If Rolf's Quest nor the Volcano solves the third quest from Kherab, I was thinking that the assassination of the assassin prince would suffice. It will also serve to lead the player to "Sting" and thus supply an extra hint towards obtaining the Filk quest. Which is sketchy and should remain, but let's face it, the prince is no pushover nor is gaining access to the level.
>Despite the in-game warnings, I still see that many newbies start adventuring in the SMC. Maybe they need... even more warnings.
>>Since some PCs start illiterate, having additional warnings is sensible, for example delivered by a mouth on the wall or by the spirit of an unlucky adventurer.
You must however remember that it is highly unlikely that the first PC a player plays with will get very far into the game. (S)he will most likely visit the SMC or read/listen to the rumour with a literate PC and/or visit the Mad Minstrel in due time. Also the SMC does add a certain level of survival training, although some might see this as a bit sadistic a view.
Why they keep entering the SMC is a good question though, even with all the warnings and deaths. I once suggested a special death message when dying there: "You die from stupidity." o maybe more subtle: "The fool you are."
I can't believe how much everyone is arguing over a minor reward for a minor quest :-/ Maybe your time would be better spent thinking up new quest ideas?
Remember, it's okay for other people to be wrong on the internet. It happens, get over it.
Okay, here's my attempt at an epic level quest that I call "The Adventure Party". Spoiled for brevity.
Part 1:
Once the PC has either reached level 10, on a random CoC dungeon level below the Arena but above Dwarftown, they will receive a message "You hear distant voices engaged in a heated argument". On that level, you will come across a party of four named adventurers (chosen from the donor list or something) of random alignment. For example the neutral party might be:
-gut, the human paladin
-anon123, the drakeling monk
-stingray1, the ratling wizard
-grey, the human archer
The adventure party will automatically attack any hostile monsters that they come across. If they are killed at this point, they will drop some low level equipment and all future quests with them will be stopped.
Upon chatting with their leader, they will explain that they are searching the Caverns of Chaos looking for the Chaos Orbs. They had a map that was supposed to lead them to one of the Orbs, but have, unfortunately, lost it, and ask if you happen to come across it, to return it to them. They suggest that it may have been stolen from them by a group of kobolds that they encountered near the Arena.
Upon returning to the Arena level, there will be a second staircase leading downwards. This will lead to a side-branch with two random levels of about DL 10, and a cavernous level at the bottom. On the cavernous level, you will somewhere encounter a large group of very experienced kobold assassins (new monster, shoots poison arrows), kobold warriors (melee), and a kobold sorceror (casts kobold lightning, heal self) that will drop a smudged map. Literate characters may read the map, which says "You study the map in detail. It appears to be a map of the Drakalor Chain. There appears to be a marked location in the southwestern plains." (This reveals the entire world map).
The new wilderness area is "an abandoned village" and is home to assorted scavenger type wilderness monsters. There will be a few buildings, as well as an "unmarked grave". If the PC digs this up, they will have to fight a vampire, and will acquire some assorted high DL treasures, and a "broken sword hilt".
Upon returning the map, the PC will receive a small reward from the adventure party--a few pieces of random loot, plus some gold, and the party will disappear. If the PC returns the map before visiting the abandoned village, the grave will already be dug up and only the hilt will remain, as the adventurers got there first. If the PC reaches level 15 before completing the quest, the adventure party will also disappear and no further quests with them will be possible.
Part 2:
Once the PC has reached level 20 and opened the Dwarven Portal, the adventure party may be found again on a level somewhere below the CoC graveyard and above the Banshee level. Killing them at this point will give better gear, but they will be considerably more experienced as well.
The leader will explain that they have heard that one of the Orbs is somewhere in this area in the dungeon, but they can't figure out how to get to it. Worse, in fighting the undead in the graveyard above, one of their number has become infected with vampirism and is slowly turning into a vampire. They ask if you might be able to help them find a cure, and suggest talking to any doctors you might know.
Talk to any of Jharod, the HMV mad doctor, or Kranf Niest. They will reveal that vampirism may be treated with an elixir made from the blood of a vampire king, and that they once heard there was a nest of vampires who destroyed a village somewhere in the west. Return to the abandoned village and search the unnamed grave for a staircase. Below will be a random level filled with lesser vampires (new), vampires, and vampire lords (new) as well as other assorted monsters. All levels in this dungeon will have the initial message "A putrid stench fills this area and makes you gag". Normal HP regeneration is halted entirely on these levels, and there is a 1d300 chance of becoming sick per turn. The next level down will have several coffins distributed in it. Opening it will reveal a vampire lord, prince (new), or, if the right one is opened, the vampire king. The vampire king summons vampires and deflects missiles like a doppleganger. With successful melee attacks, he recovers HP. If he also stat drains the PC, this increases his speed. Killing him, the PC will acquire the vampire blood and an artifact cape "Vampire's Cowl".
Vampire's Cowl has the following stats:
-[+2,+5] {+6 Toughness}
-Moves alignment towards chaotic.
-Autocursing
-Gives you bad luck
-Allow you to control teleportation
Lawful route:
Return to Jharod. He will ask for some holy water, and, combining this with the blood, will give you a potent elixir. Return to the adventure party and give them the elixir. The wounded adventurer will be healed, and the adventurers will give you a second pile of random loot, including a broken blade, plus a lawful boost.
Neutral route:
Return to Kranf Niest. He will ask for a potion of cure corruption. Combining these, he will give you a bubbly elixir. Return to the adventure party and give them the elixir. The elixir will cure him, but he will be too weak to continue on and says he will leave the party. The PC receives a smaller pile of lower quality random loot and the broken blade.
Chaotic route:
Return to HMV doctor. He will ask you for 5000 gold, and will give you a vile elixir. Return to the adventure party. The elixir will kill the wounded NPC. The adventure party leaves, and the broken blade can be recovered from the body of the dead adventurer.
If this quest is not completed by level 28, the adventure party leaves and the next quest cannot be acquired.
Part 3:
Once the PC has reached level 33, has the Fire Orb and has passed the Eternal Guardian, the adventure party can be met a third and final time somewhere in the deep CoC near Earth Temple. They will be one member short if the neutral or chaotic route was taken in the previous quest. They will be extremely experienced at this point, and killing them will yield some appropriately high-end items.
The leader will explain that they have discovered that the Chaos incursion is resulting from a gate deep within the dungeon, and the orbs are needed to reach the gate. Unfortunately, they have been unable to locate any of the Orbs. However, he believes that he has uncovered a method to unlock a powerful weapon that will allow them to hold back the forces of Chaos. Unfortunately, the scroll that explains the method is written in a language that he does not understood. He asks for your help translating it, and offers you a garbled scroll.
Give the scroll of the Ghost Librarian. He will in turn give you a translated scroll. The scroll will tell the player to sacrifice the following on an altar of obsidian (ie. a chaotic altar): A willing servant (ie, any pet); the body of an ancient dragon (any type); and then reading a tract of chaos upon the altar. Doing so will summon an elder daemon. The daemon will offer to forge you a powerful weapon from the broken blade and hilt, but, in exchange, demands a sacrifice: You must slay the leader of the adventure party, and allow the daemon to possess his body.
-Chaotic route: Accept his proposal and slay the adventure party leader (as well as the other member). The daemon will immediately possess him, and, as agreed, will forge you the obsidian blade "Souldrinker", which has the following attributes:
Souldrinker (+7, 7d6+10) {+6 St} (+12 speed)
Autocursing
This is a vampiric weapon
Is effective at scoring critical hits (30%)
Grants resistance to death attacks
Deals +4d6 extra damage vs lawfuls
Contains the essence of Chaos and Corruption
This is obviously a highly chaotic act.
-Lawful route: Refuse his proposal. The daemon attacks. Note that the PC is standing on a chaotic altar and must immediately step off or be sacrificed. The elder daemon can summon fire/water/air daemons, teleports, casts stat drain, has a corrupting attack, and breathes fire. He drops a "starlight ore" upon death. Returning to the adventure party leader, he excitedly explains that the starlight ore is exactly what is needed to forge the weapon he knows about. He says that he has heard of a secret tunnel in the deepest part of Rift where there is a forge that can be used to construct this weapon.
Travel to the Rift. On the lowest level of the Rift, a new staircase downwards can be found. This leads to a further three dungeon levels of extremely high DL, at the bottom of which is a level that appears identical to Darkforge, except the tileset is white. Instead of steel golems, the golems are replaced with eternium and diamond golems. In the central room is the Celestial Artificer, an NPC who says that the celestial forge (located in the center of the room) may only be used by champions of the gods (uncrowned or fallen champions are instantly slain if they attempt to use it). He also warns you quite sternly not to touch any of the treasures in the forge. If the PC has 100 Smithing, is crowned, and has an eternium or artifact hammer, he may use the celestial forge with the starlight ore, hilt, and blade to form the sword "Lightbringer", which has the following attributes:
Lightbringer (+7, 7d6+10)
Always blessed
Is effective at scoring critical hits (30%)
Grants resistance to death attacks
Deals +4d6 extra damage vs chaotics
Grants Fate Smiles
The treasure rooms contain random weapons and armor similar to Darkforge. If the PC attempts to take them, however, a thunderous sound is heard, and huge numbers of diamond and eternium golems begin spawning everywhere. In addition, the Celestial Artificer himself becomes hostile. He has immense PV and deals collosal damage. If it has not been generated elsewhere, he always drops the hammer of the gods.
In place of the CoC shortcut is a stairway that exits the Rift.
Last edited by JellySlayer; 01-06-2014 at 04:26 PM.
Hoping to win with every class, doomed. Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastfighter, Druid, Elementalist, Farmer, Fighter, Monk, and ULE Priest down.
Very nice idea Jelly, I will support it with all 4 limbs and all 7 tentacles. I'd love to see a quest like this.
I have to mention one thing however: Even if getting smithing isn't too difficult, getting it to 100 with classes that don't really need it and have very poor dice (+1) might be too much of a hassle if not outright impossible in reasonable game time or without a wish. Also, obtaining lightbringer seems considerably more difficult than getting souldrinker and as such bonuses should perhaps be slightly adjusted to compensate for the extra work?
EDIT: As a side note, this is a shotload of programming work with all the extra stuff. Though I'd certainly like to see some new NPC behavior/mechanics, I'm not sure if this idea isn't too ambitious.
Last edited by Blasphemous; 01-06-2014 at 08:56 PM.
I think most of the NPC interactions could work within the current game mechanics. There'd be a lot of scripting involved for sure, but most of it is just dialogue, NPCs appearing/disappearing, giving quests and receiving items, etc. Some of the interactions can certainly be simplified as necessary. I really mostly wanted to have a quest that 1) showed you aren't the only person who is attempting to stop the Chaos incursion and 2) is revisited at different points in the game. If the exact details need to be changed or simplified, well, c'est la vie. But better to think big and simplify than start too unambitious.
I think the only thing that is really outside the current game design would be to have each adventurer actually have a real class/race or whatever. This isn't necessary at all though--shopkeepers, say, already have a race (even though it doesn't matter much in terms of combat), so presumably there's some way that race can be incorporated. They could just be "gut the grey elven adventurer" though if the classes are really a problem. That's probably a simplification that would need to be made, or, at least, they'd all be of the same "type" but just have different names--that a monk and a wizard would, in practice, be exactly the same monster. Which is lame, but that's the limitations of the game. The party wouldn't need to wander levels or anything. They could just mill about in whatever room you find them in and kill hostile monsters. [edit]I guess the sickness level is new too. That can just be scrapped if it's too much work.
I think Lightbringer is actually pretty strong as it is. Yes, it doesn't give the speed/St bonuses and isn't vampiric (though, I actually have never used a really powerful vampiric weapon, so it's possible that it would be OP because of that), but +4d6 vs. chaotics is a hell of a lot better than +4d6 vs lawfuls. It's also non-corrupting. But the numbers can be tweaked as appropriate. I wanted to make the chaotic weapon comparable, if not stronger, to tempt people into playing the more evil route.
Getting Smithing to 100, I agree is a pain for classes that aren't proficient. The skill can be trained through use, I think, or perhaps Glod, Kherab, or even the Artificer himself could offer training services for it. Alternately, I guess the Artificer could just do it on your behalf if the skill requirement really turns out to be too much of a hassle.
Last edited by JellySlayer; 01-06-2014 at 09:25 PM.
Hoping to win with every class, doomed. Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastfighter, Druid, Elementalist, Farmer, Fighter, Monk, and ULE Priest down.
Also, obtaining lightbringer seems considerably more difficult than getting souldrinker and as such bonuses should perhaps be slightly adjusted to compensate for the extra work?
The bonus is that it doesn't contain the essence of chaos and corruption, which is extremely big.
1. New homelands for some of the races. Humans have three, dwarves one, there is a ratling -ish level of the arena, quicklings even have one.. Where do the other races live? Elves, gnomes, hurthlings, draklings, orcs, troll. There could be an elven encampment, or floating / flying city, or .... where the four elven flavors can be found, each with some agenda.
2. What happens if you convert all five elemental altars to N / L ?
3. What happens at silvernight at the stone circle?
4. Some alternate way to find the backdoor of the High Mountain Village.
Regarding JellySlayer's idea, I like the quest a lot. I actually think the lawful weapon is much much better than the chaotic one, essence of chaos and corruption is so nasty that it convinces me not to use things.
I also think requiring 100 Smithing is too grindy, maybe the celestial artificer, being celestial and seeing a crowned champion and all that, could give you a hand.
Also a detail that is a bit unnatural is, why do the adventurer guys give you the hilt and the blade? If they don't know about the mythical weapon they should probably just discard them as useless, and if they do know, they should keep it for themselves!
o maybe more subtle: "The fool you are."
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Originally Posted by gut
