Skyrim Campaigns: The Dark Brotherhood

So, I decided that trying to "review" or even talk about Skyrim as a whole just would either turn out to be a small book or be too short to do it justice. So to resolve this little problem I'll just talk about the various campaigns you can do to supplement your experience with Skyrim (does anyone just do the main story..?). I'll start with the only one I have completed 100% which is the Dark Brotherhood or the "Assassin's guild" for those who may not know what it's called.

You can start this campaign chain by heading to Windhelm and finding a boy in his house praying over his mother's corpse (super grim huh?) for the Dark Brotherhood to come and become a tool of vengeance for this boy. You're sent on a mission to assassinate his abusive caretaker at the orphanage he had previously resided in. After you successfully eliminate this mean, child abusing, old hag of a lady you're kidnapped the next time you go to sleep by a masked woman and taken to a shack with three people with bags on their heads. This next part is a test of your judgement or lack thereof, you're ordered to murder one of the three captives and you're supposed to figure out which one is guilty. --SPOILER ALERT-- Your choice probably doesn't matter but I personally decided to murder all three, which turned out to be a potential response as well.

After you've been accepted in you're introduced to the rest of your "family" and you begin the Dark Brotherhood experience. This is filled with murder, stealth, and fun. From dropping statues onto unsuspecting brides to finding a pirate ship and assassinating its captain the Dark Brotherhood offers an incredibly wide range of assassinations that vary in difficulty and complexity. The story revolves around two things:

1. The night mother vs. the current family: The night mother is brought to Skyrim's sanctuary after the one in Bravil was ransacked, this causes a bit of tension between Skyrim's brotherhood (which is the last one by the way) who has abandoned the "old ways" and the call for a return to the nightmother's guidance and the appointment of a listener.

2. An assassination plot against the emperor, this is revealed quite early on so I don't consider it a spoiler but I won't detail the process in which you do this (it's kinda complex). This is an incredibly fun endeavor as you're constantly being put into the line of fire and forced to escape situations that are near impossible to do without heavy resistance from city guards and the like. The story itself is rife with betrayal and conflict between the dwindling members of the brotherhood and the emperor's elite guard. When it comes to dynamic mission concepts, the Dark Brotherhood campaign delivers.

Side notes: There are some side contracts you can take in order to make some extra gold or in my case, just have a little fun. These are a great way to gain a good foothold financially and are pretty fun but typically on the easy side compared to the main line of assassinations.

Shadowmere. This horse is the best. He makes his epic return from Oblivion for you to ride around on and kick all kinds of ass. He is the best distraction ever since he is completely invincible, he takes hits from giants no problem, no trouble from dragons or hordes of guards either (I tend to misbehave). The best part of his invincibility? Things love to attack him. They just can't keep their hands off this horse and they ignore me, which means they have a hot date with some daggers coming.

In closing I would just like to say that the Dark Brotherhood is quite different in Skyrim than it was in Oblivion but I would say that it's a good change and a hell of a lot of fun.

Civil War campaign : Imperial side next!