The Midden – Expanded
A quality dungeon and house mod that greatly expands the College Midden, with minimal changes to existing areas. A new lore-friendly player home serves as a hub for new dungeons. Should be fully compatible with most mods; doesn’t require dawnguard, hearthfire, or dragonborn dlcs. 100% compatible with Immersive College of Winterhold.
Overview
A quality dungeon and house mod that greatly expands the College Midden, with minimal changes to existing areas. A new lore-friendly player home serves as a hub for new dungeons. Should be fully compatible with most mods; doesn’t require Dawnguard, Hearthfire, or Dragonborn DLCs. 100% compatible with Immersive College of Winterhold!
UPDATE:
I’ve just released an .esm (master) version of the mod! You can find it in the “miscellaneous” files section.
-ER 4/5/22
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Highlights:
-Delve into immersive new dungeons beneath the College of Winterhold and the Sea of Ghosts
-Uncover the secret history of the College of Winterhold through new quests and over 5,000 words of written materials
-Lore-friendly, and carefully integrated into existing areas, characters, and histories
-A new player home (The Arcane Grotto) for the aspiring conjurer, wayward student, and clandestine researcher in all of us!
-Adds much more depth to the College of Winterhold, especially for those roleplaying a dark wizard or master of the dark arts
-Challenging gameplay (~4 hours) that rewards exploration, puzzle-solving, and determination
-Find new, balanced weapons and armor
-Fully navmeshed, hand-cleaned, and polished with XEdit
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Housing Features:
-Ample storage space
-2 mannequins
-Weapon racks
-Library/study space (expandable)
-Usable bookshelves
-Alchemy nook
-Enchanting area (including a “soul font” for removing souls from soul gems)
-Replaceable banners
-Gardening area
-Bedroom
-Crafting area (with upgradable “transmuter”)
-Hatchery (with respawning ore and monsters)
-Access to new dungeon areas, as well as the college midden
-A custom spell (Arcane Recall) for easy access / teleportation
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v1.07 Patch Notes:
I. Minor changes
-Added welcome messages to the Black Library, the Arcane Grotto, the Undergarden, and the Hatchery
II. Bug fixes
-Fixed surface teleporter in Arcane Grotto; it now requires Drelas’ key
-Removed unused content (unfinished quests, test items, etc.)
-Removed out-of-view objects in Arcane Grotto skyboxes
-Changed the removable torch in the Icy Passage with a permanent version
-Fixed some navmesh glitches in the Arcane Grotto
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Compatibility:
This mod should be compatible with almost everything, including mods that
alter the College and Town of Winterhold. Of those that do, I’ve tested
all of them, and have found no game breaking incompatibilities to date.
The following mods, however, do have some minor incompatibilities:
-Cities of the North LE – Winterhold : Two placed notes in Nelacar’s room at the Frozen Hearth Inn will not spawn.
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Installation:
Manual installation should be very straight forward. Simply download the
zip-file, extract the contents, and place the files “middenexpanded.esp”
and “middenexpanded.bsa” into your Skyrim data folder.
Installation with the Nexus Mod Manager or Vortex should also be fairly straight
forward, as the uploaded files consist of the standard SSE .esp and .bsa
files compressed in a .zip file.
If you’ve installed Skyrim through other means, than you might have to do some sleuthing on whatever drive it’s installed on.
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FAQs (SPOILER WARNING):
How do I find these dungeons?
The new levels added by this mod are accessible from 2 locations in the
Midden (a false-wall in the draugr room and a door in the ice wraith
room) and 1 location in the Midden Dark (a trapdoor in the frostbite
spider room). There is also an exterior entrance located in a cave
northwest from the Winterhold Bridge (go under the bridge and follow the
path down to the sea. You will see a ladder to the cave on your left).
How do I claim the Arcane Grotto?
Simply kill Drelas Var. That’s it! He carries a key that unlocks the Grotto’s
living areas and amenities. Everything in the Arcane Grotto, the Sunless
Mere, and the Black Library is player-owned and safe to store items in.
These zones do not reset. The hatchery however, does reset, so don’t
store any items there!
What’s the solution to the puzzle in the Dark Passage?
Eagles, Snake, Eagle, Eagle. But you should be able to figure that out pretty
easily if you read the books and notes scattered about.
Where do I find the Silver Claw and the Silver Claw door?
The silver claw is located on a table next to the Transmuter in the Arcane
Grotto. The silver claw door is located in the Astronomy Tower Basement,
accessible from the Midden Depths.
Where do I find the Arcane Sigil / Thingol’s Tomb?
It’s located behind a false-wall in the Midden Catacombs tomb room, right
next to the stairs. Look around for a button hidden at ground level.
What do I do with the Arcane Sigil?
You can use it to open a portal to Oblivion (The Storm Lord’s Domain) using
an altar in the Sunless Mere. Look for the tall rock spire lit by blue
fire.
Why is the courier not arriving?
The courier was originally part of an old quest (“Moving In”) for the Oldrim version of
this mod, where the player would purchase upgrades for the Arcane Grotto
from Nelacar. I have not recreated this quest because most of these
upgrades are already available to players on special edition. The rest
were fairly minor and frankly not worth the trouble of recreating.
Why do I still have the Arcane Sigil / Tuning Cube in my inventory?
This is not a glitch. I thought that the player might want these items as souvenirs after they have been used.
