not sure if these things are to do with trying to run the game on Windows 7 or other more recent OS's, but I dont remember these things happening on XP. Of course, when I was largely playing on XP there were a lot of other initial bugs with the shipped version of the game (which have been fixed now through patches), but not these issues.I've had similar things happen with NPC's disappearing, quests not triggering etc. Never seen the Blade teacher in Sturmford going missing but Atli the Quick has definitely been AWOL. Another common one is one of the Lindisfarne teachers going for a swim beneath the dock. And a few quests not triggering properly: again never had the Markel one but I did have issues finding the Honkies dialogue, and the Paladin promo quest regarding damning then saving a family did not disappear from the quest log when I returned to claim the reward - although I got the quest completed ding and the XP reward. I returned much later to talk to him & got both again, and this time the quest disappeared from the log.
The biggest one I found through was Sven's promo quest to clear the mines. For some reason I just find this dungeon tedious beyond belief so I left it until right before I ascended to Arselgard, so I could blow through as quick as possible with an advanced party. It was some time after I was first given the quest so when I finally entered the mines for the first time in the entire game, I found it already completed: all doors & walls broken through, machine working & the dialogue options from the dwarfs standing around already thanked me for helping to clear the mines! Like I'd already been through & completed the whole map. Weird. Didn't get the cutscene for the demoness either, but I dont know if that caused problems later on in the bathhouse because I gave up the game about when I got to that quest - I wouldn't think it would matter though.
