EasierRider’s Dungeon Pack
Adds 8 new, lore-friendly dungeons around Skyrim. Dragonborn and Dawnguard DLCs required.
Overview
[UPDATE: v1.5 is now live! -ER 5/30/20]
This mod adds 8 new dungeons to Skyrim, all of which are lore-friendly, seamlessly integrated into the world, and fully compatible with both Forgotten Dungeons (by juhaantero68) and Hammet’s Dungeon Pack (by venjhammet). Everything has also been hand-cleaned and polished with TES5Edit for maximum compatibility. Dragonborn and Dawnguard DLCs are required!
My goal for this mod from the beginning has been to maximize immersion by emulating the quality of Bethesda’s base-game dungeons. With any luck, by the time you stumble across these dungeons, they will feel just like another part of Skyrim. Dungeon locations can be discovered through exploration, Radiant Questing, or by reading new books scattered throughout Skyrim (see the ReadMe for the complete list of locations).
There are 8 dungeons included in the current version (v1.5), including:
Grimroot Hollow – A large spriggan cave / Nord temple north of Robber’s Gorge. High difficulty (level 24+), ~1 hour length. Does not reset.
A narrative-focused adventure where players must choose a side in the fight between the spirits of nature and the forces of evil.
Welkinspire – A large, haunted Blades outpost north of Markarth. Moderate difficulty (level 10+), ~1 hour length. Does not reset.
Rimewake Grotto – A small sea cave west of Broken Oar Grotto (Solitude). High difficulty (level 24+), ~15 minutes length.
Shatterstone Mine – A large, bandit-infested mine south of Falkreath. Moderate difficulty (level 10+), ~1 hour length.
Vallaskr – A large, Nord ruin northeast of Windhelm. Moderate/hard difficulty (level 10+), ~1 hour length. Does not reset.
Stonehill Refuge – A large Giant cavern, located beneath Stonehill camp. High difficulty (level 32+), ~1 hour length.
Khalbad’s Rest – A small Orcish shrine/burial cave near Avanchnzel (the Rift). High difficulty (level 30+), ~15 minutes length.
Steamcrag Springs – A medium-sized necromancer cave near Steamcrag Camp (Eastmarch). Very high difficulty (level 50+), ~30 minutes length.
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v1.5 Patch Notes:
I.New areas & additions
-New dungeon: Grimroot Hollow!
-New secret areas added to Welkinspire, Shatterstone Mine, & Rimewake Grotto
-Added custom books that show individual dungeon locations throughout the world (see the ReadMe for complete list)
-Named kings, icewraiths, and mubdcrabs added to Vallaskr
-Skeevers added to Stonehill Tombs
-More specters and a second dragon added to Welkinspire
-Flame atronachs replaced with new “steam atronachs” in Steamcrag Deep
-Nirnroot added to appropriate dungeons
-Mineable ore added to appropriate dungeons
-Skill books added to most dungeons
-More sound effects added to all dungeons
-“Sulphur bloom” plants added to Steamcrag Deep
-Giant Chieftain and boss-chest added to Stonehill Underhalls
-Added new “Giant’s Bane” sword to Stonehill Vale (in the hills by the campfire)
II. Tweaks & minor changes
-Minor terrain and navmesh re-works to Stonehill Refuge, Rimewake Grotto, & Shatterstone Mine
-Editing tune-ups (extra clutter, lighting, pathing, etc.) to all dungeons
-All dungeon worldspaces retouched with vertex shading
-Increased critical hit damage of Harbinger’s Greatsword
-Greatly increased the difficulty of Steamcrag Springs
-Better glow on light sources
-Khalbad’s Shade now has glowing red eyes
-Horn removed from Stonehill Refuge
III. Bugfixes & functionality
-All dungeons now more follower-friendly
-Fixed radiant questing (hopefully)
-Rebalanced loot and leveling in all dungeons
-Trigger-heavy dungeons (Grimroot Hollow, Welkinspire, & Vallaskr) no longer reset
-Compass now works properly in most areas
-Khalbad’s Will now cannot be disenchanted
-Second key to the Forgotten Tower added to Vallaskr (main lava room in Halls of the King)
-Rimewake Grotto now accessible by rowboat and fast-travel
-Can now wait in Rimewake Grotto; cannot fast-travel from Welkinspire
-Fast-travel to dungeons improved generally
-Specteral Blades now equip bows properly
-Sharpening wheel in Welkinspire is now functional
-Fixed chain texture glitch in Shatterstone Crown
-Fixed enchantment on Harbinger’s Greatsword
-Blades gear in Welkinspire now always lootable
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Hints and Tips:
-Don’t walk on the lava!
-Followers not following you? Try waiting an hour, or simply keep moving through the dungeon. They will catch up.
-Sometimes you will get hit with an infinite loading screen when exiting Grimroot Hollow (caused by Skyrim running out of RAM). Just reload from your last autosave in Grimroot Antechamber and you should be able to exit normally.
-Can’t find Rimewake Grotto? East of Broken Oar grotto, you will find a rowboat with a sea chest, containing the book “The Saga of Urik the Red”; reading this book will add a map marker to Rimewake Grotto that you can fast-travel to.
-You might get stuck in a crevasse if you try hard enough. Type “tcl” into the console to toggle NoClip mode in order to escape. Untoggle it with the same command.
-Parts of these dungeons may cause performance issues for machines with older graphics cards. I’ve done what I can to improve frame rate, but I’m not going to spend a lot of time in the future messing around with optimization. That’s just the way it is.
-While I take screenshots with an ENB (RealVision), I optimize visuals on Vanilla for compatibility. If something looks funny (contrast, lighting, etc.) that’s probably the issue.
-Please report any bugs / glitches / other issues. I will try to deal with them when I can, which may be a while.
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Known Incompatibilities:
-“Invasion of Skyrim – GAT” (hard incompatibility)
-“Rigmor of Bruma” (only the Shatterstone Mine location; does not effect stability)
-“Additional Cave” (dungeon locations)
-“Arweden” (dungeon locations
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Thanks to everyone who has supported and encouraged me to stick with this and other modding projects over the years!
