I like some of the benefits from the Dark Brotherhood quest line so my villainous PCs tend to join their org. However, it just occurred to me that a betrayal would be an interesting twist. I've done the quest 'Destroy the Dark Brotherhood' before, but that was in a different play through in which my PC never joined. Currently, my PC is a member and just got Shadowmere. Cicero just fled to the Downstair sanctuary and a couple of the DBs are injured. Is it possible to wipe them all out or are some of them now 'essential' due to my progression through the quest line.

Bwa hah hah...

Thanks!

Hmm, I don't know if this is possible. I don't think I've done that quest before, in fact, I know I haven't done it.

This is about killing Astrid in the Abandoned shack.

Well, not necessarily - what about just killing her later in the quest line? Possibly killing her and a bunch of the other DB members in the Falkreath Sanctuary.

Maybe I'll just try it...

Save first, of course. I think she becomes essential? I'm guessing, though. I do appreciated the diabolical plot.

no you can't, however

Well, I wanted to foil their plot, funnybunny. I guess the only way to do that is an immersion-breaking stall on the quest line, just stop performing the next step...

Thanks! (Though I'm tempted to attack them and see if any of the are killable ... probably none are at this point)

I wanted to destroy them too, but I did't know how. So I did what Astrid asked me in abandoned shack and I wanted to kill them in their sanctuary - WRONG! Jabberdave was totaly right. If you don't kill him in shack, you will be unable to kill him at all - because you became part of dark brotherhood... BUT, there is way how to kill them all, even if you are "in" - you'll need to activate quest "Destroy Dark Brotherhood!" in console. The quest will kill Astrid and you will do the rest.

Try, but you can't do it. Just as you can't klll Serena (who'd want to?) in the middle of DG.

I think a more interesting experiment would be to see if you could croak Ulfric during the course of the civil war quest.

I thought you can still destroy them even after you join but before you accept your first contract?

This is the same what I thought but I was wrong. I killed that woman in orphanage, then Astrid kidnapped me and I killed on of that three guys with sack on their heads. Came to the sanctuary but Astrid was already unkillable. She hasn't even acted hostile, during my attack.

Oh wow, so you actually did it and it was pretty pointless.

Ok, I'll probably just abandon the quest line and let it go stale. Too bad, it seems like betraying the DB would be really cool twist. Gotta get that PC and open things up!

Wow, I could of sworn I read that on the UESP a while back when I first started the DB questline. It must of been a glitch then and some people thought it was just another mechanic that got patched up later on.