About this mod
Skyrim is a harsh place, but few places are as depressing as the Warrens of Markarth. Have you ever wished you could help? Now you can!
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/45144/
Thank you, Tvickie!!
XBox Version available:
https://bethesda.net/en/mods/skyrim/mod-detail/4293005
Thank you, Basspainter!!
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/110572/
The mod to make Alith Jarl is no longer available, but LucioMalyn has created a new mod that allows you to install a more honorable Jarl on the throne of Markarth. It's an upgraded version of the older Destroy the Silver-Bloods mod for SSE by Dominicus7. I have not tested it, and it does not require my mod to work, but the two mods should be compatible. LucioMalyn continues to make improvements, so be sure to check back if this interests you. Enjoy!
Destroy the Silver-Bloods for LE
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/108442/
(bleh...let's just call it MHW, k?)
After installing the mod, you will find that some dirt and furniture has been rearranged, but things look just as run-down as before: nothing will improve until you take action. MHW is almost fully voiced by 'creatively' reusing voice files from the base game. [b]Warning: I do not know how this mod will interact with making Cairine a vampire.
No DLC required! One creature has inaudible dialogue, so for best results, you will need a mod that keeps subtitles from flashing by too quickly (such as Fus Ro D’oh); this is not a strict requirement because you don't have to talk to this creature in order to progress the quest. MHW does use a lot of scripts, but they don't run continuously, don't require SKSE, and most are tiny. MHW has been cleaned with TES5Edit.
There's one on the bar in the Silver-Blood Inn.
To start this quest, read one of the many flyers scattered around Markarth (you can find one on the bar in the Silver-Blood Inn).
You will meet Alith, an escaped ex-servant of the Silver-Blood family that has taken on the monumental task of cleaning up the Warrens. She’ll send you on several quests to gather needed supplies from around Skyrim. Each item you turn in will improve the Warrens a little more, so be sure to have a look around in between turn-ins! Most objectives may be completed in any order, and which items you turn in will directly determine which improvements appear (e.g. fetching healing herbs will start up the clinic, gathering lumber will build furniture, etc.). All the doors inside the Warrens will remain open for the duration of the quest so the volunteers can go where they're needed (and so you can see your progress), and they'll automatically close soon after the quest ends.
Once you have completed the quest…
- The Warrens will feel a lot cozier, with rustic beds, repaired wooden floors, a communal cooking area, and small clinic.
- Alith will stick around to watch over the clinic and fetch fresh vegetables each day.
- The Warrens will also be a little busier, with a small number of randomly generated, respawning Residents.
- Warm piles of hay and furs have been added to the hallway to make sure everyone has a place to sleep, even if they can’t afford a room.
- You will have the option to give some npcs new clothes (several simple outfits to choose from).
- And if you’re down on your luck and need a place to stay for the night, there’s a place for you too: look for the tiny storage room in between Garvey’s and Degaine’s rooms: you’ll find a pile of hay and furs free for your use + a “Safely-Fastened Knapsack” (a safe storage container, the ONLY safe storage container).
To start this quest, first complete Help the Warrens, then look for Alith’s Clinic Notes in the new Warrens clinic (on the wooden table, not far from the Shrine of Mara).
Cairine’s sickness is more serious than most of the Warrens residents’: a Cure Disease potion or a trip to a Divine Shrine won't be enough. Instead, you’ll need to seek out a rare ingredient with only one source. How you go about retrieving the ingredient is up to you.
Once Cairine has been cured…
- Her dialogue will change and she will never again be huddled on the floor.
- She’ll sleep in her own bed (which, according to the game files, is one of the two beds in Garvey’s room), and visit the tavern for dinner.
- She’ll also pick up a new job as a blacksmith apprentice in Moth gro-Bagol’s shop inside Understone Keep. If you visit her while she’s on the job, you can ask her how she’s doing.
- You will have the option to give her new clothes (several simple outfits to choose from).
If you’d like to get a head start on curing Cairine, there’s an alternate way to begin her quest: head to the Hag’s Cure and look for Bothela’s Notebook behind the counter. That notebook will be there as soon as you install the mod.
Thieves Guild for Good Guys: Probably safe, but I've been told that it includes a side quest to cure Cairine; that could be a problem. For now, I would advise doing just one quest to cure Cairine (either MHW's or Good Guys'), and make sure whichever mod you want to take precedence is loaded last (e.g. if you want to MHW's cairine quest, make sure MHW is loaded after Good Guys). Hopefully that will be sufficient to get the two mods to play nice. If anyone has tested these two mods together, it would be great if you could post your experience in the comments.
WARP - World Assets Recycle Project: ditto on Thieves Guild for Good Guys
Compatible
Anything that doesn't involve the Markarth Warrens or Cairine should be safe: Haven't tested them, but that should include most 'for Good Guys' mods, including House of Horrors for Good Guys and The Taste of Death for Good Guys
Retexture mods: New Markarth V1, The White City, etc.
Markarth Overhauls (as long as they don't edit the Warrens): JK's Markarth, etc.
Understone Keep Restored
Kian Drem
MHIYH: You can safely assign Cairine or any other Warrens npc to a new location at any time. (Cairine's quest may be completed even if she no longer lives in the Warrens.)
Immersive AFT: You can safely make Cairine or any other Warrens npc into a follower, even during the quest to cure her.
Blood and Silver: Not tested, but there's no reason they should conflict.
Outfit mods: If you'd rather give Cairine or the other Warrens residents custom outfits, feel free to use an outfit mod. MHW alters their default outfit, and most outfit mods rely on more complex methods that override default outfits, so there should be no conflict.
Semi-Compatible
Marriable Cairine Follower
- Do NOT disable the original Cairine and replace her with the "player.placeatme D66FE" command (as suggested in the Marriable Cairine Follower mod description). This unfortunately means she will be a very weak follower, but replacing Cairine will prevent you from starting the MHW quest to cure her.
- Don't do the marriage quest during either MHW quest. The MHW quests can get a bit confused if she gets married halfway through.
- If you intend to have Cairine live in one of your own houses, it doesn't matter if you marry her before vs. after curing her. However, if you want to marry her and then send her back to the Warrens (to sleep in her own bed and start up her new blacksmith job), you need to cure her FIRST, then marry her. (If you do it backwards--marry first, then cure--she sometimes doesn't start up her new schedule properly when you send her home, and instead just stands next to her old 'sick' spot.)
- If you use the new voice version of Marriable Cairine Follower, all of Cairine's new lines for the MHW quests will be inaudible, but they'll still work; you'll just have to read the subtitles.
- If you use the original voice version of Marriable Cairine Follower, you will not get that mod's option to make her a follower. This is part of the original mod, and not a compatibility issue. (Her original voice type blocks her from being a follower. If you want to keep her original voice and make her a follower, you'll need something like AFT.)
- Don't be an idiot like me and forget to visit Maramal before asking her to marry you.
Other Marriage Mods
- Don't do the marriage quest during either MHW quest. The MHW quests can get a bit confused if she gets married halfway through.
- If you intend to have Cairine live in one of your own houses, it doesn't matter if you marry her before vs. after curing her. However, if you want to marry her and then send her back to the Warrens (to sleep in her own bed and start up her new blacksmith job), you need to cure her FIRST, then marry her. (If you do it backwards--marry first, then cure--she sometimes doesn't start up her new schedule properly when you send her home, and instead just stands next to her old 'sick' spot.)
Not Compatible
Poor Man’s Rest
(Note that MHW includes a small closet-sized room with a bed and safe storage. Not as nice as Poor Man's Rest, but a similar idea.)
Unknown
Skyrim Sewers
Beautiful Cairine: MHW should be compatible with appearance mods, but I was unable to get this one to work regardless of whether my mod was installed or not (grey face bug).
Skooma Whore: Unknown if they truly conflict, but it certainly doesn't make sense to have a skooma den in the Warrens anymore.
It is strongly recommended that you finish the main "Help the Warrens" quest before you start decorating.
Like any mod that uses scripts, uninstalling MHW mid-playthrough is NOT recommended
...but if you insist on uninstalling it, it should be okay: MHW will leave a bunch of little scripts behind, but nothing dangerous, nothing that should affect your gameplay. The Warrens will revert to its original appearance, and Cairine will revert to her original behavior. Save Cleaner is recommended but not required.
Before you uninstall, use the Clothes for Laundry basket to revert NPCs back to their old clothes!
If you chose to alter any npc’s clothing using this mod, they will keep those outfits even after you uninstall! To revert them back to Beggar’s Rags, use the laundry basket: it's a crate near the Warrens entrance, across from the communal cooking area, on a shelf by a candle.
To uninstall manually, delete MarkarthHelpTheWarrens.esp and MarkarthHelpTheWarrens.bsa.
Yes! Well, as much as is possible using vanilla voice files: No npcs will talk about how awful the Warrens are anymore. Garvey will be more friendly and will no longer tell you that you "don't belong down here". Once both her quests are complete, Cairine will be much happier and will remember that you helped her. If you find Cairine at her new job, you can exchange a couple words with her (and her new boss) about it. Most other Warrens npcs will use friendlier greetings.
During The Forsworn Conspiracy, Garvey does still refer to Cairine as being too sick to work in the mines. I kept that, as I feel it's important to acknowledge that people don't just bounce back perfectly from an extended illness, and that's okay.
2. Will you be making an SE version, or making any similar mods for other Skyrim slums?
I can't do an SE conversion (I don't have SkyrimSE), sorry, but if anyone else wants to take a stab at it, you're more than welcome.
I'd love to make some similar mods someday, perhaps Riften Ratways/Beggar's Row or the Windhelm Gray Quarter, but I have no immediate plans. I got a little burnt out, I'm afraid! If you like the idea, feel free to make your own mods of this type, no worries about stepping on toes.
3. Does this mod add player housing?
Not really, but enough if you're roleplaying a beggar character. Once you have finished the main quest, 'Help the Warrens', you will find a tiny room, really just a closet, in between Garvey's and Degaine's rooms. There's a pile of hay and furs in there that you can use for free, and a Safely-Fastened Knapsack for safe storage. NPCs are also able to use this bed, so if you find it's occupied, you may have to bed down in the hallway: there are more piles of hay and fur out there, free for your use. There's also a communal cooking pot near the Warrens entrance, and an alchemy table in the new clinic.
4. Is the Safely-Fastened Knapsack a safe container? Are there any other safe containers?
Yes, the Safely-Fastened Knapsack is a safe container, and it is the ONLY safe container added by this mod. All other containers--including the sacks in the spare room/closet--are NOT safe!
Quests
I think the story flows a little better if you do Help the Warrens first, then A Cure For Cairine, but it really doesn't matter. Yes, you can do them at the same time, and yes, you can choose to just do one or the other.
6. I can't start the main quest.
To start the main quest, you need to read a flyer. There are four of them, scattered around Markarth: on the bar in the Silver-Blood Inn, by the fireplace in the Silver-Blood Inn, on the counter in Arnleif & Sons Trading Company, and on the jewelry vendor's market stall. (See mod screenshots)
If you still can't start the quest, open the console, and type this:
startquest MHWQuest
7. I can't start Cairine's quest.
To start Cairine's quest, you either need to read Alith's Clinic Notes or Bothela's Notebook. Alith's Clinic Notes is a small book that will only appear after you finish the main "Help the Warrens" quest: go to the new little clinic at the far end of the Warrens hallway, and look for the wooden table next to the Shrine of Mara; the book should be on that table. Bothela's Notebook is a small book that is available as soon as you install the mod, no need to finish "Help the Warrens": go to the Hag's Cure (Markarth's alchemy shop) and look behind the counter; the notebook is just above the shop ledger. (See mod screenshots)
If you still can't start the quest, open the console, and type this:
startquest MHW_ACureForCairine
8. I can't talk to the hagraven. / The hagraven's dialogue flashes past too quickly.
Do you have a mod to force subtitles to stay on the screen? (The in-game option to force subtitles is not sufficient.) If you DO have such a mod and her dialogue still isn't working, or you don't want to install that mod, you can still obtain the gold feathers a different way: either kill her, or pickpocket her. (Or you can use the console to get them.)
9. Wait...Cairine is supposed to EAT the feathers? How do you eat feathers?!
Well, you can eat regular hagraven feathers even in the base game, so why not? Crunch crunch!
10. I picked up the gold hagraven feathers, but I can't find them in my bags.
The quest item 'Pristine Gold Hagraven Feathers' is technically a Misc item, not an Ingredient, so you'll find it in the Misc items tab.
Non-quest items 'Gold Hagraven Feathers' are technically potions, not Ingredients, so you'll find those on the Potions tab.
11. The "A Cure for Cairine" quest is over, but I still have Gold Hagraven Feathers in my inventory.
'Pristine Gold Hagraven Feathers', or just 'Gold Hagraven Feathers'? The pristine ones are the quest item that should be removed from your inventory when you complete the quest. The regular ones aren't quest items: they will cure diseases when eaten, and can be sold, eaten, dropped, whatever, before or after the quest is over. They're a little bonus; I mainly included them because it would be really weird if you killed Greska and she had a grand total of ONE feather on her entire corpse.
Cairine
No, but you can use other mods to do that.
13. Why does Cairine sleep in Garvey's room?
According to the game files, one of the two beds in his room belongs to her. I guess they were roommates before she got sick?
14. Cairine gets stuck trying leave/enter her room: she just stands by the doorway.
As far as I can tell, it's an issue with the base game, one that's simply never noticed because no npcs ever go in and out of that room in the base game. (Navmesh looks fine in the game files, and followers can walk through just fine, so I have no idea what's causing the problem.) Cairine should eventually teleport herself across the threshold.
15. I've cured Cairine, but she won't talk to me about her new job.
You have to talk to her while she's working (she'll only have those convo options if you talk to her in Understone Keep).
16. I've cured Cairine, but now I can't find her.
Cairine's schedule once she's cured:
Midnight - 7am: Sleep in Garvey's room
7am - Noon: Work in the Understone Keep blacksmith shop
Noon - 4pm: Write in the blacksmith's ledger just outside the blacksmith shop
4pm - 7pm: Hang around in the Warrens, usually in her room
7pm - 11pm: Silver-Blood Tavern
11pm - Midnight: Walk home, hang out in the Warrens until bedtime
Sometimes she shows up to work late, if she gets stuck in the doorway to her room.
17. I've cured Cairine, but her haypile bed is still there on the floor.
Yep, that'll stay there; it's one of several haypile beds set out for the visitors and residents that don't have their own rooms.
18. The Understone Keep blacksmith (Moth gro-Bagol) is dead or married in my game. Will Cairine still show up at his shop?
Yes, but Ghorza will have hired her instead: if Moth is alive, you'll find his journal in his shop, explaining that he hired her and talking about how she's doing; if he's dead, Cairine will still work in the Understone Keep shop, but the journal will instead be Ghorza's. If both Moth and Ghorza are dead or married, well, I guess Markarth could really use a new blacksmith.
Misc
Did you get far enough in the quests to assign new clothes to any npcs? (NPCs don't just quietly get handed new clothes: you have to get far enough along in the quests for the box of New Clothes to show up, and then you have to choose which outfits to assign to which npcs.) If you didn't get that far, you don't need to use the laundry basket before uninstalling.
If you DID get that far, then you should be able find the laundry basket: Go into the Warrens. Just inside the doorway, look to your left: you should see a shelf with a candle and two crates on it: 'New Clothes' and 'Clothes for Laundry'.
20. Will this mod ever refer to the player as the Dragonborn?
No, this mod does not care if you are roleplaying as the Dragonborn vs. using Live Another Life to play a random citizen.
21. One of the beds in Omluag's room isn't marked as 'owned'.
That's how the base game has it. That bed is technically owned by the Omluag 'faction', rather than Omluag himself, and this is the result. I suspect it's tied to the fact that Omluag is marriageable.
22. Cairine's lip movements don't match her audible dialogue for the "Bless your kind heart" line.
Bug in the base game. The FemaleCoward voice's .lip file for that line seems to have been assigned incorrectly, and I have no way of tracking down the correct .lip file.
23. Why are there children's books and a Dibella Necklace in Eltrys room?
A few easy-to-miss lines of dialogue tell us that Eltrys is married to Rhiada (the treasury receptionist), and she's pregnant. She never sleeps and never goes home, but she's got the key in her inventory.
24. NPCs--Alith, Cairine, Volunteers, Residents, etc--are just standing around doing nothing.
Issue with the base game. NPCs just sometimes get confused about their packages. Sometimes you can fix it by targetting the problem NPC, disabling, and then re-enabling them, but it should go away on its own if you leave them alone for awhile.
25. I can't find Alith.
Initially, Alith spends all her time working or sleeping in the Warrens.
Eventually, she will start making daily trips to Salvius farm, just outside Markarth, and she will begin spending her evenings at the Silver-Blood Inn.
26. I've finished the main quest, but the doors haven't closed and there are still 'Volunteers' walking around.
Leave and re-enter the Warrens. The doors will automatically close, and the Volunteers will be replaced with Residents.