Missives
Adds a large number of localized radiant quests found at Missive Boards of varying difficulty and with varying rewards.
I loved MannyGT’s The Notice Board, and it became a permanent addition to my load order almost as soon as it came out. As great as it was, there were a few limitations that made it difficult or annoying to use in some of my playthroughs. The main issues I had were:
The quests weren’t ‘localized’, so a notice you picked up in Whiterun may lead you to a dungeon in Winterhold
The quests sometimes led to restricted NPCs, like people in Guilds or Orc Strongholds, causing issues
You couldn’t quit the quests if you found it too difficult, or lost interest
You had no way of knowing where the quests would lead to, or how difficult they were until you accepted it
There was only one instance of each quest active at a time
So, I decided to recreate my own version of Manny’s mod from scratch.
You can find Missive Boards at any of the 9 Hold Capitols. There you can find a number of different radiant quests of varying difficulty. The quests will only lead to dungeons or NPCs in their own hold, and the missives will have information detailing where the quest leads to, or what you need to collect. This also means you can have the same quest active in multiple holds for multiple quest givers. Additionally, you can quit any quest for any reason at any time, simply read the missive again in your inventory, and choose to ‘drop’ it. If you don’t see any quests you want in the missive board, they will reset after three days, and a new set of quests will be available.
The following quests have a chance to be available at missive boards:
Courier Quests – Deliver an item to a nearby town, a hold capitol, or a distant settlement
Gather Quests – Collect some ingredients or materials for a nearby vendor
Kill Quests – Clear out the denizens of a nearby dungeon
Retrieve Quests – Retrieve a stolen item for a citizen, or a valuable artifact for the Court Wizard
Hunt Quest – Track down an individual and either kill them or retrieve something from them
With all the variants and different holds taken together, this mod contains a grand total of 264 radiant quests.
The missive boards have been placed to be compatible with MannyGT’s own mod, so they can be used consecutively. This mod is also compatible with Extended Towns and Cities, and JK’s Skyrim. Other city or town mods are likely compatible, it may just be difficult to reach the missive boards if stuff is placed over them.
Also thanks to Blary for OpenBooks Resource, which I used to make the Missive Board.
Here are the quests described in detail:
Courier Quests
With courier quests you take an item from one citizen in the hold capitol, and deliver it to another citizen in another settlement. The sender offers a sum of gold as payment.
After accepting the quest you need to find the sender. They will give you half of the promised payment up front, as well as the item to deliver. Once you have been given the item, you will have a limited amount of time to complete the delivery, or you will fail the quest. It is also possible to drop or sell the item, so it is possible to lose it. If you manage to deliver the item in time, you will receive the second half of the payment.
If you want, you can choose to steal the delivery by abandoning the quest by reading and throwing away the quest’s missive. However, if you do this or otherwise fail the quest, a bounty will be set on you in the sender’s hold.
Currently, there are three variants of this quest: Letter Delivery, Weapon Delivery, and Potion Deliver. There are also three difficulty variants. The easiest variant requires you to deliver the item to a small settlement in the sender’s hold. The average variant requires you deliver the item to another hold capitol. The hardest variant requires you to deliver the item to a small settlement in a different hold.
Gather Quests
Gathering quests are fairly straightforward; you gather a certain number of materials for a vendor in the hold, and receive a sum of gold and other useful gear as a reward.
Currently, apothecaries, blacksmiths, innkeepers, and court wizards may post a request for alchemical ingredients, raw ore, raw meat, and soul gems, respectively. Apothecaries will give leveled potions, blacksmiths will give leveled weapons or armor, innkeepers will give you a hearty meal, and court wizards will give scrolls. More valuable rewards will be given for rarer materials.
Like the other quests, you can abandon this one by reading and discarding the quest’s missive, if you can’t find the materials or want to use them yourself.
Kill Quests
Incredibly straightforward quests, basically copies of the vanilla bounty quests. They will lead you to a dungeon in the nearby hold, where you kill some things, then return to the Steward to receive your reward.
There may be a bounty set on an animal den, a bandit or forsworn camp, or a dragon or giant’s lair. The more difficult the enemy, the higher the bounty.
Retrieve Quests
Another straightforward quests; a citizen or court wizard may post a reward for retrieving an item from some nearby dungeon. If you return the item to the quest giver, you will receive a sum of gold, depending on how difficult the dungeon was. However, once you have retrieved the item, you don’t necessarily need to return it, you can abandon the quest like you can with the others, keep the item for yourself, and no one would be the wiser.
There are three variants of this quest:
A citizen may lose a ring or necklace while exploring the hold, and it will end up in a nearby animal den. Retrieve it for a small sum of gold.
A citizen may have a weapon stolen, and it will end up in a nearby hideout, holding either bandits, forsworn, falmer, warlocks or possibly vampires. Retrieve it for a moderate sum of gold.
The Court Wizard may discover the location of a powerful scroll or staff. It will be in a Nordic or Dwarven Ruin. Retrieve it for a large sum of gold.
Hunt Quests
Hunt or track quests involve you hunting down an individual in a nearby hold, based on only a few locations they may visit. Then you will need to either kill them or retrieve something from them. There are currently three variants of this quest:
A thief has broken into a civilian’s house, stolen a precious item, and has escaped to a neighboring hold. You are to find the thief, and retrieve the item, either through stealth or violence. Return the item for a gold reward.
The Jarl has placed a bounty on an escaped criminal. The fugitive has fled to a neighboring hold. If you track him down and kill him, you will be reward with gold by the steward.
The Vigilants of Stendarr has discovered that a vampire has infiltrated a small settlement. If you manage to track the monster down and kill it, you can report its death to a Vigilant. They will reward you with a Cure Disease potion, another leveled potion, three scrolls, and a random Divine’s Amulet.
