Modders have put an awful lot of effort into making sure Skyrim has continually evolved and expanded in the years since it was first released into the world.
Many have focused on massively overhauling the game by adding the likes of new quests, revamped menus, and interesting player homes to it, with a few even going as far as making changes like turning the province into a maze of mysterious doors or adding Pong to its loading screens.
However, sometimes the mods that stick around longest in load orders are the ones that shirk fresh content in favour of completely overhauling existing locations and interactions you’ll have seen a thousand times before, with a new mod aiming to do just that to an iconic Dark Brotherhood mission.
Ever felt like Skyrim’s first Dark Brotherhood quest should be a bit more open-ended?
The mod in question is called ‘Innocence Lost - Quest Expansion’, and is the work of prolific modder JaySerpa. A lot of their previous work has also been focused on revamping various aspects of Skyrim, including the dialogue of civil war soldiers and carriage drivers.
This time, they’ve decided to take the rather simple quest to kill Grelod the Kind, kicked off by following the rumours of Aventus Aretino’s dark deeds to Windhelm, and turn it into an in-depth assassination mission with an array of possible approaches, some of which you can check out in the video below.
Sure, bumbling into Honorhall Orphanage, thrusting your dagger into Grelod’s ribs and then running for your life might have gotten the job done just fine in the past, but why not try poisoning her wine or arranging an accident for her at the docks instead?
After all, if you’re aiming to impress Astrid and the Dark Brotherhood, showing off your capacity for discrete execution might be a good idea.
On the other hand, if you’re roleplaying as a good samaritan and are planning to side with the Penitus Oculatus to put an end to the Brotherhood, another of the mod’s approaches might be more your style. This path involves convincing a guard, via your words or a bribe, to arrest Grelod, landing her in prison and leading an assassin from the real Brotherhood to break into her cell and deliver the killing blow instead of you.
While this specific route will lock you out of being able to continue the Dark Brotherhood questline, JaySerpa recommends also installing EpicCrab’s ‘Dark Brotherhood Rising Revengeance’, which eliminates the need to have killed Grelod in order to start the quest to destroy the order of assassins.
Regardless of whether your Dragonborn is now having a barcode tattooed on the back of their head, make sure to follow us for more updates on The Elder Scrolls 6 and the interesting world of Skyrim modding. You can also check out our mods of the month for December 2022.
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