Oblivion:Dark Brotherhood

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Contents 1 General Information/History 2 Joining 2.1 Targets 3 Advantages 4 Limitations 5 Dark Brotherhood Quests 5.1 Black Hand Quests (Dead Drop quests) 5.2 Non-Contract Quests 6 Overall Killing Hints 7 Members

[edit] General Information/History

The Dark Brotherhood is a guild of professional assassins with considerable influence and power. It is similar to Morrowind's Morag Tong and is in fact a splinter group of it; however, the legality of this organization is much more limited. Entry is governed not by completing a given task, but by the Brotherhood observing you committing murder.

According to Lucien Lachance, the Dark Brotherhood has sanctuaries all over Cyrodiil, however only one of these is ever accessible to the player; the basement of an abandoned house in Cheydinhal. This particular sanctuary was founded more than 200 years ago.

The current head of the Cheydinhal "family" is Ocheeva, however new family members are given instructions by Vicente Valtieri. Ocheeva receives instructions from the Speaker, Lucien Lachance, who is also responsible for recruiting new members. Lucien in turn receives his instructions from the Listener. The absolute leader of the Dark Brotherhood is the Night Mother.

Ranks: Murderer, Slayer, Eliminator, Assassin, Executioner*, Silencer, Speaker, Listener

* The rank of Executioner is not available to the player; the player's promotions skip straight from Assassin to Silencer. However, it is officially one of the possible ranks for a Dark Brotherhood member.

For more information about the history of the Dark Brotherhood, see Tamriel:Dark Brotherhood.

[edit] Joining

Murder someone! As you've most likely heard spoken by citizens anywhere in Cyrodiil, the Dark Brotherhood recruits new members by locating murderers in their sleep. If you want to join and have yet to kill anyone, you must murder an innocent citizen. Upon killing a citizen, whether or not you were detected, a message will appear saying, "Your killing has been observed by forces unknown...." The next time you sleep in a "safe location," a message will appear saying, "The air grows chill and a shadow approaches...." You will then be woken by Lucien Lachance, a Speaker of the Dark Brotherhood. He will offer you membership and describe what you must do to be accepted.

Note that Lucien will not make his first appearance (to offer membership) if you sleep in the Inn of Ill Omen. However, second and subsequent appearances can occur if you sleep at this Inn. Lachance will still approach you if you use Rufio's bed, located in the basement of the Inn.

If you don't want to join the Dark Brotherhood, and have been given the offer to join due to something like the Origin of the Gray Prince, you can avoid joining in two ways:

1. Forget the quest. It will remain forever in your quest log, but won't bother you.
2. When Lucien comes around the first time, kill him after talking to him. He is fairly easy, and his murder removes the initiation quest. You can also loot his Black Hand hood & robes. Killing Lachance is also the only way to drop the Blade of Woe; since the quest is "completed," the quest item is no longer considered by the game to be an essential inventory item. After you kill Lucien you will never be able to be part of the Dark Brotherhood.

[edit] Targets

Almost any named NPC could be killed if you chose. Several quests involve killing NPCs, any of whom could be used as a target to gain entrance to the Dark Brotherhood. Also, after most quests are completed, people involved in the quest could become valid targets with no subsequent consequences.

• Alval Uvani - Killing Alval adds a bit of irony in getting into the brotherhood. He has a rather low responsibility, but since he does a lot of traveling (see the Dark Brotherhood mission A Matter of Honor for details) it's rather easy to dispose of him on the road without witnesses. The benefit of killing Alval is that you will have already completed one of the Brotherhood missions.

• Dorian is a Redguard citizen of the Talos Plaza District. He is a excellent target in that you don't lose any services or quest options and get a bed to sleep in right after.

• Inhabitants of The Skooma Den in Bravil. The four inhabitants can be easily killed with one strike while they sleep, without their sleeping neighbors waking up. They don't add much to the game, so taking out one won't hurt much. As a little bonus every inhabitant has some skooma with him. You can immediately use a bed here to sleep and be visited by Lucien Lachance.

• Mythic Dawn sleeper agents. Killing one of these before they are activated has no effect on the quest later on.

• Wilhelm The Worm: Wilhelm is not related to any questline and provides no services throughout the game. And because Wilhelm lives in the warehouse just outside Anvil near the ships you can approach and murder him in his sleep.

• The Gray Prince: If you complete The Origin of the Gray Prince, he will surrender to you when you fight him in the arena. Killing him under these conditions will attract Lucien Lachance.

[edit] Advantages

• Access to the Cheydinhal Sanctuary is only available to members. In particular, this allows you to purchase from M'raaj-Dar who sells a number of unique magical items and spells. His spells do not follow standard formats, and some of them are cheaper in Magicka cost than any other comparable spell.
• There is an opportunity to become a Vampire.
• You gain access to weightless Poisoned Apples. These may be purchased from M'raaj-Dar in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, or you can "borrow" ten apples from a barrel in Lucien's Chamber in Fort Farragut (the barrel refills every three days). The apples in the barrel are available to any player, but you will normally only learn about them through the Dark Brotherhood. Poisoned Apples bypass poison resistances, so they provide a sure (but tricky) method to kill most people.
• You can receive numerous unique or leveled items, generally as bonuses for successfully completing quests.
  • Shrouded Armor and Shrouded Hood after A Knife in the Dark
  • Black Band after A Watery Grave
  • Sufferthorn Dagger after Accidents Happen
  • Scales of Pitiless Justice after Scheduled for Execution
  • Cruelty's Heart after The Assassinated Man
  • Shadowhunt after The Lonely Wanderer
  • The Deceiver's Finery after Bad Medicine
  • Boots of Bloody Bounding after The Renegade Shadowscale
  • The horse Shadowmere after The Purification
  • The Blade of Woe becomes an enchanted weapon after Honor Thy Mother

• Once you have acquired the rank of Listener (by completing the final Dark Brotherhood quest, Honor Thy Mother), you can have one of the Dark Brotherhood Murderers follow you as a henchman. As Listener, you may also complete tasks to earn 200 gold per week.

[edit] Limitations

• As long as nobody sees you when you kill someone, you will not gain a Bounty or have any subsequent problems with the law. However, completing Dark Brotherhood quests automatically earns you Infamy points. As explained in detail on the article on Infamy, gaining infamy has several effects. One of the most notable is that if your Infamy exceeds your Fame you cannot use temple altars for healing.

• The Dark Brotherhood is not as well accepted as the Morag Tong. The Morag Tong is a government-sanctioned guild of assassins in Vvardenfell. In Cyrodiil, even trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood is illegal, not to mention being a part of it. If you are caught in the act of a murder, you are on your own. Whichever way you want to handle your bounty, the Brotherhood will not endanger other agents by helping you — unlike the Thieves Guild, which will help its members pay off their bounties.

• The Five Tenets. If you break these rules you are exiled from the Dark Brotherhood and have to defeat the Wrath of Sithis to be reinstated. However, you only have two chances before you are dismissed permanently.

• The only Tenets you have any chance of breaking in the game are the Fourth and Fifth, which prohibit you from stealing from or killing your fellow assassins. There is no way, through conversations or your character's actions, to break the first three Tenets.

[edit] Dark Brotherhood Quests

The Dark Brotherhood questline is unusual in that in between each of the first ten actual quests there is a brief mini-quest that appears in your journal. The only purpose of the mini-quest is to instruct you to ask about your next contract. When you talk to Vicente or Ocheeva the mini-quest is considered complete. The names of the mini-quests are provided here, but they do not have their own quest pages and are generally not taken into account when describing the sequence of dark brotherhood quests.

Joining Quest

• A Knife in the Dark: You must prove your worthiness to join the Brotherhood.

Vicente Valtieri's Quests

• A Watery Grave: You must kill the captain of the pirate vessel "Marie Elena". Initiated by the Welcome to the Family mini-quest.
• Accidents Happen: An honest Wood Elf in Bruma has upset some dishonest people. Initiated by the Blood of the Damned mini-quest.
• Scheduled for Execution: An old "friend" in the Imperial Prison needs to be released... from living. Initiated by the No Rest for the Wicked mini-quest.
• The Assassinated Man: Help Francois Motierre fake his death to escape his cowardly mistakes. Initiated by the To Serve Sithis mini-quest.

Ocheeva's Quests

• The Lonely Wanderer: A High Elf in the Imperial City must be removed from existence. Initiated by the My Brother's Keeper mini-quest.
• Bad Medicine: Cure the sickly warlord Roderick at Fort Sutch: a spoonful of sugar, a pint of poison. Initiated by the Enter the Eliminator mini-quest.
• Whodunit?: Summitmist Manor; there were six on the night of last and then there were none... save one. Initiated by the The Night Mother's Child mini-quest.
• Permanent Retirement: Adamus Phillida spent years looking for the Brotherhood, assure him they’ve always been “right behind him.” Initiated by the The Assassin's Gambit mini-quest.
• The Purification: Things at the Sanctuary have gone sour, and the Brotherhood can't afford chance or weakness. Initiated by the Of Secret And Shadow mini-quest.

[edit] Black Hand Quests (Dead Drop quests)

• Affairs of a Wizard: The first Dead Drop contract at Hero Hill, to stop a Necromancer from achieving immortality. Initiated by The Dead Drop mini-quest.
• Next of Kin: Next to the Great Oak in Chorrol, your next Drop asks for the elimination of an entire bloodline.
• Broken Vows: Deep within the well of Skingrad Castle Courtyard, the next Drop matches killer against killer.
• Final Justice: South of Imperial City is the Old Bridge landmark. Underneath it is the Drop, requesting judgment on a known psychotic.
• A Matter of Honor: A traveling Dunmer merchant skilled in Destruction makes a perfect target for a forest ambush.
• The Coldest Sleep: Locate a Nord at Gnoll Mountain, said to be running from a fate he chose in Solstheim. Today it will find him.
• A Kiss Before Dying: In Bravil lies the home of the Lucky Old Lady and a "lucky" Bosmer, and today fortune shines on both... but only one shines back.
• Following a Lead: What have you been doing, puppet?
• Honor Thy Mother: Destroy the traitor and end his trail of carnage.

[edit] Non-Contract Quests

• The Renegade Shadowscale: Eradicate a fugitive Shadowscale named Scar-Tail and bring back his heart as proof for Teinaava.
• Darkness Eternal: Accept Vicente Valtieri's offer to become a vampire.
• Whispers of Death: Relay the prayers of the vengeful to ensure their vengeance is fulfilled.
• A Dark Exile: Defeat the Wrath of Sithis to be re-allowed into the Dark Brotherhood.

[edit] Overall Killing Hints

• While doing the Dark Brotherhood Quests, you may use poisoned apples to kill NPCs silently and without a bounty. There is a great alternative to poisoned apples. While pickpocketing, you can only place things in an NPC's inventory with a 0 weight (like the poisoned apples). Mages' hoods are another item that can be placed with a weight of 0; but you can first enchant it with a soul gem to do 'damage on self' then put it in your target's inventory. The best time to do this is, again, while they are sleeping -- making sure to pickpocket any helmet they currently have. When they awaken, they will wear their new hood and it will kill them slowly, but much faster than a poisoned apple. Waiting for the mark to eat an apple could take a few days; using a burning, freezing or shocking hood takes health down as soon as they wake up. Alternatively, instead of taking their helmet with the risk of them catching you, you can wake them up by talking to them after putting the enchanted hood in their inventory. They will put the hood on when they go back to sleep. Also, if you put a string of A's before the name of the hood, they will put it on when they wake up even if you didn't steal their other hat because unless an NPC is scripted to put on a specific form of headgear, they will just put on the first type that they come across in their inventory, which is conveniently in alphabetical order.

• There are 10 poisoned apples in a barrel with a very hard lock in Fort Farragut where Lucien Lachance is located. The poisoned apples sell for 300 gold each.

• If your character is good at alchemy, make some good poisons (e.g.Triple Damage Poisons) to apply to weapons. Attack whoever you want to kill to take them down in one strike.
  This will be an assault so Charm a guard just long enough to talk or yield to him. The Charm spell will ensure he likes you so much that he pays the fine for you.

• If you have the Vile Lair plug-in and have purchased the upgrade for the "Garden of Venomgrowth" area, you will find three Chokeberry bushes. These berries, unfortunately, weigh 0.3 and cannot be reverse-pickpocketed. You can, however, place them on tables and in containers for NPCs to eat.

• You can always cast a frenzy spell on your victims in cities. This way if you cannot get them alone, you can still kill them very quickly and with the help of the guards.

[edit] Members

This is a list of known Dark Brothers. The NPCs who do not have a rank icon are NPCs who are, for various reasons, not members of the standard Dark Brotherhood faction. In most cases they are members of Dark Brotherhood splinter factions (i.e., Dark Brotherhood Elite), and those factions do not have the same rank system as the standard Dark Brotherhood faction. In some cases they are NPCs who are identified during the game as members (primarily victims of the later quests, i.e. Broken Vows onwards).

Bravil Ungolim The Night Mother

Cheydinhal Antoinetta Marie Dark Guardian Gogron gro-Bolmog M'raaj-Dar Ocheeva Schemer (rat) Teinaava Telaendril Vicente Valtieri

Bruma J'Ghasta Skingrad Fafnir Anvil Mathieu Bellamont Leyawiin Alval Uvani Others* Havilstein Hoar-Bload Lucien Lachance Shaleez Arquen Banus Alor Belisarius Arius

*There are about a dozen small factions associated with the Dark Brotherhood besides the main one.