Tes4Mod:Blade of the Haunted

Blade of the Haunted



Description
In this quest you will pick up the trail of an old legend from the Ayleid times of the 1st Era - a legend nowadays known only as a fairy-tale, a children's bedtime story called "Aaro and Dundellon". Follow the footsteps of this legend and prove yourself worthy, and you will gain a long-forgotten powerful sword, the so-called "Blade of the Haunted". 

This quest isn't easy (at least I think so)! It does not always work along the standard mechanisms. Instead, it demands some decent experience in playing Oblivion, as well as some fun in meeting unusual challenges! Simply finding that sword won't be the solution! You will face a completely unexpected threat that needs to be overcome. Will you be able to defeat an ancient curse that has been lurking behind that old legend? Can you play the necessary role to escape from that evil trap?

Keeping in mind "immersiveness", I tried to respect some design principles to make the quest more challenging and entertaining:
You should have some fun in reading books, which means actually *reading* them (not just opening them and then waiting for some window message to explain everything to you).
There are no map markers. Any location can be found by reading books, talking etc.
Journal entrys will never tell you what you are *expected* to do! Instead, they only summarize what you have learned by yourself (always consider the journal to be your diary, not a "quest guide"!).
I tried to make very spare use of "quest items" (i.e. items that can't be dropped). So nearly everything can be dropped, sold, eaten (or whatever). Always be careful about what to give away!

The whole plot should take you at least 5-10 hours of gameplay, depending on your style of playing. The sword itself provides some powerful abilities that go beyond usual magic weapons, so it should be a satisfying reward for the pain (apart from the fun of playing the quest, of course). It will level up together with you afterwards, and it can also be customized with a spell, so it doesn't matter at which time you complete the quest. 


Patches/Addons
 

Notes
From the author: These mods might have issues with BotH:
Take special care with Companion mods (like CM or others)! Follow the instructions in the readme about how to use them together with this mod.
Mods that are using sleep mode (like e.g. The Lost Sword of the Ayleids, Tears of the Fiend, See You Sleep,etc.).
The same applies to several "Basis Needs" mods that require your character to sleep at regular intervals in order to regain fatigue or other physical attributes. Just turn these mods off before going to sleep until you've completed the quest.
Oscuro's Oblivion overhaul (OOO) users: Be aware of higher difficulty, as stated above!
Curse of Hircine - Resurrected: This mod is incompatible with CoHR prior to version 4.12. Any version from 4.12 or higher is fine. Please make sure that you're using the latest version.
Adense Epic Dungeon can cause slight pathgrid conflicts in combination with Unique Landscapes and the UL Imperial Isle Patch (see this thread for details). For now it is best to temporary disable at least the UL Imperial Isle patch while playing this mod.
A possible conflict with JRoush's Oblivion Magic Extender (OBME) is currently under investigation. See this post for more details. A patch is not available yet, so I recommend (for now) to disable OBME only as long as you're playing through the "nightmare" sections of my quest. I'll try to provide a patch in the future.