I think I found a bugged quest (A Pirate’s Life quest). After killing a bunch of dudes and freeing someone from a cage, the prompts told me I would have to escort him to safety. He was passed out, so I picked him up and then realized that there was nowhere to escort him to, as we were on a tiny island and no matter where I dropped him, he remained passed out. And I did not have my ship with me, having swam to the little island in the first place.
Then I spotted a small boat just offshore. I grabbed it rowed it over to the dude, and with a lot of experimentation finally managed to get the poor guy onto the boat, with me navigating. It didn’t really feel like the “correct” thing to be doing here, but it seemed to be the best and only option under the circumstances. The quest marker was pointing to where we already were, and I figured that maybe I was supposed to revive him on a different shore, or something.
Well, we got halfway to a different island (where I’d originally picked up the quest) when it became apparent that our little boat wouldn’t survive the journey. Fearing it would break up and drown the passed out guy, I steered in a different direction to a closer shore, and we actually made it. But the guy still wouldn’t wake up when I dropped him on the beach. So I picked him up and as I proceeded to try to load him back onto the tiny boat, the boat made an explody noise and apparently expired. I figured that now, my only option was to carry the dude to the nearest town, or something, when I accidentally hit a hotkey and reloaded a save. This dropped me back to the location where I’d picked the guy up, only this time he was standing like a statue rather than lolling around. Completely unresponsive, no talking, no pick up option, nothing. All I could do was attack him, so I disarmed myself and punched him. Now he’ll only run away from me.
Guess I’ll come back to this tomorrow with a fresh pair of eyes. Probably going to restart the quest from scratch.