Racial/Diety Epic Quests

[htabdoolb]

Racial/Diety Epic Quests

This idea is something I ponder about on occasion. Class specific epic quests are all well and good, but I've always wanted race/diety based epic quests. Quests which, once completed, might unlock powerful hidden abilities or boons.

The spark for this idea was learning a little about the lore of the Ogre race. About how the ogres had been creations of Rallos Zek, along with the giants and goblins, and that they all had once waged wars against the other races for control over Norrath and even the Planes in his name. Wars that Rallos Zek's creations lost, perhaps after divine intervention on the opposing sides. The ogres, giants, and goblins were viewed as such a threat even in defeat, that they were permanently cursed afterward by those same opposing deities.

This of course unlocked some deep memories of my youth spent reading every available fantasy novel I could get my hands on, chiefly among these the (massive) Dungeons and Dragons based Dragonlance franchise. In one book, I forget which one exactly, the history of the Dragonlance ogres is explored a bit, and it was revealed that their current crude, clumsy, ugly form was also the result of a divine curse. Now, considering that EverQuest as a whole 'borrowed' much from DnD, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that this idea too was also similarly 'borrowed'.

The crux though, was that before they were cursed, Ogres were perhaps the most over powered race in the world of Dragonlance. Exceedingly tall, strong, beautiful, and intelligent, they dominated every other race until they were thrown down and cursed, or perhaps cursed and then thrown down. From what I remember of the book, there are even visions of the past, or maybe an actual time travel trip, where the Ogres were shown in their full glory.

Which brings me back to EverQuest's Ogres. Our dopey, derpy, oversized diaper babies, who waddle clumsily around and live in crude stone huts and caves, searching for anything smaller than they are to club over the head and then cook up and eat. Such an obviously cursed race, despite their in-game mechanical advantages.

Wouldn't it be neat, to be able to lift that curse? Even if only for one lone Ogre, just to see what they had been like at their height?

~Story Time!~

"..the curse, it is.." the pale, formless, and quickly fading shade of the ancient ogre whispered, its power now nearly spent. "..it is lifted. Congratulations, young one.."

"Cronk not.. Cronk not feel any different, though." their large, scorched, and still slightly smoking ogre friend stated, peering down at his meaty hands and thick, stubby fingers in bewilderment. "Cronk feel same as always. Still hurts, still wrong!"

Something had obviously happened to Cronk though, despite his doubts, considering the amount of effort that had gone into magically chipping and hammering away at the powerful, powerful divine curse that had been attached to his soul. The explosion of light and energy that had surrounded him when it finally shattered into incoherent, rapidly evaporating bits of godly mana was the second, much less subtle clue.

"..of course. You've been cursed since before you were even born, boy.. twisted and broken within your mother's womb." the shade replied tiredly, before a stray bit of breeze blew what was left of his incorporeal body away entirely.

"..sseeek healinngg.." was his last, faint command before his spirit dissipated back into the winds.

"Heals? Heals easy." Cronk's sister Crinkle stated, eager to finally help after being unable to contribute to the actual curse breaking itself. "No move, brother. Me heal you gud!"

The shamaness's hands glowed as she summoned energies from the aether, channeling her divine patron's power to aid her sibling. That power seemed ready and even eager to follow her commands, Rallos Zek no doubt delighted by what they all had accomplished this day in thwarting his ancient foes.

"Oh, that feel better.." Cronk sighed in relief, as the glow settled down upon him and his skin began to rapidly lose its burnt appearance. "Me.. me.. I.. ow! Ow! Arghh!"

With a nasty sounding crack! and accompanying scream, something inside of the ogre's lopsided face broke. His hands flew up to his now bleeding nose, which had always been both flattened and crooked, appearing as if he'd been hammered repeatedly in the face as an infant and then left to suffer without any healing magic after. With a slow, grinding cruch, the bone and cartilage beneath his skin righted itself, and the bleeding tapered off. But just as his nose finished healing, another snap resounded as his left cheekbone broke into several pieces and then reset itself.

"Arg!" Cronk cried out again, even as his sister's eyes had widened and her face went pale.

"Brother? Want me stop?" she asked, sounding uncharacteristically scared and hesitant.

"No.. no!" Cronk growled, his voice pained. "Hurts, but working. Must finish!"

"Okay!" Crinkle nodded firmly, before redoubling her efforts. "No wiggle, then."

"We shall aid as we can, though the spell casting earlier took much out of us." said Ementurian, gesturing between himself and Trioxl, the lone troll of the group. "Perhaps our arcane friends can assist us as well."

Alendari and Noxadius only nodded tiredly at the two priests of Hate, despite their obvious exhaustion. As they had been the ones to actually perform the majority of the curse breaking, their current, nearly spent state was to be expected. They rallied anyway though, stubborn desire to see their task through obvious by the set of their faces.

Alendari moved to stand behind Ementurian and Trioxl, even as the dark elven cleric and troll shaman began adding their own healing energies to Crinkle's.

"By the gods.." Ementurian stated, eyes going wide as he began his work. "So much damage! How did we not ever see it before?"

"Gods." Trioxl repeated, his low growl turning the word into a dark epithet and his suspicious eyes narrowing even further as he grit his sharp teeth and fought against the old, old damage residing deep within the ogre's body. "Twisted his bones, then made it worse. Shrouded our eyes, with their curse!"

"Speaking of bones, I'll handle them. Troll, can you take care of his muscles, tendons, and skin?"

"It will be done, I swear by verse!"

"This is going to take all three of us." the dark elf said, looking toward Crinkle. "Ogre, can you..?"

"Me do his head." Cronk's sister stated, leaving no room for argument. "Most important part. Me do."

"Very well."

All three priests bent to their task, brows furrowed in concentration. Caught beneath their magics, Cronk's body was broken and then reforged. And judging by his screams, the process was no where near painless. Sharp cracks and crunches sounded out regularly, as bones both large and small were wracked, wrought to pieces, and then reshaped into what they always should have been. Tearing rips and gashes appeared and were healed in his skin and muscles, as his knotted flesh was stretched and smoothed out.

Noxadius, with his undead minion standing guard at his shoulder, fed his own life energies into the howling Ogre, soothing his rapidly palpitating heart and patching up what damage the others missed. Around the erudite necromancer the ground withered as he drained it to replenish himself, plants and small animals that couldn't flee dying and shriveling up.

Alendari stood with glowing hands raised, channeling his own remaining scraps of mana into the two healers before him. His face was twisted up in distaste, his refined and noble features flickering at particularly agonized howls and visceral, fleshy noises.

"I can hear you flinching." Ementurian spoke, casually throwing an amused, barbed comment over his shoulder at the disgusted enchanter. "Come down out of your library tower to the temple and observe the apprentices training sometime, we'll cure you of your squeamishness yet."

"I'll pass, thank you." Alendari replied, voice acidic with scorn. The old bad blood between the two of them simmering just below the surface, as always, despite their current shared objectives.

"Blast, this more difficult than regrowing four limbs from scratch!" Ementurian cursed a few moments later, when the flesh and skin along Cronk's arms and legs started to rip apart as his healing bones began elongating. "Don't let his blood go to waste! I'm not sure we'll have the strength left over to make him more afterward!"

Trioxl growled in agreement, but couldn't stop large portions of the ogre's vital fluids from splattering out of his tearing flesh anyway. Noxadius caught the spray of red droplets with his magic, and fed it all right back into the writhing ogre's spasming heart.

After a long and tiring fifteen minutes, minutes filled with many grunts and screams of agony, it was done. And just in time, as well. All three priests were utterly spent, as were the two arcane magic users. Before them was Cronk, bent over on the ground upon his hands and knees. The ogre was panting heavily but otherwise silent, as he struggled to catch his breath and compose himself after his ordeal.

"Cronk? Brother?" Crinkle called out to him, apprehension filling her voice even as she herself struggle to stay upright. "You gud now?"

And then Cronk, his body still hot and slightly steaming from the sheer amount of magical energy that had been just poured into him, slowly stood up. And up. And up even further. The ogre had always been large for his race, but he absolutely towered over them all now. He was even taller than his sister, who had previously had half a head in height over him.

The source of this new height was no mystery. His arms and especially his legs, which had all been once short, twisted, and stubby compared to his body size, had grown dramatically in length. He was now proportioned much more like an elf or man, even as he retained his broad shoulders and chest and sheer ogre size. He was at least three feet taller than he had been before, and perhaps quite a bit more, but even that paled in comparison to the most remarkable change about him.

His face, and his head as a whole, was immaculate. His features, once just as ugly, drooping, and lopsided as the rest of his body, were now nearly as refined and elegant as Alendari's or Ementurian's were, though stronger looking somehow, similar to Noxadius' in a way perhaps. His forehead and skull, which had been sloped nearly flat, now was arched high and noble, with obvious intelligence glittering behind his keen, curious eyes.

Cronk flicked those eyes down to his hands, which he held up in front of him just as he had before. Now though, the changes in his body and soul were far more obvious. His meaty, clumsy paws with their stubby digits had been transformed, just as the rest of his body had. Long, strong fingers sprouted from broad, square palms mounted at the end of dexterous and flexible wrists.

"Me.. I.. feel good." the now fully un-cursed ogre said, and even his voice was markedly improved, clear and deep of timbre. "Me feel.."

And then there was a loud rumble, like a small landslide tumbling down a hill.

"..hungry. Me hungry!" the great oaf declared, rubbing as his newly flat stomach and grimacing, sounding more worried now than he had been during his healing ordeal. "Me very hungry!"

"I. Am. Hungry." Ementurian bit out, a slight sneer on his face as he leaned back to look the ogre in the eyes. "If you're going to look like a proper person now, then you can learn to speak like one as well!."

"Yes. I.. I am hungry." the ogre nodded eagerly. "Now, food?"

"Well, at least one thing about him hasn't changed." Alendari quipped, even as Crinkle stumbled over to hug her now much taller brother and hand him her food filled haversack.

"Yes." Agreed Noxadius, as he glided over to the two dark elves.

"But I wonder.. if this is what Crunk looks like after having his own curse lifted.." he observed leadingly, turning his gaze from the now healed and handsome ogre to his still cursed and hideous sister. "..then what is Crinkle going to look like when we lift hers as well?"

Both Ementurian and Alendari blinked at that, their eyes moving back and forth between the two siblings, comparing the two ogres' now very distinct sets of appearances.

"Oh, my.." Alendari sighed, even as Ementurian slapped his fingers over his eyes.. both thinking of just how the rest of Norrath might react to a ten to twelve foot tall gorgeous, uncursed and healed ogress.

"Oh my, indeed."

~Story End!~

Curse lifted! Stat changes to ogre baseline made!
STR: 130->140 (untwisted muscles)
STA: 122->130 (expanded lungs)
AGI: 70-> 85 (straightened bones)
DEX: 70-> 85 (mended hands)
WIS: 67-> 80 (extended memory)
INT: 60-> 80 (expanded cranium)
CHA: 37-> 80 (chadly/muscle mommy stature and looks)

STR and STA caps broken! Each now caps at 300 for an uncursed ogre, instead of 255, with all the benefits that might entail.

Character model upgraded! Potato Ogre has turned into Carrot Ogre.

So, that's my idea for an Ogre racial epic quest, lifting their innate curse of intellect and clumsiness. What do you guys think? And what might be a good epic quest for the other races? I can see the elves petitioning Tunare to get something to do with expanding their magical power, perhaps an innate ++ mana boost and expanded intellect, something like that depending upon the exact flavor of elf and even the deity they worship.

For the humans, I think it would be interesting to explore their history, since they are supposedly the 'youngest' race of Norrath. Where did the barbarians come from? Mithaniel Marr made them, from what? And how did the Qeynosian and Freeporter humans diverge and shrink so much compared to their forebears? And then how did the Erudite split again from there? Speaking of the Erudite, I could see them getting a similar magical based boost as the elves, since that is what they seem to be specialized in. Perhaps the regular humans could quest for a blessing of Marr, whatever that might be.

For the dwarves, it would also be interesting to delve into their origins. Brell was supposedly involved in their creation. Perhaps they finally dig too deep and discover something in the underfoot having to do with that. Something that could empower them if used correctly, or even incorrectly.

Anyway, these are all just some idle ideas I have that I decided to write down, as a nasty winter storm dumps snow and rain down on us. Probably a bit silly, but I like thinking about things like this, haha!

[Rimitto]

qeynos was founded when a dsylexic dev god got lost in his office.

[cd288]

It's definitely a cool idea from a general perspective. But the Ogre version kind of goes against classic EQ in the sense that it revolves around the player character being some important person who gets this big benefit (curse being lifted for them) that makes them special. What makes EQ semi-unique versus other MMOs is that your character is never special. Even when you acquire your class epic it's not really something that makes your character supposedly unique in the world and lore.