Elder Scrolls
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Elder Scrolls

For other uses, see Molag Bal.
Not to be confused with Molag Bal's Quest or The Infernal Sparkcaster.
"Another mortal come to do my bidding. I only wish suffering and death. You will bring me both. I want to see a man brought to the edge. And pushed. Near Brindle Home you will find Melus Petilius. A good man. An honorable man. He disgusts me. You will let him kill you with this: the Cursed Mace. As you are doing this for me, I'll save your miserable life. Probably. Get out of my sight."
―Molag Bal[src]

Molag Bal is a quest in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. With the Hero at level 17 and a Lion Pelt in the inventory, they can approach the shrine. The Hero must corrupt a man to kill them in order to be rewarded by Molag Bal.

Walkthrough[]

"I know of him (Referring to Melus Petilius), but I don't figure I need to tell you about it."
―Villagers in Brindle Home[src]

Obtain a lion pelt and go to the shrine which is northeast of Skingrad and south of Narfinsel.

Activate the shrine by giving the lion pelt to Molag Bal. He will tell the Hero to corrupt a man named Melus Petilius. In order to do this, they must make him attack them with the Cursed Mace that Molag Bal provides. He lives at the settlement of Brindle Home.

"I know of the poor man. Did wonders for folks around here. There was no job too small for him. Killed off hordes of goblins when they attacked the town. Killed off a nest of minotaurs singlehandedly. That's all in the past now, though. Since his wife, Vena, died, we haven't seen hide nor hair of the man. Gone off by himself."
―Villagers in Brindle Home[src]

Head over to the settlement and talk to any villager with a disposition of 60 or more and they will tell the story about Petilius. He moved to a cabin to the southwest of town and he visits his wife's grave daily. He will not attack the Hero in his home, but at his wife's grave he is easily angered.

Molag Bal (Quest) Fight

Petilius attacking the Hero

Petilius heads to the grave at 10:00 a.m. so follow him there. It is a short distance from the house he lives in now. When he begins praying at the grave, drop the Cursed Mace nearby and then attack with your fists. It may be advisable to remove all armor, as it will otherwise be damaged as the Hero lets Petilius repeatedly hit them. See also Trivia below for tips on speeding up the dying process.

"Well, it seems you've accomplished the task set out for you. Well done. Another man damned. Another ruined soul. But, you'll still get your prize, won't you? I think it was worth it... don't you? Keep up the good work, little mortal."
―Molag Bal[src]

Once provoked, Petilius will state that it was a mistake that they attacked him at his wife's grave and they must now die. Petilius will then grab the nearby mace, attacking the Hero. Allow him to attack the Hero until death, take caution as Petilius has low health and can easily die. Once the Hero's health has been diminished to very low, they'll then be transported back at Molag Bal's shrine and be rewarded with the Mace of Molag Bal.

Journal[]

Journal Entry
  • Update: After speaking to a follower:

Molag Bal's follower has told me that, in order to summon the Daedra, I must present an offering of a lion pelt to the statue. [You must be level 17 to begin this quest.]

  • Update: After offering to Molag Bal:

Molag Bal has spoken to me, and wishes me to help him corrupt Melus Petilius, by forcing him to kill me with the Cursed Mace. I should travel to Brindle Home and see what I can find.

  • Update: After speaking to one of the residents at Brindle Home:

I have spoken to one of the residents of Brindle Home, who tells me that Petilius has lived in a small house outside of town since the death of his wife.

  • Update: After finding out more information about Petilius:

I have learned that Petilius visits the grave of his wife every day.

  • Update: After hitting Petilius to make him angry:

I have goaded Melus Petilius into attacking me with the Cursed Mace. I have been transported back to the Shrine of Molag Bal.

  • Update: After returning to Molag Bal's Shrine:

Molag Bal was pleased that I was able to corrupt the paladin. He has rewarded me with the Mace of Molag Bal.

  • Quest complete

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Since this quest begins at level 17, it may take a long time to die. If the Blackwood Ring of Silence has been obtained, the ring has a deadly fire damage enchantment that will quickly deplete all health. One can also go to a nearby large stone and jump down to deplete the health before going back and start the fight.
  • Melus Petilius has very low weapon damage modifiers, so adding a damage health poison on the mace to harm the Hero is also an option to make it easier to be killed. He also has a very low health, so removing any reflect damage enchantments will keep him alive while he attacks the Hero.
  • An alternative to beating him with the fists one can cast the spell turn undead and it will still get him to attack but will not cause him damage.
  • After the quest one can return to the grave and talk to him (or just kill him) and he will give the Cursed Mace back.
  • Should one happen to kill Melus before starting the quest, he will not respawn, making it impossible for him to kill the Hero and impossible to complete the quest.

Bugs[]

This section contains bugs related to Molag Bal (Quest). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:

  1. Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
  2. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.
  3. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.
  •  360   Once killed by Melus, the Hero will be transported back to the shrine, invisible (i.e. the Hero cannot be seen by the player, but will still be visible to enemies and NPCs), and will have lost all:
    • Attribute boosts
    • Skill boosts (such as the Night Mother's Blessing or Agronak's Training)
    • Birthsign Powers
    • Racial attributes (i.e. Argonian characters will have lost the waterbreathing ability and immunity to poisons).
      • The only way to fix this on consoles is to re-load a save before being killed, or all of the above will be forever lost. Only the Hero being invisible can be fixed, by quitting then re-loading a save.
      • This occurs when Melus kills the Hero outright; normally when the Hero's health drops to around 20 they are transported back to the Shrine without the bug occurring. It can be avoided by allowing Melus to remove most of the Hero's health, then reducing the difficulty to the lowest setting. While it will take longer to complete the quest, it will prevent the bug from occurring.
  • A quick fix is to load a save from somewhere before Melus at the grave. Next, go to the grave and drop the mace. Hit Melus Petilius, then wait for him to say his peace, pick up the weapon, then let him attack once. At this point, open the console using the tilde (~) and type player.setstage damolagbal 60, hit enter and then click on Melus and type stopcombat, hit enter again, then tilde (~) to return from console. One should have gotten a journal entry saying that Melus killed them and were transported back to the shrine. From here go back to the shrine and activate it. Eventually they are no longer invisible, and one may have missed that their attribute boosts disappeared, making a reload anything but a "quick fix." One can, however, use the console command player.addspell spellID in conjunction with this list.
  • On occasion, Melus will not pick up the mace and attack hand to hand (a little hard to notice with Melus if he is invisible). If this happens, simply yield, pick up the mace and place it in front of him again (making sure it is on the grave), before attacking him again.
  • On the  360   simply pause, select options then select game play and raise the game difficulty to the highest level. Then, once one has unequipped all of the armor, he will "kill" the Hero very quickly.

Appearances[]


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