First time through Skyrim, Level 61, but still a relative noob. I happened upon a fight in Riften that wasn't a thief kill. When it settled down, there was just one Riften Guard whacking on Mjoll the Lioness. No one seemed to be looking, so I killed the Guard--which didn't bring more guards running. There was one more guard whom Mjoll pursued to 'Main Street', where she killed him. I returned to the massacre scene, which was approximately in the Snow-Shod back yard. The dead were as follows:

Edda the beggar

Bolli the Fishmonger

Marise Aravel the Food Seller

Ingun Black-Briar

Nivenor, Bolli's wife

Aerin, Mjoll's tag-along b/f

I of course quickly took all that was worth taking and visited the homes of the deceased--even Black-Briar Manor, to see if there'd be any relevant dialogue (there wasn't).

In Bolli and Nivenor's house, I found a Report that said she had been running around on him.

I can't believe that a simple fight between Bolli and Nivenor managed to svck in all of the others, not in a "back alley". I'm guessing that Mjoll got into it with the Guards after they accidentally killed Aerin, but the rest of it I can find no dialogue or back-story for.

Outside of "no more free potions", I wonder what the upshot of this is. A side note: Mr. Black-Briar don't like me. Is that b/c I helped run the Imperials out of town? Can't figure what else I did to piss him off.

Info greatly appreciated. If this has been discussed before, I don't yet know it, as I just got here.

I had a similar incident happen in The Winking Skeever in Solitude not too many play throughs ago. I can't remember exactly what I did to start it but next thing I know the guy who was after me became the target of someone else and in turn the whole place became a battlefield of NPC's attacking each other. I'd never seen anything quite like it before.

I've n ver been so lucky to witness something like that in the thousands of hours I've spent playing.

Me neither.

Kind of sounds like a "broken mod" sort of thing.... are you using any mods? Eh, I have to agree with Daedric_Dovah and Talyn82 - never seen anything like that personally. In a LOT of hours of playing, modded to the hilt....

I wasn't in the back alley, just heard "They're fighting" and went back there after seeing a Guard run across the end of the connector alley. One day later (real time, game time probably 4 days), I showed up at the Drunken Huntsman for some run-of-the-mill weapon sales at night. When I turned to face Elrindir, he's suddenly brandishing a War Axe. I thought I saw a green glow(?). I never hit the X button ('present arms'), but Argis ran around the counter and killed him with his Giant Club before I could jump into his path or something. The Merc Warrior in the side room never moved. 3 defunct businesses in Riften and 1 in Whiterun...

I'm playing on an Xbox 360, no mods. Game is the Legendary Edition, and I'm on my first run-though of the main / standard game. Weird...

Added note: After Ingun was dead, her potions chest was full, a game day or two after the carnage. I'm waiting to see if it fills up again.

Sounds like the saloon fight scene in "How the West Was Won"..

There's nothing weird about it, the game is just riddled with unfixed bugs which can cause serious problems. Sadly on consoles one can do nothing else but to adjust playstyle to prevent issues and that's difficult and not guaranteed to work.

That almost sounds like some of the stories people tell about "dropping items" in public. NPCs seem to fight over the item(s) quite readily. I've never witnessed such, myself

I really wish all named merchants were flagged so only the player could kill them, either that or have generic respawning merchants like the bandits. You might have to wait a day or two for their replacement to show up but at least all the merchants in a town couldn't disappear through no fault of your own. The towns are thin enough of citizens that I would even extend that to all named citizens. As is if I find some named citizen dead I immediately resurrect him.

I agree. They could have made the Merchants indestructible and let us kill the damned Imperial Prelates. The latter's invincibility is klunky, works against the 'realism'. Both aspects are counterproductive.

I sometimes think the AI messes up a bit here and there, which is why saving often is a must. On 360 I have had many named NPC's dead for no reason I could see.

I don't mind being able to kill a merchant yourself. If you do having no where to sell your goods would be your own fault. But having the AI go weird and setting off mass mayhem among the NPCs depopulating your towns of merchants is a pain. Those damn vampires are bad enough but at least can mostly be avoided by staying away or inside at night.

Too bad - the massacre means a bunch of quests are now unavailable. I played on Xbox for 3500-ish hours and never saw this but I've only played a half-dozen builds.

The 'green glow' sounds a little like the affliction from The Only Cure. I wonder if there's a glitch that's improperly labeling NPCs as afflicted? Even so, I don't think they get attacked on site.

I started a riot in Riften when I dropped a silver bar in the market place. Everyone wanted that silver! Purely accidental - I was just trying sort out nuggets to transmute a bit of gold for Madesi. The violence escalated quickly! My character was an experienced illusionist so he managed to calm things with a few spells before there were any serious injuries. It was quite comical.

I experienced something similar last weekend where people in Riften went crazy and started killing each other for no apparent reason. I ended up reloading and it didn't happen again.

I've had that happen to me in Riften too or something very like it. For some reason one of the NPC's became hostile to me or something, anyway the guards then decided to whack on him, which lead to others joining in on this NPC's side, and before you knew it there was the War of Riften going on, very short battle it was because it was very one sided. Needless to say there wasn't a soul left alive apart from a bunch of guards and that chesire cat, Mjoll.

It sounds like the Riften Mead Festival is particularly lively this year!

It doesn't sound like anything is 'broken' here (or bugged, glitched etc which are requent euphemisms for 'I don't like it') Remember the AI is cycling through a lot of players here and their stances are easy to flip from passive to aggressive according to local circumstance. Things just happen in a loaded cell whether you are watching or not.


An often overlooked trigger is your own bounty. If you have a lot npcs that you have helped out they will be 'on your side' So when you show up as wanted and a guard or some do gooder (eg Talsgar) spots you and draws a weapon.....your 'buddies' will rally to your aid.....incurring more guard action and reactions from npcs who support the guards favoured faction.......= bloodbath!


Heres a common occurrence ( well not common, but it happens easily) in Riverwood.

Fir no "apparant" reason Gerdur attacks a guard, then Sigrid and Alvor kill her. Took me ages to work it out.....it was an external factor.

A Stormcloak courier runs to the village....right through.....and hes fast.....often just before you show up. Whiterun guards automatically draw weapons on Stormies. Gerdur is pro stormcloak and draws on the guards. Sigid and alvor are pro imperial and draw against Gerdurs attack on the guard.

How to stop it? Well when I ran south from the village and intercepted the courier early he stopped turned around and ran back south....didn't reach Riverwood....no fight started!


Anyhiw OP...thanks for that....when I have the opportunity....guess what I'm gonna be doing in Riften


Edit...Oh...heres an odd one....I once turned up at lakeview on a stolen imperial horse and Lydia who was standing by the garden ,went bonkers attacking the horse........doesn't normally do that. I had to paralyse her so the horse could run off and start plodding home...odd!

My thought was that there was perhaps an errant thief running around and being hunted by guards and others.....happens often for me. One mis-swing of a weapon and you hit an unintended target becoming worse than Alduin ever was though...any chance this is what happened among the NPCs without your assistance, OP?

In my case I had no bounty but I think the massacre was triggered by an imperial courier.

"Black-Briar!"

"Honningbrew!"

"NORD MEAD!"

and a little voice in the back, "Wine?"

Fisticuffs ensue

I seem to remember parties like that in the '60s.

I remember once early on seeing a random (meaning Un-named) Thief running thru Riften with half the city on her trail...

That would be a really neat mod! Maybe there could be some sort of annual festival in each of the cities/towns - Solitude has the burning of King Olaf. It would be cool if everyone else had something as well.