[Quest Design] - The Undead Traitor

[sasquatch2o]

The Undead Traitor:

Visiting a tomb of greater ancestral ghost the player finds old friendships and hostilities remain, even after death. The ghost was a great warrior and in the tomb/barrow are many heirlooms, but his most prized possession is not among them. Greater Ghost tells you a story of an old friend and brother in arms who betrayed his trust by taking from him his axe after he had fallen in battle. Player is tasked with visiting the traitor's nearby tomb and returning the artifact in exchange for a choice of another heirloom stashed in the barrow/tomb.

Goto the traitor's tomb.

The traitor has the axe in his tomb, but demands payment for it. Not for himself, but his family, who in recent years have become impoverished through foolishness and vice. His descendants make an annual trek to pay their respects, leave offerings and ask for guidance and protection in the coming year. He wishes to bless them with coin when they arrive next. Give the traitor 3000 gold and you may leave with the axe and without a fight. Combat will involve player, traitor and several OP goons. Doors will lock until all are killed.

Return axe and choose one of several unique rewards.

"Both my head and that precious axe. Lost - in the same damned day! I was beside myself, sick with rage. Return the axe! Restore my pride and my family's honor and have your choice of any other possession."

FOR DISCUSSION

[arvisrend]

sasquatch:

I'm not surewhen this tombs were built. I'm thinking the ancestor is at least 4-5 centuries dead. Recent generations have squandered many centuries of wealth that has been kept within the family (see quest).
[...] I like how I one hand the ghost is concerned about the honor of his family but also maintains the relationship he had. [...] the ghosts have strong sense of honor and loyalty. One of them is even attempting to provide for his ancestors beyond the grave. [...] Player would travel from one ruin to the other and back again.

arvisrend:

Your quest can work if the two conflicting ghosts are appropriately motivated -- honor and symbolism for the first one, in contrast to realism and actual support for his living heirs for the second. [...] A ghost caring about the day-to-day life of his descendants rather than only about their adherence to tradition and purity of the bloodline would be a refreshing sight, if properly dialogued.

Leave out the cheesy dialogue and the over-the-top scripted elements (let's keep the locking doors and the ghost-summoned ghosts for really badass bosses), though; also, 3000 gold is too much for MW quests (we should not adjust monetary values to the inflation caused by enchanting, Daedric weapons and Creeper/the Mudcrab; it is better to regard the latter as unbalanced).

[gro-Dhal]

We do need a helluva lot more ancestor-based thematic stuff, so I like this.

[sasquatch2o]

We do have a lot of tombs .