Skyrim:The House of Horrors

Help Molag Bal take revenge upon a servant of Boethiah. Quest Giver: Vigilant Tyranus Location(s): Markarth, radiant location Reward: The Mace of Molag Bal ID: DA10 Suggested Level: 14

Now I have your attention...

Quick Walkthrough

1. Enter the Abandoned House.
2. Kill Vigilant Tyranus.
3. Speak with the Daedric Prince Molag Bal.
4. Release Logrolf the Willful.
5. Make Logrolf bow to Molag Bal, then kill him.
6. Receive the Mace of Molag Bal.

Detailed Walkthrough

The Witchhunter

Tyranus interrogates...

In Markarth, the innkeeper at the Silver-Blood Inn may tell you that a witchhunter from the Priesthood of Stendarr recently showed up in town, asking all sorts of questions about the old abandoned house up the street from the main gate. Whether or not you've heard this rumor, you will find Vigilant Tyranus wandering around outside the house, at times bothering the townsfolk with his questions. When he sees you he will actively seek you out and ask if you know anything about the house. Unless you totally reject his questions, he will introduce himself, obviously hoping for a helping hand, and proceed to explain that he believes the house is home to Daedric activities. Agree to help him and he will invite you to come along for the investigation and unlock the door.

The Abandoned House

Upon entering the house, everything appears normal, and a puzzled Tyranus comments that it shows no sign of old age as there is fresh food on the table and no wood-rot on the furniture. Immediately after he stops talking, a loud noise comes from downstairs. Tyranus then takes off running towards the noise, only to be stopped by a locked door. He then asks you to open it. The door is locked, and triggers a voice inside your head:

"Weak. He's weak. You're strong. Crush him."

At the same time, the furniture and items in the house will start floating in mid-air, causing Tyranus to panic and run upstairs, yelling, "Stendarr's Mercy! This isn't an ordinary Daedra. We have to get help." He will then run all the way upstairs, only to be impeded by the front door, which is now locked tight. He asks you to leave first and when you touch the door, the malevolent voice will once again resonate, not only in your head, but in that of Tyranus as well:

"No. Kill him. Crush his bones. Tear at his flesh. You will kill. You will kill, or you will die!"

"Stendarr's Mercy! This isn't an ordinary Daedra."

Tyranus will slowly start to panic and forget his righteousness, shouting to the unknown entity inside his mind. When he eventually realizes that there is only one way out, he will draw his mace and proceed to attack you, succumbing to the orders of the mysterious Daedra in the hopes of preserving his own life. He will use several spells, including sparks, lesser ward, healing and oakflesh, determined not to die in the haunted house. Unfortunately, you are in the same situation and will have no choice but to defend yourself, with an inevitable outcome. This seems to amuse the voice:

"Yes. Your reward is waiting for you, mortal. Further down."

The previously locked door is now open, and leads further into the house. Past this door, the voice leads you through a food storage larder, where a hole in the wall reveals a subterranean tunnel, which leads to an altar where your reward, a rusty mace, awaits.

Molag Bal, Lord of Domination

When you try to grab your reward, a set of spikes will immediately shoot up from the floor and trap you in place. You can do nothing but face the altar as it now speaks directly to you:

"Fool! Did you think Molag Bal, the Lord of Domination, would so easily reward you? What do you see from that little cage? Speak."

The voice belongs to the Daedric Prince Molag Bal, whose main ambition and desire is to harvest the souls of mortals and bring them to his own Plane of Oblivion, Coldharbour. You now have three dialogue options. You can tell him you see a rusted mace, and he will say: "Rusted. Dry. There was a time when this mace dripped with the blood of the feeble and the worthless. But a Daedric Lord has his enemies, and my rival Boethiah had her priest desecrate it. Left it here to decay. Until you came." If you instead tell him it's an altar, he will reply: "Yes. It's an altar. Men would come and sacrifice the wretched in my name. The weak would be punished by the strong. But a Daedric Lord has his enemies, and my rival Boethiah had her priest desecrate the altar. Until you came." You can also tell him you only see the spikes of his trap, to which he will respond: "Sharp, aren't they? This was the last thing many saw before they were sacrificed in my name. But a Daedric Lord has his enemies, and my rival Boethiah had her priest desecrate it. So long since it's tasted blood. Until you came."

Depending on your response, he will then say either:

"Revenge? No. I want submission. I want the priest who did this to bend his knee and give me his soul. He comes by to perform Boethiah's insulting rites at my altar, but he's been missing. Captured and bound. Left to rot. Save him. Let him perform his rite one more time. And when he does, we will be waiting for him."

or

"Fine. I offered you a reward. You'll get the freedom your kind enjoys so much. But Boethiah's priest is imprisoned as well. But not by me. He is hurt. Suffering. Save him. Let him perform his rites one more time. And when he does, I will be waiting for him."

The altar will then be quiet and inactive, patiently waiting for you to "rescue" the unfortunate priest and bring him back to the altar, so that Molag Bal can bring yet another soul to his realm. Your quest journal will update and point you towards one out of six possible locations, all located in the Reach and inhabited by Forsworn, who are the ones responsible for imprisoning the priest of Boethiah. Leave the house and altar behind and travel to the specified location.

Possible locations: Broken Tower Redoubt • Bruca's Leap Redoubt • Deepwood Redoubt • Druadach Redoubt • Hag Rock Redoubt • Red Eagle Redoubt

Logrolf the Willful

The Pious Priest of Boethiah

When you find the dungeon, make sure to clear the place entirely of Forsworn, as the captive priest will attempt to make his own way out of his prison. When you finally locate the captured worshipper of Boethiah, he turns out to be an elderly, grumpy priest named Logrolf the Willful. He will be tied and kneeling and will, despite his precarious situation, have quite a bit of a high and mighty attitude, referring to himself as 'the mighty Logrolf'. When you tell him you are there to rescue him he will immediately become suspicious: "Rescue? No one knew where I was, when I was taken. Who sent you?"

You can now choose to persuade, bribe or intimidate him. Note that you need a Speech skill of 50 to successfully persuade Logrolf:

Option	Dialogue				Reaction
Boethiah has sent me. (Persuade)	Passed: The Dark Mistress? She sent you? Wait. Molag Bal's altar. Of course. I have to get to Markarth at once. Cut me loose. Failed: The Dark Mistress? Sent you? Ha. Now tell me the one about the Troll who gives gifts to good little boys and girls.				Passed: Return to Molag Bal Failed: Nothing
Does it matter? Here. (Bribe)	Passed: Fine. I won't ask questions. Cut me loose. Failed: You think it's money I need? I'm a prisoner, not a beggar.				Passed: Return to Molag Bal Failed: Nothing
Molag Bal. (Intimidate)	Passed: So. The King of Corruption sends his messenger to challenge me. Very well. I will meet with Molag Bal, and I will venerate his altar in Boethiah's name, as I did before. Cut me loose, minion of the Hated One. I need to get to Markarth. Failed: You? A servant of the King of Corruption? Has the beast's standards fallen so far? Tell me another one.				Passed: Return to Molag Bal Failed: Nothing
Never mind. Stay here.	I have a choice?				Nothing

After you have untied his binds, he will take off running towards Markarth, determined to single-handedly save humanity once again in the name of his beloved Boethiah. Make sure he gets out safely, then travel to Markarth and re-enter the abandoned house.

You can also choose to kill him at this point. Doing so will fail this quest.

Make Him Bend to Me

Inside the house, the oh-so righteous priest will head right into the basement, without thinking twice. When he reaches the foot of the altar, Molag Bal will trap him right away and a conversation will take place:

Logrolf: "Molag Bal. You think you can best Boethiah's faithful? I have won this contest before!"

Molag Bal: "Ah. But I have my own champion this time, Logrolf."

Logrolf: "What? You!"

Molag Bal: "Mortal. I give you my mace, in all its rusted spitefulness. Crush the spirit from Logrolf's bones. Make him bend to me."

The rusty mace will then be equipped and you will have no other choice than to help Molag Bal humiliate the elderly man. You will have to repeatedly beat the defenseless priest as he quivers, and ultimately kill him. Once he is dead, Molag Bal will revive him, ready for yet another beating. When Logrolf's spirit is finally broken, he will bend before Molag Bal as requested:

"You're mine now, Logrolf."

Molag Bal: "You bend to me?"

Logrolf: "Yes!"

Molag Bal: "You pledge your soul to me?"

Logrolf: "Yes!"

Molag Bal: "You forsake the weak and pitiful Boethiah?"

Logrolf: "Yes!"

Molag Bal: "You're mine now, Logrolf."

With the victory, Molag Bal will lose interest in the torture session and will, mercifully, ask you to put Logrolf out of his misery. The frail old man is already weakened considerably and will not be able to defend himself, so kill him right there in the cage. Lastly, a triumphant Molag Bal will turn the rusty mace into the Mace of Molag Bal, finishing the quest with the words:

"The Mace of Molag Bal! I give you its true power, mortal. When your enemies lie broken and bloody before you, know that I will be watching. Now, I have a soul in Oblivion that needs claiming. Take care of the house while I'm gone. Ha ha ha!"

Notes

• When first entering Markarth, Vigilant Tyranus will not be present due to the Forsworn-related scene in the market. After the scene, exit and enter Markarth (or any other zone, including shops), and he will spawn. If your first entry to the city is via A Night to Remember and it is nighttime when you exit the temple, the market scene will not play. In this case you need to first wait until daytime and then enter the Markarth zone to activate the market scene, then leave and re-enter to make Tyranus spawn.
• If you wish to loot Vigilant Tyranus's body, do it right after killing him. His body will disappear when you return with Logrolf.
• The location of Logrolf is randomly determined via the radiant questing system. Reloading to a point before receiving the quest does not alter it.
  • If Logrolf's location is Druadach Redoubt and you've already helped Madanach escape from Cidhna Mine, it is not necessary to clear the area of Forsworn.
  • If you also have the Heart of Dibella quest active, and the location of Logrolf is Broken Tower Redoubt, he will be in the same prison cell as Fjotra.

• If you kill Logrolf while he is being held captive, the quest immediately fails and you will miss out on the Oblivion Walker achievement. The shrine in the Abandoned House becomes inactive and you receive no rewards.
• You can use the abandoned house as a home as the containers do not respawn and the bed is free to sleep in.
• You can keep the Rusty Mace by storing it on a weapons rack. You are not forced to use it to kill Logrolf, and you will automatically gain Molag Bal's Mace once the deed is done.
• The sequence of you killing of Logrolf is a scripted event and is not counted as a murder by the game. As such, there is no chance you will receive a bounty, get any kind of radiant letter, and your kill statistics will remain unchanged.
• If you loot Logrolf's body in the brief window between his death and resurrection, he will have a new robe and boots after resurrection.
• Logrolf can be the target of soul trapping effects. Killing him when ordered to break his spirit will result in the gain of a black soul, before Molag Bal resurrects him. This can be used an indefinite number of times, providing a handy risk-free method of obtaining black souls, with no associated bounty. You can soul-trap him one last time when ordered to kill him.^{[verification needed — see talk page]}

Bugs

• If you save after taking the mace but before finishing the quest, there is no way to finish the quest by talking to Molag Bal. A waypoint will appear inside a wall and the quest will remain unfinished in your journal.
• If you are experiencing the crafting/object interaction bug, wherein you are unable to interact with any crafting objects, avoid this quest. The altar is affected by this bug, leaving you trapped in the house if you are unable to interact with it. ^?
• Depending on your choices during the quest No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, when the prisoners attack the city, Vigilant Tyranus may show up and be killed by the prisoners. This makes the quest impossible to start. ^?
  • Open the console and type completequest DA10 and player.additem 233E3 1 to get the Mace. You can then enter the Abandoned House using the console command unlock after clicking on the closed doors, and you can even speak to and eventually kill Logrolf with the commands prid 000198F3, then moveto player, and finally enable.
• If you engage in the initial conversation with Vigilant Tyranus, but don't immediately follow him into the Abandoned House, or leave before you reach, and interact with, the lower door, the door may become locked from the outside ("Requires key"), making the quest impossible to complete. To fix this, you may use the targeted console command unlock on the door, enter, and continue the quest.
• When you step on the pedestal and Molag Bal asks you to speak, you may get stuck in the dialogue screen without any dialogue options and without being able to exit the screen, trapping you in place.
  • Open the console and type coc "xx" with a location such as coc whiterun. You will be transported to that location and the dialogue will begin again.
• Tyranus may spawn outside of Markarth near the carriage at the Markarth Stables; speaking with the innkeeper of the Silver Blood inn can lead to a quest marker showing Tyranus's position. If you try to go past him he will stop you as usual and you will receive the quest. You will just have to go through the doors to Markarth as well as the house. ^?
• Logrolf might not submit and will fail to initiate speech with Molag Bal, instead just proceeding to die when you strike him.
  • One solution is to set quest stage to 120 by, using setstage DA10 120 through the console.
• The sequence which causes Vigilant Tyranus to attack you may not occur properly; though the door will still be unlocked and you may leave the abandoned house, the color scheme will be thrown off wherever you go into Skyrim from that point on. You may additionally kill Tyranus anyway and proceed down to speak with Molag Bal; however, this results in you being trapped inside the house, with the exit door requiring a key to unlock, as it does should you try to leave before killing Tyranus in a normal instance of this quest.
  • This can be bypassed by opening the console and typing player.additem 00065673 1, granting you the normally unobtainable key to the bugged door.
• Sometimes when you go to pick up the mace nothing will happen except for your player cowering for as long as you don't press anything.
• When freeing Logrolf with the menu option "Here. Let me untie these binds." (just before he returns to the abandoned house), it's possible for Logrolf to give the expected dialogue ("Ah, freedom. Now get out of my way. I have a task to attend to.") but then not actually stand or change from his bound position or mark the step "Free Logrolf" in the quest complete. This prevents Logrolf from returning to the abandoned house and also prevents you from continuing the quest The House Of Horrors. Here is a video of this bug in action. After experiencing this issue, I returned to Logrolf several times and attempted to free him again. It took quite a while, but eventually freeing him worked properly and I was able to complete the quest. ^?

Quest Stages

The House of Horrors (DA10)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		Tyranus, a Vigilant of Stendarr, is investigating an old, abandoned house in Markarth. He believes it was once a site of Daedric worship. Objective 10: Search the abandoned house
70		Objective 20: Find your reward
80		I have met Molag Bal, the Lord of Domination. He has asked me to cleanse his altar in the abandoned house in Markarth by luring a priest of Boethiah to him. Objective 30: Find the priest of Boethiah
85		Objective 35: Free Logrolf
90		Objective 40: Go to the abandoned house
100		Objective 50: Beat Logrolf into submission
130		Objective 60: Kill Logrolf
140		Objective 70: Speak to Molag Bal
200	Finishes quest	Logrolf is dead, and the Mace of Molag Bal is mine.
500	Fails quest	Tyranus is dead. Whatever investigation he had in mind ended with him.
550	Fails quest	Logrolf is dead. Whatever plans Molag Bal had for him are over now.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 3, 15, 17, 20, 25, 30, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 45, 65, 72, 74, 76, 92, 95, 110, 120.

Notes

• Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
• Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
• Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
• If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage DA10 stage, where stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest DA10.