» Thu May 24, 2012 8:34 pm
List up to date. I also included a recent bad experience of my own ...
When trying to deliver the thirty Crimson Nirnroots to Avrusa, all sorts of fun proceeded to unfold. A pair of Orc Hunters (like regular hunters, except they're as territorial as bandits) chased an Elk right into Sarethi farm. The first sign of this was Avrusa suddenly breaking her dialogue. I didn't know why -- there were no sounds of dragons or other battle yet -- so I simply re-engaged her in dialogue, which worked fine. First I told her about Sinderion's death. This is when I heard the sounds of battle. I assumed the guard was taking care of wolves or a bear. The dialogue with Avrusa did not break even as the fight was going on, but I exited after the Sinderion exchange to find out what was happening.
Avrusa's sister was already dead. Avrusa unleashed a lightning bolt (!!), smoking the Orc Hunter. She then ran over to her sister's body, looked down at it, made a pained sound, then ran into her house, inconsolable. I still had not turned in the Crimson Nirnroot quest (callous bastard that I am, I was thinking 'reward' and spared no thought for the poor woman's sister). Picking the lock on the farmhouse, obviously, produced a 5 gold bounty for me, and it was pointless anyway -- I was trespassing, so I could not engage Avrusa in dialogue. I emerged and paid off the bounty to the farm's guard.
Then I noticed the second Orc Hunter standing at the edge of the farm. This guy has the nerve to thump his shield and tell me to back off. The guard does nothing, despite watching this Orc's buddy murder one of the farm's owners. I approach the Hunter to try to engage in dialogue, and he goes hostile. The guard joins the fight, attacking the Hunter, reasonably enough. I make the mistake of defending myself and somehow get an assault and a murder bounty put on my head for killing the Hunter. This would have involved me getting dragged off to Riften, where I had no intention of ending up. Between this and the apparent loss of the Crimson Nirnroot quest, I just loaded an earlier save (and ended up losing quite a bit of progress).
Moral of the story -- all sorts of unsavory characters can wander into a civilized outdoor area (only small ones I'm guessing; towns are probably shielded), and the inhabitants of those areas cannot always be expected to act rationally.