Oddest thing. I finally wandered to (whatever the town was) and decided to go get rid of the Silver-Bloods from the mine. I went in, dealt with the issue peacefully and went out. I go talk to buddy and let him know that all is good. He's all happy.. and then the mercenaries start coming out of the mine. Everyone is all happy... I'm just standing off at a distance, not even moving. Suddenly a health bar pops up at the top of my screen (from an enemy) and it's called "Farmer". Instantly the health diminishes to nothing then gone. There's also the corresponding dialogue of what you'd expect when a farmer is attacked. Then everyone attacks me!! What the heck?? I'm just standing here! Oh sure, I've done some bad things now and then but, "Come on! Why me?!". So I reload to the autosave from when I walked out of the mine. Go talk to dude, same thing happens. I reloaded like three times to the same autosave then finally no dying farmer and everything continues peacefully.

I don't think I've ever attacked a farmer. Okay, in the beginning when I got bored, but I'd always save before going off on a little terror spree. I even looked around, couldn't find a farmer. One of my attempts I went ahead and wiped everyone out and walked around looking and couldn't find a dead farmer.

Weird.... very weird. Of course, I've never bothered with the "peaceful" route.... kill the SOBs and get them OFF the place for my girls thanks. Then again, I've never stuck around Karthwasten either - I go there, kill the SBs, pick up the follow on for the sibyl, and unless I get orc-friend and take the sword back to whatsherface, I never go there again....