Oblivion Dark Brotherhood questline guide
The fearsome Dark Brotherhood, assassins who dish out death in the night, are feared all over Tamriel. While the Thieves Guild may shy away from killing, the Brotherhood has no such restraint, instead making it their calling. This questline will see you travel across the region, carrying out hired hits as you make your way up their ranks. This guide will teach you all the best ways to tackle your hits and provide you with tricks on carrying them out like a true assassin.
Joining the Dark Brotherhood
In order to join the Dark Brotherhood, you first need to get their attention. To do this, all you need to do is kill a random innocent person or two and then rest at an Inn. When you do, a mysterious figure will wake you up and give the "A Knife in the Dark" mission to complete, and once you have done so, you will be officially inducted into the Dark Brotherhood.
Dark Brotherhood Quests:
- A Knife in the Dark
- A Watery Grave
- Accidents Happen
- Scheduled for Execution
- The Assassinated Man
- The Lonely Wanderer
- Bad Medicine
- Whodunit
- Permanent Retirement
- Of Secret and Shadow
- The Purification
- Affairs of a Wizard
- Next of Kin
- Broken Vows
- Final Justice
- A Matter of Honor
- The Coldest Sleep
- A Kiss Before Dying
- Following a Lead
- Honor Thy Mother
- Whispers of Death
After getting your mission from Lchance, head to the Inn of Ill Omen located north of Bravil. Wait until the night and head inside to find your target.
Turn left just after entering the inn to find a small trap door leading the downstairs of the inn with Rufio's room at the far end. Dispatch him,
With you Rufio killed, rest again (you can even do it at the inn you are currently at) and Lachance will visit you once again restructuring you to go an abandoned house in Cheydinhal, head downstairs, and find a doorway behind broken wall. Give the pass phrase "Sanguine, my Brother" to enter.
Speak with Ocheeva inside to complete your quest and become an official member of the Dark Brotherhood.
After joining the brotherhood, in their headquarters, speak with Vincente Valtieri, who is located in an area accessible through Ocheeva's quarters. Speaking to him, accept his contract to kill Captain Gaston Tussaud situated in the Waterfront District of the Imperial City.
Gaston's ship is docked in the northern part of the district. You can enter his quarters from the door on top of the deck, or if you are proficient enough (and have enough lockpicks), there is a door directly into his cabin behind a Very Hard Lock on the rear of the boat.
Going in the backway, you will have a nice 1v1 fight with Gaston but his Steel Cutlass can still do work. Once he has been killed, loot his body and return to Vincente.
For your troubles, he will reward you with a magic black band that improves your Light Armor and Security stats by 5 points and gives you a 5% resist magic buff.
Bonus Requirement: Loosen the fastenings to drop the decoration on your target to kill him.
For your next contract, Valtieri tasks you with eliminating a man in Bruma who goes by the name of Baelin, with the request that you make his death look like an accident (if you want the bonus). Head to Bruma.
In Bruma, you can follow your quest marker to Baelin's home, where you have a couple of different entrance options. You can try sneaking in the front door, or behind his house, you will find a locked door into his basement. Either way, once you are inside, sneak up to the crawlspace on the second floor.
Once upstairs, take a right into a small room. To the right of a desk, you will find the entryway into the crawl space. Enter and close the entrance into the space, and then wait. As the contract suggests, you will need to wait until sometime between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
At the end of the space, you will find a cross of boards, interacting with it and selecting the option to loosen the fastenings. Do so, and then sneak out of the house - avoiding Baelin's servant in the process, and report back to Valtieri for your reward - the magical dagger Sufferthron, 100gp, and a promotion to the rank of Slayer.
Bonus Requirement: Don't kill any of the prison guards.
This time around, your target is a man who is currently a prisoner in the Imperial Prison and you need to sneak in to kill him. Luckily for you, you have a key into the sewers that can get you there, so when you're ready head to the Imperial City.
The entrance is technically outside of the city to the northeast a short distance from the walls of the capital along a riverbed. Use the key you got from Valtieri to head inside.
The way through the sewers is fairly straightforward, with the only trouble coming from the crabs and rats that call the sewers home. Before long you will find a ladder up to the Sanctum with an average lock. Pick it and take it up.
Sneak your way through the Sanctum, taking care to avoid the patrolling guards as you go (unless you don't care about the bonus, then feel free to take them out) and make your way towards the door into the Imperial Prison.
Once inside the prison, follow until you find a tunnel up and into an all-to-familiar cell. Across the way you will see your target, Valen Dreth. He may be talking to a guard so just wait until their conversation is over and the guard leaves.
Dreth is behind a hard-locked cell gate, so you can find the key to his cell on a small table at the end of the hall where his cell is (along with a handy Imperial Prison key, so be sure to snag that as well), or shoot some arrows at him through the bars. If you have an invisibility spell or the Shadow's Moonlight ability, you can score a critical hit and take him out nice and quick.
With the target dead, return to Valtieri and report your success. If you managed to complete the the bonus objective you will be rewarded with the Scales of Pitiless Justice which improves some of your stats while you are holding onto it in your inventory, at the expense of reducing your Personality stat.
Bonus Requirement: N/A
Speak to Valtieri to receive your next guild mission when you're ready. Your next contract is an oddity, instead of taking a life you will be saving one - Francois Motierre. This time you are going to stage someone's death to save them from others that plan to kill him. You will be given both a knife coated with a poison that will simulate death and an antidote to revive the target. Head to Chorrol when you are all set.
Francois' house is large and its front door is a hard lock and unfortunately the only entrance. Wait until late at night and pick the lock to sneak inside.
Upon entering the house, Francois will greet you and tell you that the true assassin, Hides-his-Heart, will be there shortly, and layout the plan. Once Hides-his-Heart arrives inside the house and begins to talk to Francois, cut Francois with the knife that Valtieri gave you and run away. You must NOT kill Hides-his-heart. Run out the house and through the nearby gate and you will be fine.
The next part of the plan is to revive him, so wait 24 hours and then head to the Chapel of Stendarr and down into the undercroft.
Once inside the undercroft, you can find Francois down the path to the right. Interact with him to use the potion in your inventory (it's in the Misc. section, not the normal potions area)
Reviving Francois will anger some of the undercroft inhabitants, so protect Francois from the zombies and leave the undercroft, making sure not to hit Francois while taking out the enemies.
Once outside, continue to escort him through Chorrol to Gray Mare and head inside. Francois will thank you, and with that, it is time to go back and report to the Brotherhood.
Completing the contract will reward you with the rank of 'Eliminator' in the Dark Brotherhood, the amulet 'Cruelty's Heart' which improves your Willpower and Strength by 3 points, and a key for quick access into the headquarters accessible via the well behind the Abandoned House.
Bonus Requirement: Kill the target indoors and with no witnesses.
Speaking with Veltieri for your next contract, you will learn that he will no longer be assigning you contracts and instead you will need to seek out Ocheeva in the headquarters, but now, to thank you for your service, Veltieri offers to make you a vampire if you so choose so keep this in mind if you ever are interested!
Ocheeva will give you a contract to track down and kill a high elf named Faelian that lives in the Imperial City. Unfortunately, this target is rather elusive and hard to track down, so you will need to find him. Your bonus for this contract is to kill Faelian indoors and without any witnesses, so with this information in hand, head to the Imperial City.
Speaking with an elf that lives in the city that likes you enough (get their disposition to between 50 and 60) you can get some information, but in general Faelian can be found in a couple of different places depending on the time of day. However, if you want the bonus, the only spot you can kill him is in Lorkmir's House.
Tiber Septim Hotel (Talos Plaza District): 8pm - 1am
Lorkmir's House (Elvan Gardens District): 11am - 5pm (Hard lock on the door)
Abandoned Shack (Waterfront District): 2am - 8am
With Faelin dead, return and report to Ocheeva for your reward of Gold and, if you completed the bonus requirement, the magic bow 'Shadowhunt'.
Bonus Requirement: Remain undetected and kill the target via swapping out his medicine with the poison Ocheeva gives you.
Ocheeva gives you your next target - a merceneray captain by the name of Rodrick, currently hold up in Fort Sutch to the west. Your mission is to infiltrate the fort, swap out his medicine with poison that Ocheeva supplies you and escape, all without being seen. Otherwise you will forfeit your bonus and you will have to kill him the more traditional way.
Fort Sutch can be found far to the west, and north of Anvil, so fast travel to Anvil and depart from there.
Once you find the Fort, on the bottom level you will find a small enclosed passage that will lead to a door inside.
Just inside, unlock the average gate to your right and take that path around towards the back of the fort, unlocking a couple more gates along the way. Using something like the Gray Fox's Hood or a detect life spell helps a lot here as it will let you see where the guards are at for you to avoid.
In the back, you will find the medicine cabinet holding Rodrick's Medicine, take it and replace it with 'Rodrick's Poison' from the Misc. area in your inventory.
With the poison placed, sneak back out the route you came, avoiding the other mercenaries as you go. Luckily there aren't too many in the Fort and a lot of dark spaces for you to hide in. Again, Detect Life will be your friend here.
Once back outside, fast travel and report back to Ocheeva to get your gold, and if you were successful in completing the bonus requirements, a magic shirt - the Deceiver's Finery.
Bonus Requirement: Kill each of the five guests individually without being detected.
Your next contract with Ocheeva will task you with not just killing one target, but five. Each target will be locked inside a house with you and it's your job to take each one of them out. Depending on if you wish to go for the bonus, which requires you to kill each target without any of the others seeing you, these mission can be down quickly, or require a bit more effort. Either way, when you're ready head to Skingrad.
Once you are in Skingrad, head to the Summitmist Manor where Fafnir will greet you and let you inside.
This contract isn't all that hard, you just need to be patient. Follow folks around until you see them alone then strike. You can also wait until they are asleep and handle it that way. Regardless, once everyone is taken care of, be sure to loot their bodies and the various chests in the house for some goodies. Once you're done, return to Ocheeva.
Ocheeva will reward you with gold and, if you meet the requirement, the bonus of the Night Mother's Blessing, which is a persistent buff to several of your stats!
Bonus Requirement: After killing the target, take his ringfinger and put it in the desk of his subordinate.
Ocheeva will task you with dealing Adamus Phillida who has been a thorn in the Brotherhood's side for a long time, who is currently living out his retirement in Leyawin. To rub additional salt in the wound, for this mission's bonus, you will need to take the ring finger of the target drop it off at the Imperial Garrison to send a message. When ready, head to Leyawin.
Once in Leyawin, head to a small pond west of the City Barracks on the otherside of the stone wall. Around 3pm everyday, Adamus will take a swim, and this will be your best chance to take the shot at him with the instant-kill arrow that Ocheeva gave you for this mission (remember he has to be out of his armor for it to work) so stay nearby, stealthed, and wait for Adamus to take his swim.
Be sure to save before you use the arrow because you only get one shot. Once Adamus is taken out, wait until his guard isn't hovering around the body - take a walk, buy some supplies, see the sites of Leyawin - and then when the coast is clear, grab the finger and anything else from the body you want like his sword, shield, and plethora of keys.
At this point, you can either go right back to Ocheeva or instead head to the Imperial City's Prison District to deliver the package.
Follow the green cursor on your map to the building, where just inside you will find the desk. Interact with it and place the finger inside the desk and your mission will be complete. Head back to Ocheeva.
Your bonus this time is slightly less exciting, only 500 additional gold, but every little bit helps. That's another contract for the Dark Brotherhood, complete.
Bonus Requirement: N/A
This next mission is different from those you've untaken previously. Speaking with Ocheeva, you get a letter from Lucien (the man who visited you and first brought you into the Dark Brotherhood). Reading the letter from your inventory, Lucien asks you to come to him at Fort Farragut so head out when you're ready.
Fort Farragut is located just a quick jaunt to the northeast from Chydinnhal, so it shouldn't take you too long to reach it. If you feel like taking out some dealing with some dark guardians and navigating around traps, enter through the large doors at the bottom of the fort. But, if you want to circumvent all of that and head straight for Lucien, outside, around the back of the fort you will see a large hollow tree with a secret door in it. This will take you straight to the room Lucien is in.
Speaking with Lucien, you will find out there is a traitor amongst the Brotherhood in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary so you are tasked with killing all of them - Ocheeva, Valtieri, Antoinetta Marie, Gogron gro-Bolmog, Telaendril, M'raaj-Dar, and Teinaava. Lucien will give you a poisoned apple and a summoning scroll to help you in this endeavor, but be sure to search the rest of the room, as in a nearby very hard locked barrel you will find 10 more poisoned apples.
When you're ready, head back to the Sanctuary and get to it...
Bonus Requirement: N/A
Back in the Sanctuary, you can approach your killings however you see fit, but here are some tips:
- Don't bother with the apples, it's more of a hassle than it is worth going around collecting and stealing every bit of food in the Sanctuary.
- The Spirit of Rufio summon, it is best to use against Gogron due to his heavy armor since the spirit's attacks will hit better against it.
- Try to take out M'raaj-Dar after he has been practicing in the training room so that he will be low on magicka.
- Telandril is mostly found outside of the Sanctuary. Your best time is to find her on Tuesday's out near the mage guild's well. Hitting her while stealthed will cause her to don her Dark Brotherhood garb and cause the cities guards to attack her so all you have to do is wait for them to do your work for you.
- Don't try to take on all the assassins at once, wait until they are sleeping or alone.
Each member will drop a key to their locked chests in the living quarters, so be sure to loot not only their bodies but also their chests!
With all of your targets dead, return to Lucien, where you will be rewarded with a promotion to his personal Silencer and a horse named Shadowmare. You are also informed that the rest of your contracts will be collected from various dead drops, the first of which will be found on Hero Hill. Congratulations, Silencer.
Your first dead drop mission, found in a hollowed-out rock at Hero Hill tells you that your target is a necromancer named Celedaen who can be found in Leafrot Cave, which is far to the south from where you currently are.
To get to Leafrot Cave, we recommend fast traveling to Leyawin and departing from the Northeast gate, taking the road with Shadowmare, and then cutting east until you get to the cave. The hardest part of this mission is just getting there.
Once in the cave, head straight back, through an average locked door, and through the following door into the next area of the cave where Celedaen is. Drop down a hole in the floor and through the nearby door where you will find him. All you need to do to kill him is to sneak up and steal his hourglass.
With the necromancer taken care of, collect your reward of 500gp and your next contract in a sack beneath the Great Oak in Chorrol.
Your next task is to put an end to each member of the Draconis family, consisting of Perennia, Matthias, Andreas, Sibylla, and Caelia.
Perennia
She can be found on a small farmstead called Applewatch, west of Burma. Nothing to dangerous about her, just wait and take her out while she is sleeping. Looting her body will also give you information on where everyone else is located as some extra help.
Matthias
Matthias has a home in the Talos Plaza District of the Imperial City. Pick the hard lock on his front door and sneak in. His room is on the second floor, take care to avoid his attendant, and sneak into his room to take him out.
Andreas
Andreas runs the Drunken Dragon Inn located northeast of Leyawin, slightly east off the main road. There is usually a Imperial guard the spends time in the Inn so you may have to get creative - or just kill him too. Andreas tends to go to sleep around 2am and sleeps behind the bar's counter.
Sibylla
To the Southwest of Cheydinhal you will find Muck Valley Cavern with Caelia inside.
The cave is fairly small with only rats, wolves, and a couple of bears acting as Caelia's guards. Caelia herself can be found around her small camping in area in the furthest part of the cave.
Caelia
A member of Leyawin's guard, the best time and place to take care of her is in her private room in the Three Sister's Inn after 8am. Her room is on the second floor of the Inn, locked with a hard lock, and is the one closest to the stairs going up.
When the final member of the family is killed, head to Castle Skingrad and in the courtyard, find the well and pick up your reward of 500gp and the dead drop for your next mission.
Dead Drop Order #3 informs you that your next target is a Khajiit named J'Ghasta who lives in Bruma. Head to Bruma and the target's house. Apparently calling off a wedding and scorning your ex-fiance can get you enemies. Oh well.
Once you sneak inside, immediately head to the basement where you will find hidden door, near the stairs. Take that down.
Your target doesn't wear armor and punches really hard, so stay mobile and try to stay away from him so he can't hit you.
Once J'Ghasta is killed, head to the old bridge just south of the Imperial City Waterfront district (we recommend just swimming there from the Waterfront) and under the bridge you will find a rotten box with your reward and your next mission.
Next up, you are tasked with killing a Argonian named Shaleeze who is currently in a cave just north of Bravil known as the Flooded Mine. When you are ready, head to Bravil and then north to the cave.
True to it's name, most of the mine is full of water. When you get inside, take a right and follow the underwater path to the east. This will take you towards Shaleeze's camp and where you can find her sleeping (if you decided to strike her late at night, after midnight).
Shaleeze attacks you with some pretty nasty magical swords, so try to keep away, or you can get her stuck on the outcropping in the middle of her camp and just pelt her with arrows.
Once she is dead, and her body looted, head to Fort Redman, just a bit west of the Drunken Dragon Inn you previously killed Andreas Draconis in, to claim your reward and your next dead drop mission.
Your next target is a traveling merchant known as Uvani. Tracking him down can be a bit troublesome and you run the risk of getting a bounty on your head. The best place to deal with him is in his home in Leyawin that he stays at every Sundas (aka Sunday). He does have an allergy to Honey so if you have some mead, you can try to get him to steal it from you, but like the poison apples during the purification quest, it's a bit of a headache as you need to remove any other source of food in the area.
The door to his house is locked with a hard lock, along with a few doors inside his house so bring some picks with you.
Uvani has strong Destruction spells but perhaps more dangerous is his magic Dagger of Fragments that will quickly destroy any melee weapon or shield you block with, so make sure this fight doesn't drag on or you will be left without any weapons to kill him with!
When Uvani is dealt with, head to the Imperial Market District in the Imperial City and between Rindir's Staffs and Edgar's Discount Speels you will find a hollow stomp with your reward and your next dead drop.
Your next target is a Nord Barbarian that goes by the name Havilstein Hoar-Blood who is currently camping up in on Gnoll Mountain east of Bruma. This is another fairly straight forward task. When you're ready - and equipped to deal with a melee-focused barbarian - head to Bruma.
An easy way to take down both Havilstein and his pet wolf is to position yourself on above and to the east of his came on a ridge of stone. Neither target will be able to get to you and will instead just stare at you as you rain arrows down on them.
Be sure to loot the body and grab Havilstein's magic axe of soul traps and his elven axe for good measure!
To turn in your quest, fast travel to Muck Valley Cavern, head south to the Nornal ruins, and head inside. Head down some stairs and towards the quest marker, where you will need to dive underwater and unlock an average gate, beyond which will be the chest with your reward and your next task.
A wood elf named Ungolim is your next target and can be found in Bravil. He knows you're coming and has prepared a bit, so grab an invisibility scroll or your best sneaking suit and head to Bravil.
Ungolim makes a point to visit the statue in the heart of town every day between the hours of 6 pm and 1 am. Perch on some nearby stairs and wait for him. Ungolim is an archer himself so you may get into a bit of a back-and-forth but the stairs and nearby building walls will give you good cover. Alternatively, you could get up close and deal with him that way. Regardless, once you have dealt with your target, you will be visited by Lucien, who will come bearing surprising news.
Before you head off to your next dead drop, be sure to loot Ungolim's body for his Bow of Cold and then head to Anvil and the dead drop location - a barrel behind the statue.
When you're ready, head to Anvil. Just to the east of the main gate you will find a large statue and there will be a barrel behind it. Perch up somewhere nearby, hidden, and wait.
Before long, an individual will visit the barrel, quickly run and speak to him and he will inform you about a person that spoke to him at a nearby lighthouse and told him to swap out the dead drops.
Travel to the Anvil Lighthouse. Enter the house of the keeper and up to the lighthouse where you will find him. Demand the Cellar key and he will give it to you. With this in your possession, head back outside and around the back of the lighthouse grounds you will find the locked door down to the Lighthouse's Cellar. Go inside.
In the cellar will be a bunch of dead bodies and in the back a average locked door. Inside, near a chair you will find the Traitor's Diary. Read it and take the head that is on the altar in front of it.
With the information in hand, head to Applewatch and head inside where you will be met by members of the black hand and see what remains of Lucien, strung up in back. You are told to return between 12am and 3am to speak with Arquen once more.
Return and speak with Arquen between 12 am and 3am and agree to go with the Black Hand to awaken the Night Mother to trigger a cutscene.
Once the seen is over, head inside the Night Mother's Crypt to trigger another cutscene where the true traitor is revealed. Defeat him alongside Arquen.
After the fight, speak with the Night Mother, and then feel free to loot the coffins in the crypt. When you are done, speak with the Night Mother again.
Congratulations, you are not the Dark Brotherhood's Listener and you have finished the questline for the brotherhood! As a reward, not only are you promoted to Listener but the Night Mother has unlocked the true power of the Blade of Woe that Lucien gave you back when you first began your journey into the brotherhood!
Consider this an ongoing optional quest, but each week, you can speak to the statue of the Night Mother in Bravil and afterward take the information to Arquen in the Chrydinhal Sanctuary. Doing so will earn you a steady source of income! Another perk of being the Listener is that you can have a Dark Brotherhood Murderer tag along with you! Speak to this initiate in the sanctuary and agree to take him along with you.