The Infernal Sparkcaster

The Infernal Sparkcaster is a Daedric Price quest available in. The Agent is tasked with slaying a mage or 'infernal sparkcaster' at the behest of Molag Bal, Prince of Domination.

Background
In their pursuit of more power to aid their quest, the Agent may seek the power of the Daedric Princes. On the 20th of Evening Star the Prince of Domination Molag Bal may be summoned, if the Agent agrees to pay a summoner of either a Witch Coven, Mages Guild or a Temple.

Objectives

 * Successfully summon Molag Bal, Prince of Domination, on the 20th of Evening Star.
 * Speak with the Prince and accept their quest.
 * Journey to and enter the dungeon mentioned by Molag Bal.
 * Track down and slay the mage named by Molag Bal.
 * (Potential) Journey to and enter the second dungeon that the mage disappeared into.
 * Slay the mage.
 * Journey to the regional tavern and find Molag Bal's apostle.
 * Speak with Molag Bal's apostle before the time limit expires.

Walkthrough
The Agent may approach a summoner at either the Mages Guild, a Temple, or a Witch Coven to summon one of the Daedric Princes. If the summoning occurs on the 20th of Evening Star, the Agent may receive a vision of Molag Bal, whom immediately offers them a quest. Indeed, Molag Bal recognises the Agent's desire for power, stating that it is 'a far more tangible quantity than wisdom', and hence offers the Agent 'a simple assassination'.

Non-contracted Power
Accepting Molag Bal's offer will reveal that a mage 'has been invoking [Molag Bal's] name' and using the Prince's power 'without a contract.' While the Prince acknowledges that this may be 'due to ignorance', they cannot tolerate any misdirected abuse of their power. The Agent is therefore sent to slay said mage, before meeting with an apostle of Molag Bal's to receive the Prince's boon, the Mace of Molag Bal.

With that the Agent should head to the dungeon mentioned by Molag Bal and track down the mage. There is a potential for the dungeon to be populated by other unrelated mages, meaning the Agent will have to keep fighting until one of two notifications appears.

A Simple Kill
Should the Agent strike the mage and deal a fatal blow within three in-game minutes then the following notification will appear:

"[Mage's name] is dead. You have fulfilled your contract with Molag Bal. Now to collect your reward."

- In-game notification

With that, the Agent simply has to exit the dungeon and head to the regional tavern where Molag Bal stated their apostle would be. Once there, the Agent must speak with the apostle before the time limit expires to complete the quest and receive their reward.

A Draining Resource
However, should the Agent fail to deal a killing blow within three in-game minutes then the following notification will appear:

"[Mage's name] lifts his staff and disappears in a thunderclap."

- In-game notification

In order to complete the quest, the Agent must look for a clue as to where the mage will have gone. Fortunately, a note will appear elsewhere in the dungeon, revealing not only the location of the mage, but knowledge that they were indeed invoking the name of Molag Bal without authority:

"A map showing the location of [second dungeon] marked with the notation, "Remind [Minion's name] to lay in supplies. Indications that Molag Bal has detected me.""

- A careless note

With that, the Agent should head to this second lair, another dungeon and slay the mage, who will be unable to disappear a second time. Once the mage lies dead the Agent must quickly escape the dungeon and meet with Molag Bal's apostle as above, before the time limit expires.

Rewards
Completing the quest successfully within the time limit will see the Agent rewarded with the Mace of Molag Bal by the Prince's apostle. The Agent will also receive a boost in reputation with the faction whom summoned the Prince for them, as well as the faction's associates. Conversely, failing the quest will result in the Agent losing reputation with the summoner's faction.

The changes made to reputation, either by successfully completing or failing the quest are shown below:

Trivia

 * When asked for any news, NPCs have a variety of comments to make referencing the quest:
 * Acceptance: "Everyone's whispering about the experiments going on in [dungeon]." or "There's some weird stuff going on in that [dungeon] to the [direction]."
 * Success: "Real quiet around [dungeon] lately." or "There was a lot of excitement around [dungeon], but it's all calmed down."
 * Failure: "That bright red star is said to be the anger of the daedra Molag Bal." or "There was a crazy [Apostle's description] running around here screaming about contracts."
 * NPCs will also remark on Molag Bal's tools during the quest:
 * Molag Bal's apostle: "Some weird-acting [Apostle's description] was in [regional tavern], [direction] of here." or "A [Apostle's' description] by that name was in [regional tavern], [direction] of here, fairly recently."
 * Mace of Molag Bal: "The Mace of Molag Bal steals magicka from its victims." or "The Mace of Molag Bal, or the Vampire's Mace to the layman, is a conduit for magical energy to flow into the bearer."