Northern Cardinal is a merchant ship from the East Empire Trading Company, the impact of the Company is no match for its former glory, even the vessels from the Company itself can hardly get sufficient protection. In every voyage, those ships have to face various dangers, including the unexpected weather in the Sea of Ghosts and, more importantly, the ever-increasing pirate activities. Northern Cardinal is no exception, it went missing during its last mission. Whether it's sunken deep into the sea or docked near some pirate hideouts, no one knows the answer...

Brodual made a detailed video showcasing almost all the contents and features of this mod, watch this video should be enough if you feel tl;dr about my descriptions. Shoutout to Brodual for the video!



The content of the mod can be divided into three parts: a quest, a player home and several new areas with new NPCs. The player home, i.e. the ship, has a fast travel system and a crew recruitment system which will be covered in the following sections.

The Quest
The quest is automatically enabled after the installation, the quest giver is a merchant named Marcian who can be located in the new dock area in Solitude.
The quest is pretty straightforward, read the quest log and follow the quest marker should be enough. The level recommendation is after level 12. Approximate time is around 30 mins of gameplay.

Alternatively, if you want to skip the quest you can purchase the ship from Marcian for 15000 golds, this option is disabled by default and needs to be toggled on from MCM.

The Ship
After completing the quest and sailing the ship back to Solitude, an updated quest prompts you to speak with the merchant Marcian about purchasing upgrades for the ship. A ship decoration guide will be given to you after talking to him. There are five packages for purchasing and the details are in the guide. Note certain purchases are the requirements for crew recruitment.

Here is a video that shows the fully upgraded ship, courtesy of hodilton.


New Solitude Dock
Same location on the other side of East Empire Company Warehouse, three major buildings are added: the general goods store for the aforementioned merchant, an inn and a blacksmith. Also an addition to the Solitude Arch city entrance makes it standout.

New NPCs
New Solitude Dock:

• Marcian, Imperial Merchant, General Vendor, Quest Giver, Offers Ship Purchases
• Liviana, Nord Sailor/Mercenary, Misc Favor Quest Giver, Potential Follower
• Cleland, Nord Sailor/Mercenary, Misc Favor Quest Giver, Potential Follower
• Istandir, Nord Blacksmith, Blacksmith Vendor
• Platinis, Imperial Innkeeper
• Jestien, Breton Bard
• Bolldar, Nord Blacksmith Apprentice, Potential Ship Blacksmith
• Gormmer, Nord Merchant, Fishery Vendor, Quest Ally
• Alonzo, Redguard Merchant, Fletcher Vendor, Quest Ally
  

Other Locations:

• Sigvand, Nord Alchemist, Potential Ship Alchemist, Location: Dawnstar Dock Farmhouse
• Celia Ireton, Dunmer Mage, Potential Ship Mage, Location: Windhelm Dock Farmhouse
  

Travel System
The ship can be anchored in major docks along the northern coast: Solitude, Dawnstar and Windhelm. Fast travel can be done by:

• Activating the wheel at the quarterdeck.
• Activating the map at the foredeck.
• Activating the map in the captain's cabin.
• Talking to the First Mate you appointed.
  

Castle Volkihar dock will be accessible after Awakening quest.
Raven Rock dock can be unlocked by talking to captain Gjalund after going to Solstheim for the first time.

New Lands Add-ons

• To unlock the docks for new lands, advance their quests to specific stages:
• For Falskaar, complete the quest "Passage Home."
• For Wyrmstooth, complete the quest "Barrow of the Wyrm."
  

• After meeting the quest requirements, talk to the merchant Marcian at Solitude Docks to update the sailing route.
• Use the map inside the captain's cabin to travel to new land locations.
• All add-on plugins are ESL flagged.
  

Crew System
You can recruit up to nine crew for the ship, they will stay on board until dismissed.

There are three ways to recruit your crew:

• Simply take your followers on the ship, talk to them about joining the crew, when you dismiss them from the follower duty, they will stay on board.
• You also have the option to recruit your followers anywhere which can be toggled on with MCM menu shown below.
• For the followers who are not in the vanilla follower system (Serana, Interesting NPCs, some other mod followers), there is a crew journal available in the captain's cabin, give it to the follower and the dialogue option will be available.
• You can get blacksmith, mage, alchemist vendors and bard to work on the ship by talking to them about working on the ship. There are new NPCs near the docks if you don’t want to use vanilla NPCs (which is recommended).
  

Note: You can actually recruit almost anyone by reverse-pickpocketing, which is not recommended but fun to try I guess.

Working on ship dialogues depend on the class of the vendor (VendorBacksmith, VendorApothecary and VendorSpells), while blacksmith and apothecary vendors are mostly with the correct class, most spell vendors in vanilla game are not in vendor class.

Crews will sandbox both interior and exterior of the ship, they prefer staying outside providing the weather condition is good. Ship blacksmith/mage/alchemist and first mate have special sandbox routines which make them easier to locate. Some of the crew will visit local inn in the evening.

SkyUI MCM

Other Features

• Ship model to customize the banners and figurehead of the ship.
• Activate the main mast to the crow's nest.
• Rope ladder by the side of the ship to get out of the water quickly.
• New ambiance sound around the ship locations.
• New pirate weapon: Steel Cutlass (same attributes as Scitmar)
  

Hearthfire Support
To move your spouse and kids to the ship you will need Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions and follow these steps:


You can still recruit crew after moving in your family, but the limit is reduced to 4 with 5 beds being replaced for kids.