Summon the daedra! Two part Wilderness quest

[DestinedToDie]

In Morrowind, both worshippers and sorcerers summon lesser Daedra and bound Daedra as servants and instruments.

Most Daedric servants can be summoned by sorcerers only for very brief periods, within the most fragile and tenuous frameworks of command and binding. This fortunately limits their capacity for mischief, though in only a few minutes, most of these servants can do terrible harm to their summoners as well as their enemies.

Worshippers may bind other Daedric servants to this plane through rituals and pacts. Such arrangements result in the Daedric servant remaining on this plane indefinitely -- or at least until their bodily manifestations on this plane are destroyed, precipitating their supernatural essences back to Oblivion. Whenever Daedra are encountered at Daedric ruins or in tombs, they are almost invariably long-term visitors to our plane. - Darkest Darkness

Part 1

Quest might start with a daedra worshipper, scroll detailing the summoning ritual or Dremora (no names yet). Let's go with dumner worshipper for now - named Ranalus Hler. Wearing a robe, daedric left pauldron. Unarmed, but can summon a golden saint and bind full daedric armor + dagger. He is an expert at summoning, after all.

Background:

I used to be an almsivi praising fool. Then the temple proclaimed my only true love a heretic and had her hunted down by ordinators. Now I'm no one.

Greeting:

Well, hello there. I presume you being here means that my colleagues are dead. Pity. But perhaps you can finish the work they were helping me with.

Finish the work:

Most we need to summon Lord Draxis Volur is already set up. What's missing is the main ingredient. The heart of an elf. Not just any will do, but before their untimely death, my colleagues informed me of a suitable candidate who can be found nearby.

Lord Draxis Volur:

Draxis Volur is a very powerful dremora lord. It is said that he took part in the destruction of Old Mournhold and butchered a hundred ordinators, but was defeated shortly after Sotha Sil and Almalexia arrived to banish Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion. The records say Draxis's weapon carried a fateful enchantment, that was reflected back from Almalexia and paralyzed him. He died unable to move. Watching, as the false gods shamelessly struck him again and again.

heart:

A normal summoning works through magicka expended by the caster. But to permanently bind daedra, you need something of aedric origin. When the aedra participated in the making of this world, they lost their ability to leave it and had to procreate to survive. The offspring would become known as elves.

suitable candidate:

Southwest of the city of Almalexia is a small collection of farms. Tilersa Sarayn lives in a shack on top of a small hill just east of those farms. Come back to me when you've carved out her heart.

Tilersa Sarayn:

A few years back we had a nasty rat infestation hit us from the city of Almalexia. If it weren't for Tilersa Sarayn, I don't know how we would have kept disease under control.

Tilersa Sarayn:

I owe everything I have to her. Vivec knows that if she had not healed Rocky*, I couldn't have worked the fields and I'd be poorer than Saint Rilms by now.

*Name of his guar. Subject to change, as is everything else.

Tilersa Sarayn:

Our only healer around. Lives in a shack east of here.

Tilersa Sarayn:

Almsivi bless her! Tilersa's potion saved my son and I will be forever grateful to her.

Tilersa Sarayn will probably wear a robe from temple list. Healer. Unarmed. As stated before, she lives in a small shack on top of a hill.

Greeting:

Pleased to meet you too, PCName. How can I help you?

Greeting:

Is there something on your mind?

Greeting:

You seem to be injured. Let me treat your wounds.

Greeting:

You look ill. Let me see if I can do anything to help you.

Tilersa Sarayn

I still can't believe it. Found murdered in her shack. Who would have a grudge against a kind person like her?

heart

I see you have what we need. This will only take a while to prepare.

continue

Everything is set. I've placed the heart on the altar. All you need to do now to summon Lord Draxis Volur is touch it and he should appear. I warn you, though. In order to restore its' beat, you will have to be willing to sacrifice some of your own life. The choice to stop or continue is yours.

Text box:

"You feel a chill crawl down your spine."

Greeting:

"So you are the pawns charged with binding me to this world. Only the strongest are worthy to be in my service. Speak to me again when one of you is dead."

Goodbye

Ranalus attacks you.

End of part 1. Quest reward: Daedric left pauldron on Ranalus's corpse. Keep in mind you permanently lost some health doing this quest.

Part 2 begins - Got to rewrite some of it due to changes in part 1.

Dremora Lord is more talkative. He reveals more about the ritual and his motive. In a way he treats you better than Dremora.

"Did you enjoy the kill? I could tell. He was no match for you. Perhaps the purpose of summoning me was not to gain favor, but to test your might. Your wish shall be granted, but in due time."

Lord continues with explaining that his power has not traversed into Mundus entirely, but will gradually seep into the lesser aedra heart pumping in place of his. He will elaborate a bit more on the aedra-Mundus connection, should the player ask.

Lord says that it is not his first visit here, and he has come back from revenge. Having a shameful death at the hands of Almalexia during the battle in Mournhold, he seeks vengeange in the form of an eye for an eye.

While Dremora Lord regains strength through Aedra heart link, player is sent to find Pyroil Tar (remember that stuff you use to light up Nerevar's sword?) and put Almalexia's statue into an eternal blaze of fire, right in the middle of her own city.. Needless to say, a 100 ordinators will dog pile upon the player and everyone in the entire city of Almalexia will be talking about it. Edit: Had a talk with rot and an object of pilgrimage in an interior might be a better target for this quest.

Returning to Dremora Lord, player will finally have a duel with him. Lord doesn't mind risking with life, as daedra never truly die and his goal in this world is achieved.

End of part 2. Reward: Enchanted item? Daedric Crescent or a different enchantment version of it? If the player killed Dremora Lord prematurely, reward will be unenchanted.

[DestinedToDie]

So this is a rough outline of the two quests. Ready to hear your opinions.

Quite likely a lot of things might change. Maybe you'll love it, maybe it'll get scrapped.

I also thought about the presence of Her Hand in Almalexia. Not sure if it makes sense to include it.

[Rats]

This is good and dramatic stuff, and definitely worth working on.

Balancing might prove problematic here since wilderness quests can be encountered (hypothetically) at any stage, and for a low-level player losing 20 health permanently and setting a statue of Almalexia ablaze are pretty damn huge things. Dialogue should be written so that the player knows shit'll get real heavy if they initiate the first quest. Also, for a quest that is this 'epic' (for the lack of a better word) and 'lore-creating' (as in showing rituals that bind the Daedra permanently, again for the lack of a better word) the rewards should be something real special. And enchanted item, yes, but with some nice twist. Some special scripted effect maybe. Maybe you get a trinket with which you can summon the Dremora grunt that you've encountered?

Anyways, good stuff. "Evil" quests are never a bad thing.

There is some nice potential for a tie-in quest for the Temple where you try to extinguish the fire

[DestinedToDie]

Also, for a quest that is this 'epic' (for the lack of a better word) and 'lore-creating' (as in showing rituals that bind the Daedra permanently, again for the lack of a better word) the rewards should be something real special.

My first thought was the Daedric Crescent. According to Yagrum's book, this item is not unique, just very rare.

[DestinedToDie]

Changed the dremora encounter into worshipper guy. Also added some dialogue for part 1. I need to edit part 2 later on to match up, but right now I'd appreciate some critique on what we've got so far.