The Warmstone of Windhelm
by sa547
10:53 PM 4/27/2014

A native of Windhelm since birth, Advard Fisk held sway over Warmstone Hostel as its owner and proprietor. Like many he came from out of Skyrim, fought against the Aldmeri Dominion until hard-won victory in Cyrodill and survived against all odds; he and many Legionnaires came home and tried to return to their previous lives, but unlike most of his brethren he harbored none of the prejudices prevalent in the city -- instead he tolerated the presence of non-Nords, seeing them as equals, having served with other races throughout the war.

Thanks to a lifetime store of savings he cached behind his farmhouse prior to military service, he set out to carve a hostel in front of Windhelm's marketplace, as a cheaper, but cleaner and more tolerant alternative to the largely Nordic Candlehearth Hall and the squalid New Gnisis Cornerclub. Soon, Advard had more customers than he could handle, and thus he expanded further to add more services for a wide variety of visitors.

However, ere since the Civil War exploded almost every inhabitant of the province were sharply divided over many issues and took sides. Advard, without blinking an eye, distanced himself away from the bigotry simmering over Windhelm, but that made him a target of Rolff Stone-Fist's derision against anything un-Nordic; scribbling slander on the hostel's doors and leaving piles of dung on the doorstep, throwing rocks at the windows and calling him and his clients names every night, and at the time of the dragon attack on Helgen, Rolff stormed into the hostel and rampaged, forcing Advard to deal with the troublemaker by his martial skills, and bodily throwing him out of the door.

The incident, however, was not unheeded by the Stormcloak general Galmar Stone-Fist, and sent threats to Advard, who was unruffled and replied in a civilized manner. But before the erring General could go further by showing up in person, an old friend persuaded Advard to go on a weekend fishing trip at the mud flats up the wintry northern coast.

The last everyone in Windhelm saw of Advard and his friend was when they exited the gates, with fishing gear and bags tossed into a cart, and, since then, never came back.

Now and in the city, as the Dragonborn approach the closed doors of the hostel, eyes are drawn to the _message barrel_ affixed to the wall...

Features
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*Double bed + 4 beds for other followers
*Kitchen with extensive stores
*Smithing and Alchemy Room
*Convenient access to Windhelm's busiest market district
*Multiple weapon racks
*Heated Bathroom
*More bookshelves
*Can be used as a secondary home for more followers (using My Home is Your Home)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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As this mod is packed with numerous objects and effects, and may reduce your framerate, please do note the following sysreqs:

* dual-core processor or better
* 4GB of system memory or higher
* at least AMD HD6600 family series GPU with 1GB of dedicated memory or higher
* SSME installed (based on sheson's memory patch) + ENBoost
* any optimized texture packs are recommended
* turn off DOF or AO in enbseries.ini unless you'd like to screencap

Backstory
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Seeing that the original Warmstone was terribly lacking in several places, it took me about three months of experimentation, trying to see which expansion would be the best, and went about playing with the stock objects, until about two weeks ago I embarked on a massive rebuilding of the mod.

Notice for Dawn of Windhelm Users
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In the Optional folder, there is a compatibility plugin which should be loaded after Dawn of Windhelm; this plugin is intended to disable some placed objects obstructing Warmstone's facade. Otherwise, in the game, open the console, point and click on any object, use the Disable command to remove.

Installation
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NMM/MO: simply install the mod.
Manual: open the downloaded file with 7zip, and then click and drag the contents into Skyrim's Data folder.

Uninstallation
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NMM: Use NMM to uninstall the mod.
MO: deactivate by unchecking the mod on the list.
Manual: open Skyrim's Data folder, find Warmstone.esp and accompanying .bsa and .bsl files, and delete them.

Upgrading (just in case)
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Take all stored items from containers, chests and racks, and then step out of the house, before making a new gamesave and exiting Skyrim. Use the installation procedure to upgrade the mod, before going back into the game.

Credits:
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The author would like to thank the following other modders for their resources and products:

InsanitySorrow (TESA) -- chessboard, pillows, paintings, soap, alchemy/smithing charts,
Stroti & Tamira (TESA) -- portions of Dragonstone (hanging cabinet, washbasin), potbelly oven, teapot...
AARS (TESA) -- vegetable basket, meat crate
FPI Research (TESA) -- alchemy jars, quill & inkpot, smelting pot...
Lilith (TESA) -- burgundy rug
eldiabs -- activators and bookshelves
jet4571 -- copy and paste wharehouse (sic) cell
Oaristys & Tony67 (TESA) -- Modder's Resource Pack (so many of them, can't list all)
stoverjm (TESA) - Open Books Library 1.1 (based on Blary's Open Books Resource)

Notices
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Any modification to the mod requires my express permission. Uploading this mod (or its resources) to sites other than Nexus or TESA without my authorization is prohibited.