Written for a writing sample for a series of quests for a currently unpublished game.
Quest Title: Shepherding
Quest Giver: Garim, Old Man of Calder
Quest Giver Location: Marketplace, near a pen with sheep in it
Quest Level: From 3 to 5
Synopsis: Garim the Old Man of Calder advises the player on the basics of wool, and that their small town’s wool supply (sheep) has been stolen. They have retrieved some, but there is always a need for sheep – they provide wool, which is used for clothing and armor and is pretty much a necessity for life. The player will be tasked with retrieving five sheep which are being guarded by tame manticores. One of them will drop a piece of torn wool.
Once this news (and the sheep) are brought back to the Old Man, he reveals that a young child, Buford, is missing and postulates that the child overheard them earlier when they were talking about where the sheep were. Once he sees the torn wool in the player’s inventory from the manticores, this is confirmed. From there, the player will go past the pens and look for a dungeon opening, wherein they find a hostile (but talkative) minotaur and pet manticores. Once they are dispatched talking to Buford will produce a notebook that the minotaur was working on, and the child will leave. At this point the player will return to Garim for a reward.
Locations: Calder → Aristine jungle → Calder → Aristine jungle → crag → back to Calder
Preconditions and Requirements: Quests in South Road, Deep South Road completed. If there are no areas for sheep to wander in the Aristine jungle area, there needs to be a side area created branching from there that will have crude pens at the end of that, a crag that will contain the minotaur end boss.
Quest Text: Bring five sheep from the pens in the Aristine jungle to Garim, the old man in the Marketplace.
NPC Quest Offer Dialogue: Garim: “Ah, spirit! Thank the Maker that you and your kin have arrived. There is a problem I need your help with…
Many of our sheep have been stolen in the night, and we need them for food as well as clothing. We found small footprints headed towards the Aristine jungle. If they are alive, that is where they would be. Bring some of them back!”
NPC Quest Acceptance Dialogue: Garim: “Thank you! The sheep are passive, but they should come to you if you call them. Bring them here and they should go back to the pen on their own.”
NPC Quest In-Progress Dialogue: Garim: “Have you found the sheep yet? Please hurry!”
NPC Quest Completion Dialogue: Garim: “The sheep you brought back seem to be unharmed, thank the Maker. Here is your reward, and some wool we got from them.
It is strange, though, that they were found alive. Perhaps that is something else you can help with…”
Quest Requirements: 0/5 Sheep Returned
Quest Reward: 2 silver, 10 Wool, 10 XP
Quest Details:
Location: Aristine jungle → Pens
Area description: light jungle with stone, shoddy pens constructed for the sheep, manticores in spawning areas near the entrances of each pen.
Monsters:
Tamed Manticores, aggressive, level 4, use the stats for Goblin Brute with added ability: Weak Poison, debuff on target, 1 damage per 3 seconds, 15 second duration, not stackable. On death, the player’s inventory is checked and will drop a ‘torn wool’ quest item if it is not present, nodrop, notrade, nodestroy.
NPCs:
sheep, neutral, unattackable. Script: when selected and PC is within range, a timer fires for 3 seconds. At the completion of timer, sheep will follow player until he dies. If this cannot be done, then the sheep will enter as an inventory item (preferably in a quest item area, otherwise directly in the backpack, nodrop, nodestroy, notrade) and disappear from the map. Respawn time: 30 seconds.
Quest Text: Find Buford, who was last seen near the pens in the Aristine jungle.
NPC Quest Offer Dialogue: Garim: “It appears one of our youngers, Buford, was last seen going towards the Aristine jungle! I fear he may be in danger – he had overheard us talk about where the sheep were being held and may be suffering from a case of misplaced bravery.
Wait a moment… is that… that is a torn piece of wool… I recognize that weave. That must be from Buford’s trousers!
Can you look for him for us?”
NPC Quest Acceptance Dialogue: Garim: “I will inform his family that you are looking for him.”
NPC Quest In-Progress Dialogue: Garim: “Still looking for Buford? He does have a tendency to hide…”
NPC Quest Completion Dialogue: Garim: “I see he has returned! Thank you so much, [name]. I hear Buford’s father, Gerard, has a reward for you too. He is a fantastic clothier and he should be able to show you how to make that wool into cloth.”
Quest Requirements: 0/1 Minotaur’s Notebook
Quest Reward: 5 silver, [Wool Pants (cloth level 4) or Heavy Wool Pants (leather level 4)], 15 XP
Quest Details:
Location: Aristine jungle → Pens → Crag Dungeon (encounter/boss area)
Area description: dungeon, stalactites, pen in the far end for Buford.
Monsters:
[2]Tamed Manticores, aggressive, level 4, use the stats for Goblin Brute with added ability: Weak Poison, debuff on target, 1 damage per 3 seconds, 15 second duration, not stackable.
[1]Minotaur, aggressive, level 4, use stats for Goblin Charger. During combat, at the beginning and once every 20 seconds, he will taunt the players verbally. Dialogue: Minotaur: “You will die!”, “With your death I will become invincible!”, “The Maker has forsaken you!”
NPCs:
Buford, human male (young, wearing tattered clothes), unattackable, neutral – when selected, if the player is not under attack, will give Dialogue: Buford: “Wow, thanks mister! I was afraid he was going to kill me! He dropped this book. I can make it home myself – see you in town!” and the NPC will run to the exit and delete himself.