Ill Met by Moonlight

Background
"There are stories in Falkreath of a strange vagrant who savagely killed a little girl." "I've met Sinding, a werewolf who the Daedric Lord Hircine has punished by preventing his transformations. He's given me the ring he stole and asked me to entreat Hircine for forgiveness"

- The Dragonborn

Walkthrough
In Falkreath, the Dragonborn begins this quest by asking Mathies Caerellia, and then speaking to Sinding, a prisoner in the Falkreath Barracks. Alternatively, Sinding can be spoken to directly to start the quest. He will tell the Dragonborn of a rare animal, The Prince of the Hunt, that needs to be killed to appease Hircine. Sinding gives the Dragonborn the Cursed Ring of Hircine that will randomly transform the wearer into a werewolf. After that, Sinding escapes. After killing the animal, its spirit appears to the Dragonborn and Hircine speaks through it. He commands the Dragonborn to go to the place where Sinding has fled, and to kill him to gain favor with Hircine.

Once arriving at Bloated Man's Grotto, the Dragonborn will meet some hunters, who are outmatched by the werewolf, Sinding. The Dragonborn can choose to kill Sinding or to ally with him and kill all the hunters. The reward received varies depending on this choice:


 * 1) If Sinding is killed, and his skin taken, Hircine appears to reward the Dragonborn with the Savior's Hide, a leather-based light armor which gives magic and poison resist.
 * 2) If the Dragonborn kills the hunters, Hircine will appear upon leaving the grotto and commend the Dragonborn for turning the hunt "inside out," giving his blessing and transforming the ring into the Ring of Hircine. This ring gives the Dragonborn unlimited werewolf transformations.
 * 3) Both items can be obtained by killing all the hunters and then going outside the grotto and then claiming the Ring of Hircine and then going back in and kill Sinding and get his skin.
 * 4) (PS3)Tricking Sinding into believing that the Dragonborn is helping him by killing the hunters, then meeting Hircine outside will provide his blessing and the ring. Afterwards, re-entering the grotto, killing and skinning Sinding (he will be in werewolf form), will make Hircine appear thus allowing the Dragonborn to obtain the Savior's Hide. Both items count toward the achievement: Oblivion Walker, making the achievement obtainable even if another Daedric quest is failed.
 * 5) If the above doesn't work then changing the order might work: the Dragonborn should kill and skin Sindling immediately after killing the hunters and talking to him. As soon as the Hircine spirit appears, the player should back out of the conversation and run out of the grotto where the stag spirit will appear and bless the ring breaking the curse. Returning into the grotto and carrying on the conversation with the Hircine spirit will make him bless the skin turning it into Savior's Hide. (Confirmed on PS3 and 360)
 * 6) If you leave the grotto along with Sinding after killing all the hunters, the elk spirit will appear outside the cave so back out the conversation and kill the werewolf, then skin him and speak with the spirit emerging from sinding's corpse. Tributte the pelt and he will bless it into the Savior's Hide. Speak back with the elk spirit and he will remove the curse from the ring. (PC Confirmed)

Both choices remove the Cursed Ring of Hircine from the player's inventory.

Note: The Cursed Ring can turn the Dragonborn into a werewolf. If he chooses to continue through the cave like this, he will need to transform into the normal form before he can talk to Sindling after killing the hunters OR for the stag Hircine spirit outside to appear after killing Sinding. To transform back, the easiest way is to wait for a few hours. For some reason this quest keeps the player in werewolf form for a very long time.

Conclusion
"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."

Treasures
Four chests can be found in this area, even after it is changed during the quest: There is also a gold ore deposit at the top of one of the rock mounds overlooking the entire cave.
 * After entering into the main part of the cavern, a chest is hidden behind a dead, hollowed out trunk on ledge before the waterfall (see first picture).
 * An unlocked chest is hidden at the bottom of the small water pool under the initial waterfall.
 * An unlocked chest can be found in the built up area, in front of the Talos Shrine and statue.Bloated Mans Grotto Master Chest Location.jpg
 * A master locked chest is hidden near the dead deer on a ledge behind boulders (see second picture).

Side Notes

 * If Sinding is killed either before or after helping him kill the hunters, he cannot be resurrected via console after he has been skinned. This is because at that point he has been scripted to die.
 * If Sinding's Skin is taken after killing him it will briefly be in the player's inventory and is a gray, slightly more concave version of a Goat Hide.
 * If Mathies is killed before obtaining the quest it can be starting by going straight to Sinding.

Trivia

 * "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," is Oberon's first line in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play written by William Shakespeare.
 * There is also a WW2 movie with this name, starring Dirk Bogarde: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049357/.