The biggest project I'm working on at the moment is The Bittergreen Society, a poisoner's guild. When complete, it should be a fully functional faction with rank perks, friend and enemy factions, rank progression quests and related quests, several of which should link to existing quests in the game. There will be a strong emphasis on dark alchemy and experimentation on live subjects (the Twin Lamps is a direct enemy of the Society). Player characters who choose The Serpent as their birthsign will be especially favored by the Society (the power of the Star Curse will improve with greater rank in the Society), although that birthsign is by no means a requirement for membership.

Questions and suggestions are invited.

Interesting project. Might the changes to the Serpent birthsign conflict with mods tat change it's effect?

Probably; are you aware of any specific mods that I should investigate? I could always include a separate variant of the Serpent birthsign (under a different name) to avoid conflicts, if I had to. I could differentiate between The Serpent Who Waits (the standard birthsign) and The Serpent Who Strikes (the mod version, short name, The Viper).

Not a bad idea. Some potential ones to look into are BAMF (I don;t use this, so I'm not sure) and Om'Nartus' Racial/Birthsign Realism (which I use.)

i would suggest since it is a poisoners guild. that you give them links to the morag tong. from both sides. for example poisoners taking care of of some new grey writs, requiring......subtlety. like making of special poisons for certain killings to give to morag tong for use. or on the morag tong side. getting the poison to use.

I like that idea, Rattfink.

Sounds interesting.

A couple of quests I had in mind were crafting, then delivering, Treated Bittergreen Petals to a Morag Tong priest of Mephala (as a possible, maybe optional, prerequisite for Mephala's Daedric Quest), and to craft and deliver a Languorwine blade and antidote to a Dark Brotherhood contact (probably Tsrazami). I had planned to give positive Faction Reaction bonuses for the Society to both groups (that wouldn't mean that the Mournhold branch of the Dark Brotherhood would want to send you flowers and chocolates, though).

There is great potential for moral conflicts, as I see the Bittergreen Society supplying potent poisons to all sides of as many factional conflicts as possible; the player could easily find themselves helping their enemies, and suffering the consequences.

Too bad, chocolates would be nice. Certainly better than assassins.

It's hard to know what to say and what not to say about the project. I'd like to present the flavor of the project without too many spoilers.

It won't all be lab rat and fedex quests; I figure there will be at least one case where a customer finds out that the Society is supplying poisons to both sides of a conflict (or at least to the wrong side of a conflict, from their point of view), to which that customer strenuously objects; it may take some effort to teach the customer that the Society is fully able to safeguard its neutrality.

There will be an alternate plot available, where the player joins the Society with the intent of destroying it.

Might the player be able to kill people on one side or the other, depending on preference? This would highlight the moral ambiguity of the guild.

How about that standard black clothing, Morag Tong style? The player should get these issued, along with black gloves, which are almost nonexistent, for no good reason.

I'm thinking black hood and cape, too; I'm going to research good clothes for this.

When I read about this society, I can't help but get an image of the snake people of Nyissa from the Belgariad/Mallorean series out of my mind. Looking forward to it

Edit: Oh as far as a suggestion. They should fund their operation with heavy drug trafficking. Hiring thugs to defend secret plantations out in the middle of nowhere, which would be possibly where they grow the poisons/drugs for profit and whatnot. Slaves to harvest it etc

Slave trafficking will be involved (as there is a continuing need by the Society of fresh experimental subjects); I expect that the player will get some kind of optional bonus for each slave brought in; indeed, that could be another way to work within the Society, as a low-level member uninterested in the intricacies of poison-making, but willing to gather slaves for a steady supply of income. Khajiit are good for testing simple poisons, and Argonians are good for testing poisons strong enough to break through supposed poison immunity.

The expenses of the Society should not be great enough to require wide-scale use of slaves for plantation work; they're not bankrolling a private army or trying to compete with the Camonna Tong, after all, and fees from customers are generous in the same range as Morag Tong or Dark Brotherhood contracts; gathering of rare resources and training of rare and difficult skills is more along the lines of the Society's needs, as I see them. The bulk amount of poisons they produce would be more along the lines of a small micro-brewery and not a big poison factory; quality over quantity.