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Here the slightest of things, a memento, a merchant's pack, align a hero's path toward destiny. Forces revealed now are needed later... if the new hero can survive a meeting with a master of shadow.
Lakvan's Stronghold is a dungeon & player home located near the border crossing between High Rock and Skyrim. It is occupied by a clan of powerful and bloodthirsty marauders, feared for their cruelty and gall -- for the stronghold is extremely defensible, and no band of lawmen have yet been able to threaten its denizens.
In terms of size, the dungeon is comparatively short. The place consists of just 5 cells: the grand hall (or throne room) with a walkway and kitchen; an underground with a cellar, barracks, and prison; the courtyard; the blacksmith's house; and the lord's chambers, with two noble bedrooms, a dining area, a personal kitchen, and the steward's quarters.
Features:
Challenging dungeon for mid-level characters (but can be attempted at any level);
Fully voiced (xVASynth) quest with multiple endings;
Scripted encounters that are approachable by any playstyle;
Free follower if you make the right choices;
Convenient blacksmith in the courtyard;
Parts based on real Central European castles as well as some fantasy concepts;
Highly kitbashed design while staying true to vanilla Skyrim principles;
All the usual amenities: all smithing furniture (including a smelter), ovens and cooking pots, alchemy and enchanting;
Lots of non-respawning storage.
Installation: Install as usual, I recommend Mod Organizer 2. Load patches after LakvansStronghold.esp. Then generate DyndoLOD if you want distant LOD.
Compatibility: No vanilla records are edited, aside from obviously necessary additions to the Skyrim worldspace. Everything else is standalone, so it should be compatible with virtually everything as long as it a) doesn't change texture paths within vanilla meshes and b) doesn't add stuff to the overworld in the same location.
- Available patches: Mandragorasprouts' Nocturnal Shrines - Rescales and rotates the statues in Lakvan's Stronghold to fit without clipping. Enhanced Landscapes - Disables some mountain cliffs and moves some others added by EL that clip into the architecture. Lux - Fixes incorrect texture placement on certain vanilla meshes that Lux replaces, plus lighting changes. Included in the Lux installation. Realistic RS Children by Urbon - Compatibility for the blacksmith's daughter. Thank you to Urbon for the patch. RS Children by Kulharin - Compatibility for the blacksmith's daughter, standard edition of RS children. Thank you to Kulharin for the patch.
Everyone is welcome to contribute or host compatibility patches, NPC visual overhauls, etc. Let me know, so I can link to them here.
Walkthrough:
Spoiler:
Show
As you ascend to the top of the stairs to Lakvan's Stronghold, you'll find the injured Halvor Grey-Loam leaning against a rock cairn.
Speak to him and bring him a potion (Restoration is NOT a valid school of magic).
You can help him kill Galldir together, in which case he follows you into the stronghold. Or you can ask him to stay behind.
Enter the stronghold. As you approach the hall, Galldir's illusion will fade, and you'll be attacked by a squadron of crossbowmen. Stealthy characters may avoid detection.
Exit the hall into the courtyard. There are no enemies here, just the blacksmith and his daughter. Carry on through to the castle chambers.
Head upstairs and kill Galldir and his bodyguards, then speak to Halvor again.
If Halvor survives and you accept his offer to stay at the stronghold, he becomes a potential follower and lives in the castle chambers, sleeping in the steward's room. If you decline, he walks to the border and leaves Skyrim forever.
If you kill Galldir without ever speaking to Halvor, or without giving Halvor a potion, then Halvor will succumb to his wounds by the time you get back. Halvor can also die (in combat, or if you decide to kill him) before you kill Galldir -- the quest will account for this.
You can visit the underground area at any time through a door in the hall, though the quest does not explicitly take you there. There are a couple enemies down there as well.
Known (Non-)Issues:
Spoiler:
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Main file is not ESLified. SSEdit returns no information about this, so I'll assume it's not safe to do so.
Halvor's voice lines may sound potentially warbled or robotic. I tried my best to make the prosody as natural and fluent as possible, but I will redo some of the audio if xVASynth gets further updates that perceptibly improve naturalness.
Dragons tend to fly through the walls if you're fighting one in the stronghold's courtyard. Nothing I can do about this, but it's a rare situation anyway.
One of Halvor's dialogue branches transitions in a messy way. Not sure how to fix this without redoing the tree entirely. It doesn't break anything. If you're experienced with making dialogue and have a fix, let me know :)
The throne may be a little finicky to activate. This is a compromise; otherwise the player's back would be floating off the chair.
Ladders in the courtyard may be slightly difficult to walk up. If this happens, you can try jumping, or walking instead of running.
The bodies of the bandits you've slain probably won't despawn, since the entire area is a no reset zone. To remedy this, I've added an activator beneath the staircase in the lord's chambers that will appear once you've completed the quest. It will disable all the bandits. Do this AFTER looting the bodies.
What's Next:
Spoiler:
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An actual Shadowkey! I have something in the works regarding a special secret sixth zone, accessible through a Shadow Gate just like the old game. Might come in a future update, which should be able to be installed on existing saves. Anyway, stay tuned.
If you like this, check out some of my other mods: The Dibellan Baths - another immersive location with full integration into the game world Solitude Rectory - another player home based on medieval architecture Half-Moon Cottage - comfy high fantasy cottage Seidr's Rest - lore player home based on historical architecture Sami Hut - tiny comfy dwelling in the snow
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