Cursed book idea

[zprospero]

I hope I'm putting this in the right place.

I have an idea for a quest around a book. It's an autobiography of a necromancer named "Valen the Heartless." He's called that because when the Temple found out about him they sent Ordinators to his lair, their leader was the brother of one of his victims, and the leader cut out his heart. But being a necromancer he took precautions that allowed him to survive. The problem comes from the fact he needs cold air to survive (Blatantly stolen H.P. Lovecraft), or else he'll decay. The first thing he does is capture the leader of the Ordinators and torture him to death and then goes off to Solstheim because of the cold.

The story mentions some cool enchanted items that could be rewards, possibly.
An Ordinator helm with Detect Life on it and a shield with 100% spell reflection. Some others could be added.

The story ends with the Temple capturing him, on Solstheim (I need to work out why the Temple would send people there) and at the end of the book is the fun part.

You realize he's now talking directly to the person reading the book. Apparently on his trip back he was beginning to 'melt' and he took another precaution. The book is sprinkled with powder made from a grand black soul gem. He sealed his soul within in it. Now that the PC has read it they get Valen's Curse. Which increases in intensity every day until it will kill the PC, unless they gather what the necromancer needs to be resurrected.

- The heart of an former Ordinator
This one could either be an NPC you are supposed to kill, or an item
(maybe the heart of the Ordinator who cut out his?) that has to be
found in a dungeon somewhere

- the soul of a Frost Monarch (or Atronach to make it simpler)

- the blood of a vampire (I'm not fond of this idea, but it was all I could think of)

Those are very open to suggestion, but the Frost one is important. In the story he, Valen, tells you certain things about what he fears. Number 1 is the helm of an Ordinator. Number 2 is fire. There are two paths, you either resurrect him fully, in which case you have to fight a VERY powerful lich with a 100% magic reflection shield. Or, you trick him by replacing the Frost Salts with Fire Salts. When he is resurrected he has a 100% weakness to fire and if you get an Ordinator helm (I don't know if anyone has a mesh or not, but I would assume so) maybe he drops the Reflect shield? As I said everything is open to debate.

Also, the book will give you hints (not in the story, it actually writes
messages to you when you read it again.)

I'm not very proficient with the construction set. If anyone likes this idea
or can think of how to use it for a quest feel free. I can write the book,
and do some dialogue, I'm a voice actor. I'm dying to work my maniacal
laugh into a character. But I don't know scripting or anything complex.

Please tell me what you think and share any ideas you might have!

[TheImperialDragon]

It's an interesting idea. :goodjob: It might need to be checked for proper ES lore, but myself, I didn't see anything that struck out as incorrect lore-wise.

Another thing that should maybe be looked at is the part where you said "Blatantly stolen H.P. Lovecraft". I'm not familiar with who Lovecraft is... could you clarify what you meant? Because we do need to be careful about copyrights.

I'll move the thread to Quest Dev. for discussion.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Lovecraft is best known for the 'Call of Cthulhu' mythos but also for lots of great early Gothic horror writing that rivalled even that of the mighty Edgar Allan Poe. I felt that there were lots of Cthulhu-inspired elements in 'Lost Spires' and, in truth, a fair amount of good stuff is 'borrowed' wholesale from his ideas....though often unsuccessfully IMO.

Provided zprospero keeps the names fairly original and alters some aspects so that it disguises the text, it can then be said to have been an 'influence' rather than a 'lift'. Professional authors 'borrow' stuff all the time. It just depends on whether the 'new author' has assimilated other ideas into the mix so that it is sufficiently original.

I'm not entirely sure about the story that zprospero is referring as it's a while since I read Lovercraft...but does any of the above match what you're trying to do here?

[zprospero]

My apologies for not clarifying. And thank you TheImperialDragon for moving
this thread.

The story I am referring to is H.P. Lovecraft's "Cool Air." It is a short story
by the author. I said blatantly because I'm not the first to steal the idea.
The Batman villain Mr. Freeze is based on this story as well as any
character you see that need subzero temperatures to survive.
Also, Lovecraft's story is about a Spanish doctor named Munoz, who
kept himself alive after dying 18 years before the story. His air conditioner
breaks resulting in him melting.

There is no copyright issue as the only thing I borrowed was the idea of
an undead man keeping his body from decaying by keeping himself
extremely cold.

I assure you, no one will get into to trouble over it. I am chock
full of ridiculously obscure information like this and sometimes I forget
just how obscure it is.

[zprospero]

Here's what I have for the book. It turned out quite a bit longer
than I expected. I don't know if there is a limit of how long a book
can be, but I can cut it down if necessary.

As far as lore, I don't think that anything in here will be problematic,
but I do mention specific NPCs from Morrowind.

Valen the Heartless

[bob196045]

Howdy

Very Good Story

I like the idea


The only thing that concerns me about this story is the following passage

The Temple was hunting me mercilessly, and I heard that Sorkvild had ratted me out

Reason:

Why would they be looking for you ?

1) At this point your character has already left Sorkvild, Sorkvild should not have known of the events which took place after you left.

2) The Ordinator has taken out your heart, presumably you are dead, their is no mention of anyone knowing you were still alive.

Enjoy
Bob

[zprospero]

An excellent point. I'm still trying to crack that.

I thought that Sorkvild might have been the one who
told Valen about Solstheim, or at least how Nords felt about
necromancers. The Ordinators probably knew about Sorkvild,
as well known he was in Dagon Fel. He also would have surely
known about Valen's spell, and the shield, and perhaps deduced
what had happened.

Also, the disappearance of the Ordinator was supposed to
have tipped of the Temple. Or, it is possible they may have
consulted Vivec. Either would likely have resulted in them sending
people to his last known associates and gone back to the Dwemer
ruin to find Valen's corpse.

This was the part of the story I was having the most trouble
with. Perhaps a better line would be something like:

"The Temple had sent agents to what was meant to be my tomb,
when they discovered my body missing, they knew I must have
been responsible for the Ordinator's disappearance. They spoke
with Sorkvild, who promptly ratted me out, explaining the method
I had confided with him, and suggesting, from our joint experiments,
that I would likely travel to Solstheim, because he had told me that
it was an excellent place for necromancers because of how the Nords
felt about such things."

This would make it so they know he's still alive, and how Sorkvild
learns of the events, and helps them find Valen.

Also, I didn't do it, because I was worried it might interfere with
the lore, but I left it open that the 'someone' who might have
came and killed some of the smugglers might have been the
Nerevarine, and that the unnamed ruin could have be Arkngthand,
the place where the Dwemer puzzle box was. I remember exploring
the deep ore passage and thinking that there had to be a secret room
down there somewhere, there wasn't as far as I know, but still.