Garth won't talk to me. (Alchemy)

I want to learn Alchemy from the Alchemist in Harbor Town, but he tells me that I must first learn basic Alchemy from his assistant Garth. The problem is that Garth won't talk to me. I did fight him briefly after I followed him for Weasel for the Brugelweed quest, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. I also tried a joke spell, but he still wouldn't talk to me. Anyone else have this problem?

Might want to try a Jest spell on him. Anyway, it's not a big issue - the mage in the bandit camp will always be able to teach you alchemy, as will the alchemy trainer in the Monastery (Arax, Ariax, or something similar).

I did try the joke/jest spell, it had no effect on him. I guess I won't be getting alchemy until later…

The jest spell doesn't work on quite a few people. Another example is Cid's wife, who gets angry and won't talk to you if Cid leaves Harbor City. I know she has Nelson's ring, but now I can't get it from her, unless I beat her up, which I don't want to do.

Did you finish the quest where you follow him? (The one with this little exchange, which I thought was pretty funny.) After that got done, not only was Garth willing to train me, he did it for free.

The mage in the bandit camp does train alchemy, too.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Did you finish the quest where you follow him?

Not yet, I couldn't beat him and the guy at the time. I still need to get those packages from that guard.

You probably just need to get the quest finished off, then. That was definitely a difficult battle.

if you're not too far ahead, you can just reload an earlier savegame and learn Alchemy 1 from Garth.

I learned alchemy after getting to speak to the Don and meeting his pet mage.

My question is this: how f$&@ing long do I have to follow Garth around? I followed him to the tavern, but all he does is have a drink, smoke a reefer, and speak to random people. Did I do something wrong? Do I simply have to keep waiting? Do I need to do something to trigger his moving off to a clandestine meeting? Help!!!

First speak to Weasel, he suspects Garth, Leonardo's assistant, is pilfering brugleweed. The quest will then appear in your current quest list as "Bring the packages back to Weasel" - Your aim is to get the package as evidence for Marcelo or give it to Weasel.

I simply sneaked around with the sneak ring and lockpicking level 2 and looted the town… when I got to weasel I found out I already have the packages on me (along with some more quest items)
I think they must be in Leonardo's back yard or his house… sneak in at night and you and Garth should not have a problem…he still wants 50 gold to train you though…

PS
I also robbed everyone (checking with them - if they would still talk to me - sometimes you have to give them a little time to calm down too) so it might have been on one of those guys… just make sure you drag them somewhere secluded and save your game before off-course…