I strongly encourage you to not read any of this unless you have already played through the quest with this mod installed at least once. However, I recognize that some people probably just want to see everything in one go with minimal fuss, and that's OK too.
First a quick tip: If you have had any issues or concerns about the mine not properly updating to the modified version (like NPCs in the wrong place) you can try resetting the whole cell before you visit it. The console command is "resetinterior cidhnamine01" and this should get rid of any lingering information about that space that might be in your save. Follow it up with "pcb" (purge cell buffers) if you want to be extra sure. You would need to do these things from outside the mine.
Quest Walkthrough:
All right, once you are thrown into the prison, I recommend starting the quest the normal way by having a chat with Uraccen and then Borkul the Beast. There have always been a few alternate ways to "get past Borkul the Beast" (beat him up, pick his pocket) but I'm going to discuss the more complicated way: pay the "toll" by finding him a shiv.
If you ask, he will recommend that you go and talk to Grisvar the Unlucky. If you want, you can chat up the new NPC's in that first room (usually Gorm and Kari, sometimes Ernus or Della wander in) but they will all say no if you ask for their help. There's a ton of silver ore stored in that first room, but the prisoners will probably try to beat you to death if they see you stealing it. You could also try to pickpocket Gorm to get a lockpick, but the door behind Borkul can't be picked.
At this point, you have some options. If you don't want to find Grisvar, I hid shivs in a couple of spots around the mine. The easiest ones to get to are in the big flooded room where Runs-With-Sticks hangs out, on a submerged table. (There's also a lockpick there.) If you're feeling brave, Marrgi the orc carries a shiv, but she has it equipped so you probably need to kill her to get it. She also has a lockpick you can try to steal off her.
OK, proceeding with the assumption that you want to find Grisvar:
Turn left from Borkul, past the spot where Della usually hangs out (big hallway with a chandelier), run past Duach and then head into the deep mine. You'll pass by Helebin and probably Omos (he's prone to wandering) but neither of these guys will help you if you ask. After that you eventually get to a huge room with a campfire and a big scaffold. Four NPC's hang out in this area: Jez, Mette, Penda, and Sal. None of them will help you.
This big campfire room has two secret areas connected to it. To the left as you come in, behind some flapping rags, there is a door that leads down into a damp cave inhabited by a large spider boss known as "The Foreman," who has apparently made a meal of the last few prisoners to get too close. I recommend not going in there just yet!
The other area is hidden behind the scaffolding where Sal hangs out. You can squeeze between a couple of posts and follow a hidden path into a cave. The cave is haunted by a ghost called "The Old Man," but he is harmless and can't be engaged in combat if you try. He has no dialogue, either. He's just there for spooky ambiance. At the back of the cave is a dwarven treasure chest with totally random loot in it. Whatever is in there, you might as well grab it before you continue. There's also a lockpick stuck into the back of the scaffolding right near the mouth of the ghost cave.
Continuing on: Head up the stairs and across the scaffold into the next area. You'll find Doren on the way, but he won't help you. The tunnel will twist upward, and now you'll get to the spot where Grisvar hangs out, along with his "friend" Odvan. To the left of them is the infamous Skooma Dump. If you jump in there and search around under the water, you will find a dwarven greatsword and also a handful of gold coins. Climb out again and head down the hallway and you will find a petite Redguard woman named Ralya. She will follow you! She is primarily a dual-wielding melee fighter, and carries a lockpick in her inventory. She's supposed to be sort of a rogue type.
Go ahead and talk to Grisvar. Now that you're armed and dangerous and you've got a badass sidekick, it's a good time to go back and kill The Foreman. Ralya can easily take that S.O.B. out by herself once you aggro him. He will drop two dwarven daggers (the weapons of a previous victim) which I recommend immediately trading to Ralya so she can fight more effectively.
Now you're probably on a mission from Grisvar to get skooma. Again, you have a lot of options. I figured Skooma was a popular thing among these prisoners, so I planted bottles on a lot of them. If you don't want to go all the way back and talk to Duach, you can try pickpocketing Sal or Penda who are a lot closer. Other prisoners who carry skooma are Barnard, Dannethrinos, Helebin, and Omos. Duach is still the only one who will give it up if you just talk to him.
Once you score drugs for Grisvar you can take a shortcut back by jumping down the hole where Ralya was hanging out.
Head up and chat with Borkul again. At this point you have the option to continue the main quest by talking to Madanach, or killing him. He's not as easy to kill as he used to be because he's protected by his lover, a strong Forsworn witch named Flora. She's a charming character to talk to, but she will immediately set you on fire if you hurt her man. If you want to fight Madanach it might be best to go and get prepared first.
Either way, your next stop will be to pick up your other follower. Head back to the starting room, hang a left, continue through the caves past Marrgi's spot and then take the first right. This leads to a long tunnel.
On the right side of this passage you will find a locked-off area, but it's accessible either with Borkul's key (which you should already have) or a lockpick if you hit it earlier in the quest. Don't be scared to burn a few lockpicks trying to get in, because there are several more scattered on the ground once you do get in. At the end of this short tunnel, along with said lockpicks, there is a skeleton on the ground stuck full of arrows and wearing a suit of iron armor. You can loot the armor for yourself or a follower. The end of this tunnel is boarded up and inaccessible, but if you peek between the boards, what you'll see is actually the heavily-guarded front door of Cidhna Mine. (Fun fact: This section of the tunnels was in the vanilla game, but there was no way to get into it without this mod! )
Continue past this side tunnel and you'll get into a rocky area where Dannethrinos and Braig hang out. Braig is the guy Madanach wants you to talk to, Dann is yet another prisoner who won't help you. Between them is a door into a large flooded cave, and in this cave (along with the submerged shivs and lockpick) you will find a huge Argonian named Runs-With-Sticks. This is the other follower! He also dual-wields, but you don't need to give him any weapons because he can summon two bound swords.
With both of these followers on your team, you can take out all the other prisoners if you feel like it. If you have strong anti-Forsworn leanings, now is your chance to smash their whole operation. You could also decide at this point to take on the two crazed vampires in the cage that's down another corridor. You can pick their lock or open it with Borkul's key. At present there's no particularly good reason to do this, but you might think it's worthwhile if you either hate vampires, or want to turn into one. They can infect you if you get close. In the deluxe edition they both wear the bloody version of prisoner clothes that were added in Dawnguard; you might think it's fun to wear these or give them to a follower so you can look like real psychos when you break out of prison.
Down another corridor in that area is a room where Barnard and Lebb hang out. There's not much else in there and there's really no good reason to ever go in this room, unless you feel like fighting those guys, stealing their stuff, or... I dunno, making out with them? Maybe that's your thing, I won't judge.
Anyway, now you've got two badass followers, maybe you talked to Braig, maybe you put on some iron armor or blood-soaked vampire pants, and you and your squad are armed to the teeth and ready to bust out of Cidhna Mine.
If you didn't kill Madanach before, it should be pretty easy now. Your followers can kill his hot girlfriend.
Or alternately you can take pity on the oppressed Forsworn and help him break them all out of jail. Madanach will ask you to kill that sad junkie Grisvar, which was never much of a challenge before and certainly won't be now that you've got friends and gear. Madanach would at this point make a speech, which triggers every NPC besides your followers to chase him through the escape tunnels and eventually out onto the streets of Markarth.
You still have the option to betray Madanach at the last minute, after already collecting your reward, but he will have an army backing him up so it will be tough even with the followers.
If you killed Madanach, the quest continues like it always did, with Thonar rewarding you for taking that scum out and pardoning all your crimes, real or imagined. If you betrayed Madanach at the last minute, you will get both rewards.
If you sided with Madanach all the way, you get to watch him kill Thonar and then you get to watch his army of Forsworn rampage through the city killing absolutely everybody!
If you chose the pro-Forsworn ending, the entire crew will head to their base at Druadach Redoubt, where you can visit them later and watch them all sandbox around and yell that the reach will be theirs again.
Any time after the main quest is over, if you left the followers behind or dismissed them later, they will go and hang out in the nearby mining town, Karthwasten.
That's about it.
Feel free to post any stray thoughts here that relate to the followers, the loot, the hidden areas, etc.
[SPOILERS]: Walkthrough / info about this mod's secrets (1 comment)
First a quick tip: If you have had any issues or concerns about the mine not properly updating to the modified version (like NPCs in the wrong place) you can try resetting the whole cell before you visit it. The console command is "resetinterior cidhnamine01" and this should get rid of any lingering information about that space that might be in your save. Follow it up with "pcb" (purge cell buffers) if you want to be extra sure. You would need to do these things from outside the mine.
Quest Walkthrough:
All right, once you are thrown into the prison, I recommend starting the quest the normal way by having a chat with Uraccen and then Borkul the Beast. There have always been a few alternate ways to "get past Borkul the Beast" (beat him up, pick his pocket) but I'm going to discuss the more complicated way: pay the "toll" by finding him a shiv.
If you ask, he will recommend that you go and talk to Grisvar the Unlucky. If you want, you can chat up the new NPC's in that first room (usually Gorm and Kari, sometimes Ernus or Della wander in) but they will all say no if you ask for their help. There's a ton of silver ore stored in that first room, but the prisoners will probably try to beat you to death if they see you stealing it. You could also try to pickpocket Gorm to get a lockpick, but the door behind Borkul can't be picked.
At this point, you have some options. If you don't want to find Grisvar, I hid shivs in a couple of spots around the mine. The easiest ones to get to are in the big flooded room where Runs-With-Sticks hangs out, on a submerged table. (There's also a lockpick there.) If you're feeling brave, Marrgi the orc carries a shiv, but she has it equipped so you probably need to kill her to get it. She also has a lockpick you can try to steal off her.
OK, proceeding with the assumption that you want to find Grisvar:
Turn left from Borkul, past the spot where Della usually hangs out (big hallway with a chandelier), run past Duach and then head into the deep mine. You'll pass by Helebin and probably Omos (he's prone to wandering) but neither of these guys will help you if you ask. After that you eventually get to a huge room with a campfire and a big scaffold. Four NPC's hang out in this area: Jez, Mette, Penda, and Sal. None of them will help you.
This big campfire room has two secret areas connected to it. To the left as you come in, behind some flapping rags, there is a door that leads down into a damp cave inhabited by a large spider boss known as "The Foreman," who has apparently made a meal of the last few prisoners to get too close. I recommend not going in there just yet!
The other area is hidden behind the scaffolding where Sal hangs out. You can squeeze between a couple of posts and follow a hidden path into a cave. The cave is haunted by a ghost called "The Old Man," but he is harmless and can't be engaged in combat if you try. He has no dialogue, either. He's just there for spooky ambiance. At the back of the cave is a dwarven treasure chest with totally random loot in it. Whatever is in there, you might as well grab it before you continue. There's also a lockpick stuck into the back of the scaffolding right near the mouth of the ghost cave.
Continuing on: Head up the stairs and across the scaffold into the next area. You'll find Doren on the way, but he won't help you. The tunnel will twist upward, and now you'll get to the spot where Grisvar hangs out, along with his "friend" Odvan. To the left of them is the infamous Skooma Dump. If you jump in there and search around under the water, you will find a dwarven greatsword and also a handful of gold coins. Climb out again and head down the hallway and you will find a petite Redguard woman named Ralya. She will follow you! She is primarily a dual-wielding melee fighter, and carries a lockpick in her inventory. She's supposed to be sort of a rogue type.
Go ahead and talk to Grisvar. Now that you're armed and dangerous and you've got a badass sidekick, it's a good time to go back and kill The Foreman. Ralya can easily take that S.O.B. out by herself once you aggro him. He will drop two dwarven daggers (the weapons of a previous victim) which I recommend immediately trading to Ralya so she can fight more effectively.
Now you're probably on a mission from Grisvar to get skooma. Again, you have a lot of options. I figured Skooma was a popular thing among these prisoners, so I planted bottles on a lot of them. If you don't want to go all the way back and talk to Duach, you can try pickpocketing Sal or Penda who are a lot closer. Other prisoners who carry skooma are Barnard, Dannethrinos, Helebin, and Omos. Duach is still the only one who will give it up if you just talk to him.
Once you score drugs for Grisvar you can take a shortcut back by jumping down the hole where Ralya was hanging out.
Head up and chat with Borkul again. At this point you have the option to continue the main quest by talking to Madanach, or killing him. He's not as easy to kill as he used to be because he's protected by his lover, a strong Forsworn witch named Flora. She's a charming character to talk to, but she will immediately set you on fire if you hurt her man. If you want to fight Madanach it might be best to go and get prepared first.
Either way, your next stop will be to pick up your other follower. Head back to the starting room, hang a left, continue through the caves past Marrgi's spot and then take the first right. This leads to a long tunnel.
On the right side of this passage you will find a locked-off area, but it's accessible either with Borkul's key (which you should already have) or a lockpick if you hit it earlier in the quest. Don't be scared to burn a few lockpicks trying to get in, because there are several more scattered on the ground once you do get in. At the end of this short tunnel, along with said lockpicks, there is a skeleton on the ground stuck full of arrows and wearing a suit of iron armor. You can loot the armor for yourself or a follower. The end of this tunnel is boarded up and inaccessible, but if you peek between the boards, what you'll see is actually the heavily-guarded front door of Cidhna Mine. (Fun fact: This section of the tunnels was in the vanilla game, but there was no way to get into it without this mod! )
Continue past this side tunnel and you'll get into a rocky area where Dannethrinos and Braig hang out. Braig is the guy Madanach wants you to talk to, Dann is yet another prisoner who won't help you. Between them is a door into a large flooded cave, and in this cave (along with the submerged shivs and lockpick) you will find a huge Argonian named Runs-With-Sticks. This is the other follower! He also dual-wields, but you don't need to give him any weapons because he can summon two bound swords.
With both of these followers on your team, you can take out all the other prisoners if you feel like it. If you have strong anti-Forsworn leanings, now is your chance to smash their whole operation. You could also decide at this point to take on the two crazed vampires in the cage that's down another corridor. You can pick their lock or open it with Borkul's key. At present there's no particularly good reason to do this, but you might think it's worthwhile if you either hate vampires, or want to turn into one. They can infect you if you get close. In the deluxe edition they both wear the bloody version of prisoner clothes that were added in Dawnguard; you might think it's fun to wear these or give them to a follower so you can look like real psychos when you break out of prison.
Down another corridor in that area is a room where Barnard and Lebb hang out. There's not much else in there and there's really no good reason to ever go in this room, unless you feel like fighting those guys, stealing their stuff, or... I dunno, making out with them? Maybe that's your thing, I won't judge.
Anyway, now you've got two badass followers, maybe you talked to Braig, maybe you put on some iron armor or blood-soaked vampire pants, and you and your squad are armed to the teeth and ready to bust out of Cidhna Mine.
If you didn't kill Madanach before, it should be pretty easy now. Your followers can kill his hot girlfriend.
Or alternately you can take pity on the oppressed Forsworn and help him break them all out of jail. Madanach will ask you to kill that sad junkie Grisvar, which was never much of a challenge before and certainly won't be now that you've got friends and gear. Madanach would at this point make a speech, which triggers every NPC besides your followers to chase him through the escape tunnels and eventually out onto the streets of Markarth.
You still have the option to betray Madanach at the last minute, after already collecting your reward, but he will have an army backing him up so it will be tough even with the followers.
If you killed Madanach, the quest continues like it always did, with Thonar rewarding you for taking that scum out and pardoning all your crimes, real or imagined. If you betrayed Madanach at the last minute, you will get both rewards.
If you sided with Madanach all the way, you get to watch him kill Thonar and then you get to watch his army of Forsworn rampage through the city killing absolutely everybody!
If you chose the pro-Forsworn ending, the entire crew will head to their base at Druadach Redoubt, where you can visit them later and watch them all sandbox around and yell that the reach will be theirs again.
Any time after the main quest is over, if you left the followers behind or dismissed them later, they will go and hang out in the nearby mining town, Karthwasten.
That's about it.
Feel free to post any stray thoughts here that relate to the followers, the loot, the hidden areas, etc.