Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - A Watery Grave

Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - A Watery Grave
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A Watery Grave - Introduction

Our first real assassination mission for the Dark Brotherhood involves the ship of pirates in the Imperial Waterfront. You probably ran into them already if you explored the city at all. They are incredibly hostile, but you get to kill their captain, Gaston Tussaud. I figure that we’re even.

Note that there isn’t a real bonus for this assassination. You’ll get the special reward as long as he dies. This means you have a lot of freedom.

The only basic rule is that the pirate captain sleeps during the night. Naturally it’s better to end up in his room while he’s asleep. A sneak attack never hurts, even for warriors. Sneaking also helps, since you can loot the room. You won’t have a chance after you kill him. You can also pickpocket the cutlass off of the captain to make the fight a whole lot easier.

A Watery Grave - Options for Assassination

Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - Jumping onto the Balcony

Storm the Ship - Just kill everybody. This is pretty easy. Note that the pirates in the Imperial Waterfront are very aggressive. If you even dare to step onto their ship, they will all attack you. Yet, briefly looking at their ship isn’t a crime and certainly doesn’t warrant such a response. This means that the Imperial Watch in the area will rush to your aid and help you kill the pirates. There should always be one accurate archer sniping from the dock and another guard near the Waterfront that can clear it out quickly (and if you do this during certain Thieves Guild missions, the area will be crawling with friendly guards). If you’re careful with your swings and don’t hit friendly NPCs, then you will just be seen as defending yourself. You can also just run or hang back and let the guards kill them.

The First Mate on the dock is a little tough, but the rest of the pirates are pushovers. They don’t have any real armor and their weapons aren’t anything special. They’ll die in a few slashes. The entrance to the Captain’s Cabin on the ship is locked, but it isn’t a crime to go inside (or it shouldn’t be, if it shows up red just wait until no one is watching at night).

You can then attack the captain in a standard duel and kill him.

Sneaking - The pirates are currently stocking up for a voyage, so you can easily slip onboard the ship by hiding in a crate. If you walk up to the crates on the left, you’ll be prompted with an option to do so. I really didn’t care for this option. You basically just have to watch the pairs of pirates guarding the lower two halls and slip past them. You’ll have to wait a lot for them to stop talking and split up. After going up a few ladders, you’ll wind up in the pirate captain’s room. The kill isn’t any more rewarding either. Begin the kill with a sneak attack and then finish him off.

Acrobat - This is my personal favorite and it’s easy to do once you know how. I did this with an Acrobatics skill of only 22 too. Taking off all your armor and keeping light seems to help. Walk past the crates and say no to the prompt. You can get up on the stone wall separating the water from the road. From this point, look for the rear balcony. If you look up and jump as you walk off of the wall, you should be able to easily land on the balcony. It’s not a crime to pick the Very Hard lock and get into the captain’s room. Just sneak up to him and slash him to start the fight, then finish him off.

A Watery Grave - Escape

Dark Brotherhood - Oblivion Walkthrough - Killing the Pirate Captain

As soon as you send the pirate captain to a watery grave, loot his body. If you came in through the crates or the front door, then grab the keys off of his body. Two more pirates are coming into the room in just a few seconds. Run out the back door of the cabin onto the balcony and jump into the water. You’ll escape the newly spawned pirates (and a close fight with two angry pirates in close quarters). You can swim a short distance and get on the land to the left. Just walk up to the road.

Once you’re back on dry land, fast travel to Cheydinhal and go into the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. Talk to Vincinte Valtieri to get your reward and the Black Band. This ring is a pretty nice starter item for a budding assassin.

Accidents Happen

Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - Accidents Happen

This is actually pretty straightforward. You need to kill Baenlin and make sure that his bodyguard, Gromm, doesn’t get involved and die in the process. Let’s get started.

Note that while you can just charge in and slash them both up, it’s pointless. You forfeit the bonus and turn the whole thing into a messy affair. You can enter Baenlin’s house covertly by going to the back area (the section by the wall). Baenlin has a wine cellar and therefore has a wine cellar entrance in the back. You can just pick the lock on the double doors and enter his wine cellar. Try to do this at about 8 o’ clock so that you don’t have to wait long.

At 8 every night, Baenlin sits and reads in his chair for three hours. The good news is that Gromm will not be in a good watch position for those hours either. Leave the basement in some good stealth armor (shrouded armor and hood are fine). Sneak up the stairs in front of you. Gromm should have his back toward the stairs and basement, since he’s closely guarding Baenlin.

Go up the stairs and turn around at the top. The marked bedroom has a panel by the bedroom. Activate the panel and go back into the hidden crawlspace. Save your game, in case something doesn’t hit right, then active the minotaur trophy’s bindings. Confirm that you want to loosen them and wait a moment. There should be an update confirming the kill.

The problem is that Gromm is now in a very aggressive state and will attack even if he just sees you. You don’t get the usual trespasser warning. Note that the rules are also specific. He can’t die. It doesn’t matter if you pull any of the usual tricks, like letting the guards kill him or using a poisoned blade. If Gromm is not alive when you talk to Valtieri, then the quest is a failure. Thankfully, he should still be facing away, looking at Baenlin’s body. Make sure that you slow down to a walk while sneaking, and slip right past him. If you go slow, then you shouldn’t make enough noise to alert him. Go down the steps and out the wine cellar doors to escape without triggering Gromm.

Go back to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary in Cheydinhal and find Vincinte Valtieri. Talk to him and get your reward and well earned bonus.

This post is part of the series: Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - Part 1

The Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion is an assassin guild that is a quite useful and fun to join. You’ll get a lot of good gold and stealthy equipment and also make a few good allies without too much work. This Oblivion Walkthrough will cover how to join the Dark Brotherhood and beat their missions.

  1. Oblivion Walkthrough - Joining the Dark Brotherhood
  2. Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - A Watery Grave and Accidents Happen
  3. Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - Scheduled for Execution and The Assassinated Man
  4. Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - The Lonely Wanderer and Bad Medicine
  5. Oblivion Walkthrough - Dark Brotherhood - Whodunit? and Permanent Retirement