The Hlaalu, the Hetman, and the Squirmy Scrib Pie

Priority: 

Stage: 

  • Merged

Development Progress: 

100

Merged into: 

Claim Type: 

Faction: 

Description

Summary: A Hlaalu noble is bored, for nothing ever happens in the sleepy fishing village of Gol Mok. He asks the player to help him play a prank on his Indoril cousins in Vhul by delivering a Squirmy Scrib Pie to the Vhul Hetman’s wife.

 

Unique Assets:
Hlaalu NPC in Gol Mok mansion: TR_i4-415-Hla
Squirmy Scrib Pie item
Hetman’s Wife NPC in Vhul, Hetman Vanis Nithri’s House
Molecrab farmer NPC near Aanthirin Region (0, -27), X: 36,966; Y: -146,594

Reward:
150 gold pieces
bottle of Flin

Details:
This quest is offered through the House Hlaalu faction, and can either be obtained through the Hlaalu noble themselves, OR through the House Hlaalu steward in Andothren. The steward sends the player to the Hlaalu noble, saying he had asked for help for some sort of secret mission in Indoril lands, very hush-hush and potentially dangerous considering the Thirr River conflict.

When spoken to, the Hlaalu nobleman says that he is terribly bored. He has heard of the famed Baker’s Hall in Vhul and wants to embarass the Hetman by playing a little prank. He asks the player to bake some molecrab eggs into a scrib pie and offer it to Hetman’s wife.

First the player must gather molecrab eggs. Any batch of molecrab eggs will do, however, the player can ask a molecrab farmer to the southeast (Aanthirin Region (0, -27) or X: 36,966; Y: -146,594) to give them a batch for a small sum of gold.

Next the player is to go to the Baker’s Hall in Vhul and steal any one of the Unbaked Scrib Pies scattered about in the shop.

They must then find someone willing to bake the pie for them. (The Hlaalu noble explains that if the heat is just right, the molecrabs begin to hatch, making in a squirmy dish for the unfortunate prank victim. The player isn’t expected to know this technique, so cannot cook it themselves.) There are four possibilities:

1)If the player asks Golyn Volor (the Baker’s Hall merchant), they are turned away in anger and the quest fails.
2) If they ask Marayn Voldal (the Howling Hound innkeeper), he explains he doesn’t know the technique, but wishes the player luck in their prank.
3) They can ask Falas Othril (town apothecary) or any Dunmer Baker, who will hand them back a Squirmy Scrib Pie to deliver to the hapless victim.
4) With a disposition check, they can ask Imeni Volor (Golyn Volor’s wife, located in his house) to bake the pie. She doesn’t want to shame her husband, but also isn’t terribly fond of the Hetman.

The player then must give the Squirmy Scrib Pie to the Hetman’s wife. After hilarity in the dialogue, she forces a Goodbye and the player is free to return to the Hlaalu noble. The noble gives the player a small gold reward and a bottle of flin to celebrate the successful prank.

Comments

Ah, a chance to prove my

Dormichign64's picture

Ah, a chance to prove my worth as a creative writer. Permission to claim as dialogue writer?

BTW, the people who can bake the pie know that it's a prank, correct?

I think I like the second

Kevaar's picture

I think I like the second Hetman's wife best. I'll go through and put any comments or corrections into the document. 

There we are. Most of the

Kevaar's picture

There we are. Most of the thinigs I fixed were small grammar mistakes, but made some other suggestions as well. For English not being your first language, you write very well!

Thank you very much! I made

Cris Ros's picture

Thank you very much! I made the adjustments you suggested, I think the text is good now, but I´ll take another look just in case.

That's some fun dialogue and

Arvisrend's picture

That's some fun dialogue and a nice quest!

- Topic:"vanis nithri": "Don't feel too bad for him though; He [lowercase!] has kicked out the merchants we send [sent] to spy on Vhul's trade secrets countless times."

- Bol Salvani should perhaps tell the player the name of Vanis Nithri's wife, seeing that you need to find her and not Vanis.

- Actually, Vanis has only 1 bed in his house.

- Topic:"scrib pie": "Bakers [should be Bakers'] Hall".

- Topic:"prank" (Imeni): "I could do it, but my husband's reputation as a baker could be compromised. Scrib pies are one of his renowned recipes , [remove the extra whitespace] after all. I'll acknowledge one thing though: I really like the idea of a good old prank."

- Maybe Vavis Danvon should also have a response to "prank"?

- Some post-quest dialogue would be good (from both Nithris, as well as from whoever helped you bake the pie).

Semi-feature requests (I can script them, just want to know if there's agreement):

- Topic:prank, response by TR_m3_Falas Othril: It checks whether the player has T_IngFood_ScribPie_01. But that's the baked scrib pie, not the unbaked one. I'd go as far as allowing both options: If the player only has the baked version, he tells to go to the Bakers' Hall and to ask Golyn for an unbaked one (an alternative to stealing).

- Maybe the journal should update itself once the player has both the scrib pie (baked or not) and the eggs, with further instructions about where to go. This is far from obvious.

Journal dump, for testing

Arvisrend's picture

Journal dump, for testing purposes...

---------------

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 0

House Hlaalu: The Hlaalu, the Hetman, and the Squirmy Scrib Pie
QUEST NAME:
tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 10

Noble Bol Salvani needs help for an undercover operation. I should find him in his Gol Mok manor.

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 20

Vhul's hetman, Vanis Nithri, appears to have a somewhat unhealthy fear of anything resembling a crab. I should go there and give his wife a squirmy scrib pie for him. One of the locals might be able to help me with the baking.

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 30

The pie is cooked, I should now take it to the hetman's wife.

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 40

I gave the pie to the hetman's wife. I should go back to Gol Mok now.

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 90

Golyn Volor has decided to rat me out. The prank is ruined!

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 91

I've angered the hetman's wife. The prank is now ruined!

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 95

Bol Salvani was not pleased to hear that the hetman didn't receive his pie.
FINISHED!

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 100

Bol Salvani thanked me for helping him with his prank.
FINISHED!

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 110

ANDOTHREN QUESTGIVER SUCCESS
FINISHED!

tr_m4_hh_scribpie Stage 120

ANDOTHREN QUESTGIVER FAILURE
FINISHED!

Todo: - Proper playtest. I

Arvisrend's picture

Todo:

- Proper playtest. I only went through the ESP.

- (Mainland) Vanis has only 1 bed in his house.

Main changes made:

- Minor grammar improvements. Some repetitive wordings diversified.

- Removed "disposition >= 30" conditions on some dialogue. I'm fine with quest-starting dialogue requiring disposition >= 30, but once the quest has started, any further quest-relevant dialogue with the questgiver should be automatic. 

- Ingredient TR_m4_HH_SqScribPie renamed, so as to avoid collision with quest TR_m4_HH_SqScribPie.

- Journal stage 20 rewritten to avoid verbatim repetition of dialogue and to give more context.

- Falas Othril no longer gives the player an infinite amount of skill books. (Using the control variable.)

- Falas Othril is more helpful and actually additems molecrab eggs to a local trader.

- Responses to topic "fear" (fairly generic name) are now protected against appearing before the quest has started.

 

Properly reviewed now, fixing

Arvisrend's picture

Properly reviewed now, fixing a few more bugs (one of the dialogue results was remove-iteming the wrong sort of pie, and the journal referred to "cooking" instead of "baking"). Merge instructions:

- (Mainland) Vanis has only 1 bed in his house.

Of course, playtesting is still encouraged and would still be helpful.