To climb the ladders in the basement of Kada-El's tavern, you may have to try to jump [Space] while walking forward. It is true, this area is not really simple to manage. Many months ago you could simply walk them up by walking forward, but the movement behaviour changed so many times, and possibly most of us believe it gets worse each time...
The torch should burn the whole time you wield it in your hand. If it does not, please tell us how long it seems to work (there is a bug report which some testers can't confirm). You will not see a flame, though, unless you set up the particle effects to "High" in pslaunch. With the position "Medium", torches will only be a yellow light source without flame effects.
