Ultima IX - Tidbits #19: Saving Barney and his mother without killing the bandit leader
Just like with the pirates near the Buc's Den loading port, if the enemy to kill is lured far from the victim, the game considers the job done.
As you can see, this also douses the barn fire just like the player would have done it manually.
However, the house is now both in the disorder and clean states. I don't know if it's for not killing the bandit, for my meddling several weeks ago (exactly to see if moving objects there affects the clean state) or other.
Looking at other games' glitches and skips this area involvement isn't even uncommon. It will be interesting to experiment more with this "luring out of area" or "leaving an area while something happens and returning" more. The latter is used for example by the primary duplication (Greater Trick #2).
UPDATE:
Killing the bandit actually vanishes the disordered furniture from the house, leaving only the tidy one. So, the actual life or death of said enemy indeed affects something, it's just not the primary detail that the game checks for quest progress.
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