I've greatly enjoyed Skyrim. I find the quests to be really good, or enjoyable enough, except one.

House of Horrors

What's the issue I have with this quest? Simple.

Why can't I drop the Rusty Mace and refuse to beat the priest to submission/death?
I know I can simply leave the house, but then I have this worthless mace taking up 13 points of my carry weight. Not a good option.
The only other option is to leave the quest in limbo. Again, not a good option.

I don't care about what kind of mace I will get out of this. I'm not playing this game like one would typically play an MMO like WoW. It's not about getting the most "leet" weapon for me. It's about playing my character, and this quest is against my character's personality.

I was tricked into this evil quest. I thought I was helping a guy do an investigation and now I'm shoved into a wicked role I don't want.

This quest needs to be patched with a refusal option.

My Oblivion character didn't put his life on the line drudge through, and shutting, Oblivion Gate after Oblivion Gate just to have my Skyrim character beat priests of the Nine/Eight for their cheap amusemant.

Now I'm going to have to reload, (something I was hoping to avoid as much as I could), and somehow "accidentally" kill the priest while he's in the cave. It's the best option I've got, and it's not a good one either.

Quest items have zero weight. Try again.

Also, the guy is a priest of BOETHIAH. Probably the most evil god there is. Sure, torture is still evil, but it is evil against evil.

You had an option. You could have left it alone and not gone back. Leaving the quest in limbo is a fair option.

If it's about playing your character, you shouldn't be placing journal updates over character choices.


And that guy's not a priest of the eight or divine. He's a priest of Boethiah, the Daedric Prince of secret murder. You were tasked with torturing a priest of murder by a prince of domination. And you decide to get involved instead of just leaving it alone.

I have the same problem. You really are forced to do evil Quests. The only point ist, you can't lose Carma like in Fallout but still it is a bit weird, to play a good character but kill simple priests. :shakehead:

I sort of roleplayed this one out. Basically go through with it then ditch whatever you gained from it, goto Solitude and pray to all the Divines so they may protect you from the Daedric Prince in question for all time or pray to your characters favorite god if they have been rightous for forgiveness and protection that the evil that overwhelmed you and by force made you carry out it's deed is banished from ever having a future affect on you.

I, too, was tricked into this quest. Wish I can fail it on purpose, but oh well. I just leave it alone it in my quest journal.

I would have welcomed an option to fail the quest like in the last part of "Taste of Death".

Not all quest items...

The items involved near the end of the Companions quest line have substantial weight, and cannot be removed from your inventory until the quest is completed.

As far as being forced to do evil quests... it's a valid complaint but not something that bothers me any. There are far bigger issues that need to be dealt with first.

By the way, the only daedric artifacts that are important enough that you might need to make your good character evil are Azura's Star and Spellbreaker... and neither require any evil actions. Azura's Star is morally good, and Spellbreaker is morally neutral, good if you consider putting down the horribly diseased "good".

I disagree that simply leaving the quest unfinished is a "good" option. There really should be some means of turning the tables on old Molag Bal here, or at least some means of outright refusal, with whatever appropriate consequences would come with that decision. This is particularly so given the fact that the quest does not start of your own volition and can not rightfuly be completed unless you agree to act outside (potentially) of your character's normal behavioral paterns. I'm not sure how hard it'd be to fix but surely a one-line escape valve somewhere a long the way wouldn't be too much to ask. Hell I played the quest thinking up to the end there must be a way to save the Priest, naturally there was not. Very upsetting indeed.

My question is related to the quest in Windhelm to find the butcher...

Rusty Mace
Damge: 13
Weight: 13
Value: 5

It has weight. Try again.

It's a feud between two daedric princes. Getting involved has no possibility of a good outcome. You leave it alone.

If journal updates are the primary motivation, then the metagame has already gotten you.

It has a listed weight. Quest items do not count.

You don't like killing a priest of Boethiah? Then I strongly discouraged doing Namira's quest... it's the only one I shuddered at.

If you don't want to side with either faction in the war, you can't complete the Civil War arc. If you don't want to become a werewolf, you can't finish the Companion's chain. If you don't want to kill Paarthaneux, you can't rebuild the Blades. Etc. Etc.



Drop everything you have. Try again.

Yeah, it really annoyed me that there's no "tell Molag Bal to stuff it" option, though I guess it makes sense that the daedric lord of domination cannot be denied. What I do is just uncheck the quest from my log once I've made it out of the house. “I will inflict... the greatest insult an enemy can suffer. To be ignored.”

At first I was afraid, and I was horrified.

But then I realised... I am the PERFECT person for Molag Bal.

Remember Oblivion? I hope this isn't a spoiler, but he makes you trick a GOOD person into an evil act.

This time round... you're the good person, and he's forcing you to do something evil, made worse that there is no escape, no choice. He's a GODLIKE being, and you cannot fight him.

Domination and Enslavement, thats his thing. He does BOTH of these to you.

The more I thought about this quest, the more it actually made sense to happen to a good character. It wouldn't be as much fun for Molag Bal if you were already evil.

I remember how the Elder Scroll weighs like 50 pounds.. oh wait it only says it has a weight. Silly me.

I felt tricked too. So I didn't attack the priest and looked for another option. After a minute or two he flipped out, attacked me, and I defended myself. When you get to speak with Molag Bal you have the option of saying you want no part in his games.

In my opinion it's not evil to defend yourself from a posessed monk trying to kill you. If you mean any evil you could do after you defeated him and the evil god start luring you in the most posible obvious way, you should pay more attention. He is totally "come here for your price", "you almost reached it", "a little closer...". If at that point you didn't start running without looking back you are just not roleplaying a character with a survival instinct.

You can get rid of It by speaking to the orsimer at the mages college.

Regarding the topic, you're not forced to complete the quest, just as you don't have to complete the thieves guild in a good character. Most daedric quest have a way of invalidating them, though, but this one hasn't.

they say they have weight but they dont. Most quest items dont actually weigh anything, although some might, save and drop all your items except for the rusty mace and see what your carry weight is at.

Why do people care about their fake character in a video game?

Who cares if you have to be bad to finish a quest.

"SHOULD HAVE" not "should of"
of is not a verb

and I just leave any evil qeusts alone
remember some cannibals ordering me to clear out a cave of draugrs so they could go back there
I figured that cannibals are kind of evil but what the heck, at least they'll be out of the way so it's sort of a good deed
after that they asked me to bring them a sacrifice in order to join them or something
just left the quest after that

I agree with the OP.