I stole Kalinor's body, gave it to the necromancer, and denied any knowledge of it as I left his room. Then I went into Brial's room and read the letter. Oddly, Hrothgar had nothing to say about the letter. Upon leaving Brial's room I ran into a mage who questioned why I was there. I lied to him and he left.

The letter made me think finding Garron is the next step. I thought I looked all over, but I can't find him. While looking for Garron, I ran into Jiri who said Brial could be found in the Senior apartments. No one is in those apartments.

Three of the outside buildings are locked (and warded against simple spells). Is Garron inside one of them? How do I open them?

What must I do to finish Halruaa?

Well, I guess you didn't take a tour which Cario De'Vince kindly offered to you when you entered Halruaa inner grounds for the first time. He offers the tour around the academy and introduces the runes which correspond to different schools of magick. If you follow him and step on the runes one by one you'll open all the doors to the student living quarters. Garron is located in the most left building.

I did take the tour, but he said "don't step on any runes", so I didn't.

I went outside and stepped on all the runes and the door didn't open.

Do you have to step on the runes in a certain order, or must you step on them during the tour?

If you must step on them during the tour, you may want to take out the line "don't step on the runes". Or you might have Hrothgar suggest you step on them, since the entire quest hinges on them being stepped upon during the tour. Also, it would be nice to have a key for the door just in case.


In addition the 24 hour timer doesn't seem to be working. I can't even fail the quest at this point. I rested 5 times in a row and no one is attacking me. I'm just stuck in Halruaa with no escape.

I'll just start Halruaa over again.

cheeseberries,
Cario De'Vince warns you against stepping on the runes during his tour because as you rightly assumed, there is a specific order in which to step on them. Doing so haphazardly will result in nasty surprises.

Hint... Make a note of the order he shows the runes to you and listen to his detailed speech about how the colleges, represented by the runes make up the schools of magic. Then, by stepping on them in the order he has shown you, the various doors to the schools will open.
I believe Vlad had screen shots to help with this puzzle, but I have no idea whether they are still available or not.
If you need further help, just ask and I, or I am sure Vlad, will post the solution for you here?

When searching for a person cheeseberries, would it not make sense to try and
ask other students if they know his whereabouts? There's a few wandering the grounds.
As with a lot of BG. NPC's any named character generally has something to say to you. Maybe it's a case of finding and talking to the right someone who'll point you in the direction of Garron.

I spoke to everyone in Halruaa. The only mention of Garron was Brial's letter. After finding the letter no NPC pointed me in the direction of Garron. NPCs who had something to say only told me where Brial's room was. Since I already had Brial's letter, telling me where Brial's room is seems to be a mute point.

Perhaps I did something out of order and some strings got messed up. Hrothgar did repeat the same dialogue at 2 different points. The dialogue which repeated was the one you get upon entering the statue room, then again after finding the letter in the lower right building. It might have something to do with adding patches halfway through Halruaa, so I'm doing it all over from the beginning.

BTW I never got a hint to look for Brial's room until AFTER I found his room. So yeah, I must have done things out of order.

CB, there is a major point you may miss in Halruaa that mages are sleeping at night, and hence at night time you won't probably find the required person. Also as Larrienne indicated you may follow Cario De'Vince and step on the runes one by one in an order he shows them to you. This is the easiest way, but you may also write down their order and return to them later. Every group of runes which represents different colleges of the same school opens the corresponding student appartments. I've changed the timer for SIX_DAYS after you talk to Kim Sia in order to give players more time to enhance the Ring of Might or make other quests in Halruaa. I would postpone confronting Garron for as later as possible because after dealing with him you'll really have no time.