(SPOILERS) A few Quest hints and Secret Outcomes.

[Lander1]

Here is a few Secret Quest Outcomes I've stumbled across over the years of playing Skyrim.

In Eldergleam Sanctuary on the Quest "The Blessings of Nature"; When collecting the sap from the Eldergleam, do not tap the tree for it's sap, instead talk to the Disciple of Kynareth who accompanied you from the temple at Whiterun, He will kneel at the base of the tree and pray to Kynareth, and a new sapling will appear for you to take back to Whiterun.

In Windhelm on the quest "Blood on the Ice"; After the stage "Follow up on the Clues from Hjerim"; Instead of talking to the Jarl's right hand man and having the court Mage wrongfully arrested, go and talk to the court mage himself about his "journals and amulet". This will skip you straight to hunting the real murderer and will skip the whole "part 2" of the quest (Also this way you save the Stable Girl's life).

If anyone else has found any similar secrets please post them, I'd love to hear about it.

[Valden21]

Those aren't "secret outcomes"; indeed, knowledge of them has been around since Oldrim was released back in late 2011.

[Ihateeverybody]

And can I just say, I hate the Eldergleem quest to the point I refuse to do it. In Cutting Room Floor restored Content. HE ACTUALLY BERATES Danica and demands she restore the tree. Later, when Danica tells you what to do do (Get the sap) he is literally standing right there as she outlines the plan.

At the Tree itself he watches as you hit 2-3 of the roots without Objection. Its only when you approach the tree itself he demands to know your intentions and proposes the alternate solution in a Condescending way that makes me want to punch the ♥♥♥♥♥ out of him.

What really really really bothers me is Danica is the master restoration (yeah I know dawnguard adds another one, I detest most if not all content in the Dawnguard DLC) trainer.

[FauxFurry]

Those are not secret so much as they are 'non-intuitive' since they do not involve the most obvious outcomes or conversation options such as talking to a certain NPC in another location before completing a given quest or doing other quest before trying to finish a certain quest.
Talking to Farengar for the first time (before letting Jarl Balgruuf get to him before oneself)with certain skill at 75 or higher gives alternate lines of dialogue that can be used to earn disposition points with him. There is nothing that suggests that being skilled at Enchanting or Alchemy (for example as there are other skills that provide dialogue choices as well)will have any effects at all.
Switching sides in the Civil War is also another option that likely goes overlooked by many as it requires taking the Jagged Crown to the leader of the enemy army after obtaining it for the side that one joins.

Fallout 4 can be even more excessive with this kind of thing, with the quest at Covenant taking the the second place prize next to the Institute quests which task the Sole Survivor with bolstering their observation network. Simply doing a single quest for the Rail Road cut one off from those quests since those quests disrupt that network early on.

There are people who still think that there are only one or two outcomes to certain quests to this day because of that.

[Doggy Friend]

It is possible to save Margret - she is the one who usually gets killed as soon as you visit Markarth. You just have to kill the murderer first. Later you can talk to Margret during The Forsworn Conspiracy quest and find out about her true agendas and suspicions.

[SpeedFreak1972]

I never take that disciple with me .... keeping him alive is a real chore. Also I bet that quest in with dozens of other quests in 1 run to Windhelm mostly after I become part of the circle (companions)

[FauxFurry]

Originally posted by IT Traveller:

It is possible to save Margret - she is the one who usually gets killed as soon as you visit Markarth. You just have to kill the murderer first. Later you can talk to Margret during The Forsworn Conspiracy quest and find out about her true agendas and suspicions.

That is one of those non-intuitive things that I was talking about. One would have to know what Weylin is planning to do with that knife before he starts up his one-hit kill back stab animation on Margaret. The same goes for stopping The Butcher of Windhelm before he kills again.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

I never take that disciple with me .... keeping him alive is a real chore. Also I bet that quest in with dozens of other quests in 1 run to Windhelm mostly after I become part of the circle (companions)

That, too, is another one of those non-intuitive things, as it requires knowing that anybody accompanying you can fast-travel with you. Go to Eldergleam Sanctuary before meeting the guy, then head back to Whiterun and talk to Danica Pure-Springs. Once that's done and you're outside the temple, fast-travel to Eldergleam Sanctuary. He'll be right there with you.

[MysticMalevolence]

The game never tells you that you can cut "Blood on the Ice" short by talking to Wuunferth instead of Jorleif at that stage--but in my experience it's a far safer way to complete the quest, since you don't have to wait any more time to continue.
(Since, if something goes wrong and you have to reload, you save more progress if you spent less time on that quest.)

[gondlyr]

Luckily my first time to Eldergleam Sanctuary ever, a Dragon attacked on the way there and that guy was killed by the Dragon.

[nullpo]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Those aren't "secret outcomes"; indeed, knowledge of them has been around since Oldrim was released back in late 2011.

The guy might be new to skyrim so cut him some slack

Well back to topic, you can kill astrid instead of joining dark brotherhood in abandoned shack, but penitus oculatus is poor so don't do that.

Originally posted by IT Traveller:

It is possible to save Margret - she is the one who usually gets killed as soon as you visit Markarth. You just have to kill the murderer first. Later you can talk to Margret during The Forsworn Conspiracy quest and find out about her true agendas and suspicions.

Another one about forswordn conspiracy, this one is more of paying attention to what weylin say, basically return to him everytime you have evidence for easy money. The quest doesn't tell you to do that but the guy do. Just make sure to investigate thonar last because if you investigate thonar first then weylin will die, but you won't be captured until you investigate nepos.