In Hickory Branch, after defeating the minotaur and looting his stuff, I head north to engage a group of orcs containing 1 shaman, 2 archers, and a bunch of fighters. When I engage, a dialogue box from the tutorial pops up. Its the one informing you that you've just entered combat against a rat. Once the fight against the orcs is finished, another tutorial dialogue box pops up informing you that you've defeated the rat, and now you must loot it. After that point, I cannot loot anything, cannot open a treasure chest, etc. Is there any way around this?
I've had that bug right after fighting the minotaur before, but I can't recall how it cleared. Try going back to the minotaur cave and leaving it again.
Yeah it did clear. It was enough to just find another encounter in there and complete it. It took me 2 hours to attempt that though.