LE Nightmares of Vaermina

[FungiFunGuy]

So, It just hit me today that your character can actually sleep in Skyrim, and has been able to since at least Morrowind. (I haven't played anything before that, yet.) Vaermina is the Daedric Prince of Nightmares, Fear, and other scary stuff. So, wouldn't it make since that once in a blue moon when your character goes to sleep that he'd enter Quagmire and start having nightmares?

 

The idea here is that when/if your character attempts to sleep in a bed, there's a percent chance that she/he would "wake up" in Quagmire. Nothing would necessarily appear off to the character at first (baring out extreme/exceptionally weird nightmares), until they start to leave the area they wen to sleep. A Courier may approach them with a note starting a quest, a member (or horde) of a rival faction may show up (ie: Silver Hand, Dawnguard/Vampire, Stormcloak/Imperial Army) and attempt to kill the player. Or any other nightmare inducing event could happen.

 

The trick here is that nothing could kill the player. Either script or some other form of game element would prevent the death of the player. Such as if their health drops below 10% or something they actually wake back up from their bed and may continue on as if nothing had happened. Maybe they will make a Journal entry about it, who knows.

 

You could however, defeat the nightmare, one way or another, depending on the nightmare. Let's say you're a thief and there's a bunch of loot and seemingly unaware NPC's and some rather convenient hiding places. You would be tempted to grab this for some fencing later at the guild right? You attempt to grab or pickpocket, and you're immediately caught. No indication that you were being watched, or that your pickpocket would fail. Everyone and their mother comes to kill you. Let's say you restrain yourself though. As time would go on, more and more expensive opportunities would present themselves. Restrain yourself further, and you could come face to face with Vaermina herself.

 

The advantage of this, nothing is scarier than Vaermina, the personification of fear. Coming face to face with Vaermina would grant your character some kind of buff, possibly related to the nightmare event, or just overall. More overall Stamina, etc. The buff could be timed, or permanent.

 

Other than that, the mod could check on certain things about your character and what they have accomplished. For instance their highest (or most times Legendary, most invested perks) skill, or if they've defeated Alduin or not, to make a nightmare out of. You've defeated Alduin? Try it again. Alone. Managed that one? He comes back, again. Still kicking his butt? He can't die. Now you just have to survive against a dragon god, alone.

 

But alas, now I'm just rambling. You guys get the point by now I hope. Thanks for those of you who read my rant. For those that didn't:

 

TL:DR

 

Nightmare quests your characters can't die from, but if they "defeat" the nightmare, can get a buff from.

[Vulon]

I'm a member of the team working on the ambitious 'Immersive Quests' mod, and I've actually been working on a quest entitled 'Darkest Dreaming' that will be featuring Vaermina rather prominently and will send the player into the harrowing depths of Quagmire. The emphasis here will be on surreal, psychological horror. While the bulk of the content will take place through a series of interconnected, varied 'nightmares' and encounters, I have given thought to the possibility of smaller scenarios I've dubbed 'hauntings' that plague the character at random intervals following the completion of the quest, and possibly beforehand (should the player choose to ignore the trigger that starts the quest), which sounds closest to the sort of scenario you've described. As this particular aspect is something I've really only thought of in passing as I've been working on figuring out the general progression of the quest, I haven't yet brought this to the rest of the team.

 

While there may or may not be specific buffs, I do plan on including a unique assortment of armor and weapons (possibly spells) that the player will acquire throughout the duration of the quest that will come with unique abilities.

 

Progress on this quest is, for the most part, in the planning stages as of right now, but I've composed the majority of a unique soundtrack that will play throughout Quagmire, have the general outline for the first two locations (out of roughly six) planned out, and as of this very moment I'm writing the dialogue for Vaermina. Since I currently have a couple weeks off for the holidays, I plan on putting a lot more work into the mod while I have the time to do so. IQ is a really ambitious undertaking and we won't be releasing the mod until we have a respectable number of completed quests to offer (we currently have two quests finished), so it'll likely be some time before you'd be able to play through it, but definitely keep an eye out for its release in the future. We'll also be releasing individual quests early for testing, so there's that, too.

[FungiFunGuy]

Thanks for the reply.

 

That's pretty cool actually. I'll be sure to keep a look out for it. Or maybe I could even help the team out a little bit? I have virtually no experience with modding, at least as far as the Construction Kit goes, but I have worked with Morrowind's Kit a very small amount. Nothing to the extent of building landscapes or custom items, but I can tinker with number values at the very least. (Though, anyone could do that.)

 

At the very least, if you guys have a thread here on the forums, or something else that I could follow/keep track of, I'll be doing that. I'm willing to learn if you guys would like extra help though.

[Vulon]

We have a pretty full team at the moment and, as far as I'm aware, aren't actively 'recruiting', but feel free to get in touch with our team leader, Matthiaswagg, if you'd like to ask about contributing. :)

 

Our main thread here on the Nexus can be found right here.

 

We primarily operate over on our sub-forum at Dark Creations, so feel free to check us out there, too -- there's a link in the thread that'll take you there. I have a progress thread I started a while back for the quests I've been working on which includes a general synopsis for Darkest Dreaming, but I got caught up in other stuff and never really got around to updating it; most of the progress I've made so far has been through PMs with other members of the team, but I do plan on updating the thread soon, since I've made a fair amount of progress.

 

And thanks for your interest! :D