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Mod Name: Erthor Gives You Bleak Flats Cave

Series: Home Away From Home
Number: 2

Author: Myrystyr
Date: 02/06/2019
Categories: Player Home

Requirements: None
For the quest version: Elys Universal Silent Voice

DESCRIPTION

Hello, and welcome to your new home away from home. This mod is fairly simple, and deals with a Skingrad citizen we all know well.

It bothered me that after you fetch Erthor for Adrienne Berene he goes straight back to Bleak Flats Cave. If he's meant to visit Skingrad I've never seen him there. So I modified two of his AI packages, leaving their conditions (quest stage 100) unchanged. Erthor will now wander the Skingrad Mages Guild Basement from 8am till midday, then the main floor of the guildhouse from midday to midnight. Given his sleep package he should then go upstairs to the Living Quarters.

It would be a simple matter to alter the ai packages further, to turn Erthor into a follower for example. All that would need is the addition of a quest and its related script and dialogue topics. Or, Erthor could stay in the Skingrad Mages Guild until another condition is met - completing a later quest for the Mages Guild, for example - and then move to a new location.

As one example of what can be done if Erthor vacates Bleak Flats Cave, consider the possibility of a free player home.


CONTENTS

This mod contains the following esps:

ErthorStayInSkingradMagesGuild - As described above, Erthor stays in the Skingrad Mages Guild. Nothing else happens. Feel free to adapt this esp for your own purposes. I look forward to seeing what others might do with this concept.

ErthorGivesYouBleakFlatsCave - Erthor now has quest dialogue; if you ask, he will let you live in Bleak Flats Cave. You will get a quest update, the script result of which is as follows:
- disable the existing containers (so don't put anything in them while you are in the caves)
- enable new non-respawning (and physically identical) containers in exactly the same places
- remove Erthor's ownership of a few items lying around (so you won't be stealing them if you pick them up)
- change the cell name to My Bleak Flats Cave
Erthor can now be found in the Skingrad Mages Guild from 8am till 8pm, and the Skingrad Mages Guild Living Quarters from 8pm till midnight. He should also sleep in the living quarters, from midnight till 8am. Your new home isn't much, but it has nice view from the front door of some rune stones, natural flower gardens outside . . . and you did get it basically for free.

Pick one esp or the other.


Tools used: Construction Set, File Explorer, Notepad, 7-Zip.

INSTALLATION

1 - Extract to a temporary location
2 - Copy the esp of your choice to your Oblivion Data folder
4 - Tick the esp in Oblivion Launcher to use in game

UNINSTALL

1 - Untick the esp

CREDIT

Modding by Myrystyr
Inspired in part by The Imperial Real Estate by lametrie
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48292


PERMISSION

This mod is otherwise free to use, distribute, and adapt without permission. The only additional conditions I make are:

* Please do not distribute any part of this mod for commercial purposes.
* Please give courtesy notification of any use of this mod in another project.
* Please give credit to myself as Myrystyr.
* Please include a link in your readme and description to this mod.

CONTACT

You can contact me by commenting on this mod's webpage, or any of my uploaded mods. I can also be reached by Private Message on the Nexus.

Please inform me as soon as possible of any problems you may encounter while using this mod. Feedback and constructive criticism are welcome, as are suggestions for future mods. Complaints and lack of civility are a waste of time.

CONFLICTS/ISSUES

This mod was used alongside over 100 other mods, including several of those I have made and uploaded to NexusMods.

Known Issues: The mapmarker information does not change, and you still can't fast travel from the caves. This is not really a problem. While I don't have a quest icon, that's not much of an issue either. None of this will crash the game.

The quest has only two stages (0, 10) and will stay in your quest journal as I have not ticked Complete or included StopQuest in the script result. This could easily be the beginning of a longer quest, to renovate your new home, if there is sufficient interest . . .

Playtest Report: My Demoness Seducer went to Skingrad to deliver more Nirnroots to Sinderion, and asked Erthor about Bleak Flats Cave. When she went there, the chests were the new versions and the items left lying around were unonwned. Another character reported the same.

My current roster of playtest characters are mostly low-level. Your gaming experience may differ if you favour higher-level characters.

I am reasonably certain that any persistent problems I encounter are due to general instability, resulting from using over 100 mods and/or using some mods that delete a lot of references.

IN CLOSING

This mod was created using the latest version of the Construction Set, and playtested with The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition. Although Shivering Isles and Knights Of The Nine were installed at the time, they are not necessary for use of this mod. No utility, e.g. OBSE, was installed or used. Screenshots may include elements of other mods.

This ReadMe is a balance of clarity and brevity, and is is assumed that the end user of this mod has read the ReadMe and understands that any issues that may arise during modded play are beyond the mod author's control.

These mods are my way of sharing some of the fun I have playing Oblivion. If you like my mods, please give a thumbs up so others can know they are appreciated; and, feel free to recommend them to others. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your gaming.


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