I really loathe that there's only one way to play this quest out. Granted, the same can be said for a few of the other Daedric quests (e.g. Sanguine's, Sheograth's), but those quests are, more or less, morally neutral or morally ambigious in that they don't involve hardline "good" or "evil" choices. Not so with Molag Bal's quest.

This is the part where someone will want to say to me "Just don't finish the quest." Okay, sure. But my point is, I shouldn't have to disregard it. "Don't finish it" is not a resolution. If I can refuse Mehrunes Dagon's request and still get a quest resolution... if I can "defile" Azura's Star and still get a quest resolution... if I can forego the Ring of Namira and still get a quest resolution.... then arguably, I should be able to do something similar in the case of Molag Bal's quest, and I can't. Where's the consistency?

The priest you have to kill is one of Boetiah... a daedric prince.. who makes you do something far worse. I see nothing wrong with killing him.

That's a good point, I suppose, but it still amounts to doing the bidding of Molag Bal. Essentially, I'm just lamenting the fact that a game that revolves so much around "choice" doesn't actually give you one in the case of this particular quest.

You can always refuse to help the Vigilant of Stendarr, and Bobs your uncle.

Like they say, curiosity often leads you astray. It's your fault for trying to be a heroe.

Yea Same here there nothing wrong with killing him at all.

Just kill the priest in his cell (don't take him). He's Boetiah priest anyway.

Yes, but that amounts to "Don't take the quest." which wasn't my point, and a "good" character wouldn't refuse to help out of a Vigilant of Stendarr. Equally, a "bad" character should tell him to go stuff it, so it's messed up on either view.

As AtrumVentus points out above, you can kill the priest of Boethiah outright when you find him. You'll get a "Quest Failed" message and it clears from your journal.
It's cold blooded, sure, but kind of a lesser of 2 evils thing.

Thats true.

Sure, but I'm not flagging this up because I'm obsessive about the quest journal. Nor am I really looking for loopholes, workarounds, RP rationalizations etc. (though I do appreciate the replies). The thrust of my argument is "There should have been another way to resolve the quest." Besides aborting it, I mean.

In Oblivion, the Daedric quests were clearly sign-posted. In Skyrim, you essentially just fall into them. I actually prefer it Skyrim's way, but if the game wants us to stumble blindly into Daedric quests, then I think the game ought to allow for more maneuverability where "good/evil" roleplaying is concerned, and for the most part, they do.

But this one doesn't (so, there's a consistency problem), and it's not a particularly inspired questline to begin with. Even if you've played it through on an "evil" character (which I have) it's really rather dull in my opinion.

You end up falling into the clutches of the Daedric prince of domination, whose sphere is making mortals submit to him. What did you expect? I personally find it refreshing that a Daedric prince actually lives up to his name.

Same rationality with "The only Cure" where you "serve" peryite by killing the infected and the priest who infected them. You did a greater service for the world by serving him, but he's the one who caused it to begin with. So even though you got rid of the infected and a genocidal nut, it was the will of Peryite to do so. The only way you can make a total turn for the worst is if you become Peryites new champion and spread the disease, which, never comes up as an option and probably never will in this game.

So what if you beat a Boethiah priest to death? He would have done it to you to serve his Daedric mistress if you were up at that shrine. You're as much a pawn as he is, the difference is you're stronger and the Daedric princes and princesses can't make you do anything beyond that. I got an ebony blade, don't need to stab my friends.

I did not find this that bad a quest.

1) the first guy you kill attacked me first before I even thought about hurting him.

2) the god then wants me to track down an evil follower of boethiah. boethiah is bad news! did you see that quest? That was a quest I have NEVER done, even with my assassin character.

so I a) kill a man in self defense. beat to death a person more evil than any bandit I kill. who was also dumb enought to screw with a daedra lord? seriously, that is a darwin award winner if I ever saw one.

I realize that the house of horrors kind of tricks you into a daedra quest. but come on, it was not that bad.

I refused most Daedra lord quests. this one did not bother me that much.

Actually that part is fine. As I said in my previous post, I prefer Skyrim's blind approach to Daedric quests over Oblvion's. But I have to disagree on the "not that bad" part. It is that bad. This is the least inspired Daedric quest in the game, and I'll tell you why...

Firstly, it's called "The House of Horrors." So, it bills itself as something that wants to be, you know... somewhat scary. That idea quickly goes off the rails with the writer's decision to have "the mysteriously evil voice" speak almost immediately upon entering the house, and having Tyranus turn on you in panic right away (so much for tension building). From there, it's an encounterless jaunt to the end of the house where we learn that the mysteriously evil voice belongs to Molag Bal.

Molag Bal wants something. What does he want? He wants you to fetch him an NPC who can be found at a randomly determined location that may or may not contain hostiles depending on when/if the randomly determined location has been previously cleared by the player (have you ever done this quest and found Logrolf "held captive" in a completely empty location?).

^This is just lazy quest-padding.

And when you find Lolgrolf, does he have anything revealing or remotely interesting to say? No. He's pretty much exactly who Molag Bal said he would be, and he did exactly what Molag Bol said he did. No twists or turns here. Oh, but you do get the opportunity to either lie or be truthful to Lolgrolf as to who sent you. A decision that makes no difference whatsoever as, in either case, he does exactly the same thing. He returns to the "House of Horrors" where you catch up with him and beat him into submission at Molag's behest.

That's the end of the story. You might not have noticed due to the lamentable pacing and inability to build up any kind of tension whatsoever.

So your point is all quest should have a good ending and a bad ending? I am afraid rpg choices don't always end up like that.

Interesting that you've said "choices" when this quest doesn't offer you any at all. That's the problem. Drama is choice.

But it does right at the begining. You knew he was a vogilant and you knew they get involved with daedras. What made you think it was always going to end up in your favour when messing with a daedra? It's almost like joining the TG and complaining about having to pickpocket somebody.

That is an absolutely terrible comparison.

I'm with the OP. In Oblivion, there was a haunted house quest that ended up with you getting rid of the problem and owning the house, if you so wished so I got svckered into this one first playthrough thinking it would be something similar.

A more neutral outcome would have been good - for instance, with Clavicus Vile, there's an evil option and there's a neutral option (good for Barbas, but it does allow CV's influence to increase which is hardly a good thing). It's hard to see how this one could have played out differently, however. You do have the option to tell the priest that it's a trap but he pig-headedly confronts Molag Bal regardless.

Best way to be a "good" character is gtfo of Markath immediately.

If you trap the old man's soul before he dies and throw the mace into the ocean, technically you have spit in a Daedric prince's face. That's about all I have to offer until the construction kit is out. Speaking of which they (Bethesda) are running out of January.

You do have a choice. Several choices, in fact:
You could do what Bal tells you to do. Completes the quest and gets it out of your journal.
You could find the priest and kill him on the spot. Fails the quest, but gets it out of your journal.
You could simply walk out of the house, never go after the priest, and never return. Quest stays in your journal, and you can always do it later if you change your mind.

Although my character had no problem with executing the priest, I have two problems with this quest. First of all, the original post is right. The daedric quests make a point of having the daedra say, "You cannot oppose me, for I AM THE DEVELOPER AND THIS IS MY GAME YOU LOWLY WORM HAHAHA PLAY IT THE WAY I WANT OR NOT AT ALL!"

That's not the way to make a good game. It kicks you right out of the suspension of disbelief and into a state where you notice it's just a game, and not a very good one, since it gives you no options.

The second problem with this quest is that witnessing and playing out bashing an old man to death while he begs for mercy, even if he wasn't a particularly nice old man, is just nasty. Come on, the priestesses of Dibella wear burqas, we can't even TALK about hurting children, and yet we can show an old man getting his head bashed in while he begs for help? That's twisted and backwards.

I didn't get the feeling of the dev's twisting my arm. It's just a situation that went crazy, and you had to survive. You can turn down Molag once you get downstairs. Unless you're lured by the mace. I'm not. I hate maces.

I think the real issue is that sometimes we equate "good" with being a Mary Sue. You can still be good and fall into this situation.