Temple Quest: Save the Acolyte in Lleran Ancestral Tomb

[Cheese]

Here's a Temple quest when you already decided to be a ?good? player

One of the priests at the temple says that a young acolyte asked for help over at the .......... ancestral tomb. When you arrive there the acolyte says that a gang of thugs are residing at the tomb and he wants you to see what their plans are and cleanse them out. When you kill the leader of the small gang of thugs you find an encrypted letter on his corpse. When you bring it to the acolyte he says to go to ........... , He?s an expert in deciphering codes. When you get to him he says he'll do it but it'll take him a while, in the meantime you must do him a favour. He asks you to deliver a package of books to a noble somewhere on a remote place. When you return he has deciphered the letter. It says that the gang of thugs made plans to kill the Arch mage of the temple. When you ask how they can do that? He says they made a pact with .......... a powerful mage and a minion of one of the daedra. The letter also says the attack will happen today. So you hurry a temple. When you arrive there you find that it has been overrun with thugs 2 priests are dead, when you kill all the thugs, one dying priest says: Save our leader hurry... When you go into the archmage his room the daedra is just about to kill him. You kill the daedra and save the archmage

[Razorwing]

That sounds like a cool quest

I have a couple of questions (please don't take them as critisizm). What's the purpose of the acolyte in the chain of events? My impression is that his actions could just as easily be handled by the questgiver. If he didn't want to go into the tomb himself, how did he communicate his hesitation to his superiors in the Temple? Perhaps it would make more sense if he returned from the tomb and is in the Temple building in Silgrad at the start of the quest; that way the player can team up with the acolyte and they can journey to the tomb together? Just a suggestion.

There aren't any Archmages in the Temple.
The ranks are:
1. Layman
2. Novice
3. Initiate
4. Acolyte
5. Adept
6. Curate
7. Disciple
8. Diviner
9. Master
10. Patriarch
(source: UESP)

There's a woman of Master rank in the Silgrad Temple, her name eludes me at the moment, but she's not important so you can start fresh and create a new leader of the Temple in Silgrad if you want. Go ahead and give the character the Patriarch rank.

I'm curious, are the thugs daedra worshippers?

If you have the time, I'd much appreciate it if you fleshed out the description of the quest a bit, particularly naming your NPC's. Otherwise it can be a bit confusing. If you don't want to, I can make the editing, then I'll add it to the main story page. My hunch is that it won't be a starter quest in the Temple path since there's a lot of fighting involved?

In either case: Good work!

[Cheese]

Hey,

This quest wasn't intended for the temple path quests, just a miscelaneous side quest. As for the acolyte, he was sent there by one of the masters for studies and while he was in the tomb he came across one of the thugs and he fled out. He sended a message to the temple that he needed help and because the master was to busy to go there he sends you. As for the Archmage its been a while since I last played morrowind .

Here's a updated story

Master Sildaren Vilas at the Silgrad temple says that 2 weeks ago he sended the young acolyte Doren Malas to the Lleran ancestral tomb to study an ancient book, on of the lleran family treasures. He should've come back by now but instead I received a letter in which he pleads for help. Normaly I would deal with this matter myself but given the turmoil in the city I cant leave. Can I please ask you to go in my place. When you arrive there the acolyte says that when studying he was chased out by a gang of thugs. He want you to see what they are doing there and get them to leave. When you kill the leader of the small gang of thugs you find an encrypted letter on his corpse. When you bring it to the acolyte, he sends you to go to Duncan Hardwood an expert in deciphering codes. When you get to him he says he'll do it but it'll take him a while, in the meantime you must do him a favour. He asks you to deliver a package of books to a noble somewhere on a remote place. When you return he has deciphered the letter. It says that the gang of thugs made plans to kill the Patriarch of the temple. When you ask how they can do that? He says they made a pact with Veran Suldis a powerful mage and a minion of one of the daedra. The letter also says the attack will happen today. So you hurry a temple. When you arrive there you find that it has been overrun with thugs 2 acolyte are already dead, when you kill all the thugs, one dying acolyte says: Save the Patriarch hurry... When you go into the Patriarch his room the daedra is just about to kill him. You kill the daedra and save the Patriarch.

Ill post more asap

[Razorwing]

Thanks for the update, it's looking very interesting! Though I think your quest would fit in perfectly in the Temple path. Many path quests will be related to the story arc of the escalating faction war, but there is certainly room for stand-alone quests like the one you're working on.

What race does Duncan Hardwood belong to? He sounds almost like a redguard to me, which wouldn't be a bad idea. There weren't a lot of them in the old Silgrad. It's a great name!

If you have the time, it would be really great if you could write the two notes you're using in your quest - then you could just copy-paste them into your future plugin, freeing up your time for more hands-on modding. It'd also give a deeper insight into what's going on in the quest.

EDIT: I edited your text slightly, and posted it on the main story page. Let me know if I made too much changes; I really don't want to make you feel like I'm taking it from you.

[Cheese]

Heres a quick quest outline for the temple quest. Just to see if you like the idea

quest 1: Player must bring a package of herbs etc. to an acolyte somewhere in the hills.

quest 2: Priest in temple explains that the acolyte where the player brought the herbs to was exploring the surroundings there to build a small new to temple to please one of the gods(because they are angry or something like that) Anyways the player must check up with the acolyte to see how the temple is coming along.

quest 3: The building of the temple is coming along nicely but they are out of stone so you must see what the holdup is at the stone mine. The foreman of the stonemine says that the caravan left the mine to suply the stones but he doesnt know what happened to him so he would like you to check that out. Somewhere halfway trough you see the caravan broken down everyone dead but with a scribled note by one of the caravan people that they where attacked by some critters (dunno what kind of yet, perhaps spiders). You go back to the forman of the mine, and he says thats terrible so he wants you to kill the queen spider and 12 young spiders so that future caravans wont be attacked. You go back to the temple deliver the stones, and you report back to the master at the silgrad temple.

quest 4: (the one I already wrote)

Master Sildaren Vilas at the Silgrad Temple says:

"Two weeks ago I sent the young acolyte Doren Malas to the Lleran Ancestral Tomb, to study an ancient book on of the Lleran family treasures. He should've come back by now, but instead I received a letter in which he pleads for help. Normally I would deal with this matter myself, but given the turmoil in the city I can't leave. Can I please ask you to go in my place?"

When you arrive at the Ancestral Tomb you find the acolyte camped up outside,saying:

"While studying the book, I was chased out by a gang of thugs. I want you to see what they are doing down there, and get them to leave."

When you kill the leader of the small gang of thugs, you find an encrypted letter on his corpse. When you bring it to the acolyte, he sends you to go to Duncan Hardwood, who is an expert in deciphering codes. When you get to him he says:

"I can decipher it, but it'll take me a while. In the meantime I'd like you to do me a favour. Can you take this stack of books [he points to a pile on the table next to him] to my old friend Baron Remo in Reich Parkeep?"

No matter how long the player waits, if he returns to Hardwood before delivering the books, he'll say he hasn't yet deciphered the letter. If the player does it twice, Hardwood will hint that he won't give the player the deciphered letter before the player has done him the favour. If the player completes the task and returns to Hardwood, he'll recieve the deciphered letter.

It says that the gang of thugs the player fought made plans to kill the Patriarch of the Temple in Silgrad. Apparantly they made a pact with Veran Suldis, a powerful mage and a minion of one of the daedra, to whom the deciphered letter was adressed. The letter also says the attack will happen today. So you hurry back to the Temple, and if you arrive in time, you find that the Temple building has been overrun with thugs. Two acolytes are already dead, when you kill all the thugs, one dying acolyte says: Save the Patriarch, hurry... When you go into the Patriarch's chambers, a minion of the mage is just about to kill him. To succeed in the quest, you must kill the minion before he kills the Patriarch.

If you fail to get to the Temple within the timeframe after being told what the deciphered letter says, the Patriarch does indeed die. If you can't save the Patriarch from the minion attack, he dies. If he dies, the game assigns a new Patriarch to be elected among the (two) Masters after a couple of days. The player can then return back to Silgrad and recieve quest 10B from the new Patriarch. If the player succeeds in the quest, he'll recieve quest 10B from the normal Patriarch.


quest 5: kill the mage Veran Suldis before he can kill more members of the temples. The mage is inside a giant cave system full of traps etc.


P.s remember this is not the final version just a outline to see if you like it.

greetings,

Cheese

[Quentin Fortune]

Excellent work, Cheese. I really like this a lot especially since it provides the player with a chance of 'failure' so to speak.

As far as I remember we had much trouble with the temple quests in our plugin, but it seems that this problem is remedied.

Carry on, my friend, carry on.

Greetings

Quentin

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Cheese
Heres a quick quest outline for the temple quest. Just to see if you like the idea

[...]

The ideas behind your quests are very sound, and that is what's most important - there's no point in writing ten pages if the quest is bad, right? I like the way you tie the end of the quest with the beginning of the next quest - it's fluid and logical.

Here are my suggestions:
) If you write the text in Word you can use it's excellent spellchecker to make sure the words are spelled correctly. It saves time for whoever edits your text for inclusion.

) I know you just outlined the quests quickly, but just the same, a finished quest draft should be thoroughly explained. When you feel you've completed a draft, read over what you've written and try to put yourself in the shoes of another modder - would he understand what I mean? Would he be able to build a plugin from this without doing 75% of the creative work himself?

The intention is of course that you'll create these quests for the plugin yourself after Oblivion comes out. But in case you leave (for any reason), the drafts would still be useable. No one will take the claim of the quests from you unless you're gone for a long time.

---

black[/hr]

[blockquote]This is the finalized version of Cheese's quest draft as edited by Razorwing, entitled "Save the Acolyte in Lleran Ancestral Tomb".[/blockquote]

Master Sildaren Vilas at the Silgrad Temple says to the player:

"Two weeks ago I sent the young acolyte Doren Malas to the Lleran Ancestral Tomb, to study an ancient book on of the Lleran family treasures. He should've come back by now, but instead I received a letter in which he pleads for help. Normally I would deal with this matter myself, but given the turmoil in the city I can't leave. Can I please ask you to go in my place?"

When you arrive at the Ancestral Tomb you find the acolyte camped up outside, saying:

"While studying the book, I was chased out by a gang of thugs. I want you to see what they are doing down there, and get them to leave."

When you kill the leader of the small gang of thugs, you find an encrypted letter on his corpse. When you bring it to the acolyte, he sends you to go to Duncan Hardwood, who is an expert in deciphering codes. When you get to him he says:

"I can decipher it, but it'll take me a while. In the meantime I'd like you to do me a favour. Can you take this stack of books [he points to a pile on the table next to him] to my old friend Baron Remo in Reich Parkeep?"

No matter how long the player waits, if he returns to Hardwood before delivering the books, he'll say he hasn't yet deciphered the letter. If the player does it twice, Hardwood will hint that he won't give the player the deciphered letter before the player has done him the favour. If the player completes the task and returns to Hardwood, he'll recieve the deciphered letter.

It says that the gang of thugs the player fought made plans to kill the Patriarch of the Temple in Silgrad. Apparantly they made a pact with Veran Suldis, a powerful mage and a minion of one of the daedra, to whom the deciphered letter was adressed. The letter also says the attack will happen today. So you hurry back to the Temple, and if you arrive in time, you find that the Temple building has been overrun with thugs. Two acolytes are already dead, when you kill all the thugs, one dying acolyte says: Save the Patriarch, hurry... When you go into the Patriarch's chambers, the daedra is just about to kill him. To succeed in the quest, you must kill the daedra before they kill the Patriarch.

If you fail to get to the Temple within the timeframe after being told what the deciphered letter says, the Patriarch does indeed die. If you can't save the Patriarch from the daedra attack, he dies. If he dies, the game assigns a new Patriarch to be elected among the (two) Masters after a couple of days. The player can then return back to Silgrad and recieve quest 10B from the new Patriarch. If the player succeeds in the quest, he'll recieve quest 10B from the normal Patriarch.