[Quest Design] - Lan Orethan Region - Farmer of Destiny

Tondollari · Post by **Tondollari** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:06 am

EDIT: Disregard as m3 quest proposal, I thought more about it and concluded this quest is better suited to another district of Morrowind.

Outside of the "Abandoned Egg Mine" entrance in Lan Orethan region, there will be a demented Dunmer getting ready to go inside.

He reveals that he was a farmer, but his fields were stricken with drought/pestilence, and he was forced to abandon his ancestral farm.

Just when all hope was lost, however, he received visions from Azura. In his dreams, Azura foretold that he was destined to find and destroy the source of the blight which cursed his farm.

Taking a sword he bought from a Telvanni enchanter, he set out to find the blight. According to his dreams, a "great beast" within this egg mine was responsible for the blight.

The player has the option of accompanying him into the mine, which he says was foretold by Azura. If the player declines, this was also foretold.

Once in the mine, the player and farmer will explore and kill kwama beasts. When close enough to the queen, the farmer will declare it Azura's foretold beast and start attacking it.

Once the queen is dead, the farmer will thank the player for playing his/her part in the prophecy. The player will be rewarded with his enchanted sword, which damages the luck of those it strikes as well as decreasing the luck of the wielder (through script).

DestinedToDie · Post by **DestinedToDie** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:53 am

New at is, but am curious why'd you use a script instead of the enchantment itself to decrease luck.

Edit: Tondollari explained it in chat.

Tondollari · Post by **Tondollari** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:10 am

Didn't state this in the design, but he bought the weapon before his bad luck with farming, so it was responsible I think. I planned the effect to be scripted because otherwise it'd be obvious that the weapon was cursed. (both on strike and constant effect being listed when moused over)

Andres Indoril · Post by **Andres Indoril** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:19 pm

I don't think you can have both on strike and constant effect enchantments on the same item anyway.

Wel-Gordhaur · Post by **Wel-Gordhaur** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:25 am

I like the overall feel of this quest. I would definitely want to play it. Finding a Dunmer and helping him reclaim his farm after he saw a vision of Azura ... Well, how could I not after becoming the Nerevarine?

I believe that there are a few issues with the quest, though. The chronology is a bit off. You say that the sword is what was causing his bad luck, but he bought the sword after Azura granted the vision that he would kill the source of the blight on his farm. Did the vision also foretell the blight? Or did the sword contribute to the bad luck in addition to something else?

Going off of the above, I think it's also a bit odd that Azura is giving him visions. If she gave him the vision before his farm was blighted, and he bought the sword as a result of the vision, I'd argue that Azura caused more harm than good. She's a Daedric Prince, so this wouldn't be too unusual, but Azura is typically more benevolent to her followers, so either the farmer was not too pious or the vision he received was really from, say, Sheogorath.

The sword as the reward is, I think, appropriate. The Dunmer farmer would think the sword is a great boon, of course, even though he doesn't know it's cursed. I think most players would go, "Oh, that's why he was having the bad luck," and then throw the sword away, after discovering the scripted luck enchantment. I would add something that locks the sword to the player (or locks the effect to the player) until he undertakes a new quest to banish the bad luck, or something like that.

Tondollari · Post by **Tondollari** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 4:46 pm

Wel-Gordhaur wrote: I believe that there are a few issues with the quest, though. The chronology is a bit off. You say that the sword is what was causing his bad luck, but he bought the sword after Azura granted the vision that he would kill the source of the blight on his farm.

That was an error, he got the sword before dreams and before farm went to heck.

And yeah, he isn't actually getting dreams from Azura. Originally I just thought he'd gone crazy from his life going down the tubes, but Sheogorath would make it more interesting. I realize now that I should think more about the exact nature of the sword and his visions.

As for the enchanted sword, since it's such a small, mid-level quest it won't be a super-useful sword and it would be understandable that players would chuck it. But I also think "damage luck on strike" is a novel enough effect to motivate some to keep it, esp. non-mages.

Not sure that I'd want to extend the quest further re:curse, that seems like punishing the player for helping the demented dude out.