Left my follower and my horse near the shore of the big lake just to the west of Riften, while I stealth-assaulted a ruined castle/dungeon. The assault went well, but when I hiked back to get my follower, the horse was dead, floating in the lake a few yards from shore where I had left it. While the horse dying in and of itself is in no way unusual (sigh), the fact that I looted a Forsworn arrow from its corpse most certainly was. I've never seen Forsworn outside of the Markarth zone, let alone all the way over in the Rift area. What's up with that? There were no sign of any Forsworn in the area at all, when I scouted around to see if I could find them. My follower was alive and cheery, but had no tales to tell, unfortunately.

First of all, I gotta give you credit for going all CSI on your late horse. Secondly, I have no bloody idea.

You got drunk one night on Nordic mead and shot your horse.

They're learning. D:

Meh, I was just looking to scrounge the dead hide off of his ass, and found the arrow by accident.

For me I was outside of Riften and then farkas and some companions appeared and were attacking some bears, after they were done they started attacking me then killed me

Maybe its transfer evidence? Maybe the horse was shot in their territory. Or if it was bandits maybe they killed some foresworn and had their arrows?

Except for two things- this char has no bow skill, and would be lucky to kill a skeever with a dozen arrows... and I never pick up Forsworn arrows... 7 damage? Pffft. Iron ones are crappy enough.

Are you on PC and have the Wars in SKyrim mod? I found that added some enemies where you wouldn't really find them.

PC, yes. That mod, no. Don't have any mods going that change what NPC's do or where they do it. I guess I'll just write it off as a lost Forsworn assassin who just really hates horses.

Then a Forsworn got wasted and shot into the sky one night. It fell across to the other side of the province and killed your horse.

A possibility is that the arrow originated from your follower. If they had accompanied you through forsworn territory at some earlier point they might have been hit by forsworn arrows. These arrows get added to their inventory, just the same as when your character is hit by enemy arrows. Could be that just as you entered the ruin, an unseen outside guard spotted the follower and your horse and went on the attack. Horse goes on the attack, gets friendly arrow fire from follower amid killing blade or mage damage from villain. Follower chases villain to different location, wins out, then is waiting noncholantly for your return.

In Oblivion you got arrows in you inventory from enemies shooting at you.
Perhaps the horse got them in forsworn territories and kept the arrow for an long time,

Or as Rexx says, it might come from followers the same way.

I've found that some bandits in places use all sorts of arrows, even forsworn arrows, due to level scaling.

Highly doubtful that my follower shot the horse and put a Forsworn arrow in it, as I regularly dink around in my followers' inventory for misc. reasons, and chuck out any crap arrows like that she occasionally ends up with. And it had been a long time since I'd last been in Forsworn country. The most likely explanation is the one about the horse getting shot with one way back the last time we were in Forsworn country, and keeping it in its hidden inventory until it died. Wasn't aware that could happen, but it's the most logical idea so far. Considering there were no dead enemies nearby, which there would have been if they had been taking on Jenassa and my horse (Jenassa kicks serious booty), it was probably a heart attack.

I've seen my horse keel over and die in place from full health to nothing in a millisecond before, so I know it can happen. And with no combat going on nor any enemies nearby. Couple other times since I've been playing, I've come back to a similar scenario with a dead horse and no evidence at all of why- with a whistling follower and no enemy bodies anywhere. Maybe Jenassa just doesn't like horses... or is jealous that I am riding and she has to trot along behind... perhaps she killed it and stuck the arrow in it to throw me off... gonna hafta keep an eye on that one.

I agree. If your follower has been in a fight with the forsworn, he/she could have easily picked up a few arrows as they go from your body straight to your inventory.

First off, what happened to your follower? Check his/her inventory for Forsworn arrows. Also, I've had followers (Mjoll) one-shotted by Forsworn and their crappy grade 7 arrows.

The answer to this question is rather simple.


While in the Markath arrea you rode youre horse and was attacked by Forsworn, some of their arrows are bound to hit youre horse in this case. Horse doesnt die but arrow stays arround becomming part of the horse inventory.

Than horse dies on other side of the map and you find youre forsworn arrow.

Thats how it is.


Note i wondered this myself when i found 3 iron arrows in my inventory while i never picked up any. Than some random bandit shot me again and without picking up arrows i had 4 in my inventory.

I say it's aliens. It's always aliens.

In other news, Iona (the Riften Housecarl) looks miles better if you give her a Forsworn Headress to wear.

I think maybe a babbie forsworn got lost then trapped in the lake, your noble horse tried to save it but ended up impaling its face on the arrow. The forsworn then stole the hide and legged it.

Too bad GetKiller doesn't work as a console command.

..Btw, there is some forsworn camps, not exactly close to Markarth. But I myself, who just loves The Rift area, hasn't seen any around there at all.

Horses do have inventory, and when any character is struck by an arrow there's a chance that the arrow appears in it's inventory. Your horse was probably carrying it around for weeks.

Damned hay-burners and their road-apples!

I've found bandits chasing down horses and killing them. Now I know why. Horses are the most evil creatures in Skyrim! Skeevers are honest and cuddly next to them!

Well, I fixed the horse problem. Got 'Better Horses' mod from the Nexus site. Now the darn things are immortal, always run from combat instead of playing Rambo, come when I whistle (no matter how far away), and I can stash stuff in their 300-pound-capacity inventory. Sweetness.

Whistle? That's a mod-only thing I suppose?

As for your earlier problem: Skyrim is round, not flat. If you go west from Markarth you end up in Riften. M'aiq said so.