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This is the first post for the thread, OOC : The Wolf Queen Quests.
You may edit this first post as you see fit.
---------- Post added at 09:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:34 AM ----------
Last night I played through the first leg of the 'Wolf Queen' quests in Skyrim to get ideas.
It starts canonically in Solitude, in the Blue Palace. A resident of Dragons Bridge comes before Jarl Elisef claiming strangeness in the Wolfskull Cave - that there are strange lights and sounds, and disappearances. Elisef is eager to ease the worries of her people, though her council urges temperance - she compromises by assigning a few more guards to the area.
When you confront Falk Firebeard, her chief councilor, about the matter, he admits he doesn't think it's much more than a superstitious reaction to wild animals or bandits hiding out in the cave, but he's happy to pay you for the trouble of checking the place out and dealing with whatever danger you might find inside.
The first thing you run into at the mouth is a pair of skeletons hidden from the road by thick trees and snow. If that doesn't scream necromancy, nothing will.
Inside, several necromancers and their servants - druagr and atronach - await. There is a ledge from which some can be attacked from above, and a more narrow, straight-forward path to charge down.
Beyond another door and deeper into the cavern, you come to a sink hole. There's no other way down but to drop. No way back.
In the depths of the cavern, you find a horrid, beautiful sight - one of my favorite settings in the whole game, if I'm honest. A subterranean castle, ruined with age, and swarming with necromancers and druagr. It's hard to concentrate on any of this, though, because all around, whirlwinds of arcane energy are being drawn to a sphere of summoned power at the peak of one of the castle's parapets. A glowing humanoid figure is suspended within, and when it speaks, its voice seems to come from all around.
"Yes! Yes! Return me to this realm!"
Another voice, dimmer, mortal, replies, "As our voices summon you, the blood of the innocent binds you, Wolf Queen!"
A host of voices reply, "Summoned with words. Bound by blood."
Though I mostly sniped the patrolling druagr and necromancers in my path, I had to cut a swath through a few more, and as necromancers do, many resurrected their friends to fight again.
As you get closer, you hear the spirit's voice again - furious this time.
"What! What are you doing? You fools! You cannot bind me to your wills!"
"Summoned with words," the necromancers intone. "Bound by blood."
"You ants don't have the power to bind me!"
The ritual continues unperturbed, until you grow close enough to the ritual that the spirit speaks once more.
"Something is wrong. There is an intruder."
Four more necromancers come down from the tower to attack. Defeat them and ascend to where the Ritual Master and her fellows continue the summoning. Once they're slain, the bright light disappears and you hear no more from the spirit.
After that, it's a matter of exploring the castle enough to find another route back to the surface, and back to Falk Firebeard in the Blue Palace. He's shocked to hear the truth of the matter, and honestly concerned to hear that necromancers were attempting to summon Potema. When he asks whether they succeeded, he seems relieved to hear they've been dispatched. You get paid for your services, and it is done, the matter sorted.
Or is it?
There's a second half I have yet to play. I'll narrate that when I get to it. For now, I'd just like to say that I'm going to play Potema as a much more sinister, less cookie-cutter-villain-spirit than she's portrayed here. Same with the necromancers involved. Lots of them there - and they all had to come from somewhere. I'll bet they'd have a great use for another Master Necromancer - especially one who specialized in spirit summoning or body manipulation (if you choose one of these as his specialty).
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The second half of the quest involves Falk Firebeard asking you to go after Potema's remains when Styrr, a Priest of Arkay (the god of death) in Solitude informs him that her spirit yet clings to this world, and has begun to amass a following. They have broken into the city through the basement of the Temple of the Divines - oddly, this seems not to pose any worry to the temple or the city. [An aspect to be played with, perhaps.] Styrr tells you of Solitude's dark history, having seen the terrible rule of the Wolf Queen Potema, the Mad King Pelagius, and more recently, the death of High King Torygg.
Just past the broken wall to the ancient depths, you find architecture of fairly recent make. An ancient, sealed part of the city, perhaps? Newer rulers' attempts to wall off the city's 'dark history'? In the first room, you come to a barrier. A mural depiction of what can only be Potema herself speaks to you with the spirit's voice - thanks you for your service in unbinding her, and implies that your coming death will follow with your imminent resurrection, to take your place at her side. The barrier opens and you are allowed through.
You fight many druagr on the way down, of varying abilities and skills - even two deathlords with commands over the Thu'um. There are also many vampires. A few rooms gave me inspiration for scenes.
There were two door 'puzzles' where you had to use levers to activate a rotating stone barrier, which turned until it revealed a portcullis. When the opening touched the bottom, the portcullis would quickly open, then close again as the barrier continued to spin. I could imagine standing there at the barrier, bracing herself.
"It's all in the timing," she'd counsel Matric. "Got to be quick, now. Ready? Go!"
She would leap through just as the portcullis raised, then the barrier would abruptly halt in the open position. She'd turn and see Mathic standing by the lever to activate the barrier - he'd flipped it to the 'off' position. He's giving her an unimpressed but not entirely unamused look. She's lucky the dead don't blush.
Another room struck me as the perfect place for one of them to nearly get killed. An iron door opens to a small room FULL of dead bodies. Most are druagr, but I could imagine human bodies would be delightfully traumatizing for Grace. As soon as you step inside, Potema's voice booms again, commanding you to 'serve me in death'. Several - though not all - of the bodies raise and fight. I think it would be far more interesting if more of them raised. A spell called 'turn undead' might be useful to Matric in this situation. But I can't imagine his magic would hold out forever. And Grace can only hold off so many at once.
Past this room lies more of Potema's minions, and finally the confrontation chamber, where her spirit floats, luminous, as it did before in the Wolfskull cavern. She sends a horde of servants after you - all druagr of varying power, including another deathlord. She even attacks you with lightning spells. Once you've defeated her 'council', you cross the room to an elevated throne chamber, where her spirit manifest waits to attack you. She raises whatever fallen druagr are nearby and comes at you with lightning and a mace. Once she is fallen, claim her skull to be sanctified by the Priest of Arkay.
After, you can travel behind her throne and out, past two druagr who only wake if you take the helm that lies on a pedestal between them, and then to a door which leads to a cliff overlooking the northern sea - and has no steps leading anywhere (you're trapped unless you're careful about the drop). Either chance the cliffs or travel back through the catacombs to Solitude's temple. In the separate Temple of Arkay, Styrr will sanctify the remains, and in the Blue Palace, Falk Firebeard will commend you with gold and a shield of the city.
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I personally like the idea of Falk having very little, if at all, to do with the quest upon which Matric and Grace embark. Matric just wants to be rid of the pests and their new - very dangerous - project. Grace is looking to get done what good she can - and that generally means slaying Necromancers and their ilk. But for them to emerge from this as heroes of the city could be very interesting. Not that Grace would accept that limelight, I think. She's too conscious of what she is - and how that wouldn't go over well with the natives. Matric may have a similar problem, though it's likely easier to conceal his nature when he still has a pulse. We'll see how that pans out.
