ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Somehow got the quest to help the merchant the moment I talked to the novice mage. I entered the dungeon *then* accepted the novices quest.

I guess some sort of lag allowed me to move again after I got the quest prompt?

it is because you can get multiple encounters each turn in the wilderness, the game should check to see if you got an encounter/quest before giving you another one.