Give Feedback
0 of 0
About this mod
Heartwood Tower is a medium-sized, lore-friendly and highly detailed player home located in the Rift. The keep comes with space for your followers, spouse and children (fully navmeshed), as well as several NPCs, crafting facilities, planters, loads of named and unnamed storage and a short quest to gain access.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
-
Translations
-DESCRIPTION -
Located in the heart of the Rift and a short ride from Riften, Heartwood Tower is a reasonably large fortified player home encompassing a single interior cell, a bailey and a plantable rooftop garden. Dominating the area around Heartwood Mill, this player home enjoys a position on the banks of Lake Honrich chosen to be scenic, strategic and convenient.
Heartwood Tower has all of the facilities you could need: as well as a forge, enchanting station, alchemy table, kitchens, planters, a huge amount of named and unnamed storage, stabling, farm animals, and several NPCs, the home is also completely compatible with mods such as Hearthfire multiple adoptions and My Home Is Your Home, allowing players who favour a bit more immersion to ask their followers/ spouse/ children to live in the castle and sandbox around the interior and exterior (see the respective mod pages for more details).
The areas break down as follows (all interior storage is safe, while some exterior storage will respawn and some will not):
Bailey: A modest area encompassing the stables (the barrel respawns – not safe storage), a cow, two goats and several chickens, a wood chopping block, a non-respawning (safe) materials chest, two training dummies, all surrounded by a palisade wall. Door to...
Interior cell – ground floor: Kitchens with an oven, roasting spit/cooking pot and named and unnamed storage, the main dining table, a well, a library wing with a number of bookcases, and a fortified treasure chamber (when you first enter, the key will be on the player bed upstairs). Stairs to...
Interior cell – first basement level: Varied weapon, armour and miscellaneous storage, four mannequins, a number of weapon/shield racks and a training dummy. Stairs to...
Interior cell – second basement level: The forge, with all of the usual crafting equipment and another selection of named and unnamed storage locations, as well as another mannequin. A small cell is located in the far corner.
Interior cell – first floor, right-hand gallery: Three beds for adopted children, double bed for the player and their spouse, alchemy and enchanting tables, range of named and unnamed storage and several weapon racks.
Interior cell – first floor, left-hand gallery: Four beds for followers, five beds owned by the NPCs that come with the mod. Trapdoor to...
Battlements: A peaceful terraced garden (assuming there aren't any dragons about) with a fountain in the centre, 32 planters for flora of your choice (the barrel respawns – not safe storage), water butts, and lookout points surmounting the crenellations.
Heartwood Tower has been fully navmeshed, play-tested with several characters and cleaned with TES5Edit. It is not necessary to start a new game before using the mod.
- GETTING IN -
There is a simple fetch quest to find the keys to the keep (unscripted): simply check the backpack by the front door of Heartwood Mill for a letter that will point you in the right direction (the rowing boat in the screenshot of the fishing pier shows where you're heading).
There are no requirements for getting the keys, but I would recommend being at least level 20 before entering the cave on the island (you will find the keys on the body in the cell).
* * * * * *
-REQUIREMENTS -
All official DLC (Dawnguard, Dragonborn and Hearthfires).
* * * * * *
-INSTALLATION -
Either:
Use the main download button to let NMM/ Mod Organizer etc. take care of it.
or:
Manually copy all of the files from the .zip folder into your Skyrim/data directory. This should include an .esp file as well as a collection of meshes and textures in the appropriate folders. You will probably be merging the meshes and textures folders with existing ones, depending on the other mods and resources you use; do give permission for folders to merge, but if you already have the necessary meshes and textures from other mods then you don't need to overwrite any individual files.
* * * * * *
-COMPATIBILITY -
Being a simple player home mod, Heartwood Tower should only conflict with other mods that affect the immediate area of the castle or the Grosta NPC (Grosta is made a "protected" character as otherwise any mod that implements dragon assaults or similar would kill her off with indecent enthusiasm, as I discovered while testing, leaving you unable to complete her fetch quest/ buy lumber). Unless you are running another mod that changes the two cells around Heartwood Mill or Grosta, you should be fine. Please let me know if you encounter any mods that modify the same cells; some that the community have pointed out are below (thanks to jknjb):
Hroldan Nightgate and Sawmill Villages
Heartwood
As I've mentioned above, Heartwood Tower was designed to work with Hearthfire multiple adoptions and My Home Is Your Home, and I've tested it with several characters without problems. Let me know if you're having trouble with any aspect and I'll try to help.
As a general rule, it's best to keep backups of saves and the like, just in case you do encounter any issues (by all means get in touch if you do have an issue and I'll try to help out, within reason). I also recommend Mod Organizer, available here, as it allows you to install and uninstall mods without touching your root game files.
The mod has been cleaned using TESEdit.
* * * * * *
- CREDITS-
Many thanks to the following for their excellent resources:
Artisanix
Blary
Insanity Sorrow
Lilith
Oaristys
Stroti
Tamira
Yuril
Please let me know if I've used any of your work but you can't see your name on the list. DarkFox127 also deserves special mention for his exceptionally instructive tutorials.
* * * * * *
-PERMISSIONS -
Please send me a message if you wish to upload this mod elsewhere, create a translation, include any of the content in a different mod, or anything else along those lines.
* * * * * *
- OTHER -
All feedback is welcome, particularly relating to any bugs or faults you might encounter.
* * * * * *
- UPDATE HISTORY -
1.0: The current version.
