Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Disappearing GUI and Harpers Hotile Because of Strange Ox

Update: The Harper’s became non-hostile later although some “didn’t like me very much” according to the narrator. good news if rhis happens to you wait a couple of long rests and send in a scout.
Someone advised that the aggro is probably from AOE damage to Dammon which seems plausible and makes sense. Note to self avoid collateral damage!

The GUI problem was likely a bug or crash, although ive never had any other crashes or GUI bugs.
PS I have no mods at all.


MILD SPOILERS FOR ACT 2
Hello: I am in Honour Mode and for the first time in HM I got to Act 2. (I completed the game in Tactician.) I encountered what may be a catastrophic bug at the Last Light Inn involving the Strange Ox and the Harpers and I would like advice from others who have encountered something similar and suggestions on how to work around it. It's complicated so I will list the events numerically. I reported this to Larian but I am looking for help here on why this occurred and a work around for the bad results.

This is a GUI glitch as well as an aggro problem.

1. Enter Last Light Inn (LLI) and do the entrance sequence with Jaheira successfully.
2. I had met Dammon in the Grove and he helped Karlach. Talk to Dammon at LLI and he gives me his special armor (I forget what its called). (Karlach was not there so I didn't do that part.)
3. Talk to Strange Ox. I had done this at the Grove and he would not tell me who he was and that ended without incident.
4. After the first convo ended I asked the Strange Ox again who he was and I failed a check and he transformed and a battle started.
5. HARPERS AGGRO: Although the Strange Ox started the fight, after I perform attacks on the Strange Ox the Harpers turn hostile.
5.5 -- THIS IS THE MOST STRANGE: Then on my selected character (the Tav) the GUI disappears. There was nothing on the screen except the frozen image of the battle. I could not end turn for that character or take any other actions - I forgot to try the hotkeys. I went to other characters and were able to end their turns but the battle would not progress. So I saved and exited. When I reloaded the GUI problem was gone but the Harpers were still attacking me. (And oddly they killed the other normal Ox too.)
6. I kill the Strange Ox and decide to flee the Harpers hoping that I can enter peacefully later. I managed to run away but some of them followed me outside into the Shadow Curse. I am immune thanks to the Pixie. As I am running away they start to succumb to the shadow curse. I was able to leave the battle and go to camp.
8. Returned to LLI after a Long Rest and found Dammon dead and the merchant Talli succumbed to the Shadow Curse. I tried to heal her to no effect and she died.
9. The living Harpers remained hostile.
10. Later I entered invisible to recover the loot from the Strange Ox. I was not seen so I don't know if they are still hostile. I entered the Inn invis it looked normal. I didn't make myself seen because it was enough trouble already.

This means that I lost the only merchants in Act 2 outside of Moonrise (they both had important items) and most likely the Harpers help at Moonrise and in Act 3, and I cannot help Karlack any further. And since Honour Mode I cannot go back. ( I found very little on the merchants bodies - not the usual three most expensive items if a merchant dies.)

There was no indication that the Strange Ox was considered part of the Harpers group. I had read you could kill the Ox in Part 2 and get his loot so I figured that the Harpers didn't care. I did not attack any Harpers until after they attacked me (and it was set to not-fatal and I never killed any accidentally). And I never stole anything in the LLI, but I did in the Cellar where the stuff was not marked red. They didn't aggro until after the Ox so it wasn't the Cellar part that did it.

QUESTIONS:

Is this working as intended?
Any suggestions to complete Act 2 without the Harpers?

As a side note, I have encountered a lot more unexpectedly bad encounters in Honour Mode than Tactician and I wonder if that is working as intended -- unexpected failed dice rolls in conversations and unexpected NPC aggro.