Ill Met by Moonlight

Ill Met By Moonlight is a quest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Overview

 * Prerequisite: N/A
 * Quest Giver: Hircine
 * Reward: Savior's Hide or Ring of Hircine
 * Reputation Gain: N/A

Background
"I met Sinding, a werewolf that the Daedric Lord Hircine had punished by preventing his transformations. I helped kill him as a service to Hircine, and have been rewarded with Savior's Hide."

"I met Sinding, a werewolf who the Daedric Lord Hircine had punished by preventing his transformations. I defended him against the hunters that Hircine sent to end his life, and earned his friendship."

Walkthrough
You start this quest by asking Mathies Caerellia "Who died?", and then speaking to Sinding, a prisoner in the Falkreath Barracks. Alternatively, you may speak directly to Sinding to start the quest. He will tell you of a rare animal that needs to be killed to appease to Hircine, the Prince of the Hunt. Sinding gives you the Ring of Hircine that will make you randomly transform into a werewolf. After that, he escapes. After you kill the animal, its spirit will appear to you, and through it, Hircine will speak. He'll command you to go to the place where Sinding has fled and instruct you to kill him, to gain favor with Hircine.

Once you've arrived at Bloated Man's Grotto, you'll meet some hunters, horribly outmatched by the werewolf Sinding. You can choose to either try to kill Sinding, or to ally with him and kill all the hunters.

If you kill Sinding, you take his skin, and Hircine appears again to award you the Savior's Hide, and also removes the Cursed Ring of Hircine from your inventory. If you kill the hunters, when you leave the place, Hircine will appear and uncurse his ring, now in your possession, free to use for werewolf transformations. This ring gives the user unlimited transformations. (Note: You must already have the power to transform into a werewolf in order for this ring to take effect).

(Note: There is a master lock chest if you climb the rocks right where you kill the last hunters and there is also a chest inside the water in front of the waterfall at the start)



(Note: There is an easily missed chest hidden behind what looks to be some remnants of a tree, behind the hunters' tents, up the ledge.)

Bugs

 * This quest tends to become broken If you do not kill the Great White Elk upon your first encounter. It will run away and can end up on a mountain top that is unreachable. Meet up with a few other fellow hunters walking on a path as the elks are found commonly around and use their help to take down the elk.
 * It is possible to obtain both artifacts (confirmed PS3 [patch 2.01] and Xbox 360 [patch 2.01], confirmed on PC by patch 1.1.21.0) by helping Sinding kill all the hunters, and once you finish that, talk to Sinding, leave the cave causing Hircine to show and reward you the ring, then go back into the cave kill and skin Sinding which in turn causes Hircine to show up and reward you the hide. Or if you kill all the hunters then without talking to Sinding kill him, Hircine will appear and give you Savior's Hide then go outside and talk to Hircine's Elk Spirit and he will uncurse the ring AND later in the game Sinding can be found wandering the countryside with no NPC's noticing that he is their but he will respond when you get near him with "Never thought I'd see you again."
 * After wearing the Cursed ring, and turning into a werewolf manually, you might not be able to turn back into your old self.
 * Sinding can get stuck in the pool of water in his cell, never making it up the stairs to be able to speak with you, making the quest impossible to start or continue. This can be corrected by using the third level (2nd works too) of unrelenting force on him then exiting and returning to the jail.
 * Sinding may also turn hostile if you attempt to heal him with the Healing Hands restoration spell.
 * It is possible to have two Sindings after completing the quest by aiding him. If the hunters are defeated the ally Sinding may simply freeze in place, only uttering "Never thought I'd see you again", you will then see a second Sinding camped in werewolf farm before the exit, with this glitch it is possible to obtain both the ring and the armor without technically killing Sinding completly.
 * If you decide to tell Sinding you will kill him, and end up killing (accidently or purposely) the hunters, the quest may glitch and Sinding will follow you as if you were hunting the hunters. The quest will not progress and Sinding will be invulnerable to damage. The only way to fix this is to reload a previous save.
 * It is possible, that after killing Great White Elk, Sinding will remain in the cell, even though everyone says that he escaped,

Trivia

 * "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," is a line, said by Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, written by William Shakespeare.