Watch-of-Fire plotline

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Named such because TR’s forums apparently doesn’t like the real name of this town. This is a proposed plotline to go into the TR_Mainland quest expac.
 

Background: Watch-of-Fire recently received orders to halve their garrison, with half of their soldiers returning home. The town is in some chaos as a result. The two officers that the player gets the following quests from should not be the main Imperial Legion quest-giver for this town, as they may disappear by the end of the questline.     

Quest 1) Someone left a guar in the courtyard. None of the Imperials know how to move it because it is a guar, an exotic animal, and doesn’t obey any of their commands. The player is asked to move it. They can go around talking to the natives to figure out that guars really like <insert herb here>, and so they can bring that herb to the guar. Upon waving it near the guar’s nose, the guar follows them. Different endings depending on where the guar is moved (outside the walls, to a local tanner’s, to the tavern/stables), but the player gets the full reward so long as the guar is out of the courtyard. (If they end up killing the guar, they get a small reward, saying now someone has to haul the stinky thing away and pitch it into the harbor/garbage pile).

Quest 2) Somehow or another, the guar ends up dead floating in the harbor. Your angry officer yells at you for not having down the job properly and tells you to go dispose of it (by finding the corpse and clicking dispose of corpse...) If the player protests saying they DID dispose of it properly, in a drill sergeant fashion the officer says he doesn’t care, just go and do the job right this time. The player can dispose the corpse and get rid of it—but they may notice floating near the body and/or tucked against an underwater rock are some bottles of skooma and packets of moonsugar. The guar apparently disgorged these upon dying. If the player takes these to the officer, the officer takes them and thanks them for doing the right thing, not offering any hints as to why the guar had been carrying this stuff. If the player takes these to someone else in town (a Khajiit or Dunmer native), they get rumors and grumbles about how the Imperial Legion hasn’t been doing their job since their garrison was reduced, and advising the player to just sell them instead of giving them to the officer because they would find it more profitable in the long run.

Quest 3) The officer is now getting reports that the locals have been picking on Legion soldiers. He says he’s sure it’s because of the reduced garrison and that they’re trying to get rid of the Imperials, as it’s not secret Morrowind hates the Empire. To be sure you do the job right this time, he comes with you to the local tavern (same one the bullies appear at in that Fighter’s Guild quest, to keep a sense of continuity!). When you enter the tavern, he walks up to a trio of Dunmer and tells you to help back him up in showing these discontents what’s what. Several things can happen at this point—

A) If the player manages to talk down the Dunmer without bloodshed, or if the Dunmer attacks and the officer dies, the Dunmer tells the player that his kind hasn’t been causing trouble; that it’s the Imperial Legion who has been responsible for the skooma addicts. This should be a non sequitor, but the Dunmer refuses to say anything more about it when he realizes you don’t know what he’s talking about. If asked about the skooma thing, the officer just says they are working on it.

B) If the three Dunmer resist arrest, it results in a battle to the death. After killing them, the officer simply thanks you for helping quell the uprising and gives you a reward.

Quest 4) The player now gets orders from a new higher up, and they are asked to break up a skooma smuggling ring. They go there to find some of the bandits are actually Imperial Legion soldiers. Although most of these attack the player, one at the end of the cavern forcegreets the player and begs to have his life spared. The player can either kill him or bring him back for a trial. Before entering the Imperial Legion headquarters, the arrest soldier again forcegreets the player. He thanks the player for sparing him, and tells the player that they should know the whole raid on the skooma ring was a setup. The player was proving themselves to be too troublesome and the higher ups were trying to get rid of them. He tells that the real leadership of the smuggling ring are the officers themselves, who were looking for extra ways to pad their pockets once the rest of the Legion was withdrawn and salaries were cut. He asks to be allowed to let go, and advises the player to leave the area.

Quest 5-ish) Whether the player shows up to the officer with the arrested skooma soldier in tow or allowed the arrested skooma soldier to escape or killed the skooma soldier….the officer is surprised to see them. Though they don’t say this in so many terms, they clearly expected the player to be killed. They offer the player a deal—they can keep quiet about the skooma trade and the officer will give them a cut of the proceeds (2000 gold) and give them a promotion. The player can either accept this and the quest ends, or they can report to some other officer about the corruption. If they report it to someone inside the Watch-of-Fire, they are not believed and threatened. If they report it to someone outside the Watch-of-Fire, they are given a much smaller reward (400 gold) and a promotion, and next time they return to the Watch-of-Fire, the officer has been replaced with some other NPC. The other Imperial Legion members in the Watch-of-Fire will no longer like the player as much, however, suggesting most of the fort has been in on the conspiracy...

Comments

Okay, the plotline plays out

Atrayonis's picture

Okay, the plotline plays out fairly well if you assume that this is a somewhat isolated location. Imperial officers turning their local garrison is a given canon thing, as well as the general inclination of the Imperial Legion to alleviate boredom with drugs.

What I’m not really keen on is this not really being an isolated location when Firewatch really shouldn’t be, and people not knowing how Guars work. It’s not like they’ve seen horses for years.

Personal bias aside, what i’m missing here is where exactly the PC starts being involved in the questline. It seems too involved for a non-faction PC (without the excuse Bloodmon’s main quest had), but it doesn’t actually state that it’s being part of the legion questline. The implication is there (with mentions of a promotion), so I guess this works.

Hm, I’ve heard the guar

Kevaar's picture

Hm, I’ve heard the guar complaint a few times. What’s another domestic creature that’s more exotic? Could it be a netch or a hoom? One of TR’s other creatures?

My intention was that the druggie thing happened as a direct result of the Legion being pulled out, a sign of their being stretched too thin and the corruption in the Empire worsening. I suppose I could put another throw-away quest in there, to imply there’s been more time for it to ramp up since the withdrawal, though.

A Hoom sounds perfect – they

Atrayonis's picture

A Hoom sounds perfect – they mostly live in the Redoran lands, which are on the other end of Morrowind, it would be the kind of domestic creature someone would try to import for its fur, and it would also encourage the player to go to the western lands, to find living Hooms.

Very nice questline. A few

Gnomey's picture

Very nice questline.

A few comments:
-questgiver: it sounds like a really minor officer would work best here -- something like a sergeant -- as he apparantly has the time to go watch the PC beat up hooligans.
-guar corpse: I think the skooma should specifically be on the guar to start with, but the player should specifically be told not to kill the guar. Killing the guar and bringing the moonsugar to the commander will earn a strict scolding but will skip the following stage.
-for the tavern brawl, I'd keep in mind the possibility of the player using calm or something to diffuse the situation after the battle starts.
-I'm not sure if the local Imperial Legion questgiver (presumably the highest ranking officer there) should be in on the smuggling ring or not. Though he might be unable to dissolve the operation internally, he could perhaps give the PC a letter backing up the PC's claim. The Duchess would certainly lack authority to help herself, but might also furnish the PC with such a letter. Of course, this depends largely on how they're characterized.
-On which note, without such a letter the player will probably need to persuade whatever legion higher-up before being taken seriously.
-On the officer being replaced: I'd suggest that he is simply replaced by his equally corrupt second-in-command, and should probably still be part of the Firewatch garrison, though demoted; a more permanent replacement from outside is planned, but never appears in-game, to show how ineffective Imperial bureaucracy is so far east.

I actually have no problem with the local Imperials not knowing how to operate/command a guar. I really think they could be so out-of-touch, especially as they probably avoid venturing past the town walls if they can help it and are mostly supplied by sea. That being said, I’m not sure if guars – let alone Hooms – should really be that common this far east; I’d prefer some more bug-like equivalent for Telvannis.

Some notes from the meeting:

Kevaar's picture

Some notes from the meeting:

--keep guar, but edit dialogue around the city and other Imperial towns to reflect how isolated from Morrowind culture the Imperials here are. (They are shipped in from the sea, or come from Old Ebonheart, etc)

--the first quest open to all characters, the subsequent quests limited to Imperial Legion characters only

--breadcrumb. After this questline is completed, several Imperial Legion service providers start refusing service to the PC. The PC is encouraged to clear out of the fort and go help another garrison. Later on, a quest may involve being threatened with dishonorable discharge due to the player having been involved in this. Duchess may or may not get involved in some point with that.