I'm doing the quest for the temple of Talos in which I have to find the thief that stole the Dawn Ring from the Lathanderites and bring it to the temple. I found Borinall, but when I talk to him, no matter what dialogue options I pick I can't say I'm a servant of Talos. I just get an option saying "I can't say the words you wish to hear" and nothing else. And as I technically *AM* a servant of Talos, it would be nice to be able to say it or at least recieve an explanation to *why* I can't say it. Any hints on what to do?

If I might ask, what is your Reputation? That is sort of odd, and I've never had a problem doing it when playing evil... Especially playing an evil Talessian.

These are the following conditions,

So I ask you. Are you currently in service to Talos? Are you loyal to him and him alone? And may he strike you down if you are lying.
</font>

1. I assure you that I am a servant of Talos in this matter. May he strike me down if I am lying.
   ~~~~ ~~~~
   You are either a Cleric, Fighter/Cleric, Cleric/Mage, Cleric/Thief, or a Fighter/Mage/Cleric.
   
   Your alignment is Evil.
   
   You have not been stripped of your position in the Talos Temple and you actually got the Talos Temple as your Stronghold at this point.
   ~~~~ ~~~~</font>
2. I assure you that I am a servant of Talos in this matter. May he strike me down if I am lying.
   ~~~~ ~~~~
   Your alignment is not Evil.
   
   You have been kicked out of your Stronghold( doesn't matter which one).</font>

Also, do a check on the following Global,

("Stripped","GLOBAL")

See what value is it.

I'm not a cleric, so I don't have the temple as a stronghold.

My reputation is 9 or something.

Can't find a global called "Stripped".

I'm a thief, but I chose to side with the vampires by temporarily changing my class. I worked around the potential bugs with the thief stronghold by never entering the building again. So I've been kicked out of that stronghold at least. Could that be it?

Well, shoot. You're not a Cleric in the first place, so that effectively cancels out the first one. Without activating the Global 'Stripped' properly, you have no chance with the second one either.

By the way, you also need to be either Good or Neutral for the second option to open up.

Reputation has no effect.

So... Am I to understand that I have done nothing wrong and the game designers simply did not expect that a non-cleric in the service of Talos might want to say he is?

More or less.

The sad part in this is that their deaths may have been averted with better scripting.