Wanna say upfront that I appreciate your thoroughness and dedication to your craft for taking the time bothering with this, and i hope it isn't too frustrating that i'm a bit uncertain on the order i did things as i was kinda just poking around everywhere and seeing as much as i could find. If i had to guess i think the most likely thing that screwed things up for me is that as far as i recall when i went to the kitchen and saw the sparkles over the cabinet i went through two interactions before they disappeared, picking up the chalice and making the fried rat (the 1st one, i believe) . I may have not talked to carol again until after I'd completed the feeding rat mission(s). Also, and i don't know if this would affect things at all, but i know i probably took longer than most people to exorcise the toilet phantoms. I didn't realize i needed to get the hairpin blessed and died once for that, and then gave up for a bit when i got it blessed and still couldn't kill them cause i was pressing "enter" instead of "z". I only came back to them after either completing half or all of the rat feeding quests. Hope this helps.