It's been 10 years since Skyrim was first released and the game is still surrounded by a thriving mod community that continues to bring new life to old cities. However, one Skyrim fan recently encountered a hilarious bug after installing a specific mod that somehow led to a guard attempting to arrest a dead wolf.
A Reddit user reported that after installing the Open Cities Skyrim mod, they walked into Skyrim's capital city of Solitude--and were followed by a wolf. Open Cities Skyrim reportedly seeks to bring some of the open-world feel of Morrowind into Skyrim, which includes making the cities a natural part of the setting that can be entered without loading screens. This may explain how the wolf got into Solitude in the first place.
Soon after arriving in the city, the wolf died--presumably killed by either the guards or the player. However, the story doesn't end there, because the Redditor soon took a screenshot of one of Skyrim's infamous guards trying to arrest the wolf's corpse. The image shows the guard in full armor, holding his sword and shield defensively, ordering the dead wolf to sheath its weapons and come quietly. It is clear that the dead animal is neither armed nor capable of movement.
Open Cities Skyrim was created by modder Arthmoor and was originally available on Nexus Mods before being removed during a Terms of Service disagreement. It can now be found on AFK Mods, a forum primarily dedicated to mods of Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls series, and other Bethesda games. Arthmoor has also been involved in a number of other Skyrim patches and mods, including Alternate Start - Live Another Life - SSE, which allows players to don't want to go through the intro sequence at Helgen another way to start the game and Run For Your Lives, a mod that makes citizens in a village or city run indoors during a dragon or vampire attack.
As of writing, other fans appear amused by the glitch, though several have discussed other, less humorous glitches that may be caused by the Open Cities Skyrim mods. One user reported uninstalling the mod after they discovered residents of Solitude clipping through the ground and falling to their deaths. Another user claimed to have issues where the interior of a city wouldn't load until well after they had entered, a complaint that the Redditor also appeared to experience. A third user stated that Open Cities Skyrim leads to a number of quests becoming bugged as well.
Skyrim is available for PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions coming on November 11, 2021.