As I was building Tolls, it was feeling quite hollow. The tolls worked, but who really cares if there is no real downside to it? We have curfews from licenses, but the punishment for avoiding the curfew was being sent to the inn or your house. Sexlab Survival (SLS) had a mechanic of the Kennel - a horrible place the player is sent to for breaking curfew, providing a real punishment for this offense. However, SLS's kennels have a few things I want to improve on:

• The kennels are the same
• The kennels are too abusive too fast
• The kennels are not something the player should really want to go to.

I got all the crimes detectable by guards, but as I was figuring out the punishments to build first, I landed on the Kennel, which is also by far the hardest. The Kennels provide my own cells where I don't need to worry about any other mod interfering with what I want to do, but each Kennel needs to do a few things:

• Provide a free bed for the player, for survival gameplay purposes.
• Provide a unique story and design experience in each Kennel
• Have a place to store the players confiscated goods from other punishments

 

Whiteruns Kennel is the first one, and likely the most expansive, as its a good way for me to test out concepts.

 

Whiterun's Kennel is going to be the "Warehouse in the Wall" (final name TBD, but it has a nice ring to it, and if i get real fancy i bet i could make a nice custom sign for it) - its in basically the same spot as the SLS Kennel. The story justification is its a military structure underneath whiterun and its walls. The guards use it for quick reinforcements in time of battle, as a general warehouse, and its where they keep the war dogs, since it has quick outdoor access. The guards have long used it as a secluded place where they can avoid annoying taxpaying citizens and do general debauchery without consequence. With the war between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks raging, a lot of refugees have been flooding the city, so the Jarl ordered the guard to clear out some cells for cheap beds, but even with the extra room, there are not always enough beds for everyone (or the guests have no money), so the proprietors have to find a place for these extra people.

 

 

Whiterun Kennel Entrance. (this is with JK's skyrim, Whiterun has walls, spaghettis AIO, it does work with vanilla skyrim or any individual version of these.)

 

 

Upon entry, its straight down a staircase. I want this place to feel mildly oppressive and claustrophobic from the jump, to provide ambiance
 

The bar area - ignore the banners - I forgot I had Porny banners turned on.

 

The bar will be filled with a number of mostly male patrons, as well as the bartender "Rickard" and possibly the unique NPC "Abigail"

 

Rickard - grizzled old veteran of the guard, retired, now runs the hostel.

• Rent a room from him
• Buy general store stuff
• Lore introduction, updated conversations depending on hold guard hostility (more on that in a future blog), number of times visited, number of times in kennel, etc
• Buy back confiscated items from him (other punishments stuff)

 

Abigail - a hopeful, young adventurer. She stays here while she is in town cause she has very little money. As the days pass, and you visit the Kennel more, you will see Abigails descent, before she is eventually sold into slavery.

• Long term I want the player to happen upon her later, at which point the player will have a quest to potentially free her, and even have her become a follower.

 

 

Rickard's cell - he sleeps here when the warehouse is closed, and the cell contains the chest with the players confiscated items.

 

When the warehouse is closed, Rickard will be sleeping. There will be one guard patrolling that the player can try to sneak past and avoid. I would like the player to potentially steal back their confiscated goods without paying. Depending on the story beats, you may eventually find a very sad Abigail bound in this cell.
 

 

You descend further down another flight of steps into the cells. This is the hostel. Each cell has 2 beds.

NPC's will be randomly generated to take a number of these beds. If they are all full, the player will only be able to sleep in the Kennel. If curfew hits that may be their only choice for the night.

 

When the warehouse closes for the day (configurable in MCM), the cells are locked, and the guards patrol. During the day this place is used for official city business, so the civs must stay out of their way. If hostel guests are caught roaming during this time, they will be sent to the kennel.

The generated guests will each be assigned a small abuse chance based on their type (some have a negative chance) - if its collectively high enough, and the player has stayed in the hostel enough (or the guards hate her), the guests may abuse the player, or chuck her in the kennel against her will bound and gagged.

Hostel guests will have short stories where they explain their circumstances, make them feel part of the world.

 

 

The kennel entrance is at the end of the long hallway. When opened, Garen will be waiting, and he will approach the door when the player approaches. 

 

Garen - the Kennel master - since there is a way past the wall through the kennel, Garen stays here armed, guarding it. However, he also takes this opportunity for corruption

• Fence - if Garen trusts the player enough, he will reveal he is a fence, and buy stolen goods from the player.
• Drug dealer - Garen controls a back entrance to whiterun, he will help with smuggling. He will quickly agree to sell skooma to the player (and there will be skooma whores in the kennel most of the time as a consequence to this)
• Pimp - This cell adjoins a larger storage room, and a nice bedroom - Garen pimps out the kennel regulars to the bars patrons
  • he will eventually start asking the player to be a whore, offering good rewards at first, before quickly pulling the rug.
• Slaver - The kennel is always overflowing with people - where are they going? Spend far too much time in the Kennel, you may find yourself a slave.

 

Garen quickly shows he is a bastard and proud of it, but there is a lot of utility to what he can help the player with. I want him killable, but he scales with the player and starts a higher level, the player will have to access him through a very small room, so its a bad idea to fight him. I will likely tweak him when i test this to make him a very dangerous fight (and I want to do some sort of acheron integration to handle the player defeat in a unique way in this circumstance)

 

This intermediary room also holds a chest, where the player will have to deposit their goods. Garen will provide the player with progressively skimpier clothes the first few times they stay at the kennel, eventually leaving them naked, and later equipping them with DD. Other Kennel guests will somewhat show the player what awaits them, as they will generally be one or 2 steps ahead or equal to the player in gear.

 

Garen is not here while the warehouse is closed. The player will have a short time after the curfew is over to ask to leave, otherwise Garen will simply leave you for another day. There will be factors here that could make Garen intentionally keep the player another day or 2.

 

 

 

The kennel itself is small, cramped, dark, and claustrophobic. There will be a handful of dogs and women roaming around. Kennel guests will be randomly generated (you may find abigail here at some point) - Kennel guests will have unique dialogues based on their types (Skooma whore, begger, cumslut, refugee, etc)

 

There is another gate at the end of the Kennel, before a door leading out of whiterun. The player might find a way to escape the Kennel through here.

 

 

 

 

Secret slave cages - next to the whore room, hidden behind some banners are some large, generally empty cages. The player does not want to find themselves in one. If they do, they have a day to escape, or they will be enslaved. (Simple slavery dependant?)
 

The whore room - If a player does agree to be a whore (or is coerced) - they will find themselves in this room. Garen will bring guests, and the player will receive a small cut. Later feature. during the day its where Garen sleeps.

 

 

Old smuggling route - Not 100% sure what I am going to do with this yet - but in the back of one of the slave cages, there is an extra door leading to an old dirt path dug further down. Is it to an old smuggling route? Maybe its a slave training facility for people who spend too much time in the kennel? Maybe its a mine, for the player never to leave. Maybe Garen has a key, and maybe he stores valuable contraband down there. Haven't decided!
 

A back entrance to the kennel - directly outside of whiteruns walls on the main walkup path - I figured this would be a convenient place for the guards to gather the dogs if needed, and is in enough fortifications of whiterun that it somewhat makes sense. Guards patrol the area, but don't directly guard this door. I might make it so if the guards detect a naked player, they assume its an escaped kennel slut, and bring them back to Garen for punishment.

 

 

 

Anyway, thats where we are right now. Lots of it is built, but working on the dialogues and triggers and generating the npcs now.