This is a draft, an example of how you can enhance quests in DDO. If you have better ideas, write them in the comments then the story can be enhanced. The changes must be technically possible, so do keep them somewhat "simple", we all know Pen and Paper can provide much more possibilites.
It was a rainy night in Stormreach as i finally arrived in the lower harbor area. The rain was falling down like there was no tomorrow and the soaking wet and dirty streets smelled like there was someone lying somewhere who has no tomorrow. I got off the ship and made myself comfortable in this little stinking tavern, where i got into trouble with some strange maniac that was babbling about a dark god or something... i killed him. I knew from that very moment on, that i arrived in a dark town.
To take a mans live in the first night of your arrival is not something you can joke about. Especially if that someone was talking about a dark god. Maniacs, there always the same. After that stupid guard let me pass onto the upper harbor area, i met someone i knew, i should not fool around with. He was one of the coin lords, his name was Berrigan Enge. He told me about a friend of a friend that i could work for, if i would grant him a favour. That sounded like a fair deal, at least in the beginning, and a way to get a foot into the door of the high society.
He told me to gather some money that a miller owed him. Money gathering... that was something i was doing on a regular basis in Sharn, so why not try to get in this business again? Nice one... a miller should not be much trouble, at least that was what i thought.
As i arrived at the millers house, i walked up to the door and knocked, but nobody opened. I let myself in and searched the upper floors but found nothing. It seemed a bit strange, cause it was in the mid of the day as i arrived at his house. From that moment on, i was a bit more caucious of the situation. It seemed stupid enough not to pay your bills to one of the most powerfull people in town, but not to work in the middle of the day, when your in the minus, was even more stupid.
I found a cellar door which lead to the basement of the building and i entered. There i saw it the beauty of this town. Deep cellars beneath every house, build out of the old ruins, out of the walls and hallways of the giants. It would be impossible for someone in Sharn to have that much space in his basement.
Every room down here seemed be full of crates. I walked up to one of the crates and opened it. There was no flour in it, it was alcohol! The Miller seemed to be smuggler, but that was no surprise i guess even the Coin Lord himself earned some extra money from smuggling, or at least from not mentioning someone who does. Why did he not pay the Coin Lord then?... I sneaked forward not to run into a trap and heard metallic growling from the lower part of the cellar.
Metallic growling? Defenders! In millers cellar that was as big as a rich man's in Sharn? The whole situation seemed to be getting weirder with every second. I knew those metallic beast were not really intelligent, so i opened a door and smashed a crate to get their attention... as they entered the room i closed the door shut. So much for the "defenders"...
The next room had an even bigger scale than all the other hallways; big stones that only giants could have moved, formed archs for the entrypoints and the ceiling was also held by big stone bars. The room had gloomy feeling and it was lit in a redish light that was pulsing from the floor. Someone tried to quash the lights and ripped them out of the ceiling. I carefully looked around and heard a very silent cough from behind one of the crates in the edge of the room. Sneaking over some of the crates, I got nearer and found a man shiffering and cowering on the floor.
I jumped him and he cried out, but then he stuttered "No please dont kill me, i... i know Berrigan wants his money, but... but i got problems.. as you surely noticed the crates are full of alcohol. This alcohol belongs to the quickfoot gang. Those bastards forced me into this." He looked pretty scared and i believed him. I know how hard those thieves guilds can be, from personal experience. After i calmed him and told him that i would not harm him, but help him, he told me they've put those defenders in the cellar to keep him quiet.
He showed me the room where he kept his goods and said that another, even deadlier iron defender, was waiting inside and was holding him off to get his own goods and deliver them to the coin lord. He asked me to pay off Berrigan so he has a chance to get the deal with the Quickfoot Gang done and earn his own freedom, but i had a much better idea.
If this Defender was even more deadly than the other ones, then there must be something else in that room. Something the quickfoot gang thought would be worth some trouble. Stealing stuff from a thieves guild that behaved like mudering bastards, seemed very pleasing to me. So i told the Miller to hide somewhere while i get this Defender done.
Several ideas came to mind:
- Kill the beast from above... they should not be able to climb up those crates and they are dead stupid
- Lure him into a trap, perhaps a web or a simple animal trap..
- Sneak past him
- Try to get the password to deactivate him, i found a rumpled piece of paper in the dirt at the beginning of the cellar.. that COULD be the password..
I thought it would be most elegant to let the beast out and try the password. So i opened the door and jumped up on those crates. Only a second after i opened the door the iron defender charged out of the room and tried to reach me on the crates... he could jump on one crate, but i climbed up two and everytime he tried to reach me, he fell down and i heard an angry growling deep within his throat. I tried the password and shouted "millercellar" at it. It stopped its movement and i heard a strange humming sound comming from within the creature. It seemed save to come down now and i was right.
Now it was easy for me to claim the goods, that the miller and Berrigan wanted to have. The quickfoot gang really placed a chest in here and as i walked up to it the Defender spit out a key to open it. Nice idea guys.. next time you really should try to find better people who do not throw away pieces of paper, with passwords written on them. I stole from thieves... which is always the nieces way of stealing, cause it feels sooo right.
I walked to the place the miller was hiding and gave him a part of his goods so he could sell them for some money. He was so greatful that he gave me a nice set of Thieves Tools, one of the Quickfoot Thieves lost in here.
I made my way back to Berrigan Enge and brought him the wanted goods. He was really greatfull and gave me 5 gold pieces for this work... which is something like a robbery itself, but what was i expecting from a money hungry bastard... suddenly i felt that even so far away from Sharn, many things were just the same and others did change really drastically on the journey to Stormreach. I changed...
Monday, July 31, 2006
The Characters
Berimar Swiftfoot - Halfling Rogue chaotic neutral
A simple man from the streets of Sharn, who got forced to leave his hometown and friends because of some trouble with the local thieves guild. He jumped on a boat that should deliver him to another city, but he ended up in Stormreach. He thought his stars were set and he should see this as new beginning, even a way to cleanse himself of things he does not like to remember.
Entax - WF Barbar true neutral
A lost soul of the Last War. He awoke in the streets of Sharn with his memories erased. He has no past and sees no future. The actual pleasure of living is his main motivation. Every new experience he has broadens his sense of the world and therefore he is very eager to meet new challenges and new areas, so he left for the so called "City of Dungeons" - Stormreach.
Darina - Dwarfen Cleric lawful neutral
As a cleric of the silver flame she always followed the order of the higher priest, but then she was betrayed and left the main continent to follow her true purpose, to destroy evil and its roots wherever possible.
Thalassar - Human Wizard true neutral
------- flesh it out yourself
Xintaxa - Drow Ranger chaotic neutral
------- flesh it out yourself
A simple man from the streets of Sharn, who got forced to leave his hometown and friends because of some trouble with the local thieves guild. He jumped on a boat that should deliver him to another city, but he ended up in Stormreach. He thought his stars were set and he should see this as new beginning, even a way to cleanse himself of things he does not like to remember.
Entax - WF Barbar true neutral
A lost soul of the Last War. He awoke in the streets of Sharn with his memories erased. He has no past and sees no future. The actual pleasure of living is his main motivation. Every new experience he has broadens his sense of the world and therefore he is very eager to meet new challenges and new areas, so he left for the so called "City of Dungeons" - Stormreach.
Darina - Dwarfen Cleric lawful neutral
As a cleric of the silver flame she always followed the order of the higher priest, but then she was betrayed and left the main continent to follow her true purpose, to destroy evil and its roots wherever possible.
Thalassar - Human Wizard true neutral
------- flesh it out yourself
Xintaxa - Drow Ranger chaotic neutral
------- flesh it out yourself
About Rewritten
Rewritten was born from the idea of writing a story about the quests you play in Dungeons and Dragons Online. But as i and many other d&d players were frustrated of the few possibilities to solve a dungeon, it came to mind, that it would be nice to enhance the possibilities while writing the stories.
This surely can be a big amount of work for the bigger quests, but as i think writing nice stories is fun, enhancing the basic stories of DDO is even more fun. In addition its a constructive way of criticism for Turbine and a compliment for their well build basic stories.
If someone who reads this wants to contribute, feel free to contact me, as this was meant to be from the beginning. There is a party of five heros and every quest can be written from the perspective of one of those. To keep the stories and the style the same for those characters, every character should get his own author. I started with Berimar Swiftfoot a halfling rogue, but there are characters left:
This is not meant to be bashing, or plain negative criticism of Turbine or DDO. It is a great game with the best and most entertaining quests i ever played in an MMO. This is a compliment and a way for a fan to provide more background, constructive criticism, ideas, nice stories for players to read about a game i and many others are very amazed about.
This surely can be a big amount of work for the bigger quests, but as i think writing nice stories is fun, enhancing the basic stories of DDO is even more fun. In addition its a constructive way of criticism for Turbine and a compliment for their well build basic stories.
If someone who reads this wants to contribute, feel free to contact me, as this was meant to be from the beginning. There is a party of five heros and every quest can be written from the perspective of one of those. To keep the stories and the style the same for those characters, every character should get his own author. I started with Berimar Swiftfoot a halfling rogue, but there are characters left:
- Entax, a Warforged Barbarian
- Darina Lighthand, a Dwarfen Cleric of the Silver Flame
- Thalassar, a Human Wizard
- Xintaxa, a Drow Ranger
This is not meant to be bashing, or plain negative criticism of Turbine or DDO. It is a great game with the best and most entertaining quests i ever played in an MMO. This is a compliment and a way for a fan to provide more background, constructive criticism, ideas, nice stories for players to read about a game i and many others are very amazed about.
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