The Dark Brotherhood Forever
Quest Giver	Night Mother
Location	Dawnstar Sanctuary
Reward	600 750 800 1,000 1,200
Faction	Dark Brotherhood
Type	Contracts Radiant Quests

"Accept his gold, then kill the target. So begins a contract, bound in blood."

―The Night Mother^[src]

This quest is a Radiant Story quest and repeats infinitely.

BackgroundEdit

"I am now the Listener and leader of the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim. It is my duty to hear the words of our unholy matron, the Night Mother, and do as she commands..."

―The Dragonborn

WalkthroughEdit

The mission repeats itself with the three objectives: Approach the Night Mother's coffin, speak with the contact, then kill the target.

After eliminating the target, a new one can be initiated by returning to the Sanctuary and approaching the Night Mother. The Night Mother may contact the Listener telepathically with new contracts, although this is usually not the case.

Targets are randomly generated the moment the quest begins. Re-loading saves before speaking to the contractor can be exploited to gain a specific target. This may be useful for unlocking the "Master Criminal" achievement or trophy without killing Essential characters.

ContractsEdit

Not in order

• A Wary Outlaw in Riften
• A Corrupt Agent in Dragon Bridge
• A Scheming Servant in Markarth
• A Desperate Gambler in Windhelm
• A Blasphemous Priest in Whiterun
• A Dishonored Skald in Solitude
• An Indolent Farmer in Ivarstead
• A Grief Stricken Chef in Dawnstar
• An Unemployed Laborer in Rorikstead
• A Wandering Bard in Raven Rock

TargetsEdit

Not In Order

• A Big Laborer in Katla's Farm
• An Itinerant Lumberjack in Morthal
• A Reckless Mage in Winterhold
• A Seasoned Hunter outside Falkreath
• A Poor Fishwife on the Riften Fishery
• A Grim Shieldmaiden in Markarth
• A Traveling Dignitary in Solitude
• A Coldhearted Gravedigger in Windhelm
• A Beautiful Barbarian in Ivarstead
• The Visiting Noble in Dragonsreach (Whiterun)

TriviaEdit

• The Blasphemous Priest is the only other person apart from the Greybeards to wear the Greybeard's Robe.
• The quest does not end at ten targets.  It continues indefinitely.

BugsEdit

• The Reckless Mage in Winterhold may sometimes appear in the inn, even if the player has not approached the Night Mother or the client. Killing him will result in the quest completing permanently. any fixers please?
• There is an exploit to get double the gold from a client, walk up to them and let them talk, when they start talk hit A, X or E, you will get the gold they were going to pay you, then they will repeat what they were going to say, let them finish and you will get the same amount of gold given you when you pressed the talk button. This does not work every time in the patched version.
• For some reason if you kill the Grim Shieldmaiden in Markarth or the Traveling Dignitary in Solitude, the city guards will attack you despite you being hidden and them being far away. (This sometimes happens in the patched version). A workaround for this is to pickpocket the target and get caught, causing them to attack you (make sure you're far away from any guards when you do this). You're then free to kill the target or allow the guards to do it for you; you'll get credit either way.
  • There's a trick to killing target NPCs in crowded areas without drawing aggro or a bounty. Make sure that 1.) you're sneaking; 2.) there are no guards or NPCs in your immediate vicinity; 3.) you are far enough from the intended target for the quest marker above his/her head to NOT show. Use a bow to hit the target, and provided you A.) have the proper bonuses to ranged sneak attacks, and/or B.) the target is unarmored, the target should die instantly. Furthermore, if there are any NPCs in the target's vicinity, they won't even skip a beat. You can even walk up and loot the body or get your arrow back, and the other NPCs will act as though nothing happened at all. Tested on the Traveling Dignitary   [In solitude [PC] NPC's do comment  about the body and the guards do attack] and Ma'randru-jo. Does not appear to work on Grim Shieldmaiden guards still attack irrespective of the distance between you, them and the target. Only workaround found was a frenzy spell or pick-pocketed frenzy poison. (Tested 360)
  •  PS3   There's another trick to this, simply equip the fury spell, make sure you're hidden, and cast the spell on the target.
  • Commanding a follower such as a Dark Brotherhood Initiate or Cicero to kill the target for you will prove an adequate workaround.
• Sometimes, for some reason this quest may disappear from the active quest list, so then the quest won't restart. If you desire to bring back this quest use the console with the command setstage DBrecurring 200
• Sometimes, when you enter the Penitus Oculatus Outpost, none of the NPC's will interact with you, including the contact named "Corrupt Guard." One way to fix this is to steal some items from the table and have the outside guards come inside to attempt to arrest you, get them to fight you until all the witnesses are dead and you are finally able to speak to your target. Another solution is to quit the outpost, wander a little on the wild and killing things, and then return to the outpost. Or you can just exit the building and walk back inside...
•  360  Sometimes upon killing a contract and completing the Dark Brotherhood Forever quest, game will freeze when the quest resets.
• Sometimes the Dishonored Skald will not talk to you or interact in anyway. There is no fix and this will force you to abandon the quest.
• There is a way to remove/prevent activating this quest, for those who don't want an unfinishable quest in their quest log. To do this, you must back out of conversation with Nazir when he tells you to talk to Delvin to restore the Sanctuary. before he finishes talking, run to the exit, hugging the right wall, staying as far away from the Night Mother as possible. if done correctly, the quest "Where You Hang Your Enemy's Head..." should start, but not "The Dark Brotherhood Forever". simply buying all upgrades from Delvin will finish that quest, and you have completed the Dark Brotherhood Questline. Unfortunately, to ensure this quest is never activated, i can no longer visit the Dawnstar Sanctuary, as this quest will almost certainly pop up.
• The quest will repeat some of the same contracts and targets.