Factions and the Arena

The Dark Brotherhood

In order to initiate this quest, you must first kill an innocent person. After killing a person, go to sleep. When you wake up, you should be met by Lucien Lachance. He'll give you a blade and your first quest; you're to kill a man named Rufio.

Travel to the In of Ill Omen, north of the city of Bravil. Go into the lower level of the building (by way of the floor hatch) and enter the room at the far end of the hall. Inside you'll find Rufio asleep. He's very weak and should die without any trouble. Once you've killed Rufio, sleep in his bed. As you wake, Lucien will greet you once again.

You're now instructed to travel to Cheydinhal. Once there, break into the abandoned house and follow the downstairs door to the basement. In the basement is a broken wall that opens to a tunnel. At the end of that tunnel is a doorway that lets you into the Dark Brotherhood headquarters. Go inside and speak with Ocheeva to complete the quest.

This is a simple and quick quest. Talk to Vicente Valtieri and he'll tell you of a pirate that needs to be killed. Travel to the Waterfront District of the Imperial City. There you'll find a pirate ship you can board. Enter the captain's cabin and you'll find the target, Gaston Tussaud.

Gaston isn't expecting you so you should have a relatively easy time killing him. The tight quarters of the ship's cabin will make it hard to maneuver, but you can make the fight really easy by keeping a table between you and the enemy and attacking with a claymore. When Gaston is dead, search his body for loot (grab his key!). You can now either leave the ship quickly to avoid further confrontation, or stick around to fight off more pirates and collect some of the goods aboard the pirate ship.

There's honestly not much that's worthwhile on the ship. Whether or not you fight through the ship to collect its wares, afterwards you'll need to return to Vicente Valtieri to complete the mission.

Valtieri's next contract will send you to Bruma. You'll find the target's home along the east end of town. Move behind the houses and you can enter Baenlin's basement. Once inside the basement, wait until about 8:00 PM, then start sneaking upstairs.

Just beyond the door that leads upstairs is another set of stairs. Go to the second floor of the house and enter the room to the south (right of the stairs). In the corner of the room is a hidden doorway that leads to the second floor crawl space. Sneak to the end of the crawl space and activate the mounted head fastenings between the hours of 8:00 and 11:00 PM. If you do so, the mounted head will fall on the target.

You now need to leave the building while avoiding Baenlin's servant. Sneak downstairs and head straight for the basement. You should be able to avoid detection, letting you leave the home and return to Valtieri for your reward.

Travel to the northeast corner of the Imperial City and you'll find the entrance to the sewers along the water. Unlock the sewer gate with the key given to you by Valtieri and follow the compass arrow through the dingy passage. You'll encounter mudcrabs and rats along the way, but nothing more than that...until, of course, you finally push through the entirety of the sewers and emerge inside the prison.

Before you make yourself known to the guards, here's a couple of things to keep in mind. First, guards will attack you even if you don't pick a fight. Second, if you don't attack back you will not get a bounty. This is good.

When you're ready, charge into the prison and make a mad dash towards the arrow on your compass. You'll pass through a number of doors before finally arriving at the prison cells. Valen Dreth will initiate a conversation with you automatically. As he tries to break out, throw up your guard and talk to Valen to yield to him, then break him out of his cell.

Valen Dreth will make a mad dash for the exit. You can try to kill him yourself or wait for a guard to kill him. We let the guards kill him for fear that our own blade swipes might accidentally hit one of the guards. With Dreth dead (and no guards harmed), high-tail it back through the sewers to exit the Imperial City prison.

More than likely, the guards will still be chasing you, an unfortunate fact that prevents you from fast traveling. Make a beeline back towards Cheydinhal and eventually the guards should give up their pursuit. Return to Valtieri and speak to him to complete the quest.

Go to Chorrol and find Francois Motierre's house near the center of town. Break in and Francois will talk to you about the situation, explaining things a bit further. Equip the Languorwine Blade and wait. It won't be long before Hides-His-Heart busts into the room.

Quickly stab Francois with the Languorwine Blade before Hides-His-Heart has a chance to act. The assassin won't take kindly to you killing his target and will then turn on you. Don't fight back! Instead, leave the house and run for one of the city's exits. As soon as you exit the city of Chorrol, Hides-His-Heart will disappear.

Return to Chorrol and wait for 24 hours. After a day has passed, enter the city's chapel and find the door to the undercroft downstairs. In the undercroft you'll find the body of Francois Motierre. Simply "activate" him to use the revive potion and Francois will arise from the not-so-dead. Unfortunately, he drops a bit of a bomb on you as he wakes up; Francois kindly informs you that his ancestors aren't happy about this desecration of their gravesite.

You'll have to fight off a couple of weak zombies before leading Francois out of the undercroft. Leave the chapel and head straight for the Grey Mare at the south end of town. Once inside, Francois will disjoin from you, letting you return to Valtieri to complete the quest.

You can speak with any High Elf in the Imperial City about Faelian and they'll tell you to go to the Tiber Septim Hotel in the Talos Plaza District (we spoke to the owner of Divine Elegance in the Market District). Enter the Tiber Septim Hotel and speak with the hostess. She'll give you more info about Faelian, as well as refer you to Atraena.

Atraena should be inside the Tiber Septim. Speak with her and she'll tell you that Faelian frequents the abandoned home of Lorkmir in the Elven Gardens District. Head there and break into Lormir's home (try to stay undetected).

Faelian appears in the house between the hours of 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM. Wait until that time and kill him. One blade stroke should be enough to drop him in silence. Return to Ocheeva to complete the quest.

Ocheeva's next quest will send you to the far west end of the map. Fort Sutch is directly north of Anvil. Head there and get ready to sneak. To complete the quest to the fullest, you'll want to remain completely undetected. Be sure to equip the items that give you the best stealth ratings, and if you have a chameleon spell we suggest you put it to good use. If you're quick, you can be in and out of the fort in under two minutes.

As soon as you enter Fort Sutch, start sneaking and look for a locked gate to your right. Unlock the gate and follow the dark passage to the other end. From here, walk forward and follow the wall left while looking for a hall that leads northeast. When you find the hall, sneak through it. It's not a bad idea to use a detect life spell to make sure there are no enemies ahead.

You'll find a medicine cabinet marked by a green arrow on your compass. Open the cabinet and remove the medicine inside, replacing it with the poison given to you by Ocheeva. With the medicine replaced, sneak out of the fort the way you can and return to Ocheeva to complete the quest.

Though the setup is a bit complicated, the quest is actually quite simple. Travel to Skingrad and find the Summitmist Manor. Speak to the doorman and he'll let you into the manor, giving you a key which will unlock the manor door when your business is completed.

Enter the manor and you'll find the five guests roaming about. You can speak to them to learn more about each (raise their dispositions to get the dirt) or simply commence the killing. Each guest should die by a single stroke of your blade. When all five guests are dead, return to Ocheeva to complete the quest.

The bonus for this quest is awarded by being discreet. "If I am discovered...any bonus will be forfeit." You need to kill each person individually without the others seeing. You can wait upstairs for them to go into their rooms. They'll sleep night, making the slaughter pretty easy. We were able to, at one point, kill three of the guests while they were standing around each other. As long as you're quick about it, it's possible to slay a few in front of each other before they realize what's going on. But to be safe, deal with them one by one on the upper floor of the manor.

Travel to Leyawiin and follow the green arrow on your compass. If it's after 3:00 PM but before nightfall, you'll find Adamus Phllida in the outdoor pool area. During this time, Phillida isn't completely vulnerable. At any time, break out a bow with the Rose of Sithis equipped and snipe the enemy dead. Don't worry about hiding. In our experience, it was impossible to avoid a small bounty (40 gold). As soon as you've killed Phillida, go loot his body for the keys he's got as well as grab his severed finger.

Now head to the Imperial City Prison. If you fast travel, you'll appear very close to the Imperial Legion office door that leads to the room you need to visit. Wait until after 1:00 AM before breaking into the office, otherwise you'll have to contend with Phillida's successor head-to-head. In the wee hours of the night, the office should be empty. Open the desk draws and transfer the severed finger from your inventory to the desk.

With that done, leave the office and travel back to Ocheeva. Speak with her and the quest will be completed.

You get a letter from Lucien that says you must see him in Fort Farragut. Fort Farragut is directly northeast of Cheydinhal, not far away from the city. Go there right away, and be prepared to kick a lot of ass.

Once inside Farragut, you'll encounter a number of Dark Guardian skeleton enemies. For the most part, you'll encounter them one on one. They're not particularly hard to fight though they do take a lot of punishment before shuffling off the mortal (immortal?) coil. If you can, use a detect life to see them in the darkness. Try to fight them one at a time to ensure you don't get overwhelmed.

You'll also need to be on the lookout for traps, including pressure plates and one nasty hole in the floor. After a bit of moving through the fortress, you'll find Lucien behind a gate. Open the gate via the nearby lever and speak with Lucien. He'll give you new orders.

Lucien's next order is to kill every member of the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood. Travel back to Cheydinhal and enter the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary. For now, none of the members will be wise to your orders. They'll treat you as a friend, giving you one last chance to make use of their services.

Now none of the Dark Brotherhood members are very tough to kill but you still don't want to fight the lot at once. Wait for times when the brothers scatter throughout the sanctuary so that you can fight them one at a time. Be sure to check the living quarters and the training room for lonely members of the chapter.

Kill them each, one by one, then return to Lucien to complete the quest. For your actions, Lucien will reward you with the horse Shadowmere.

You'll find the dead drop for this quest on Hero Hill, inside a hollow rock east of Cheydinhal. Get the dead drop orders, then travel to Leafrot Cave due south and east of Bravil.

Expect to find ghostly enemies inside the cave. Appropriately arm yourself with silver or enchanted weapons so that you can kill the enemies inside. The first section of the cave has a number of baddies (we fought liches), but Celedaen is wandering about the next section. While still in the first part of the cave, look for a book on a nearby table that details the weakness of Celedaen. To kill him easily, you'll have to pickpocket from him the Sands of Resolve.

There are two doorways that lead to the section of the cave in which Celedaen resides. We suggest taking the door on the left, then dropping through the weak boards to reach Celedaen's level. After opening the wooden door (after dropping), we suggest using some sort of chameleon spell to turn yourself invisible. It's hard to sneak up on Celedaen otherwise, though sneaking honestly isn't necessary. Even if Celedaen does see you, the fight with him isn't so bad. He'll summon some baddies to get in your way. Just charge straight for the necromancer and chop him down.

When Celedaen is dead, travel to the center of Chorrol. Near the tree at the town's center you'll find a sack cloth inside which is your reward, as well as orders for the next quest.

Travel to Bruma and head due west from there to find Applewatch, the farm with the first of the Draconis family. You can speak with Perennia Draconis about her children and she'll give you a list with their locations. Once you've got the list, slay the woman (she puts up quite a fight!), then plot your next attack.

There are four more Draconis family members to find and kill. East of the Imperial City is Muck Valley cavern. Immediately upon entering the cavern, you'll be attacked by Sibylla and one of her creatures (in our case, a mountain lion). There are other creatures in the cave but nothing in the cave that's worth looking for. Simply kill Sibylla and move on.

Between Muck Valley Cavern and Leyawiin is the Drunken Dragon Inn. Go there and you'll find Andreas Draconis behind the counter of the inn. There's an Imperial Legion officer inside the inn's lobby at most hours, though you can wait until 2:00 AM to make this a silent and crime-free kill. At 2:00 AM, Andreas will go to sleep. Wait for the officer to walk away and you can kill Andreas in his sleep.

You'll find the third Draconis sibling wandering the city of Leyawiin. Caelia is a city guard, so she's both well-armed and very criminal to kill. Wait inside the Three Sisters Inn at around 7:00 AM. Caelia will go to a priate room upstairs where you can fight here alone. Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid getting a massive bounty.

Now return to the Imperial City to take out Matthias Draconis. He wanders about the city a lot, though he sleeps in his home in the Talos Plaza district. Break into his house after midnight and head upstairs to his room (don't worry about Matthias' buddy downstairs). Again, you can't avoid a bounty when you kill Matthias. After you've killed Matthias, go to Skingrad castle and look for the next dead drop in the well.

This is a pretty quick and simple quest. Travel to Bruma and find the home of J'Ghasta. You'll have to pick the lock on his door, but it's a pretty easy lock to break. Once inside the house, go downstairs. Behind the stairway and under a bunch of folded cloths you'll find a hatch that leads to the secret basement. (Wait, how did J'Ghasta cover the hatch with cloth from inside the basement?)

Depending on the time of day, J'Ghasta is either training in the room at the end of the hall or sleeping in it. He fights bare-handed and is pretty easy to take down. When he's dead, locate the old bridge due south of Imperial City. You'll find the next dead drop there.

Travel to Bravil and you'll be very near to the Flooded Mine you need to infiltrate. Just north a bit is the entrance to the mine. If you've got a water breathing spell (or an enchanted item with an equivalent effect) we suggest you be ready to use it.

The entire mine is flooded with water and there are no enemies to worry about other than the target, Shaleez. It's hard to sneak up on Shaleez because of all the water (you can't sneak while swimming). Luckily, it's easy to get Shaleez stuck.

We swam into the northwestern part of the cave. You can jump out of the water and onto the shore in this open part of the cavern...but Shaleez can't. If you can get her attention, Shaleez will swim towards you and try to attack from the water. Simply counter with a long-range attack and she's guaranteed toast. When she's dead, travel to the next dead drop to the south. Inside a coffin in the fortress is your next assignment.

Be sure to grab Alval Uvani's schedule from the dead drop before leaving. The document details the target's location on the various days of the week. Pay attention to the day of the week (you can tell which day it is by bringing up the waiting screen). When you've found the day of the week, match it to Alval's schedule and travel to the appropriate town.

On Morndas and Tirdas, Alval can be found in Bravil at the Lonely Suitor Lodge. On Middas and Turdas, he's usually at the West Weald Inn of Skingrad. On Fredas and Loredas, Alval should be at Olav's Tap and Tack in Bruma. Finally, on Sundas you should be able to find the target at his house in Leyawiin.

The dead drop note makes mention of Alval's allergy to the honey in mead. If you can get him to drink some mead he'll become paralyzed, letting you hack away to his gruesome death. You can get some mead from the Summitist Manor in Skingrad (the one you cleared in an earlier Dark Brotherhood quest). To get Alval to drink the mead, you'll want to remove all food from the building he's in and place bottles of mead in the cabinets for him to steal.

If you want to try and kill Alval without getting a bounty, you'll have to wait for him to come back to his home in Leyawiin. Break into his house and you'll find him there on Sundas. Kill him, then go to the Market District of the Imperial City to find your next dead drop orders in a hollowed-out stump.

Travel to Bruma and head due east to get to the Gnoll Mountain camp. The camp is set atop a very steep cliff. The best way to reach it is to travel to the northwest corner of the mountain and start climbing.

You'll find the target, Havilstein Hoar-Blood, hanging out near the camp with his dog. Kill the dog first (should be easy), then focus on the Nord. Havilstein is a very tough opponent, though being a Nord he seems weak to fire. If you've got a fire spell or an enchanted sword, don't hesitate to put it to good use. Be sure to block often, and consider using the steep cliffs to your advantage (push the enemy off a cliff and he'll fall to his death).

The next dead drop is inside an Ayleid ruin east of the Imperial City. You'll have to go inside the ruin and swim through the first flooded area to locate the sunken chest with the mission reward.

Head to Bravil and locate the Lucky Old Lady statue at the center of town. Wait around until between the hours of 6:00 PM and 1:00 AM and the target, Ungolim, will show up. Time to kill!

Your dead drop orders suggest a sneak attack, but Ungolim is actually pretty weak. Such careful actions aren't necessary. When Ungolim appears, quickly attack with melee weapons. The enemy uses only a bow and should go down without much effort. When he's dead, Lucien will appear and tell you about your next order.

Go to Anvil and locate the pond just east of the northern city entrance. Watch the barrel behind the statue and before long an elf will come creeping up. Talk to the elf after he's accessed the barrel and he'll explain that he's been given orders from a man in the nearby lighthouse cellar. You can open up the barrel to find the false dead drop orders the elf planted.

Leave Anvil through the southern gate to reach the docks, then locate the lighthouse nearby. Ascend the lighthouse stairs to reach the upper level where you'll find lighthouse keeper. Intimidate the poor man and he'll hand over the key to the cellar. If you say nothing, he'll try to fight, forcing you to kill him if you want to key.

When you've got they, return to the base of the lighthouse to find the cellar door (it's on the outside of the lighthouse). Unlock the cellar door and crawl down into the enemy's putrid home. There are dead bodies strewn about, and in the back room you'll find the traitor's diary. Read the diary and you'll be prompted to travel to Applewatch farm, west of Bruma. Before leaving, you can grab the Mother's Head from the nearby table. It'll come in handy in a bit, though it's not required.

At Applewatch, you'll learn that the existing members of the Black Hand have killed off Lucien Lachance. Arquen will ask you to speak with her between the hours of 12:00 AM and 3:00 AM to continue the next mission. Before you do that, though, you can drop the Mother's Head on the ground and talk to the remaining Black Hand members. One of them will react...

The final real quest of the Dark Brotherhood is a very short and sweet one. After talking to Arquen back at Applewatch, you'll be transported to Bravil to watch the Black Hand members enter the Night Mother's crypt. Follow them into the crypt (access the hatch on the floor) and you'll be unable to move while the following scene unfolds.

Mathieu Bellamont will soon attack the Night Mother. Kill him quickly and the Night Mother will speak to you, appointing you as the Listener of the Black Hand. You can collect any loot you find inside the crypt before speaking with the Night Mother again and returning to Cheydinhal. Once back at the Cheydinhal sanctuary, speak with Arquen to complete the quest.

This quest does not have an end. Instead, it is merely a way for you to grow the ranks of the Dark Brotherhood and earn some money for yourself. Once per week, you can travel to Bravil to speak to the Night Mother at the statue. After speaking with the Night Mother to learn of new contracts, return to Cheydinhal to deliver the orders to Arquen. She will, in turn, assign the contracts to new members of the guild. You'll get a portion of the pay when your underlings complete the contract.