This will be the third quest I've written for Silgrad to date. Hopefully I'll manage to write a few more or see one in the game sometime in 2011.
For this quest I wanted to focus on the Daedra of Oblivion and the alien nature of these immortal beings.
After reaching a high level of fame or infamy, the quest is triggered when the player is attacked by hunters upon resting. Eventually the player will head to the library of Soluthis in a search for answers and find from an elderly scholar that they are being hunted by the Daedra of Hircine.
Desperate to escape the attention of the hunt, the player must steal a book from the Temple, in which lies the location of the only recorded sanctuary, a place known as Haven.
Having eluded the hunters and arrived at the edge of the Forgotten Forest, the player discovers Haven and is confronted by a favoured hunter who reveals that Haven is a lure, a hunting ground for the favoured of the Daedra prince. The player must then make their way to the centre of Haven, where a shrine to Hircine lies concealed in the shadow of a hill.
Here the player must fight one of Hircine's chosen (a Redoran Warlord) in bloody combat to escape the bloodied fields of Haven. Upon victory, the player is confronted by Hircine (who speaks through a mortal puppet) and offered a powerful lesser weapon of the prince himself (probably a spear or blunt weapon, although a crude skinning knife or such could also work). The player is then transported outside the forest and is free to carry on with their adventures.
If the player accepted the weapon they will find they are bestowed with the Instinct, a powerful enchantment that both strengthens the player's combat and stealth skills and curses them with a slow decay. Whatever the details of the enchantment are decided upon, the idea is that by the taint of the spear the player is slowly being moulded into a weapon, a tool of Hircine's eternal hunt.
This could give some interesting follow up quests, however I'll leave that for the future.
Happy New Year everyone!
(even if it is a bit early)
Howdy
No doubt I like the interaction
However this quest idea seems a bit much like Bloodmoon
I see no reason to exclude a trial quest using a daedra prince to test the players abilities
Consider Daedra princes do not typically come down and challenge a mortal they are summoned beings Even as sommoned beings they hold no alligence to mortals and may or may not grant a request
If summoned, they may require the summoning mortal a task to be fulfilled and a reward for the summoners loyalty
You may wish to look at your quest from this point of view
We can discuss
Enjoy
Bob
Thanks Bob!
I agree it does seem a lot like Bloodmoon, perhaps the Redoran Warlord has forged a pact with Hircine and as his part of the deal must hunt the player (sort of a flip side to the vanilla quest, with the player being the prey rather than the hunter)?
In this way Hircine could remain part of the quest, but without any direct involvement in events. The artifact the player retrieves from the Warlord would then be the reward and the escape would be through a hidden door behind the shrine.
Another thing I could think of would be to have Hircine announce his intent to have the player as a trophy to several of his followers, who could all be in competition with each other. The hunters could each have factions of lesser hunters as minions. This would open up some interesting options IMO.
With most or all of the hunters lying dead and the player tainted there would be no real victor at the conclusion of the quest, fitting for a quest entitled 'Survival'.
Thoughts?
Some changes:
Prior to arriving in Haven, the player will have two or three hunters and their minions chase them across the land in addition to an elderly shaman appearing in their dreams and around various locations to warn or protect the player. The hunters encountered before Haven should mostly survive to fight there and should all be of different races, styles and personalities.
Upon entering Haven the player will be given crude, basic equipment (which could be added to through looting or similar means) and have their inventory removed, hidden in a chest outside the Forgotten Forest. At this stage a taint could be placed, turning the player's mind slowly into that of a beast (reflected in the stats), although this could happen after leaving Haven.
Inorder to leave Haven, the player must find the hunter whose heart is the key (unsure of which hunter they need) and could also have the ability to join forces with any of the hunters (around six or seven in total, excluding minions).
Thoughts?
Sounds very interesting. Sort of a cross between Bloodmoon and the Dreamworld quest in Oblivion.
I like it though. :goodjob:
Allow me this
The Artifact must be a weapon of sorts, if your intent is using a Warlord as the keeper of this Artifact and considering your choice of Diety
So how does the player hear of this artifact ?
how does this sound?
Player hears of Artifact, finds Warlord location
Possible History : Warlord obtained the Artifact from Hircine in similar fashion. The artifact is kept until a new rival appears to accept and defeat the challange
The Warlord tells player he must enter "Haven" a place which he will be sent alone, with no weapon of armor and he must find and make his own weapons and fight off the hunters
This place "Haven" can be made up from several cells, once the champion of each cell is defeated the portal to the next will appear and the player passing through will be stipped of any weapons or armor made in the previous cell. the player will be hunted in each cell by a champion and minions. Each cell should be of different terrain and foliage IE Jungle, desert, Iceland etc etc
The player should be able to find items such as arrow heads, cloth (skins) sticks IE anything you think which can be forged into a weapon
and or armor
once the player reaches the final cell he/she will discover that the Warlord is the final battle. The player defeats the Warlord and receives the Artifact
Then Hircine appears and informs the player that he/she may use it for a time and then when that time is over it will be taken back to Haven
and when the time comes he/she (the player) will have to defend the
artifact in similar fashion
of course this time will never come during game play but its a good story
thoughts?
Enjoy
Bob
I like it
, but I think using Hircine is
too much like Bloodmoon.
Why not use Boethiah, for example, who is known within TES lore for having a love for competition and battle.
Thanks for the feedback
@Bob: These are some good ideas, although defeating the hunters in the fashion you've described seems a little too much like Boethiah's quest. Perhaps the player can access several cells at the start and only the Warlord cell and some of the more powerful hunters remain hidden?
In regards to the artifact, it might be nice to have the weapon the player builds in Haven become the artifact, similar to the weapon in the DB quests.
@Jucklesjenk: I agree, it is much too close to Bloodmoon and that is something that will need to change, however I'm uncertain that Boethiah would be a better choice for the quest. Perhaps Boethiah and Hircine could work together in Haven?
I'll try writing a draft with Boethiah instead of Hircine and see how that goes. I'd also like to see the shaman in the player's dreams take on a bigger role, perhaps the player could act increasingly more like an animal with each kill, embracing the beast within during the fight with the warlord only to be cured in some form by the shaman after winning?
Thoughts?
Pride
I like the sound of it.
Looking forward to your next draft.
It seems this quest could really benefit from an unparsimonious hunting grounds, and it made me think of a certain empty, irrelevant place I have put an insane amount of work on.
http://postimage.org/image/2gnimb7pg/
It is located in the borderline where the deepen meadows and the deepen moor collide, it is a vast labyrinth of dead forest stretching as far as the eye can see. I thought maybe you could find a use for it.