Meridia's Beacon is the most annoying quest design in the game

[EbonyWarrior]

Just replayed it for the first time in years and man, I forgot how much I hate this one. You're just minding your business, looting a corpse or whatever, and suddenly your character is screaming about a beacon and you have no choice but to go deal with it. Can't ignore it, can't put it off. The quest literally hijacks your playthrough.

And then when you get to the temple it's just... a dungeon crawl. Meridia spends the whole time being mad at you for existing near dead things, which is weird because you're literally a Dragonborn who's probably killed hundreds of people by that point. The reward is okay I guess but it doesn't make up for how forced the whole thing feels.

Compare that to something like the Daedra's Best Friend quest where Sanguine actually lets you have a conversation and mess around. Or even Boethiah's Calling where at least the setup is intentional on your part. Meridia just... ambushes you. It's the only Daedric quest that feels genuinely annoying to me rather than interesting or creepy.

Does anyone else skip this one on purpose or am I just salty?

 

[RiftenWanderer]

I get the frustration but I think the forced nature is kind of the point? Like, Meridia is explicitly about life and undeath - she's not asking permission, she's commanding you. The other Daedric quests let you choose because those Daedra care about your agency or your suffering or whatever. Meridia just wants her problem solved and doesn't care how you feel about it.

That said, yeah, the actual quest is pretty bland once you're in the temple. It's just "kill undead, listen to Meridia complain, get the bow." At least A Daedra's Best Friend has that weird drunken setup and the actual quest is kind of funny. This one's just... functional.

I don't skip it though because the Dawnbreaker is actually solid for a lot of builds, especially early on when you find the beacon. And there's something darkly funny about your character getting ragequit-summoned by a Daedra while you're just trying to loot. But I'm not gonna pretend the dungeon itself is interesting. It's forgettable.