So, straight into a new game, I'm going through the Main Quest. I get to Bleak Falls Barrow. I go through it, blah blah, you know. I finish killing the Draugr Overlord in the final room with the Unrelenting Force Word Wall, then I look in the chest. What do I find? If you can't guess from the title, it's Meridias Beacon. I just hit level 5 during the Draugr Lord Fight.. what the hell? I'm pretty sure the minimum level req is like, 12 isn't it? So how come it appeared not only so early, but in the very 1st dungeon I cleared?

I'm just looking at it right now, contemplating if I should pick it up or leave it and come get it later. Someone help. I don't want to bug my guy. Is it safe to grab, or just leave it alone?

Grab it now, but don't go in. It might break the quest (unlikely), and the enemies inside will definitely have you for lunch.

Meridia's Beacon gets tossed out there into a boss chest at the start of a new game. You either find it by chance in your travels, or Meridia points to where it ended up when you find the shrine.

The quest will account for this too in dialog, as you'll immediately find out should you decide to grab it out of the chest.

The quest started and all. The Break of Dawn is now in my quest log. I hope it doesn't break. Not that I care, nor am I ever going to use Dawnbreaker, I just don't want it in my journal forever, and I don't want it to effect anything else in the long run. I'll leave it alone until some point after Level 12.

I still have an old Save that has the Beacon in Embershard Mine, just wait until You believe Your character is ready. I have not had the Quest break from finding the Beacon before My character was at a high enough level.

You could head directly to the Shrine, but Your character will be told Meridia requires a stronger Champion to begin the Quest.

If I have a follower with me when I find the bacon, I ask the follower to take from the chest. If I feel like tracking that follower I go to the temple and get a quest marker on my follower.

I would just avoid doing the quest for a while.

You'd probably get slapped around by Malkoran at your level anyway.

*Update*

Pick it up, though. That is very unlikely to mess things up.

I agree If you try to do this quest too soon you will get you butt kicked. I did the quest when I was level 21 and STILL got kicked around by Malkoran. It took me several tries to completely kill Maldoran

... And there's that little surprise when you finally kill him.

I SHALL SAY NO MORE.

Almost every game I play, it ends up in the same place; those twin towers connected by a bridge over the river full of bandits east of Whiterun. I forget the name.

Valtheim Towers (a.k.a. Valtheim Keep).

What ended up in those twin towers? Meridia's Beacon? It wasn't there when I fought through the bandits.

It's there for my character right now. I didn't touch it because I have no interest in that quest for this RP.

I can load Old Saved Games and the Beacon will appear in the first Boss Chest My character finds.

I can avoid Dungeons on a current character, and the Beacon will always appear in the Boss chest in the first Dungeon My character enters after level 12.

If I find the Shrine before level 12, then I may get the location of the Beacon in a quest locked Dungeon

Some of the behavior of the Beacon may be from Me being on a PC and My use of the USKP, and DLC Patches.

Mmmmm, bacon