Game hanging in the East

[ZuG]

This game has been the farthest I've ever gotten, successfully in the East, but it's been really buggy.

After arriving, I helped the elf kill the other guy, and went to the gates of morning. I don't think I got the messages I should have, but I didn't realize it until now. Aerys just welcomed me back (I'm an anorthiril). I explored some and went back to the unremarkable cave, whereupon the other guy seemed to respawn and I helped the elf kill him again. The elf again told me to talk to Aerys, but when I try to leave the unremarkable cave, the game displays the back and forth progress bar and that's it. I'm never taken back to the worldmap.

I'm sad because I've never had a character this successful before, and I've tried leaving by the stairs and by the Rod of Recall, neither of which works. Any chance this is fixable?