10 Darkest Quests In Elder Scrolls History

7. Death Incarnate - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Speaking of the things that go bump in the night, that’s pretty much the M.O. of the Dark Brotherhood, who as a whole offer up a suite of the best quests in any Elder Scrolls game. One such quest occurs during the very end of the Dark Brotherhood storyline in Skyrim. This quest kicks off with your attempt to find out who is the traitor in the guild and rescue the surviving members of the Dark Brotherhood after a raid on their sanctuary. You pop in, kill the invaders, and then gradually discover the mangled bodies of your Dark Brotherhood comrades who were killed by the Imperial Guards.

The sanctuary is then set alight and your only way to survive is to snuggle up to another nasty mangled corpse, the Night Mother, in her coffin. For the uninitiated, The Night Mother is the wife of the Dread Father, the central deity of the Brotherhood.

The horrors don’t end there though, when you emerge mostly unscathed except for a horrible night listening to the chattering of the mostly desiccated Night Mum, you uncover the aforementioned traitor, but she’s not doing so hot.

That joke will become funny in the next sentence I promise.

You come face to very charred face with the betrayer, Astrid, who, overcome with guilt for her actions has performed the Black Sacrament on herself and begs you to finish the job. Finding all your comrades dead is horrifying, and getting in the Night Mother’s room-for-one coffin is not my choice of how to spend an evening, so you’ll certainly have trouble forgetting this quest, even years on.