Something Wicked quest bugged

Did anyone else have trouble finishing this quest and find a work around? After fighting off the first wave of darkspawn you're directed to go to the gate to check the farmlands but it crashes every time either right before I reach the gate or after I've taken a few steps inside. Trying to reload the autosave when booting the game immediately crashes it as well, done a few tries of loading an earlier one and replaying up to that point in the quest.