Prerequisites: None

Intersecting Quests: Dark Brotherhood Quest: With Friends Like These...

Locations: Riften, Honorhall Orphanage, Windhelm, Aretino Residence

Characters: Aventus Aretino, Constance Michel, Francois Beaufort, Grimvar Cruel-Sea, Hroar, Idesa Sadri, Runa Fair-Shield, Samuel

Enemies: Grelod the Kind

Objectives: Talk to Aventus Aretino, Kill Grelod the Kind, Tell Aventus Aretino that Grelod is dead

The Black Sacrament Enacted

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Begin this quest in a number of different ways:

You can hear a rumor that mentions a boy named Aventus Aretino if you visit any of the inns or taverns across Skyrim. The nearest to your starting location in Helgen is the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood.

The one closest to this quest is Candlehearth Hall in Windhelm. Keep asking about rumors until Aventus’s name is mentioned; then follow up on this information.

Or, you can visit the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften. Enter the premises and watch as Grelod the Kind doesn’t live up to her name. Once the harridan has ordered her children to bed, speak with any of the “guttersnipes.”

Francois Beaufort, Samuel, Runa Fair-Shield, or Hroar all point you in the direction of the escaped orphan, Aventus Aretino, and his location in Windhelm.

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Or, if you’re already in Windhelm, the first city guard you speak to mentions something about the ritual going on in a building inside this settlement...