As soon as I was on the other side of the door, I had, thankfully, the presence of mind to activate my Amulet of Shadows. Coming to see what made the wooden door creak (that would be me, opening and closing it), a sentry of the Dark Brotherhood stood nearby, peering into the darkness, looking for the source of the noise he had just heard

He never saw the source of the God's Frost spell that killed him within seconds.

I continued on up the trail, up a ladder, and into a larger tunnel. Two more Dark Brotherhood members were just ahead.

My spell of God's Frost hit the first one, but the other was too far away from the blast area to be affected by it. He started heading towards the source of the spell, poisoned dagger drawn, ready for a fight.

I shot off another spell as quickly as I could, and dropped this attacker just two feet from my position.

I dropped two more of their number as I entered a huge cavern. This was apparently their headquarters.

You'd think they could tidy up the place a bit, being a big organization and all.

Suddenly, from down another tunnel, two more Dark Brotherhood killers ran to attack.

Each of them met their fate at the hands of a very ticked-off mage.

I cleared out a few more sections of tunnel, then headed back to the main cavern. It appeared that there were two main buildings here. I checked out the lower one, and found a number of members there. One of them attacked me from behind, stabbing me with a poisoned dagger. I turned and gave him a taste of the Amulet of Leaches, dragging his own life into my own. He collapsed in a heap on the floor at my feet.

I check out one room after another, finding nothing but small change and ordinary minions of the Brotherhood. One of them charged to attack. I grabbed him with the spell of absorbing health; with each of his attacks, I absorbed his own health into me, healing myself with his own life.

"Who sent you people to kill me?" I demanded.

"You will die!!" he responded, as he fell to the floor, an empty husk of what was formally a deadly killer. "Not this day." I replied to his corpse.

I decided to check out the upper level building, since this place was getting me nowhere fast.

Inside the upper manor, a number of rats came charging to the attack, following closely by a number of Dark Brotherhood killers.

I shot off one spell of God's Frost after another. They were all close enough that the blast from the spell hitting one of them affected them all.

I searched the carnage, but there was still no hint as to who was behind the attacks upon my very handsome self.

I checked out a few more rooms, and came to one that would soon answer my questions. A lone Brotherhood member was in here. His rat came to the attack. I let loose with a God's Frost spell. It nearly killed him. He ran to the side to avoid another attack.

I used a poison spell on the rat as it bit my ankle. The rat didn't survive.

Now, I had to continue my attack on this lone killer.

Seconds later this lone killer came back into range, and I let him have it with the Amulet of Leaches, healing the wounds caused by the rat earlier.

Didn't do to much good for him, though. He fell dead, just like the rest of his friends.

"No....Tell...my liege....I have...failed h...."

He never finished his last words. 'Tell my liege I have failed.' is a most unusual statement. Was he expecting me to do him a final favor of telling the person who hired him that the job was left un-done????

I decided to check his quarters for some sort of document concerning this situation. Unfortunately, there was nothing in any of the crates of other storage facilities here that would help.

However, once I decided to check his corpse, I believe I found what I was looking for. It was a contract, and it had my name on it.

"The bearer of this document, under special dispensation of the Night Mother, who has entered into a contract in perpetuity with H, is given special dispensation to execute Eldorf Dragonmeal, a Breton recently residing on the island of Vvardenfell. In accordance with all laws and traditions, the afore-mentioned personage will be executed in the name of H the most expedient manner possible. All services of the Dark Brotherhood are at the disposal of the Bearer of this binding and non-disputable document."

Now, all I had to do is figure out who this "H" person was and the problem would be over. I decided I'd better report all of this to a guard immediately.

I arrived back at the Winged Guar Tavern and changed into some thing a bit more presentable (and a lot less smelly). I asked the owner if they could clean that robe for me, and she said she would, although there was a comment about burning it instead that I could hear from behind me.

With that, I headed back towards the palace courtyard.

"You believe you've killed their leader?" came the gruff response from the first guard I spoke to. "Hmm, well, I wouldn't count on that."

"So what would you suggest?" I asked.

"You probably ought to speak to Tienius Delitian about it. He'll most likely know what to do." replied the guard.

"And where would I find Tienius Delitian?" I asked.

"He's the Captain of the Guard." replied the guard. "You can find him in the Throne Room upstairs. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some more patrolling to do."

Well, that meant my next step was to the Throne Room upstairs. I was glad that I had cleaned up first. The last thing one wants to do in life is head into a King's Throne Room smelling like poo.