Neilious's Secret

[Caligula Superfly]

Ok, here?s what I got for the book quest. I like most of it, but there may be some fine tuning necessary to make certain aspects of it more obvious to the player, so the good ending isn?t too hard to get. Also, I haven?t actually ironed out specific dialogue, I may want to save that for when I get to hear the flow and style of OB?s dialogue. It may help me make it more accurate. Or perhaps we will want to give it a morrowind flavor?


Requirements:
Neilious, and his house in Steadhelm.
Special dialogue for people living near Neilious.
A bar in Steadhelm, and special dialogue for it?s barkeep.
Special dialogue for a bookseller in Silgrad, and at least one other in Blacklight, Kragenmoor, or Reich Parkeep.
Special dialogue for a currently undetermined person already existing in Cyrodil.
Special dialogue for Steadhelm guards.

The quest will start when you meet the breton Neilious in Steadhelm. He will have his default passerby greeting clip set to something unique such as ?Hey you, outlander, could I have a word with you?? giving you an indication that he has a quest.

Upon speaking to him he will tell you about how he is an author, and has this great new book he just wrote called ?The Dream? (Yes I would like to change the name, I think it sounds better to keep the author?s name out of the title).

If you select the new ?The Dream? dialogue option he will go into further detail, offering you ten percent of the profits if you aid him in getting his book on the market, since he ?couldn?t possibly spare the time to do it himself?. If you accept, he will give you the names/locations of the booksellers he wants you to talk to, and a copy of the book itself.

Throughout his dialogue he will put a lot of emphasis in the money to be made through the distribution of his book, and show little care for anything else. Your journal entry will also mention this, hopefully hinting to the player that it may be quest relevant.

At this point you can go two ways?.

One, you can do what he says, talk to the booksellers (who will gladly stock his book) and receive your payment from Neilious: the Oblivion equivalent of 500 gold. End of story.

Or two, you can chose to investigate further. If so there will be several people who live around Neilious with a ?Neilious? dialogue option. They will mention that they don?t know a whole lot about him since he hasn?t lived around here for very long, but that he likes to hang around in the bar (I am assuming you will have a bar in Steadhelm, at least you will now ).

Go to the bar and talk to the bartender, and he will mention that one time after Neilious had a few too many, he rambled on a bit about a ?brilliant plan to get rich?, saying that it was somehow connected to his moving to morrowind. He will suggest that if you are the stealthy type, you may want to poke around his house for clues.

Assuming that you take the barkeep?s advice, you will find that in his bedroom (which will be locked), under his pillow, there will be some paper scrawling labeled ?Letter to -insert random female name here-? Upon reading it you will notice that it is essentially the contents of Neilious?s book, but with a bit tagged onto the beginning and end transforming it into a letter sent to an imperial soldier in Cyrodill, whom is fighting the daedra threat (ill make sure to write that up later). The city name within the writing will also be changed to one of the major OB cities, and the end will have ?sincerely, -woman?s name-?, which will tell you whom the real author of the story is and where to find her.

There will be a journal entry upon reading it about how it?s a forgery and you need to do something about it, but the player will actually have to read the paper to find out who to look for and where.

When you find this person in cyrodil (we wont want to make it very hard, it should be someone who already has their own house), you can speak to her about it. She will be horrified, and will ask you to speak with the authorities in Steadhelm right away.

Now you have a chance to be a bit evil. You can talk to Neilious first, and he will be terrified, offering you gold to keep things quiet. You can chose to take it, or say that doing do would be illegal and you must report him to the authorities, or that your plan to punish his crime yourself. Choosing the second third option will make him hostile, allowing you to kill him, taking whatever gold he would have given you as a bribe. Though no matter what you do, you can speak with the guard to have things cleared up, ensuring the rightful author will get credit for the book.

Once that is all done, you can go back to the woman in Cyrodil for a real reward: the Oblivion equivalent of 2500 gold, and a family heirloom of some kind. I?m thinking either a ritual dagger (someone could make a model if they feel like it), or a unique staff.

The End! (whew)

Some notes:

Even if you finish path one of the quest (going to the bookstores, you can still get the good ending if you find the paper in his house, but the dialogue options of the barkeep and others living in the city will transform into something like ?Neilious? Why that?s the one who wrote that new book! He?s become a bit of a local legend you know.?

In the time between finding the note and finding the woman in Cyrodill, if you speak to Neilious he will admit to his crime, but claim you have no way of proving it.

There is only one inconsistency that I have as of now. It doesn?t make a lot of sense that the true author would need to be receiving any credit for the book if you had not yet shown it to the booksellers. I suppose I could just gloss over that fact, making it more about injustice, and having the woman give you the quest reward out of the goodness of her heart rather than as a result of any profits. What do you guys think?

[Razorwing]

I think it sounds excellent and well thought-out, and multiple endings is a great way to add replayability to the mod :goodjob:

The part where the player goes to Cyrodiil might be difficult though, because we generally try to refrain from changing or adding to the main game world. Partly because we want the focus to be on the world we're creating, but mostly because it's so easy to cause mod conflicts that way (which my episode in Gnaar Mok really taught me). Perhaps your location in Cyrodiil could be switched to a location in Silgrad Tower (the huge multi-cultural city at the heart of the mod)? Or Reich Parkeep, which has a whole Imperial district? Then there's Crossroads, a small village built around a large inn, and Deepen Meadows which is a small farming community, both of which are fully Imperial, so there would be a few places to choose from. There might also be an advantage in that you'd have a lot more freedom over setting up the location, instead of being hemmed in by Bethesda's restrictions?

I too think it's a good idea to put off writing dialogue lines until you can start modding in the new CS, because things tend to change and get added or subtracted as a quest is modded.

Yes there'll definetely by a bar in Steadhelm. Can't have any settlement without a watering hole, hehe. And I think I might have a lead on the custom dagger you wanted for the family heirloom.

Keep up the good work :cheers:

[Caligula Superfly]

The part where the player goes to Cyrodiil might be difficult though, because we generally try to refrain from changing or adding to the main game world.

I can see where this may cause issues. I thought that it may be a good way to branch our world with the official game a bit more, making it feel less like a bubble. Though I suppose the functionality of the mod comes first. :poorme: <-- (Thats a good sad face) :yes:

If not Cyrodiil then it's going to have to be one of the smaller villages, and perhaps her house could be just outside of town? That way we can justify the fact that she wouldn't learn of the book or read it if it is sold in major cities, otherwise there would be no point in Neilious fleeing to Steadhelm.

[raggidman]

From the tone of the original story one might believe that the real author was situated well away from any danger. Is there perhaps a small village in a 'nice' peaceful area on the border with Cyrodiil where you would really feel that the sweetheart would feel that the military thing was totally unnecessary?

[KuKulzA]

very well thought out quest! well done, well done! :applause:

[Ebonyknight]

Dont know if someone mentioned theres a Dark Elf named Neilious

[raggidman]

Originally posted by Ebonyknight
Dont know if someone mentioned theres a Dark Elf named Neilious

Really...interesting...do you happen to remember the source and details?

[Ebonyknight]

ye here it is http://media.pc.ign.com/media/702/702491/vids_2.html

IT is chapter 5 "the dark elf in the video"

[raggidman]

Well I guess that Ashkhan KuKulzA now has to decide if he wants to have the name of his NPC shared with the distinctly greyish green Dark Elf in the video? Or perhaps the name could be subltly altered to, say Nerilious?

[KuKulzA]

up to me?
I am the Vvardenfell Askhan.... not hetman of Steadhelm... psha, I'm a true Velothi, and ashkhan of all Vvardenfell tribes... tell me that isn't better than a hetman from steadhelm.... little fetcher.... ugh.... House Folk and n'wah....