quest The Trappings of Fate

[IcicleInn]

34 minutes ago, wren888 said:

Great mod, Frayed. However, the second time I played it, with version 2.1.2, I had problems getting it to work.

 

Uhm if you're going to console to get to the quest faster, kinda recommend using  "set FrayEQMinLevel to 1" instead of trying to setstages on a quest, which should allow the courier to appear without hitting level requirement

[wren888]

43 minutes ago, IcicleInn said:

Uhm if you're going to console to get to the quest faster, kinda recommend using  "set FrayEQMinLevel to 1" instead of trying to setstages on a quest, which should allow the courier to appear without hitting level requirement

A fine idea, but I installed the mod when my character was at level 24.

[DMSK]

what a great adventures! I bumped into two softlocks (Boetia appearing frist time, stuck on chair, solved by setstage 400 and Mephala not appearing, solved by setstage 2100/2200) and ised walktrough for the second quest because its really hard sometimes to guess what to do. But overall vibe and "deviousness" with this guiding collar and watching gargoyles, costumes and devices are really cool. For now its my #1 DD quest mod. I really dont know how to make more quests with Irkalla because its looks like finished story.

[adder12]

Love the concept of the mod and how it turned out. 

 

Out of pure curiosity, any plans to add more content down the line or is it completely finished?

[recroid366]

Just tried a few more times just to start the quest, And it still just goes to black, I sit there for 5 minutes and it just never loads, I hear the sounds. Gear gets unequipped.  then just stays in black. I also tried the "startscene FrayEQIntroWakeUpScene" Command, and it doesnt work. I assume its cause the game has already started the scene, it just doesnt trigger fully

[gghhjj666]

Just wanted to check if it was implemented or not. When striking a deal with the daedra in the first part and deciding to wait for after you've gotten free. Is anything suppose to happen? and what is the time frame after getting free?

[xiwowangyi]

I encountered a very strange problem. At the beginning, when I was asked to sleep after drinking, I clearly noticed that the bed had changed, but nothing happened after the interaction. Then, my interaction with the bed was just a normal sleep and did not teleport to another scene.

[Frayed]

On 8/28/2025 at 5:52 AM, wren888 said:

Great mod, Frayed. However, the second time I played it, with version 2.1.2, I had problems getting it to work.

 

  Hide contents

The courier never came for the Snare quest. I started the it with ~setstage frayescapequest 10. I got the wine and note, but upon opening the note, the only word was "Dear" at the top. I went to the Frostfruit Inn and talked with the innkeeper. However, the gift bottle of wine never appeared, and the bed was not activatable. I proceeded with ~setstage frayescapequest 13. No wine, but I was able to activate the bed. I appeared in the hidden dungeon, but with no crane, and not suspended. After I struggled free, the crane appeared. I escaped the armbinder and found the key, but it was not labeled as the falcon key. Despite lots of trying, I couldn't get it to fit into the indentation in the wall, so I could not proceed.

I went back and tried the previous version of the mod, 2.1.1, which is the one I successfully played before. The courier came with the wine and note, with the note's full text, and the quest updated. I expect things will go fine from here. If not, I'll edit this post.

 

I think that's more likely to be a courier issue than this quest, tbh. v2.1.1 and v.2.1.2 are practically identical. Did you try teleporting to the courier? I believe there are a couple bugs even in vanilla Skyrim that can prevent the courier from showing up, and there are ways mods can mess him up. If he still doesn't have the letter when you find him, startquest frayescapequest should make him get it. If that doesn't work, use setstage frayescapequest 1 to just quickstart the quest. I'd advise against setting stages manually other than 1, because a lot of this quest's state isn't stored/set just by stages, so only setting stages is much more likely to break things than fix them.

 

On 9/10/2025 at 11:31 PM, adder12 said:

Love the concept of the mod and how it turned out. 

 

Out of pure curiosity, any plans to add more content down the line or is it completely finished?

 

I consider the main story finished. However, I will be adding more content in the form of repeatable quests and interactions with Irkalla for after the story has concluded. The first of this will be added in the next update when it's finished, hopefully some time this year.

 

On 9/13/2025 at 11:02 PM, recroid366 said:

Just tried a few more times just to start the quest, And it still just goes to black, I sit there for 5 minutes and it just never loads, I hear the sounds. Gear gets unequipped.  then just stays in black. I also tried the "startscene FrayEQIntroWakeUpScene" Command, and it doesnt work. I assume its cause the game has already started the scene, it just doesnt trigger fully

 

Yeah, I was afraid of that. I don't think you can forcestart a scene from the console, and your character is probably stuck in another mods' scene. You can stop the scene via console, but you'd first need to know which one it is... Next update will have some additional safeguards for this that should hopefully prevent these kinds of issues.

 

On 9/17/2025 at 11:30 AM, gghhjj666 said:

Just wanted to check if it was implemented or not. When striking a deal with the daedra in the first part and deciding to wait for after you've gotten free. Is anything suppose to happen? and what is the time frame after getting free?

 

This is implemented, it happens

Spoiler

after the second quest The Gordian Bind. (Depending on your choices 😉)

 

[Brommer]

Hi, I'm giving this mod a try in my first ever Skyrim SE playthrough. But I'm encountering issues with CTD right at the start. After drinking the wine and using the bed, I get teleported into a cell and put in a contraption. I can walk around in the room after breaking it (no idea how that struggle minigame is supposed to work) but seem to get a CTD quickly every time. It seems to happen consistently when I point the camera towards the cell door. I wonder if anyone has an idea what could be happening, looks like an awesome mode otherwise.

[yoloman96]

Good day, i'm stuck on "a snare to loosen" if some good souls can help me please. (Most probably a bug)

Spoiler

I am at the end of the second room. I need to get passed the dremora. When i talk to the altar, i have the normal dialogue running, he ask me to go in the pillory and once i use the pillory, the dremora do not spawn at all...

Do you have a way to make me pass through this door? I'm not used to commands, i could not move the dremora to me or change quest stage to unlock the door...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[lord,k,]

how do i start the gordian bind ?

i did a snare to loosen but didnt wanted to do gordian bind right after it

[UnEvenSteven]

On 9/20/2025 at 2:39 PM, Frayed said:

I consider the main story finished. However, I will be adding more content in the form of repeatable quests and interactions with Irkalla for after the story has concluded. The first of this will be added in the next update when it's finished, hopefully some time this year.

 

Definitely look forward to more content to Trappings but there is something a lot people seem to be missing. Seems like most want Irkalla to be some dommy-mommy but I'm over here thinking...

 

Spoiler

...what about that Black Book with Apocrypha spilling out after you took Boethiah's Sword? Seems like that would start to be a big problem if the realm kept coming out of the Black Book and Irkalla couldn't stop it. Could either be straight-forward quest through the Black Book as they were in the Dragonborn DLC or, in keeping with the spirit of Trappings, another puzzle dungeon. Perhaps even Walker could even be helped at this point. Could be explained that part of her was trapped in the Black Book.

 

[noobsaleh]

Can't interact with fork on 1.6.1170, I have a lot of mods tho so I don't expect a fix

[Frayed]

 

Hi, I'm giving this mod a try in my first ever Skyrim SE playthrough. But I'm encountering issues with CTD right at the start. After drinking the wine and using the bed, I get teleported into a cell and put in a contraption. I can walk around in the room after breaking it (no idea how that struggle minigame is supposed to work) but seem to get a CTD quickly every time. It seems to happen consistently when I point the camera towards the cell door. I wonder if anyone has an idea what could be happening, looks like an awesome mode otherwise.

CTDs that depend on where you're looking are I think most likely to be a bad/corrupt mesh. If so a crash log should point it out reliably (this is in general what you should look at when you get a CTD: use e.g. Crash Logger and feed its output files into Crash Analyzer). It's unlikely to be this mod, because this mod adds only very few custom meshes, and none at all for the first quest.

 

 

Good day, i'm stuck on "a snare to loosen" if some good souls can help me please. (Most probably a bug)

 

I am at the end of the second room. I need to get passed the dremora. When i talk to the altar, i have the normal dialogue running, he ask me to go in the pillory and once i use the pillory, the dremora do not spawn at all...

Do you have a way to make me pass through this door? I'm not used to commands, i could not move the dremora to me or change quest stage to unlock the door...

 

Thanks in advance.

Most likely your character is stuck in a from another mod and mine failed to start, causing a softlock. I only realized what caused these kind of bugs like a month ago. Next patch will fix a lot of them. For your case specifically I don't have an easy fix. If you really need to, skip the scene by instead of getting into the pillory, typing setstage frayescapequest 63 into the console. It'll remove the barrier on the door.

 

 

how do i start the gordian bind ?

i did a snare to loosen but didnt wanted to do gordian bind right after it

Depends. If you were enthusiastic about the idea Irkalla will send you an invitation letter with instructions. If you were opposed to it you may want to investigate a lucrative-sounding bounty that the courier gives you.

 

 

 

Definitely look forward to more content to Trappings but there is something a lot people seem to be missing. Seems like most want Irkalla to be some dommy-mommy but I'm over here thinking...

 

 

...what about that Black Book with Apocrypha spilling out after you took Boethiah's Sword? Seems like that would start to be a big problem if the realm kept coming out of the Black Book and Irkalla couldn't stop it. Could either be straight-forward quest through the Black Book as they were in the Dragonborn DLC or, in keeping with the spirit of Trappings, another puzzle dungeon. Perhaps even Walker could even be helped at this point. Could be explained that part of her was trapped in the Black Book.

Main story finished 😉 I intentionally left some plot points unresolved, this is one of them. It'll be a while before I get to that one though, I haven't quite decided what to do with it and I want to add some other content first.

 

 

 

Can't interact with fork on 1.6.1170, I have a lot of mods tho so I don't expect a fix

Oh I think I know this one, it drove me crazy for a while. You probably upgraded to 1.6.1170 recently, and were using the "Best of Both Worlds" downgrade patcher for 1.5.97 before? If so, look for a "Skyrim - Patch.bsa" file in your Skyrim folder. If you find one, delete it. It's part of the downgrade patch and not of the base game, and since you upgraded it's now obsolete and messing up Skyrim's string tables, which in some convoluted way makes the fork uninteractable. 

[noobsaleh]

1 hour ago, Frayed said:

Oh I think I know this one, it drove me crazy for a while. You probably upgraded to 1.6.1170 recently, and were using the "Best of Both Worlds" downgrade patcher for 1.5.97 before? If so, look for a "Skyrim - Patch.bsa" file in your Skyrim folder. If you find one, delete it. It's part of the downgrade patch and not of the base game, and since you upgraded it's now obsolete and messing up Skyrim's string tables, which in some convoluted way makes the fork uninteractable. 

 

Unfortunately I don't use that, but if it's really string tables I can go narrow down the possibilities

Edited September 29, 2025 by noobsaleh

[Frayed]

8 minutes ago, noobsaleh said:

Unfortunately I don't use that, but if it's really string tables I can go narrow down the possibilities

Best I could tell before I found out what caused it was that items where their name string fails to load can't be interacted with. If you've got any that do this for whatever reason, xEdit's "check for errors" should point them out.

[Kiro Sotuma]

So after i escaped and first met the elf lady after she ties me back up the devices just vanish after a few seconds. is this supposed to happen? i haven't made the deal with the mask yet.

[Brommer]

On 9/30/2025 at 6:22 AM, Frayed said:

CTDs that depend on where you're looking are I think most likely to be a bad/corrupt mesh. If so a crash log should point it out reliably (this is in general what you should look at when you get a CTD: use e.g. Crash Logger and feed its output files into Crash Analyzer). It's unlikely to be this mod, because this mod adds only very few custom meshes, and none at all for the first quest.

Thanks! I switched from Train Wreck to Crash Logger and it's much better in pointing me the right way. I had a mod that replaced the gargoyle statues, which must have had a bad mesh. It was only coincidence that I hadn't encountered other gargoyle statues earlier in my playthrough. Removing that mod fixed it. Just finished "A Snare to Loosen", great fun  

[yoloman96]

On 9/29/2025 at 7:22 PM, Frayed said:

CTDs that depend on where you're looking are I think most likely to be a bad/corrupt mesh. If so a crash log should point it out reliably (this is in general what you should look at when you get a CTD: use e.g. Crash Logger and feed its output files into Crash Analyzer). It's unlikely to be this mod, because this mod adds only very few custom meshes, and none at all for the first quest.

 

Most likely your character is stuck in a from another mod and mine failed to start, causing a softlock. I only realized what caused these kind of bugs like a month ago. Next patch will fix a lot of them. For your case specifically I don't have an easy fix. If you really need to, skip the scene by instead of getting into the pillory, typing setstage frayescapequest 63 into the console. It'll remove the barrier on the door.

 

Depends. If you were enthusiastic about the idea Irkalla will send you an invitation letter with instructions. If you were opposed to it you may want to investigate a lucrative-sounding bounty that the courier gives you.

 

 

Main story finished 😉 I intentionally left some plot points unresolved, this is one of them. It'll be a while before I get to that one though, I haven't quite decided what to do with it and I want to add some other content first.

 

 

Oh I think I know this one, it drove me crazy for a while. You probably upgraded to 1.6.1170 recently, and were using the "Best of Both Worlds" downgrade patcher for 1.5.97 before? If so, look for a "Skyrim - Patch.bsa" file in your Skyrim folder. If you find one, delete it. It's part of the downgrade patch and not of the base game, and since you upgraded it's now obsolete and messing up Skyrim's string tables, which in some convoluted way makes the fork uninteractable. 

Thanks a lot for your support, i will try the setstage. Otherwise i'll wait for the update. ANyway, thanks a lot for the mod which as far as i was able to go is really enjoyable !!

[indecentcanvas]

every time i remove the blindfold it CTD

even using setstage to get it to 40 where it removes causes a ctd

Edited October 9, 2025 by indecentcanvas

[Frayed]

Update time!

 

v2.2.0:
NEW content:
- Custom follower content for Irkalla and a devious minigame you can play with her after The Gordian Bind has concluded. Speak to her after completing The Gordian Bind to access. I plan to add more minigames and devious interactions like this, let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for them.

- Irkalla's 11L voice pack has been updated for the new content. If you're upgrading, don't forget to grab the voice pack too.

 

Upgrade instructions: if you've either not started The Gordian Bind yet or have already completed it on your existing save, you should be okay to upgrade. Don't upgrade if you've already started The Gordian Bind but haven't finished it, go complete the quest first.

 

Changes & Additions:
- Added this mod's first quest as an Alternate Perspective start option if said mod is installed.
- Overhauled the "Boethiah's Liberation" shout cooldown. Instead of a long fixed cooldown, it is now much shorter, but only ticks down for each in-game day where no Devious Devices are worn.
- Added a special power as a reward for picking the evil ending. I'm not spoiling this one 😉
- Removed webs from arcanaeum storage room for herring-related reasons.
- Moved vial in second trial to a more obvious location.
- Made ruins entrance a bit more obvious.
- Tweaked music tracks for The Gordian Bind quest & locations.

 

Bugfixes:
- Fixed multiple instances of the same bug that caused scenes not to start as they should (usually leading to a softlock):
    - A Snare to Loosen intro scenes.
    - A Snare to Loosen dremora scenes.
    - A Snare to Loosen Irkalla scenes.
    - The Gordian Bind Jurgin scenes.
    - The Gordian Bind Irkalla detection scenes.
    - Possibly a few more in The Gordian Bind.
    - (Technical details: I changed them to ForceStart instead of Start so they don't fail to start when an actor, usually the player, is already in a scene. For some of the A Snare to Loosen ones I also added a warning for the player, idea courtesy of @Hexbolt.)
- Fixed a broken player alias script for the dremora's epilogue. There's a good chance that was what was causing that epilogue to break sometimes.
- Fixed a bug where the earplugs script would set the game's "Effects" and "Voice" volume sliders to 100% every game load, even before starting the quest and without any earplugs equipped.
- Decreased how strongly the earplugs mute sound (x0.25 -> x0.35).
- Hopefully fixed the bug where Mephala would not appear when first clicking a certain gem. (She was missing a persist location (https://ck.uesp.net/wiki/Persistence_(Creation_Kit)), so the quest alias would not always fill correctly. Other quest NPCs also got a persist location now.)
- Fixed the evil ending displaying the wrong quest log.
- Fixed the evil ending not properly completing the quest.
- Fixed quest skip not working properly for evil ending.
- Changed two scripts in A Snare to Loosen to not disable keys held by player, to prevent a crash in VR.
- Changed key safety scripts to not fire when a key leaves its valid area due to the player picking it up.
- Optimized A Snare to Loosen cell a bit more to prevent some lights flickering.
- Disabled Molag Bal reference during finale so that he hopefully doesn't show up unexpectedly when the quest ends.
- Changed notification for when followers are blocking second quest start to also mention the name of said follower.
- Make Irkalla do the grab animation when she strips player in intro. @krzp, happy now? 😛 
- Made barriers activateable again.
- Removed the scripted save after the bedroom scene because some people reported CTD's.

 

(Known issue: the male model of the "Toy's Special X" device I added in this patch isn't positioned correctly - I couldn't figure out how to position it properly for TNG and my attempt to give it SMP physics like the female model has failed miserably 😞 If you're a wizard with that stuff, I'd appreciate some help.)

[SilentAntagonist]

It's awesome to see this mod get more content, as it's one of the best on this site!

 

I have run into a problem with the new update, though.

Spoiler

The new Hit the Spot quest asks me to return to Irkalla within a time limit, but doesn't tell me where she is. I went along with her willingly the whole time on my first playthrough, and used the skip function this time, so I don't know where her home is on the map, and the quest itself doesn't give me a target. Are we just supposed to use the piercing's teleport ability to return home once we've reached the goal number? Similarly the other quests from this mod - namely the one that is supposed to point at Irkalla, and the one telling me to talk to the Dremora also don't have indicators on the map, so also can't help me find Irkalla's home. 

 

[Jay-Omms]

This is a really Good Mod. I love how you made Devious Devices into a puzzle game. You have implemented some very creative content we don't see much from most mods. It's Great! 

[sinola]

I think I found a bug. I took the route where I trade the soul of the elf for my freedom, Molg the ordered me to kill the elf and the other guy so far so good. Then I get the quest "end of service" where I should get the daedra his anchor. The problem is his anchor is nowhere to be found, I get the quest marke which leads me to alchemy room in the mushroom. But it isn't there, the altar is gone, and also the cage with anchor in it the chain where the cage is attached to is still there. The strange thing is that befot I went to the final part of the mainquest, everything is there. The altar, the bloodpit, the cage with anchor anything but as soon as finish the quest they are gone.i try to cheat it by adding the anchor per console commands to my inventory sadly that didn't work for the quest to progress. Is there a way to skip this part of the quest via console like set stage....  etc? 

[MtPyre]

i kept ctd when starting gordian bind after drinking the wine, but enabled the pandora xpmse patch and it would load the cell sometimes? the first time it worked, i didnt save after i loaded into the cell and got another ctd which seems to probably be from physics of the iron chains/cuffs bc it happens consistently when they get equipped. im using fsmp and only ever had lag issues with the physics based dd pieces, not ctd issues, and fsmp is updated. i dont see "plain iron chain" whatever the item is anywhere in my bodyslide though, could it just be crashing bc that item isn't built? and if so, how do i add it to bodyslide so i can build it if it's not there already?