the mundane was perfectly fine and expected. it’s a hardcore monastery after all.
the logic failures some of which you well described detracted from the quest and the game. one you didn’t mention that i find absurd is the blood pool which automatically signifies murder and then the utter lack of an appropriate response to the return of one of the AWOL novices seemingly implicated in the (absurdly) assumed murder
So, out of curiosity, I tried playing through the whole quest from scratch, starting from before the point I approached the noble lad at the tavern but after I had the encounter with the crimp in the church. I did all of the same things, the only differences that I can recall being 1) I did everything a lot more quickly as I already knew what to do and 2) I learned about Lucas’s secret from the Abbot’s book only before confronting him about it. Lo and behold, this time I could accuse Pious directly, no poisoning or murder. Just to confirm, I reloaded my old save to see if I was just missing the option, and it really wasn’t there. I am still frustrated, but it does turn out to have been a bug. I still feel that the quest needs some work, but this addresses my biggest complaint.
frelmedieval: I agree. It would have been nice to have some way to disguise yourself, and the monks and bandits are both too credulous to be believable (even monks aren’t that ready to believe!).
