Spoiler alert! If you haven’t finished “A Needle in a Haystack” main quest expect spoilers in this thread!
I discovered a bug in “A Needle in a Haystack” quest. It’s not a game breaking bug, still, it’s heavily related to storytelling and RPG experience provided by the game.
Intro
In general there are two major ways (at least from what I discovered so far) to find out who of all novices in Sasau Monastery is Pious in “A Needle in a Haystack” quest:
I. First way:
- tell novice Antonius you are searching a criminal on the monastery
- he will say he does not know anything about it
- he will try to poison you next time you will be having a meal [!]
- you will fortunately survive
- he will confess his is actually Pious
- he will offer few ways to work out the situation
- you chose to help him
- he will thank you and, also, apologize for poisoning you [!]
- and, finally, he will give you an antidote and a marigold decoration [!]
.
Recap: first story is simple and makes total sense: he tries to poison you; he fails in it; he apologizes for it; he gives you an antidote.
II. Second way :
- tell novice Antonius you are searching a criminal on the monastery
- he will say he does not know anything about it
- tell him you know he is Pious, man you are looking for
- he will confess his is actually Pious
- he will offer few ways to work out the situation
- he will also apologize for poisoning you [!]
- and, finally, he will give you an antidote and a marigold decoration [!]
.
Recap: second story is more complicated and its ending makes not sense: he does not try to poison you; then he apologizes for trying to poison you; finally he gives you an antidote for some reason. [!]
Steps to reproduce:
- successfully finish “Poverty, Chastity and Obedience” quest
- enter Sasau Monastery as novice Karl
- quest “A Needle in a Haystack” will start
- go to novice Antonius
- tell him you are searching a criminal on the monastery (choose “Tell him about your search for pious” option)
- tell him you know he is Pious you are looking for (choose: “I know you’re Pious” option)
- he will confess his is actually Pious
- he will offer few ways to work out the situation
- agree to help him
- he will thank you
-
after this moment the bugged behavior takes place [!]
.
Bugged behavior
- novice Antonius will now apologize for poisoning you [!]
- and, finally, he will give you an antidote and a marigold decoration [!]
.
Why this is a bug
Obviously, there was no poisoning if you managed to make novice Antonius rat himself out as Pious.
Offering you antidote and a marigold decoration and apologizing for poisoning you just doesn’t belong to this outcome and the whole situation does not make any scene.
You, as a player, will just like: “Whaaat?!..” at this moment.
Screenshots
1 - novice Antonius apologizes for poisoning you (it does not make scene) [!]
2 - …and gives you an antidote (it also does not make scene) [!]
Video
Talking to Antonius - https://yadi.sk/i/AdadtewVHP_WSA. Bug filmed from 2:30 to 2:50. I’m skipping some lines there to make dialogue shorter.
Fix suggestion
Make sure Antonius does not apologizes for poisoning you and does not give you an antidote and/or a marigold decoration (or anything else) if player manage to find out Antonius is actually Pious with out been poisoned by him.
In short: make Pious react properly it the situation described above.
Having a super cool investigative quest with an awesome alternative path through it, that leads to an obvious bug makes a very bad impression about the whole game, so, please, fix it!
Game version
1.9.0, PC, GOG-version
Savefile
https://yadi.sk/d/tLivulpDwN7B-w - before talking to Antonius.