marek and obtained the rest of the antidote, thus being cured and completing the Marek & Lothander quest. All working fine so far ... BUT considerably later, I set off on Alatos's quest to loot Oberan's estate, so I went to Central BG and was walking through the gate/tunnel in the city's inner wall when I happened to pause for a moment ... which brought up a blue circle for a character standing in the tunnel but out of sight because he was concealed by the stonework of the tunnel. It was Lothander! Speaking to him he said "What were you doing?! You asked the wrong question! You idiot, now we're all dead." (I'm not sure what he was referring to, but maybe that's one of his dialogues if you don't complete his quest correctly? Even though actually I had completed it.) He offered no conversation option, so I tried attacking him ... and ended up killing him again, and not only got the XP again but also his corpse dropped Boots of Speed (and his other equipment) again! Now, with the original pair obtained from Drasus, I've got three pairs of Boots of Speed! That surely can't be intended. (Actually, I'm not even sure whether it was intended that I could obtain the second pair without failing the Marek & Lothander quest and thereby dying).

Expected behaviour: if Lothander is killed, he should drop his equipment and then stay dead, not reappearing (and especially not reappearing with duplicates of his original equipment).
Post edited by Balquo on

Comments

  • MadhaxMadhax Member Posts: 1,416
    Did you by any chance let Lothander move between zones when you were killing him? There's a bug going around (that I thought was fixed) where wounded NPCs passing between areas seem to multiply. Hopefully there's only one extra copy.

    More likely, though, this is a legacy bug from the original game. This quest is always a little wonky, and last time I completed it I had to CLUA Lothander to me to complete his portion of the quest, since he never spawned properly.

    By the way, I'm pretty sure the "You asked the wrong question!" line is in regards to the fortune teller who points you towards the geas scroll. If you've since asked him a different question and then somehow talk to Lothander, he assumes you didn't ask about the scroll and runs off. Had you gone back to the fortune teller and asked about the geas scroll, then talked to bizarro-Lothander, you might have been able to do his quest again.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    No, I killed Lothander (the first time!) in the Blade & Stars in the same room where I found him (after first giving him the Geas Removal Scroll and in return receiving his part of the antidote and the location of Marek, but before he could run away).

    Yes, I had gone back and tried asking the diviner a different question between when I killed Lothander and when I surprisingly met him again, so you may well be right about the origin of the odd dialogue, that sounds likely.

    I don't remember this happening in original BG1 ... but I also don't remember ever previously killing Lothander after completing his section of the Marek & Lothander quest (usually I play Good, but this time I'm giving Evil a chance :-)), so probably I never before created the condition for this bug to appear. So yes, you may be right that it's a legacy bug from original BG1.

    Nevertheless, legacy or not, it's clearly a bug.

    BTW, does anyone know (for sure, I mean, not speculative guessing) whether or not it is intended behaviour that I could obtain the second pair of Boots of Speed without failing the quest (and therefore dying from Marek's poison)? I'm not sure whether what I did was a legitimate Evil choice or the discovery of an exploit! Since I'm assuming for the time being that it was legitimate, I'm using those Boots. (But I'm not using the third pair, since I obtained those through the blatant bug discussed above.)
  • killeahkilleah Member Posts: 124
    As I see it Marek and Lothander are quite at each others throats. The geas is a fine example, the fact that you got the antidote shows that you've dealt with lothander pre killing him.

    In my opinion Marek couldn't care less about you killing Lothander, and his antidote are obtained by killing him anyway.

    If one looks at similiar quests in the BG series, alas where a choice of kill to obtain vs. bargain/pay/solve to obtain, they're all, more or less, constructed in a way that gives you the reward (the cure in this case) doing it either way.

    Usually however the reward is much better doing it the good way, however not in this case, bug or no bug ;)
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Bump, because I've now got to the same point in my next playthrough, and again I tried killing Lothander (even though this is a Good run) to see what happened.

    This time I did it early in Chapter 5 rather than postponed until fairly late in the Chapter. However, the dead Lothander again re-appeared in exactly the same place as last time, and again he could be killed again for a third pair of Boots of Speed and so on. (This time I hadn't talked to the diviner again, so there was no out-of-place dialogue, in fact no dialogue.) So this definitely isn't a random glitch or a random reappearance, it's a consistent and reproducible bug.
  • BalquoBalquo Member, Developer Posts: 2,746
    Was this single or multiplayer?
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    @Balquo: single.
  • DurenasDurenas Member Posts: 508
    What happens, and I just reproduced this bug, is that after getting the identity of the person who can lift the Geas, Lothandar will run away to the edge of the map. If you stay in the map, Lothandar will eventually disappear. If you're fast, you can get to a sewer exit before he despawns. As long as you do not return to central Baldur's gate before getting Lothandar's half of the antidote, he will be somewhere on his path to his exit point, the script that has him move to the exit broke by you leaving the area.
  • BalquoBalquo Member, Developer Posts: 2,746
    Amberion said:

    What happens, and I just reproduced this bug, is that after getting the identity of the person who can lift the Geas, Lothandar will run away to the edge of the map. If you stay in the map, Lothandar will eventually disappear. If you're fast, you can get to a sewer exit before he despawns. As long as you do not return to central Baldur's gate before getting Lothandar's half of the antidote, he will be somewhere on his path to his exit point, the script that has him move to the exit broke by you leaving the area.

    That has been fixed. He no longer runs half the map to exit.

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