I thought about what should happen to Firemoth Fort after the mission. On one hand, it would make sense that the Legion would want to reclaim their lost fort, especially as it was considered a strongpoint in the Inner Sea. On the other hand, the Legion is in hard times, with the issues from Cyrodiil, and also there's a lot of secrecy surrounding Firemoth. The islands are visibly volcanic, so perhaps the atoll is unstable, too.

I also boosted the power of the Ward of Akavir, it's now a fairly decent medium armor shield with 50AR, and high luck. It now fits the relic status the Legion holds dear.

Here's the lore for Firemoth:

What one discovers on the expedition is that while the fort was used to fight piracy and smuggling, it was also an active part in smuggling too. This is why you find an ebony mine underneath the fort secured with a smuggler exit. Whether the East Empire Company was involved or not is uncertain; could very well be, keeping this secret from the Great Houses; but there was smuggling of the discovered ebony under the fort. What the Imperials didn't know is that the ebony found under the fort wasn't naturally occurring, and was used as a barrier instead. When the unearthed tomb was discovered, they opened Pandora's Box, and the fort was soon overran by undead.

The tomb was from more ancient times, it was used to trap the powerful necromancer Grurn in the past. The tomb was used specifically to bind the necromancer with ancestral spirits for his crimes, and the Dunmer then used ebony to encase the tomb to forever seal in the necromancer. The tomb and Grurn was agreed to be 'forgotten'. And perhaps was forgotten eventually.

Grurn eventually managed to break free from the bindings of the ancestors, soon dominating them to the necromancer's will. Grurn used the now corrupted ancestral spirits and remains to achieve great power, and become a lich. While growing in power, the ebony still restricted most of the lich's influence to inside the tomb. It wasn't until the Imperials set up fort that Grurn led the Imperials to the ebony, where the Imperials' innate greed took over from there. Once the mining unearthed the tomb, Grurn was free, and soon overwhelmed the fort with the lich's raw power and an army of undead, formed from the ancestral remains, and soldiers killed. As for what Grurn is up to now is a mystery, perhaps biding time, growing more powerful now that the lich is no longer confined to the tomb. It is known that the lich has a very large army of undead throughout the atoll.

The Ward of Akavir, a relic of the Legion, was on display at Firemoth, at the time. The shield was to be on display at the various forts in Vvardenfell to inspire the troops. The relic was lost when the fort was overran. The Knight in charge of Firemoth Fort was Sellus Gravius, how he wasn't court martialled for losing a fort as well as the relic didn't go unnoticed to the high-ranking Knights, but may be do to his connections with the East Empire Company and the Census & Excise offices... Sellus Gravius was only demoted a rank, and now is charge of the Census & Excise office in Seyda Neen. He is however still charged with retrieving the Ward of Akavir. Of course this is where the player and mercenaries come in. It's no longer official Legion business as the Legion has already sustained losses in regard to Firemoth, and to keep the unofficial business of the fort under wraps.

Oooohhhh, This just keeps getting better and better! Thanks Quorn!

I like the story except for the Sellus Gravius part, I don't think he should be corrupt, especially as he greeting newcomers to Morrowind. The Legion should stay honorable. :mellow:

Oh yeah, would this conflict with LGNPC then?

I'm having trouble starting the mod, i've asked for rumors all over balmora, and everyone talks to me about bloodmoon, do i have to be a certain level or somethign?

If it starts as Siege at Firemoth you should ask Sellus Gravius at the Census and Excise office in Seyda Neen about "Firemoth".

The Bloodmoon rumors should stop after you speak about Solstheim. The Firemoth rumor should work after that. The rumor will direct you to Sellus Gravius. I've made the rumor required for Sellus Gravius to offer the expedition for consistency, didn't make much since for him to offer it right when you're told to deliver a package.

If that doesn't work, let me know. ^_^

I downloaded Ward of Akavir from the first post, dropped it in my folder, activated it and deactivated The Siege at Firemoth plugin. Unfortunately the landmass is not present, is it just me? What would be causing it?

By the way, the MGE land for Firemoth still show up from a distance (Distant land generated after adding Ward of Akavir) but when I arrive the landmass is missing.

That's wierd, the landmass is exactly the same as the original...this was from a savegame, correct? Maybe it needs to be cleaned with WryeMash. Does it show up on the regional map?

I can't get the Firemoth rumor going. I've asked about Solstheim and got a journal update - but after asking everyone in Seyda Neen about latest rumors I still get nothing on Firemoth.

I set it up so that the rumor appears outside the Seyda Neen cells, so that the mission wouldn't be offered to brand new characters right away.

In hindsight, I should probably just remove this requirement, it just overcomplicates things.

Heh, so I was in the one place I couldn't get it. :facepalm: I'll try it somewhere else. Thanks.

EDIT: Worked with the first person I spoke to in Balmora. A bit difficult to keep the followers alive as usual, but now you can at least tell them to wait. BTW, are the glowing Skeleton eyes added by Ward of Akavir? Might have a bad memory but I didn't remember them from earlier play throughs. Anyway, they look cool.

Just finished it and I liked it a lot, especially the understated and seamless additions. Very cool. I ended up leaving the followers by the shore and doing most of it alone. I don't think there's much you can do about it as the AI simply rushes forward like a moron, which makes for a cinematic pace but followers swarmed by skellies. It's nice to be able to access their inventory and tell them to stay. They could use warp as they tend to get lost when running around. Perhaps more detailed combat options would be good.

It's a pity that Ward of Akavir overrides Forgotten Shields so you get the vanilla shield again. A bit surprised as I thought Forgotten Shields would "win" as it is an esp and thus loads later. [EDIT: OK, WoA changes its ID so I get it.]

Also, personally

Plus a question.

Excellent revision.

Thanks for playtesting! I did add new models for the skeletons and lich, which adds the glowing eyes. I'm working on a way for the player to keep the Ward. . ^_^

:D I'm so glad this is still being improved upon.

Sounds good. Perhaps the Khajiit could get a small dialogue/journal update when arriving on terra firma. A thank you and a standing invitation to help you out. One more thing: can't remember how the journal entries were in the original, but in WoA they "broke off" a bit suspiciously. First, there were several updates during the quest - but the last one was about and since then I've killed all the baddies, retrieved the shield and returned to Seyda Neen. Might be as it should of course, but it just felt sparse and also like you deserve a journal entry after defeating the lich IMO.

Cool skeletons. Not only the differently colored eye glows, but that they go out at the moment they die. Also that you kept some w/o glow. Very cool little addition IMO.

Thanks for the suggestions. ^_^

How was the lich battle?

Can't really say as my char was overbuffed, I guess. Reflect 65 took care of his spell attacks and Strength c. 200 took care of him quite fast. But the first time I went in unbuffed and had a harder time. In fact, it ended with me pathetically trying to exit through the door but realizing that it was magically shut while being pounded by a dozen skeletons. So from catastrophic failure to triumphant ubervictory with a couple of buffs. :toughninja:

It definitely requires a tough character to beat, but it is doable with a little bit of spell dodging, which of course requires that the skeletons die fast...I personally use a very effective single shot of 1-100 fire dmg spell for 2 seconds on target with 50 foot radius to effectively clear the room immediately leaving only the lich behind, not to mention me needing to use magicka potions so I can heal myself should I get hit(this doesn't always bode well for companions, so I leave them outside). This does however allow me to face the lich pretty much alone, its still tough, getting hit hurts...I found him very challenging for my lvl 15 Imperial warrior(edit: actually took a couple reloads with this one), and still tough for my lvl 32 Nord healer(one reload, nord is not good with weapons....or magicka really, heh) and lvl 23 high elf caster(blew through everything but the lich, which took a little bit, but was done on the first try)...the high elf was by far the easiest time I had killing him, because quite frankly, he just blows #*$@ up.

Did either of you ? ^_^

I have some more ideas floating around now, thanks for the input. ^_^

Since the main mechanics are sound, I'm going to delve more into the story (found http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=973051&view=findpost&p=14884554), which will include an errand to Ebonheart, and also some more dialogue with the Imperial troops. The survivor will play a much bigger role in the next release, and there will be more evidence at the fort for the players to discover. Overall, the next release will have much more depth. And of course some more surprises in store.

The lich isn't as hard if you have the atronach birthsign, though I got spanked pretty hard the first couple times I tried him out.

I'm thinking of a way to have the fort restored, depending on the outcome of the player's actions. Though this will be an optional quest for players in the Legion, where the player will be the new charge of Firemoth Fort once a Knight Bachelor (essentially a stronghold for the Legion).

i think the companions should remain as mindless dolts to die horrible deaths...just because the mission is better alone anyways.

Sounds like a good idea!

I also think should work when you equip it rather than just carry it, in my opinion.

Made some more progress. ^_^

I'm finishing up the restored fort, I've decided to go with new interiors rather than heavy-use of activators. This does mean anything dropped in the original cells will become inaccessible (which can be attributed to the clean-up), however. The fort will resemble existing Legion forts with amenities. There will be a few differences depending how the player finishes the quest-line. It should be comparible to the Great House Strongholds for Legion players.