[Misc Soulrest/Gideon Quest] Bad Bhuru

[Deeza]

A moderately epic quest which introduces the player to some of the darker aspects of traditional Argonian culture. If you don't mind, Ibsen, it could also be an introduction to your character Arnaster Marrowmir. If you have other plans for this character, we could use a "rogue argonian shaman" instead.

Not far from the port city of Soulrest is one of the largest plantations remaining in Argonia. It has survived longer than any other due to the cunning of its owner, known only as The Big Boss.

In the old days when slavery was still legal in Morrowind, the Boss would go north and buy up slaves, offering them freedom if only they worked to pay off the money he spent to buy them. It seemed a great deal, but once they got to his estate, the slaves found that they could never pay off the debt, and were forced to work the rest of their lives. So slavery is continued in this part of the Marsh, and all perfectly legal too!

If the player visits the plantation, he finds most of the workers seem dazed and unresponsive, working mindlessly both day and night, not even bothering to sleep. One however does not, and asks for your help to stop him "ending up like the others." It seems the slaves were forced to sign contracts in their own blood, and that if the player can get his contract, then he can destroy it, getting rid of the evidence that he owes the Big Boss money. But he's too scared to get it himself.

The player goes up the house. It is a huge and creepy, half-ruined mansion, guarded during the day by mute but savage guards. At night though, they are gone. The player sneaks in, avoiding patrolling guards on the inside, and makes it to the Boss' Office.

When they get in, the room is pitch black and some giant, inhuman thing attacks them whilst laughing like a maniac. But when you kill it, the thing gives a human scream and scripted lights suddenly come on. You see the dead Boss lying on the floor! You grab the contract and get out of there.

You meet the slave as arranged back at the slave shack, only to find the interior covered with blood, and see the dismembered slave rise up as a zombie in the middle of it all. Standing in the corner is the smiling Boss! He asks if the player is surprised to see him again so soon, and informs him that they are now wanted for the murder of one of the richest and most powerful men in the Marsh. They Royal Court were good friends of his, and now they want the player dead. And to make things more fun for him to watch, he's also going to curse the player to give them the appearance of a zombie to everyone except the player (we use the Vampire script, slightly modified).

The Boss disappears while the player is fighting the zombie, using the LaChance DB script. The player now has a huge bounty on their head, and gets attacked in their sleep by Shadowscale assassins sent by the Royal Court, and also finds it hard to talk to people without them running away screaming. The tribal argonians are not affected, however, but the Shaman refuse to talk to the player, fearful of the extraordinary strength of the curse.

However, somebody (not sure who) mentions the existence of an underworld figure who is said to know a lot about Bhuru magic - Arnaster Marrowmir!

If the player already knows Arnaster, this is easy. Otherwise they will have to track him down. Arnaster says he can do something about this problem for a price. The player offers gold but Arnaster says his smuggling gives him all the gold he needs - he wants the soul of the undead Big Boss, so he can find out how he got his powers.

Arnaster wants a Black Soulgem to hold the soul, then he accompanies the player to the Vaults of Gemin, where you fight your way to the Chamber of Separation. There the Big Boss appears to you, but laughs and says that such amateur efforts won't stop him. He is already acquiring a fresh body to become the new owner of his plantation, he says, then vanishes.

Arnaster says that the Boss is too arrogant, and has given himself away. He must have a physical anchor to the mortal plain, which will have to be destroyed. Arnaster has two jobs for the player - call in a favour from an old Argonian friend of his, and find the spirit anchor at the Boss' mansion. He will wait at the Chamber of Separation to fine-tune his ritual.

The old friend is a disgraced, ancient shaman living alone in a hut in the marsh. He explains that it was he who taught the Boss how to use Bhuru magic, thinking he was a young member of the Mages' Guild and that it would bring their cultures closer together. Little did he know that the man was already a powerful necromancer, and had combined Bhuru with Imperial magic to give his undead servants the appearance of still being alive.

With this warning, the player goes to the mansion, only to find the enchantment is gone, and all the unresponsive slaves are revealed to be zombies! The player fights their way to the basement of the house, where he finds a sinister shrine and removes a staff from it (there is also a copy of the Tome of Unlife, a book written by Mannimarco).

The Boss is now getting desperate, and sends wraiths to attack the player on their way back to the Vaults of Gemin. But the mission is a success, and the Boss' soul is forced out of the staff for Arnaster to capture. But it's not over yet! The soulgem talks to you, remarking that he's still got one trick left up his sleeve, and he's about to give Gideon an event "like they haven't seen in years!"

The player and Arnaster hurry to Gideon, finding the city in chaos. The Boss was about to be buried in the Mausoleum when he revealed his true form as a Lich and attacked, raising an army of undead. The player joins the town guards fighting them, and Arnaster explains that the Boss can only be defeated by sealing him in his coffin. The player kills the Lich and takes its bones, placing them with the soulgem into the coffin, which Arnaster casts a spell on, sealing it for all time.

Arnaster comments that it seems he still has much to learn about Bhuru magic, even after all these years. He invites the player to come and ask him if he finds anything else that might be of interest to him, and that perhaps they can work together again.

The next time the player sleeps, they are woken up as the area is crowded with the spectral Argonians who were freed from the Boss' magic to rejoin with the Hist. They cast a blessing on the player, which tribal argonians will recognise and become much more friendly towards the player.





In know it's fairly long. Comments?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hopefully, I can have Anaster (not Arnaster) appear in various quests, often in tough ones requiring a bit of 'moral support'. We will, however, need to take special care in making sure there are no clashes though. I guess I should really outline a plan for Anaster so that it makes it easier to make use of him but, for the time being, I would like to see him appear originally in Gideon as an apparently innocent part of Tlo1048's carnival performers (hence the top hat and dusty coat costume). This should be his original base. However, I reserve the right to any of his lines and I'll need to be closely involved with the development of any quests relating to him, especially as I'll be performing the lines, of course.

Now, a very small point of concern:

• The 'origin' of Argonian zombification will be dealt with in my quest for the Shadowscales. The 'Big Boss' (I'd like to rename him eventually) will have had some involvement with a certain individual whose parentage is the source of much discord with the Empire and that's where he's really developed his skills. The best way to do this is to have the unidentified 'bad guy' from the Shadowscales quest pass on his findings to the Boss. It would therefore be easier if he does this once the Shadowscales quest is completed which would then trigger this one off....although, with careful writing, the two can complement each other simply by referring to small details without giving the game away (as the bad guy is to remain unidentified).
  

[llamaranger]

Seems like a very challenging quest Though I agree with IG in the changing of the name.

On a vaguely related note.. do we have a tophat model yet?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

No, not yet.

Btw, I forget to mention what should be done if we plan to have the city over-run by zombies at some point....we'll need to hide the citizens inside the buildings and keep the buildings firmly locked. That could be necessary at various points of the city's history as it's going to be a lively place, methinks.

[Deeza]

Feel free to play around and change this any way you want. It was just a quick idea I made up in half an hour, so it will need much more fleshing out as we develop things further.

Interlinking this with the story from the Shadowscale quests would be ideal!

[jb3]

Following a conversation with Ibsen and Deeza, I'd be willing to claim this claim. Although before assigning, perhaps let's finish the conversation/discussion first.

As this is a large and unorthodox one, I think it requires discussion, agreement and good understanding of what there is to be done. It's an investment and it's not going to be prepared overnight for sure. I make this post following Ibsen's recommendation, to both let the team know what is down the sleeve, as well as to look for input, opinions and ideas.

Here is my understanding of the job to be done:

1. The subject of the claim is an exterior area called Longmont. As per the latest esm, it's already labeled, although the area is pure wilderness as of now.
   
2. What needs to be prepared is an external, luxurious castle and a plantation. The castle would need to suit BM's sinister style.
   [/list=1]
   The scope of the work:
   
   1. Molding the surrounding terrain, shape and height. Removing/adding objects like trees, rocks to fit the castle and the plantation. That would probably include most of the cell labeled as Longmont. So if anyone would like to do some work on any other claim, which would be in the vicinity, we would need to be in touch. Although I'd prefer to leave this cell just for the purpose of the castle/plantation.
      
   2. Preparing the castle exterior. I see this as a separate model/models, perhaps based on some already existing one/ones. To be prepared either by myself or the team (if nobody helps, I will take it).
      
   3. Preparing the castle's interiors.
      
   4. Preparing the plantation, external huts, Argonian NPC slaves, terrain around it.
      
   5. Preparing plantation huts interiors.
      [/list=1]
      Some options we have:
      
      1. I'd prefer the castle to be player-owned, perhaps after a quest/quests. NPC-owned is an option as well, however less prefered.
         
      2. I was thinking some small cellar and dungeons beneath the castle, but I don't want to go too far, simply to be realistic here. The cellar/dungeons might be connected to something bigger. One of the already existing dungeons perhaps?
         
      3. Quest/quests. Quests is not my department, although think how you want to cooperate about it. You might leave some of the story plots to me (same as in the mini-claims, where it's a responsibility of the claim holder) or we could discuss, exchange ideas. Please think about it and let me know how you want to work. I'd be willing to implement some other minor quests into the castle.
         [/list=1]
         It would be good to have this claim fully ready by October, so it's included in the release. If not, I'd like to know about it before we start.
         
         As I said, before assigning the claim, please let's finish the conversation/discussion on this one.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

The difficulty here, as ever, lies in the implementation of the quest. As I say to all those looking to offer their ideas in terms of storylines, the chances are that quest modders will be unwilling to do the hard work for someone else's ideas. Nevertheless, this is a key quest and one which I'd like to implement. Hopefully, this summer will free me up to learn more about quests and perhaps we can get a little help in doing it.

In the meantime, by all means take a look at the proposed site of Longmont (which I think is 12,-23 and 13,-23) lying on the edge of the Talu Swamps and Throttlemesh Myre and consider how you might lay things out.

I'm sure Deeza will have something to say soon about his quest...

[jb3]

Yes, I took a look at those coords. And I have a rough vision of how to lay things out.

If not Longmont, any other location with space for a claim of a similar type and scope.

An alternative would be to connect such a building with Xar ruins, so in a way I can merge this work, add a sub-level of Xar and connect it to the castle. That would be a different location than Longmont, thou. Either way, you have a scope described in the last post. It could apply to another location.

Let me know where we are.

Ibsen, what are your release plans at the moment? When do you want to release BM and what part of it?

[Deeza]

Right. I'll be honest. I wrote this quest a while ago, whilst my knowledge of BM lore was quite a bit less developed than it is now. Frankly, I think it's over-complicated and too difficult to implement, and I'm no longer really happy with it.

Nevertheless, I do think that there are salvageable elements:

1) The plantation itself, which could be an important location because it
(a) gives us an opportunity to explore a different side of the relationship between indigenous argonians and the empire
(b) could be a potentially unique and memorable location

2) The character of the Lord of the manor. Whilst I'm not so happy with the way I protrayed him in that version of the quest, I think jb3 could make something out of the guy: he frees slaves, but does he just enslave them again in a subtler way? Is he an exploiter of the land, or has he somehow "gone native", perhaps in a very sinister way?

Other things you might want to consider:

The manor's history. When was it founded? Why is it so heavily fortified? How did the current Lord acquire it? What is his relationship with the Royal Court? Why was it built here, in a remote area of the marsh?

Regarding Xarphyrial:

Where is the ruin relative to the manor?

If we are going to run with Xarph as our major, epic dungeon, bear in mind that we need to include somewhere the Vaults of Gemin, a TES1 location which is located just south of Soulrest. This was a major, epic dungeon in that game (the biggest in the province) and so perhaps shouldn't be upstaged by Xarph?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I'd reinterpret that bit of lore, Deez. It's old. Nevertheless, the Vaults of Gemin may be found just offshore where there is a coral reef if that satisfies the lore monkeys sufficiently. See this claim: CLAIM: Unusual Locations .

I think the quest could be tied up with the Lilmoth in some way. The Lilmoth will only be found in and near Lilmoth itself but if we were to have slaves used for some ritual that strengthens the Lilmoth line with the intention of bringing them back to their former glory then we might have something to work with there. That's not a considered idea but I'd like to work in something Lilmoth-related here.