I talked to Kud-Ei and was told to speak to Vamori. According to a walkthough I read Kud-Ei is supposed to give me a scroll but she didn't.

I bribed Vamori until his disposition was 80. The walkthrough said when his disposition gets to 70 he will admit to taking the staff. But he hasn't done that.

At this point further bribing seems like a waste of money and I don't know what to do.

Sounds like a bug to me.

I always use the charm scrolls Kud-Ei gives me. One gets the job done. Once you load your save, try one of the scrolls instead. It shouldn't make a difference, but give it a go,

Do you happen to have the quest Through A Nightmare, Darkly open as well? That is known to trigger a bug. Also, what are his dialogue options? One of them should make him talk about the staff.

Btw, if you haven′t received one already, help yourself to a http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

I do not have Through A Nightmare, Darkly open.

The dialogue options are: Ardaline, Bravil, Rumors. After first bribing him, he admitted to liking Ardaline but subsequent bribing did not elicit more.

Thanks for the fishy stick.

What exactly did he say?

It's been a while since I've done this quest, but I could have sworn that he admitted to selling the staff after saying he loved Ardaline.

The game just froze and I had to force quit it.

I guess I'll have to go back to my previous save now.

After bribing him and getting his disposition to around 70 he admits to loving her. When I select Ardaline again he says he never hurt her. I don't get past that point.

Broadly, this is the basic problem with following walkthroughs when playing. I can't count how many times someone has come on here, stuck somewhere, because they were following a walkthrough and they just dove straight from one step to the next, rather than actually playing the game and letting it lead them.

Specifically, from your description, my guess would be that you're not done with Kud-ei yet, and since you haven't finished all of her dialogue options, the options for Varon haven't been enabled yet. Go back and talk to her - exhaust all the dialogue options - finish that first, THEN go talk to Varon.

You may have to use all quest related dialog options when talking to Kud-Ei for he quest to advance.

As I recall there is a "Varon Vamori" and and "Mages Staff" dialog option. I recommend going back to Kud Ei and pick all the options until they are no longer gold. Please note that there is sometimes a scroll bar by the dialog options. That is easy to miss, I missed it the first time I was doing the Leyawiin recommendation. So recommend checking to see if there is a scroll bar there and scrolling through and selecting all dialog options that may be related to this quest. (But try not to start the "Through a Nightmare Darkly" quest - and if you do then complete it before returning the the recommendation quest)

EDIT: Just notice gstr said pretty much the same thing a minute earlier

I looked at the walkthough because I ran out of options. I figured I should look it up before posting.

I didn't know about the scroll bar. Now I see the option that gets me the recommendation quest.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Glad you got it. Recommend you keep that in mind for the Leyawiin recommendation quest to. A lot of people miss the scroll bar in that quest, including me the first time through.

Heh, and my initiation that sometimes you had to scroll down for more dialogue was with Jensine during 'Unfriendly Competition'. Lots of us been there.

There is another way you could talk to the lady next to him after persuading or bribing her she tells you the key is in his desk then you break in and steal it then just go downstairs and get the staff without even talking to him.