Quote:
Originally Posted by Fincuan
As far as DB jobs go I've found that ballsier works better. The first job I got was to kill the orphanage owner. I executed that by walking into her home, closing the door when just the two of us were in a room and hacking her to pieces. The kids at the orphanage were all yelling and cheering when they noticed her death, so I guess that's a job well done 
No problems with guards or anyone else after leaving the house. |
That's an anomaly, killing Grelod isn't a job you get from the DB - you get it from the runaway orphan who mistakes you for one of them and won't believe you if you try to tell him you're not. Killing Grelod is, as far as the DB is concerned,
stealing one of their contracts and that's what prompts them to contact you and give you the choice of joining them or paying with your own life for interfering with their business.
Once Astrid kidnaps you, you can either join them by killing one of the three captives presented to you, or fight her instead and either kill her or be killed. If you kill one of the captives, you're in the DB. If you fight Astrid and kill her, you can then get the Destroy The Dark Brotherhood quest (which is now your only option as far as the DB stuff is concerned) by reporting it to the Penitatus Oculatus commander at Dragonbridge.
In other words the "hit" on Grelod is not, for the PC, a DB contract - it's a quest that only exists to force contact between the PC and the DB and make the PC choose either to join them or destroy them (or presumably be pursued and attacked by their agents until you do wipe them out - I noticed I was being attacked by a lot of NPCs that were IDed only as "Assassin" with the last character, until I finally got around to to finishing the Destroy quest). The Grelod killing is a plot device designed to jumpstart the DB storyline and the game does not penalize you for making use of it by giving you a bounty for the killing or IDing you to local guards as the killer.
I've killed Grelod three times now, no variation on the scenario makes any difference. Apparently she never leaves the orphanage, but I've killed her "in private" in her room with the door shut, killed her out in the open (not in sneak mode) in full view of the children and the other younger lady who works there, and one-shot her with a bow from the front rooms of the orphanage after entering in sneak mode and remaining undetected throughout. Twice I entered and left the orphanage in broad daylight in full view of guards and townspeople, once I snuck in
way after midnight and snuck right back out... it all works out the same. The children are overjoyed, the assistant (if she is present) runs around screaming, and after you walk out the door - nothing. People will comment on the killing, some clearly think the old lady had it coming, some may hint that you know something about it, but as far as being treated like a punishable offense - nope.
As far as I can tell it's scripted that way no matter how you handle it - the only consequence is that it puts you in touch with the DB whether you wanted it or not. As such, the Grelod killing can't be used as a benchmark for how real DB contract killings will work or be treated by guards and other NPCs.