I have found NPCs in containers

[Twenny the Clown]

This is the weirdest bug I have ever seen, and can find nothing like it on google. My game crashed and all my custom spells and items were gone. Shortly afterwards, I found inside a fighters guild container "Skeletal Guardian".
The item is under misc. items, has no listed value, weight, or damage (Its item durability is at 100)
I cannot use, equip, or sell the item, but I can move it to or from other containers. While in my inventory my item weight goes down by 1 pound. If dropped, it spawns in a skeletal guardian.
As I kept playing I have also found 1 "Ashanta" and 2 "Dreet-Lai"s.
I have no mods installed, so what the hell is going on?

[Twenny the Clown]

Update: I keep finding "Hunters run first key" As well. My NPC collection grows. i am currently at
1 Ashanta
12 Dreet-Lai
1 Goblin Berserker
9 Maurader Archer
4 Necromancer
1 Other separate necromancer
2 Redguard Valley Ogre
1 Skeletal Guardian
i have also found a spare copy of "horse armor notes" and "Instructions for the grey cowl" items which stacked, and are still quest items

[meheezen]

no mods installed?
did you have mods before and removed them or did you play this character without any mods since the beginning?

[Twenny the Clown]

No mods whatsoever. I've never even installed one for oblivion in any playthrough

[theo]

I've seen someone having the exact same issue not long ago. No idea but it sounds like a strange data or savegame corruption where object IDs shifted for some reason so loot lists started to reference NPCs instead of items.
I doubt this is the source of this issue but check if your settings got reset and official addons turned off. Maybe verify integrity through Steam but then load a save that was made prior to this problem occuring.

[Shedding my mortal skin]

Originally posted by theo:

I've seen someone having the exact same issue not long ago. No idea but it sounds like a strange data or savegame corruption where object IDs shifted for some reason so loot lists started to reference NPCs instead of items.

I don't know if that's how it'd work, but there is a way to test it. Perform the scroll item duplication glitch and drop one of these NPCs. In theory, if it doesn't work, that should mean containers are bugging out and adding NPCs to their loot pools. Otherwise, if they do duplicate, it'd mean they are in fact treated as items, implying it would be from already-existing data, albeit likely some sort of removed feature? I'm not sure. This whole thing is strange.

The fact you keep finding Hunter's Run keys also suggests you're experiencing save corruption.

I have a bit of experience with the Creation Kit, so I'm going to see if I can inject an NPC into a chest.

[Shedding my mortal skin]

Looking at it a bit more, and no, I don't think it would have that result. There's a list of things that can appear that use actual editor IDs, not base and reference IDs like the console uses. You can't use base or reference IDs when putting things inside containers. It'd either keep the original pools there also or function more akin to how uninstalling a mod mid-playthrough would work: you'd either crash, or the thing just wouldn't be there.

Save corruption is absolutely at fault, but I doubt it's caused by the game trying to place NPCs inside chests.

[Twenny the Clown]

Tested the item duplication glitch, and it does work. Turned 1 goblin berserker into 17. However, I was promptly attacked by 17 goblins

[wildflower]

Wait so if you drop the items, does the NPC spawn? This is probably the most interesting bug I've ever heard of in Oblivion

[Twenny the Clown]

Correct. I have NPC's in my inventory that weigh -1 pound, and are in my misc slot. If I drop them, it spawns the NPC in question. I haven't messed with it too much, but I have learned that if I drop multiple of an npc in a stack, the npc's will be stacked in the name EG Marauder Archer (17)

[Shedding my mortal skin]

Hm. Open them in the console and put their reference IDs (the IDs from when you click on) in here. I want to see if they're related.

Preferably, mark down two or three of them (probably Skeletal Guardians), then go find some in the wilderness. I'm not sure how it handles leveled creatures, but there should be a jump in the reference ID number if it really IS creating new NPCs.

[WickedRequiem]

Originally posted by Twenny: Tyrant of the Trashheap:

Correct. I have NPC's in my inventory that weigh -1 pound, and are in my misc slot. If I drop them, it spawns the NPC in question.

...pokemon?

[slayor3000]

Very strange bug/ glitch?

Did you do much messing with the console before this happened? if any.

The -weight is usually caused by mis-used commands.
The npcs as an item "might" be created by accident by giving yourself items and not realizing you have clicked on an npc or wrong id.

Otherwise a very weird corruption has occurred. If it was console commands it may be able to be fixed by resetting your encumbrance.

[Twenny the Clown]

Nothing of the sort. I was doing the fighters guild quest "Mystery at Harlun's watch" I quicksaved before attacking the will o wisps and my game crashed. I got a microsoft c++ error of some sort, and when I loaded back in all my custom spells/items were gone. After getting new stuff I returned to Harluns watch but when I went to turn in the quest I was raiding the fighter's guild pantries when I found the first NPC

[Twenny the Clown]

Originally posted by Shedding my mortal skin:

Hm. Open them in the console and put their reference IDs (the IDs from when you click on) in here. I want to see if they're related.

Preferably, mark down two or three of them (probably Skeletal Guardians), then go find some in the wilderness. I'm not sure how it handles leveled creatures, but there should be a jump in the reference ID number if it really IS creating new NPCs.

I think you're onto something

base id 0001E5F2
archer base id 00084B19
dropped archer FF006662

[Shedding my mortal skin]

Originally posted by Twenny: Tyrant of the Trashheap:

Originally posted by Shedding my mortal skin:

Hm. Open them in the console and put their reference IDs (the IDs from when you click on) in here. I want to see if they're related.

Preferably, mark down two or three of them (probably Skeletal Guardians), then go find some in the wilderness. I'm not sure how it handles leveled creatures, but there should be a jump in the reference ID number if it really IS creating new NPCs.

I think you're onto something

base id 0001E5F2
archer base id 00084B19
dropped archer FF006662

If it was a base archer, it'd have an ID starting with 00 since the game literally will NOT run if Oblivion.esm is not first in the load order. It showing FF implies it's not only from a mod but also a very LATE mod in the list since it enters letters when it runs out of numbers in sequence.

This is VERY intriguing.