» Sun May 20, 2012 11:18 pm
*Quest: The Taste Of Death
*Type: Daedric
*Description: Met Eola early in the game, cleared out Reachcliff Cave without her as she died too easily (but had Janassa with me at least after the initial room), got the quest to lure Brother Verulus to the cave.
Twenty+ levels later I decided to finish this out. I had to bribe Verulus, but he followed me (and Janassa) readily to the secret back entrance to the cave. Once the dialog between Eola and Janassa finishes, they begin walking toward the altar. When they get almost to the stairs to the left of the altar (facing the altar), there is a fiery explosion near them, and Eola and the guests become hostile to me. I can calm some of them temporarily, but cannot get them to stop being hostile. Doesn't matter whether I leave Janassa outside the cave. I can also run away and lose them, then sneak back to see them standing around or returning to their seats, but eventually one of them, usually Eola, says "What's that?" and the red dots appear on my radar again; one or more of them will attack Verulus who is still standing to the left of the altar, and he will immediately go prone and then they leave him alone.
Depending on the timing, if I try to attack Verulus, he is already cowering and will not die; or, if I focus on killing Eola and the guests, Verulus goes to sleep on the altar in the meantime, and seemingly cannot be killed nor pickpocketed (it claims he detects me). I would rather finish this in a way that nets me the Ring of Namira.
Also I tried an earlier save (before bribing Verulus), entered Reachcliff Cave through the front entrance, found Eola alone in the altar room. The only dialog was to remind me to fetch Verulus. There was no explosive rune on the floor or anything else I could see that would set her off. Then I left through the front entrance, found the secret back entrance, and Eola was still there, alone, no change.
How To Replicate: unknown
Stats: Level 35 Breton
Other: Xbox 360
EDIT: I got past this by leaving my companion outside the cave, ran ahead of Verulus, stood in front of Eola, turned around facing the exit, and as soon as the dialog betwen Verulus and Eola began, sprinted out the secret rear entrance. When I came back in, Verulus was asleep on the altar, Eola was standing on the right side waiting for me, and the guests were all still seated. When I crossed the threshold of the room, the quest changed to "Kill Verulus". After finishing the cannibalism and getting the ring, as Eola walked away, she crossed over to the left side of the room (facing the altar), and directly in front of the shelving unit, the explosion happened (in the same spot it happened when she would walk to the altar)! Mercifully nobody reacted to it.