Grymforge bugged - totally empty

[Andy P]

I just finished my third attempt at Grymforge and every time, it's ended up devoid of NPCs and enemies after the Nere fight, which completely blocks story progression.

The first attempt, I did a bit of exploring before getting to the cave-in, and used explosives I'd bought with me to get him out. I beat Nere, and from that point on the whole level was empty. Not knowing what it was supposed to contain, I left the area, followed up on some other quests (e.g. Nere's head), but came back to Grymforge thinking there must be more to do, and only then (and from searching the forum) did I realise there was a bug. So I threw away four hours of play and went back to try again.

Second time, I wondered whether using my own explosives (instead of the ones you're supposed to collect) had caused the problem, or maybe I'd left the area the first time without realising (don't think I did). So this time, I replayed the whole way through, and made certain not to leave the area, and I went and got the explosives before fighting Nere; though as I had to search for them, I spent a lot of time going in the wrong direction before having to backtrack. I used them to open the cave-in, beat Nere... and again immediately after the fight, the whole level was empty.

So I tried a THIRD time. This time I played through all in one go, definitely without leaving the area, definitely without even a long rest, went straight to collect the explosives and came straight back, beat Nere... and, YET AGAIN, immediately after the fight, the whole level is empty.

What do I mean by "empty"? There's literally nothing around. (There can be slight variations: the first time, the gnomes I'd rescued disappeared so I couldn't talk to them right after. The second time, I could talk to the gnomes, and there was one other gnome by the lift having a conversation with two invisible Duergar, but when I went away and came back he'd disappeared... until I clicked on the door, when he reappeared for a three second cutscene telling me to be careful. Third time, not even that.

This is crazy. I've lost like 10 hours on this bug so far, that's more time than I spend playing some games! A few other people have been affected by it but it seems not to affect everyone, so posts about it disappear off the front page in 3 minutes or less (replaced by yet more people making yet more threads moaning that women and gay people exist). I can't progress any further without any enemies, battles, NPCs (not even the two old cows), items, or events. This is a blocking issue that is preventing me and others from playing the game and it needs fixing!!!

[🐲Felesmiki]

this happen to me, lucky me i save pretty often, but i notice, to me it happen whenever i went to the camp and change companions, for whatever reason, my advise? change the companions before hand, go to the grymforge, do everything and then do whatever u want cause it doesnt matter

[Arngrim]

Is it only Grymforge that is empty?
If you fight Nere all npcs are suppoused to leave, but not instantly.
Anyway, you don´t really need to go to Grymforge to progress the story so I can´t see that you are stuck (unless it´s the entire world that´s borked).

As a notice to anyone that wants to fight Nere, don´t rest too much in Grymforge, Nere will just die if you do and people will leave the area.

[Andy P]

Originally posted by Felesmiki:

this happen to me, lucky me i save pretty often, but i notice, to me it happen whenever i went to the camp and change companions, for whatever reason, my advise? change the companions before hand, go to the grymforge, do everything and then do whatever u want cause it doesnt matter

That's literally what I did, on the second and third attempts. It still happens and does matter.

Originally posted by Arngrim:

Is it only Grymforge that is empty?

Anyway, you don´t really need to go to Grymforge to progress the story so I can´t see that you are stuck (unless it´s the entire world that´s borked).

It's "only" Grymforge, but it looks like that makes for about a third of the content in Act 1, including (judging by the clues I've seen so far) a load of stuff related to Shadowheart whom I'm romancing? And for all I know, something I miss in Grymforge now might break the game 90 hours later. Not taking that chance. No way.

[Varanus]

Originally posted by Arngrim:

Is it only Grymforge that is empty?
If you fight Nere all npcs are suppoused to leave, but not instantly.
Anyway, you don´t really need to go to Grymforge to progress the story so I can´t see that you are stuck (unless it´s the entire world that´s borked).

As a notice to anyone that wants to fight Nere, don´t rest too much in Grymforge, Nere will just die if you do and people will leave the area.

yeah, I explored first. Went to the adamantine forge. When I was on my way back, I got a message that Nere died. When I got back, everyone was gone. Not sure if I missed anything interesting there. :D

[Schobbob]

my gnomes disappeared too and the quest still tells me to talk to them

[Fogdance]

Same here grymforge area completely devoid of npcs

[Teddy]

Dont go to camp when you enter grymforge, the game warns you beforehand. It passes time and the gnomes escape and Nere dies. This is intentional

[Mazamune]

From what i learned is that all the NPCs there are with Nere and if he dies, then they have no more reasons to stay there and thus, they all leave the place.
So if you fail to rescue Nere before he dies, then yeah, the place gets emptied up.

[John Cena]

after the nere fight i had the ability to talk to the gnomes and the black dorfs. i was mean to the dorfs but i talked to the gnomes. after a long rest i went back to the grymforge and everyone left, except the invisible gnome by the lift. the quest for the gnomes was completed.

i assumed that if you fight nere, or long rest before rescuing him, everyone leaves.

both the gnome quest and the nere quest are marked as completed, although the quest completion summary for the gnome quest is inaccurate for me but i have another quest that is somewhat accurate.

not sure what to think because of the invisible gnome and the inaccurate gnome quest completed description but it seems like everyone leaves at the end no matter what.

[Lur Nen Rue]

grymforce basicaly set you to a time limit when you enter it the first time, 1st rule is do not enter camp or leave the map
then you can do whatever you want aside saving or killing nere
after resolving nere (kill) you have limited turns or few minutes before everyone go away. including stoned drow near the temple. ive explored nere and resolve philemon and face the grym boss. nere still choking poisong but fine
so i suggest you resolve the elder roche, philemon, the gnome, the special gnome who rescuing his friend(forgot name), side with druerger or not, do what you want with the spider, rescue the beer gnome, talk to druerger historian then you resolve nere

[Teddy]

Originally posted by Mazamune:

From what i learned is that all the NPCs there are with Nere and if he dies, then they have no more reasons to stay there and thus, they all leave the place.
So if you fail to rescue Nere before he dies, then yeah, the place gets emptied up.

They also leave afterwards, if you go to camp, and you have a reason to go to camp after that battle and doing the grymforge boss afterwards.