I've had three attempts on my life since I started playing this game. Each assassin has a note about killing me. I finished the main Alduin quest and the civil war quest... I thought at some point I'd find out who secretly wanted me dead, but I haven't.

Do I just keep playing and it gets revealed, or is this just a random attack on my life? I was hoping for some big conspiracy with the Greybears or Stormcloaks... nothing has emerged

I giggled while reading the first couple sentences. It reads like someone is actually trying to kill you for playing this game.


Anyway, no, you'll never find out who wanted you killed. You probably killed a couple bandits without clearing out the area or something.

Dumb. It seemed like some big thing.

There are the DB assassins that will never reveal who hired them and there are the thugs hired to teach you a lesson. Their notes usually have a name to it.

Also, once you join the DB the random assassination attempts stop.

People will occasionally hire assasins or mercanaries on you if you kill someone they care for or do a misc/side quest where you steal, hurt or kill another person.

Nope, not "dumb" at all. If you steal/assault/kill from/an NPC, but they, their friends, or loved ones see it, why wouldn't they want retribution?

If you steal something from a store or person's house, or botch a pickpocket attempt, said person will hire "Hired Thugs" to beat you to death. The notes on their corpses call you a thief and as these hired thugs to "teach you a lesson".

If you assault/kill someone, and don't take care of any witnesses, then why wouldn't they hire the Dark Brotherhood to take you out? Assault/murder is a much more serious crime than thievery in this game, it only makes sense that the DB gets hired to hunt you down.

How is that dumb? Who did you assault/kill? Why did you do it with surviving witnesses?

Makes me think of another mod... now that I'm a Thane, and I have a house and everything, I should be able to hire people to do quests for me. Then reap some of the reward

Just for laughs -

Apparently in the pre-release version it was even possible for chickens to hire someone to sort you out. Lol.

Seems to me that this "Mod" would be boring as hell and would svck all of the fun out of the game... it's a game about "Adventuring", why hire a computer controlled NPC to do that for you while you just sit there and stare at your tv/monitor as the camera spins around you?

So does anybody know which quests/events force this?

Only one I have found definite till now is the Love triangle quest in Riverrun.



Realism, at least in the TG and DB it would have made sense to be able to send people out to do things for you. Perhaps relatively minor things but still... It would have been nice to get some kind of cash reward at the end of each game.

There is no "end" to an Elder Scrolls game...

and BTW, the Dark Brotherhood has a very nice cash reward at the end of it.

Doing the love triangle quest in Riverwood can set it off.

You don't have to do anything wrong to get thugs sent after you. You can get them sent after you by people you've never even met.

As for Dark Brotherhood attacks, I have 7 or so "contracts" I've collected from failed attempts. Something interesting I found that may explain who is sending them, if you pickpocket a key from Maven (or succeed in picking the lock) and use it to open her personal room in the Black-briar mansion, you'll see that she is performing the dark ritual...I've even taken the heart, skin and dagger from the scene, came back later and it is all put back into place.

Maybe she is the one sending them...

She does mention in the Thieves Guild Quest Line that if someone crosses her she would hire the Dark Brotherhood...

So its very possible.

Good thing I exterminated the DB in my Skyrim. No assassins for meeee. Lol.

No, you get thugs sent after you if you did something to someone: steal from them, kill someone they love, etc.

I've gotten thugs sent after me from people in cities I've never been to. It's most likely a bug.

I wish there was a way to kill Maven Black Brair. She is a bytch.

She is indeed uptight and rude...only a true Nord could tame that shrew.

I'm getting a slight tone of narcissim here. Out of curiosity, did you opt to keep the septims or upgrade the DB?

Generally for me, thugs if i steal, Dark Brotherhood if i murdered.. until i became the listener.. then it was thugs.

Chickens and horses will still rat you out to the guards and break your stealth.

Also, the NPC doesn't have to even see you steal/kill/assault to send goons after you. I've stolen/killed completely undetected, with no bounty, and still had Hired Thugs after me from somebody who shouldn't know I did it.

Part of this is probably an homage to Morrowind, specifically Tribunal, because that had DB assassins come for you early in the game (VERY early).

I've had this happen too. Guess I shouldn't have murdered that girl in Markarth. Or Faendal (he was messing around with Camilla, my wife, so I followed him and put an arrow in his back. I thought nobody saw it, but you never know). Or that Orc, but that was totally an accident. What I found amusing was the cat suit the assassin was wearing (as in ears and a tail -- I was attacked by Catwoman!), and the ease with which I put her down. I kind of like the idea that you never know who sent the DB. I've killed so many bandits, and they all had mothers and fathers. Who are probably also bandits.

A stupid priest of Mara sent the thugs after me in Riften because I accidentally stole a book that I meant just to read. They attacked me right there in the temple. Where's the love, priest? I got some good items to sell from that encounter, so it's all good.

They missed a dialogue opportunity with the random DB assassins: the notes have Astrid's name on them, but when you join the DB you can't chew her out about it, nor can you do so when you're in the Abandoned Shack and being asked to pick a victim.