Summary
Oblivion’s Dark Brotherhood quest line is regarded by many to be the game’s best. There are certainly players who enjoy the Shivering Isles more, but there’s something special about the Dark Brotherhood; the terrifying first approach to the Black Door, the legendary Whodunit quest, and the heartbreaking twist near the end of the quest line. These moments contribute to creating a compelling story from start to finish.
Many of the people you murder during the quest line probably didn’t deserve it — while some of them are of questionable moral character, others like Baenlin and the Draconis family are clearly innocent, but they must be slain anyway, in the name of Sithis.
Poor Rufio
However, the very first target given to you by Lucien Lachance is far from being an innocent man. Many players will remember the clandestine conversation with Lachance after your first murder, where he asks you to travel to the aptly-named Inn of Ill Omen south of the Imperial City to slay an old man named Rufio.
If one didn’t look any deeper, one might think Rufio is as he appears: an old man minding his own business. This isn’t the case; Rufio is actually on the run. Rufio knows he’s being hunted because he caught wind of Claudius Arcadius performing the Black Sacrament. He reported this to the guards, which is why Arcadius can be found in the Imperial City’s prisons.
What has Rufio done to deserve such a fate? It seems, based on what appears in Arcadius' journal and comments from Rufio if he’s confronted, that the condemned man sexually assaulted a woman known to Arcadius.
If you confront Rufio directly and accuse him of having done something that deserves death, he will protest, saying, “No! Please! I didn’t mean to do it, you understand me? She struggled, I…I told her to just stay still, but she wouldn’t listen! I had no choice!”
Arcadius' journal contains a confession that he performed the Black Sacrament, as he needed someone to “do what I can’t.”
So, even if you don’t progress any further in the quest line because of moral quandaries, you can still kill Rufio guilt-free. The old man’s ghost can be summoned via a scroll given to you by Lucian Lachance later in the quest line, if you feel like vanquishing his spirit, too.
