I don't even understand what the quest is about so I just went off to do other things. I have a hard time getting stuck on the 4 bugged quests I have at the moment (phial,archmage just lying there dead in the courtyard, etc) when I have 30 other quests constantly queued up - almost 200 hours in and still haven't touched the main quest or the civil war much.

360 apparently has these items as normal until the quest is activated.
I have been pleasantly surprised that my previous looting has provided me with several immediate quest successes. I like to explore myself in this game more than do quests - and I still have most of the Reach and the Rift undiscovered. I guess that means I have to take the bad with the good as I decide to get more disciplined and grind quests out.