Painting at nexus is important and all, but how about the 'war' shop that just never closed?

Soooo... I'm looking at these 'quest' areas where you collect the gems. I have a whack of gems but the turn in monster doesn't appear. His hat does (little squiggly alien squid) but the npc does not. There's a yellow "?" emoticon but it does not let me touch the npc in order to turn in, nor does it let me 'hold up' the gems or even equip them in an inventory slot.

I'm on PC btw.