MIRACLE OF MIRACLES, I FOUND A FIX! following the well-respected rule of “if you just complain hard enough about an issue you’ll eventually get a solution”, whining over hither and yon, and also following advice about this person’s similar problem - Unable to progress the game - #15 by Keisersoze59
the solution was to… go try to re-enter the Black Pyramid to get a cutscene of the Dreamers properly going “ptooey gross bee in here get out” after i rejected their gift for a second time. and now Richard Sonnac has finally, finally decided it’s time to speak to me.
i can now stop trying to coordinate with John to go punitively yell HIYA CHUCK, WHAT ARE Y’ALL DOING OVER THERE IN OSLO, THERE’S A GM QUEUE YOU KNOW at funcom hq. that’s a good thing, because he was starting to sound very sensible as he told me that this level of frustration could be solved by actually eating my hands (and also letting the liquid black 3am seep into my soul so my head explodes into lampreys etc etc y’all know how it be, that Filth is kind of a drama queen bless him).
time to celebrate by getting to one of my very favourite quests in the game (VIRGULA DIVINA MY CREEPY CREEPY BELOVED)