A Criminal Lawyer

Stage: 

  • Merged

Development Progress: 

100

Merged into: 

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Description

Quest Giver 
Reynant Alciente in the Barristers' Guild

Reward 
A new "clear bounty" service for a fixed fee

Short Summary 
A morally questionable barrister needs protection from his former, mutually morally questionable, client.                                                                                                                                               

Long Summary: Reynant Alciente, a member of the Barristers' Guild, is in need of protection. A former client of Alciente's, Stabby-Jak Merrus, was recently released from a Cyrodiil prison. Before being released Merrus sent a letter to Alciente telling him that he'd pay him a visit as soon as he got out. Alciente fears that Merrus blames him for being found guilty and thinks that the "visit" will be of a violent nature. [If the player inquires more about Alciente's past, he will admit that he used to work as a "mob lawyer" in Cyrodiil, defending the criminal underworld of the Imperial Province until circumstances forced him to relocate himself to Morrowind; Alciente is by no means without a sin. If the player inquires whether or not Stabby-Jak was actually innocent of the crime he was accused of Alciente will say that he's not quite sure, but at the same time claims that no one gets the nickname "Stabby" without being a little guilty of something] 

Alciente asks the player to go to the Docks of Old Ebonheart. And look for a ship (Niben's Wind) that has recently arrived from Cyrodiil. He wants the player to find Merrus and convince him to leave; either by bribing or persuading them to leave or outright lying that Alciente is not in Old Ebonheart. (Alciente gives the player a signed letter where he falsely explains that his new offices are located in High Rock as well as 100 drakes for bribing purposes) 

Sure enough, the player finds Stabby-Jak Merrus aboard Niben's Wind. There is a chance (after a successful Speechcraft check) that Merrus believes the player that Alciente is not in Old Ebonheart -- and leaves. However, if that fails, he's adamant in confronting his former advocate. He tells the player that he's a free man who just wants to pay an old friend a visit. If the player tries to bribe Merrus, he'll tell them that he will double the money if the player takes him to see Alciente. He will also tell the player that though he is new in town, he'll find his way to the Barristers' Guild eventually, so there's no point in saying no. (There, of course, is the option to kill Merrus on board the ship, but this would be considered an assault). If the player declines, Merrus will tell them to sod off. If -- after this -- the player leaves the town of Old Ebonheart and then returns Merrus will have found Alciente in the Barristers' Guild and killed him. 

Going back to Alciente will trigger a sequence where Merrus will have followed the player in secret. Player's report to Alciente will be interrupted as Stabby-Jak Merrus enters the guildhal and attacks the barrister. If the player agreed to lead Merrus to Alciente the confrontation will play out the same, but with Alciente being angry with the player's stupidity. Either way, this is the only time the player can kill Merrus without it being reported as a crime. 

If the player succeeds in protecting Alciente, he will offer a unique reward. From now on he will offer the player his services as a solicitor. In gameplay terms this is similar to how the Thieves' Guild bounty clearing system works, but with one difference. Instead of there being a fee depending on the amount of the player's bounty, Alciente will clear the player's name for a fixed fee of 400 drakes. This will provide a great tactical advantage for the criminal players. Alciente's offer has its limits, though. If the player has earned a death warrant (bounty over 5000) and the player tries to clear their bounty, Alciente will tell them that the player has become too notorious and that the offer's off the table. The notoriety excuse is also true if the player uses Alciente's bounty clearing services too many times (for example three). Being a shady person he is Alciente doesn't tell the player of either of these conditions. 

If Alciente dies and the player didn't attack Merrus in trying to stop him from killing the barrister, Merrus will simply tell the player that justice has been served and he doesn't care for shedding anyone else's blood. The player can either attack Merrus and kill him, or go look for a guard to report the crime that's happened. Reporting the crime to a guard will result in an Imperial Guard being placed in the Barristers' Guild interior and Merrus being placed in one of the jail cells of the Castle.

Comments

Well, it disappeared off the

Kevaar's picture

Well, it disappeared off the claims browser list?

Which means I’d better bookmark this or I’ll never be able to find the description again...

Nah, soon as you are approved

Atrayonis's picture

Nah, soon as you are approved, it will show up under “My Claims” in both your Dashboard and your Devboar.

Everything included now, but

Kevaar's picture

Everything included now, but should not be considered complete. Needs lots of bug testing, also needs coding for moving Stabby to jail and placing a guard in the Barrister’s guild. Also want to look into the forcegreet scripting, but this isn’t required for the quest to function.

Changelog v2.0.0

--rest of dialogue and coding has been added.

--two new journal entries for handling the deaths of Reynant and.or Stabby

--scripts for registering the deaths of Reynant and Stabby have been tacked on to the TR dialogue filter scripts that were already connected to these NPCs. These two new scripts have been renamed to a “KY_...” format.

--uploaded version of this file has not been cleaned, as it’s just a backup.

Posting another backup.

Kevaar's picture

Posting another backup. Summary: stomped bugs, but ran into more.

*******

Changelog v2.1.0

*******

--misc. bug stomping

--trimmed Reynant’s dialogue so he’s not spitting paragraphs at the PC

--trimmed down number of options in Stabby’s dialogue

--added letter object, writing inside

--this mod file is uncleaned

Bug stomping on the to do list:

--for Barrister’s Guild Hall scene, tie Stabby’s spawn location to an object instead of player

--Reynant and Stabby take poorly to the player joining in on their catfight and player will incur a bounty. Options: (1) startcombat player first? (2) classify both as monsters?

--new death scripts not registering. options: (1) test modified scripts (2) use dialogue function: Dead –- ObjectID = 1

This claim is COMPLETE and

Kevaar's picture

This claim is COMPLETE and READY FOR REVIEW. There was an issue I couldn’t resolve however:

The interior cell for the prison appears to not be complete, or possibly I don’t have the right copy of TR_Preview. So I can’t make Stabby move to the prison after Reynant’s death is reported to a guard. The KY_PrisonStabby and his accompanying dialogue is set up and ready to go in my mod file; he just needs an appropriate location to be placed in!

Other things of Note:

**As in my other quest claim, some ObjectIDs with the “KY_” prefix have been added. These IDs need to stay unique if they are renamed, and all instances of them used in dialogue and scripting must be found and replaced in order for the quest to work properly.

**While testing, saving and reloading in the middle of the quest made Reynant’s attached script freak out whenever you spoke with him about his business matter after speaking with Stabby. I think this was just a dirty save-game issue, but please double-check this.

*****

Changelog v2.2.0

--minor bug stomping

--the Barrister’s Guild scene now works as intended

--set up all needed assets for moving Stabby into prison at the end of the quest; just need the destination interior cell completed (or pointed out to me)

--this version file is cleaned