Beirand randomly dead?!

[homeless1]

Hey all, I recently was in Solitude when I noticed that Beirand the blacksmith had apparently dropped dead. His family (Sayma, Kayd) talked about him being dead and other NPCs brought it up too. I thought it was weird so I did a bit of a search online about. There is some speculation about it being a glitch that's related to joining the Imperial Legion and/or the quest The Man Who Cried Wolf (both of which I completed just prior to discovering Beirand's tragic yet mysterious passing).

I run a good number of mods (Immersive Citizens, USSEP, JK's Skyrim, almost everything Arthmoor, etc.) and I'm curious if it may be mod-related or if it happens on vanilla games as well. Who else has ran across this weirdness? Did Beirand just have bad cholesterol or is this a real glitch of some kind that can be patched?

Cheers! :smile:

[JimmyChooChoo]

well it depends, has a dragon attacked the city or vampires, because they could've killed him too....

[homeless1]

well it depends, has a dragon attacked the city or vampires, because they could've killed him too....

No, no vampires or dragons. I went to Solitude right after I left Helgen and havn't done any main quests.

 

I did see a lone Volkihar vampire running by Wolfskull Cave after I cleaned it out. Ran right by me and didn't try to kill me which I thought was weird, but whatever. Figured that was a just a random wilderness encounter.

[anjenthedog]

I lost both the smith and his wife in Riverwood within the first few-ish levels (the Smith by level 4, and his wife died shortly after, perhaps level 6) on my first character. She couldn't turn around without dragons and cultists and vampires attacking her. By level 15 there were about a dozen NPCs who got offed.

 

EDIT: PS> I believe the smith got killed in a dragon attack. His wife though, died mysteriously. I even suspected their son (hangs out on the porch of the Riverwood inn during the day) for a little while after the umpteenth time he came up to me and muttered something about giving me a break because I was new.

 

My second character is at level 46 and has only lost one "known" NPC so far. Oddly enough, he also rarely gets attacked by dragons or cultists or vampires.

 

Neither game is vanilla but neither is heavily modded either.

 

Point being, some game vectors result in NPCs getting killed by this or that "badguy"

 

PPS> You peaked my interest so I did quick netsearch.

enter "Beirand dead" into google or bing and see what comes up. I'll admit I didn't chase the rabbit myself except to count holes, but I saw enough links to see it's a known situation for at least some installs.

[homeless1]

I lost both the smith and his wife in Riverwood within the first few-ish levels (the Smith by level 4, and his wife died shortly after, perhaps level 6) on my first character. She couldn't turn around without dragons and cultists and vampires attacking her. By level 15 there were about a dozen NPCs who got offed.

 

EDIT: PS> I believe the smith got killed in a dragon attack. His wife though, died mysteriously. I even suspected their son (hangs out on the porch of the Riverwood inn during the day) for a little while after the umpteenth time he came up to me and muttered something about giving me a break because I was new.

 

My second character is at level 46 and has only lost one "known" NPC so far. Oddly enough, he also rarely gets attacked by dragons or cultists or vampires.

 

Neither game is vanilla but neither is heavily modded either.

 

Point being, some game vectors result in NPCs getting killed by this or that "badguy"

 

PPS> You peaked my interest so I did quick netsearch.

enter "Beirand dead" into google or bing and see what comes up. I'll admit I didn't chase the rabbit myself except to count holes, but I saw enough links to see it's a known situation for at least some installs.

The bit of research I did seems to point the finger at the Man Who Cried Wolf quest somehow triggering NPC deaths in Solitude. Part of me wonders if that's on purpose? Potema's revenge or something? I didn't find anything that can confirm that though.

 

It isn't super game-breaking I guess, just weird. I go for immersion, and people can kick the bucket randomly in real life too. I guess what vexes me is that I can't tell if it's a bug or something purposefully scripted.