Anvil - Quests

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Infragris
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Anvil - Quests

Post by Infragris »

Quest design for the city of Anvil.

Return of the Shore-King
Main political/regional questline for the southern Gold Coast region. This quest is initially not available, but should unlock if the player has done two or three high-profile things around Anvil, made a local name for themselves. The player is contacted by an agent of Millona Umbranox, the Countess, who asks for their help. Ever since Count Umbranox disappeared a couple of years ago, local country nobles have tried to topple the countess. They believe she has no right to rule, since she married into the Umbranox line and has no children. Millona insists that her husband is still alive, and will return one day. She is a capable regent who is well-loved by the people, but she has no support among the power brokers in her domain.

Recently, rumors abound among the common people about the return of the Shore-King: a local legend claiming that an heir to the mythical First Empire kings of the Strident Shore will one day return to restore his lands to their former glory. Millona sees in this the hand of her opponents. She asks the player to find out the truth in this: they must investigate a secret conspiracy among the town's powerful elite, seek out their support cells in the dungeons and caves of Anvil's hinterland, and try to unmask the pretender Shore-King as a fraud. The quest ends with a showdown in Mischarstette, the ancient fortress of the Shore-Kings, a massive dungeon on an island to the north.

He Who Hides Behind the Waves
The harbormaster in Anvil is worried about the rise of cultist activity among the sailors. Rumors abound of weird worship practices in Anvil's back streets, and lately, a lot of animals and people have turned up drowned in the harbor - including the daughter of a prominent merchant. The harbormaster sees in this the hand of the Placid Drowner Cult, a Nibenese sect worshiping Molag Bal. He tasks the player to investigate. This quest takes the player on a detective path through Anvil's back streets, gambling halls, and brothels. The cultists have several secret shrines that must all be uncovered: a bunkhouse in the poor quarter, a ship, and a cave not far from Anvil.

Breaking out Charles Agerne
Thieves Guild quest, tying together Stirk and Anvil. Chales Agerne is a talented pickpocket and scam artists who recently retired to Stirk to enjoy his ill-gotten gains. He immediately got bored and started practicing his trade, and now he's in jail on an island where the Guild does not have a great representation. The player has to bust him out somehow.

Siren Songs
Thieves-Guild related quest, alluding to an opposite quest from Oblivion. Faustina Cartia, member of the Thieves Guild, has been given permission to start her own gang. She wants to recruit her old colleague from the different brothels across the city, but can't do it herself since the city watch is tailing her. The player has to convince Faustina's three friends to join her (running errands for each one) and help her take over a countryside farm (Gweden Farm) as a base of operations.

Soap and Sickness
Misc. quest of maybe Blades or Fighters Guild. Lately, people have noticed an uptick in the amount of Sload Soap and Oil being traded in the shorelands. All Sload products in Cyrodiil are produced by the grub factories in the Heartlands, so an unexplained increase must indicate an illegal manufactory - or perhaps someone dealing with the Sload themselves, which is even more illegal. Investigating this brings the player on the trail of a group of Sload spies.

Spies upon Spies
Blades-related quest. Nontus Jorel is a scribe in service to the Praetor. He is also a secret Blades agent, posted to keep an eye on the administration's affairs in the west. However, Nontus is convinced that a second Blades spy is also active in the port, interfering with his network, and may have been sent to investigate him. Nontus asks the player to track down the second spy, and figure out what their mission is. Through investigations, the player tracks down a mercenary named Habashi who was hired by the second agent for the exact same purpose: Perella, a common pauper in the poor district, was convinced that an agent in the town was keeping an eye on her. Both agents, thus informed about the other's work, can continue their operations in peace.

Fortune's Son
Three legion soldiers are drowning their sorrows in the Flowing Bowl, a lower-class tavern in Anvil. Each of them has lost a tidy sum of money playing Nine Holes with a colleague of them, a trooper from the Nibenay called Mudal Horvelius. They attribute their misfortune to a charm Mudal carries with him at all times, a fetish-object of the minor cult of Hora, a Niben fortune deity. They have pooled their remaining money and are willing to pay the player to steal Mudal's Hora Charm. They are reluctant to do this themselves and possibly invoke the wrath of one of the obscure gods of the Nibenay.

Mudal spends his days in the common halls of the Abecette, Anvil's largest gambling hall. The player can encounter him there and either pickpocket the charm from him, or try to win the charm in a game of Nine-Holes (optionally with cheating).

Once obtained, the favor of the deity turns against you: as long as the charm is in the player's inventory, they have a large debuff of luck (possibly with some scripted events in Anvil's streets). This lasts until you bring the object back to the soldiers, who pay you for your help (and are promptly cursed with ill luck regardless).

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R-Zero
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Post by R-Zero »

Really nice ideas, Infragris! :)
Recently, rumors abound among the common people about the return of the Shore-King: a local legendclaiming that an heir to the mythical First Empire kings of the Strident Shore will one day return to restore his lands to their former glory. Millona sees in this the hand of her opponents. She asks the player to find out the truth in this: they must investigate a secret conspiracy among the town's powerful elite, seek out their support cells in the dungeons and caves of Anvil's hinterland, and try to unmask the pretender Shore-King as a fraud. The quest ends with a showdown in the ancient fortress of the Shore-Kings, a massive dungeon on an island to the north.
I remember posting and idea on Bendu Olo's artifact spear/trident, could we incorporate it into this quest? Maybe the pretender found this trident and used it as a symbol of legitimacy.

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Infragris
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Post by Infragris »

The Shore-Kings predate the Oloman dynasty, so it wouldn't be very relevant to them. I do have plans for a special crown as a quest reward. We could include the trident somewhere else, it sounds like a good artifact. It should be noted that the Strident Coast gets its name from the nearby Strid river, not from the weapon (though we could claim that the weapon was named after the region).

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R-Zero
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Post by R-Zero »

Infragris wrote:The Shore-Kings predate the Oloman dynasty, so it wouldn't be very relevant to them. I do have plans for a special crown as a quest reward. We could include the trident somewhere else, it sounds like a good artifact. It should be noted that the Strident Coast gets its name from the nearby Strid river, not from the weapon (though we could claim that the weapon was named after the region).
Makes sense.
Then again, the trident could predate Bendu Olo as well and then got specially enchanted for the Cleansing by Syrabane, maybe?
Yeah I'm aware it's named after the river, but the trident is actually used in Anvil's coat of arms, after all.

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roerich
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Post by roerich »

Infragris wrote: He Who Hides Behind the Waves
This has a lot of potential, especially in a city with Anvil's character. It is somewhat reminiscent of the vanilla hints at the seedy (and somewhat Lovecraftian) Bitter Coast and its underground pragmatic alliances between reckless smugglers, Dagoth cultists and the Camonna Tong, something that I wish vanilla would've explored even more. Cultists and seedy back alley dens, what a combination.

I would love to do some work on one of these shrines and/or dockside locations.

All of these are great. You really have a knack for creative writing and conceptualizing things that are just right for this universe.
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R-Zero
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Post by R-Zero »

Speaking of "He Who Hides Behind the Waves", wouldn't Player just stumpling upon a drowned body be a nice entry point for this quest? We don't see drowners very often in vanilla Morrowind.
Then when Player reposts this to the authorities, they would mention that yeah, there's this problem, how about helping us out yadda yadda. Kinda like the vanilla quest "Death of a Taxman".

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