Kogo'Tel: The Pit

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:48 pm

Most of you have seen a pit in Kogo'tel and many was wondering its purpose...
The Pit
The pit itself was used in war times to supply water if the town will be under siege. Now it's used just as a water supply.
Current situation
When the player first arrives to the city. Everithing seems to be normal. Than one person is infested by some kind of unknown desease. He dies. After a short period of time most of the city is ill. The water in The Pit (it's the name of the place, and I think it should be the name of the nearby tavern (claim no.2)) turns brown. The Pit is closed. The city is ill and out of water. It's closed on quaranteen. The main way of traveling - silt strider - is dead (he also drinked the water form The Pit). City's Mage Guild is closed. Nobody can get into the town. Exept the player of course

Ways of getting into the town
1. If player belongs to House Redoran (and his rank is high enough) he'll be let to pass
2. PLayer can try to bribe the guards
3. He can sneak past the guards
4. If your rank is Archmage in Mages Guild you can just use it to enter the city
5. -reserved-
The quest
First the player must undersyand what have happened with water. He must have some water to bring it on analys to some kind of scientist. He'll say that the water is poisoned with corpse poison (not CORPUS but CORPSE). So player return to the city. He finds out that there was an ancient cementry or acestral tomb somewhere under the city. But the biggest problem is that the entrance's location is forgotten. Upon the finding the location (through asking ppl, reading books etc) player disciveres a cave in he could not pass. That's the work for dwemer satchel (I just love these babies

). After all player discoveres a secret Necromancer cult. Actually not the cult itself but the remains of its work - reviewed Lich and Skeletal Abomination. Lich a long time ago was a powerful necromancer killed and cursed because he wanted to raise an undead army. The time passed but he still wants to raise the army. Player's task is to:
a) kill him and his army, find a way to heal the city
b) kill him and leave army to himself
c) become a lich himself
NPCs involved
Scientist
Taven keeper
Multiple town citizens
Guard captain
Guild guide of Kogo'Tel Mages Guild
-reserved-
-reserved-

I need ppl to help me with this quest + I need ideas how to expand it.

Noirgrim · Post by **Noirgrim** » Tue May 04, 2004 4:56 am

Great use of my pit. Sounds good so far.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Tue May 04, 2004 7:09 am

At last one responce !!! Ppl at least tell me do you like the idea or not and if no - why.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue May 04, 2004 8:37 am

Nice idea... i like it.
I could help but im a rubbish modder but ill try if ull have me...
Ive also got anougher claim going (a shck) but the thing is that itsnot going because i kneed some more info on it but im planning on getting it done as soon as some1 tells me wat i kneed to know (its a thread called my clam(spelt wrong) in interior).

Maklir · Post by **Maklir** » Sat May 15, 2004 11:07 pm

I absolutely like this idea, except the "Becoming a lich yourself" idea. If you become a lich, then what are you going to do?? it would maybe be similar to the vampire, but as lich??? just think, it would ruin the whole game. And if you get the army you should have limited control over it, I mean you can't just attack cyrodiil with it or you would mess up everything, you would be called a necromancer for having a undead army behind you. And if it would not be possible to have the army "behind" you, what would you use it for??

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun May 16, 2004 1:03 am

Scientist != Scholar
Also isnt becoming a lich abit drastic? Yes, if we had the SDK and could code ourselves it would be good but otherwise being a lich would suck.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:33 pm

I just wanted to bump it because I decided to start working on this quest more. I know Map 4 is far away but still...
And yes, I know that some ideas are a bit stupid. But hey, I posted them a long time ago

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:42 pm

Yeah, Lichacy doesn't work. Other than that it's a good quest.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:44 pm

The general concept is pretty damn awesome. If you re-write it to elimintae the weaker elements, this could be a really strong quest. No hurry, of course.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:30 am

OK. So get rid of becoming a lich, owning an undead army, fix the spelling (damn, it was worse that I could imagine !), add some details. Will do. But before I start again - Dex do you have anything against blocking the whole city for quarantine ?

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:27 pm

This could be an independent, house Redoran or a Temple quest (in the latter cases, the player is sent to Kogo'Tel to investigate strange happenings). Mages Guild would be possible too, but I dunno, isn't it the Temple who handles such things, rather than the MG (who, for all we know would rather take the lich and skeleton army and study them for themselves).

- Cut out the 'become Lich himself' part, though the Lich COULD have books in his chambers that give clues to how to become a lich.
- No ownership of an undead army. Think of the FPS!

The concept is awesome, though. Well thought out and will surely be a great quest.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:00 pm

The city should "appear" to be quarentined, but the player should be able to get out for one reason or another.

1. The player can leave the gates if he has special permission from whoever's incharge. He gets this by
--a. paying 1000 gold
--b. being in House Redoran or the Temple
2. If the player is in the Mage's Guild, he should be able to leave the city through teleports, but not if he isn't a member.
3. For everyone who isn't reasonably wealthy or a member of House Redoran, the Temple, or the Guild of Mages, there is a secret passage that some people in Kogo'Tel tell you about.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:35 pm

How the quest should start:
There's a random chance of it appearing in Latest Rumors. The topic tells you about a person who recently got ill and died from unknown desease. If you will return in two days (player will actually need to leave the city) you will see roadblocks on entrances. If you will walk close to guards they'll forcegreet you:
1) If you are the member of House Redoran - they will greet you, tell you about the plague and ask to be careful
2) If the player if the member of the Temple the same will happen except they will ask you to help
3) If you're a member of any other House you will be firmly asked to get the hell outta there and don't poke your dirty nose in Redoran business
4) If you are not a member of any House you will be told to get lost
5) If you're a member of Mages Guild they will say something like "Excuse me %PCRank but the city is under quarantine now. If you have any business with Mages Guild - please use teleport to get inside and please do not leave Guildhall for your own safety"
6) If the player is Morag Tong member he will be refused in gaining an entrance in polite manner
7) If your disposition with the guard is high enough you will be allowed to enter but the next guard you meet will stop you.
8) You can bribe the guard. The result will be the same as in no.7

There will be no commoner NPCs in the streets when the quest will take place. Also, there could be a few corpse piles lying around. There will be a few guards patroling the area who will, if they spot the player, forcegreet him and ask for "clearence". If player is not allowed to be here - bounty will be placed on his head. These guards can also be bribed. Also there will be a few Temple healer NPCs and possibly one scientist near The Pit itself.

Other means of getting into the city will include jumping over the wall, levitating, Mages Guild (you will just need to speak your way out of it).

More to follow.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:39 pm

The secret passage should be included as well

Also, we'll have to be very careful about other quests in Kogo'Tel. Otherwise quests could stay in cliffhangers because the player can't get back.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:59 pm

Well, I wouldn't say I am against it, so long as making the quarantine permanent isn't involved. I have scripting concearns though. Disabling the town silt strider will not be hard. But is it possible to script things so that during the quarantine, silt striders from other towns will not provide transportation? And how will the guards react if you walk into the town?

Vegor · Post by **Vegor** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:15 pm

Well that'd be possible by enabling/disabling the silt strider NPC in the towns that offer transport to Kogo Tel. The normal NPC would be replaced by another NPC that does have the normal transport locations, but not Kogo Tel. Of course, a check on death and such must be done, but scriptwise it's possible. I think it's the only way though, because I don't think it's possible to add or delete transportation locations. I'm not 100% sure though. Either way it is possible to do this.

As for the guard, that's a bit more difficult but I think we'd be able to come up with something. Perhaps make an invisible non-collision object (or several) that surrounds the entire city and on a proximity check on the player makes guards head to you and forcegreet, sending you away. This would be in a reasonably large area around the city, while a small barrier around the city does a second check and makes guards attack you if you come too close.

Starcrunch · Post by **Starcrunch** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:01 pm

Alternatively, just have a gaurds have a local distance check and force them to AIFollow the player to get to the players location. I mean it seems to me that all the gaurds can be bribed in succession, so just have them head for the player when the player is close and then the player can do his thing (bribe them or be asked to leave). There doesn't really need to be two control zones. Alternatively you could make two gaurd types (one type for the perimeter, one type for the interior). They could look the same and just be placed further or closer to town depending on the type and give them separate dialogue. Then send them to the player when the player is near them.

If you go for the zones based on distance it really should be set up so that only one or two gaurds respond to the player breeching an area and that would be best served by all gaurds being unique (so that based on teh zone breeched the right two or three gaurds are sent to intercept the player).

-Starcrunch

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:05 pm

What if you had to acquire some sort of pass in order to be allowed in the town? The healers and scientists (lets call him an alchemist from now on for the sake of lore) managed to get in, so the player must have a way to legally strut around the town as well. The player could talk to someone, convince him that he intends to help the town by healing or helping the alchemist or some shit, and he could be issued a pass. If the player walks around the town without a pass and talks to a guard, the guard will immediatly ask to see his pass. Kogo'Tel is a big place, so I don't think every guard would know the face of every person who lived there.

Starcrunch · Post by **Starcrunch** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:11 pm

Could work that when the player bribes a gaurd with enough cash he can get one?

-Starcrunch

Garriath · Post by **Garriath** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:11 pm

I'd first like to start off by saying I really like this quest; could be great fun.

However, I've one complaint.

Liches. We know very little about them in ES lore. In Morrowind we only had one conversation with a lich, and it was extremely short. Likewise, I don't recall any conversations in Daggerfall, and I don't believe they existed in Redguard or Battlespire. Therefore, we know extremely little about liches.

Some people say that we should follow the D&D route, that becoming a lich is a personal choice and a long ritual. My personal opinion is that being a lich is a curse from the Aedra for a dangerous crime. Other opinions exist. If we include the lich as a main adversary, we should be sure that, in his dialogue, we gloss over how or why he became a lich.

Especially because I get the feeling we'll learn a lot more about them in Oblivion.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:17 pm

Don't worry, this was a very early quest idea, and he removed the liche idea.

Assassinace · Post by **Assassinace** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:20 pm

How I would do scripting.

Most NPC's will be disabled or changed when plague hits (including all silt strider people that connect to Kogo Tel.)
There should be two sets of gaurds. 2 at entrance or main road to keep people out (easily bribed as they would figure it's your funeral)
2 inside to keep people in at gate out (They would be a lot more difficult to get past maybe requireing multiple bribes like the key guy in bal mora)
Rather then zones have a invisible static that if the player crosses without bribing the gaurds they go hostile (and one static that auto warns before it).

As far as the cave and scholor rather then a dwarvern satchel (those should be fairly unique) have him give you a charm to find the cave and when you get to the area of the cave the entrance is enabled.
This shouldn't be a way to become a lich as something like that should be a lot harder and depending be a bolt on.

Vegor · Post by **Vegor** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:26 pm

Assassinace wrote:Rather then zones have a invisible static that if the player crosses without bribing the gaurds they go hostile (and one static that auto warns before it).

That's exactly what I proposed. What Starcrunch said is basically possible as well though, just the script of a distance check on the guards and place the guards in 'rings' around the city, carefully covering the entire city. I'm not sure on how much guards would be needed for this though, probably too much of them. That goes for both ways, I think. Encircling the entire city with guards is just a bit overkill, the better way would just be covering main entrances to the city with a few additional guards and let other guards only notice you on the street.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:25 pm

Wow. A lot of discussion. That's good. Anyway Dex there's a scientist (not alchemic, but scientist) in Morrowind. There's a class for NPCs even. Anyway I like the idea about getting some papers which will allow you to walk the city freely.
About unability for other Silt Strider ports to deliver you to Kogo'Tel - yeah, it'll be done with disabling\enabling. Also I have another quest in mind which will follow this - getting a new Silt Strider to the city.
Anyway back on topic. I though of a more interteresting plot. No liches now. We've got Blight. Right, ladies and gentlemen. Blight on the mainland. What do you think ?

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:28 pm

I've got the CS open right now (working on my claim), and I just checked to see if there is a scientist class. There isn't. Maybe it was a discrepancy with a translated version, if you do own one?

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:36 pm

Execuse moi. It was savant, not scientist.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:40 pm

No problem. Blight on the mainland though... is that appropriate? What if the player doesn't visit the town until after beating the MW main quest? After you defeat Dagoth Ur, the Blight is pretty much over. I would rather see a severe disease with pretty heavy side effects.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:11 pm

Not only it is gone but it is still kicking. Remember what you got rid of ? Right, the source. But Ashlanders or whoever it was still tell you that there's still Blighted creatures roaming the wilds who could also spread the desease. Plus some wise guy could just take the deseased creature's blood and voila - you've got a vial of blighted blood.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:24 pm

I suppose its feasible. I'd like to hear what other people have to say about it though, because I am somewhat unsure how I feel about it.

Abramul · Post by **Abramul** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:34 pm

So, no cemetery, either? Or is that a keeper?

Blight is plausible, if it was intentionally caused. Maybe add a note mentioning "experiments".

Post by **Haplo** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:40 pm

I'm all for it. No one who plays it is going to stop in the middle of the quest and say 'hey, this isn't lore-friendly! The blight's only in vvardenfell! I quit!'

I think it's fine, personally.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:26 am

Maybe something similar to blight, something which has only one cure well hidden.

Or maybe even Corprus? I know it sounds farfetched, but it'd be cool if there was a sect of Cultists who were actually cultists (as in, not under Ur's mind trap) living under Kogo'Tel.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:10 am

Well we've gone over half of the quest, but how do you unblight (for lack of a better word) the water? Perhaps you have to get X number of Cure Blight Potions (you're supplied money as it would probably need to be quite a few), then th savant/alchemist would say I'll administer half of these around town, the rest can go in the pit. When you leave the cell and return, it is back to normal. I know that the Cure Blight potions going into the water is a little lame, but what else could be done to resolve the water problem?

Sniper4 · Post by **Sniper4** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 4:46 am

Hmmm, having blight on the mainland and making up excuses for its presence sounds a wee bit... STish, IMHO. Reminds me too much of "his Hlaalu style home has imperial style tiles on the inside because this NPC misses his homeland." Now then, if you could come up with a VERY good reason for how blight got to the pit (most likely, an unnatural cause, either accidental, or on purpose, and not simply saying "the winds got REALLY strong one night"), then it could work... but it would have to be really good, and not sound like we pulled it out of our butts because we think blight disease is c00lz0rz, and we wanted to think up any way possible that we could use it.

(edit: Sorry if this sounded rough... I just don't like the idea of doing something that semi-violates lore and coming up with rushed, simple excuses for it. I've never liked excuses in things myself. A very well-writted plot could be nice though. But Stalker, please promise me you aren't making another MoDH/Dwemer submarine type of thing here. Just think about what you are doing, and if a person asks a question about "how would this happen," please come up with something good, or rewrite your plot, instead of throwing out random excuses just to keep your idea as intact as possible. That type of thing won't help anyone, in the long run.)

Also, (sorry if this was already mentioned above, I tried to find info regarding this, but couldn't see it) what if a player is in multiple factions? For example, my character is in House Hlaalu, and the Mages Guild.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 5:32 am

I think in the multiple factions situation it would have an ordered list of reactions based on which was more important to redoran concerns. A member of the temple and house Hlaalu for example would be turned away because even though they could use the temple's assistance, they don't want the Hlaalu, their biggest enemy amoung the other great houses, mucking around in their affairs. Likewise if it was say, Mages guild and Telvanni. However if it was maybe Indoril and Temple, although I don't think the Redoran and Indoril are on great terms with eachother (could be wrong?) perhaps since they aren't such a major rival as Hlaalu they'd be allowed in if they were moderately high temple rank.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:34 am

the winds got REALLY strong one night

Cough, cough, cough. Haven't I already said how the blight might get into the pit ? Intentional of course. Guy got some Blighted creature blood and used it to make a poison to poison the water. And of course I will have yello Dwemeri submarine floating around the pit :p No offence taken

Sniper4 · Post by **Sniper4** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 7:03 am

Ah, I like the poison idea. Now we just gotta come up with a motive (unless one was already made, and I overlooked that too

)... that is if the player gets a chance to find out who was the poisoner. One thing is for sure though, whoever did this must have REALLY wanted to do a lot of damage. Going all the way to VF, getting the blood samples, and coming back would be no easy task. We just gotta think of 1. Who would want to do this, and 2. Who would have the balls to try this. I'll leave that up to everyone else for tonight though. I'm going to bed

.

PS: I realize that Dexter is still in the process of deciding whether or not we can use blight. It would probably help things along if we came up with the above motive.

Love Ya.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:36 am

One possible idea for a motive (just from top of my head so judge it accordingly):
Under Kogo'Tel there's a cavern system with an underground river which supplies the water to the pit. This cavern system is occupied by Sixth House cult. Nobody has found it yet because they moved very deeply in the caverns. So one of their rituals was to turn everybody to Dagoth Ur's beleifs.
BTW in the local dialogues some NPCs will say that they had strange dreams recently (if your disposition is high enough of course) but are afraid to go to the Temple healer because Temple is quite suspicious to dreamers.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:07 pm

Okay, you've convinced me that someone could have intentionally smuggled some blight disease and used it to poison the town's water supply. The motive still has to be a strong one. This guy must have an enormous, thorny stick up his ass if he would risk life and limb to get some blighted blood from Vvardenfell.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:27 pm

Dex cultist do not need a stick in their ass. They have a few sticks in their head.