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Pathfinder: Kingmaker Codex Quest Ideas

ColCol

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
1,731
In a new idea: we can try to subvert the classic mission of killing rats in the basement and trying to play with it somehow.

So like some tavern owner asks you to kill the rats in his basement but when you go down there if you pass a wisdom check you find that they aren't rats, they're mini people painted to look like rats and if you talk to them the pygmies are like "we're travelers this guy kidnapped us and now he sends people down here to squash us every so often and we can't get out" so you confront the tavern owner but it turns out he's just a rat with really high charisma that's been passing himself off as a human tavern owner because one day some group of fledgling adventurers came down to the basement of the tavern he used to live at and murdered his whole family and the mage hit him with a spell that went wrong and made him all intelligent-like so this super smart rat decided he was gonna amass a ton of shrinking potion and occasionally spike people's drinks with it so he can drop them in his basement and make them feel the pain he felt when some random destiny's child adventurer and his ragtag group of pals came down and fucked up his whole life.


Nah, how about they're just rats who want pay you to kill a normal tavern owner.
 

mogwaimon

Magister
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
1,079
In a new idea: we can try to subvert the classic mission of killing rats in the basement and trying to play with it somehow.

So like some tavern owner asks you to kill the rats in his basement but when you go down there if you pass a wisdom check you find that they aren't rats, they're mini people painted to look like rats and if you talk to them the pygmies are like "we're travelers this guy kidnapped us and now he sends people down here to squash us every so often and we can't get out" so you confront the tavern owner but it turns out he's just a rat with really high charisma that's been passing himself off as a human tavern owner because one day some group of fledgling adventurers came down to the basement of the tavern he used to live at and murdered his whole family and the mage hit him with a spell that went wrong and made him all intelligent-like so this super smart rat decided he was gonna amass a ton of shrinking potion and occasionally spike people's drinks with it so he can drop them in his basement and make them feel the pain he felt when some random destiny's child adventurer and his ragtag group of pals came down and fucked up his whole life.


Nah, how about they're just rats who want pay you to kill a normal tavern owner.

That's too normal. I thought we were going for like, Flex Mentallo-type acid dream deconstruction, not a simple role reversal.
 

Shin

Cipher
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
677
I guess the Codex would be some kind of cult, debating the nature of the universe and whatnot. Their dogmas run deep and they are a very conservative bunch, they won't even speak to non-human or female party members! When joining the cult you'd get a tattoo that marks the day you were initiated; that also seems to be playing a large part in their hierarchy. Their discussions often involve insulting and degrading each other while they're never seem to be resolving anything or get any new insights. You get the invitation to join them and take part in their high quality discussions as long as you can answer some prestigious questions (which you can always answer with kingcomrade).

After joining up you get access to an inner shrine where you find the holy Codex. The book speaks to you and offers the wisdom of its pages to you. All you have to do in return is retrieve the sacred monocle which was apparently stolen by a bunch of hippy elves who live to the north. After travelling there you get the choice to either start the slaughter from some kind of ambush or approach and talk to them. If you talk to them and enter their camp they seem like they're all very nice guys; their discussions are milder, they are very open minded and even women are accepted in their group. Their leader seems to be an old man wearing a monocle and you ask him about it. This makes him suspicious of you and he asks if you've been send by the Codex; if you answer truthfully he tells you that you are not the first ones they've send; there have been dozens over the years. The monocle has always been his; the Codex only seeks to stir up chaos. Now you get the choice to either believe his story and go back empty handed or take his monocle by force/persuasion check.

-When you get back to the Codex empty handed they'll initiate combat with you. All pretty high level guys but with one glaring flaw; they all move in turns, making the combat pretty easy. After defeating them you grab the Codex tome from the inner shrine and find out its pages are empty; no wisdom there!
-If you come back with the monocle you are praised by the cult members who present you with a parrot. The Codex itself laughs at your tale of your slaughter and opens up himself. revealing blank pages. He does award you with the monocle though since a book with a monocle would look ridiculous.
 

megidolaon

Kyoto Cybernetics
Developer
Joined
May 29, 2016
Messages
86
Location
Fat Trout Trailer Park
400 years ago a brutal, violent, charismatic elven pirate/bandit/crime lord faked his own death in a violent confrontation, falling to 100 poisoned crossbow bolts of top marksman bounty hunters... who actually killed an impeccably perfect clockwork lookalike of him in a rather clever counter-ruse. The actual elf-capo, for all these centuries, has actually been keeping a very low profile in hiding ever since.

But buried with his fake clockwork body, in a coffin unopenable by conventional means, was ... I don't know, something. You do some other quest where you open this mysterious coffin... you don't know whose coffin it is, it's just in the cemetery and unusually ornate compared to all other coffins you see in the city's tombs. But after some whatever-mini-quest to open that coffin, once you nab that valuable item (maybe it's a jewel of immense magical power he stole, or a some romantic bullshit about a rose he intended for a woman he once loved, whatever, it's a MacGuffin)... but it was buried with his fake body when the casket was closed -- it was a staged funeral publicly visible by the townsfolk to make his fake death seem even more legitimate and get rid of any remaining grudges and/or law enforcement heat.

But this REAL violent crimelord, from many lands away, telepathically senses the magical seal on his bogus coffin opening when you crack it open. He wants that HIGHLY_VALUABLE_MACGUFFIN that is rightfully his (even if he probably stole it long ago), and he comes out of hiding along with three very unscrupulous right-hand men to track you down and reclaim the HIGHLY_VALUABLE_MACGUFFIN.

Maybe for some extra conflict, the gnome who made the clockwork is still pissed off and wants his payment... with interest. (But how long do gnomes live in Pathfinder?) Whoever finally gets to keep the HIGHLY_VALUABLE_MACGUFFIN, be it you or the kingpin (if you choose to, or are coerced into, returning it to him), will have to deal with his wrath afterwards.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,083
Location
Bulgaria
Ok i will give it a try,hope i am repeating someone else.

You come by a twenty year war between two fairy princesses fighting over the magical codex. One of them will live in a hobbit hole aka the bunker and it will be proud owner of the Grimoire,a blank book needed to create the almighty codex. Her name will be Cleve the cleaver crow eater extraordinary,a nice axe and shield type of gal.

On the other side you will meat the troll fairy that posses the ring that could change the Grimoire in to the codex. She will be cavalier enemy,riding a nice battle cow or what ever they have as a model and it is close to it,frog also will do the job. Her name will be Grog the Thickest of them all decimator of sense!

You will do a few back and forth objectives,chose a side, defeat the enemy in combat or wit, use the two items to create the codex and in the winner will ascend in to the fields of Arcanus.

Cleve's reward will be the amulet of cancer immunity that will give you some kind of resistance or immunity.
Grog will give you the ring of endless alts,giving you ability of mass illusion (or something similar) once per day.

Also you will be able to kill both fuckers and get the sword of ELE X that will unlock hardcore difficulty and double the XP!

PS:They should look ridiculous,like bearded fairies in colourful battle armour.
 
Last edited:

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
Just have an army of trolls lead by Grog. They are attacking a village but they just keep arguing with the villagers. They are mad because the villagers won't attack them properly "one at a time" while "taking turns." Instead they attack all at once but then suddenly stop to "figure out their tactics." All the trolls should complain that "real fights are turn based" and grumble about being killed in real time. Grog should have several barks that play whenever the player pauses the game. "Oh pausing again? Pfft, casuals." "Oh better pause, spell casting is hard." "Fine, pause, I'll wait." Etc.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Since Pitax is one of the locations they're light on quests for, how about there are two groups of artists vying for more influence under the thumb of that Irovetti guy, one group is composed of swarthy-looking individuals who are abrasive and brash and the other are like hipsters or people who puff themselves up but don't really got 'it'. We'll call these the 'Codex' and the 'Watch' groups, respectively, for the purposes of this post, but the names shouldn't really come up during play.

If you come to these groups, they each explain their case in their own ways, and you find that they're trying to come up with something that would curry favor with Irovetti so he treats them better/doesn't murder them/etc. At this point you can...

1.) Make suggestions through dialogue on what they should create. A few non-skill check options that demonstrate a base understanding of art but result in nothing, along with one or two skill-check options that bring the quest to an end but provide middling rewards and end up with both groups dead next time you go through the area

Or you can talk to more of the groups, and you'll hear members of both groups talking about a reclusive artist who has been working on the 'next big thing' for decades. The only reason Irovetti hasn't slain this individual yet is because his tomfoolery amuses him so. So you can find some hidden bunker on the outskirts of the city where you find a Cleve pastiche, and you can talk to him to find out that his artwork is this massive piece of architecture and light-shows that he's essentially finished, but the creation of the artwork has attracted a corrupting influence that is preventing him from putting on the final touches and he's been warring with it for years but can't win and is too proud to ask for help.

At this point you can...

1.) Persuade him through dialogue to allow you to help

2.) Sneak into his bunker while he's asleep, steal his development diary, and learn how to perform the magic that will allow you to enter and combat the 'micro-issues' on your own.

3.) Tell one of the factions where Cleve is. They will raid his bunker and present his art as their own to Irovetti. This results in the player getting no rewards, since each group weasels out of paying the player under the rationale that no one would believe them, as well as stories popping up of people acting strange after visiting the bunker to see the art. Eventually results in some of the tournament contenders gaining buffs or more minions from the corruption of the micro-issues.

If you help Cleve, you enter the artwork and find a bunch of minor demons that keep respawning as the party kills them. The only way to stop them is to find a golden baby in the area and hang it from the top of the architecture. The radiance of the golden baby banishes the 'micro-issues' as well as adds the finishing touches to the artwork, which shrinks it from its gargantuan size to a tiny hand-held marvel of sculpture. This leads to the penultimate branch of the quest.

1.) If you persuaded Cleve to accept your help, he thanks you and gives you a pretty decent magical item as a reward. You can stop here if you'd like, and if you let seven hours pass in-game time he goes to Irovetti with the artwork himself. This results in the hipster group being killed for expressing distaste with the artwork while the swarthy individuals end up trying to craft their own knockoffs and failing, but still surviving.

2.) If you snuck into the artwork and managed to get out of it before daybreak/still at night while Cleve is asleep, when it's day he finds that the micro-issues have mysteriously disappeared. This results in an outcome similar to option 1, except you don't get the magical item and Cleve doesn't acknowledge your assistance at all, thinking he did it all himself.

3.) If you snuck into the artwork and come out during the day while Cleve is awake, he gets pissed and attacks you. He's got Neanderthal strength so it's a tough fight but not extremely difficult. This result gives you the magical item from option 1 since you can loot it off his corpse, but leaves you with the enlarged non-portable artwork. You can still shrink it, but you need a wizard or someone with a high Lore skill to pass a check to do so.

Note that you can also just kill Cleve when you find him, which results in a branch similar to option 3, where you can still squash the micro-issues and retrieve the artwork. If the micro-issues are not squashed before miniaturization, passing the art to any of the interested parties will result in the corruption angle triggering.

If you can steal or otherwise retrieve the miniaturized artwork before Cleve unveils it to the world...

1.) Pass it to the Watch. They give you a really great magical item in return, and they make their own alterations to the artwork to 'sand down the rough edges'. Due to this, some of the people in Pitax start to become less-monocled as a result, so you see people acting like morons since the bar has been lowered. In addition, the Codex starts to send the player a LOT of hate-mail, with some members ambushing the party as they roam the streets of Pitax. These ambushes have few people, but each individual is tough which can be a difficult encounter.

2.) Pass it to the Codex. This also results in a great magical item geared toward a different playstyle. They recognize the artwork for what it is and submit it with no alterations. Dialogue around town becomes far more critical of everyone in a way that raises good points but is rather vulgar and uncouth. The Watch sends a single threatening note, with vague wording and a snobby attitude. The player also gets ambushed around town, but these encounters rely on numbers and the weight of unwashed masses rather than individual strength.

3.) Pass it to Irovetti on your own account, through an intermediary. This results in a hefty reward of gold as well as Irovetti's favor, giving the player an edge in the tournament somehow. In addition, both the Watch and the Codex refrain from attacking you out of fear of invoking Irovetti's wrath; instead you end up getting gaggles of fans greeting you at every turn as well as a stalker fan who follows you around town for a few screens singing your praises. However, if you've left Cleve alive he now blames you for stealing his artwork and ambushes you much later on in the game, having pursued you from Pitax. Being prepared for this encounter, he brings along ?_SQUIRRELS_? and ?_RUDECHAPS_? to help him get revenge.

It's kind of a lame idea but maybe it could work?

I like this one. Makes good use of the game's setting. I came up with a quest that's loosely inspired by it.

Quest: The Impatient Pirates of Pitax

Near the docks in Pitax's harbor district is a group of river pirates/privateers who make a living finding and delivering valuable artworks to Irovetti. They're currently after the prized grimoire of the reclusive wizard-artist Blackmoor, whose pages are said to be inscribed with beautiful calligraphy from a more classical age. Blackmoor, who has an uneasy and occasionally hostile relationship with the pirates, promised to meet them in Pitax many days ago, but he's yet to show up and the crew is becoming restless.

When the player character arrives in the area, some of the rank-and-file crewmembers have gotten drunk, and are flinging dung at each other in the street, vandalizing property and causing a commotion. Upon seeing the player, some of them will become aggressive and you will have the option to discipline them, possibly putting some or all of them down in the process. The surviving pirates will get the picture and join the rest of their crewmates at the nearest tavern.

The easy-going Captain Martin, leader of the pirates, sees value in allowing his men to have their fun, and will be politely thankful but not overly thrilled by your actions - especially if you killed too many of them. But his second-in-command, the industrious but rather stiff First Mate Weller, will be impressed. He's frustrated with the current state of affairs and increasingly embarrassed by the crew's behavior, thinking it's preventing them from establishing contacts with more respected artists and becoming legitimate art merchants. The Captain of course does not approve of such aspirations, and most of the crew aren't big fans of Weller either - although after so many days in port doing nothing, some of them might think he has a point.

Weller will subtly encourage the player to go to the tavern and sway the crew's minds in his favour. Inside the tavern, the pirates are causing a ruckus, shouting obscenities and harassing the waitresses as the helpless tavernkeeper looks on. From here there are a number of options. A persuasive player might be able to convince the pirates to align with the First Mate's way of thinking, although he will probably have to put down the most unruly ones first. This might result in a new status quo or even a full-blown revolt against Martin and his other officers, after which the pirates will sail away. The more likely outcome, however, is that the crew will rebuff the player, which may or may not end in a fight.

If the Captain learns about Weller's plans at any time during these events, he will chastise him for interfering with the crew's behavior inside the tavern, where they aren't really bothering anybody. The frustrated Weller will probably end up leaving or being thrown off the crew, and will go off to pursue his own artistic career. If the player has killed many of the crew members in the tavern, this situation may also end up as a full-on battle against Martin and the officers.

But there is another path here. Unbeknownst to most of the crew, one of their members, Blutmond, is a double agent and disciple of Blackmoor. Sitting in the corner of the tavern, Blutmond is a loner and a thoroughly unpleasant and hedonic individual. He won't take well to lawful characters who attempted to instill discipline in the crew, but a persuasive player character or one with the right sort of reputation might be able to get him to reveal his connection to Blackmoor, and the location of Blackmoor's secret hideout in the wilderness.

Blackmoor's hideout is a small bunker-like complex burrowed into the ground. Blutmond will tell you how to find it and perhaps give you a means for opening its metallic door, but it may be possible for a highly skilled player to find and enter the bunker himself without ever visiting Pitax at all. Inside the bunker, the eccentric Blackmoor is feverishly working on his grimoire, which it turns out he's never actually completed. He's busy drawing new pages, scrapping existing ones and fixing innumerable minor errors in his calligraphy, constantly discovering new ones in the process. Blackmoor is a large man in his 50s, and despite these setbacks he is full of bluster and utterly egomaniacal. His bunker is chock full of old-fashioned magical equipment and various enchanted nutritional supplements. Leaking pipes in the walls emit steaming vapor.

The surprised Blackmoor, if persuaded not to attack the player on sight, will assure him that the grimoire is on schedule and will be complete any day now, since "only a few small issues remain". Only a very talented, persuasive or reputable character will be able to convince him otherwise. You might be able to persuade him to hand over the grimoire as is, or hardest of all, help him complete it. In the latter case, after the grimoire is finally complete, the demon Siroket and his minions, old enemies of Blackmoor from years long past, will appear in the bunker and claim to be its true owners. The player will have to help fight them off. Of course, instead of all this he can also just kill Blackmoor and take the grimoire. Blackmoor is quite powerful and will be aided by his small army of rat familiars (who he calls squirrels for some reason).

Taking the grimoire back to Pitax, the player will be able to hand it to the pirates, who will in turn hand it over to Irovetti before sailing off. It may also be possible to hand it to Irovetti yourself, at which point the pirates may just leave in frustration. They will not particularly care if Blackmoor is dead, with even Blutmond saying the old man probably had it coming. Irovetti will initially be impressed by the grimoire regardless of whether it's complete, but later he may begin to notice the many flaws in an unfinished grimoire, with unpredictable consequences. Lastly, the player could also opt to keep the grimoire for himself. It can have some sort of powerful magical effect, moreso if it's been completed.

At this point the player is rewarded and the quest is over, although it would be nice if there were longer-term consequences in the form of events at the player's stronghold, depending on your choices during the quest.

Here are some extra details that you can use:

Captain Martin is rumored to be a Lord from a land far to the south. Cocky and confident, and easy-going to the point of laziness, but when he gets mad watch out.

First Mate Weller is from Rostland in Brevoy. Weller isn't actually his real name, but everybody has gotten used to it and they don't really care anymore. If you can, find a way to use the word "decadent" or "decadence" in one of his key dialogues. For example, he could bemoan that we live in a decadent age.

Properly unlocking the door to Blackmoor's bunker could require speaking a password, given to you by Blutmond. "Golden Baby", perhaps.

For most of the quest, the grimoire will be untitled and simply referred to as Blackmoor's grimoire, but when you get it, the item can be labelled "Exemplar's Grimoire".

Oh, and the name of the pirate's ship? I guess you could call it the Codex or the Codexia or something.

We can supply additional details as necessary.
 
Last edited:

mogwaimon

Magister
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
1,079
Since Pitax is one of the locations they're light on quests for, how about there are two groups of artists vying for more influence under the thumb of that Irovetti guy, one group is composed of swarthy-looking individuals who are abrasive and brash and the other are like hipsters or people who puff themselves up but don't really got 'it'. We'll call these the 'Codex' and the 'Watch' groups, respectively, for the purposes of this post, but the names shouldn't really come up during play.

If you come to these groups, they each explain their case in their own ways, and you find that they're trying to come up with something that would curry favor with Irovetti so he treats them better/doesn't murder them/etc. At this point you can...

1.) Make suggestions through dialogue on what they should create. A few non-skill check options that demonstrate a base understanding of art but result in nothing, along with one or two skill-check options that bring the quest to an end but provide middling rewards and end up with both groups dead next time you go through the area

Or you can talk to more of the groups, and you'll hear members of both groups talking about a reclusive artist who has been working on the 'next big thing' for decades. The only reason Irovetti hasn't slain this individual yet is because his tomfoolery amuses him so. So you can find some hidden bunker on the outskirts of the city where you find a Cleve pastiche, and you can talk to him to find out that his artwork is this massive piece of architecture and light-shows that he's essentially finished, but the creation of the artwork has attracted a corrupting influence that is preventing him from putting on the final touches and he's been warring with it for years but can't win and is too proud to ask for help.

At this point you can...

1.) Persuade him through dialogue to allow you to help

2.) Sneak into his bunker while he's asleep, steal his development diary, and learn how to perform the magic that will allow you to enter and combat the 'micro-issues' on your own.

3.) Tell one of the factions where Cleve is. They will raid his bunker and present his art as their own to Irovetti. This results in the player getting no rewards, since each group weasels out of paying the player under the rationale that no one would believe them, as well as stories popping up of people acting strange after visiting the bunker to see the art. Eventually results in some of the tournament contenders gaining buffs or more minions from the corruption of the micro-issues.

If you help Cleve, you enter the artwork and find a bunch of minor demons that keep respawning as the party kills them. The only way to stop them is to find a golden baby in the area and hang it from the top of the architecture. The radiance of the golden baby banishes the 'micro-issues' as well as adds the finishing touches to the artwork, which shrinks it from its gargantuan size to a tiny hand-held marvel of sculpture. This leads to the penultimate branch of the quest.

1.) If you persuaded Cleve to accept your help, he thanks you and gives you a pretty decent magical item as a reward. You can stop here if you'd like, and if you let seven hours pass in-game time he goes to Irovetti with the artwork himself. This results in the hipster group being killed for expressing distaste with the artwork while the swarthy individuals end up trying to craft their own knockoffs and failing, but still surviving.

2.) If you snuck into the artwork and managed to get out of it before daybreak/still at night while Cleve is asleep, when it's day he finds that the micro-issues have mysteriously disappeared. This results in an outcome similar to option 1, except you don't get the magical item and Cleve doesn't acknowledge your assistance at all, thinking he did it all himself.

3.) If you snuck into the artwork and come out during the day while Cleve is awake, he gets pissed and attacks you. He's got Neanderthal strength so it's a tough fight but not extremely difficult. This result gives you the magical item from option 1 since you can loot it off his corpse, but leaves you with the enlarged non-portable artwork. You can still shrink it, but you need a wizard or someone with a high Lore skill to pass a check to do so.

Note that you can also just kill Cleve when you find him, which results in a branch similar to option 3, where you can still squash the micro-issues and retrieve the artwork. If the micro-issues are not squashed before miniaturization, passing the art to any of the interested parties will result in the corruption angle triggering.

If you can steal or otherwise retrieve the miniaturized artwork before Cleve unveils it to the world...

1.) Pass it to the Watch. They give you a really great magical item in return, and they make their own alterations to the artwork to 'sand down the rough edges'. Due to this, some of the people in Pitax start to become less-monocled as a result, so you see people acting like morons since the bar has been lowered. In addition, the Codex starts to send the player a LOT of hate-mail, with some members ambushing the party as they roam the streets of Pitax. These ambushes have few people, but each individual is tough which can be a difficult encounter.

2.) Pass it to the Codex. This also results in a great magical item geared toward a different playstyle. They recognize the artwork for what it is and submit it with no alterations. Dialogue around town becomes far more critical of everyone in a way that raises good points but is rather vulgar and uncouth. The Watch sends a single threatening note, with vague wording and a snobby attitude. The player also gets ambushed around town, but these encounters rely on numbers and the weight of unwashed masses rather than individual strength.

3.) Pass it to Irovetti on your own account, through an intermediary. This results in a hefty reward of gold as well as Irovetti's favor, giving the player an edge in the tournament somehow. In addition, both the Watch and the Codex refrain from attacking you out of fear of invoking Irovetti's wrath; instead you end up getting gaggles of fans greeting you at every turn as well as a stalker fan who follows you around town for a few screens singing your praises. However, if you've left Cleve alive he now blames you for stealing his artwork and ambushes you much later on in the game, having pursued you from Pitax. Being prepared for this encounter, he brings along ?_SQUIRRELS_? and ?_RUDECHAPS_? to help him get revenge.

It's kind of a lame idea but maybe it could work?

I like this one. Makes good use of the game's setting. I came up with a quest that's loosely inspired by it.

Near the docks in Pitax's harbor district is a group of river pirates/privateers who make a living finding and delivering valuable artworks to Irovetti. They're currently after the prized grimoire of the reclusive wizard-artist Blackmoor, whose pages are said to be inscribed with beautiful calligraphy from a more classical age. Blackmoor, who has an uneasy and occasionally hostile relationship with the pirates, promised to meet them in Pitax many days ago, but he's yet to show up and the crew is becoming restless.

When the player character arrives in the area, some of the rank-and-file crewmembers have gotten drunk, and are flinging dung at each other in the streets and causing a commotion. Upon seeing the player, some of them will become aggressive and you will have the option to discipline them, possibly putting some or all of them down in the process. The surviving pirates will get the picture and join the rest of their crewmates at the nearest tavern.

The easy-going Captain Martin, leader of the pirates, sees value in allowing his men to have their fun, and will be politely thankful but not overly thrilled by your actions - especially if you killed too many of them. But his second-in-command, the industrious but rather stiff First Mate Weller, will be impressed. He's frustrated with the current state of affairs and increasingly embarrassed by the crew's behavior, thinking it's preventing them from establishing contacts with more respected artists and becoming legitimate art merchants. The Captain of course does not approve of such aspirations, and most of the crew aren't big fans of Weller either - although after so many days in port doing nothing, some of them might think he has a point.

Weller will subtly encourage the player to go to the tavern and sway the crew's minds in his favour. Inside the tavern, the pirates are causing an even bigger ruckus than they were outside. From here there are a number of options. A persuasive player might be able to convince the pirates to align with the First Mate, although he will probably have to put down the most unruly ones first. This might result in a new status quo or even a full-blown revolt against Martin and his other officers, after which the pirates will sail away. The more likely outcome, however, is that the crew will rebuff the player, which may or may not end in a fight.

If the Captain learns about Weller's plans at any time during these events, he will chastise him for interfering with the crew's behavior inside the tavern, where they aren't really bothering anybody. The frustrated Weller will probably end up leaving or being thrown off the crew, and will go off to pursue his own artistic career. If the player has killed many of the crew members in the tavern, this situation can also end up as a full-on battle against Martin and the officers.

But there is another path here. Unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, one of their members, Blutmond, is a double agent and disciple of Blackmoor. Sitting in the corner of the tavern, Blutmond is a loner and a thoroughly unpleasant and hedonic individual. He won't take well to lawful characters who attempted to instill discipline in the crew, but a persuasive player character with the right sort of reputation might be able to get him to reveal his connection to Blackmoor, and the location of Blackmoor's secret hideout in the wilderness.

Blackmoor's hideout is a small bunker-like complex burrowed into the ground. Blutmond will tell you how to find it and perhaps give you the means of opening it, but it may be possible for a highly skilled player to find it himself without ever visiting Pitax at all. Inside the bunker, the eccentric Blackmoor is feverishly working on his grimoire, which it turns out he's never actually completed. He's busy drawing new pages, scrapping existing ones and fixing innumerable minor errors in his calligraphy, constantly discovering new ones in the process. Blackmoor is a large man in his 50s or early 60s, and despite these setbacks he is full of bluster and utterly egomaniacal. His bunker is chock full of old-fashioned magical equipment and various enchanted nutritional supplements.

The surprised Blackmoor, if persuaded not to attack the player on sight, will assure him that the grimoire is on schedule and will be complete any day now, since "only a few small issues remain". Only a very talented and persuasive character will be able to convince him otherwise. You might be able to get him to hand over the grimoire as is, or hardest of all, help him complete it. In the latter case, after the grimoire is finally complete, the demon Siroket and his minions, old enemies of Blackmoor from years long past, will appear in the bunker and claim to be its true owners. The player will have to help fight them off. Of course, instead of all this he can also just kill Blackmoor, who is quite powerful and will be aided by his small army of rat familiars (who he calls squirrels for some reason).

Taking the grimoire back to Pitax, the player will be able to hand it to the pirates, who will in turn hand it over to Irovetti before sailing off. It may also be possible to hand it to Irovetti yourself, at which point the pirates may just leave in frustration. They will not particularly care if Blackmoor is alive or dead, with even Blutmond saying the old man probably had it coming. Irovetti will initially impressed by the grimoire regardless of whether it's complete, but later he may begin to notice the many flaws in an unfinished grimoire, with unpredictable consequences. Lastly, the player could also opt to keep the grimoire for himself, and it can have some sort of powerful magical effect.

At this point the quest is over, although it would be nice if there were longer-term consequences in the form of events at the player's stronghold, depending on your choices during the quest. Oh, and the name of the pirate's ship? I guess you could call it the Codex. We can supply additional details as necessary.

Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I like it. I would have just left a brofist to say so, as well as a form of thanks, but it'll be some time yet before I can.
 

Efe

Erudite
Joined
Dec 27, 2015
Messages
2,597
so you missed the reference entirely?
its too long to read in a day but there is a recap video by some non codexer
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
But there is another path here. Unbeknownst to most of the crew, one of their members, Blutmond, is a double agent and disciple of Blackmoor. Sitting in the corner of the tavern, Blutmond is a loner and a thoroughly unpleasant and hedonic individual.

Having not previously read this thread, gotta admit, I was pleasantly surprised upon visiting the pirate tavern this morning. Thanks, guys. :hero:
 

Atlantico

unida e indivisible
Patron
Undisputed Queen of Faggotry Vatnik In My Safe Space
Joined
Sep 7, 2015
Messages
14,473
Location
Midgard
Make the Codex Great Again!
But there is another path here. Unbeknownst to most of the crew, one of their members, Blutmond, is a double agent and disciple of Blackmoor. Sitting in the corner of the tavern, Blutmond is a loner and a thoroughly unpleasant and hedonic individual.

Having not previously read this thread, gotta admit, I was pleasantly surprised upon visiting the pirate tavern this morning. Thanks, guys. :hero:

I guess he's a retarded individual as well.

I hope they really make it an accurate representation.
 

EdgyRightWinger

Educated
Patron
Joined
Jun 29, 2022
Messages
154
Infinitron I'm still in act 2 .. I spent like 200 hours in the stand alone roguelike DLC.
 

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