[QUEST IDEA] Guarmageddon

[Ironed Maidens]

Using Anonytroll's beautiful quest outline...

Quest Giver
Hlaalu noble.

Quest Objective
Rival Hlaalu
Feral Guar
Prized Guar

Type of Quest
Sabotage quest.

Reward
Unique guar toy with passive effects when held by player?
Or a small bit of gold and the progressing of the questline if part of a series of quests.

Short Summary
Help this Hlaalu noble have some fun with a rival of his.

Prerequisites
If part of a series of quests, then pervious quests must be done.
Or disposition of 70 or higher.

Assets Involved
2-3 NPCs with unique dialogue.
1-2 cells with unique dialogue.
1 Guar farm.

1. Some Hlaalu noble has had enough of his rival's "thoroughbred" Guar and wants you to put an end to his large ego. The rival has been using the guar for breeding purposes for the last few years and always raves on and on bout how only the finest stags will do and how amazing the Guar babies come out to be, and how the Indoril pay well for the litters.

2. The noble wants you to find a wild Guar and use command creature on it to lure it to the noble's Guar pen where his "famous" Guar is being held.

3. The feal Guar will do his thing. At this point you can just leave, or you can re-command the feral Guar and lead it back out of the pen to cover your tracks, which will net a better reward.

4. With the pure bloodline of his Guar tarnished, the noble is happy and rewards the player.

Reward
1. If the player leaves the feral Guar in the pen he will comment about you not thinking ahead and will give you 50 gold with a slight disposition drop.

2. If the player leads the feral Guar far enough away he will reward the player either with the purposed Guar toy or with 120 gold.

3. If the player kills the prized Guar he will cut the player off from the quest series (if there is one), will comment about being an idiot, commenting on how he is upset he can't watch his rival's reputation get shattered now, and his disposition will drop by 50 and his fight will raise as well, possibly provoking attack.

Outcomes
1. Possibility to progress in the quest series.

2. Speaking with the rival about his prized Guar after the quest will either invoke a large (1000+) bounty and lower disposition by 100 and increase fight, most likely provoking attack; or perhaps the player can tell the rival about the plan and the rival will reward the player with the purposed Guar toy and the noble will attack the player on a force-greet, saying the rival told him the player had ousted him (of course cutting off the quest line if there is one).

[Gnomey]

Hm, I like the quest idea, but am not sure where it best fits in; I don't think the guar is a good animal to go with, for one thing, as it seems to be a low-level beast of burden. More like an ox than a horse. (Naturally cattle breeding is also a thing, but that's beside the point). But I'm also not sure if House Hlaalu is the best House for it. Maybe if the animal is being bred for commercial purposes, making it more a case of sabotaging a business rival. But that might shift the tone of the quest.
Thematically, I think it would fit House Indoril best, though I'm not sure what specific form of breeding they would value most. That being said, they'd probably take a cold-blooded case of destroying a prized animal's pedigree very seriously. Which would also shift the tone of the quest.
What if the questgiver were Hlaalu and the rival were Indoril? That way, whether it's a misc quest or part of a questline, the quest would fit into the general scheme of the Thirr River conflict. (Probably not a specific part of the Hlaalu grand plan or anything, but just illustrating the antagonism between the Houses while leaving some room for the symbolism of Hlaalu tarnishing House Indoril, among other things).

[Anonytroll]

Having professional pride in their work and an unhealthy attachement to their animals is something I can fully see a Hlaalu breeder developing.
I mean, it happens with horses and those are some of the most unsymapthetic creatures ever (right after chickens, and it happens there as well).

I don't see why one of them has to be Indoril to make it work - that seems to be taking house stereotypes a bit too far. Instead, it would add the facet that the quest giver feels that the happy Guar breeder needs to be "a better Hlaalu" for being too focused on the animals as animals instead of a means to getting money.

[Gnomey]

Ah yeah, I should have made that clearer: the quest idea would work as is either way as a misc quest. My post mainly applies if the breeding was intended as more of a cultural thing as opposed to a particular quirk of the Hlaalu nobleman.

[Ironed Maidens]

Yea, sorry, it would mainly just be a silly past time of a rich noble. Much like in the real world many wealthy people breed horses just for shit and giggles and extra money.

[st.Veloth, The Repenting]

how about the same quest, except in telvanni lands, using silt striders, and between two telvanni bug merchants

[Ironed Maidens]

Silt Stirders (at the present) don't have a way for the player to use command creature on them, and from what I understand there are no 'wild' or 'ferral' striders, so it wouldn't work very well.

[st.Veloth, The Repenting]

how about taking the silt strider from a poorer bug herder's pen, and breeding it with the fine breeds. that's even more devious, as you're wrecking the local economy

[Gnomey]

I don't think siltstriders are well suited for these kinds of quests. While I do think there are ways of implementing them into the gameworld, I don't think they can be handled like normal creatures due to engine limitations, and rather need to be treated like passive moving scenery, much as they were included in the vanilla game.