Arguably, the mechanic of multi-part quests is counterintuitive enough to be considered a bug. The game establishes early on that when you have quest targets, they are marked in red dots or yellow dots on the map. And when you complete the quest, the dots go away.
Multi-part quest work differently. The game keeps track of the parts which you completed and still need to complete (which is why you get completion message on collecting 12 salivas). But it does not deactivate the dots for the completed parts. So you look at the map and see all those "here are your quest targets" dots, but they are actually not. Your quest target is elsewhere, to complete the parts of the quest that are not yet done. That is why new players are confused about whether the quest (or rather part of the quest) is complete or not, because they get mismatched indicators.
-- Rustyx --- 92R / 92S / 92M on Reni (Guild KnightShift). Yes, running the new FOTM R/M, cause I am not elf enough to be WD/S.
Oh, and people who have more than 3 classes are clinically insane.