Hel Rising - Norse Dungeon Quest and Follower Mod LE

[nachtdaemmerung77]

Hel Rising - Norse Dungeon Quest and Follower Mod LE

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“I may be on the side of the angels but don’t think for one second that I am one of them.”

 

It all started so simple: locate some bandits, clean out their hideout, collect the bounty... a normal day in a hero's life.

But then you stumbled upon an ancient ruin buried deep in the mountains. There a cult of the old Nords once worshipped a now long forgotten goddess and guarded the secret to an eternal life.

What reward could be higher than to live forever? Surely the undead lurking in the derelict ruins won't stop you, neither the deadly traps and tricky puzzles. But beware, some dangers can't be faced with sword or spell, and one misstep might be enough and the Goddess of the Dead claims your mortal soul forever...

 

Hel Rising is a quest mod spanning multiple dungeons and locations. Also there is Hel as a potential follower available for you at the end of the quest line with a custom voice created by editing vanilla voice files, and some other cool features. She is based on the Norse goddess of the Underworld with a story of my own added in, and a very unique visual appearance and personality.

How to start the quest:

Travel to the Windpeak Inn in Dawnstar and ask the innkeeper if he heard anything interestingly of late. He will give you a bounty letter which will start the quest line.

In case the innkeeper and their replacements are already dead in your playthrough, you have to pickpocket the bounty letter from the current Jarl.

 

What awaits you:

A three-part quest line as the main story with three major locations. There are also some miscellaneous mini-quests, some old school RPG-style puzzles, and a good bunch of secrets / hidden areas for you too find. The dungeons are designed to be less linear than vanilla dungeons and will give you some room to explore and discover both interesting stuff and story.

One of the locations can be used as a player base after finishing the quest line, and of course Hel will be available as an interesting and rather distinct follower.

 

Requirements:

 

Latest version of Skyrim

Dawnguard DLC

Dragonborn DLC

Hearthfire DLC
Optional: XP32 Skeleton, but the installer includes an outfit option that does not require the xp32 skeleton.

 

Installation:

Use your favourite mod manager that can handle a FOMOD installer, simple as that.

 

Uninstallation:

Uninstalling a mod midgame is never really a good idea, but if you have no other choice:

Dismiss any follower you have from this mod
Go to a location which is definetely not part of this mod (e.g. Riverwood)
Open the console and type: setstage N78TrueHelDLG 1000 (This action can't be reverted)
Wait for 24 in-game hours
Save game and uninstall the mod with your mod manager

 

Videos:

 

About Hel

 

Character & Personality:

Hel is described to met those who lived a good life with warmth and friendliness, while traitors and murderers were faced with cruelty and harshness. So her personality switches between these two sides: while one is dominant, the other gets in the background.

During gameplay Hel will change her active personality every few days. How long such a phase is and how often she changes will be decided by some of your actions during the quest. Everyone gets their own personal Hel.

Neither of her sides is simply good or evil, and as a being from a different plane of existence she has her own mind on some things in the mortal world. But generally her light side is nicer and more helpful than her dark side.

 

Voice:

 

Depending on her currently dominant personality Hel will switch between two voices. Her dark side will use the FemaleElfHaughty voice while her light side is based on FemaleYoungEager.

All her dialogue is heavily edited with Audacity to create a unique sound, and she has numerous new lines which doesn't exist in the vanilla game.

Player Base:

After finishing the quest line and recruiting her, you can obtain a certain location as a base for storing loot and offering the usual crafting stations. To get there simply talk to Hel, she will show you the way ?

 

Race:

Norse Goddess (Custom Race)

 

Marriage:

No, she isn't available for marriage

 

Location:

She will remain in the location where the quest line ends, and will wait there for you to be recruited. She also returns there if dismissed.

 

Combat Style:

One-handed / Heavy armour.

 

Perks:

 

• Heavy Armor: Juggernaut (Rank 1), Well Fitted
• Block: Shield Wall (Rank 1)
• Archery: Overdraw (Rank 1)
• Sneak: Stealth (Rank 4), Muffled Movement, Light Foot, Silent Roll

 

Abilities:

 

At the start of combat Hel will summon a soul to aid in battle. Depending on her active personality, this will either be a Tormented Soul which fights as a close-combat focused tank, or a Benevolent Soul which prefers ranged combat and has the ability to heal both Hel and the player.

You can tell Hel to not use her summons in combat if you want.

 

Level:

Hel levels with the player at a rate of 95%, her minimum level is 5

 

Protection:

Hel is set to Essential, she can't be killed by NPCs or the player

 

Body Type:

CBBE
Her default outfit version is standalone, so you can have a different body installed. The lore friendly outfit version will use your installed meshes. Her skin textures will work with any CBBE-type body that uses the same UV mapping.

Height: 1.02
Weight: 80

Technical Stuff

 

Change Log:

 

v1.10

• Complete overhaul of Hel (looks, combat style, perks, race, rideable horse, etc.)
• Added a new section to Helheim
• Minor tweaks to quests
• Minor improvements to dungeon design
• Minor bug fixes

 

Do NOT install v1.10 if you already started a game with an older version installed. Use v1.10 only if you are starting a new game, or never used an older version of Hel Rising in your current save game.
If you ignore this advice you have to deal with the mess yourself, you have been warned! ?

For those who want the old v1.00 of Hel Rising, it's available as a separate download.

 

Compatibility:

Hel has her own follower system. This means while she won't conflict with any mod regarding followers, she will be ignored by them and their respective special features. It's not recommended to use any force recruit / manage features from other mods on her as this certainly will mess up things.

To put it simply, she will follow you when you ask her to, and do so until you dismiss her. Through dialogue you will be able to manage her outfit, toggle her summon spell, and while she is your follower you will gain a Lesser Power to summon her to your side.

 

Console:

Hel's BaseID is xx000D64, her RefID is xx017B15 (xx depends on your load order)

Questions & Answers

 

I'm stuck in the quest, how do I advance?

Some parts of the quest are designed to be non-linear, so if you're stuck you are maybe just in the wrong place right now or missing an item or hint laying around somewhere else. Look around and explore everywhere.
Unlike vanilla Skyrim the quest markers and log will occasionally be more of a guide than pointing you exactly to the next step.
If you still have problems, ask away.

 

I don't like follower mods, what should I do?

You can still enjoy the quest part of this mod (which by the way makes the biggest part of the mod). While Hel plays an integral part to the story, she is at no point forced to you as a follower. If you want, you can simply ignore her after the quest.

 

Will you release her preset?

No, her look wouldn't work on the player character without some modding work. Also I don't really like the idea, sorry.

 

Is this thing really lore friendly?

Technically not of course xD But it's definitely thematically fitting and the story told isn't too far off. If you have concerns about Hel's outfit you can simply install the lore friendly one.

 

I get nasty crashes when meeting Hel for the first time, what do I do?

Either install / reinstall the xp32 Maximum Skeleton or switch to Hel's lore friendly outfit during install.

 

Will you make a version with a "normal" appearance?

No, this would ruin the character.

Credits

- Mods used for her creation -

Caliente's Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- by Ousnius and Caliente
DIMONIZED UNP Female Body by dimon99
UNP HDT-PE BBP TBBP by Turbosundance
KS Hairdos Renewal by Kalilies Stealthic Khaos and Shocky
Demoniac High Quality Glossy Female Body Texture by Regenbot03
Demoniac FMS uses assets from Mature skin texture and body for UNP(B) 7BASE CBBE Vanilla by Maevan2
Leyenda Skin by HeroedeLeyenda
Freckle Mania 2 by tetrodoxin
The Eyes Of Beauty by Gabriel Mailhot
Lind's Human Eyes by Lind001 - LindsWorkshop
Maevan2's Eye Brows by Maevan2
The Amazing World of Bikini Armor by NiseTanaka
Pierced Ears - Earrings by Nostromo79
Vanilla Followers AI by uni_SL
Evil Laughing Woman Sound - Woman Laugh Sound Effect | Ver.2 by Distorted Room
Matherian Viking Shields Set - MVSS by Matherthebec (mtwitalia.freeforumzone.leonardo.it)
Matherian Viking Shields Set - Retextured by Tier1Dusty
Sparrowhawk Armor by lucazoid
Sarta - Leather Wrapped Sword by Billyro
Dovah Nord Weapons by Billyro

 

- Music -

Music: Ásgarðr by Adrian von Ziegler

 

- Tools -

GIMP, NifSkope, Audacity
Lazy Voice Finder by BowmoreLover
Unfuzer CPP Edition by greentea101
RaceMenu by Expired
BodySlide and Outfit Studio by Ousnius and Caliente
TES5Edit by ElminsterAU
NifMerge by Turulo
SSE NIF Optimizer by Ousnius
Skyrim & Creation Kit by Bethesda

Special Thanks

Porterhause for making the teaser, playtesting and being a great guy in general
BowMoreLover whose Lazy Voice Finder proved to be invaluable for editing all the dialogue

 

Have Fun!

 

 

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• Submitter
  nachtdaemmerung77
• Submitted
  08/08/2021
• Category
  Quest
• Requires
  Dawnguard, Dragonborn & Hearthfire DLCs, Optional: XPSME
• Special Edition Compatible
  No

 

[Neo72]

Love this mod and i was happy to see that there is an update just in the moment i've decided to install again

THX

[jpee1965]

GODLIKE.... cheers!

[jpee1965]

Hey nachtdaemmerung77

 

I installed v1.0 but have not had any interaction with her or related actors since installing. Can I update to v1.1 without my game going tits up?

 

THANKS!

[nachtdaemmerung77]

9 hours ago, jpee1965 said:

I installed v1.0 but have not had any interaction with her or related actors since installing. Can I update to v1.1 without my game going tits up?

 

I strongly advise against it. There's already stuff from the old version baked into your save that would cause problems with the new version.

[tremyz1]

No alternate hair cut and skin like the old version?

[nachtdaemmerung77]

14 hours ago, tremyz1 said:

No alternate hair cut and skin like the old version?

 

Nope, sorry ? I don't have as much for mod making as I had in the past, so I decided to also upload the old version for those who'd miss the options.

[CaptainJ03]

A bit of feedback after four hours of fun (and frustration...)

No comment on Hel herself, as I had no use for yet another follower.

 

Only one thing bugged me - all those master-locked doors. I admit that I rather spend five lockpicks on those than search for the key, but were there keys for every door?

The amount of enemies felt rather high, but I played this with an only level 15 char, wearing too much DDs to don hefty armour.

Loved the dungeons, none of those seemed to be copied from anywhere known in vanilla Skyrim, all designed with love and the bit of common sense that lack most of the vanilla stuff. Living quarters where you can imagine someone actually lives here, intelligent traps.
I really loved the old-school riddles, and as I suck at those, they took quite some time to solve.

 

Thank you very much for this mod! ?

[nachtdaemmerung77]

11 hours ago, CaptainJ03 said:

A bit of feedback after four hours of fun (and frustration...)

No comment on Hel herself, as I had no use for yet another follower.

 

Only one thing bugged me - all those master-locked doors. I admit that I rather spend five lockpicks on those than search for the key, but were there keys for every door?

The amount of enemies felt rather high, but I played this with an only level 15 char, wearing too much DDs to don hefty armour.

Loved the dungeons, none of those seemed to be copied from anywhere known in vanilla Skyrim, all designed with love and the bit of common sense that lack most of the vanilla stuff. Living quarters where you can imagine someone actually lives here, intelligent traps.
I really loved the old-school riddles, and as I suck at those, they took quite some time to solve.

 

Thank you very much for this mod! ?

 

Hey, thank you for your feedback! ?

 

I've tried to make a good mix of old school puzzles, combat, obstacles and dungeon design, happy to hear you enjoyed it. And yes, master locked doors in my mods always have a key lying around somewhere. This way the player has more options to find a way past them, and it's more interesting when they have mods installed that make investing in lock picking actually worth it.

 

Glad you liked it, thanks again! ?

[ff7legend]

SSE Edit is reporting a couple NULL References (N78TrueHelSleipnirPackageStay & N78TrueHelSleipnirPackageFollow) under the Package tab where quests should be...  Please investigate/fix if at all possible.  Thank you.

[dazed777]

Hey,

 

I have a small question, since I downloaded and installed this mod when it was still on nexusmod/ I was so surprised how well it is made, so really, good work.

Unfortunetly I had to clean my PC and I had to get rid of all mine mods to later download them again. Unfortunetly I had to download it from here so it means instaslling it manually. Not big deal but now Im kinda stuck how do I change the hairstyle of Hel. I got her with short hair version and I used to have here with clean white long one. Is there a way to change it somehow? If necessery, can do all those missions back again.