The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Ill Met By Moonlight Glitch [Guide]

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• STARTING "ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT"
• QUEST WALKTHROUGH
• ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT GLITCH

When playing Skyrim, I wanted to unlock every single achievement, just as I did in Oblivion, including the DLC. I was devastated when I learned that the Rueful Axe in one of the quests did not count as one of the Daedric Artifacts that are part of the 15 needed in order to unlock the Oblivion Walker achievement. However, I just recently learned that the Daedric quest Ill Met By Moonlight can be exploited to get two Daedric Artifacts, so that even if you missed one during your adventures, you can still get the achievement, and not have to start all the way over!

First of all, SAVE OFTEN. Save after each objective is completed. You don’t want to be screwed out of the glitch as well, after you’ve already been screwed out of a different Daedric artifact. Save in different save slots as well, so you have a variety of different times to load just in case you mess up somewhere along the line.

READ THROUGH THIS ENTIRE GUIDE BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THE GLITCH. This is vital. Yes, this will mean spoilers. But this will help you obtain to the two artifacts without a problem.

STARTING “ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT”

There are no prerequisites to starting this quest. You simply have to travel to Falkreath and go to the large graveyard in town. There will be a funeral procession in progress for a little girl that was “ripped to shreds”. Search Falkreath for the parents, named Mathies and Indara Carelia, and when you find one of them, speak with them to learn that a man named Sinding is the one that killed the little girl.

QUEST WALKTHROUGH

Now you will have the quest known as “Ill Met By Moonlight”. Your next course of action is to find Sinding. He will be held in the Falkreath Barracks. Approach the bars that he’s stuck behind and speak with him when he gets close. Listen to his story. He will explain that he is a werewolf and he searched out the Ring of Hircine to help him control his werewolf powers. However, Hircine became annoyed with him and cursed the ring, making his werewolf transformations entirely unpredictable.

Sinding explains that a “legendary beast” in the woods near Falkreath can be slain in order to have a meeting with Hircine. Head to the White Stag in the woods and chase it down. The beast moves pretty fast. If you have the “Unrelenting Force” shout, use it to knock it off its feet so it can be killed easier. Once the beast is dead, Hircine will appear as a ghost of the White Stag.

Speak with Hircine. He will ask you to join the hunt to kill the escaped Sinding. There are a group of other hunters working for Hircine already hunting Sinding. They are located at Bloated Man’s Grotto. Once you enter the grotto, speak with the dying hunter and tell him that you will join the hunt to kill Sinding. The other hunters are deeper in the grotto, still hunting Sinding.

The path through the Grotto is linear. So just travel through it until Sinding speaks to you from the top of Pride Rock (…). He will ask if you are going to try to kill him or spare his life. This is very important. Choose to SPARE HIS LIFE. Now travel with Sinding and kill all the remaining hunters in the grotto with him.

ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT GLITCH

When all the hunters are dead, DO NOT SPEAK TO SINDING. Instead run all the way back to the entrance of the grotto. Don’t exit it, but make sure you are right near to the entrance. Then speak with Sinding. As soon as the quest completes, KILL SINDING. He will try to flee, so chase him down and continue to hack and slash or whatever until he is dead!

As soon as Sinding dies, skin him by pressing A on his corpse, and a ghostly apparition of a person, Hircine in another form, will appear by Sinding’s dead body. This guy will immediately start a conversation with you. GET OUT OF THAT CONVERSATION IMMEDIATELY. If you’re playing Xbox, hit B! If you’re playing PS3…I don’t know, I assume circle is the right button to push. And if you’re on PC, get the hell out of that conversation window as fast as possible.

Then run away from the apparition and exiting the Grotto. Outside the Grotto, Hircine will speak to you again, this time in White Stag form.  Speak with him and he will remove the curse from the Ring of Hircine, giving you one of the needed Daedric Artifacts! With that, turn around and go back inside Bloated Man’s Grotto. Speak to the man-ghost version of Hircine, and have him turn the hide of Sinding into the Savior’s Hide, your second Daedric Artifact from the quest!