it was... just a slaughter.... and nothing else

no cool quests....

Much more interesting to join them than to kill them off.

Yes, it is a much reduced side of the questline. It seems like they should have added more to it. The only reason to destroy the Dark Brotherhood, in my opinion, would be if you are roleplaying a good character.

And even then I struggle to think of destrying them. I just ignore their existance.

That quest seemed too rushed, kind of as if they threw it on at last minute. Even then, a number of characters probably wouldn't know about them unless they heard rumor. Way I see it is that as a good character you'd stay away from Arentino once you walked into the house and saw the skeleton and him doing the ritual.

I'd have been perfectly content had Bethesda implemented options to destroy, or simply decline doing the other faction quests as well. While on the subject though, it definitely speaks volumes about the state of the Dark Brotherhood when they're all sitting at home and none of them are actually tracking down rumors of the Black Sacrament being performed or actually seeking out targets.

Destroying the DB is sort of ironic. So you go and kill a bunch of murderers. That still leaves you as a murderer. If you got that far, it means you made up your mind to snuff Grelod the Kind for Aventus Aretino. And she's not a murderer, as far as we know... just a sadistic piece 'o crap. But you went ahead and made yourself into judge, jury and executioner - and now here you are, inside this shack with a choice to make.

Killing Astrid and the rest of the crew... does that redeem you somehow? Not in my book. It makes you no better than her and her crew in any way.

As far as "alignments" may be concerned, killing off Astrid and the rest of the crew makes you Lawful Evil at best.

Re: Black Sacraments: The DB seem to be paying attention to Maven Black-Briar's. She even addresses Astrid by name. However, the target seems to be proving to be a rather hard one...

Beth missed out on the chance to join the Penitus Oculatus and have a long, interesting QL revolving around stopping the DB from assassinating the Emperor and eventually raiding the sanctuary with many Oculatus at your back

Speaking of being unable to decline a questline, I may have figured out a way to keep from getting the forced journal entry "Listen to Brynjolf's scheme" (when Brynjolf keeps pursuing you in Riften). On a new character, I decided to shoot an arrow at him when he started approaching me and (of course) he turned hostile, so I ran out the city gate and swam into Lake Heinrich. He eventually quit pursuing me and when I re-entered the city, he was standing at his market stand talking about Falmer Blood Elixirs and didn't try to pursue me anymore. Even when I enter the Bee and Barb, he ignores me and so far I haven't gotten the forced journal entry. I'll have to see if he starts up his "stalking" behavior again later in the game or when the city resets.

I just run in the other direction if I see him approach. Almost 100 hours in, lvl 41 and still no "listen to Brynjolf's scheme" entry in my log. I've never interacted with the guy, ever.

It also helps to never enter the Bee and Barb after nightfall.

That doesn't mean I won't join the TG on this character. It only means I hate forced dialogue. I've never spoken to Maul, either.

Somehow I've still managed to get the Aventus Aretino entry, though. And I've never asked a single barkeep about rumors. I guess for that one, you just need to be within earshot of some conversation.

I tried that idea, but it pretty much keeps me from buying or selling anything to the market vendors, because even though I'm in buy/sell mode with a vendor, Brynjolf will talk at the same time anyway and when I exit the buy/sell mode, he says "I can take a hint lad (lass), meet me at my market stand if you want to make some coin", which adds the entry to listen to his scheme to my journal.

I think I read that sometimes a guard in Windhelm will make a comment about Aventus Arentino trying to summon the Dark Brotherhood using the Black Sacrament ritual. This apparently forces the misc quest into your journal.

What's even more dissapoiting is how there's no equal quest to destroy the thiefs guild wich is just as bad as the brotherhood since they basically ruin people's lives, or any way to kill or ruin Maven blackbriar herself...

Hmm. I've interacted with Grelka and Brand-shei at the very least, and still no Brynjolf nonsense.

Factions like the brotherhood weren't made to be destroyed. i thought that was obvious. i'm not surprised the quest was short and uninteresting.

This 100%! you could have discovered a plot to murder the emperor and try and stop the DB.

It definitely could be better, but what really bugged me was that you can't kill Cicero. I'd most gladly have gutted Cicero and have Penitus Oculatus throw Nigh Mother and her coffin far into the Sea of Ghosts.

The NPCs and missions in Skyrim Dark Brotherhood quest line are much less enjoyable than in Oblivion, so I actually welcomed the ability to wreak avok in their ranks. Too bad it's not possible to kill that annoying jester / Night Mother babysitter; you can do it only if you actually join the DB!!!

At least, I don't get anymore those random encounters with latex clad assassins (apparently the DB in the fourth era became a sado-maschism appreciation club)

Funny how people actually believe that Bethesda would allow you to permanently destroy one of their own factions.

Why not? This would open the door for a future quest line devoted to restore the faction to its former glory.

Yep! It would have been good to be sent to track down all the members not present when you first go into the Sanctuary. They could have mage a pretty decent go of it making you go from place to place chasing them down. Dragonborn Bounty Hunter!

Well, after I destroyed them and looted the sanctuary, I was able to keep going back and use the sanctuary for my home. the barrels and storage never lost anything and I was able to sleep in the bed. I don't know if this was a glitch or not, but I hope to do that again.

Personally for my character I didn't go to Aventus first, she went to go see about adoption and let her anger at Grelod get the best of her which ended in her death, after hearing the kids cheer about how "aventus did it!" she decided to check out what they were referring to, afterward that idiot Astrid kidnapped her (Who knew kidnapping a Pureblood Vampire and demanding that she kill to "make up for the kill she stole" would end up in her own death). As far as Rose is concerned the Dark Brotherhood is simply an offshoot of a bunch of Daedra Worshipers and being a Vigilant (long story) she has no qualms ridding skyrim of the lot of them.

Yeah the destory side just felt rushed to me & the Db story did to but not as much as this, the thing that sold it for me was, in Db, you get weapons, armor & a cool story but the destory side acts like destorying them was just another day at the office.

Better method: Beeline to the forge and activate it. Keep using it until Brynjolf has attempted to talk to you several times. From that point on, Brynjolf will no longer approach you, and you also avoid the journal entry.