I'm proceeding through the MQ and TG questlines currently. Got to the part in the MQ where Caius sends you to Ald'Ruhn to find an Ashlander-turned-merchant. I got what seemed like all the info from him and eventually returned to Caius, who basically told me "don't you know you need to go to the Ushushina (sp) camp?"

Alright, so I hike up north to the Ashlander camp. Once there, I am a little surprised to find that I can tell some of the people I am here to fulfill the Nerevarine prophecies! I mean, I know that's where the game was headed, but no one in the game had told me this previously.

I looked in the game guide book, which said that, upon returning from Ald'Ruhn, Caius was supposed to have promoted me in the Blades faction. He didn't do that. Checking my stats, I can see the reason; my Intelligence is around 8 points too low.

So my question is, am I missing out on some content that could be problematic here? I guess Caius was supposed to say something about how I might be the Nerevarine... seems like that would have been a cool moment. But now that I've gone up to Ushushina camp, have I screwed up progression in the MQ?

In any event, I decided I needed to do more Dwemer ruin exploration and Thieves' Guild stuff, so I wandered around to Tel Vos. I guess I can just go back to Camp U. if needed.

Did Caius give you any documents when you went back to him? He was supposed to give you a decoded copy of the original package that you delivered to him, which explains that they intend to use you for their purposes as you "[have] the appearance of meeting the conditions of this local superstition" (the Nerevarine prophecy). But I can't remember if he actually spells it out in words, which is where you might have missed something. But I don't think it should have messed up the main quest for you.

Nope, no package from Caius.

When I went there after Ald'Ruhn, I just asked him about "orders", and he said something like "aren't you supposed to be at the U_____ Camp?"

Maybe I just missed the correct topic of conversation, but there didn't seem to be any obvious options there.

Did you get given some notes when you spoke to Hassour (the merchant)? That should be the trigger for quest completion of the previous element. If not I'd take them to Caius and go to "orders" again with your intelligence raised, which might fix the missing dialogue.

If all else fails, I don't think it matters too much as the subsequent quests aren't dependent on any of the items you receive at this point the game, so it may not be a problem. I'd make a backup save though, just in case.

I think I did get notes from Hassour... but I'll check again.

If all else fails.. There is two short cuts to complete the Main Quest...

The normal short-cut is to kill Vivec and yada yada but why go thru that trouble? What I normally do now-on is go straight to Red Mountain Region, get Sunder, Get Keening, then defeat Dagoth Ur (Ignoring the fact that the artifacts are harming me!)

Alternatively, just go to the Cavern of the Incarnate and pick up Moon and Star. That will put you about half way through the mainquest.