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Mission Design
Quest Title : The Shadow over the Nursery
Theme
The upcoming quest will explore several themes including twisted love, confusion and mystery. Most notably, the quest will confront players with the difficult choice of having to select between dreadful outcomes. These themes are well-suited to Lovecrafitan horror and can be seamlessly integrated into the level design and mechanics.
For instance, the quest will feature a warped cemetery level in which the environment is designed to convey a sense of claustrophobia and confusion through its convoluted pathways and dim lighting. As the player descends deeper into the crypt, we should also try to elicit the feeling of a slow descent into madness as the environment becomes more decrepit, otherworldly and unwholesome.
Setting : 1930s New York City with an Eldritch twist
Quest Overview
This quest centres around the mystery of a grieving mother and her missing child, who was taken by some supernatural force. To begin the quest, players must approach the desperate mother, who is clawing at a locked cemetery gate while sobbing and wailing loudly about her lost infant.
Upon speaking with the mother, players will discover that her newborn child was taken by an invisible force from her house, and she claims that it floated out through the window. The mother insists that her child’s disappearance is linked to the decrepit cemetery, for she had discovered her newborn’s ribbon torn upon its gates. The player is then tasked with recovering the missing child by exploring the cemetery and confronting an Eldritch cult who plan to use the infant in their rituals.
A key aspect of the quest is to mislead players into believing that the infant is a normal human baby, when in fact it is later revealed to be a Great Being. Throughout the quest, observant players will notice subtle hints that something is amiss, and these include:
● That the window grating is too narrow for a normal human infant to pass through.
●The mother’s skin and sclera have a hint of thin black veins that are linked to her otherworldly labour.
● The mother will ignore and evade questions regarding the infant’s father, such as whether the
father is also looking for their child.
● The mother’s bed is stained with an unnatural dark afterbirth, and possibly even the placenta is stored somewhere within her house. In order to make the connection to the Great Beings more challenging, these clues must be subtle and alien, and should not be easily linked with the birth of the infant.
● The presence of a cultist book hidden away in the mother’s house, linking her to the Crypt cult.
● Throughout the crypt, players will come across several cult lairs and hidden stashes containing notes and books about the Great being they worship, as well as plans for their rituals.
To navigate the maze-like intricate crypt system, the player will have to solve puzzles and riddles to advance to the deeper levels of the cultist lair. The environment becomes increasingly twisted and decrepit as the player descends, mirroring their journey into the ‘madness’ of the cult.
The quest’s essential element is deception, and it is crucial to mislead the player into believing that the infant is a mere tool for some horrific ritual, rather than a significant part of the cult’s worship.
When the player finally finds the infant, they discover that it is a Great Being, and it is critical to convey that this creature is innocent, just like any other human infant. It’s not necessarily evil, and the cultists believe that it will help humanity progress and heal the world. This creates a significant moral dilemma for the player: Do they have the right to kill this creature? Are the cultists telling the truth? Or will this Great Being prove to be a plague upon humanity? Perhaps we can also link the Great being to its mother, making it necessary for the player to kill her in order to eliminate its presence completely.
The player must decide whether to:
● Return the Eldritch infant to its mother
● Slay the Eldritch infant
● Slay the Eldritch infant, together with its mother
If the player chooses to return the infant, it would be ideal to see some outcome in regards to their decision later on in the story. Some options include:
Negative outcome: Rumours will spread about a mysterious creature that is kidnapping and consuming the locals, leaving their remains in a twisted and grotesque condition. Upon returning to the mother’s house, the player will find her dead, together with a note revealing a terrible discovery about her infant’s true identity and purpose.
Positive outcome: The mother’s house will become a place of healing, where the ill and weak can receive supernatural treatment for their maladies. Perhaps to add an extra level of dilemma, the creature’s healing powers will come at the cost of the mother’s health, syphoning off her energy, thereby leaving her in a catatonic frail state, barely clinging on to life.
Quest Objectives
● Speak to the distressed mother.
● (Optional) Visit the mother’s house to acquire information and a rough map of the crypt hidden in her cultist book.
● Investigate the cemetery for hints of the newborn’s whereabouts.
● Enter the crypt and navigate them to locate the infant.
● Slay the Eldritch infant or rescue it and return it to its mother.
Quest Locations
The Forlorn street: A narrow street that is lined with decrepit buildings, their windows boarded up and their doors hanging off their hinges.
The Grieving Mother’s House: Tucked within the Forlorn street lies the mother’s house, where the play can find crucial clues concerning the missing infant’s true origins, together with the mother’s dark ties to the Eldritch cult.
The Cemetery - A forlorn cemetery, rumoured to host many restless spirits. The grieving mother can be found outside its locked gates, clawing desperately at its grating.
The Crypt: A labyrinth of twisted tunnels and claustrophobic passages that hosts the Cultist Lair. Hidden messages and symbols are etched upon its walls, and the player must solve various puzzles and riddles in order to descend deeper within the crypt and the more prominent areas of the Cult.
The Cultist Lair : A twisted underground lair, where the player must confront the Eldritch cult and their plans for the infant great Being. Here the player will face a great dilemma, on whether to save or slay the infant.
Concept Art
The Eldritch Baby - It’s important that there is some resemblance to humans so that it’s easier for our players to empathise with it. It also makes sense given that its mother is a human.
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The Grieving Mother - Just to give an idea of the mother’s position and general posture.
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The Mother’s House - A decrepit building set in a narrow dirty street. Its windows are boarded up and it’s clear that the house is in a very poor condition and a bad neighbourhood. The mother should be found opposite this house.
The Mother’s Bed - The Grieving mother gave birth to the Eldritch baby upon this bed, and there is a strange dark stain upon it. This stain would have to be a lot more inconspicuous compared to the image above, so that it wouldn’t stand out as an obvious hint to the player. Rather it must fit in seamlessly with the rest of the dirty neglected house.
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The Crypt’s Entrance - The entrance to the Crypt, that acts as a secret hideout for the eldritch cult.
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The Crypt Upper Level - As the player journeys deeper into the crypt they start to see hints of the Eldritch cult such as markings scattered upon the crypt walls.
The Crypt Lower Level - The deepest areas of the crypt are completely under the cult’s influence, and this can be seen in their aesthetics. Apart from wall etchings there will also be cultist notes, books and artefacts hidden within these areas.
Warhammer Total War
In-Game Mission
Context:
A quest chain set in the game : Warhammer Total War following Karl Franz, the Emperor of Men. Each stage description has a 200 word limit and must fit the stage requirements.
Stage 1 – Requirements: Assassinate three rival chieftains.
The fate of our great Empire of Men hangs in the balance as the shadow of darkness looms ever closer. Our enemies look upon our lands with hunger, believing us to be weak and vulnerable, but we shall not falter.
In his unmatched wisdom, our leader, Karl Franz, has identified a rare opportunity to strike at our foes using the Empire's best agents, skilled in the art of assassination. By cutting off the head of the snake, we shall leave our enemies leaderless and disorganised, without risking our armies upon the battlefield. The stakes have never been higher, and the Empire of Men must rise to the occasion.
Stage 2 – Requirements: Use an agent to locate a Greenskin army in a neighbouring Dwarf-owned region.
With our enemies' leaders vanquished, our borders are secure. However, we cannot ignore that a terrible darkness still looms on the horizon, and we must face a hard truth: The Empire of Men cannot stand alone against the encroaching darkness, and we must forge and strengthen our alliances to endure the coming storm.
Our gaze turns to the ancient Dwarven realm of Karaz-a-Karak, stalwart allies of the Empire with hearts as unyielding as their mountains. Yet these mighty Dwarves face threats of their own, for we have heard rumours of an imminent Greenskin attack upon their lands.
Haste is now of the utmost importance and we must send out our best scouts to locate these threats before they can strike. This gesture of solidarity will surely be appreciated by our Dwarven allies, and it will strengthen the bond between our nations.
Stage 3 – Requirements: Defeat the Greenskin army, ensuring the Dwarf High King, the leader of the Dwarf army which the Greenskins are attacking, survives the battle.
Rumours of the Greenskin army proved to be true. The mountains now tremble with the echoes of war horns as the bloodthirsty horde descends upon the ancient Dwarven realm of Karaz-a-Karak. The hour has finally come to fight alongside our stalwart allies, for we cannot sit idle while they face the enemy alone! If we emerge victorious, our bond with the Dwarves will be unbreakable, for it is through the hardship of battle that the strongest of alliances are born. The Greenskins burn with hatred for the Dwarven king Thorgrim Grudgebearer and we must ensure that he survives this battle, for his wisdom and leadership will be crucial in the wars to come.
Stage 4 – Quest chain summary including the award of the legendary hammer of Sigmar as a gift from the Dwarfs to the Emperor.
The Greenskin horde was no match for the unbreakable will of the Empire and Dwarves, resulting in their complete defeat. The ferocity of this victory was reminiscent of the legendary Battle of Black Fire pass, where Sigmar, the hero of Men, had come to the aid of the Dwarves against the Greenskins. This historic battle had given rise to the Empire, and as a token of the bond between their nations, the Dwarves had gifted Sigmar a powerful warhammer called Ghal Maraz.
It was only fitting that after this latest victory, Thorgrim Grudgebearer bestowed upon Karl Franz the very same hammer, signifying the everlasting friendship between their two people.
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