Clicking the error didn't bring you to the error?
You might want to check for double spaces, they're counted as two (one each) in the builder; but the second space is &nbsp in a text file. I don't know if they count that as 1 or 5 in the final count, but that may be your issue if it's 5.
  is six characters, actually. And yes, it does include the semicolon.
Also, you may have leftovers from excised <br> tags in the text, which will cause the "no HTML allowed" alarm to go off.
Personally, I regard this as a bug, because any field that disallows HTML should not be converted TO html by the system, ever. It should stay TEXT, and be treated as such. That way, the only time it gets flagged is when someone tried putting some tags in by hand. Instead, we have fields being converted from text to HTML, and then back (badly, I might add) and then the leftover > signs from the "html stripper" are causing the arc to go invalid.
Uh... hello... BAD programming... not just having a converter that doesn't do its job, but there's no sense in converting it TO the forbidden format in the first place!
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Are you using copy/paste?
This seems to cause problems for some reason.
In which case find the faulty text bubble (testing the mission should tell you which one) and make sure to erase everything in it.
Then retype it or copy/paste again, if you are adventurous.
This has been one of my worst nightmares using the text system in game. It makes no sense to me whatsoever for them to have a text field where you're supposed to be able to copy/paste, but if you do, you end up with errors that seem to occur randomly. I've had major issues trying to find those invisible errors, many of which are only a misplaced 'space'. 
If they've cut down the size of text fields anywhere, there should be a popup or something that tells us about it. I'm beginning to think the only way to stay within the 100k is to make single missions if you want to tell a decent story. Makes me wonder why they bothered to allow us to make 5. I guess they just want us to use standard enemies. It's like giving a kid an ice cream cone then slapping it out of his hand after the first lick. 
No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback
I think part of the problem is copy & paste. First they were not "click-able" errors (i.e. the orange explanation errors). It looked perfect, but attempts to publish it and/or play/test it and it would not work. I would get a generic error like "ally unaware text too long". I would get one of each item that was too long, but since I had several allies I could not tell who.
I had written the text in Word and copied it over. Each On the last two iterations no individual text item had a word count (according to it's respective word counts) over the limits. Many, however were close. I took a few characters out of the items that were close (like 98/100) and THAT error would go away.
So basically I had to play with each "higher" word count to find the "broken" one, since there were NO active error codes unless I tried to play it. I think there were some "invisible" characters that appeared when I cut and pasted which the word count did not see, but were still "seen" when I tried to play it (or publish it). This broke the mission a couple of times though. After fixing it once when the work count was reduced, I had this problem crop up after it appeared to be working. After that time I "fixed" that same error it happened again for no reason.
I think cut and paste (that and 1 actual reduction to work limits) were at fault somehow. It would be nice if the work count on the top of the text window would actually count the same thing that would let the mission be working or broken.
Professionally certified pessimism expert
Statesman is someone who shouldn't rap ever, even if he's trying to help people out. -IolitePhoenix
Check out my Infinity toons at the Vis Viva family web page.
I agree that it is frustrating, especially having to take out all the "html color tags" - etc, edit the text for length, and then put them all back in again so that the text clues are colored correctly.
This could definitely implemented better.
Will it stop me from writing text that squeezes in just below the bar? No.
Will it curtail my eloquence? Yeah, editing constraints have always done that to me. I tend to over write and then have to go back and hack-and-slash edit to make my concepts fit in the way that I want them to. So I'm used to that.
Would I really like to keep all the adverbs and adjectives in? Yeah, they add color, feel, etc. - that's why they exist. Unfortunately, they are often the first to go when it comes to editing for length.
Next cut are the complex sentence structures I want to use and the words that I thought fit best.
In the end product, content has to come first as far as I'm concerned. So sometimes my writing turn out to be far more dry than I would like. At least, the information is there.
Luckily in the MA, I actually have more word count to play with than I have had in many other occasions. I wish there was a higher word count in many of the smaller fields, but I'll deal with what I have to work with.
Of course, some MA'rs don't even bother with "Thanks" or "Curses", but then again, those people aren't worried about "the story".
Don't give up! It is a little rough some times, but it can be done - and you can do it.
When you have it the way you like it, it will feel great to know that you were able to accomplish it even if it a bit of hard to accomplish - or maybe just because of that? 
What'd be nice is if there was some way for them to not count valid html tags in the total count.. or for Pete's sake allow <p> tags as well as <br> tags. What's really frustrating is to type something out using enter because it's visually easier on the editor, be able to publish it because enter only takes like 1-2 spaces according to the count, then come back to edit something and find the line breaks are changed to <br>'s after you published and now it's over the total.
I'd like to see them not try to grief your text fields for having html style text in there... I mean, if they don't utilize <grin/> as a tag, what does it matter to them?
Janrith
Triumph Heroes:
=============
Saunik: lvl 50 Mutant Sonic/Electric Blaster
Photaun: lvl 50 Peacebringer
Taukezo Kensei: lvl 50 Natural Willpower/Dual Blades Tank
Published Arcs:
7326 Avenging the Dead
135096 Superhero Downtime
Alright I don't want to be a baby here but a mission of mine "broke" again because of dialog limits. That is three times for this particular mission. I know WHY they do it but the 3rd time that happened...yeah...kind of frustrating. The worst thing is for this particular failure it does NOT direct you to the "broken" part. You just get a generic message about not being able to test or publish it (it will say ally or enemy dialog too long but not which one). I have to hunt through ALL the dialog to find it.
Then there is the other issue of putting all the effort into the dialog and having to keep cutting it. Is this how reporters feel? I mean I am trying to tell a story here. Soon all the dialog will be cut to "Thanks" from allies and "Curses" from enemies.
Okay, I'm done venting....I'll go back and HUNT through all the dialog and start cutting as much as I can.
Professionally certified pessimism expert
Statesman is someone who shouldn't rap ever, even if he's trying to help people out. -IolitePhoenix
Check out my Infinity toons at the Vis Viva family web page.