Alright, I'm simply at a loss at what to do. The problem I'm having currently is the same problem that caused me to have to start my game from scratch, but this time I think it might be at least salvageable (After that I made double sure to load things properly and detail on every data conflict)

In Ruined tail's tale, I'm at the part where I have to follow the mercenaries to the shadowscale hideout. Thing is, all they are doing is standing right outside of their base within Cheydinhal, I've tried talking with them, pushing them, killing them, fast traveling to the IC and back, waiting, sleeping, turning off the computer and going outside. Nothing seems to get them to budge.

I have the current version of RTT with the 3.0.1 update or whatever, I have the most current version of Better Cities, and chose to NOT include any open city functionallity. The RTT readme did not help, and i tried searching the forum with like problems to no avail. Pretty much all I want to do now is SKIP having to follow them. If there's some bonehead easy answer to this I'm not seeing it.

Any advice?

Perhaps you didn't know about it, but http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/984096-rel-ruined-tails-tale-30-a-complete-rebuild/page__st__80 is exclusively meant for questions about RTT.

You might also try directly writing the modder.

Yeah, I've seen that thread, a lot of people are posting problems there that never get answered.

RTT's author has moved on to other things. Chances are slim you'll get any help from that direction.
Most likely, your problem is due to a mod conflict.
If you really want to solve this, the only suggestion I have is to remove any other mods one at a time until the problem goes away.
Of course, this would most likely f up your existing game beyond repair.
You need to decide how badly you want to solve this puzzle.

Yikes, I guess so. Too bad there wasn't a way to just find out the stages of the quest so I can simply skip that part. :<

Have you gone through the threads here, and on TES Nexus, to see if anybody else had the same problem? I know it's a real pain, but that way at least you have a shot at getting your answer. Or, you really could post in that thread, and hope somebody who has played it before will respond. Your best options.