Thanks so much for Morroblivion. I'm so impressed with the quality and sheer amount of work that the devs put into this. If this is posted to the wrong forum please move it for me. I don't think my problem is a bug, but it has stopped me from progressing. I steal just about everything I can get my hands on, so most of my gear has got the red hand on it. I think I stole some moonsugar(?) first and now every merchant tells me to get rid of it before they'll talk to me. I assumed that once I joined the thieves guild, I could fence the stuff or somehow have this condition with the merchants changed. I'm now a foot pad and I've talked to every thief in Balmora, but even the merchants in the thieves tavern there won't deal with me. I could live with it if that is the price of being a thief (I have stolen from guild members, but never been caught by them), but I need to be able to speak to Bacola Closcius (the tavern owner) in order to find Cassius (?) to give him his package for the main quest. The only indication it might be a bug is that, out of curiosity, I did ask the guild leader there about a price on my head (which I don't have), and he said I'd need to join the guild before he'd talk to me about that. I am in the guild already, though, and he says as much if I ask him about joining. That's probably unrelated, though. I'm using v025.
I guess I never have supported the war on drugs.
I feel pretty dumb. The answer was just to do what they told me to do. I just assumed no normal merchant would talk to me with all my ill-gotten loot and it never would have occured to me that the thieves guild have an anti-drug policy. I guess I just didn't want to give up that sweet sweet moonsugar. It's a hell of a drug!
Moon sugar.
Have you tried dropping any Moon Sugar and Skooma that is in your inventory? This is how Morrowind worked - only certain merchants, typically Kahjit (the cats), would buy Moon Sugar/Skooma, and no one else would trade with you if you had it in your inventory.
It would be the equivalent of shopping at WalMart and when you go to the register to pay, you open your backpack and a big bag of crack rocks falls out all over the counter. They probably would not want to deal with you and would ask you to leave.