Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

(24/03) Alright, here's a bit of an update. There's been some discussion on this quest on making it a final clench for the Fighters' Guild quest line. I thought of something today and I'm amending this post with the new idea. I've copied and attached the original post.

As usual, I'm writing it down as it comes to mind and I've made the changes bold and placed an asterisk (*) after which it's all new.

Names, creatures, numbers and such are, as always, for illustrative purposes and can be altered. Dialogue is incomplete and preliminary.


The I In Team
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Once a certain amount of trust has been built up between the PC and the other Fighters' Guild members, the player is ordered to take up a post in a field settlement past the commonlands (i.e. the reasonably safe areas).

1. The head of the Fighters' Guild gives you the quest and tells you to speak with the second-in-command for further instructions.

2. Talk to Laric Sheil, the second-in-command of the local Fighters' Guild. He explains to you that the outpost has been a disaster for a very long time and that soldiers die needlessly to defend it. He wants you to fail on purpose and let the outpost fall, sparing the lives of future soldiers to be stationed there. If the player is interested he is to speak with a contact in the outpost, named Streef.

The settlement is fully fortified with palisades and a single gate controlled by a lever mechanism in the tower. The gate faces the jungle treeline.

3. Once at the outpost the player is greeted by the Guard Captain. He thanks the player for coming and informs him that an attack is due tonight. A hunting party is also scheduled to return after sundown. The player is to make his preparations and then take the first guard shift in the tower, starting at 11pm.

4. If the player speaks to Streef, he's told to let the attackers get through the gate and then to close it behind them, trapping all the soldiers and surely killing them.

When the player goes to sleep in the settlement (not sleeping in the settlement will cause the quest to fail. The settlement will survive but the player will not be paid) he's awoken by the Guard Captain at 10pm. The hunting party hasn't returned but the attack has begun. The player is ordered to go out and fight the enemies.

1. The player assists the guards in defeating the enemies. The Guard Captain sends him back to the Fighters' Guild to report.
   
2. The player climbs up to the top of the tower and throws the gate lever, trapping the guards inside. He then jumps down from the tower and escapes. A quest log prompts the player to report 'whatever lie is most believable' to the Fighters' Guild leader.
   [/list=a]
   
   Option a results in the player being paid as usual.
   
   Option b results in the player being paid a significantly smaller amount (The lie he tells is "I was too late. They were already dead").
   
   If the player chose Option b he can speak with Laric again, who tells the player that he's earned his trust and that he'll reward it in the future. The player gets no reward from Laric other than his gratitude.
   
   Quest End.
   
   
   
   If the player chose to follow Laric:
   One Life For Another, Eternally
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   Two or three quests down the main Fighters' Guild questline, Laric speaks to you when you enter the Fighters' Guild HQ. He explains to the player that their actions came with a terrible cost. Laric had gone back to the settlement to find that all the soldiers had risen from the dead.
   
   1. The player goes with Laric to the settlement. They wait there until sundown.
   
   2. The Guard Captain and all his soldiers appear. They scream 'Betrayer!' and attack. They're tough as hell.
   
   3. The player speaks with Laric:
   
   "I don't know the sleep of death from any common slumber; if we were ever really told the truth about what happens when you leave this world. Nevertheless, what we did here, the deal we made in lives... was never ours to make. To spare the lives of others, these poor bastards will never get to die."
   
   Quest End.
   
   
   
   This happens regardless of whether or not the player chose to do what Laric asked:
   The Debt
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   Upon the player's next return to the Fighters' Guild, the leader prompts you to fetch Laric from his chambers.
   
   1. The player discovers that Laric has hung himself above his bed. His spear is sticking out straight up from the floorboards.
   
   2. The player informs the leader of what's happened. The player is forced to lie to cover up his actions (This is here to stop the player from missing out on the rest of the quest line).
   
   3. If the player keeps his actions at the settlement a secret. The next time the player goes to sleep, he's drawn into a nightmare. He's faced with the phantom of Laric, who immediately attacks him. Once beaten, Laric speaks to the player:
   
   "You will also have to pay your dues once your life is up. This, here, is my fate. I wonder what yours will be?"
   
   The idea here is that the player causes the deaths of others regardless of what he does. Either he kills everyone in the settlement, or allows future recruits to die there.
   
   4. The player wakes up.*
   
   Quest notice:
   
   "Laric came to me in a dream and told me that I have a debt to pay. I don't think he was lying and I want to make sure that my soul isn't damned. There must be someone around who knows this type of magic. Maybe the Mages' Guild can help me".
   
   Quest end.
   
   
   
   A Divine Price On Your Head
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   1. The player visits the Mages' Guild and asks about his life debt. He's told (possibly after being forced to do something in return. Maybe the quest can only progress once the player has finished the Mages' Guild quest line? Then this continuation would be a continuation of both the FG and the MG) that there's one man who may be able to assist him, an old Necromancer named Jerek Hend, who lives in a small tower somewhere in the marshes. He's the typical recluse and generally refuses to talk to anyone who visits him.
   
   2. The player goes through some lengths to find this Jerek. This can be quite long.
   
   3. The conversation with Jerek Hend.
   
   Player -"What was I supposed to do if both choices were wrong!?"
   
   Jerek -"What leads you to believe that there was ever a right choice for you? One would think that your crusade of death in your "Fighters' Guild" would've clued you in on this situation. The only chance you had to save yourself was to never get involved in the first place."
   
   Player -"It is not the Gods' business what I do with my life."
   
   Jerek -"You think you can kill everyone and everything without any consequences to yourself? Well, my damned friend, this is not Cyrodiil, the Gods here do not deal in piety and forgiveness, they deal in spite and vengeance, and all for the purposes of their own entertainment. They care nothing for your sense of regret."
   
   Player -"I do not believe in any of this!"
   
   Jerek -"It's only the religious who believe in divine judgement and punishment but it is always the others who will ever suffer from it. Laric was given a chance to square his debt by collecting yours. Had you not slain him in the netherworld and stopped his act of contrition his soul would've gotten its peaceful rest but now it'll wander this world eternally, just like the souls of those men you condemned to death."
   
   Jerek -"The undead are the Gods' disappointment. But you... you've caught their eye. They'll be waiting for you."
   
   Player -"Let them try. I've faced worse."
   
   Jerek -"(laughs) You think you can face the Gods and emerge victorious? Fool. You are not the Nerevarine, you are not destined to do anything but suffer the penalty for your sins."
   
   Player -"If I don't have a destiny, that means I can make my own fate."
   
   Jerek -"See, now you're actually listening to me. Your ending is yet to come and so its outcome relies on what you do with the rest of your time here. If you're interested in saving yourself then you've done well in seeking me out."
   
   Player -"Why would you help me? You seem to find great enjoyment in my fate."
   
   Jerek -"That is true. But I also have great need for some of the items that you may encounter in your travels."
   
   ...
   
   Quest end.
   
   
   
   Both Sides Now
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   The idea here is that the player is forced to be both good and bad at the same time. For example, he might be forced to help a village in order to gain their trust so that he may visit their holy temple. Then he has to steal their idol (for his own salvation) and carve out the heart of their priestess (for Jerek).
   
   This quest can go on forever and delve deep into all manner of lore.
   
   I'm not so sure about all this but either way, here it is.

Great moral ambiguity and really creepy - nice quest sequence.

Maybe there should be an opportunity for redemption after follow-up 2, either way?

Whoah. Now that's a great quest. You should write them for us more often!

Only one question: where is this settlement going to be? I wonder, could we tie this in with Glenbridge somehow?

Quote:Originally posted by morcroft
Great moral ambiguity and really creepy - nice quest sequence.

Maybe there should be an opportunity for redemption after follow-up 2, either way?

Well, I suppose we could add a script that moves the player to a "dead-world" the next time he dies after "The Debt". He's faced with some manner of weird challenges that he has to overcome in order to square his share of The Debt.

Though, one thing I liked with this setting is that there is no redemption. The whole idea with the quest ending right after that line from Laric was to throw the moral choice into sharp relief, to give it a real sense of consequence. Even though the quest will never have an effect on the gameplay again, the player may feel as though they've actually made a real choice and start to think: "Can I live with this?".

Edit: There is another option. If we decide do make this quest sequence a major one, the player can get the task to seek out someone to help him settle his debt. This can potentially be a very long series of quests involving extensive Argonian lore on death, maybe exploring the collective memory to find someone in history who went through the same thing, tracing his steps to the lengths he went for his soul. The possibilities are rather endless.

Quote:Originally posted by Deeza
Whoah. Now that's a great quest. You should write them for us more often!

Only one question: where is this settlement going to be? I wonder, could we tie this in with Glenbridge somehow?

The location can be anywhere as long as it's near an area typically considered dangerous. The quest will work with most kinds of enemies, from daedra to any type of hunter-gatherer animal. However, it is imperative that the settlement is a palisade with a gate control, with this gate being the only entrance/exit.

I agree with you that there shouldn't be a simple "make things right", option.

But to make the choice "bite" a little more, how about there's some serious consequences for the other option too? Otherwise people might go for the easy way out and not help Laric.

Perhaps the player could be introduced to Laric earlier, so that the player knows him much better and this comes off as a real shock when you realise what he's been planning?

Quote:Originally posted by Deeza
I agree with you that there shouldn't be a simple "make things right", option.

But to make the choice "bite" a little more, how about there's some serious consequences for the other option too? Otherwise people might go for the easy way out and not help Laric.

Perhaps the player could be introduced to Laric earlier, so that the player knows him much better and this comes off as a real shock when you realise what he's been planning?

Well, the idea is that Laric should be the second-in-command and that the player should've received a few orders from him already. This way, we can introduce Laric as the very honourable type. Throw in some Ibsen voice acting and we have our guy.

Maybe Laric is very displeased with the player's choice if he doesn't help him? A simple line could deter those who made the easy choice the first time around and I figured that the player would get one very nice item from defeating the Laric phantom.

"I'd intended a great reward for you if you'd shown to be the right man to have by one's side in battle. Now all you'll receive is my disappointment."

I see. Looks to me like this would be towards the end of the Fighter's Guild quest line...

Quote:Originally posted by Xaeaix
Though, one thing I liked with this setting is that there is no redemption.

You're right. I've spent too much time around saccharine plotlines in the original game. Bring on the real-world nastiness!

We'd have to make sure that the PC knows the deal a little more. Many noob players will go for the nicey-nicey option and then feel annoyed that they're locked out of the FG. It will need to be made clear that the FG is totally unlike the one from Cyrodiil. After all, the PC him(or her)self is setting it up and knows that the reason it hasn't been there before is because the corruption and culture doesn't support it. Therefore, it's best to stick together and negotiate the best outcome as it's not always the most morally correct one.

Np on the VA work, Xae!

This is sounding more and more like a finale to the FG quests. We'd need to have some serious buildup to this moment in order to make it work.

Edit:

Perhaps it's a choice between letting the Guild you've spent so long building up collapse again, or letting those guys die... now THAT would be a tough call.