
Anise’s Cabin is located across the river and a little northwest from Riverwood. Anise, the harmless old woman living in the woods.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before. Earlier as I was playing a new game as Sapsorrow, my Dunmer mage, I was returning from Bleakfalls Barrow on foot to Riverwood. I had passed up Anise’s Cabin and saw two dots appear on my compass guide at the top of my screen. Uh-oh, bad guys. I go into a crouch and sneak around, but they don’t see me. They do see Anise, however. Anise always used to say to me that she’s just an old woman, and I always noticed that she’s a bit of a strange old hermit, living alone in a small cabin in the woods. Well, to my surprise, she gets up off her chair, conjures a familiar that dies almost right away as the bandits attack her. Shocked, I turn back and help defend her. Then once both bandits are dead, she attacks me!
I’m thinking to myself, WHAT THE HELL!?
Then I did some research of my own. It turns out that Anise was really a witch. Shouldn’t surprise me since her sister is a Hagraven. Wait, let me back up. It all started when I participated in a drinking contest with a man named Sam… After having one too many drinks, I wake up in the temple of Dibella in Markarth. After cleaning up and apologizing, the priestess tells me that while most of what I said when I arrived was slurred, she was able to understand something that sounded like Rorikstead, so I go check there. Turns out I stole a farmer’s goat and sold it to a giant. I threaten the farmer, telling him to tell me what I said or he would end up like his goat. He then tells me that I left a note, most of which was smeared, the only legible parts being “After repaying Ysolda in Whiterun.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. Finally I get to talk to someone reasonable. After all I gave her a mammoth tusk once, and I occasionally sell her sleeping tree sap when I find any. So you can imagine my surprise when she greets me rather angrily, demanding her ring back if the wedding wasn’t going to happen. I tell her I don’t care about the ring, just tell me where Sam is! She points the way to Morvunskar and that’s when I discover the whole thing was a sort of prank played on me by Sanguine, the deadric prince of debauchery. He does give me a nice weapon, one that looks great on the wall in Breezehome, and then he teleports me back to the very inn we had our drinking contest in the first place.
As for the ring, I never went after it. Turns out the ring was given to a hagraven named Moira in Witchmist Grove. Moira, I always knew from my research on the Skyrim Wiki, is actually Anise’s sister, the Anise who lives just outside of Riverwood in a shack. I always thought it was interesting, but never paid it much more mind than that.

Normally I’ve just stolen her book and left. It might explain why I’ve always overlooked this trap door in the floor, which is located near the dresser and bed in one corner of the cabin.
Turns out there was more than meets the eye here. When I was travelling past the cabin, a pair of bandits ran past and attacked Anise. She retaliated, then turned on me. Once she was dead, I decided that there would be no harm in my examining her home and taking things. That was how I found out about the trap door.
Almost 1500 hours played in Skyrim and it took me this long to find a trap door? Then again I wasn’t looking for this one! I pick the lock and head inside, and my jaw drops! An alchemy lab and an enchanting table? A satchel for storing alchemy ingredients? And whats this letter? Oh wow. Apparently Moira was supposed to come over along with someone named Helgi. Hmmm!
“Helgi, dear, why do you hesitate? You can feel the power coursing through your blood! You have only to reach out and grasp it! Renounce that boy of yours and come, come live with me in the forest. My sister will be here soon. Together, we can form a proper coven, and your training will truly begin.”
Hall-ooooo… Well, looks like their coven won’t ever be formed. Thank goodness! I mean hagravens and a witch coven right outside of Riverwood, the first real nice town I encounter when I first entered Skyrim? No thank you! And Helgi… Helgi was the name of a little girl that died in a house fire in Morthal. No others with the name Helgi that I know of!
I exit the cellar and go outside, and Anise puts a shield up around herself and says that no one can know about her secret, the fact that she’s a witch. Well, too bad, I’m gonna blog it, wretch! And whoa, she’s attacking me with her flames spell. At the moment I’m playing on Amaki’dar, my level 78 khajiit in dragonscale armor. “Hey, that tickles. Cut it out Anise!” I shoot her in the face with one dragonbone arrow from my dragonbone bow. Maybe I should have just scratched her with my claws… oh well. Too late.
Well, now that I’ve killed her I can expect to encounter hired thugs, maybe. We shall see!