A New Pact (working title)

So, the promise of a 20m reward for writing a good quest hasn't gone unnoticed. Nowhere in the rules does it state that I must be an existing Quest Database member to contribute, in fact it seems to encourage new writers

So, this is the prequel to my idea. The reason for posting this is to get an opinion before I begin the proper work, to see if you think I'm wasting my time writing (and please, do tell my if you think that, because time is precious to me right now), or whether I've managed to capture you in the suspense. So here goes...


Xenia walked slowly. She had no purpose in her step. No place to be. No rush. The city of Varrock held nothing the old adventurer hadn't seen before.

Or so she thought.

She saw him outside Aubury's magic shop. He had grey robes, but with a red trim. An all-too-familiar shade of red.. His shoulders hunched. His head bowed. His gaze was fixed on no-one. To Varrock's citizens, he looked distinctly boring, uninteresting in every way. This was why Xenia was interested in him.

He was whispering to a teenage boy, one who seemed to be on the brink of his adventuring years. Xenia stopped on the other side of the street, near the constant stream of miners who came out of Aubury's, hidden in a crowd, and found herself having to concentrate to hear them.

"He will reward you greatly for your service" The man in grey hissed.
"What do I have to do?" The boy asked
"Come with us and..." Two drunks from the Blue Moon inn staggered past. They pushed the background noise Xenia had to compete with over the limit, and the conversation was lost for a few, precious seconds.
"I'll do it" The boy said. Even from the other side of the street, over the crowds, Xenia could detect fear in his wavering voice. "But who is this "He" you keep speaking of?"
The man in grey held back a laugh. "Zamorak."


Silently, Xenia followed them as they entered the Zamorakian temple. She hid by the door as they lifted the altar of Zamorak and entered the trapdoor underneath. She counted to 20 after the door closed - nothing would be worse than throwing herself down the trapdoor while those two were still right beneath it.

20 seconds seemed like a lifetime. By the time the wait was over, Xenia was certain nobody else was in the temple - age, it seemed, hadn't dulled her wits yet. She silently dashed over to the trapdoor and entered. She found herself in a dank, dark passage made of smooth black stone. On either side of her, red tapestries bore the mark of her enemy. She could hear voices from at the end of her path, and she silently approached them - it was man in grey, again:
"You are to make a blood pact, to swear service" he pronounced
"Give me your blade, and I will gladly do so" a voice replied. It was not the boy, but a woman who spoke
"No" The man retorted, sharply. "You shall use your own weapon"
"But I am an archer" The woman snapped
"No matter. This... This is important"
The woman took her bow. She placed the string upon her palm, and moved it back and forth. The rough texture grated her hands. Back and forth. The heat of the friction burned, but she did not stop. Back and forth. The skin on her palms flayed and shredded, but back and forth, she moved the string. Finally, red liquid sprung up to fill the angry ravine upon her hand.
"I take the blood pact" She proudly exclaimed. The crazed words echoed around Xenia, who had come close enough to see the whole thing.
"And you" The man turned to the boy. "It is your turn now"
The boy drew his dagger and placed it upon his sweaty palm. His task would be far easier than that of the woman next to him. Yet he could not. His hand shook and he could not bring himself to draw blood. He looked to the man in grey, expecting encouragement. He was met with an ice cold gaze.
"This one shows no commitment" The man in grey said, with no pity in his voice. "To the uncommitted, these pacts mean nothing. I have dealt with your kind before, and they have been of no service to me" The boy tried to speak. "I shall spill your blood for you."

Xenia had seen enough to know she needed help. She turned her gaze away from the horror only to be struck by another. Standing between her and the way out was a man. A dead man. Tall, with grey hair and skin that matched the colour, he had facial scars in undead flesh that made up the symbol of Zamorak. No surprise that necromancy was in use amongst these foul men.
"Reese" Xenia growled


Character profiles:

Khoru
Khoru is the leader of the Zamorakian cult - like many Zamorakians, his past is unknown. Khoru is highly intelligent, but also incredibly sadistic - he craves destruction for destruction's sake, hence his reason for forming the cult.
Khoru is a well practiced necromancer and although his capabilities are far from those of a Mahjarrat, for a human he is quite skillful. He is also dangerous with the blade and strong with magic, though he does not favor ranged.
His weapon is a staff with blades on either end - intricately decorated with Zamorakian red colour and with ruby gems

Viyna
Orphaned at a young age, Viyna suffered much abuse from her step-father, a Varrockian hunter. She ran away from him at the age of 16, stealing his bow as she left. Viyna then spent a few years as an adventurer, however her childhood left her very cold blooded, and she swiftly developed a style of killing innocent people to get quests done quickly. Recently, at the age of 19, she joined Khoru's cult, her motives for doing so being the chance for revenge on her step-father.
You wouldnt describe Viyna as stupid. Then again she isn't particularly smart, but with Khoru leading her, she doesn't need to be.
She still uses her step-father's bow, though she has modified it, carving Zamorakian markings into the wood.

Adun
Adun was a curious boy who thought it might be a good idea to see what being a Zamorakian was all about. He lacked passion or enthusiasm, however, and so Khoru decided he wasn't cult material...

Gurdryn
Your typically stupid, brutish warrior. Up to the age of 20, Gurdryn was a more or less a body guard to the more important members of the Phoenix gang. Khoru recongnised Gurdryn's talent when he spotted him in a bar fight, and it didn't take long to convince the fool to sign up to the cult.
Gurdryn still uses the standard issue sword he was given as a Phoenix body guard

Triakon
Another brute. More details to come

Finua
A wizard sent from the ZMI to aid her fellow Zamorakians. More details to come

Huncrob
A Dorgeshunn goblin who learnt to hate Saradominists thanks to HAM. More details to follow

Reese
Description to come

Xenia
Description to come



Basic Plot Structure

-Talk to Xenia, learn of the new pact
-Infiltrate organisation, learn of plans
-Player vs Reese (Round 1?)
-Gather weapons
--Viyna's bow
--Gurdryn's sword
--Triakon's weapon (to be decided)
--Finua's weapon (to be decided)
--Huncrob's weapon (to be decided, most likely crossbow)
-Confront cult members
-Boss fight
-Finish up

Very interesting!

Minor question, how will the player view this content? A cutscene?

That is the plan. Obviously, not quite so story like...

Always sucks: stories versus quests.

Heh, my millions bring all the boys to the yard, damn right...they better than yars!

Do you like it, Dark?

Yes

Dark, you're like the rich eccentric old uncle who has every vying for your will when you're dead. I must say, though, that I'm very interested to see what sort of necromantic hijinks we'll be getting into.

The boss fight

What do you guys think of this as a boss fight? Don't ask about its context because its still kinda a work in progress... I want the quest to be experienced level difficulty by the way

Basically, you're up against a level 95 meleer/mage.
Don't ask how, but he can't be killed, and your hits will either always miss, or be healed immediately (haven't decided which).
You'll have done a fair bit of fighting beforehand and may or may not have chosen to heal before facing the boss.
His melee attack at speed level 4, fairly accurately, but with a max hit of just 130.
His magic attack is at the same speed, less accurate but at 160 max hit
He will not move from the spot he stands on - if you're not next to him, he'll use magic on you, but if you're next to him, he'll use melee
He will, however, occasionally do his special attack, he will magically pull you towards him, then which take about 2 seconds to charge, and then slam his sword into the square in front of you hitting a very accurate 250 damage. You can, however, dodge this attack by moving away from the square he brings you too

The objective of the fight is to move your opponent to a grave on one side of the map - you can do this by hitting him after you dodge his special attack - he will be thrown off balance and knocked one square away from the direction you hit him from. The boss arena will only be about a 5x7 grid, with a 1x2 grave at one end of it, so there shouldn't be masses of distance to go

Obviously, I'll word that all better before publishing, but what do you think?

That sounds pretty cool. So we have to bury him alive undead? (if it's Reese, whom I assume is a zombie)

Essentially. But its not Reese
This pact goes much deeper than Reese...

Added some new character profiles, and an overview of the main steps in the quest - don't worry if the latter don't make sense, I'm keeping the reason behind them close to my chest for now (although you're welcome to guess )

Let me know what you think...

Thumbs up.

Ok, so heres the first few bits of plot for The New Pact. They're not yet specific enough to be of a suggestion standard, I just wanna know what you think...

You run into Xenia in Varrock square - she's been looking for you and she needs your help. Another Zamorakian cult has been discovered and she needs your help to stop them...
What occurred in the prologue is explained as a cutscene.
So, having already tried to infiltrate the organisation herself and failed, she needs somebody who they won't recognise - you

Xenia suggests you get recruited by finding the same man who she saw last time - outside the Zamorakian temple. You go there and meet him
So, after a bit of talk, you get some information:

Khoru - the shady leader of the Zamorakian cult and a secret leader to the cultists in the original Blood Pact - is back. And he's struck gold. In Varrock library, he's found a book detailing a ritual for a special type blood pacts - those who take the pact can only be killed by the weapon they draw blood with.
Previous pacts in the third and fourth ages failed because all the cultists all used the same weapon for the pact - once a brave adventurer got hold of the weapon, the cult were finished.
Khoru's been smarter - he's had everyone take their pact with their own weapon - meaning if one weapon falls into the wrong hand only one cultist will die. To take down the whole cult, many weapons would have to be found

Having had all this explained, Khoru asks you to take the pact. You, unsurprisingly, start stalling, and thinking of excuses to say no. Before an answer can be given, Reese - resurrected by Khoru, enters the room and recognises you.

The cultists allow Reese to have his revenge - you fight one on one. Unable to actually kill Reese, you injure him enough to stun him and make an escape...

Note that there are currently gaps in the plot. You may be thinking "how the hell did my character know that" or something similar. You may want to point it out to me, but I might already know it

Gathering the weapons

During your infiltration of the cultist's base, you notice that Viyna and Gurdryn keep their weapons in the base.
Talk to Xenia and she will recommend finding or creating replicas of the two weapons, then sneaking back into the base and switching them with their originals

Viyna's bow
Requirements
14 hunter
23 woodcutting
34 fletching

Xenia recommends you track Viyna's father down. After all, since he previously owned the bow, he might know how it was made
Being a hunter, Xenia suggests you search the forests north of Varrock for him
And, sure enough, if you do, you'll find a hunter named Ryus, just west of the sawmill. He is a hostile man and speaks mostly with the growled, angry facial animation
Talk to him for the following dialogue...
You: "Excuse me"
Ryus: "What?"
Y: "Are you Viyna's step father"
R: "Who's asking"
Y: "My name is *character's name* and I need a replica of her bow"
R: "Sounds like another nosey lowlife after a piece of gossip. Leave me alone"
You then have three options
The first option will successfully move the conversation forward:
Y:"Ok, truth is Viyna's joined a Zamorackian cult and I need a replica of her bow to undo the ritual she's undergone and kill her"
R: