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Repurposes and remodels Hearthfire DLC Windstad Manor as a player-owned inn and Windstad Cellar as a player home fit for a vampire/necromancer/evil oriented character.

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Repurposes and remodels Windstad Manor as a player-owned inn and Windstad Cellar as a player home fit for a vampire/necromancer/evil oriented character. Two independent plugins : the first remodels the manor interior and exterior, the second changes the basement.


Why an inn, you’ll ask. And who will visit it in the snowy middle of nowhere?

Firstly, because I needed a place close to home in which to buy/sell stuff, provide a steady income and “food” for my vampire character. As for the guests, they’ll come… for the exquisite fish cuisine, for the unconventional bard or because the close by Solitude accommodations let much to be desired. And once they come, they won’t leave unless you throw them out in the snow. Secondly, because I felt that HF homes are showed too little love, by Bethesda, who made them so dull, unpractical and faulty, by modders, who avoid them like the plague, by players, for all of the above.



WINDSTAD INN

features:

Interior
  • Cake-Shop/Breakfast Room, Dining Hall, Kitchen, 7 bedrooms (13 beds)
  • Lively atmosphere: 30+ new conversation scenes (put together from vanilla dialogues), tavern music and sounds, idle markers and custom furniture
  • Inn specific décor
  • 9 new NPCs with complex behavior, 5 of which are merchants (all together 15000+ septims with master trader perk). They're all essential, no need to worry about them dying:

        Kari - tavern wench, sells sweets and beverages (some of which are unique/quest items),
        Sonje - cook, Kari’s mother, buys firewood,
        Teafortwo - barkeeper, Sonir’s lover, sells a large assortment of cooked food and drinks (some of which are unique/quest items),
        Seras Hledri – book merchant. Besides regular books, randomly sells all spell tomes not available for purchase in vanilla,
        Qa'Dar - Khajiit caravan guard, fence (once the quest “Deliver Moon Sugar to Ri'saad” is completed), lockpicking expert trainer,
        Shaba - caravan merchant, Qa’Dar’s wife,
        Annabelle Previa – Breton noblewoman,
        Velus Previa - drunken Imperial nobleman, Annabelle’s husband,
        Cassius Valerius - Imperial soldier, Previas bodyguard.
  • Bard changes: facelift, new outfit, new AI packages (she’ll sleep in first floor eastern wing)
  • Housecarl minor changes (will share first floor western bedroom with the steward)
  • Inn specific functions: income chest, inn management ledger, dynamic food on tables

      - The ledger is located in the Main Hall, under the bar (see image). By activating it, the following inn management options are available:
          1. Hire Staff: cook, tavern wench and barkeeper for 3500 gold. They will appear next time you visit the inn, and will sleep in the first floor north and east wings rooms.
          2. Open Inn: the first three guests will come: the book merchant and the Khajiit couple. They’ll live in the second floor west and east wings.
          3. Extend number of guests: the next three NPCs will appear: the noble couple and their guard. They’ll sleep in the second floor main hall bedrooms.
          4. Reduce number of guests: the last three guests will leave.
          5. Close Inn: the book merchant and the Khajiit couple will leave.
          6. Fire Staff: the cook, tavern wench and barkeeper will leave your service.

      The inn can be used as designed, namely with all new NPCs present, with one third or two thirds of them or none at all (if you prefer it to be a base for your followers). Although I can see no good reason for children to live in an inn, the option to move your family in remains the same as in vanilla – they will take the second floor Main Hall rooms, so you’ll have to first evacuate the guests staying there (*also see instructions).

      - The income chest is situated next to the ledger. The income will be calculated daily, depending of the number of guests present (75-90 gold/day/guest) and will be added automatically to the chest.


  • Dynamic lighting - candles switching off, windows lights switching on during daytime.
  • A small display system for unique kitchenware (entry room, display case).

    Exterior
  • Snow covered surfaces (Have you ever wondered why, although situated in a snowy region, Windstad Manor and its annexes are magically snow proof? Well, no more!)
  • Perimeter wall and pavilion (appear only after the house is built, next time when visiting Windstad location)
  • New garden with 40+ planting spots
  • New animal pen (goats too)
  • Grain Mill
  • Extended Stables
  • Fishing decorations and a path leading to fish hatchery
  • Beautiful piers, ropes and lanterns from SMIM
  • Dynamic lighting
  • Landscape and navmesh adjustments


    WINDSTAD DARK LAIR


    Highly detailed player home for vampires and/or necromancers with artistic hobbies. It consist of:

      1. Entry room functions as a cellar for the inn upstairs and as decoy for any unwanted visitors
      2. Main Hall
      3. Buildable - Bedroom with sleeping space for two characters
      4. Buildable - Alchemy Laboratory
      5. Buildable - Armory with regular and custom displays
      6. Buildable - Smithy contains everything a smith can wish for, except a wood chopping block
      7. Buildable - Library with space for ~ 500 books and staff crafting station
      8. Buildable - Ritual Room (Dishonored and Soul Cairn inspired) contains the arcane enchanter


    Features:
    • A red book named “On Windstad Basement” which contains detailed description, building instructions and other important info. Find it and read it. One copy is conveniently located near the crafting table (see image) and one in the main hall desk safe, you can’t miss it.
    • Displays for unique items (listed in the book, I won’t repeat them here).
    • Appearance change mirror.
    • A large bathtub with two functions: a) normal bath and b) Bathory-style** bath (which temporary increase Stamina, Health and Speechcraft). Auto-undress for both player and followers, auto-dress only for followers.
    • Plenty of storage space.
    • Thematic décor change option.
    • Trapdoor to exterior and custom carriage for Volkihar Castle.
    • 17 Planters.
    • Your own personal bat/flying skull (no, not a follower).
    • Magicka and Blood fountains.
    • Various activators and static décor items conditioned by completion of some Dawnguard DLC quests.
    • One thrall and two captive maidens.
    • Divines Shrines (Auriel too).
    **Never heard of Elisabeth Bathory? She was a Hungarian countess and serial killer, rumored to have been using the blood of her victims for rejuvenating baths. More about her here.


    REQUIREMENTS


    Skyrim and all its DLCs
    SKSE


    INSTRUCTIONS


    Can be installed midgame, BUT before Windstad Manor has been built. HF homes are heavily scripted locations, so no, there’s no way around it.

      1. Save your game and keep a backup of that save.
      2. Download and install using your favorite mod manager (if installing manually, unzip and copy .esp and .bsa files in Skyrim\Data folder). Run the fomod installer and choose one or both files. There are no dependencies between them.
      3. Buy the land from Highmoon Hall’s steward after completing “Laid to Rest” quest.
      4. Travel to Windstad.
      5. For Windstad Inn: Activate Drafting Table and build Small House Layout, then go to Carpenter's Workbench and build all its components. Repeat the process for Main Hall, East Wing – Library, West Wing – Enchanter’s Tower and North Wing – Alchemy Laboratory. Go back to the Drafting Table, remodel house into entryway and then remove all the workbenches, no interior furniture crafting is required or advised.
      * Users wanting to move their families in the inn: enable back the Main Hall Workbench, enter the inn and go at the only workbench situated on the second floor. From it, build: Single Bed x2, Double Bed and Drawers. Then ask your spouse/kid to move in.
      6. Build: Animal Pen, Fish Hatchery, Stables, Garden, Grindstone, Armorer Workbench, Smelter.
      7. Hire a Steward and ask about home improvements. Buy carriage and horse, hire a bard. Do not buy cow or chickens. Do not ask your steward to build anything in the house.
      8. For Windstad Dark Lair: Build the cellar. The cellar workbench (the one by the ladder) won’t be needed. However, it cannot be removed from the Drafting Table due to a vanilla scripting bug. Simply enter the cellar and disable it using the console. Find the red book, read it and build your dark lair.
      9. That’s it.


    Uninstall: Don’t uninstall scripted mods midgame. If you decide you’re not going to use the mod, the wise thing to do is to uninstall it using your mod manager and revert to the save made before installing it in the first place. That being said (and ignored), evacuate the NPCs, clear the planters and take any belongings you want to keep. Travel away from Windstad. Uninstall. Run a save cleaner tool to get rid of orphaned scripts and hope for the best.


    COMPATIBILITY


      - Windstad Inn changes BYOHHouse2Hjaalmarch, BYOHHouse2Exterior, Exterior02, 03 and 04 cells. Windstad Dark Lair changes Hjaalmarch Basement cell. High chances not to be compatible with other mods altering these cells. Don’t use other Windstad overhauls concomitant with this one.
      - Lighting mods, furniture overhauls, NPC overhauls affecting Windstad bard or housecarl must be placed before Windstad Inn/Dark Lair in your load order.
      - Windstad Mine – there are landscape and navmesh changes in both mods and in some of the cells this will lead to conflicts. A patch will probably be needed.
      - Hearthfire Extended - its cellar won't be compatible with Windstad Dark Lair. You'll find instructions in Hearthfire Extended description about how to remove the cellar part in TES5Edit.
      - Alternate Start - Live Another Life /Property Owner: don’t choose Windstad as your starting home.
      - Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions: if it works with the upstairs beds in vanilla, it will work with Windstad Inn too. The children necessities are unchanged. Don’t ask me to change the mod to make room for 6 children, though. If you really like to let children live in the inn use the AFT-MHIYH workaround.
      - Enhanced Landscapes: a floating rock pile and a tree clipping through a wall (see image) must be console-disabled.
      - The new outfits Sonir and Shaba wear and the dead maidens’ wounds are made for vanilla bodies. They work fine with UNP. I have no idea how they will look with other body types.
      - If further compatibility issues are reported, the list will be updated.


    If you like this, try out my Lakeview remodel:




    KNOWN ISSUES



      - Although the triple magic effect applies correctly on the player after bathing in blood, it will be listed incorrectly in active effects list. If anyone knows how to fix this, I’m all ears.
      - For performance sake, both Windstad Inn and Dark Lair use roombounds. Although the roombounds and portals are perfectly aligned, due to the complicated HF architecture meshes, some objects/groups of objects may not be visible when looked at in certain angles. I hunted and hopefully solved every one of them. If any still remain, let me know. If fixable, I will fix them.
      - The second floor north tower door is stuck in an open position (thanks, GregorLife). Will fix in a future update.



    NOTES


      - Alternate textures for vanilla structures (walls, roofs, etc.) are not included. Hearthfire homes use Whiterun textures and plenty of mods improving them are to be found on Nexus. I personally use a mix of Noble Skyrim, Alternatives-Whiterun and Reskin Cities.
      - Given that most people use ENB nowadays and most presets severely darken the interiors, Windstad Inn uses by default a brighter lighting template than vanilla. If the interior is too bright for you, let me know.
      - Containers in the inn do not respawn (exception being the milk containers witch will respawn after 10+ days). The Inn location, however, does respawn, so don't leave loose stuff around. The Dark Lair is set to non-respawning and all containers inside are safe.
      - Bethesda scripted HF bards to automatically start singing when player enters the house anytime between 10AM and 10PM. Therefore they won’t start their AI packages (eating, sleeping, going outside) if they sing in this interval. Annoyed by it? Tell the bard to take a break!
      - Although countless maiden instances have been killed during development and testing, no maiden will be technically killed in game.



    CREDITS


    Big thanks to Bioshark, who even if he hasn’t played a Bethesda game in years, still finds it entertaining to script for one. Also helped with testing, made the fomod installer, came up with various ideas and supported me through more than one modding crisis.

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    TOOLS USED

    CK
    TES5Edit
    NifSkope 2.0
    GIMP 2.8
    DDS Viewer
    Mercurial version control
    BSA Browser
    Unfuzer CPP Edition
    VFRT
    NifScan
    Ordenador