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So I'm on the first part of the Dark Brotherhood questline, and I have to kill Beitild in Dawnstar. I've done it before on a previous character, but I can't for the life of me seem to get it to work here.

I'm entering her house, under stealth, no one sees me, and I use my bow to one-shot her in the back whilst she is sleeping.

It seems that for some reason, the mage who lives in the house NEXT DOOR is a witness to my crime, despite him being in, you know, another house, and he summons the guards and tries to kill me.

Any advice?

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    Mages always have their Ward of Extra Hearing on at night..
    – DrFish
    Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 17:18
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    @DrFish Nah, my guess is the mage is a little perv and likes to scry on Betild at night.
    – Iszi
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 15:10
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    Has anyone tried stealth-killing the mage first?
    – Iszi
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 15:10

11 Answers 11

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The easiest solution actually is just to tell her that you are there to slay her.

She will then scream something like "Come and get me!" and attack you.

After that you can slay her without getting bothered by the guards.

I do not know if this option appears all the time though or if it's connected to i.e. your Speechcraft skill or something else.

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13

My preferred method of dealing with the... stickier public assassination missions is a high level Frenzy poison and the Poisoner perk from the Pickpocket skill line.

Should get you off scot free every time.

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    frenzy poison is always a great way to get away nice and clean. Lingering poisons are fine as well, and it gives you time to walk far away from the target before they die.
    – l I
    Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 16:04
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I managed to kill her in an entirely conventional way and got away with it, but not in her house but outside at the smelter. I just waited until night, when most of the other citizens where away and whacked her while no guard was looking.

You might have to try that several times, there are guards making their rounds and you don't want to be seen by them.

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  • This is also what worked for me.
    – agf
    Commented Dec 7, 2011 at 3:06
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    You can always flash your Thane of Dawnstar badge to the guards to get away with it.
    – Jim
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 14:27
  • I've never done it any other way. Creep up on the nearby hill. Shoot her with an arrow while she's working at the smelter. I usually don't even wait for night.
    – DCShannon
    Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 23:55
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I've found that sniping tends to work for just about any assassination that can be done outdoors, and this is one of those.

Track the target for a bit, to find a place where they are commonly seen outdoors and preferably stationary for some time. Once you've chosen where they will die, find a vantage point that is away from anywhere commonly trafficked by possible witnesses while still being within range and clear line-of-sight to the target. You can easily get far enough away that the NPCs won't notice you while sneaking, and still be within arrow range.

After that, it's just a matter of lining up your target and letting the arrow fly.

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    When I arrived in Dawnstar she was feeding the smelter. Behind the nearby building that backs onto the mountains, there's a spot you can just see the smelter and no-one walks near you. It was an easy snipe!
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 4:06
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I have another way that worked for me: Cast a fire rune trap spell by the smelter where she works during the day when guards are around her. The effects are similar to casting a Frenzy spell.

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    How is the effect like Frenzy? Frenzy causes NPCs & creatures to attack each other. Certainly, it's not within the nature of the Fire Rune spell to do this. Is it a glitch, or something unique to that scenario?
    – Iszi
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 13:57
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    @Iszi I assume they mean that the consequences are similar to casting a frenzy spell, i.e. you don't get in trouble for it. From wiki: "Killing or harming an NPC with a rune spell is not considered a crime provided that you are hidden at the moment the rune is set off. Provided the NPC survives the blast, it will still become aggressive towards you."
    – DCShannon
    Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 23:57
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I waited til night and followed her to the smelter. I then hid behind the opening between the house and the side of the mountain, waited for the guard to leave, and shot her with an arrow.

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I found that you wait until night, make sure there are no guards around. Then hide between the House and mountain (the small crawl space), shoot her with your best bow and arrow, then shoot her one more time and fast travel out of there.

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I stole her key, and at night went into her house when no one was looking (you usually need to do a sneak attack for no guards to notice u) and she was getting up, so i just killed her from behind :-

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  • Follow her into an alley
  • Pull out your best bow and best arrow with good poison
  • Go to sneak
  • Make sure you and her are the only ones around
  • Headshot
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    Dawnstar doesn't really have alleys as such.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 4:20
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    There is no location damage (ie headshot) in Skyrim.
    – ChargingPun
    Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 13:34
  • +1 to both the above comments. Besides, if you're going to use bow & arrow, you may as well just snipe her as I've suggested. That option generally gives you so much more flexibility without as much risk of getting caught.
    – Iszi
    Commented Nov 12, 2012 at 22:21
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If you're a werewolf you just have to realize her location and then out of sight of any guards (outside Dawnstar) transform into a werewolf. Rush into the place where you see her --> power + standard attack and then rush out again before the surrounding civilians and guards (if any) can hit you. Once out of Dawnstar just wait somewhere out of sight to transform back into human form.

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  • This sounds like it's only a solution for a very small subset of situations, which may not pertain here.
    – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 13:34
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Steal her key to her house then at night kill in her room (I dual wield and crouch and get 6x damge witch is very useful)

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    Hello. Welcome to stack exchange. The original post already mentions a stealth kill didn't work, so stealth killing with a melee weapon isn't going to add much to the situation.
    – Nelson
    Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 3:14

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