Innocence Lost



Innocence Lost is a requisite quest to join the Dark Brotherhood.

When you seek out Aventus Aretino, he will tell you that he summoned the Dark Brotherhood because his mother died and he was sent to Honorall Orphanage, in Riften. While there, the cruel matron, Grelod the Kind, abused him and the other children, causing him to run away. After speaking with Aventus, he will give you an odd and disturbing quest in Riften, asking you to kill Grelod the Kind.

After the quest has been completed, a courier will appear and give you a note with the imprint of a black hand and the words "We Know" written beneath it. If you do not receive the note, wait a couple of days and then sleep at an Inn, you will be taken in the same fashion.

Once you receive the note, sleep in any bed.

You will awake in an Abandoned Shack, located in the marshes north of Morthal. A Dark Brotherhood assassin named Astrid will speak to you. She reveals that the Dark Brotherhood is aware of your murderous deed and is pleased that Grelod is dead, but since the Aretino child performed the Black Sacrament, they demand that a debt be paid for the kill that was stolen from them. Astrid has brought three other people to the shack where you awoke; Fultheim the Fearless, Alea Quintus, and Vasha. Each is tied up and wearing an execution hood, but able to answer your questions. Astrid tells you that there is a contract out on one of their lives, and you must figure out who to kill.

To join the Dark Brotherhood, simply kill any of the three. It does not matter which person you choose here; you will be rewarded with an initiation to the Brotherhood regardless.

If you do not wish to join the Dark Brotherhood, you may attack and kill Astrid. You will then fail the quest With Friends Like These... and begin the quest Destroy the Dark Brotherhood!

Note: If you kill a prisoner and leave the shack then Astrid teleports back to the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary. If your plan was to find the Sanctuary and kill them there then be aware that Astrid is unkillable within the sanctuary (if brought to zero HP her health bar disappears and she falls to one knee and rests for a bit only to get up back with full HP).