Okay, I went over the dialog, and I found a couple of places where it was possible to be in-between quests, and not get recognized by the Speaker. I've patched that hole, so hopefully at this point you shouldn't be able to get yourself to a point where the Speaker won't speak to you. The good news is that this is on the NPC, so you shouldn't need to remove your quest - it should be ready to go once we've hotfixed.
Bear in mind that there is a faction requirement here, too - if you've been killing the otters, the otters don't want to talk to you. 
I don't think that's the problem with any of you here, but that's also something to consider if, perhaps, you kill othmir for sport.
Anyway, that's going in today, so you should see it in the hotfix tomorrow. I'll let you know if it won't be in there. 