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[AndalayBay]

Dark Brotherhood Chronicles: Awakening

Version 1.2.5

Download links:
Dark Creations
TES Nexus

Introduction

Once upon a time, our name was whispered in the dark corners of the deepest caves and feared in the highest towers. Once upon a time, we bore the blood of emperors on our hands. Once upon a time, we were mystery, and secret, and the greatest in the Empire would gather our rituals to be allowed to grovel at our feet. Once upon a time, we scorned Mephala Herself, stole Her treasures, and found a master far beyond what She ever was.

But now...

Now, we are scattered, the Sanctuaries sealed. Now, the blood you have on your hands is that of your own family. Now, our secrets are broken, for we never saw the traitor in our midst. Now, the body of your master and mentor hangs in Applewatch, and the Night Mother herself scorns us for our failure.

Where is the power of Sithis now?


In the aftermath of the traitor's destruction, the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood now faces new challenges. Shadowy threats from without and little trust from within. The Sanctuaries have been locked, the Dark Family hidden. But still, someone has found them. Someone seeks to wipe the weakened assassins from the face of Tamriel. The greatest secrets of the Black Hand must be unearthed if the Listener is to save the Dark Brotherhood from extinction.  Or perhaps he will aid the Brotherhood's greatest enemy.

The Dark Brotherhood Chronicles is a large-scale quest mod. It boasts many new NPCs, locations, and both a large main questline and sidequests, delving deep into the shadowed history of the Dark Brotherhood.

Features:

• Choice. You have the power to decide not only how to perform within quests, but whether or not to accept them in the first place. If you turn down some quests, they are no longer available. Save your game before talking to an NPC.
• Interaction. In some quests, the clothes you wear can affect an NPC's reaction. You can also taunt your target before the kill...
• Decision. Some of our quests are disturbing. These aren't your morally ambiguous, or even justified, assassination missions. In tDBC, you are a heartless assassin, and will be called upon to perform reprehensible and grotesque acts. However, there are alternatives to these reprehensible acts: you can choose the path your character takes rather than being shoehorned into a purely villainous role.
• Several new exterior locations and dungeons, including several new sanctuaries.
• A wide variety of NPCs, with their own distinct character traits.
• Custom rumours and greetings.
• Lots of books and notes that enhance the lore and expand on the recent events in the Brotherhood.

Quest Notes:
The quests that comprise the main quest are neutral until the end. Then you will be forced to make a choice that will earn you fame or infamy. Some of the side quests will earn infamy points. However, they are optional, so you can turn them down if you don't wish to do them.

If you wish to complete all the side quests, do so before starting the final quest. You will be asked to retrieve a dagger.  Finish all the side quests before handing the dagger over.  Awakening will end once the final quest is finished and the side quests will no longer be available.

tDBC is aimed at characters level 15 and over. Companions and enemies are scaled, but quests are meant to be hard so higher level characters are recommended.

Requirements
OBSE version 20 or newer
MenuQue version 9a or newer

Patches
Open Cities Patch
Better Cities
Unique Landscapes
Roads of Cyrodiil Patch
ImpeREAL City Unique Districts

If you are using the Skingrad Outskirts module for Unique Landscapes, grab the 1.02 or newer update as that resolves some conflicts with the area outside Skingrad.

Compatibility
Awakening is incompatible with:

• Anvil Bay Expansion (unconfirmed - assumed due to pre-patch conflicts with BC)
• Duke Patricks - Fresh Kills Now Alert The NPCs (this one breaks the final quest in Awakening)
• A Brotherhood Renewed (AI package conflicts - both mods are too similar to be run at the same time)

Minor cosmetic issues with:

• Reclaiming Sancre Tor (road passes under one of our locations - can go around)

Project Site
The Dark Brotherhood Chronicles is being hosted at Dark Creations.

Gallery
Screenshots and concept drawings for the project: Dark Creations tDBC Gallery

Special thanks to:
Arthmoor for being at our beck and call to answer at least 10,000 questions for the last year and for stepping up and giving us a new home when we needed it most.

Our beta testers for playing through the entire mod at least 47 times. They are never going to want to see Awakening ever again. And a special call-out to omeletted for her thoroughness, being a royal nitpicker, breaking it in ways we never thought it could be broken, and methodically killing every single one of our NPCs at least twice.

Team Members
Amadaun - Team Lead, Modelling, Texturing, Level Design, Site Administration
AndalayBay - Team Lead, Scripting, Quest Building, Level Design, Site Administration
Xae (Xaeaix) - Sound Engineering, Soundtrack, Site Administration and Design
'Drea - Writing, Beta Testing, Voice Acting
Elec0 - Modelling, Beta Testing
Koniption - Modelling, Texturing
Lareneg - Writing, Beta Testing
Morrigain - Writing
omeletted - Texturing, Beta Testing
PrettyMurky - XML, Scripting
Rahvin - Writing
Silencer (Cotillion) - Site Administration
Silver - Modelling
Siulil - Beta Testing
theinfamouskat (thechickwhopwn3dyou) - Writing
Thomas Kaira - Interiors

Arthmoor - Technical Consultant
Vorians - Landscape editing and patches

Also a big thank you to the two previous teams who paved the way for us.

Voice Acting
Ibsen's Ghost - The Hermit
Mick Mize - The Scholar (Antony Percival), Male necromancer chant
'Drea - Female necromancer chant
Remaining roles still in progress.

Credits

• Bethesda for creating Oblivion
• shadeMe for the CSE and Conscribe
• scruggsywuggsy the ferret for OBSE
• mr_siika for the Sanctum meshes
• Helborne for the Chitin armour and weapons
• Xiamara for the chair and sofa meshes
• Gildur and Demonmaster for the Anima Cyrodiili tileset
• Meo for the ceremonial dagger mesh
• Ren for the blindfold mesh
• Phoenix Amon for some of the book covers
• Emillia for various meshes and textures
• InsanitySorrow for various meshes and textures
• Qarl for his spider web meshes and textures
• TheTalkieToaster for the Spider Draedra NPC
• elveon, Malo, mikal33 and AlienSlof for the spider resources
• LHammonds, Sita and Jerros for the Paladin armour
• Klaus for his UI topic fixes
• fg109 (RandomNoob) for his help with scripting and quest building
• Unofficial TESA Clutterer's Guild for various meshes

Edited by AndalayBay, 01 May 2013 - 03:10 AM.

[Cydonian_Knight]

Congrats on the release! It's great to see you guys complete this one, it's had such a long and rough history. Looking forward to playing it at some point.

[AndalayBay]

The new version of Better Cities has been released, which includes a patch for DBC.

Thanks Vorians!

[AndalayBay]

Updated OP with new links after server move. Also updated compatibility list. We're currently working on getting the voice acting done and the rest of the side quests done.

[faithflower]

hey great mod. do you have a walk thought I am bit stuck and don't want to give any spoilers

[AndalayBay]

We are preparing a hint file. Where are you stuck? You can use spoiler tags.

I was going to post an update because we have a new version that's in testing right now. Vorians has completed the patches for Unique Landscapes and is waiting for us to release the new version before he can release the patches, so there will be a new version released in a few days.

[faithflower]

Spoiler

hey thanx in the counsellors room I know it sound silly there's 6 seats,

Spoiler

the silencers and the watcher then what? I took one of the seats and

nothing happens or is there something requerd to start?

Edited by faithflower, 30 December 2011 - 10:48 AM.

[AndalayBay]

It sounds like somebody is missing. There have been players who have had that problem and it's usually a mod conflict. The first step is to sort your load order with BOSS. If that doesn't work, then you'll need to create a bash patch, which requires Wrye Bash. You have another mod in your load order that is interfering with Arquen's AI packages.

And if you want to post spoilers, please use spoiler tags. Highlight the text that should be in spoiler tags and pick Spoiler from the Other Styles drop-down list box.

[faithflower]

o ok sorry about the still learning how every thing works on the forum. i have never used the wrye bash.

[faithflower]

looking at the boss now looks easy

[faithflower]

o and thanx, great mod even if i can't work it

[faithflower]

took most mods off, even offer black hand add once extended whispers and so on, though it would be one of those, used the boss thing, I will wait for the new version,

[Ysne58]

Looks like this mod is getting File of the month over at Nexus. Congratulations.

[AndalayBay]

Thanks Ysne - we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Version 1.1 Released

The main changes in this version are the release of the Unique Landscapes patches which Vorians was so kind to do for us and the addition of another side quest. He also edited the DBC plugin itself to reduce the number of patches needed - yes I had to relinquish control for an evening - it was very traumatic!

File has been uploaded to Nexus already and I'm currently uploading it here. Could some kind admin please import it into Downloads once it's finished?**

Changes:

• several landscape edits to reduce number of patches needed for Unique Landscapes - thanks Vorians
• generated silent voice files so Elys Universal Silent Voice no longer needed
• fixed minor dialogue issues
• pulled in voice acting (not complete)
• various fixes to SQ01 - Infiltrate/Assassinate
• moved Skingrad keys quest marker inside house
• give player lighthouse key if they don't have it
• fixed Hermit's disposition calculation
• fixed conditions on some of the generic dialogue so Watcher and/or Arquen didn't say lines
• altered landscape around Zannadil Manor to fix conflict with the Ayleid Steps
• added path grids to Stronghold rooms
• adjusted landscaping around Joanna's cabin. Fixed path grids
• minor fixes for SQ04 - Cold Blood and Steel, including resetting the global subtitles
• added another side quest: SQ03 - Blood and Gold

So that brings the number of side quests up to 4 in addition to the main quest. We will be adding 4 more side quests and that will complete Awakening.

**Edit: It's done now.

Edited by AndalayBay, 30 December 2011 - 10:23 PM.

[faithflower]

coool its working

Spoiler

love the voice of the watcher

thanx for all the hard work in making the mod

[AndalayBay]

Excellent. I was just going to suggest a few more things we might try - glad to see they aren't needed. Have fun

[AndalayBay]

Vorians has just released an update to Skingrad Outskirts to resolve a conflict with DBC. If you're using that module of Unique Landscapes, please grab the update.

[AndalayBay]

New version is now available here at TES Alliance. Thanks DarkRider

[AndalayBay]

We've just discovered that there is NO CONFLICT with Shezrie's Woodland village. I've updated the OP with the new conflict list.

[Amadaun]

We've started brainstorming for the sequels. If anyone wants to chime in with stuff they'd like to see, we've got a thread on our forums - let us know if you've got ideas.