As for the quest "thorn in the side", that quest itself is missing "the good way" to complete it. Once you have accepted the quest you can still save the prisoner, but you will not get a quest completed message. I also found it hard to kill that man with the evidence that pointed to him being wronged. I took a load, told the questgiver to go f himself, mindread the guard and rigged the prison teleporter so it took the captive to his home village. Changing the destination is easy, you do it from the control panel of the teleporter. Just set the destination to high hall and you are set. You fail the quest, but it's not that big deal.