Astrid is the leader of the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim, running the Sanctuary near Falkreath together with her husband, the werewolf Arnbjorn. With no Listener to hear the Night Mother, she has been running the Brotherhood her own way – and finding new recruits herself.
With Friends Like These…
Kill Grelod the Kind for the boy Aventus Aretino and you’ll soon wake up in an abandoned shack in Hjaalmarch, with Astrid waiting and three bound hostages in front of you. Kill one of them, and she gives you the password to the Sanctuary’s Black Door and welcomes you to the family. Kill her instead, and you start down the path of destroying the Brotherhood.
Leadership – and its price
Astrid prefers family-like loyalty over the Brotherhood’s ancient Five Tenets. When the Night Mother returns and it turns out you are the new Listener, her own authority is threatened – and the choices she makes from there have heavy consequences for the whole Sanctuary. We’ll leave the details for the questline itself.
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