Description:
The Trappings of Fate is a Devious Devices-meets-escape-room themed puzzle/quest mod. Find yourself tied up in quite a predicament, wriggle and puzzle yourself back to freedom, and explore a story about the nature of fate while you do so.
How to start:
First quest (A Snare To Loosen): You'll be handed a Letter of Thanks by the courier after travel to any location after you've reached level 9.
Second quest (The Gordian Bind, v2.0.0+): Depending on how you completed A Snare To Loosen, you'll either be handed an invitation by the courier, or you may be lured in.
Requirements:
- Sexlab
- Sexlab Aroused (alternative Sexlab Aroused frameworks should work)
- Devious Devices (v5.2 or newer, LE / SE).
- Fuz Ro D-oh (LE / SE) if you're not using one of the voice packs, or all dialogue will be unreadably fast.
Installation:
Install as normal using a mod manager.
An AI-generated voice pack is provided as a separate download.
Compatibility:
- LE/AE/VR: SE/AE are compatible. LE should be compatible, but I haven't tested that myself. VR should be compatible now with thanks to @Allen Harris.
- If you are using True Directional Movement, you need to update that mod to at least version 2.2.6! Older versions had a bug that breaks forced walks / player AI-driven walking, which happen at several places in this mod.
- If you are using No Lockpick Activate, you should disable that SKSE mod briefly during the part called "Trial of the Prisoner" in the second quest of this mod. There is one small but crucial part of that section that relies on a thing being activated when you lockpick it, and it will not fire correctly if No Lockpick Activate is used. Since No Lockpick Activate is an SKSE mod, you can just temporarily disable it and re-enable it afterwards.
- Devious Devices NG is compatible and strongly recommended!
- Devious Devices Beast Race Refit ("BRRF") is compatible: if you don't have Devious Devices NG, grab the BRRF patch on this mod page. If you do have DD NG, support is built in already, so skip the patch.
- Devious Devices For Him is compatible. Not all devices have meshes for guys though, even with For Him. So some models may still be missing.
- If you are using Unforgiving Devices, make sure you turn off its Hardcode Mode during A Snare to Loosen or you might not be able to progress. You can turn it back on after.
- Try not to start the quest wearing devious devices and especially similar devices from other mods. This mod (unsurprisingly) tries to equip its own scripted devices at some point, and existing devices can interfere and cause all sorts of unintended consequences.
- No other incompatibilities that I know of, at the moment!
FAQ:
-
Q: "I'm stuck on a puzzle in A Snare To Loosen!"
A: Ask the orb for a hint in-game. -
Q: "The Orb doesn't have an appropriate hint!"
A: Look at the mod walkthrough for A Snare To Loosen. -
Q: "I'm stuck on a puzzle in The Gordian Bind!"
A: Check your quest log and revisit NPCs to check for clues you may have missed. -
Q: "I checked my quest log and asked NPCs, but I'm still stuck on a puzzle in The Gordian Bind!"
A: Look at the mod walkthrough for The Gordian Bind. -
Q: "I looked at the walkthrough, but it doesn't work in my game!"
A: Could be a bug, or a mod conflict. Ask in the thread. If you do, please post which version you are using! -
Q: "The courier never shows up to start the quest!"
A: If you're already higher level than 9, quicktravel somewhere else. He should show up afterwards. If not, there are some quests in vanilla Skyrim that block the courier from appearing, or another mod might be blocking it. You can summon him manually with the console command "00039FB7.moveto player". If you summon him and he still doesn't give you anything letter, let me know in the thread! -
Q: "Can't I start the first quest at a lower/higher level?"
A: Yes. Type "set FrayEQMinLevel to X" into your console, where X is the level from which you'd like to start the quest. After, just travel to another location and the courier should show up to start the quest.
Thanks:
All folk that brought and continue to bring us Devious Devices.
@krzp for awesome animations and for xVASynth / Elevenlabs voice packs.
@Allen Harris for ensuring this mod work on VR.
missjennabee & Nazenn for eye textures for NPCs from "Improved Eyes Skyrim".
Kalilies, Stealthic and others for mesh & textures for NPC hair from "KS Hairdos".
Aelie's browser game Escape Games for inspiration (https://aelie.altervista.org/, specifically the Lia's [x] ones). They're great, check them out!
Layam for the collar mesh.
MaikCG for the dwarven cuirass model and Asrienda for its 3BA port.
Imperial2000 for the Ayleid Piercings mod, which provided the base I used for the Toy's Special Piercing mesh.
Permissions:
You are free to reuse anything in this mod with a few key exceptions:
- For its redistributed parts mentioned in the Thanks section. For those you'll have to check the original mod's permissions.
- You cannot redistribute this mod's content in any for-profit project, lock it behind a paywall, or use it for commercial purposes.
Edited by Frayed
Refined install instructions for recent version voice pack. Ticked AI box, since I use AI TTS voice lines.
What's New in Version 2.3.0
Released
(Small hotfix to the initially posted v2.3.0: I renamed the voice pack .bsa file to match the main esp file for future compatibility and to save one esl slot, since now the dummy esl isn't needed anymore)
Content additions and changes:
- Irkalla can now also play the role of the submissive. Ask her to switch between normal, dom and sub roles via the "Hey, Irkalla?" dialogue option.
- One new game for a sub player to play with Irkalla. To start it, ask her in domme mode whether she has thought of any new games to play.
- 300+ new voice lines for Irkalla acting as a follower: she will now have idle comments, respond to players trying to equip her with Devious Devices, comment on vibration events, and more.
- Upgraded voice lines with generally much higher quality for all other characters, using modern AI text-to-speech models.
- All voice lines have now been bundled into one single BSA archive. When updating, disable the older voice packs so the BSA can load!
- Added a "favorite restraints" system, by which players can define sets of restraints that can be used preferentially in scenes and games. To unlock, ask Irkalla in domme mode about it.
- Made Hit the Spot start without teleport if Irkalla is following and already outside of her home.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the elevator to Irkalla's bedroom.
- Made A Snare to Loosen's devices use DD's rendered devices so they automatically have the appropriate beast race meshes from DD (NG).
- Changed lighting for Living Quarters to make it look better with Community Shaders (no directional, more ambient, because CS makes directional depend on time of day and it looked awful).
- Added controller support to custom menus used in the Gordian Bind intro, Trial of the Toy & the Trial of the Prisoner contraption.
- Fixed the courier still delivering the letter that starts The Gordian Bind after the player used the quickstart to skip The Gordian Bind.
- Ported piercing + its FX meshes & textures to LE-compatible formats.
- Added some more fallbacks to prevent issue when player AI-driven pathing doesn't work as it should (scenes: intro command, collar, collar post azura, collar bedroom)
- Refined scene interrupt and actor behavior flags to hopefully prevent a few more edge cases where they could lock up (this should fix a few "stuck in scene" cases, but can not fix all of them - if other mods ForceStart scenes they may still break mine).
- Fixed conditions on first trial dialogue so that Boethiah can actually comment on you failing it.
- Fixed missing SetStage on second trial so that Boethiah can actually comment on you failing it.
- Fixed missing SetStage on third trial so that Boethiah can actually comment on you failing it (okay, this is just embarassing now).
- Made "break device" option possible for first room and bedroom X-cross in The Gordian Bind.
- Fixed a scenario in which a required stage (62) was not set after the dremora scene in "A Snare to Loosen" if all devices were already removed, causing the quest to softlock.
- Made Something Small and Metal immovable to prevent players from picking it up and moving it around before activating it.
- Fixed Gordian Bind quest skip (the one that doesnt teleport you to its finale).
- Added a safeguard to ensure player can escape when they should in "Trial of the Toy".
- Changed a scene in Trial of the Toy to be more robust to other mods possibly interrupting it.
- Added a small wait before ragdolling after Gloomy Ruin reset teleport to *maybe* fix a CTD with certain animation mods. This is purely a guess at a workaround for what I suspect is a cell reload bug in another mod.
- Added a quest marker to indicate the general vicinity of the campsite used to start The Gordian Bind.
- Changed hint phrasing on a watery and on a fiery puzzle to make them slightly more obvious.
- Added some extra tonal forks in a box for clumsy people who keep losing them.
- Fixed boss combat music looping in finale if you pick the evil ending.
- Fixed Walker not being in her hut during The Gordian Bind when she is supposed to.
- Fixed a piercing being unequipped too early during a scene with Irkalla.
- Install the requirements.
- Install main file (YYYY_MM_DD_The Trappings of Fate vX.X.X) as you would any other mod.
- (Optional but highly recommended) Install the voice pack (YYYY_MM_DD_TTOF vX.X.X Voice) for high-quality AI Text-to-Speech voice lines for all characters.
@krzp for awesome animations and for xVASynth / Elevenlabs voice packs.
@Allen Harris for ensuring this mod work on VR.
missjennabee & Nazenn for eye textures for NPCs from "Improved Eyes Skyrim".
Kalilies, Stealthic and others for mesh & textures for NPC hair from "KS Hairdos".
Aelie's browser game Escape Games for inspiration (https://aelie.altervista.org/, specifically the Lia's [x] ones). They're great, check them out!
Layam for the collar mesh.
MaikCG for the dwarven cuirass model and Asrienda for its 3BA port.
Imperial2000 for the Ayleid Piercings mod, which provided the base I used for the Toy's Special Piercing mesh.
