Crash Talking to Count of Skingrad [Mage's Guild]

[JonCon]

Hey so I've found a consistent crash for me during the Mage's Guild QL. When you finally meet Janus and talk to him after the necromancer ambush selecting the only prompt, "I'm sorry, I didn't know," causes the game to freeze without fail. This essentially soft-locks the Mage's Guild QL. Does anyone know of any workarounds not involving console commands or mods?