First when I was trying to fight a dragon and Krosis at the same time, these 3 hired thugs showed up to "teach me a lesson". A note on one of them came from a maid in the Blue Palace where I had to steal something during a quest for the gang in Riften (even though I believe I wasn't seen doing so). I read somewhere that this can happen. The second time I was just strolling through the woods when an assassin tried to take me on. I lifted a note from his cold dead hands that said a contract was taken out on me by the Dark Brotherhood. I haven't murdered anyone, according to my stats, so can I assume it's related to the same event? Come on, it was only a case of wine! Will it keep up? And it it will, is there anything I can do about it?

People who you've stolen stuff from can take up contracts against you.

Yeah, you can get that for pretty trivial stuff. Even stuff you have to do for quests. Let's hope there will be a mod soon that makes these things happen only when you steal something really valuable or kill some innocent person.

Edit this. I think they are seperate things.

No, I think that the thugs or assassin only show up once per 'infraction', and if they show up at all is a highly random, highly unlikely chance to begin with. It's kind of interesting, but poorly implemented I think.

I was smithing in Riverwood late one night, very early in the game and needed one steel ingot to finish what I was doing. Since Alvor was in bed I figured I wouldn't want to wake him so I just picked up one the ingots he had lying by the workbench and went on my way. Ten levels later I got jumped by thugs in Ivarstead with a note from Alvor telling them to 'teach him a lesson, or kill him if need be.' I was very sad because I thought of Alvor as my friend, but when I went to confront him, he just had the same dialogue as always, no mention of the fact he'd tried to have me killed or maimed. Little things like that kind of keep adding on to my disappointment with an otherwise great game, and chip away at my affection for Bethesda.

hired thugs are for stealing something, I think I accidentally stole a basket from a fisherman and immediately place it back, several days later im killing thugs over a basket...

Assassins seem to just be random, like an unseen force is trying to stop your progress in the world (maybe revealed in MQ?)

Steal a cabbage, get the Dark Brotherhood sent after you.

Seems legit.

Anyone ran into the "challenger" folks that just appear and want a ruckus? They're funny.


My warrior had three thugs meet him to 'teach him a lesson' as he left a cave with 2 witches heads in his hands... (probably should've been a clue in there boys).

The hired thugs only occur when you steal from certain NPCs, for example the inn keeper at Riverwood (Delphines husband)

The Darkbrotherhood Assassin has nothing to do with it and is a random event that happens to characters with good karma.

Never underestimate the value of the cabbage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlSpmREV2as

Yeah, I've had this happen too. I half expected to be able to talk to Astrid about it when I joined the Dark Brotherhood, but the conversation point never came up.

Dunno how the conversation would've gone, though.

Thanks folks. Glad to hear my heroic exploits are rubbing some people the wrong way. When the 3 hired thugs showed up, it resulted in a pretty epic battle. 3 thugs, Lydia, a Blood Dragon, Krosis (a real bad ass) and me. Keystone Kops come to mind (for some of us old farts).

I am basically the Charles Manson of Skyrim. I've left bodies stacked up where ever I've gone including women and unarmed men. If I've got good karma I wouldn't want to meet the guy who has bad karma.

It's an interesting system but badly implemented. I'm a stealthy character so having a random enforced battle with a band of thugs or super assassin is instant death for me

I don't see the problem with these Thugs... I find it funny when they try to kill me... Sadly i only got them twice under 105 hours of gameplay

Anyone else go out of their way to kill the NPC who put the hit out on them? Or is it just me?

Invisibility potion should restack the odds in your favour.

I've only had one hit on me from an NPC. Was a child whose parents I murdered. Damn those blasted invincible children! If I get a spare ten minutes around that way I'll go and kill their dog and put some arrows in their face just to make myself feel better

edit:

And then raise their dog from the dead and walk off with it... until it flops to the ground again and then I'll consider it job done

I have been attacked several times from the dark brotherhood, I believe it happens so that you go seek out the darkbrotherhood. For the thugs I got the same thing a few times when stealing from anyone even if they dont see you.

I think it is pretty cool. Yeah sometimes it makes the fights hard, but this radiant AI thing is kind of fun sometimes. There is a certain mage guild quest that I got to in my late 40's where you have to kill 10 magical thingys. Even after emptying a full mana bar I did less than 1/4 health to one of them, go go scaling. During the long fight a dragon showed up(woot another soul) and attacked the area I was in a freaking snow bear showed up(fought the things I was fighting) and some guy showed up and told me to hold this shield for him or he would kill me.(the forced conversation damn near got me killed i was lucky I had just healed myself) I was like Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, what else can go wrong.

I had thugs sent after my by a deceased orc... was hilarious

Did you expect him to say "damn, those thugs i sent didnt kill you, you must have killed them, but im not scared to admit that i want you killed"

The thugs are a mildly uncommon occurance for me. The assassin has happened on every character I've played. Once I was attacked by thugs and killed one, accidentally looted him during the fight and figured I may as well check the note. I was literally thirty feet from the person who hired them.

I killed and raised him to help me fight them.

I've only had a bounty hunter come after me after escaping prison.

I really want to get attacked by the dark brotherhood.

I know what you mean. It's painful when happens at a low level - my thief had to scurry around the whole town before she lost the thugs, and even then they wouldn't go away, so she sniped them from under the bridge. They were way over her level and it took forever to finish them off.
The worst thing is that the person who supposedly contracted them seemed to be entirely unaware of the whole plot. I know it's randomly generated, but there really should be a dialogue opttion regarding the attack, otherwise it's extremely unrealistic.

I was a sneaky character and couldnt beat them. They seemed to follow me everywhere. Finally beat them with an enchanted sword