Devilish and Divine, (including modder's block) Options

[ghastley]

Because I was getting writer's block on wrapping up the Rumple mod quests, I started to make a new mod as a distraction. This would give me a chance to try two things I hadn't done in a mod before - a permanent companion, actually two of them - and a new worldspace built from scratch.

However, all this has achieved is completion of one quest (the Malandil one) in the first mod, and now I've got stuck in the backstory on the new mod as well, so I currently have a nett loss.

The mod details so far, in my usual "fake wiki" style, are here - warning, demonic nudity!

I just can't decide on whether to make their father a Dark Brotherhood assassin who decided to kill the petitioner instead of the contract victims, or else he rescued them by taking out the DB guy. If it's the latter, then he needs a bit more story of his own. I also need to decide where the Vampire brother of the merchant is hanging out, as well as a plausible reason for his not simply travelling at night, such as being (b)locked in a ruin.

If the father killed the DB assassin, then the merchant has gone to find his brother, and become a vampire too. This is the more satisfying path, but gives the most extra work providing a past for the father. I need to find a reason for his taking up with the two mothers (who we presume were happy together before he arrived) if he wasn't simply sent to kill them. Or rather, their reason for letting him into their existing arrangements, which would most likely have happened before the assassin turned up.

The non-standard three-way relationship (especially involving a very foreign new "beast" race) here is reason enough for them to flee to the island instead of expecting local support. The brother exists to create a lingering threat to the family, (and to keep the quest line going!) even if the DB contract ended with the merchant's death. Tracking him down should provide enough side-quest action for the party, whichever past I go for.

You'll also notice that I haven't mentioned the father's race, because that detail is undecided as well. With TES genetics, the girls are just like their mothers whatever race he was, so I'm putting that decision off until there's a good reason to tie it down.

Votes either way? Suggestions?

[ghastley]

Holy thread necromancy Batman!

I just added a bit more to the mod, and thought I'd get an opinion here. Since I didn't really want the father, Jak'l, to be the Silencer, I had the idea that the merchant's brother was the DB member. When he gets the contract, he just knows it's his crazy paranoid brother behind it, and decides to end the idiocy by offing his own kin. He tells the sisters to get out of town, in case he fails and someone else takes over the hit. He's already a vampire at this stage, having caught the disease while dropping off Diabla's Crystal Ball (and Angela's Hourglass, just for symmetry) at an Ayleid Ruin - I chose Nornalhorst as a decent-sized one that doesn't have an existing quest. His vampirism is one reason for feeling less connected to his brother, the other is the increasing insanity. Combined, he'll be better off without him.

The glassware items were enchanted with a shield spell to make them unbreakable, because clumsy Diabla kept dropping glass objects. That made the merchant doubly sure that they were extra-powerful magic spy devices aimed at him. In reality, a Crystal ball with an enchantment on it already would be hard to enchant again.

My take on how Crystal Balls work as spy devices is that you'd take the ball to the location you want to "bug", cast a spell, and the reflection seen in the ball would "stick". You could then take the ball elsewhere, but you'd continue to see in what was going on at the point where you cast the spell. The "detect life" spell actually detects the magicka associated with life, so it will reveal the ghost image of a crystal ball at the bugged location when such a spell is in effect. The merchant has seen that in his shop, so he assumes he's bugged.

When he looks into the ball at the mothers' shop he sees himself. It's not enchanted at all, but he assumes they know a more powerful version of the spying spell than he does, and theirs can track a person. He doesn't have to be logical here, just paranoid. The shield spell reinforces his fears, as much as it does the glassware.

So what's the reality of the "detect life" ghost orb in his shop? I'm thinking maybe he demonstrated a ball he sold himself, and forgot to dispel the enchantment before the customer left, or he assumed they'd be setting a new target, and they didn't. Do I even need this kind of detail?

The Vampire brother of the merchant has retired from the DB after killing his sibling, and went back to live in Nornalhorst, because he's still a vampire. You can talk to him there, and find that the Ball and Hourglass are still lying around somewhere - actually behind a secret wall I added - so the sisters can take keepsakes home to their rooms at Arborwatch.

You find him because S'shani recalls that the merchant had dealings with Dar Jee, the fence in Leyawiin, presumably taking the stolen goods out of Cyrodiil. This part is triggered by a stage of the quest to build the shrine to the parents, and takes the form of a note given to you when you next visit your Waterfront shack.

Dar Jee remembers the brothers, and gives you names (Arvin and Slythe Dereleth - Arvin being the merchant) as well as naming Nornalhorst as where Slythe caught his Vampirism. Dar Jee doesn't know anything about the events in Senchal, of course.

I'm leaving Jak'l as a mystery. Slythe doesn't know if there was any hit contract for him, but he advised him to go with the girls' mothers, in case there was. Sithis would be satisfied with his brother's death in place of the mothers, but he would still be in danger. None of the dialog mentions his race or background, so I can add that later. Or not!

I'm undecided whether to expand this a little by adding a sub-quest to help Slythe cure his vampirism. It would have to be consistent with the quest for curing the player, so maybe involve the witch at Drakelowe again?