About this mod

Finally, Dawnstar gets a unique and cozy player home. The lighthouse. Become the new lighthouse keeper by solving a small puzzle and roleplay as a Dawnstar citizen.

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Dawnstar Lighthouse Player Home and Quest


Update to V1.0: I really tried to make the Lighthouse compatible with Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions, but I give up. Try it, maybe it works for you. V1.0 includes many small (mostly invisible) additions to allow for housing of children and a wife. Moving your wife works, the children just stand around and do nothing... The new version also includes some other tweaks.


Here's another small mod to make Dawnstar a bit more interesting:
Finally, Dawnstar gets a unique and cozy player home. The lighthouse. :) It should enable the player to roleplay as a Dawnstar citizen.
But you won't get the house for free. You'll have to solve a small puzzle before you can move in:
The lighthouse keeper Oriel disappeared some days ago. Nobody has seen him since or has a clue what happend... But he likes to go hunting, and he had a guest for the last few weeks... Feel invited to go and solve that puzzle. A small treasure and the key will await you at Oriel's place. If you just install the mod without taking care, you will probably find him at some point anyway while exploring the wilds... however, I think, he is quite well hidden, although not too far away from the lighthouse. The last few screenshots give some hints, if you can't manage to find him.
Since I don't know (yet) how to make a real quest in Skyrim, this small puzzle is actually a quest without a quest. There are different ways to solve the puzzle, and of course I have placed numerous hints... but see yourself... :)
One small clue right now: the ladders are all not functioning and just decoration.

About the player home:
I thought the lighthouse tower would make a nice small player home, so I increased the lighthouse's size a bit, added a door and a workshop ouside and created a fitting interior. The house has most of the usual amenities: cooking pot, 5 storage containers, some weapon displays and a few alchemy ingredients inside. Outside you find some crafting stations, a small garden and a 'toilet'. All missing crafting stations can be found in town. I know, this will make the house unattractive for evil player characters, but a vampire, bandit or dremora wouldn't fit into this player home anyway... it's rather supposed be a beginner's home, although finding Oriel probably requires at least a few skill levels.
The house actually features five sleeping places (three are invisible), so it could also fit for a small family or one to two followers. Moving in with your wife works (V1.0), but the children will get stuck in their "I need to collect my things ande say goodbye to everyone" loop. I don't know why. Please also note, this is my first (and probably last) player home.
Since I don't like giving too much free loot to the player most of the things inside will not respawn, except the two plants which can be harvested (I created those from scratch). Nearby the lighthouse you can also find some more interesting alchemy ingedients. Nothing very fancy, but a good selection for the aspiring alchemist to make some useful potions. Together with my other mod Dawnstar Farms the number of different ingredients can be increased even more. There are also some new clutter items and a new book to read.      
I hope you enjoy my little mod. Don't hesitate to report any issues or any ideas you have to improve it.



Compatibility

Making the mod I ran into one new challenge after another. It took me about three months to make all things work as intended (except the ladders). The main problem was actually the location where you will find Oriel. Finally, I was able to make it work with the vanilla landscape.
For Majestic Mountains which uses different landscape nifs and different landscape collison I made a patch. The patch works with all four base versions CACO/no CACO/ESL/not ESL. I strongly recommend to use Majestic mountains together with Majestic Mountains - More Accurate Collision.
I don't know if there are other landscape mods that change the shape & collision of the landscape. So please tell me if you encounter floating or not accessible objects. Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul (CACO) has a separate version. 

Of course any mod that changes the lighthouse itself or the close surrounding is most likely not compatible. But as far as I know, there is no Dawnstar Lighthouse mod yet. However, please try and report issues.
The mod should be save to install mid game. There are no scripts, no changes to NPCs or quests. The mod mainly uses vanilla assets, so most textures will change with the texture mods you use. My screenshots are taken with Majestic Mountains.

The Great City of Dawnstar: Compatible
Cities of the North - Dawnstar: Compatible
JK's Skyrim: Compatible
Fortified Dawnstar: Compatible (use it myself)
Spaghetti's Cities: Compatible
Dawn of Skyrim: Compatible



Issues and future plans

This is my first player home mod, so please report any issues you find. I could only test it on my setup, and it works there. Also, please tell me how to make the house work as a family home...
One hint: There is only one way to get to Oriel and the ladders are not supposed to work. I tried to make them work but didn't succeed, so they only act as decoration/hints for now...

Future plans:
Make the house fully work as family home.
Create a real quest with notifications and dialogue. However, this is not really needed. But an official plea by the jarl or his housecarl to find Oriel would be a bit more immersive, I suppose. :)
Some other ideas to make it more interesting...



Installation

Copy all files to the data folder. Activate the mod.
Or better use a mod manager to do this.



Thanks

Thanks go to to all modders who keep Skyrim alive, to Bethesda for creating Skyrim, and to the guys who created SSEEdit.


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Complete Belrand Overhaul
A Deck Of Playing Cards
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Fluffy Skeever Tail
Rabbits Drop Rabbit Fur
Harvest Ivy
Skyrim's got Balls
Simple Leather Tanning Fix
Even More Vanilla Rings
Even More Vanilla Rings for Beyond Skyrim - Bruma