Since the AU is in the Imperial City, it seem reasonable that Mucianus Alias and Mariette Rielle met there. So I just need to pick a location where she might have left papers. E.g. her cousin's home. There must be quite a few Bretons living in the city, so this should work. Thanks!

Or maybe hers were the "shady dealings in the basement of the Oak and Crosier" - which just happens to be below where Ulliceta is. Hmmm....

Yeah, make them travel to steal it - or have it hidden in a castle/the Palace/etc - somewhere really hard to steal from, lol.

I'm now thinking that I mix those two thoughts.

The documents are in the IC somewhere, perhaps multiple locations, but the "shady dealings in the O&C basement" were Ulliceta storing corpses to be shipped to her lab. She'd provided Talasma with cold storage facilities in the basis of being able to use them herself. Mariette found out and the documents are letters from Mucianus thanking her for her help, as well as evidence that the bodies were donated to Ulliceta for her medical research, with agreements about proper disposal after use, so that the necromancers couldn't use them.

Which could be what enraged Mariette into turning on Mucianus and made her turn him into a zombie thrall; what made her realize he was a spy. Multiple locations would be a great idea, I was going to suggest a few false leads, following a trail - something to make it harder to obtain.

It would also explain why Mucianus didn't clear her name - couldn't because he was turned into a thrall.

Nope, Mariette and Mucianus are out. You can do these quests without starting the MG ones, so you won't know about either of those characters. But I can create other necromancers to take their places. Same thing will work. May even be able to do so without names, so they can be identified as M&M later.

Facepalm moment - oh, that is right, you even said in your author's note that they wouldn't actually be mentioned. Urk, need to wake up...need coffee, lol.

I think I have this one worked out at last.

The mages' quarters at the Arcane University provide no personal storage for the staff and students, so they'd want somewhere off-site for that. Ontus Vanin retired from the University and is now antagonistic to MG members. Add these two together, and OV quit when necromancy was banned, as he disagreed with the way the ban was enforced, making practitioners and researchers alike into pariahs overnight. Some of the mages had left stuff in his basement, and that includes a mage's robe, a necromancer's robe, and a letter from M to M complaining about Ulliceta's getting all the best corpses, and destroying them when she's finished with them.

I still have some clean-up and packaging to do, but I should have a new version to try in a couple of days. Doc is here and for this quest it's here

Edit: Make that available now. You can get beta version 0.3 from my site. Once again, there are SI and non-SI esp's. Install only one. If the non-SI users get a WTF mesh, let me know where!

Got it! WOO HOO !!! I like what you figured out to do with this!

Next quest I'm working on involves this woman, who is shown at the Wobbly Goblet to avoid providing any additional clues with a location. I'll let you all guess who she might be for a day or two.

She's a character from an in-game book, the name of which you may be able to determine from a clue in the picture, although she's not yet wearing a black velvet cloak, because I haven't made one so far.

Cyrus's sister?

Iszara was a Redguard, not an elf, so she'd be rather dead from old age by the 4th Era!

The uniform she's wearing points to a specific city, which leads to the title of a specific book, which only has two characters in it, and the other is male. The book is in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, and refers back to a quest in Daggerfall.

And she's not in the wiki Lore section. Possibly because the book may be considered fiction.

Wait, you mean that screenshot isn't a Redguard? Urk. I've spent the day looking up Redguards in black velvet capes!

Well, here is my guesses I WOULD have made had that been a Redguard:

Queen Aubk-i - had the kind of body appeal I see in your featured females.

Charvek-si - wears a black velvet cape.

Whitka - member of the Thieves Guild, which the mod is based on.


Okay, I don't give up yet - is she a dark elf?

No, I meant that a Redguard doesn't live as long as an elf, and she IS a Redguard.

I think you'll need to identify the city she's from first.

Wait, does that mean she is one of the above? If yes, WOO HOO!

Give me a few hours while I dig back into their histories, lol.


EDIT: Queen Aubk-i or Charvek-si? Both are from Sentinel, but Charvek-si wears a black velvet cape. Aubk-i is just sexy looking.

Is it Haballa?

Yes!! It is Haballa, from Night Falls on Sentinel. That's why she's wearing a Sentinel uniform, and carrying a blunt weapon. She'll be in Cyrodiil looking for an item stolen from the palace in Sentinel.

That item was the "Wayrest Painting" that was the focus of a quest in Daggerfall, to steal it for Queen Akorithi. It showed the true events of the murder of King Lysandus, and has been showing other important events since. They thought it was broken when the chaos that was the Warp in the West was all jumbled together, and put it into storage. When the Oblivion crisis broke out, the current King, Lhotun, went to see if it showed anything, and found it missing. He sent his personal investigator to look for it.

The first suspect will be Chanel and/or Countess Valga. Chanel studied under the mage that made the original (making paint is similar to alchemy, which is how a Redguard got started on becoming a mage) so she knew of its existence. However, the painting will be found in Anvil. Millona Umbranox commissioned the theft in an attempt to find Corvus, but without going through the Thieves Guild, which she didn't know existed. All the painting showed her was the deathbed of an old man (the Grey Fox before Corvus), with nobody's face visible, because of Nocturnal's curse. Millona is happy to send it back, as she already has the result she wanted, without its help.

I'm thinking that Chanel told Arriana Valga about it, who in turn told Millona. That could happen at any time before the Canvas the Castle quest. My complication in building the new quest is that the player may or may not have done that one, so Chanel might be in Chorrol, or might not.

Since Sentinel stole it from Wayrest in the first place, there may be some dialog about where it belongs. However, Elysana rules there now, and nobody really likes her. I may imply that it was stolen by Wayrest from somewhere else, if I can find a good candidate. Helseth may have had something to do with that, or Elysana, in their rivalry at the time.

Anyhow, the player will have to search both Chorrol and Anvil castles before they find it, and talk to several known characters, including the Countesses and Corvus. If they didn't already do Canvas the Castle, it will make Chorrol much easier, and if they did, they may still have keys.

I still have to get the historical timeline clear. Millona should have the painting stolen a few years after Corvus disappears, after exhausting other lines of investigation, but before it can show the death of Uriel VII.

This is AWESOME !!!

I just took Roger Ro'Jhirr through the new quest, doing "Canvas the Castle" at the same time. That only tests some of the alternative dialog, so I need to do it again with another character who already did it, and a third time to account for the option of Chanel being banished, and another mage taking over her job. I'm also revising Haballa's AI to let her get at least some sleep while she's waiting for the player to do everything.

Once I've done that, there should be a new version to test.

Wow. I'm mostly following along from a 'Ooh, look at the pretty pictures' perspective, but Ghastley Enterprises sure seems to be producing some professional quality mods. I only have your Falkreath mod, but even that small mod nicely showcases your rich talent.

WOO HOO! I love that you are going through all the possibilities that might cause conflicts!

I always wanted to make up some weird consequences for each decision the Player makes as far as going the hero path or going the evil path; or searching for a (treasure or whatever) and searching in the wrong place.

In my village mod I hid a treasure, and every wrong place you looked had a trap that would transport you somewhere (like to the bottom of a tower filled with deep water, and the exit was at the bottom), etc - those kind of consequences. It was one of the things I loved so much about Fallout 3 - you never knew whether 3 Dog would be on your side or against you on some of those quests, lol.

I am SO excited over this mod!

I'm likely to take a laptop to England next week, and work on the Evergloam mod while I'm there.

I have an idea for Nocturnal founding the Nightingales (as seen in Skyrim) just before the Oblivion crisis, and inducting the player and Cyndil to replace two that just died in Skyrim. Dralsi, the daughter of Barenziah and Drayven Indoril, is the third, and she can come to Evergloam for it. The two ghosts might be there, too.

They died clearing the Twilight Sepulchre of draugr, and the place is not complete. Nocturnal still needs a few things to put the final touches to it. Cue a few fetch quests in Cyrodiil. Once all pieces are in place, a portal can be opened (the Ebonmere) and all can travel to Skyrim - although they won't get outside, just into the interior cell, which keeps it consistent with Oblivion. If the Oblivion Twilight Sepulchre looks just a bit like part of the Skyrim one, all differences can be put down to later remodelling. With at least one woman among the Nightingales, redecoration will be constant.

Now to go read and visit and get ideas for the Oblivion quests.

I took one of my old Oblivion characters for a wander around the dungeon I'd built for the next quest of Evergloam. It's supposed to be the beginnings of the Twilight Sepulchre you visit in Skyrim, and you'll get there direct from Nocturnal's realm, instead of crossing the Cyrodiil border. The entrance is still being dug out, and there are still a few draugr (skellies with armor) and regular skeletons to clear out before it's usable as a shrine. I'd intended to post a few screenshots, but I hadn't installed Fraps properly on the laptop, so the captures weren't captured. I did decide that the dungeon wasn't large enough, and so expansion has begun.

I'd like to match the layout of the Skyrim dungeon as closely as possible, to at least suggest that this is the ancestor of the later one. Obviously the tilesets are different, but architecture gets repaired and rebuilt, so that's not a big deal. I'm also trying to create an Oblivion version of Nocturnal's statue from Skyrim, without actually using the same mesh, as that's a significant item along the path. I may just have to place a plinth, and put something in her dialogue to say that a statue is coming.

Once this stuff is done, I think the Evergloam mod will be done enough to release at the Nexus. The quest line will have a purpose, and a reasonable conclusion, with the formation of the second Nightingale Trinity.

Latest Evergloam now available!

This version lets you become a Nightingale after you defeat Ogrim the Restless and reclaim the Twilight Sepulchre for Nocturnal.

When I played through the final quest I felt it was a bit of an anti-climax, so I'll want to beef it up later. I'll probably make the dungeon larger and have some of the sections be closed off by rockfalls after you leave, so that it isn't larger than the Skyrim version. But I want your feedback first, so give it a try!

I originally made the NonSI version included for mALX, but I think she wasn't the only person without the DLC, so it has been kept up-to-date with the base. Hope she re-appears to try it!

Yay, this is exciting! I’ve installed the regular version with BAIN and Kanet is ready to go. She’s getting her tasks directly from the Grey Fox now and has already fenced enough to move her through the end quests. I’ll report on her progress.

Thanks, ghastley!

@Grits: Thanks for the feedback. You've reminded me that Azura's supposed to get a second quest that she'll reward with a key to the guesthouse. I already created that - complete with interior cell, and Twilight attendant and key - but haven't designed a quest to get it. There's a cave on the island that was built with a view to its being the location of the quest, but it's currently empty.

I'm also starting to rethink the linearity of the whole thing. It might be nice to have more than one of Nocturnal's quests pending at the same time, if the player prefers. The way the EV00 quest works now, you don't get a new quest until you finish the prior one. That's all controlled in the script for that (hidden) quest, and could easily be adjusted. EV01 - Things That Go Bump In The Night - has to come first, but not all the others need to be chained in a fixed order. Origin of the Nightingales probably needs to be last - or at least after a quota of other quests is done - as you get a faction rank from it.

Edit: Some thoughts on the second Azura quest. This can happen any time after the first, and would be started by Azura sending her Winged Twilight messenger to you. Unlike Nocturnal's use of Amusei (and Methredhel indirectly) this could be anywhere, at any time, after the appropriate time has elapsed since the Crescent quest finished. You'd still have to go there through Evergloam, as that's the only portal.

One of her Daedra Seducer guards has run off with an overgrown imp, because Azura's been monopolising the male Twilights since she got her crescent back. The imps have her imprisoned in the cave, and it will be similar to the Cyndil rescue in having the imps appear after you find the victim, so she needs protecting, as well as just fighting the imps.

I'm trying to think of a practical way of complicating the quest by making the Imp boss hostile to the player, but the hostage doesn't want him killed. I can get double use of the same real estate if you have to get her back to Azura first, and have her remove the spell that made her fancy him, and then go back and punish the Imp boss, who will have a fresh bunch of minions to help him. Maybe he'll be essential until you finish the first half of the quest? Then I have to stop him leaving the cave and chasing you.

There are two potential rewards. You get the key to the guest house (which has a Twilight attendant in residence) from Azura for killing the imp boss, and a "Summon Me" spell from the Daedra Seducer you rescued (if she survives the ordeal).

Quick question. Is there something I’m supposed to do to trigger the Sepulcher quest? If not it seems that Amusei might be having trouble getting to Kanet, or maybe it hasn’t been long enough since she finished The Sentinel Painting. That was two (or three, I’ve forgotten) game nights ago.

Oh, I just saw your April 11 edit about Azura’s second quest. I’ll be back tomorrow with more brain cells functioning, lol. Those are great rewards!

That would be because Amusei doesn't have the right conditions on his AI package to find you again. I'll have to refresh the download, but I'll take the opportunity to add a bit more (because I already did half the next quest), and let you know when it's ready.

Edit: I've added some male bits to an Imp mesh (thanks to Slof) and increased scale from 0.5 to 0.85 (or 1.0 for the boss) so the cave is now becoming populated. The larger imps are higher-level creatures (PC-3 or PC-1) with correspondingly higher-level destruction spells.

Seducer Captain has a different hair-style then the regular ones, and I'm working on her faction affiliations to try and get her to side with the Imps until you defeat the boss. So far, I've stopped her fighting the imps by removing her guard status (with which her AI makes her defend the player when you're attacked) and putting her in a friendly faction with them. I still have to make her temporarily hostile to the player via aggression/disposition, so she'll join their side.

Then to make the quest work, I need to work out the logic of rescuing an unwilling captive. Probably an overriding spell provided by Azura, to cast on the Captain. It will make her follow the player, but not necessarily end her hostility. I have to think that part through a bit more. Clark's a useful test character for this, as his spell reflection means he can't just not attack her, he also has to avoid her attacking him with spells, and/or heal her reflected damage.

Ooo, that’s a tricky situation for Clark! I was thinking a Paralysis spell to keep the Captain out of the fight until the boss is down, but of course that would not encourage her to follow the player afterward. She’d probably be even angrier. I’m looking forward to whatever you come up with!

Since she's there because her "Allure" spell backfired when the Imp boss reflected it back at her, the simple answer is to Dispel it. However, I want Azura to do that when you take her back, so that she can suitably chastise the Captain, and give you the summon spell.

I may need a custom spell, just for this purpose; perhaps given on a scroll, like I did for the Bag of Holding, and equally restricted for target. Casting it switches her obsession to the player, and perhaps it's a "cast on self" that just needs her to be near enough to notice.

Edit: That spell probably does need to be cast on self to avoid her reflecting it. Does Atronach interfere with cast on self?

Reviewing the plan of the cave (cloned from Timberscar Hollow) I noted that there were two major side-passages, and I'd used the original boss location to place the Captain, and her Imp captor. The other one that was just acting as a false path, and nothing else. So I made an Imp Queen by re-shaping the model appropriately, and installed a locked gate to separate her from the rest. I'm currently considering the possible variations on why she's locked away.

1) The Captain locked the gate to her quarters so she wouldn't interfere with her plans for the chief drone.
2) Boss drone found out how to lock the gate. He's unusually intelligent for an imp, and thinks the Captain is prettier than the Imp Queen.
3) Gate locked itself when it swung shut. Imps can't figure out locks, so they've been feeding her through the gate's bars. Imps want Captain to unlock it.
4) Queen locked it, because she doesn't like current boss drone.

Queen could be ally or enemy, depending on chosen scenario, but most likely hates the Captain, as a rival. She could still be pro-player, for extra confusion.

Captain has no lock-picking ability, and does not currently have the key. If she did have it before, she lost it as part of the spell incident that left her enthralled to the Imps.

I have the Captain behaving neutrally. She doesn't fight for or against the imps, and they don't target her. That can change, for example when the player casts the spell to make her follow.

---

I'm trying to make this a two-visit quest: first time using stealth to extract Captain, second time force against the imps. Each half gets rewarded, so it's effectively two quests. However, I can't see a way to prevent the player from short-circuiting the plan by attacking the imps on the first visit. I want them to be hostile if the player is detected, but I also need them to be there when the second visit is made. Perhaps only Boss Imp is enabled on first pass, and visit two is to release the Queen? Imps can stop attacking player when she's out, much like defeating the Shaman ceases goblin hostility in the Goblin Wars quest.

Just released 1.0 on the Nexus.

Thanks to Grits for the beta-testing!

I hope the general public doesn't keep me too busy to do the Skyrim one!

Congrats on releasing 1.0! This was a lot of fun, ghastley.

Sorry I completely missed your edit in the post above.

Kanet will continue to visit your Daedric realms, and I’m already looking forward to your Skyrim TG extension.