Meet Sul-Matuul from
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
I'm sure this isn't as involved or multi-faceted as some of the other quests listed here, but within the context of Morrowind it's a huge moment for the player as they finally delve into the "unknown world" of the main quest's take on the Hero's Journey format. After spending spending a few hours doing grunt work for the Blades; minor dungeon crawls as favours, collecting reports from informants and soaking in the local culture, it's finally revealed to the player
why they've been doing this and what their purpose on Vvardenfell is actually supposed to be. The Emperor believes that the player fulfills the conditions of a local prophecy (that of the Nerevarine), and that it may be the key to solving an impending crisis in the province. Therefore, the player is being sent to meet with the hero cult who champion this prophecy, Sul-Matuul of the Urshilaku, one of the four nomadic Ashlander tribes who inhabit Vvardenfell's remote wastelands.
It really just encapsulates what makes Morrowind special. The trek out to the Urshilaku Camp is fairly significant, either requiring the player to traverse a lengthy foyada (one of the in-land channels created by the eruption of Red Mountain, the island's volcano) which leads into a trek through the ash wastes, or they can choose to circumvent this through a combination of Water Walking and Levitation magic which would take them along the island's northern coast. Once the player finds the camp, it's unfortunately not as simple as just talking to the heads of the cult - Ashlanders have strict customs and are distrustful of, if not outright hostile towards, foreigners. This being the case, the player is required to revert to their knowledge or notes about local culture. They've learned in previous quests that Ashlanders have strict gift-giving customs, and are also prone to ritual challenges and fights to the death if offended. You have a few options here. Speak to any of the Ashlanders wandering the camp and they will reveal that the Urshilaku are not a proud people, and you can convince them with a "thoughtful gift" of Gold, what Westerners call a bribe. Alternatively, you can display humility and go rummaging for some Trama Roots, plants which grow in the Ashlands and have minor magic properties, making them useful in the Wise Women's herbal remedies. Finally, some are simply happy to have food: offer them some Kwama Eggs, part of the staple diet of settled people on Vvardenfell, but something which is not readily available to the Ashlanders due to their Nomadic lifestyle.
Once you have any of these, possibly more than once depending on how likeable your character is, the Ashlanders will instruct you to meet Zabamund, Sul-Matuul's second, if you wish to discuss the Nerevarine Prophecies. Speaking to Zabamund, you must once again convince him at a very basic level to even bother speaking with you - the recommendation from an Ashlander has only ensured that he would not slaughter you for entering his yurt. A bribe is the easiest thing, although you can also convince him to listen with your Speechcraft skill, or any matter of magical thing which makes you more likeable - a potion or an enchanted item which raises your Personality stat, a spell from the Restoration school which does the same thing, or a Charm spell from the Illusion school which temporarily makes the target like you more. Either way, Zabamund will allow you to meet with Sul-Matuul but only under certain conditions:
- Offer to fight a duel to the death. As long as the player is above Level 6, Zabamund will commend their courage and allow them to pass without a fight, acknowledging that it would potentially end poorly for him.
- Explain all that you have learnt about the Nerevarine Prophecies and the looming crisis, requiring the player to have a Speechcraft skill higher than 30.
- Boast of your deeds - this requires the player to have a Speechcraft of 30 or more in order to bluff, or a Reptuation stat of 20 or more, making them famous enough that even Ashlanders have caught wind of their heroic actions.
- Offer tribute of 200 Gold. After all, the Urshilaku are not a proud people.
Finally, the player can meet the head of the Urshilaku without simply having their head chopped off for entering his yurt without permission. Naturally, Sul-Matuul is distrustful of your intentions upon meeting. You are a foreigner, after all. He decides that to speak about the prophecies, the player must pass an Initiation Rite. They must travel a short distance from the camp, to the Urshilkau's Burial Caverns, and retrieve a magical bow from the wraith of his father, Sul-Senipul.
The Urshilaku Burial Caverns are a great dungeon, filled with fantastic loot that the player likely won't have come close to finding the quality of so far in their journeys, an optional mini-boss guarding extra treasure for those who are paying close attention and exploring every nook and cranny, and some cool enchanted items that will show the player just how powerful magic can be if they were still having any doubts. However, some of this loot will require magic to reach, and the dungeon itself is easier to traverse if the player is capable of Water Walking, Water Breathing, Levitation and has something to light their way; Night Eye and Light spells/potions/scrolls, or just some good old-fashioned Torches. In short, it requires the player to be prepared. There are 7 different sections and 23 enemies within. If the player explores it fully, they will come out perhaps a bit bruised and battered, and perhaps they won't have a single Restore Health potion left. However, they will also have been rewarded with their first pieces of high-end Glass and Ebony armour, a Wizard's Staff, and the unique Glass Claymore, Magebane. This is all in addition to the other miscellaneous, less notable but still valuable loot, contained within. Probably the only downside to the dungeon is that the Wraith of Sul-Senipul isn't much of a boss fight. He has a decent amount of health, but he doesn't do too much damage, especially if the player has discovered and equipped the aforementioned high-end gear.
You return to Sul-Matuul and are finally permitted to speak with the tribe's Wise Woman, Nibani Maesa. This is an incredibly lengthy section of dialogue, to the point where she even offers to just cut to the chase and answer your question of "Do I fulfill the Nerevarine Prophecies", although exploring all of her unique dialogue is well worth it to gain a deeper understanding of the world and your place in it. The answer to your question isn't a simple one though. You are not the Nerevarine, but you maybe become him in future. Prophecy is a tricky thing, and lots of people can meet the basic conditions of one - several have come before you, having met those same basic conditions, and wound up dead while trying to fulfill the rest. For the time being, Nibani offers you some written versions of the prophecies, and you decide to finally make your way back to civilisation in order to report to your superior.
That's a long write-up for something that essentially amounts to "walk through a wasteland for a little bit, talk to some blue-skinned elves, raid a dungeon" but as I said at the beginning of the post, this quest really encapsulates what makes Morrowind special. The lonely trek through a barren, hostile wasteland. The freeform approach to dialogue and convincing people which allows the player to use potentially five different skills (Speechcraft, Illusion, Alchemy, Enchant, Restoration) to convince people due to the interplay of various skills, as well as the rare instance of the vanilla game actually offering skill checks in dialogue - something really only seen in the Main Quest and Imperial Cult questline, as they were both designed by Ken Rolston. The lengthy dungeon crawl full of handplaced loot, always so exciting to a first time player and usually a
huge jump in their power level. And finally, the story and dialogue, steeped in prophecy and metaphysics, while simultaneously dealing with mundane problems and concerns. You can't get somebody to reveal the intimate details of a prophecy their people have believed in for hundreds of years if you can't even convince them to give your the time of day. It really just hits every note and contains a little piece of every aspect that makes the game so special.
