Oblivion:A Knife in the Dark

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1 Quick Walkthrough
2 Walkthrough
3 Notes
4 Journal Entries

You must prove your worthiness to join the Brotherhood. ^edit

Quest Giver: Lucien Lachance at any bed after you've been "observed"
Location(s): Inn of Ill Omen, Cheydinhal
Prerequisite Quest: None, but you must first commit murder.
Next Quest: A Watery Grave
Reward: Shrouded Armor, Shrouded Hood
Fame/Infamy: Infamy +1
ID: Dark01Knife

A foreboding place by name, sign, and sight

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

Once you've been "observed," Lucien Lachance will visit you during your next "Rest" and offer you this initiation Quest.
Once accepted you must travel to the Inn of Ill Omen, South of the Imperial City.
When you arrive speak with the Innkeeper about Rufio, using this information locate Rufio in the Inn and kill him.
After Rufio has been murdered, sleep in any bed.
Lucien will greet you once again upon awakening and accept you into the Dark Brotherhood.
Now travel to Cheydinhal and make your way through the basement of the 'Abandoned House'.
Once you reach the doors to the Sanctuary speak the password you were given to enter and meet your new family procreated in blood.
You will be told to speak with Vicente Valtieri about 'Contracts', doing so completes the Quest and starts the next, your first real assassination contract, A Watery Grave.

[edit] Walkthrough

[edit] The Blood Catalyst

As you may have heard in the rumor mills around Cyrodiil, it is said that the Dark Brotherhood comes to in your sleep after you murder someone to recruit you. This is, in fact, true. To be invited to the Brotherhood, you must murder someone in cold blood. In other words, you must murder an innocent without provocation (note that Bandits and the like do not count as the required murder). Once the deed is done, regardless of who is there, the cryptic message "Your killing has been observed by forces unknown..." will appear in the corner of your screen, indicating you will be visited the next time you sleep. For suggestions on who exactly to murder, consult this guide.

[edit] Rites of Passage

Once your murderous actions have been "observed by forces unknown" sleep at any rest area to be contacted by one of the Dark Brotherhood's Speakers, Lucien Lachance. To prove your worthiness as well as capabilities and join the Brotherhood, you must kill Rufio, an old man attempting to hide from his past at the Inn of Ill Omen, located north of Bravil on the Green Road. Upon accepting the quest Lachance will give you a dagger known as Blade of Woe, an unenchanted dagger that remains a quest item until the final Dark Brotherhood quest (luckily, it is treated as a quest item and has zero weight).

Speak with the Innkeeper at the Inn to reveal that Rufio lives in the basement of the Inn and is quite the recluse, never emerging.

Rufio prepares for eternal sleep...

Entering his room is easy enough; enter through the hatch to the basement and pick the lock on the door. Killing him is fairly easy and laughable at best if he is sleeping; punching him once will do the trick. It is advisable to not use magic, as someone may hear the blast and come rushing downstairs.

If you speak with him before you kill him, he makes vague references to a horrific event in his past, and it is heavily implied that he was part of a botched rape that resulted in the death of the victim. This is later confirmed if you investigate the backstory of Claudius Arcadia, who arranged Rufio's assassination in retribution for killing his wife or daughter.

[edit] The Tainted Womb

After you kill Rufio, you can actually just sleep in the (now dead) man's bed. If for some reason this makes you uncomfortable or you choose to wait awhile, any bed will do. Regardless of where you sleep, Lucien will reappear and welcome you into the "family".

He will send you to the Brotherhood's main safe-haven, hidden in an abandoned house in the eastern part of Cheydinhal. When you come across the 'Abandoned House' (there is an easy lock on the boarded-up door) and make your way through the basement, you will see a door with red light emitting out of it. Activate the door, and when it asks for a password, answer 'Sanguine, my brother' just as Lucien instructed.

[edit] Welcome Home

Once inside the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, you meet your new family led by the Argonian, Ocheeva. Ocheeva will give you your reward for joining the Dark Brotherhood, a Shrouded Hood and Shrouded Armor, two unique pieces of armor with benefits to stealth-based skills. Since you are a new family member, you must start out with "less important" contracts until you prove yourself. Your new brother who is responsible for handing these contracts out, Vicente Valtieri, just happens to be a vampire. He offers you a chance to become a vampire, or "hunter of the night" as he puts it, if you can prove yourself worthy to be one.

You will now be given a series of missions that involving stealing and assassinating, in the form of 'Contracts'. Once Vicente gives you the first it will conclude this Quest, and begin the first chapter in your long, shadowed, twisted descent into the void with A Watery Grave.

[edit] Notes

Interestingly enough, there is an item called "Rufio's Skull." However, don't expect to come across it anywhere in the game; it only appears in a cell called "EmilTest Objects," along with a troll called Mom, most of the Dark Brotherhood quest reward items, and other things that you come across during the Dark Brotherhood quests. It looks the same as a regular skull.
Rufio's health is only 1, and if you confront him he runs away to an adjacent room and stands still, cowering. This makes him arguably the easiest kill in the game.
It does not matter who (or what) kills Rufio; as long as he ends up dead you will be accepted into the Dark Brotherhood.
The Shrouded Armor is excellent light armor, especially for low-level characters. Its enchantments are invaluable to almost any character, as it fortifies Sneak, Light Armor, Blade, Security, and Marksman by 8 points each, or 10 points if you also equip the Shrouded Hood. Since both items have zero value, any smith will repair them for only 1 gold each, no matter how badly damaged they are.
When you confront Rufio he pleads that killing "her" (Claudius Arcadia's wife or daughter) was an accident that happened because she struggled, despite his coaxing her to stay still (implying any number of grim scenarios could have occurred). You can find the remains of a ritual summoning the Night Mother in the basement of Claudius Arcadia's house in the Imperial City.
Some people may find that the ancient door in the basement does nothing. Simply saving and reloading lets you activate the door.
You can instead choose to kill Lucien Lachance when you first meet him; this causes a new quest update telling you that there is no other way to join the Dark Brotherhood. Therefore, the entire Dark Brotherhood quest line is no longer available.
- If you are quick, you can even kill him before he talks to you, thus avoiding the quest altogether (but forfeiting the Blade of Woe). The best way to do this is if you sleep "in" a tent. Just go behind the tent and go to sleep, when you wake up, Lucien will stand in front of the tent and you have plenty of time to attack him before he reaches you. If he is too strong for you, just lead him to a guard, who will do the dirty work for you.
The name of this quest is the same as a chapter in The Lord of the Rings in which a Nazgûl stabs Frodo with a poisoned blade.

[edit] Journal Entries

A Knife in the Dark (Dark01Knife)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		While sleeping, I was visited by Lucien Lachance, a representative for the assassins guild known as the Dark Brotherhood. He said that if I wish to join his "family," I must go to the Inn of Ill Omen, find a man named Rufio, and kill him. If I simply leave Rufio alone, Lachance will never visit me again.
20		The man named Rufio is dead. The next time I sleep in a location he deems secure, Lucien Lachance will visit me once more, and complete my entrance into the Dark Brotherhood.
30		I must now go to the abandoned house in the city of Cheydinhal, and attempt to open the door in the basement. When questioned, I must answer with "Sanguine, my Brother" to gain access to the secret Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. Once inside, I should speak with Ocheeva.
40		I have gained entrance into the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. I must now speak with Ocheeva.
100	0	I have spoken with Ocheeva.
115	0	Lucien Lachance, the Dark Brotherhood's representative, has been killed. He was my link to the mysterious assassins guild, and now that link has been severed... forever.

Notes

Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in random order.
If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage quest stage. Where quest is the internal name of the quest, and stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages. See SetStage for more information.