Mages Guild

Development of the Imperial city of Old Ebonheart on the Eastern Mouth of the Thirr River.

Moderator: Lead Developers

Locked
User avatar
gro-Dhal
Lead Developer
Posts: 985
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:32 pm
Location: A charter'd street

Mages Guild

Post by gro-Dhal »

This thread is for planning the characters and broad storyline of the Old Ebonheart Mages Guild, with reference to the city concept: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24304
Test
User avatar
DestinedToDie
Developer
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 5:36 pm

Post by DestinedToDie »

"Of its early inhabitants we know little. The city is first recorded as Khalaan, literally “Heart of Ebonyâ€Â￾, a probable reference to the missing god Shezarr who, unusually, was widely worshipped by the elves of this region. Indeed there is some evidence in the Nordic sagas of a great temple or monastery dedicated to Shezarr somewhere directly south of Red Mountain and north of Mournhold, which I conjecturally associate with Khalaan- on the basis of admittedly scant evidence. "

I think this part sounds like it would provide something to do for the mages guild. Maybe hunt down a few artifacts from that age.

A local is said to have found one of these artifacts. He's sort of a part-time adventurer, raiding places like that and selling whatever he finds to rich folk in Ebonheart. Task giver tells the player to try make a buyout of this item, as well as retrieve information on where he found it, and possible other places.

Local says he already sold it to collector/rich guy, who would prefer to stay anonymous. Tip him off to tell you where he found it and who he sold it to. Task giver was hoping for more, but gives small reward for information and tells you that you absolutely must get artifact from X guy.

Player will have a few options on how to do so. Steal it. Pay a whole lot of money. Or play a Mages Guild Expert on Shezzarean Artifacts, saying that upon further inspection, this item is actually a fake some local must have whipped together. Finding that he was swindled, collector/rich guy throws it into the Morrowind equivalent of trash can (a crate?) for the player to easily pick it up. Or he could lower the price considerably.

Another possible way to do this is to have Rich guy holding an auction, but you convince auction people that it's a fake and buy it for only a small amount of gold.

After this, the player is sent to find if information from local guy was correct and there can be found artifacts in Dwemer dwelling.

However - when obtaining the item, it could unexpectedly teleport the player into the Temple/Monastery dedicated to Shezarr - A part of it that has survived, but due to collapse, is impossible to access by normal means. Should the player decide to intervention/recall away, he'd get "where is your scholarly curiosity" ending.
arvisrend
Lead Developer
Posts: 1971
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:39 am
Location: substitutional world

Post by arvisrend »

My old idea for the OE questline, without any specific quests completely designed. Much related: [url=http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?p=310410#310410]i3-90 and the Almalexia questline[/url]. Possibly somewhat related: [url=http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=23557]the Andothren questline[/url]. Note that Almalexia is far from set in stone.

Ever since the Imperials made OE their own, the Mages Guild in OE has been commissioned with protecting the riches in the treasury of the castle. (Think of "protecting" not in terms of standing guard -- that the Legion can do on their own -- but in terms of magical locks, traps, and whatever kind of surveillance and watermarking tech fits with the world of Tamriel.) Recently (= shortly before the player arrived), the treasury has been breached and hastily robbed. The culprits escaped uncaptured (through the canals? that would require the basement to be connected to the canals, but I guess we'd want that anyway). Loads of unique artifacts, ancient scrolls, powerful devices have disappeared. The news has spread unease among the Imperial populace and derision among the natives; the MG is further worried that dangerous tools have wound up in the hands of bandits. The bulk of the questline is devoted to
A: inspecting the damage,
B: tracking down the loot, and
C: hunting down the thieves
(in increasing order of difficulty, but sometimes interspersed).
There can be sidequests as well ([url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=12342&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0]adamantium has made one a while ago while doing the int[/url], which fits well into this questline).

Examples:

- [A] A "capacitor" for enchantments has been broken by the burglars, who tried to scavenge it for crystals but were scared off by its high (magickal...) voltage. Now it's standing around and delivering shocks to everyone who passes by close enough. Turn it off. (An occasion for a labyrinth puzzle. Could also provide an answer to the player question how on earth enchanters enchant without ever ruining soulgems.)

- Cheap scrolls have recently flooded the market around OE/Almalexia. You are to subtly enquire about their origins and whether there is more where it came from.

- [A] On their way through the sewers, the thieves have triggered some traps and some of the stolen items now need to be recovered from bottomless pits. Along the way you might find a corpse or two, aiding in the forensics... Turns out the thieves were not that careful.

- [A] Help the MG temporarily set up traps in the treasury in case they decide to pay another visit to the place. Possibly even forge some shiny fake artifacts to detract them?

- (Inspired by suggestions from DestinedToDie:) A Hlaalu collector of artifacts (in Kragenmoor?) has recently acquired a Dwemeri item of unknown provenance. Get a grip on the seller. There can be several ways to do this: find out when/where the next meeting is happening, wait and lock the exit doors, confront the seller; or strongarm the collector into telling you all he knows about the seller and then find him on your own. Be directed to a bandit cave somewhere in Heartland (Roth Roryn?), etc.

The farther you go, the more crime you poach up and the more loot you recover. I imagine everyday scrolls and ancient books being among the earlier rewards (the thieves are having troubles getting the books out -- they're historic and religious Cyrodilic texts and the few who care about them in Morrowind would know too well where they are coming from). Later come powerful scrolls (LadyN suggested Passwall -- doesn't have to be functional), gold, enchanted amulets, jewels and the likes (DestinedToDie's Shezarr amulet could fit!), potions, light armor etc. (maybe even an artifact for the museum or two?).

Ultimately my plan was to connect this to the Almalexia plotline, but so far I'm very murky on the details. The player learns of a secretive Tong that has been recruiting lowlifes in Almalexia for a year or so, but has not stirred any visible trouble. Noone has been making much of it, as the Dark Brotherhood has been recruiting in waves every once in a while and this appeared to be just another iteration. But you get a lead that this particular group has nothing to do with the Brotherhood and is in fact behind the OE heist. Moreover, it has been working for the same Indoril cabal that is behind the troubles the MG is facing in Almalexia. Obviously playing this well will be a big challenge and tbh I'm not sure if it will work; but it would be the thing that would give a lot of gameplay-ish quests a real story.
Locked