You’ve finally done it. You’ve clawed your way through the updated, surprisingly lush forests of the West Weald, survived the weirdly aggressive minotaur spawns, and reached the shrine of the Prince of Domination. But then, the game breaks. If you’ve been hanging out in any Elder Scrolls forums lately, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The Oblivion Remastered Molag Bal quest is becoming the stuff of legend for all the wrong reasons. It's kinda funny, honestly. Bethesda shadow-dropped this remaster last April, and while most of it is a gorgeous Unreal Engine 5 glow-up of our 2006 childhoods, this one specific Daedric quest is acting like it's still stuck in the early 2000s—or worse.
I spent three hours yesterday just trying to get a retired paladin to hit me with a cursed mace. Three hours.
Why the Molag Bal Quest is Basically a Boss Fight for Your Hardware
In the original game, the quest "Molag Bal" was simple, if a bit dark. You go find Melus Petilius, a guy who swore off violence after his wife died, and you trick him into beating you to death with the Cursed Mace. In Oblivion Remastered, this interaction has become a technical nightmare. Players are reporting that the script simply won't trigger. You drop the mace at his feet, he looks at it, and then he just... stands there. Or, in a particularly annoying version of the bug, he picks it up and then immediately teleports into the geometry of his house.
The irony isn't lost on anyone. Molag Bal is the Prince of Domination and Enslavement. Right now, he’s dominating our save files.
📖 Related: Black Mesa: Why This Fan Remake Still Beats Official Titles
The New Graphics vs. Old Code
Virtuos, the studio that handled the heavy lifting for this remaster, clearly did a massive sweep of the assets. The statue of Molag Bal at his shrine looks terrifying now. The scales have individual specular maps, and the lighting coming off the ritual candles is genuinely atmospheric. But beneath that UE5 "sheen," the game is still running on a version of the old Gamebryo logic.
When you combine high-fidelity physics with 20-year-old AI pathfinding, things get messy. Specifically, if Melus Petilius is interrupted by one of the new dynamic weather events—like a heavy thunderstorm—his "grief" schedule gets overridden by a "find shelter" command. He’ll abandon the quest logic to go stand under a tree.
- The "Mace Drop" Issue: If you don't drop the mace in a very specific 2-foot radius, the AI won't see it as a weapon.
- The Resurrection Glitch: In the remaster, the script that's supposed to teleport you back to the shrine after you "die" sometimes fails to check your health threshold correctly. If Melus hits too hard, the game treats it as a legitimate player death. You get a loading screen, and your save is toast.
- Collision Chaos: The new clutter added to the graveyard often clips with the mace, making it "fall" through the floor and out of the game world.
Is Coldharbour Actually in the Game?
There was a lot of talk before the release that we might actually get to see a slice of Coldharbour. Rumors suggested Bethesda was going to use the remaster to bridge the gap between The Elder Scrolls Online (where Molag Bal is the big bad) and the mainline single-player games.
Sadly, that didn't happen.
If you were hoping for a Skyrim-style trip to the Soul Cairn or a full-blown invasion, you’re out of luck. The quest remains a local affair in the Great Forest. It’s a bit of a missed opportunity, especially since the "Planemeld" from ESO is such a huge part of the lore now. Some fans on Reddit have even pointed out that the remaster doesn't even include new lore books to explain why nobody in the Third Era remembers the time Molag Bal tried to pull the entire planet into hell with giant chains.
It's just the way Bethesda rolls. They prioritize the vibe over the connectivity.
How to Actually Beat the Quest Without Losing Your Mind
If you’re currently staring at Melus Petilius and he’s refusing to move, don't throw your controller. There are a few "unofficial" ways to kickstart the script. Most of these were discovered by the community through trial and error over the last few months.
First, check your difficulty slider. If you have it set too high, Melus will one-shot you. The remaster's damage scaling is a bit different than the original, and if your health hits zero before the "quest death" flag triggers, the game won't resurrect you. Slide that bar all the way to the left just for this encounter.
🔗 Read more: How to Download Shaders for Minecraft Java Without Breaking Your Game
Second, avoid using any "Reflect Damage" or "Fire Shield" enchantments. I learned this the hard way. If Melus takes damage while he’s hitting you, he’ll stop his attack animation and try to run away. He's a pacifist, remember? Even a little bit of accidental "thorns" damage will make him flee back to his cabin, and resetting his AI state can take days of in-game time.
Step-by-Step Recovery for the Broken Script
- Hard Save before entering the graveyard: Seriously. Don't rely on autosaves here.
- Clear the area of wolves: The remaster has a higher predator spawn rate. If a wolf attacks Melus, the quest is basically dead until the next cell reset.
- Drop the Cursed Mace directly on the grave: Not near it. On it.
- Stand perfectly still: Don't block. Don't move. Just let him do his thing.
If you're on PC, you've got it a bit easier. You can always use the console to advance the stage, but that's a slippery slope. Once you start using setstage, you usually end up breaking something else down the line.
The Larger Impact of Oblivion Remastered
Despite the bugs, seeing Oblivion Remastered hit over nine million players in its first few months is wild. It shows there is a massive hunger for that specific brand of weird, colorful fantasy that Skyrim moved away from. But the Molag Bal situation highlights the danger of these "hybrid" remasters.
When you put a new engine on top of an old one, you get these "ghost bugs." They aren't in the original code, and they aren't in the new engine—they exist in the friction between the two.
It makes me a little nervous for the rumored Fallout 3 remaster. If they can't get a simple "get hit by a mace" script to work in the woods of Cyrodiil, imagine the chaos of the Capital Wasteland. Still, even with the technical hiccups, there’s something special about seeing the Mace of Molag Bal in 4K. It looks wicked. It looks like it actually belongs to a Daedric Prince.
What to do next
If you've managed to finish the quest and you're wondering what to do with your new mace, head over to the Shivering Isles. The remaster includes all the DLC, and the lighting in New Sheoth is arguably the best part of the entire package. Just make sure you keep a back-up save before you talk to Sheogorath. If Molag Bal can break a save, the Prince of Madness certainly can.
Go check your active effects menu right now. If you've still got the "Cursed" debuff even after the quest is "finished," you need to reload. That’s a permanent stat drain that will ruin your character if you let it sit for too long. Stick to the basics: save often, keep your difficulty low during scripted deaths, and don't expect the AI to be smarter just because it has better textures.
✨ Don't miss: Why Every Pokémon Trading Card Game Binder Isn’t Actually Safe for Your Collection
The best way to handle this right now is to wait for the 1.3 patch, which is rumored to address the Daedric quest triggers specifically. Until then, you're basically your own QA tester. Welcome to the modern Elder Scrolls experience.