Lore of the Ages (UD Quest)

[mireigi]

!! This fix no longer works as the delivery dialog have been changed to cinematic dialog, making the inventory inaccessible.

Introduction
This "fix" or workaround is for a very specific situation only, but I've seen the situation happen quite a few times, often with players ending up being unable to complete the quest, nor have it reset during the weekly reset.

The situation
You're in a group, doing the quest. Someone in your group attempts to remove the gems AND the book from the coffin and is forced to fight the vampire to get the book needed for the quest. That someone then loots the book and can complete it, since the quest have advanced in the players journal.

You are next in line and do the same, attempting to remove the gems and the book. The quest advances and your journal is updated. However, the vampire never spawns, since there's a 15-20 minute cooldown during which his gaseous form reconstitutes inside the coffin and he cannot spawn.

Even if you come back later, the quest will have progressed and you will not have any options left to obtain the book for the quest.

The fix/workaround
Requirements
You need to have the quest updated and your journal telling you to deliver the book to the necromancer.
You also need to be with someone who have the quest at the same stage as you, and have the book in their inventory.

What you do
1. Go back to the necromancer NPC who gave the quest
2. Have your companion initiate the delivery dialogue
3. Have your compainion drop the book from their inventory
4. Tell your companion to complete the quest (they will still be able to)
5. Pick up the book
6. Deliver the book to the necromancer

Why this works
The reason this works is because the dialog script checks for 2 things when you try to deliver the book. One being the status of the quest in your journal, the other that you have the book in your inventory. As long as both checks are met, you can initiate the delivery dialog with the NPC.

This will not bug the server or the quest in any way. The quest is scripted to remove the book from your inventory, only if you have it in your inventory. It is perfectly safe to do.

Notice! - The quest only advances through the coffin dialog. You cannot advance the quest by picking up a dropped book. There is no exploit in doing this.

Is this fix really needed?
Not if you know about the respawn timer of the vampire. That knowledge is purely OOC, though. The coffin dialog doesn't take the inability to spawn the vampire into account when offering you the dialog options, which is either a bug or a mistake in the scripting.

For new players, particularly those following more experienced players around, getting help with the quests, losing out on the 1,000 XP can be a real pain, especially since the bugged quest won't reset itself with the server reset and they can end up missing out on the XP several times before they contact a DM for help.

I'll post about the bug in the bug section of the forums so it can get fixed in time. At the very least it shouldn't be possible to pick an option that advances the quest past a stage where it is impossible to acquire what you need for it.

Until then, I suggest you use this fix/workaround if you encounter this problem yourself or meet someone who was unfortunate enough to get it bugged.

[Deathgrowl]

What? I just clicked the coffin, put the gem in there and got quest complete. You don't need to actually encounter the vampire.

[mireigi]

No, as I wrote, it is for the very specific situation where two people attempt to take the book AND the gems, shortly after one-another.

Doing the quest the easy way doesn't fit with every PC's RP. Some are greedy and want the gems.

As I wrote at the start, it is for a specific situation, but I've seen it happen enough times and I've heard complaints about it from others I've met, helping them the next time I could do the quest myself.