74. Quest Writing

I spent hours playing with the new system, and I was almost giddy with my new options.  I was able to see a full list of everyone who had any Reputation with me, and was almost staggered by how many travelers were on that list.  I recognized less than one percent of the names.  After a bit of investigation, and through my questioning of Thomas, I learned that many of the Travelers who were on that list had never actually interacted with me directly, but had a significant amount of Reputation with other factions or Natives which the system considered my allies.  Many of the Travelers who had earned Reputation with Grandfather, or Malkios, for example, gained a certain percentage of that reputation with me as well.

Thomas explained that it was significantly more effective to gain my Reputation directly from interacting with me and completing my quests, and there was a cap on how high Travelers could raise their Reputations with me through my allies.  It was possible for them to earn enough Reputation to give themselves an aura without having ever met me, but the aura would be dimmer than virtually anyone in <Nethersong Mavericks> or <Peasant’s Revenge>.  He explained the benefits of this system, in that it would allow me to identify travelers that were likely to align with me based on their previous actions in my world without actually having met them before.

Unfortunately, there was also a list of Travelers who had negative reputation with me, and that list was even longer than the other.  Thomas explained that this wasn’t necessarily an indication that those Travelers were opposed to me, but rather that they were aligned to Native factions which were opposed to the factions which the system considered my allies.  Travelers in Kordock, a nation which was overtly hostile to Yuikon, would naturally generate reputation with the local Natives simply through the completion of quests in that area.  Like the synergistic reputation that they would get for working for my allies, their negative reputation would cap before it went too far negative, unless they took direct actions to oppose me.

Thomas explained that Reputation would affect the quest giving process while I wasn’t sitting on the throne, as it considered a Traveler’s reputation when assigning quests.  Players who had Reputation with me or my allies were more likely to be assigned quests, while it was less likely that I would unintentionally assign a beneficial quest to a Traveler with negative Reputation.  It wasn’t impossible; if the system determined that I was attempting to give a player with a red aura a quest, it would respond accordingly.

However, their reputation would also effect the rewards that they received.  An example of this was the quest I had given to Lawrence, the former member of <The Endolphins> that had approached me on my first day back from the lobby.  The quest he had received to cleanse his [Brand of Sin] would give him a significant amount of reputation with me, but no other rewards.

Aside from individual Travelers, there was a submenu dedicated entirely to guilds.  As Thomas explained it, guilds received a portion of the Reputation their members generated.  Because <Nethersong Mavericks> and <Peasant’s Revenge> had been working with me so frequently, they both had a significant amount of reputation built up with me; enough to give even members whom I hadn’t met before a slight aura.

<Ragtag Muffin> was also high on the list, but I was surprised that it was listed thirty-seventh rather than third.  Thomas explained that many of the guilds which were higher ranked had many travelers who worked hard to generate reputation with my allies, while I had only interacted with a relatively small number of the child Travelers from <Ragtag>.  However, this was another area where I could exert control over the system, as I could assign or remove reputation from any guild on the list, although the amount that I could assign was limited.  I could also assign any guild a specific status, which would affect the rate at which their members earned Reputation with me.

Once I heard that, I quickly set <Peasant’s Revenge> and <Ragtag> to [Allies] and gave them the maximum amount of assignable reputation.  I wasn’t able to change the status of <Nethersong Mavericks> due to the fact that I was a member, but Thomas assured me that they had always enjoyed the maximum coefficient to their reputation gains.

I also changed the status of <Rotten Savior>, <Drama Llamas>, <Procrastinators Unite Eventually>, and <Button Mashers>.  Those were the guilds which had attacked me when I had been empowered by Thedum in the wake of my grandfather’s murder.  Accordingly, I assigned them as [Hostile], and gave them as much negative reputation as I could assign.  I gave the same treatment to <Branded Exiles>, the guild which had accepted Nial Kingslayer, and I would have done the same to <The Endolphins>, despite it being my father’s guild, but my father had disbanded it.

When Tarisha returned from completing the quest I had assigned her, I asked her if she could think of any other guilds which I should mark as friend or foe.  She very quickly listed a number of guilds which I should consider hostile, but very few which I should consider allies.  I was troubled by this, but she explained herself.

“I believe that there are a lot more guilds which would like to align themselves with you than against, Lord Hail.  However, I don’t believe that you should be quick to give them any official recognition freely.  The guilds I listed as being opposed to you have all taken stances on the forums in which they express their intentions to explore the darkside of the game which has opened up following King Rain’s death.  Many of them have been actively recruiting players with [Brand of Sin] and are looking for new ways to obtain the brand for their existing members.  I can think of a number of other guilds which I would like to have you put on the naughty list, but am restraining myself because while they are rivals to <Peasant’s Revenge>, they have not shown any inclination to oppose you directly.  Some of them have even expressed interest in obtaining your favor.  Which is exactly why you shouldn’t give them preferential treatment.  Not for free.”

I frowned at the conclusion of her explanation, but I quickly followed it to its conclusion.  “You think they’d be willing to negotiate?”

“Forgive my language, but fuck yes they will.  With your permission, I will send out a few messages to a few contacts who have been pestering me and my guild for access to you.  Believe me when I say that they will be willing to pay through the nose for an official alliance which gives them such a tangible benefit as increased reputation gains, and I encourage you to bleed them for every penny that you can.”

It made sense.  I would be providing them with an advantage, it was only fair that I got something in return, right?  “I’m not certain that I want to set the price too high.  I mean, I want to have as many Traveler allies as I can.”

Tarisha nodded.  “You’re right.  However, I believe I have a solution.  We can lie, and tell everyone that you can only form a new alliance every few weeks of game time, or when the guild has met certain conditions.  I assure you that my people will literally beg to give you money and complete your quests to earn an alliance.  Eventually the demand for an alliance will die down as more guilds obtain one, and you can lower the price to encourage guilds with lighter pockets to approach you to purchase an alliance.  But I believe that this is an opportunity which would be foolish not to exploit.”

Thomas coughed.  “I don’t exactly approve of you teaching Hail to be dishonest about his abilities,” he muttered.  “But I cant say that you’rewrong.”

“How much gold do you think I could earn this way?” I asked Tarisha.

She smirked.  “Millions.  Easily.  You’ll be able to pay off the Shire’s debt in no time.”

I allowed myself to grow excited.  For a moment.  Then I crushed it.  “I can’t.  I won’t trade gold for an alliance.  It’s … not a good look.  Not when I’m rooting out corruption in my lands and punishing my officials for accepting bribes.  I like the idea of making them earn it though.  If only I could make it some sort of quest, where an alliance was the reward.”

“You can,” Thomas said, but it was unnecessary because as soon as the words were out of my mouth the menu in front of me flashed and changed.

Initiating Quest Writing system

Quest Type:

Guild

Quest Name:

Alliance with House Jeoran

Flavor Text:

One of the final acts of King Rain Teoran before his murder at the hands of Nial Kingslayer was to raise his favored grandson to the rank of Earl, establishing a new noble house in the lands of Yuikon.  House Jeoran, led by the young Earl Hail Jeoran, lacks the long and storied history of many noble families, but its founder does carry royal blood in his veins, making him worthy of attention and respect among his peers despite his inability and unwillingness to inherit the throne.

In order to establish his new house, Earl Hail is seeking allies among the Traveler guilds.  Work hard, prove your loyalty and support for house Jeoran, and you and your allies will reap great rewards in the future.

Quest Reward:

Alliance with House Jeoran

Quest Conditions:

Request quest from authorized Quest Giver.

Neutral or higher guild Reputation with House Jeoran.

Not Hostile to House Jeoran

Quest Objective:

(Input requested)

I read the prompt that had appeared, contemplating it for a moment.  “It’s requesting input for the objective.  What should I say?”

Thomas shrugged.  “It’s your system, Hail. You can set the criteria for your alliances to be whatever you want.”

I glanced at Tarisha, who shrugged.  “If it’s a guild working together, then you could probably give them some pretty big goals to accomplish.  I get that you can’t just accept gold, but don’t just hand out a bonus this big.  Make them work for it.”

I agreed with her wholeheartedly, and so I considered carefully what I wanted to accomplish.  Fortunately, I had just made a list.  “The quest objective is to make significant contribution to the completion of my [Objectives].  I’d like the quest difficulty to scale with the resources available to the guild, if that’s possible.  I don’t want it to be too difficult or too easy.  I want everyone to have to work for it even if they’re an endgame guild, but I also want casual guilds like <Nethersong Mavericks> and <Ragtag Muffin> to be able to complete this quest, but only if they work hard.  But I also think that their contribution should fade over time, so that they can’t neglect the quest. Oh, also, killing Nial Kingslayer completes the quest automatically.  In fact, let’s make that another quest.”

The prompt quickly interpreted my words and completed the creation of both quests.  I went back to examining my new options.  Aside from all of the menus to affect my interaction with Travelers, there were just as many that were related to Natives, and the lands that Grandfather had given me.

I pulled up the Natives menu.  One of the options displayed a number of quest givers whom the system considered allied with me, and just like the list of Travelers it was much longer than I had anticipated.  Malkios and my mother were listed at the top, which did not surprise me very much.  Lord Tom and Lady Gwen were also listed.  But there were a great many Natives whose name I did not recognize at all.

“Who is Candice Buttersworth?” I asked Thomas.

“I can’t say that I know,” the administrator admitted.  “Where did you get that name?”

“She’s listed as one of my Native allies.”

“Ah.  Well, that likely means that she’s a minor quest giver who is able to assign at least one quest which will give positive reputation with you.  Either one of the quests which she has always carried has been determined to align with the [Objectives] that you entered earlier and has added Reputation with you to its rewards, or the system has written a new quest based on those [Objectives] and assigned it to her,” Thomas explained.

I frowned.  “I’m not certain that I like the idea that other people are able to give my Reputation out as a reward.”

“It’s probably a good thing,” Tarisha admitted.  “That’s how the majority of Reputations work.  There is rarely a single individual who handles all of the quests of a faction.  You were very unique until now in that the only known way to gain your Reputation was to interact with you directly.  Having other quest givers available will relieve a significant amount of pressure.”

“There’s another reason that you haven’t considered yet, Hail,” Thomas said seriously.  “I’m not certain you’ve realized it yet, but there is about to be a wave of people attempting to get access to you.  Having other Natives who can assign quests that reward your Reputation will take a significant amount of pressure off of you.  Depending on how many people actually show up in the shire in the next few days, we may be forced to move you to your own instance and start shunting off unaffiliated players.”

“Oh,” I said.  “So then, the shire is going to be sort of like Zhesa castle?”

While I had been growing up, I had been vaguely aware that me, my grandfather, and the rest of my family were always in our own instance, with the majority of Travelers being shunted away from us.  While many parts of the castle had been open to the public, Travelers weren’t able to access the royal family unless they were on a quest to do so, or had earned a significant amount of Reputation.

“Probably not the entire Shire,” Thomas admitted.  “But wherever you end up making your home and holding court will almost definitely be instanced.”

I nodded, then frowned and looked around at the bleak room.  “Can I move the Throne?  I don’t think I want to hold court in this old building.”

Thomas shrugged.  “We don’t want you to be hauling the throne around in your inventory.  The entire idea is that we want to give you a fixed location where you have access to these new menus, so it would defeat the purpose if you could just plop it down in the middle of a forest while adventuring.  But we’re happy to move the Throne to wherever it is you decide to hold court, and we will also give you one for your court in Thornmarch.”

“Right,” I said, and I closed the menus.  “I think that’s enough for now.  I’m getting tired.  Tarisha, let’s go back into town and find the inn.”