Hi there!

Alright, I'm reeeeeeeeeeeally sorry if this same issue has been posted before on here, please don't kill me, but I searched pages of google results for a bunch of different ways to say what's happening, so here goes:

I started a new character on Skyrim (asking now for no "oh wow people still start new games on Skyrim?"), played through the Thieves Guild questline, and it was 99.9% glitch-free. I don't say 100% because there were a few minor quest arrow issues where on my compass up top, it was saying different things than where the world map said I needed to go, but I got through fine.

So I started the Dark Brotherhood. First, the DB courier didn't show up. I had finished Innocence Lost BEFORE I even started the Thieves Guild, and even when I had finished the courier still hadn't shown up. I looked up fixes for it, tried them all, nothing worked. So I located the Abandoned Shack, consoled to get to the stage where I kill the three captives, and added the shack key to my inventory. No problem. I finished the shack business and went to the Sanctuary. Talked to Astrid. Talked to Nazir. Then it was off to kill a beggar.

The same quest arrow glitch that was happening in the Thieves Guild quests happened with this. There was the new area arrow in the OPPOSITE direction of Ivarstead, where I went to kill the beggar. No problem, I just went in the direction I was supposed to go based on the world map. Finished the three first contracts. Talked to Nazir. Got paid. And then...

Nothing. No new quest. No arrows. Nada. I talked to Astrid, and she said she didn't have a primary contract for me. Tried reloading the area. Didn't work. So I consoled to the start of Mourning Never Comes, where I have to talk to Astrid. Except that when I talked to her, there was no dialogue function to start the quest. Weird, okay, I'll console to the next stage. So I went to talk to Muiri, killed her two people, got paid, went back to Astrid. And again, no dialogue functions to continue on with it. I'd really rather not have to console my way through the Dark Brotherhood, so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Since I really have no clue what the issue could be, I'll provide my system specs and the list of mods I have installed:

Specs:
CyberpowerPC running Windows 7 Home Premium (Service Pack 1)
Processor: AMD FX-4100 Quad Core, 3.6 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
64-bit

Mods:
The Asteria
EzE's Artifact Disenchanting - Dragonborn
EzE's Artifact Disenchanting - Dawnguard
EzE's Artifact Disenchanting
Lanterns of Skyrim - All In One
Wear Robes Over Armor
Enchant Freedom LITE
HQ Workbench and Grindstone
Real Rain CoT
Improved Interior Lighting (For Realistic Lighting Mods)
Better Embers
Project Reality: Climates of Tamriel Lite Version
Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux
Lush Trees
Stronger Daedric Artifacts
Shadow Striping Fix
Towns and Villages Enhanced: Whiterun Exterior
Amazing Follower Tweaks
Horse Armors
Treebalance: Smithing Tree
Invested Magic: A Better Spell System
More Dragon Loot
Bandolier: Bags and Pouches
Black Mage Armor
EDWS: Enhanced Dynamic Weather System
Better Dynamic Snow
Dynamic Merchants
Reduced Dual Casting Spell Cost
Complete Skyforge
Chopping Block/Wood Fires fix
Sounds of Skyrim: Wilds and Sounds of Skyrim: Dungeons
Quest: The Bigger They Are
Quest: And the Realms of Daedra
Werewolves of Skyrim
Matso Immersive Sun
Great Wyrms
Fixed Followers Lite
NPCs Use Ammo
RCRN 3.6: Realistic Colors and Real Nights
Faster Vanilla Horses
Magic Scaling
Reduced Distance NPC Greetings
Skein of Magnus by Disenchanting Archmage's Robes
Silver Dragon Armor
Ritual Armor of Boethiah
Lost Longswords

(Didn't know I couldn't post links, so I don't know how much help that list will be... Also I'm really sorry for the long post too)

Anyway, thank you for any time and energy you've spent on this topic!
psufanksg