Original Thieves' Guild MQ Ideas

[Deeza]

As I understand it, the Imperial Guilds, including the Thieves' Guild, will be present in Black Marsh. Here is my idea for the main quest line for the Thieves' Guild. Of course, this could apply to any criminal group that isn't too hardcore, so if you decide it doesn't really fit then you could always use it for one of the other factions instead.

Enjoy!

My idea is to make the Thieves' Guild questline in Black Marsh distinct from the other ones as they were presented in Morrowind (and Oblivion I gather, though I haven't played it through so I don't know). In light of all the smuggling going on, I suggest a plot more like that of a gangster movie. Instead of lots of “steal this” missions the WHOLE questline revolves around a single heist that goes horribly wrong. The advantage of this approach is that it allows you to really get to know and develop the characters of the other members of the Guild.

The Heist

1.Basically the Black Marsh branch of the Thieves' Guild is only barely connected to the main one back in Cyrodiil. They're a not-very-competent-or-intelligent bunch of lowlives trying to hit the big time with a big heist. Rather than working your way slowly up their ranks, you get brought in right at the beginning as a hired expert. If you're over a certain rank in the main Thieves' Guild they'll beg you to help them – if you're not, then you have to do a small job for them to prove your skills. They then fill you in on their plan.

2.Their scheme is to hijack a ship arriving at the docks from Elseweyr that's filled with “enough skooma to waste half of Stormhold”, make a getaway by sailing it out into the mangrove swamps and running it aground, before taking the crates back to your hideout in the slums. After one or two initial missions to gather intelligence on the ship, you pull off the heist by sneaking past the thugs guarding it (they are VERY tough, so sneaking is essential) and cutting loose the moorings before sneaking onto the ship and turning the rudder.

3.If you kill anyone there's an extra quest to dispose of the corpses in the swamp (the others will be horrified if you do, being strictly small-timer crooks). Leaving some people there to finish cleaning up you head back to their hideout with the skooma for a celebration. Unfortunately the party gets crashed by a load of Naga, who were also looking to steal the cargo. They followed the ship underwater and when you left they beat the people you left behind into revealing where your hideout was. Use your knowledge of the hideout to evade them (again, they're really tough, so you have to sneak) and escape with the skooma.

4.The survivors decide to move to a new hideout deeper into the swamps. But little to they know they're being watched again...

5.They then send you off as their negotiator to sell the skooma. Their contact, a corrupt city guard, tells you that one of the Kleptocrats is eager to buy the skooma. The meeting is unofficial so you have to evade his guards. Once you meet him, you discover the terrible truth.....

6.It was him who had the skooma brought over from Elseweyr in the first place!

7.Magnificent, truly magnificent. Not only is the prey so stupid that it thinks it could steal our skooma without consequences, but it is enough of a moron to try to sell it back to us afterwards. There is only one reason why I allow it to leave this room... moving. It cost us much to bring that shipment here, and to bring another would be a waste of effort compared to that required to... recover our last from the prey. So we are prepared to be... generous. It has three days. Otherwise, no matter where it hides, from the deepest cesspit of the Marsh to the frozen wastes of Skyrim, we will find it.

8.A timer starts. If the three days expire, Shadowscales come for you. If you escape or defeat them, more arrive every day after that. Initially they aren't that tough – there's no point sending skilled assassins to whack a few thieves after all. If you evade them for long enough, though, they start sending tougher ones.

9.Everyone rushes back to the cave in the swamp, only to find it's been raided. You track the raider's trail deep into the swamps, and finally discover Khenaten Separatists have burnt it all as a symbol of imperialist oppression. They believe the drugs are brought in to trap Argonians into addiction and make them docile workers. This may actually be true, as it is probably what the Kleptocrat wanted it for. Unfortunately that means you still need to find enough Skooma to replace it or enough cash to pay him off.

10.First of all, you need to break out your friends, who the Naga shopped to the Guards after beating them senseless. Once this is done, you make a desperate plan. You are going to steal the private reserve of one of the other Archeins. It's rumoured that he likes the good life and has stockpiled drugs, treasures, and exotic artefacts beneath his keep. It's the only place you can get items that are worth enough to replace the Skooma. Unfortunately the place is built like a fortress. Only one man ever succeeded in stealing from it, for a bet, who went by the nickname of “Ghostfingers”. He was one of the most legendary thieves in the history of Black Marsh, so much so that it was rumoured he was in fact a wizard who stole using magic. It was said that no jail could hold him.

11.But his luck eventually ran out, and the only man who can help you is now in the deepest levels of the infamous Blackrose Prison. There is only one course of action. The prison was built to be impossible to break out of, not to break into. So you have to go in and find out how he did it.

12.After getting into his cell, you find Ghostfingers an old man broken by his imprisonment. He is almost senile, but from his mutterings you learn the terrible truth. He gained the ability to walk through walls from a pact with Clavicus Vile, who, as is his way with mortals, abandoned him when he needed it most, resulting in his capture. Now he owes the Daedric Prince his soul. Suddenly his expression changes and he speaks with the voice of the Daedra that now holds him prisoner in his own body. Clavicus Vile isn't about to let go of his soul, but, as he tells you, he does love to play games. He offers a bet: he will release the man's soul if you can steal the belt of the Warden of Gideon, the most foul individual in the most foul city in Black Marsh. You make the deal and he teleports you there.

13.Succeed and the Daedric Prince will keep his word, reluctantly. He then offers you a double or nothing bet to clear your debt to the Kleptocrat, but the player wisely declines, knowing how bets with Clavicus Vile usually turn out. Released from the Daedra's grip, Ghostfingers dies, but not before using the last of his power to give you the ability to walk through walls, just three times.

14.After using it once to get out of Blackrose Prison (a script teleports you with eerie sound effects), you find that the Naga found the new hideout in the swamps and tracked it to the Khenaten Separatists' camp. There was a fierce battle, but it isn't clear who won. You need to move fast.

15.The Archein's keep's underbelly was once a Kothringi underground complex, and it has been filled with ingenious traps. Even walking through walls won't get you all the way there. But it will get you out again after you steal some of the choicest items to a total value equal to the Skooma (you can also take anything else you can carry).

16.On running out, you hurry back to the Kleptocrat Drug-dealer to make the exchange. Of course, he has no intention of keeping his word, and sets his guards on you. Luckily, at the same time the surviving Naga turn up, having tracked you to the Kleptocrat's mansion and assumed that he was behind the heist all along. A massive fight ensues, during which you have to run out of the way of the crossfire. The last Naga standing, mortally wounded, goes berserk and stabs the Kleptocrat to death. At this point the Imperial Legion shows up, finding you and the hapless Thieves' Guild in the middle of a pile of dead Naga and Archein's Guards.

17.Whilst you are in prison awaiting trial, a Shadowscale appears to inform you that whilst they have never failed to complete an assignment, with the Kleptocrat dead the contract is null and void. You are free, for the present. With that it disappears (chameleon then disable).

18.Eventually a guard comes and takes you up to the office of the Imperial Admiral, head of all Imperial forces in the province. He has guessed the story from the other terrified thieves and is prepared to wipe the slate clean for you because of your role in revealing the duplicity of the Kleptocrat, in exchange for the items you stole from the illegal private store, which he will also be investigating now that he knows it exists.

19.The choice is yours. Make the deal or go down for a very, very long time. It isn't really much of a decision, and you and the Guild are freed. They immediately begin planning their next heist – while the player runs a mile....

[Dr.DeathDefing]

I thought the Sotho Tren was the equivalent of the TG.
But I adore the idea! it has the potential to be a film or a book even. One thing, you don't get much in the end. No sense of achievment. It is still amazing don't get me wrong. But it needs more at the end.
Love it and your ideas.

[Deeza]

You're right about the reward. Possibly we could add a final twist in which the Khenaten Army show up at the trial and you can sneak away in the confusion with a few items from the Archein's safe - the KLA takes the blame and you get some powerful artefacts.

I suppose the main plot hole is that if you're a powerful enough character you could always just kill the Archein. But this is supposed to be a strictly sneaky character roleplaying quest. I guess the only alternative would be to have the goons so ridiculously souped up they could one-shot you, but that seems like cheating just a little bit.

[Dr.DeathDefing]

Is not at all, it makes sense.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Just reading through your quest comments, DD...I haven't posted until now but they look quite useful. Yes, let's hope you're not another Direwolf... :eek:

I just thought I should mention that Nero has been working on an interior that he had quite a unique idea for. It's a Chasepoint interior and features a basement with some cool stuff in it. It might be a location for a thievery quest.

Now this is something that needs doing, really. When we go to quest stage, it could prove very useful to do a quick audit of the current interiors and identify potential questline locations....just thought I should mention that here.

[Dr.DeathDefing]

Sorry, I am using IPhone on the go.

[Deeza]

Again I'm not sure what to do with this quest. I really like how it turned out, from a personal point of view, but with my modder's lenses on it strikes me that it might be tricky to implement, and we could perhaps better concentrate on other areas?

What do the rest of you think?

[t3h_pwn3r_ii]

I would save it for another mod project IMO

[Deeza]

You may well be right. I'll wait and see what Ibsen has to say, though.

[morcroft]

I think you're right on both counts: the quality of the original idea and the trickiness of implementation - especially as there seems little scope to implement it in part. It's very "all-or-nothing" so there's a large project risk in committing resources to it.