Mod overview: Project AHO - Omni-guides/Tuxborn GitHub Wiki

This mod provides an overview of Project AHO as included in the Tuxborn load order.

Project AHO is a mod that forces the Dragonborn into slavery, when you are captured by slavers from a hidden Dunmer settlement in Eastmarch. The plot centers around your efforts to regain your freedom.

We are running the patch that allows for you to control when this mod launches. You still need to be at least level 15 to have access to the quest start, but once you reach that level, go to Kynesgrove and speak with Iddra, the innkeeper at the Braidwood Inn. She'll have a clearly marked dialogue option you can use to launch AHO's plot.

Take that dialogue option, and you'll get an objective to go investigate a suspicious Orc at the Mixwater Mill. AHO's starting action should pick up as normal from there.

The minimum level requirement is 15. However, we recommend 25 or greater. There is a Dwemer ruin you'll need to navigate through as part of the latter half of AHO's plotline, and it's full of hostiles that may be too much to handle under level 25. There will be both large mobs of automatons, as well as boss-tier single ones. And since AHO's narrative expects you to be by yourself, at least on your first time through that ruin, you won't have access to followers to help you.

Also, regardless of your level, this is a mod whose narrative relies upon you being the Dragonborn. It does not explicitly require you to finish any particular stage of the main quest, but you should at least have played into it far enough to be aware of your Dragonborn status. Otherwise, AHO will make a lot less sense.

So consider launching this at some point after you've made it through The Way of the Voice. AHO does not require that stage of the main quest as a checkpoint, but since several other mods in our load order do, it will serve well as a guideline here too.

No, or at least, not at first. Narratively speaking, it will make no sense for followers to come into Sadrith Kegran with you right out of the gate. Several of our custom followers will however port into that worldspace with you, despite it making no sense for them to be there. So far this is confirmed to repro with Katana, Auri, and Xelzaz, and may repro with other custom followers as well, depending on their individual AI. Any followers running vanilla code, however, will automatically be dismissed from your service--so that should include Interesting NPCs followers, as well as most base game followers. (It may or may not include Lydia, since we're running her as as a modded follower.)

To be on the safe side, we recommend that if you have any active followers, either dismiss them from your service or ask them to wait somewhere appropriate before launching this mod. You'll have an opportunity to leave the mod worldspace partway through the plot, so you can return to them and get them back on duty later. Once that happens, you can also bring them into the aforementioned Dwemer ruin with you, for backup against the hostiles in there.

Once you're at that stage of Project AHO's plot, just bring whatever followers you already like. AHO is not set up narrative-wise to allow for any followers, so its plot won't change based on who you might or might not have with you.

Here's the thing: AHO's plot will launch with all of your gear being confiscated. (You'll get it all back later.) So what you have with you is entirely irrelevant.

That said, you will still be able to cast any spells you've learned. You won't be able to attack anyone with them (at least not until you regain your freedom). But if you plan on conducting any thievery in Sadrith Kegran, any spells for opening locks you can get your mitts on prior to running this plot would be very helpful. So consider going for those.

Yes, it has a small number of them. You can see a list of them here on LOTD's wiki.

See the list mentioned in the previous section. The Telvanni Hybrid Armor and Boots are not a complete set, but they might be interesting to spellsword builds, particularly if you're playing a Dunmer.

And it's worth your time to do the side quest to learn how to craft the Telvanni bow, as the Aetherium version of that is displayable. But also, it's a very good mid-game bow in general and should serve you well until you're able to get something more powerful.

Additionally, once you start running the Dwemer ruin Bkhalzarf, you will find any number of Ancient Dwarven Swords and Greatswords. If you like Dwemer weapons, you might pick up whichever of these appeals to you. They aren't displayable, but they are slightly more powerful than regular Dwemer weapons. So they could be decent early-to-mid-game melee weapons until you upgrade to something better.

Yes, two.

This is the primary player home for the mod, and is the most significant reward you get for playing it. Like the Dev Aveza, it is a mobile player home. Unlike the Dev Aveza, however, it has a limited number of places it can land, and none of those are within easy range of any city. The places it can land are:

• Alftand
• Avanchnzel
• Deep Folk Crossing
• Nchardak
• Reachwind Eyrie
• The Tower of Mzark

Note: the AHO can land at Nchardak on Solstheim, but this does not mean you can take it to Nchardak directly. If you try, you will get an error advising you that you have to finish the quest "Dragonborn" first. This is the very first stage of the Dragonborn DLC plot, the one that has you arriving at Raven Rock. Once you do that, though, then this should allow for later travel back to Solstheim via the AHO if you so wish.

While the AHO's landing spots are limited, it does have a large number of features worth considering. It has all expected crafting stations, as well as several custom ones. And since it's a Dwemer construction, several of its stations are in fact Dwemer machines. Two of its most notable ones are:

• A machine that functions similarly to the Face Sculptor in Riften and allows you to change your appearance
• A machine that creates bottled juices out of raw foods, which can give you significant buffs when consumed

Also, while the standard way of getting this ship is to play through the entire Project AHO plot, our load order includes the Unofficial Project AHO - Bugfix and Improvement Patch. And one of the things this mod does is to allow for a way to get the AHO without running the plot at all.

Spoiler on how to do this...

As per the bugfix patch's page on Nexus, you should be able to find the AHO's control cube behind Faendal's house in Riverwood.

If you acquire the AHO, we suggest leaving it at the Tower of Mzark for its proximity to Heljarchen Hall. From Heljarchen, it's a straight shot down to Whiterun across the open plains. And if you walk or ride the distance, you may not even run into anything hostile.

Hla Fang is a house in Sadrith Kegran, the primary setting where Project AHO takes place. You will not get access to this house unless you a) play through the entire plot, and b) pay 20,000 gold to the leader of Sadrith Kegran.

Project AHO does not really give you any serious reason to return to Sadrith Kegran once its plot is done. So whether it's worth it to pay the 20,000 gold to get the house is very much a matter of your opinion of the ending of the plot, how kindly disposed you are to the leaders of the settlement, and whether you're enough of a completist player to want every single house in the game!

There are two followers available via Project AHO: Snippy and, depending on your plot choices, Slyboots.

Of the two, Snippy is the more important one. He's a Dwemer automation with several unique functions that could help you out in your gameplay, including a toggleable light, the ability to pick locks, and the ability to charge your soul gems.

Star Wars fans will instantly see that Snippy is heavily inspired by BB-8, and basically looks and sounds like a Dwemer version of that droid. He does ride a pretty thin line between "fun" and "immersion breaking". But the good news is, if the idea of a blatantly Star-Wars-inspired automaton is a bit too much for your immersion preferences, you cannot find him by accident, you do have to explicitly look for him.

To get Snippy if you want him, you will need to run the side quest Crack'n'Chirp.

Slyboots is involved with the side quest Be Aware of Darkness. Whether you get Slyboots as a follower will depend on your choices in that quest. How useful it is as a follower is as of yet unknown. But given that it looks like a grotesque mutated spriggan, it probably wouldn't fit well with most playthroughs. Unless you're specifically playing a Dragonborn lich or a vampire or something, in which case having a horrible-looking creature following you around might be in character.

There are a number of new spells you can get, the most notable two of which are:

• Time Break, which basically acts as a spell version of the Slow Time Shout, and which is extremely useful to plow through large mobs
• A Cure Disease spell

You will also get access to two different Typewriter machines which will let you create spell tomes for any spells you don't know yet. This will include not only vanilla spells, but also ones included in Apocalypse and Mysticism. It will require you to have filled soul gems of various sizes, as well as sealed spell cubes you can find around the mod's worldspace as loot. So be on the lookout for those.

You will also find a number of Dwemer statuettes which, when you pick them up, will bump each and every one of your skills up by a point. So definitely look for those. They should be scattered all over Bkhalzarf, the Dwemer ruin involved with the plot.

There are several, and you can find out more about them on the Project AHO page on the TES Mods wiki.

How many of these you run is up to you, and much will depend upon how friendly you feel like being to the residents of Sadrith Kegran, keeping in mind that this town is enslaving you.

That said, we do recommend considering these quests just because their rewards are valuable:

• A Legacy of Ancestors, because the Time Break spell is super useful
• Crack'n'Chirp if you want Snippy
• Forgotten Art to learn how to make Telvanni bows and arrows

You will need to make a judgment call on whether or not to take advantage of the Stash Supplies spell from Legacy of the Dragonborn. This could get you immediate access to crafting supplies, so that you can re-arm yourself, and AHO will not block you from using that spell if you want. But it does bend AHO's narrative rather hard, so decide for yourself if you want to allow yourself that luxury, or challenge yourself and keep from using the spell for RP reasons.

You will probably find the fight with the first Prowler challenging to live through, even with Yen-Ylu and Shanath also fighting it. If you run into trouble, there's a tip for how to make it through that battle on the Legacy of the Extinct Race page on the TES Mods wiki.

Take note of the chess board in the council hall in Sadrith Kegran. There are 32 pieces to fill that thing, scattered all around the town in various buildings, and it will be worth your time to find those. If you want to know more, including help on where to find all the chess pieces, then read up on the Strategist page on the TES Mods wiki. Note: taking the chess pieces is not considered stealing, but you will need to pick some locks to get to some of them. Prepare yourself accordingly.

If you have designs on joining the Thieves Guild, consider running Project AHO as part of your prep for that. Its plot is handing you an entire town of people you can arguably rob blind as a moral imperative! Remember that if you want to steal anything, you will need to crouch before you'll get the prompt to do so. (Also, if you haven't stolen anything prior to launching Project AHO, this can also fulfill the requirement to launch The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal.)

Small but useful spoilers for if you're going to steal anything in Sadrith Kegran...

1. Aid in thievery is a strong argument for you to keep the Stash Supplies spell active, if nothing else so you can make Invisibility, Fortify Lockpicking, or Fortify Pickpocket potions to use. You will not be able to retrieve any items with relevant enchantments on them via Stash Supplies, but you can definitely access alchemy ingredients as well as potions. You may want to consider building a stock of relevant potions prior to starting this mod.
2. If you've unlocked the most basic smithing perks, you should also be able to make yourself lockpicks, assuming you have stashed iron ore and/or ingots you can get at via Stash Supplies. There is a fully functional smithy in Sadrith Kegran, and you will get absolutely no challenge from town residents for using it.
3. Start your thievery by nabbing anything that isn't nailed down in the house of Shanath Selthri, the Dunmer who buys you at the slave auction.
4. Shanath is also a prime target for pickpocketing!
5. When pickpocketing residents, try to focus on getting their Elven Daggers. Those will be a lot easier to pickpocket than anything else they're carrying, depending on your skill level in Security. Also, these daggers will respawn, so you can even pickpocket them off of various residents multiple times, depending on how long in game-time you spend in Sadrith Kegran.
6. Stealing anything in Sadrith Kegran does have the potential of triggering Skyrim's vanilla Hired Thug encounter. Fun fact: as long as you are still enslaved in Sadrith Kegran, you will not be able to attack any resident of the town. But Hired Thugs are not covered by this constraint, so you can attack them at will if you need to!

Talk to the Amusing Mudcrab once you have access to your gold again. The Mudcrab will get you some very helpful info for raiding a treasure vault in Bkhalzarf.

And take the time to talk to Ra'zhirra, and build up his rapport with you. He'll be a fence for stolen goods once you do--also highly relevant to anyone who wants to run the Thieves Guild.

Lastly, even if you're not necessarily intending to play a stealth build, consider investing enough perks in the Sneak tree to unlock the Trespasser perk. This will make navigating Bkhalzarf a lot easier, as that place is riddled with pressure plate traps. (Be mindful of this, too, if you come back in later with followers!)