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What have you been doing, puppet?edit
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By Chance, have we met before?
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[edit] Quick Walkthrough
- As soon as you complete the previous dead drop mission, a furious Lucien Lachance appears and explains the very serious rift that's been unknowingly set in motion.
- You are to travel to Anvil and uncover the root of the plot you have unwittingly assisted.
- Wait near the next dead drop until the courier comes, reveal yourself and demand the answers you deserve.
- Once you've been "slightly" more informed about the situation, head over to the lighthouse and speak with the lighthouse keeper to acquire the key to the cellar.
- Make your way outside around back to the cellar.
- Once inside you are treated to a non-living, breathing nightmare; search for clues and uncover the truth about this morbid plot.
- Meet up with Lucien at Applewatch Farm - you find him accompanied by the remainder of the Black Hand.
- Wait until a certain time and speak with Arquen to complete the quest and automatically start the final quest in the Dark Brotherhood quest series, Honor Thy Mother.
[edit] Detailed Walkthrough
[edit] Your Bloodstained Hands
- Once you kill Ungolim, Lucien Lachance will run up behind you in a rage and proclaim, in a sense, "What the hell are you doing?" He came to try and stop you from fulfilling this contract. He says you have betrayed the Brotherhood and you must die for it. However, seeing the confusion on your face he reluctantly concedes that you were not involved and tells you that your last few dead drops went unanswered. At some point the real traitor, the puppeteer of this murderous scheme, must have started replacing your dead drops with their own. He lets you know that you have been unknowingly and systematically killing all the other members of the Black Hand. He tells you to go to Anvil and wait by the site of the next dead drop to find out who the traitor is.
[edit] Thicker Than Water
- Go to the site in Anvil, back up behind the barrel, and wait in sneak mode until Enilroth (a Bosmer) puts the Dead Drop orders in the barrel and you receive a new journal entry.
- Confront Enilroth. He swears he was paid to make the drops and tells you that the traitor who paid him was staying in the Lighthouse under mysterious circumstances. If you want you can steal or loot the reward for the previous contract (500 gold) from him. Find the lighthouse keeper and obtain the cellar key (via request, thievery, threats, or violence), then head around the side of the lighthouse to open the cellar door.
[edit] The Missing Hockey Mask
- The cellar is a nightmare, with various dead animals and people strewn about (and even a severed head marked "Mother's Head"). Make your way through the cellar to the locked door; there is a Crazed Dog in the next room. Kill or sneak around it and find the Traitor's Diary.
There's something on the traitor's mind...
It seems the traitor is actually another member and has been with the
Brotherhood since childhood, sitting dormant the entire time waiting for the precise moment to execute a plan inked in blood. The traitor's mother was murdered by Lucien a lifetime ago as part of a contract and the traitor has endured the years growing more insane, conspiring along with his mother's head against Lucien, the Night Mother, and the entire Brotherhood. It is not known why the mother of the betrayer was murdered; the journal seems to hint that it was the traitor's father who originally put out the contract on her.
[edit] Resist or Serve
- Now, head all the way northeast to Applewatch Farm to meet with Lucien and explain the monstrosity you've uncovered. Once there, you will find that the Black Hand has tracked down and brutally murdered Lucien, believing him to be the traitor. Arquen approaches you, tells you that the traitor has been dealt with, and proceeds to promote you to Speaker in Lucien's place, presenting you with your own set of Black Hand robes and a hood. However, because of the collapsing state of the Brotherhood, you and the remaining members of the Black Hand must travel to the Night Mother's sanctuary and seek her advice. Speak with Arquen again between midnight and 3am and ask about the 'Night Mother' to leave for the sanctuary.
- You can still receive your 500 gold bonus for killing your last victim by casting a frenzy spell on Enilroth and then killing so you don't get a bounty on your head. You could also try to steal the money from him.
- You can also wait until he puts the gold and Dead Drop inside the location before talking to him. This way, you do not get a bounty, and you do get your well-deserved 500 gold
- You don't have to kill the lighthouse keeper to obtain the key. When you speak to him, ask (don't demand) for the key. When he asks why, you can either threaten to kill him or tell him the Dark Brotherhood demands it. Either way, he'll happily hand over the key to avoid the wrath of the Brotherhood. You could also just pickpocket him for it.
- One interesting confession in the 'Traitor's Diary' is that the traitor was responsible for murdering the crew of the Serpents Wake in Anvil Harbor. There is a quest, entitled The Ghost Ship of Anvil, that deals with the eradication of the tormented spirits that the massacre left behind.
- If you're curious, you can identify the traitor by taking the head of the traitor's mother from the lighthouse cellar, placing it on the floor at Applewatch Farm, and talking to the other Speakers. One of them will become very distracted upon seeing the head; unfortunately, you can't accuse them at this point.
- The mother's head in the cellar resembles Jason's shrine to his mother from the Friday the 13th part 2.
- Outside Applewatch Farm, you can admire the graves you dug of the Draconis family; Perennia's grave will summon her angry ghost, if activated.
- Inside the Traitor's Diary, a foreshadowing of things to come is on the last page. It states, in reverse, "Lucien Lachance will die!"
- You can actually tell when the Dead Drop orders went bad. In the fake ones the traitor gives a background story and the exact reason you're killing the victim. Lucien's Dead Drops were never in this format. Also, the contracts from Lachance and the traitor's are both of a different paper as well as a different handwriting style. The switching starts at the 3rd dead drop.
- One clue to the identity of the traitor is his use of poetic wording, including rhyming, in his messages and diary. One of the speakers at Applewatch Farm then tells you: "You should take some time to admire his corpse. It really is a thing of beauty. The punctures and slashes are almost... poetic."
- By pickpocketing the key from Ulfgar Fog-Eye, it is possible to get into the lighthouse cellar long before you even join the Dark Brotherhood. If you do, the Traitor's Diary will not be in its place, and the traitor himself is never found there.
[edit] Journal Entries
| Following a Lead (Dark17Following) |
| Stage |
Finishes Quest |
Journal Entry |
| 10 |
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I have been confronted by Lucien Lachance, who told me I have inadvertently been killing off the members of the Black Hand! I must now travel to the city of Anvil. Once there, I should wait near the barrel behind the statue in the pond, and see who comes to set up this fake dead drop. I must then confront this person and find out why they've been tampering with my contracts. |
| 20 |
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I spoke with Enilroth, a Wood Elf boy who was paid by a "robed man" to put the dead drop items in the barrel by the pond. Enilroth told me the man had been living in the cellar of the Anvil Lighthouse, but recently left. This robed man must be the traitor! I must speak with Ulfgar Fog-Eye, the Lighthouse keeper, and see if he can be persuaded to part with a key to the cellar... |
| 25 |
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I have obtained a key to the Anvil Lighthouse cellar, where the traitor has been living. I must unlock the cellar door and proceed down, so I may continue my investigation. |
| 26 |
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I have gained entry to the Anvil Lighthouse cellar. I must now search the cellar for some clue to the Dark Brotherhood traitor's identity, or motives. |
| 30 |
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I have discovered the traitor's diary. He has been in the Dark Brotherhood for years, and is now a member of the Black Hand! His goal is revenge against Lucien Lachance and all of the Brotherhood for the murder of his mother when he was a child, and he actually plans on killing the Night Mother! I must return to Lucien Lachance at once, at the farm called Applewatch, and give him this information! |
| 40 |
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Lucien Lachance is dead, killed by the surviving members of the Black Hand, who don't even realize the real traitor is still among them! They have advanced me to Speaker, in Lachance's place. Between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM, I must speak with Arquen about the Night Mother, and all of the Black Hand -- including me -- will be teleported to the Night Mother's resting place, for some ancient ritual. I must do as Arquen says, so that I might expose the traitor... |
| 100 |
0 |
I have spoken to Arquen, and the Black Hand has been teleported to the site of the ritual. |
- 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.
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