I have no sockets in any of my gear apart from a runeword armor and that bow, even with all my gear removed it's still happening. I was wondering what that sockets text ment.
For the barbs, yeah ive finished the quest. There seems to be afew different conditions effecting that npc.. If merc is alive and you speak to him you most likely crash or the hire option turns into "an evil force" text. If you speak to him with a dead merc, the revive option appears(but mostly crash you if clicked) and the hire text appears normally allowing you to look at the mercs but crash upon trying to hire. For me anyways.