I was walking upwards from Harmugstahl, when I suddenly saw four forsworn just standing in the road, I crouched immediately and snuck closer. I then saw that a dog was standing in the midst of them. It was barking, and one of them said "stupid dog". I stood up and went over to them. One of them was in fight mode, but everyone were pleasent and gave the generic responses such as "what do you need?"

On the ground there was a dead Orc Hunter, I assume that's who the dog belonged to as it was just called "dog" rather than "stray dog".

Is this a common encounter? I've never met them before.

Edit: Looking closer there are also two dead skeevers on the ground. Maybe they killed the orc, the Forsworn happened by and got caught up in a glitch?

Ok, this got a bit creepy. I went further up the road and found four more forsworn, standing a bit more spread-out(two close together)- From a far it looked like they were watching the sky, which reminded me off the Morrowind horror story. These were also friendly.

Edit: There's a naked and empty "captive" lying in the tiny pool right by them, a forsworn arrow is next to her.

Edit 2: The dog came up to these guys too. It's now running between the two groups which are just out of eyesight of each other. The "stupid dog" line was repeated by a member of this second group.

I've had the same at the place where you get Red Eagle's sword. Haven't done any quests where you side with them, and anywhere else they are loons out for blood.

[Don't watch the skies, life is too short to spend whole months getting pranked. If they start doing that in my game, it's uninstall and back to the Mojave.]

Walking further up the road, towards Bthardamz I come across the remaining Orc Hunter, he is just standing in the road, a dead comrade is a few feet away from him. Some imperial soldiers are walking past when he suddenly attacks them, and is killed. Then I see a Stormcloak archer coming running over the hill and now there's a mini-war on.

This road is FUN!

Really wonder what the story about the "captive" is though. Can't recall seeing any forswarn captives before. And why naked and empty.

Druadach Redoubt is close by, this is where Madanach is and his crew are friendly and knows me, so I guess they must come from there. But it's still a pretty long walk.

Edit: I walked back, the Forsworn seemed gone for a moment, but they weren't. Walking between the two groups the dog suddenly bit me and my follower killed him.

Edit 2: Now this is interesing! I headed to Druadach Redoubt and their population seemed far thinner than usual. Only one forsworn there who wasn't one of the named ones that moved there after a certain mission. Furthermore I noticed the cage for the first time and the door was open. Could this be one of those small mini-stories you got to work out yourself? If so, great job, Beth!

Edit 3: Assuming that my earlier conclusion was correct I decided to re-create her escape route. Right around the corner (following the tiny dirt road) I find a dead Bandid Marauder next to a free horse.

had a few of those myself , once walked upon a hag raven that didnt attack

All these descriptions make me think that I once passed by a group of necromancers that were friendly to me. I had killed them about 30 minutes (Earth time) earlier... This happened just after I subscribed to the 1.5 patch. Are you playing the 1.6 beta?

Walking back down to Harmugstahl (these roads are confusing) I also re-discover the dead Hagraven I saw when I first headed up the mountain. This could be related to her escape. Either she doubled back or this was the direction she was coming from. I'll investigate further in this direction. I went back up the road and re-enmcountered the forsworn. Two of them are now kneeling down by the dead orc hunter.

UPDATE


Could this be the beginning of a mission. Of all things two kids ran up to me, while I was standing by the forsworn and went into direct dialog with me. The kids name is Sond and he said "Hey, check out what my friend and I found. I'll sell it to you if you want". I've paused so I'll figure out what he wants to sell shortly.

Edit: Just a random encounter, apparantly they are just supposed to pop up on a random location and want money for showing me Deep Folk Crossing which I've already found and is quite funny. Quite funny that they added something as humorously useless as a kid merchant who self a knife and two dwemer atrifact and has 1 gold(after you pay him) though.

Edit 2: No, I'm on a PS3. Of course they could have implemented something.

No, the kids are a standard, non-quest related encounter in that area. Although I never ran into them until 250+ hours into the game.

I've never met friendly forsworn yet, they all wanted a taste of my blade so i had no choice but to give it to them.

@Ben C. - Yeah, been about the time amount of hours for me I think.

Instead of doubling back and investigating the road the dead Hagraven was on I decided to follow the firstroad further. When I returned to the spot with the orc hunters I saw a random lonely bandit thug get killed by two saber cats. The orc hunters were still on the ground, but the soldiers who had died were gone leaving only shields/weapons.

Right after this point the road splits in two, one heads towards Bthardamzand the other (i guess) heads to Deep Folk Crossing. I suddenly spot four more forsworn standing in the road. These are also friendly. Wonder if there are more captives.

Edit: All the Forsworn were looking towards Deep Folk Crossing. Running over there I discover two ribs from a skeleton flying in the air, but nothing else. I walk back to the road, it's a dead end, but a bit rough terrain brigs me right back to Druadach Redoubt, which has gotten it's two outside guards back (they were gone earlier). The notmal, non-named Forsworn are also back inside the cave.

Edit 2: Returning to the road I find the horse and the dead bandit murauder gone. However turning back I discover evidence that this is a radiant encounter. Suddenly 4 forsworn and 3 orc hunters spawn and they have an intense battle. All the orc hunters die. The forsworn do not attack me, but are now more threatening. Everyone are in war mode and saying "I'm warning you. Back off".

Edit 3: The other forsworn I encountered earlier, as well as the other orc hunter bodies are still were I left them.

In regard to the captive. Heading up the mountains across the tiny pond with her body I'm suddenly attacked my two necromages, these have however no camp, an imperial camp is also close by, she could have come from there. However, the forsworn arrow next to the body imples, at the very least, that they were the ones who killed her. Any thoughts? Anyone encountered this poor dead and naked captive?

Edit 4: I looked her up on the Elder Scrolls wiki, she does have a page: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Skyrim:Captive_%28Skyrim_NPC%29

Apparantly she was just out for a swim, you can find her clothes, an expensive necklace and her journal on a rock nearby. The journal text:

"Father wouldn't like it if he caught me swimming out here again. But I just can't help myself. Forsworn sightings be damned, I love the way the cool water feels on my skin. Besides, with the war raging, those savages won't dare leave the safety of their tents. So I think I'll head down to my special spot one more time."

Why she is called "Captive", unless this is her actual name (lol), is unclear.

I met some friendly forsworn once. I'm still surprised that they didn't do anything

Am I trapped in the funniest glitch of all time?

Apparantly this crossroad is one insane spawning spot. Each time I return to the battling Forsworn something new has spawned, usually fighting them. First time I come back they are fighting a spriggon and a sabre cat - they just pop out of the air. Two of the forsworn dies. I go down to the river and when I return two hunters are shooting at an elk, which scares one of the forsworn, but they do not attack. And the 3rd time I come back they are fighting a Flame Astronach with the help of a Vigil of Stendarr - at first I think they are fighting him as well, but once the Flame Astronachis dead everybody are friendly.

Heading back up to the first group I encountered (with the dog and the one dead orc hunter) they have also faced a spriggon attack, though over now. One of them is dead, everyone else are walking back to their earlier position. Suddenly I spot a posessed Hagraven. I walk over to her, she does not attack. Once the possession is gone she heals herself and suddenly starts shooting fireballs at me. At the forsworn becomes hostile and attacks too. Had to kill all of them.

On a closer look the hostile forsworn included the forsworn further up the road. Though I can only count 7 dead forsworn + one hagraven, even with Detect Dead, which could mean that one of the turned into a hagraven(spawned as a hagraven instead of as a forsworn, presumably).

Edit: The last group on the road and however still there and still friendly. Nothing has spawned to fight them either.

Edit 2: This time two remnats of the afflicted spawned at the usual spot. They had killed the two remaining fighing forsworn when I got there.

Edit 3: It's been established that walking a certain distance (down to the river seem to do) and returning causes something to spawn. After all the forsworn were dead two elks and two wolves spawn, they were fighting each other. One of the elks were killed, I killed the two wolves, the elk ran away. Next time an elk, possobly the same that escaped was the only one there. However, this time it was hostile and ran towards me. Returning once again, nothing has spawn. For a moment I thought it was the end of a very long and fun glitch, but suddenly I see two of forsworn weapons - a sword and a axe - slowbly beginning to ascend to heaven. They are still going higher and higher, having just paused they are starting to become blurry and they will soon disappear from eyesight.



What I've actually discovered

There are 3(possibly 4) glitched spawning hot-pockets along the road from Harmugstahl/Druadach Redoubt and Bthardamz/Deep Folk Crossing. Every time I follow this road even if I'm just walking in circles (courtesy of the river) something will spawn at these 3 points. The first point has only spawned the four forsworn, who are still standing there, the other 3 constantly changes what spawns. Does it act the same way for everyone, only people on PS3, or just me?

Actually those 2 kids are always there. They had random junk and some dwemer iems for sale for me. But yeah, Deep Folk Crossing is kind of an eerie place for me. There is the stream heading up into the mountains to the west, which you can follow until you hit the map border. And the Dwemer Convector really puzzled me when I first found it. (That one was the first I found.)



About the glitch, I've never had that happen. Granted I've only been in that area twice. But sometimes with this type of game/engine (Or maybe Bethesda ) you get some freaky 1 times glitches. Watch the Sky.

Decided to take the road 3 times and see what spawned, after completing each round I just fast traveled back to Bruca's Leap Redoubt and took the road over again. I guess you can just fast travel to Harmugstahl too, just wanted to be sure I was far enough away.

Round one:

Spot 1: Elder Dragon
Spot 2: Two Vampires (who started fighting the dragon as well)
Spot 3: A Viginant of Stendarr fighting two skeletons

Round two:

Spot 1: Scavenger + Dead soldiers
Spot 2: Three bandits out on a walk
Spot 3: Scavenger + Dead soldiers

Round three:

Spot 1: Two necromancers
Spot 2: One Flame Astronach
Spot 3: M'aiq the Liar (YAY)

I've had Forsworn enounters like this too. The other day East of Whiterun, just past those towers across the river, i bumped into a friendly Necromancer just standing on the road.

btw, whats with the random enemies spawning when you use the carrages now ?

Somewhere south of Markarth, I ran into around 10-15 forsworn who were all non-hostile. They were just walking around and not doing anything noticeable. My pc sided against the forsworn during the Cidhna Mine quest. I wasn't sure if it was a glitch or not, though no one wanted to give specifics as that would give spoilers. I was surprised to see a small army of them gathered and non-hostile, as all of my previous encounters with them ended in bloodshed.

I had the same encounter, but it later turned into a battle that I was forced to take sides when they attacked an Imperial patrol.

I have had several encounters with npcs that were supposed to be hostile, but were not. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/subrosa_florens/Skyrim/Skyrim145.jpg, and a chatty http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/subrosa_florens/Skyrim/Skyrim165.jpg. Plus there were a few others that I did not get pics of.

I have never had those weird shenanigans around that crossroads though!

One thing that can happen, if you use the Beta Patch is you get weird spawns for the first 2 or 3 game days.

If it's the pool I'm thinking about, there's actually something there.

I've encountered non-hostile forswarn near Mor Khazgur in the reach

Yes there's a journal. That was a sad sight, made me spit on the Forsworn and their barbaric ways, regardless of what the Nords done to them this young Redguard woman was only taking a dip in a small body of water, and they slaughtered her like a deer.

No she was not a captive. When I saw her body I looked around and found her journal and the Forsworn arrow indicates that she had been killed by them. Of course I met those "friendly" ones after they had killed the Orcs. But I stood in front of them in an aggressive way and they attacked me. So I cleared the place and avenged the Hunter Orcs.

Had all you described happen to me on the PS3 and on my PC that I'm now playing Skyrim on.

The Orcs attacked me first time I came across this. I killed them when the forsworn arrived and stood around telling me I didn't beling here. Eventually they attacked me.

Last night I came across 3 forsworn standing on the road after I left the pool with the dead girl. They didn't attack. Infact I was able to killcam each of them because when I killed one, the other two watched? confused.

And those two kids ran up after. They marked my map but I didn't see anything new on it. I guess I may have already been to the place they found.