So I had Adrianne, Belathor and a couple of guards killed in one vampire attack on adept difficulty. I've never had these kind of casualties before even on legendary difficulty. So I was wondering if it had something to do with your progression in the MQ or Dawn guard. Played an alternate start so I didn't start the MQ 'til lvl 6 and haven't climbed the 7000 steps. I get the feeling that if you don't progress the MQ and/or Dawnguard at a reasonable pace/lvl bad things start to happen. Thoughts?

It happens. Ways to lower the chances of it happening are to never fast travel to a town, especially if you are going to arrive at night. If you are on PC there is some kind of mod that makes NPC's run indoors when vampires and/or dragons attack. Also, another poster on a different thread mentioned that he left the Alikr warriors at the front gate so they would help if vampires attacked. All you need to do is don't let them talk to you that first time and run around them to exit the city.

The problem is that Adrianne and Belathor are not scaled (Adrianne is always level 6, Belethor is always level 4). Vampire attacks happen after the player character is level 10 so these two NPCs are always outmatched.

To make matters worse, these Vampire attacks spawn at the front gate, right next to Adrianne. I often exit the Bannered Mare after spending the night, to find that she has already died before I have time to sprint there. In my games, Adrianne is without a doubt the hardest NPC to keep alive.

Thanks entreri! Yeah, I was doing a quest during the night and when I exited the building I heard a guard say,"Someone has to do something about these vampire attacks!". Her and Belathor were already dead I resrrected them, but while doing another quest a courrier gave me a letter saying she had died and left me an inheritance. So nothing to do with MQ Or Dawnguard progress?

I'm worried about NPCs dying when I'm not around. I've gotten three inheritance letters so far at lvl 8. Lol, been thinking about putting a modded lvl 100 guard with a silver sword by the gate.

Vampire attacks start at level 10, and won't stop until you finish the Dawnguard questline.

Yeah just having Dawnguard installed means you get vampires attacks. Another trick for the thief player is to reverse-pickpocket magical weapons (or silver) and healing potions into the inventory of NPC's in cities.

Good to know. Must be that alternate start I did. I usually start seeing vamps after I visit the Greybeards on a vanilla start. Levlel 10? I have a few enhance enemies mods installed so maybe that's why I'm see them earlier. Plus that alternate start changes stuff. Curious now, so I'll start a new game with a vanilla run at the beginning and progress MQ and Dawnguard.

Heh heh. I just created a high level warrior I'm going to position by the gate. I still have a save with Adrianne alive so maybe my warrior will protect her .

I'm actually glad in some cases that certain NPCs get whacked by vamps, they sometimes come up to my character and say the most annoying and repititious statements... So thanks Vamps!

If you're on PC get Arthmoors "When vamps attack" mod. Eliminates this problem by making all NPCs essential (except guards and enemy NPCs)

Thank you Alaric the Visgoth! That sounds like exactly what I need. Gonna get that right now.

Yeah, but not Adrianne. I made some changes to her in the CK so its always nice to see her when I come back to Whiterun.

Lol! Arthmoor's a wonderful modder. I didn't realize I've used a lot of his mods already. He always has great ideas for mods.

np. forgot to post link to nexus. Get it here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28235/?

also consider using the resurrect cheat to restore any vital NPCs (especially merchants like Belethor as much as he irritates me) right after they get killed. I've never tried it, but I think you may be able to restore NPCs up to the moment the game relocates their bodies to the morgue.

Have you tried his Cutting Room Floor yet? If you thought this guy was gifted, try this one out and prepare to be mind blown at how much stuff Beth left out of the game.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/47327/?

or his Run for Your lives (aka when Dragons Attack)?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23906/?

And totally off topic: Isoku (like Chesko and Arthmoor) is another incredibly gifted modder who transformed the vanilla game play with is immersion lore mods. Check out Isoku's Wet and Cold: Holidays here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51472/?

And Chesko's Frostfall here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11163/?

You travels throughout Skyrim rolling with these top 3 Skyrim modders will NEVER be the same.......

Just got when dragons attack and using Frostfall now. My new rig should be ready this week so I'll be using all those mods .