10 Darkest Quests In Elder Scrolls History

3. A Shadow Over Hackdirt - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I haven’t played Oblivion in a good 15 years and have definitely forgotten many of the side quest intricacies, but hearing the name Hackdirt still makes me instantly uncomfortable. A Shadow Over Hackdirt tasks you with finding a woman’s missing daughter who is thought to be in Hackdirt. Hackdirt has that creepy everything is just a little bit off vibe, and it turns out that’s for a good reason. Everything is in fact, super off. Turns out a few decades before you rocked up Imperial soldiers had raised the town as it was home to a murderous cult.

The ‘nowadays’ townspeople aren’t much better, though one will help you and inform you that the young woman Dar-Ma is being held captive in Hackdirt’s underground caverns.

Not only that but she’s due to be sacrificed. It’s all sacrifices and cannibalism with these Elder Scrolls villains.

Eventually you’ll meet the Brethren, six mostly nude loonies who aren’t too happy with you poking around. Guess that cult is alive and well after all. Not to worry, you take them head on, save the girl, and you can come back and kill the whole town if the existence of a cult-run murder town just doesn’t sit right with you. That’s what I did, anyway.