@maybe2maybe3 Just solved the settlement issue - this was my fault as I missed something that needed upgrading so I only have the 4 world events.

@magaswagnar Not sure it made any difference to pledge. I was trying to cover everything I did after the latest update. I was originally unable to progress on two main quest, this one and Jorvik, as well as 4 world events and unresponsive drengrs. I started saving prior to trying different approaches to fixing the problems. Through some miracle I was able to finish the Jorvik quest and all the drengrs. The result was that I was not pledged to any locations on the table. I would periodically pledge to Lincolscire to see if it was fixed, but always reverted back to the save prior to pledging. The good news is that I did complete the main story lines yesterday, but I'm still can't progress on 4 world events and my settlement progress is stuck just under level 6.

I hope they come up with a solution for those that are still stuck as I remember how frustrated I was with the lack of a solution to this issue.

The new update fixed the problem for me and I just finished the "Ealdorman" quest. After the update downloaded I pledged to Lincolnshire at the table and the quest with the marker and action statement to return the broach to Hunwald was available.

@kudaloco It was annoying, but I decided to just go with it and use the swimming controls to "swim" into the opening, loot the chest and "swim" out.

@denizen777 There is another thread on this issue here that cover the frustration many players that dates back to November.

@hamburglar1968 I actually opened a ticket in early December and received the following reply.

"The development team has been made aware of this issue and they are currently investigating it. Once additional information becomes available, it will be posted to the game's official forum"

Then 4 days later I received the following.

"Recently you requested personal assistance from Ubisoft Support. As we have not heard from you in the 4 days since we sent you a response, we assume your issue has been resolved and have closed your ticket."

I actually reopened the ticket a couple times and eventually received the above note after 4 days - this was not very helpful in my opinion so I gave up on the approach to getting the issue resolved.

@hateyourface69 I agree. I have run into so many problems with this game I was thinking of nominating it to the newly created MAD GOAT award - Most Awfully Defective Game Of All Time.

I'm using a xbox one x and I'm also not able to progress with "In the Absence of an Ealdorman. To be clear I did not pick up the broach prior to starting the quest. I did explore the area and picked up the Focus of the Nornir ability, but was not able to explore the room bellow as it was locked. I don't recall any crash while doing the quest. After picking up the broach, the only thing showing in the upper left corner of the screen is "in the Absence of an Ealdorman" and I'm unable to progress any further.

I had a save game prior to starting the quest and have tried the quest several times resulting in the same issue. Prior to picking up the broach the area in the upper left corner shows a blue banner with EXPLORATION AREA, "In the Absence of an Ealdorman" in green font and an action statement "Search for proof" in white font. After picking up the broach, the upper left corner shows only "In the Absence of an Ealdorman" in green font.

I also noticed the item that looks like a small scroll on the right side of where the Focus of the Normir was. The prompt is to collect this, but it does not seem to do anything and does not show up in the inventory or as a clue in the order tab area.

I have also run into several other issues like broken world events and annoying dialog hints that repeat every 5 to 10 seconds and follow throughout the world, but this one is game breaking.