AN ESO QUEST PITCH
As a longtime Elder Scrolls fan, I wrote up a pitch and quest flow document for a potential ESO quest.
Brief: The owner of a meadery reaches out to the Player, asking for help in investigating why his mead has turned sour and toxic. The Player eventually discovers that the rot is connected to worship rituals for the Daedric prince Namira, practiced by the owner’s daughter.
Locations (set in Skyrim):
- The Sweetglow Meadery (located north of Karthwatch, near the edge of the Reach)
- Exterior front: bee farm
- Interior: alchemical workshop
- Exterior back: hidden enclosed torchbug farm
- Toothstone Cave (located close to the meadery)
Time to complete: ~30 min
Named NPCs:
- Arik: Nord, male, elder. Owner of the Sweetglow Meadery. A passionate alchemist and entomologist who uses those skills to perfect the flavor of his mead.
- Selka: Reachman, female, young adult. Selka was born into the Crow-Wife Clan cult of Reachmen, and learned the worship of Namira from a young age. When she was in her teens, her family was killed, and she was orphaned. Arik took her in and raised her. She’s worked at his meadery ever since.
Enemy Types:
- Mutated wildlife: bears, sabrecats, rats, skeevers, torchbugs
- Mutated beasts/vermin are scaled up, given greenish poison-themed VFX
- Mutated torchbugs are an aggressive swarm with similar dripping green VFX
- Aggro faster and farther than their normal counterparts
- Attacks deal poison damage
- Selka: has summoning abilities and poisoning spells
- Arik: no special abilities; a weak old man
Unique Quest Rewards:
- Toxic Bottle of Sweetglow Mead: can be applied to weapons as a potent poison
- Flavor text: A glimmering bottle of mead. The smell is sickeningly sweet, and yet violently sour too. The nose can’t help but wrinkle.
- Selka’s Staff: Siphons life; converts a portion of damage dealt into health
- Flavor text: Etched onto the haft is a barely legible inscription: “Life from Rot, Breath from Death. So spake the Lady of Decay.”
Quest Flow
Start: Arik’s Request for Help
The Player receives a letter:
I am Arik, owner of Sweetglow Meadery. Heard you helped some of my friends–maybe you can help me too.
Lately, something has turned our mead sour, rotten. Can’t sell the damn stuff when it knocks you half dead. I suspect foul play from the bastards at Honeysuckle Brewing, but can’t prove anything yet. If you can find solid evidence, I can pay good coin. I hope this advance will whet your appetite.
On the back of the parchment is an advert:
Sweet as syrup, bright as a star! Try Sweetglow mead today!
Upon opening the letter, 50 gold is added to the Player’s inventory.
Objective: Go to Sweetglow Meadery
The Road to Sweetglow Meadery
Combat encounters: Mutated bears and sabrecats attack the Player on the road.
At the Meadery
Objective: Find Arik
Environment: The building itself is humble compared to the bee farm that sprawls around it. Patches of dead flowers ring the farm.
Inside, the Player finds Arik sitting at an alchemical worktable, tinkering with glowing vials. Glass displays of insects line the walls of his workshop.
Objective: Talk to Arik
Dialogue:
ARIK: So my letter reached you after all, thank the Divines. Someone is sabotaging my product. I thought the vats might’ve been tampered with… but Selka keeps a keen watch, and she hasn’t found anything out of place.
Optional Question: You trust this Selka?
ARIK: Of course! She’s my daughter. Poor runt was motherless and alone when I found her, wandering the wilds of the Reach. I fed and clothed the girl for ten years, never mind we don’t share a drop of blood between us.
Dialogue Continue: Why is the wildlife around here so rabid?
ARIK: (deadpan) Charming beasties, aren’t they? Wounded four of my crew already. They must be sick with something.
(dawning realization) Although… ah! Maybe that’s it!
(very serious) Can I trust you with a secret?
Dialogue Continue: If it’s related to your mead problem, you might have to.
ARIK: Alright, alright. Our secret ingredient is torchbugs. Gives the mead its signature glow.
If the beasts are sick, maybe the bugs are too. Come, I’ll show you.
Dialogue Continue: Lead the way.
Objective: Follow Arik
The Torchbug Farm
Environment: Arik leads the Player through the back of the building, out into a fenced area with high trellises blocking the view from outside. The space is full of torchbugs, the flowers that feed them, and bee house-esque structures for them to build homes in.
Some flowers are dead. Some dead torchbugs litter the ground around these flowers.
NPC Bark:
ARIK: Selka? Where is that girl? She’s supposed to be tending the farm.
Arik walks to one of the wilted flowers and crouches down, examining the dead bugs around it. Live ones circle him, not aggroing yet.
NPC Bark:
ARIK: (concerned) Sick, as I suspected.
Combat encounter: Suddenly, a swarm of Mutated Torchbugs pours into the area and attacks both Arik and you. He runs to a corner and cowers.
NPC Bark:
ARIK: Heightened aggression! They don’t even recognize me!
Objective: Defeat the Mutated Torchbugs
After combat, Arik examines the dead mutated bugs.
Objective: Talk to Arik
Dialogue:
ARIK: (dismayed) My poor little friends. Their thoraxes are swollen, oozing.
(growing scared) Divines have mercy… could they have hurt my daughter?
Their ichor left a wild trail. Let’s track it, see where they came from.
Dialogue End: I’ll find your daughter.
Objective: Follow the Mutated Torchbugs’ tracks
Toothstone Cave
Environment: The tracks lead up to Toothstone Cave, tucked away in the hillside. Inside, jagged stalagmites–the cave’s “teeth”–line the entrance.
NPC Bark:
ARIK: Ugh, that stench! Reeks like the sour mead.
Combat Encounter: Throughout the cave, the Player finds more Mutated Torchbugs, as well as mutated rats and skeevers
Shrine to Namira
Environment: The trail leads to the end of the cave. After fighting their way through, the Player finds a shrine to the Daedric prince, Namira. A corpse lays rotting atop it. Torchbugs crawl all over the body, presumably feeding on it. A journal lies open on the ground before the shrine.
Arik leans over and vomits.
NPC Bark:
ARIK: (horrified) The innkeep’s boy… He went missing last month.
Objective: Examine the journal
Selka’s Journal:
All these years, and her whispers still caress the far corners of my mind. Quiet. Inviting. Even when I stopped my practice, she never left. Not really.
Namira. How sweet the taste of your name on my lips, how rich the scent of your touch on this body. I hated killing him. But the beautiful rot that came after…
Out there, I am Selka, hard worker, honest daughter. But here, in the cave of my worship, dark and silent and squalid, I am only a maggot, a devotee to your decay.
NPC Bark:
ARIK: (broken) Let me see that.
Objective: Give the journal to Arik
NPC Bark:
ARIK: (gutted) I always feared this day would come. Selka killed him. Sacrificed him to that savage god of hers.
ARIK: As her mad Reachmen parents did before her. I thought I taught her better. Showed her what a true Nord really believes in.
Selka herself enters the cave and interrupts.
SELKA: I’m no Nord, Father! When will you listen?
ARIK: Selka! What have you done? What will I tell the innkeep?!
SELKA: The truth! Her boy was a drunken brute. He called me witch, freak. Attacked me in a rage. I had to defend myself.
ARIK: But, but this…?!
SELKA: This is my faith!
Objective: Talk to Selka
Dialogue:
SELKA: He hired you about the mead, didn’t he? I don’t control what the torchbugs eat. They want to feast of Namira’s gifts, I say let them.
Dialogue Continue: You mean sick torchbugs are what poisoned the mead?
SELKA: Sick? No, no. Strengthened. Life from death, as Namira teaches. She blessed this corpse with her magic. It is her wish that it be eaten, its powers shared.
Forget the mead! For years, I wasn’t even allowed to speak my mother tongue. Enough. I am grown, and I will be free. I will return to the Reach, where I may worship in peace.
Whatever he promised to pay you, I can match it. I only ask that you hold your tongue when the guard comes looking.
Option 1: Alright. You can go.
Option 2: I can’t let you go, not after what you’ve done.
If Option 1:
NPC Bark:
ARIK: What?! No! I’ll take you in myself, girl!
Combat Encounter: Arik turns hostile and attacks Selka barehanded. She will kill him. The Player can aid her if they want to. Selka is not targetable.
(During combat) NPC Bark:
SELKA: I never wanted it to come to this!
After Arik is slain, Selka kneels down by his body and says a prayer.
NPC Bark:
SELKA: (under breath) Namira, Goddess of the Dark, may you shepherd this carcass to worms and dust and beyond.
Objective: Talk to Selka
Dialogue:
SELKA: (bitter) Stubborn to the last, the old fool. He had a heart somewhere in there, believe it or not. I’ve seen it. (long sigh)
Thank you for your… discretion. The people of Karthwatch can rest easy. I won’t linger here anymore.
Quest End.
If Option 2:
NPC Bark:
SELKA: I’ll gut you like I did that boy!
Combat Encounter: Selka turns hostile and attacks you. She wields a staff, and summons more mutated torchbugs during the fight. She buffs them and casts poison spells to debuff you.
After Selka is slain, Arik collapses to his knees over her corpse, despondent.
Objective: Talk to Arik
Dialogue:
ARIK: (grieving) Damn stubborn girl. Never knew when to stop. There’s no taking the Reach out of Reachmen, in the end.
You’ve done your job. Take your coin and go. I… I need to bury her.
Quest End.