Skyrim:Boethiah's Calling

Quick Walkthrough
# (Optional) Read ''Boethiah's Proving''.
# Travel to the Sacellum of Boethiah and speak to the Priestess of Boethiah.
# Sacrifice a follower on the Altar of Sacrifice.
# Kill all the cult members.
# Go to Knifepoint Ridge and kill Boethiah's current champion.

Detailed Walkthrough
Starting the Quest
You can start the quest any time after reaching level 30, either by reading a copy of ''Boethiah's Proving or traveling directly to the Sacellum of Boethiah and talking to the Priestess of Boethiah or killing every one of the cultists. If you wait, you may be attacked randomly in the world by Boethiah cultists, who will have a copy of Boethiah's Proving on their corpse.
:Note: See Boethiah's Proving'' for other locations of the book. The various copies of the book appear once you reach level 30.

The Shrine of Boethiah
First, you will have to make your way to the Sacellum of Boethiah. Follow the road northeast from the Windhelm Stables up to Traitor's Post. Nearby is a road that leads into the mountains, up to the Sacellum. When you arrive at the Sacellum you will find two cultists fighting in a small arena. There are some more cultists and a Priestess of Boethiah watching them. Speak to the priestess. She will tell you that you need to prove that "your tongue can wield a lie". If you kill the followers of Boethiah, the Daedric Prince will appear and give the quest instructions herself.

The Sacrifice
The priestess will tell you that you need to gain someone's trust and then sacrifice them before Boethiah. She will give you the Blade of Sacrifice to use for the deed.  Lead any non-essential follower to the shrine and activate command mode (holding 'use' or via the "I need you to do something" conversation option). Highlight the pillar and you should see "Use the Pillar of Sacrifice". Tell them to do this and they will move towards it and be pulled in and stuck to it. If the follower is essential, the pillar will not be triggered.

Kill the follower using any means (despite what the Priestess says, you do not have to use the Blade of Sacrifice). Once your follower is dead, Boethiah will use the body as a conduit to tell you and all of the cultists that she has a task for whomever is left standing after a battle to the death. This results in all the cultists attacking one another (and you). Be prepared for a tough fight, as they can be formidable opponents.

If you have already killed all the followers of Boethiah, she will then possess the corpse of the last follower you slew and the quest proceeds as normal. See Notes.

The New Champion
thumb|right|Your "badge" of office
After making the sacrifice and killing all the cultists, Boethiah will again use a body as a conduit (it may not be the same one) and tell you she needs a new champion. To become the new champion you must kill the old champion and his bandits at Knifepoint Ridge, northwest of Falkreath. 

Despite Boethiah's order to kill them stealthily, being detected does not result in quest failure or any other penalty.  Nonetheless, most of the bandits inside the mine are busy with their backs to you and can be assassinated. A few are standing in pools of flammable liquid that can be ignited with fire spells.  It's difficult to sneak up on Boethiah's Champion because of the direction he faces when sitting, but if you climb on top of his shack, you can drop down behind him. Once you defeat Boethiah's Champion, you must equip his Ebony Mail.  Boethiah will then speak to you one last time, telling you that you are her new champion and giving you the old champion's Ebony Mail as your reward.
 

Notes
Boethiah would have given you a second Daedric Quest in which you would have killed Solitude's Jarl Elisif the Fair. The quest was not included in the game but the data was left in the game files.
It is possible to get the Blade of Sacrifice without having to start the quest by looting the dead body from the fight pit. You can also get more than one this way.
It is possible to get up to nine Blades of Sacrifice if you have the "Misdirection" Perk by pickpocketing each of the 8 cult members before the sacrifice as well as collecting one from the member used for the voice. This will make the cult members fight with their fists instead of weapons.
The Daedric inscription coiled around the base of the Pillar of Sacrifice is a line from ''Boethiah's Proving written backwards. It reads: "I am alive because that one is dead. I exist because I have the will to do so."''
One or more of the bandits in Knifepoint Ridge might start a fight with the old Champion if they get close enough to him to be hurt by the poison damage done by the Ebony Mail when they are searching for you.
It is possible to kill the Boethiah Cultists before you offer a sacrifice. If you kill all of the cultists at the Shrine of Boethiah, Boethiah's Conduit (her spirit in the form of the last cultist you killed) will appear to you with a different dialogue. She will be slightly bitter that you killed all of her followers, but suggests you make a sacrifice in order to prove your worth to her.
Sometimes you will not be attacked by a cultist and must find the book or go to the Sacellum to trigger the quest.
After the follower is placed on the pole and sacrificed, they can be looted of their default armor 2x if quick enough. 1 after the sacrifice (before the voice initiates forced dialog), and 1 after the voice leaves the followers body at the fighting pit.
If you stand by after being given the task to slay everyone in Boethiah's Sacellum, the cultists will kill each other until there is one left to fight. If you quick save after being given this task, you can always re-load until the last survivor does not have much health left.

Bugs
 

 
To get around this, kill all the cultists and priests.

 

 
  Open the console and for each fighter that's unkillable, click on them and then type  . The quest will proceed as normal once all the fighters are dead. If that does not work, open the console and type  .

 
A known workaround is to look at the bottom right corner of the wall of Iron Ore, where the option to mine a Corundum Vein will be presented. Mining this vein will pull you through the wall, allowing you to continue with the quest as intended. However this will only work once, so make sure you have completed everything before heading back up this path - as soon as you have walked through the location of the wall it will reappear, making the rest of the mine unreachable. You can use the mining workaround several times, so long as you cancel the mining action as soon as you pass through.

 
Reading the book after looting it from the body prevents this.

 

 
Completing the quest might fix this.
  Opening the console and typing   or   might also fix it.

 

 
  By using the console commands   followed by   the champion will be resurrected but still be stuck in the ground. He will eventually free himself and can then be killed again (e.g. with the console command  ).

 

 

 
If you are using mods with secondary storage disable them temporarily. Once you have, drop the Ebony Mail on the floor, then pick it up again and equip it. Afterwards the quest will proceed.

Quest Stages