Captive Followers

[Seeker999]

@BonitaMussolini Right, the housecarl for Lakeview manor. Yeah, same situation as the people I had trouble with, afaik all house carls are initially disabled until you are a thane in the hold and have property. In fact, you should probably make sure the hearthfires.esm is blacklisted (it should be) in '... Data\SKSE\Plugins\CaptiveFollowers\Config.json". Check to see if you have anything overwriting Hearthfires.

If you can go to a save before you're in the cell where she is being held (preferably while you're outside the cave), look up her actual refid (I frequently use the uespwiki; don't spawn her 'cuz I think that will mess her up),

open the console and type 'prid refid' enter and then 'enable' enter. I would probably save at this point.

Wait or wander around a bit, then enter the cave.

If she's still not in there, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe somebody else can help. If she is there, she won't interact much when you free her, just follow you out. Eventually, when you get outside and away from the entrance she should start walking on her own. Don't talk to her until she is legitimately in your game. Hopefully by the time you are Thane of Falkreath she can be officially appointed your housecarl as normal.

 

[Talesien]

1 hour ago, BonitaMussolini said:

Na Rayaa is a base game character. When i saw she wasn't actually there i enabled using refid first and foremost (forgot to mention that mb) and when she didnt appear thats when i force spawned, disabled and re-enabled and when none of it worked i reloaded the save and moved on to see if it was with all the NPCs. The next one was actually there so it may just be an issue with that particular NPC. Since she's base game (skyrim.esm) I'm guessing she was put in by the ForceCaptureNPC part of the config but isnt being recognized as valid since they dont get scanned? Not sure I only started messing with mods a couple months ago so I'm still learning some stuff thats probably considered pretty basic.

 

As a vanilla follower Rayya should not be captured to start with. If she is, you either removed the base game esm's (Skyrim.esm, dragonborn.esm, dawnguard.esm and hearthfire.esm) from the blacklist in wich case it's your own fault or you have a mod that modifies her in a way which makes this mod think she is a regular follower. Load your entire LO into xEdit, find her record (xx005215, usually 03005215) and check which other plugins are modifiying it. Add them all to the blacklist and hope for the best (I've found that some disabled followers get captured regardless for some reason).For your current game there is little to do. I would leave her alone until (if) you become Thane of Falkreath. If you don't ... nothing to do. If you do and she does not show up, try rescusing her then.

[BonitaMussolini]

25 minutes ago, Talesien said:

As a vanilla follower Rayya should not be captured to start with. If she is, you either removed the base game esm's (Skyrim.esm, dragonborn.esm, dawnguard.esm and hearthfire.esm) from the blacklist in wich case it's your own fault or you have a mod that modifies her in a way which makes this mod think she is a regular follower. Load your entire LO into xEdit, find her record (xx005215, usually 03005215) and check which other plugins are modifiying it. Add them all to the blacklist and hope for the best (I've found that some disabled followers get captured regardless for some reason).For your current game there is little to do. I would leave her alone until (if) you become Thane of Falkreath. If you don't ... nothing to do. If you do and she does not show up, try rescusing her then.

I did, the only thing referencing her is USSEP and thats already on the blacklist so I'll just wait till im thane of Falkreath like you and seeker suggested. The only other thing i can think of is NFF causing an issue but it doesnt show NFF referencing her at all but idk how that all works so it's all good ty for the help.

[Talesien]

3 hours ago, BonitaMussolini said:

I did, the only thing referencing her is USSEP and thats already on the blacklist so I'll just wait till im thane of Falkreath like you and seeker suggested. The only other thing i can think of is NFF causing an issue but it doesnt show NFF referencing her at all but idk how that all works so it's all good ty for the help.

NFF isn't touching anything that should be able to cause this, so I guess it can be ruled out (also I'm currently testing Horde, and for me my two problem followers still get captured). I guess we can only wait for @darkdesires04 to completely prevent capturing any disabled followers. It's pretty baffling behaviour TBH, especially since it's apparently different for people which (disabled) followers are getting captured while they should not.

[crococat]

Hello. Specially for this mod had installed all optional location mods.

CF see all exept HammetDungeonPacks 1 and 2.

Tryed to install HDP1 esp version with different name but also no result.

Does anyone have or have not this problem?

 

Also i dont have any Mihail mod but CF see half of monsters from DemonicCreatures, but it missed in description.

Just cannot find Sexlab support for Mihail, is it work by itself?

[Bigglsby]

2 hours ago, crococat said:

Hello. Specially for this mod had installed all optional location mods.

CF see all exept HammetDungeonPacks 1 and 2.

Tryed to install HDP1 esp version with different name but also no result.

Does anyone have or have not this problem?

 

Also i dont have any Mihail mod but CF see half of monsters from DemonicCreatures, but it missed in description.

Just cannot find Sexlab support for Mihail, is it work by itself?

 

I run both Hammet packs, and don't have any problems.  If the fomod isn't installing them correctly, you can always manually pull them from the archive.

 

Demonic creatures has several of its added creatures based on Mihail's mods, which is why they are recognized here.  Mihail's mods (unless further modded) do not support Sexlab.  So spawned creatures won't add sexlab function for Mihail's added spawns, but would be an option for those added by Demonic Creatures.

 

Hope that clarifies...?

[crococat]

54 minutes ago, Bigglsby said:

I run both Hammet packs, and don't have any problems.  If the fomod isn't installing them correctly, you can always manually pull them from the archive.

Very strange for me. I have both esms and can take items from them, now tested entering dungeons succesfully. But mod dont see them.

[darkdesires04]

On 4/25/2026 at 3:47 AM, Talesien said:

NFF isn't touching anything that should be able to cause this, so I guess it can be ruled out (also I'm currently testing Horde, and for me my two problem followers still get captured). I guess we can only wait for @darkdesires04 to completely prevent capturing any disabled followers. It's pretty baffling behaviour TBH, especially since it's apparently different for people which (disabled) followers are getting captured while they should not.

 

I am not modding currently but regarding this check for not restraining disabled followers... here I added a quick fix for you guys so that disabled followers are not restrained, but haven't tested it. Just replace the file.

 

ddCaptiveFollowers.pex

Edited April 26 by darkdesires04

[summerink]

Good Afternoon, 

 

I was wondering if someone would be able to lend me a hand.  I cannot seem to get this mod to function properly. When I go to restrain followers it goes through the process but after waiting a few minutes it comes up that that "0 Followers restrained".  I cannot for the life of me work out why. 

 

I do have a couple of followers installed for the purpose of testing this mod. I did try starting a new game and on intial load the mod did restain the 19 followers i have installed. So it does work. I cannot get it to work on my actual playthrough though. 

 

I'm pretty sure i have all mod requirments ( up to date ZAZ, Jcontainer, Papyrus etc). I have tried unistalling anything that might conflict (Yamete, Resue Missions etc) but no luck. I have tried reinstalling (on MO2) but no luck. Tried reorganising my mod list with LOOT but no luck. Tried removing the mod (and Captive player) with the intention of starting a clean save but that, of course, resulted in a corrupt save file. I've trawled through the forum here but havent seen anyone with the same issue.

 

Is there something super obvious i'm missing? Is this just a case of not working when loaded into an existing playthrough? I apologise if this is something thats obvious to everyone else. 

 

Would appreciate any help. Thanks. 

[Talesien]

3 hours ago, summerink said:

Good Afternoon, 

 

I was wondering if someone would be able to lend me a hand.  I cannot seem to get this mod to function properly. When I go to restrain followers it goes through the process but after waiting a few minutes it comes up that that "0 Followers restrained".  I cannot for the life of me work out why. 

 

I do have a couple of followers installed for the purpose of testing this mod. I did try starting a new game and on intial load the mod did restain the 19 followers i have installed. So it does work. I cannot get it to work on my actual playthrough though. 

 

I'm pretty sure i have all mod requirments ( up to date ZAZ, Jcontainer, Papyrus etc). I have tried unistalling anything that might conflict (Yamete, Resue Missions etc) but no luck. I have tried reinstalling (on MO2) but no luck. Tried reorganising my mod list with LOOT but no luck. Tried removing the mod (and Captive player) with the intention of starting a clean save but that, of course, resulted in a corrupt save file. I've trawled through the forum here but havent seen anyone with the same issue.

 

Is there something super obvious i'm missing? Is this just a case of not working when loaded into an existing playthrough? I apologise if this is something thats obvious to everyone else. 

 

Would appreciate any help. Thanks. 

If it works on a new save, but not in your current one, using 100% the same LO, I don't think there is much you can do. You already established the mod works fine in your LO, it just does not work in your existing save. So it has nothing to do with this mod, or with your LO as such, but is purely a problem of your current save game.
You could try a save cleaner, if you didn't try that already. Otherwise, there is always a chance of mods failing to play ball in an existing save game. Especially if you added or removed mods before (sounds a little like you do that with little hesitation). Adding usually works, removing ... can leave lingering issues that don't show until much later. You might have hit such a problem.

[summerink]

2 hours ago, Talesien said:

If it works on a new save, but not in your current one, using 100% the same LO, I don't think there is much you can do. You already established the mod works fine in your LO, it just does not work in your existing save. So it has nothing to do with this mod, or with your LO as such, but is purely a problem of your current save game.
You could try a save cleaner, if you didn't try that already. Otherwise, there is always a chance of mods failing to play ball in an existing save game. Especially if you added or removed mods before (sounds a little like you do that with little hesitation). Adding usually works, removing ... can leave lingering issues that don't show until much later. You might have hit such a problem.

Hi, 

 

Thanks for the reply. 

 

I think you may unfortunately be right. I will give the re-saver cleaner a go. Its been a while since ive been into Skyrim modding and i forgot about that tool.   If not I may just have to accept its not happening. I'm actually not too bad for removing stuff, it was just me trying to problem solve really but your point is well taken.

 

Thanks for your help anyway. 

[Crewdoh]

Are there detailed instructions for creating the whitelist or blacklist? Preventing npc's from being help captive or even better, create a list of npc's that are allowed to be held captive.

[Talesien]

On 4/26/2026 at 5:58 PM, darkdesires04 said:

 

I am not modding currently but regarding this check for not restraining disabled followers... here I added a quick fix for you guys so that disabled followers are not restrained, but haven't tested it. Just replace the file.

 

ddCaptiveFollowers.pex 159.39 kB · 3 downloads

Thanks btw. worked perfectly for me.

[Kanerah]

If you're planning any more updates, one feature I'd love to see: When you click on restrained npc, screen goes black with a message, something like:

 

"You remove restraints from < insert name npc>".

 

I think it would help a lot with immersion, it kind of looks weird how they are instantly "teleported" away from it.

 

Also, as an option, for freed npc to be immediately set in bleedout state. Since PAHE/DoM usually rely on this for npc enslavement, this way you can automatically take them as your slaves ( or not, if you choose to ignore)

 

And it kind of makes sense ( if you were restrained/tortured for days, this would obviously leave you very weak).

 

Otherwise, mod works perfectly, thank you. 

[Niki69]

If i delete skyrim.esm and dawnguard.esm from the blacklist will serana and lydia get captured?

[Lusciouslochs]

does this mod not register ESL followers? i ran my list through eslify and afterwards the game fails to register any follower, saying 0 followers found/0registersed. 

[Talesien]

10 hours ago, Lusciouslochs said:

does this mod not register ESL followers? i ran my list through eslify and afterwards the game fails to register any follower, saying 0 followers found/0registersed. 

The mod works with ESL(ified) plugins just as well as with regular. I've no such problems, so it must be something in your LO/configuration.
Things to check:
A.) Did you eslify the CaptiveFollower.esp plugin as well? If yes, undo that and try again (I didn't, for various reasons). Technically it should work even with the plugin eslified, but you never know and it is easy to test.
B.) Are you capturing from the Whitelist? In that case you need to fix the ref id's manually as ESLifier does not know how to do that.
C.) If neither, make sure the json in the config is still valid, use jsonlint or similar. In fact do that first.

[Talesien]

On 5/2/2026 at 1:48 PM, Niki69 said:

If i delete skyrim.esm and dawnguard.esm from the blacklist will serana and lydia get captured?

Unless you use the modified script posted by DarkDesires a bit up in this thread, which prevents disabled followers from getting captured, yes, along with many other vanilla followers.
This is a bad idea. All vanilla followers are gated behind quests, in the case of the Housecarls (or Serana) they are not even in the game (i.e. disabled) until you become Thane of that hold (open Seranas sarcophagous). So they will be captured, but cannot be found in the indicated locations. Doing this has a high chance to irrevocably break your game, how badly depends on what quests you do and so on. If you go through with it, good luck, but please don't come here to complain or look for solutions to fix your game after the fact.

[Niki69]

6 hours ago, Talesien said:

Unless you use the modified script posted by DarkDesires a bit up in this thread, which prevents disabled followers from getting captured, yes, along with many other vanilla followers.
This is a bad idea. All vanilla followers are gated behind quests, in the case of the Housecarls (or Serana) they are not even in the game (i.e. disabled) until you become Thane of that hold (open Seranas sarcophagous). So they will be captured, but cannot be found in the indicated locations. Doing this has a high chance to irrevocably break your game, how badly depends on what quests you do and so on. If you go through with it, good luck, but please don't come here to complain or look for solutions to fix your game after the fact.

I was only a little curius, i don't plan on doing it i know this mod is a little unstable

[Lusciouslochs]

On 5/6/2026 at 7:22 AM, Talesien said:

The mod works with ESL(ified) plugins just as well as with regular. I've no such problems, so it must be something in your LO/configuration.
Things to check:
A.) Did you eslify the CaptiveFollower.esp plugin as well? If yes, undo that and try again (I didn't, for various reasons). Technically it should work even with the plugin eslified, but you never know and it is easy to test.
B.) Are you capturing from the Whitelist? In that case you need to fix the ref id's manually as ESLifier does not know how to do that.
C.) If neither, make sure the json in the config is still valid, use jsonlint or similar. In fact do that first.

I did batch eslify all my mods, so A. Is likely the culprit. Thank you for the advice 

[Angryman420]

I have the same issue as one of the previous posters.

 

Overall, the mod works great. Followers are restrained, Sexlab scenes play as well. I have a total of 500+ followers installed that should be outside the blacklist.

 

In terms of extra dungeons, I did not install any of them in the beginning. In the middle of a playthrough, I installed all of them - and these are the results

 

Hammet 1, Hammet 2 - Captive Followers mod does not recognize these at all

Forgotten Dungeons - Recognized. I believe followers are restrained there, since my overall restrained follower count is at 428. However, they do not show up in the captured list, and pages 4 and 5 of the captured list shows the exact same names (followers and dungeons where they are)

Skyrim Sewers, Siege at Icemoth, Morthal Barrow, The Temple of Back Rock: All recognized by mod, but zero additional followers restrained after installing these and re-running restrain through MCM.

 

So to summarize:

 

1. Initially installed Captive followers + 300 or so followers (in addition to any blacklisted follower). Restrained 300 after running restrain function through MCM.

 

2. Installed Hammet 1 + 2 and Forgotten Dungeons, and 200+ more followers (in addition to blacklisted and prior 300). Re-ran follower restrain through MCM, restrain count increased to 428. Captive Followers mod MCM recognized Forgotten Dungeons, but not Hammet 1 or 2. In the Captured list on MCM, I do not see any forgotten dungeons mentioned as places where any followers are. Yet since the restrained count is over 330, I assume there are followers restrained there. 5 pages of captured followers, pages 4 and 5 are identical.

 

3. Installed Skyrim Sewers, Siege at Icemoth, Morthal Barrow, The Temple of Back Rock, and 20 additional followers (in addition to blacklisted and prior 500). MCM recognizes all these new dungeons. Re-ran restrain function, zero new followers restrained.

 

 

It seems like there is an issue with these additional dungeons where

Mod does not recognize some dungeons outright (Hammet 1 and 2)

Mod recognizes, restrains followers there, but does not show them in captured list (Forgotten Dungons)

Mod recognizes, but does not restrain followers there (Skyrim Sewers, Siege at Icemoth, Morthal Barrow, The Temple of Back Rock)

 

I have restrated with a brand new character and all extra dungeons installed, the results are the same.

[WhiteShadow4]

I'm only using this mod because of captive player and I haven't actually set followers to be captured. But I noticed a problem.

I set the enemy spawn to 0% and enemies spawned count is also 0 but still found 3 extra enemy spawns at the exterior of knifepoint ridge. I don't know if there are other places with extra spawns. I already play with some hardcore fighting mods. Those extra enemies are making it unplayable. I spend 1 hour tring to kill them and ended up cheating with console. How can I complely get rid of extra enemy spawns?

Edited May 14 by WhiteShadow4

[MyName2]

1. An error that someone wrote about: followers are captured in taverns of cities or castles, after which locations crashed when trying to enter them. There was this error, it was solved: I sorted it again using Loot, checked the followers mod and deleted the buggy one.
2. There is such a error now. The follower has to be taken out of the cave after destroying all the enemies. But he breaks down after Sexlab scene, after liberation and before leaving the cave (for me it was Devious Curses or Defeat).

[Bigglsby]

3 hours ago, MyName2 said:

2. There is such a error now. The follower has to be taken out of the cave after destroying all the enemies. But he breaks down after Sexlab scene, after liberation and before leaving the cave (for me it was Devious Curses or Defeat).

 

This tends to happen when some mod takes control of your rescued followers for a bit.  Once they start wandering off, you can just interact with them again (hit/spell/talk), and they'll start following you again just like when they were released.

[MyName2]

1 hour ago, Bigglsby said:

 

Такое обычно происходит, когда какой-нибудь мод на время берет под контроль ваших спасенных последователей. Как только они начинают разбредаться, вы можете снова взаимодействовать с ними (нанести удар, произнести заклинание, поговорить), и они снова пойдут за вами, как и в тот момент, когда их освободили.

The first time it didn't work, nothing worked at all, then I played it a little bit, that's what worked.