The Abandoned Shack is a lonely, blood-stained cabin out in the icy marshland along the northern coast, roughly between Solitude and Morthal. You cannot simply wander in: the door is locked and the key is not lying around anywhere. Instead, you usually arrive the hard way – waking up inside after a mysterious visitor decides you have earned a job interview with the Dark Brotherhood.
What you’ll find
- A cramped single room with a fire burning in the grate, a table and chairs, and fresh blood on the walls and floor – whoever lived here clearly did not move out voluntarily.
- Astrid, leader of the Dark Brotherhood, waiting for you to wake up.
- Three bound and hooded captives: Fultheim the Fearless, Alea Quintus and Vasha.
- A chest and some drawers – but anything you leave in them will vanish when the containers respawn a few days later.
Quests
After you finish Innocence Lost and a courier hands you a Mysterious Note, Astrid abducts you and brings you here. In With Friends Like These… she asks you to prove yourself by killing one of the three prisoners. If you turn your blade on Astrid instead, you start Destroy the Dark Brotherhood! Either way, you get the key you need to leave.
Notable items
- Execution Hood
- A full set of Shrouded Armor
- Blade of Woe
Tips
If you have no intention of joining the assassins, killing Astrid here is the way to walk out with both the Blade of Woe and a complete Shrouded Armor set – the Brotherhood’s own gear, earned by refusing their offer. Not a bad severance package.
Do not use the shack as a storage locker. The chest and drawers reset, and your hard-earned loot goes with them.
Good to know
Whichever captives you spare stay in the shack. Come back later and they will still be sitting there, presumably rethinking their life choices.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Windstad Manor, Ustengrav, Folgunthur, Movarth’s Lair, High Gate Ruins.
Location data (hold, map position, editor ID) read from the Skyrim game files; details checked against community wiki articles and summarised in our own words.