Spoiler

I finished the dark brotherhood questline and i'm the listener now. when i was getting the kill quests for the black hand members i figured out they were the black hand(found the robe in the first one's house). can you contact lucien before you keep killing off black hand members? i never tried to go back to the keep he's in but was wondering if there was a way to finish the quest line and keep lucien alive.

I dont think so.

Too bad. I'm planning an assassin career for a future char and I have already met Lucien through my first char after she slayed poor Umbra. I liked the guy.

Btw.. does anyone know what old Rufio has done to deserve death. My char stumbled on him by accident at the Ill Omen Inn yesterday and when the dialogue came up I remembered that he was the ticket into the Dark Brotherhood. Obviously he has done something and I have heard that there's a prisoner in IC who holds a grudge against him for some reason. But grudges are not necessarily justified. Does anyone know the story behind it - if there is one.
My char quietly left the inn. She doesn't have the heart to off an old man just like that. The blood of Umbra is enough.

It's been a while since I finished the Dark Brotherhood questline but I don't believe you ever learn exactly why you had to kill Rufio. Just know he's your only ticket into the Dark Brotherhood. Also know he sleeps 20 hours a day so he's fairly useless otherwise. ;]

Oh, and should you kill him, you'll see him again, atleast in some form.

As for cheezit: I don't think there's anyway of preventing the assassinations. The storyline is pretty tightly woven around the idea of betrayal which makes it one of the better storylines in the game (atleast in my opinion). I never bothered looking around the rooms to learn about who I was killing so I didn't make that connection until much later in the questline.