Anybody else encounter this bug in Vaults of Gemin and beyond?

[Arfwisg]

Yo.

I've been playing through Arena with the occasional crash here and there but otherwise it's been fine. When I reached the Vaults of Gemin, though, I seem to have encountered a rather catastrophic bug.

The tablet that's meant to help guide me to Murkwood has instead been replaced by the Hammer of Gharen and upon leaving the dungeon and resting, the main questline gives me the 7th piece of the staff and fast forwards to Dagoth-Ur. Inconvenient when trying to experience the full game, but not the end of the world.

Then, however, once you reach the end of Dagoth-Ur and recover the 8th piece of the staff, nothing happens. No text, no cutscenes, nothing. The game just gives up there and I can't find a way to advance, nor can I seem to find anything online about this bug even existing.

Fixes I've tried (for both bugs, both before and after attempting to collect the items):
-Camping
-Leaving and re-entering the dungeon
-Talking to the NPCs associated with the current quest stage
-Resting 10 days at an inn
-Reloading a save
-Closing the game, reopening it and loading a save
-Closing the game, reopening it, starting a new character then loading a save
-Going to the Imperial palace anyway
-Verifying integrity of game files

If anybody else has experienced this and hopefully has a solution, it'd be greatly appreciated!

[fracs]

Have u tried entering the Emperial palace after u've got the 8th piece?

[Arfwisg]

Originally posted by fracs:

Have u tried entering the Emperial palace after u've got the 8th piece?

Aye, unfortunately it didn't work.

[Tryp_Con_Station]

Did you ever solve this?

[Arfwisg]

Originally posted by Tryp_Con_Station:

Did you ever solve this?

Sadly not. Sorry I can't offer anything helpful.

[Secret-Level]

Same bug for me, I received the 7th fragment and looted the Hammer of Gharen in the Halls of Gemin... and that was it, stuck at a complete dead-end.

Luckily, I had a backup save from when I first entered the Halls of Gemin. I lost maybe 2 hours and almost a full level. But at least I could continue playing the game (I still had to reload to get past the bug where the priest doesn't realize that you have the stone tablet in your inventory).