Relating to Dwemer Artifacts

Relating to Raw Glass

"Smuggling raw glass is a crime. All raw glass belongs to the Emperor, so it's the crime of treason, and punished by death. But... there's so much money to be made selling black market raw glass that it's a rare merchant who'll refuse to buy a piece from you. Of course, if the mine guards catch you stealing raw glass, they just kill you. Which is why we don't steal raw glass."

Relating to Raw Ebony

"Smuggling ebony is a crime. All ebony belongs to the Emperor, so it's the crime of treason, and punished by death. But... there's so much money to be made selling black market ebony that it's a rare merchant who'll refuse to buy a piece from you. Of course, if the mine guards catch you stealing ebony, they just kill you. Which is why we don't steal ebony."


"I am Cunius Pelelius, a principal and charter-holder of the Caldera Mining Company. I cannot imagine why someone like you should think you have business with me, but I will listen, if you can be brief and polite."

"I'm keeping an eye on the Caldera Mining Company. We all think something fishy is going on -- probably several somethings -- but we haven't penetrated their operation. They're probably skimming cash, or raw ebony, or both. But we're not quite sure who 'they' are. The Company has tight security. Worried about the Redoran -- who think THEY should own Caldera -- and the Twin Lamps, who want to embarrass the Company or help slaves escape."

"I'll tell you why Cunius Pelelius is slow to redeem his pledged donation. Because he's gotten in a bit of money trouble. And he's solving the problem by skimming from the mine and smuggling raw ebony. That's what people say in private, anyway. It would be hard to get proof. The slaves in the Caldera ebony mines would know. But they would be hard to persuade to talk. They're afraid, and who can blame them?"

"He takes raw ebony from the mines. He does not tell anyone. He pays no tax on it. He steals it from the mine, and avoids the tax. So when he sells it to smugglers, he makes a very fine profit indeed. No costs. All profit."

General

"The East Empire Company is a monopolistic mercantile enterprise chartered by the Emperor and managed by a board of directors appointed by the Emperor. The Company has sole authority to trade in certain goods, like flin, raw ebony, raw glass, and Dwemer artifacts, and it also enjoys favorable tariffs and regulations for import and export of other common and exotic goods, like kwama eggs, marshmerrow pulp, saltrice, and Telvanni bug musk."

"The Fighters Guild is chartered by the Empire. Citizens can hire us to take care of pests and handle the tasks the Legion doesn't want to dirty its hands with."

What This Mod Does - The Basics

• In accordance with in-game dialogue, it will be a rare merchant who refuses to trade in raw glass, raw ebony or Dwermer artifacts. 
  

Here is what constitutes a Dwemer artifact in this mod (highest to lowest value):

Misc_dwrv_artifact50 : Dwemer Coherer
Misc_dwrv_coin00 : Dwemer Coin
Misc_dwrv_pitcher00 : Ornate Dwemer Pitcher
Misc_dwrv_artifact60 : Dwemer Tube
misc_dwrv_artifact00 : Dwemer Cylinder
Misc_dwrv_goblet10 : Ornate Dwemer Goblet
Misc_dwrv_goblet00 : Ornate Dwemer Goblet
Misc_dwrv_mug00 : Dwemer Mug
Misc_dwrv_bowl00 : Ornate Dwemer Bowl

Note that Dwemer papers that are essential to quests are not included.

• Empire-affiliated NPCs will take the law more seriously and Imperial Legion traders will take an especially dim view of those seen as trying to peddle contraband. You may be asked to hand over the items or else be accused of smuggling and thus treason.
  

However, even Legion NPCs will turn something of a blind eye to Dwemer weapons and armor, in the sense that they will never threaten to charge you with treason or ask you to hand in the items. They will simply refuse you service. This is because many NPCs in-game carry Dwemer armor and weapons so it can be assumed that “personal use” of weapons and armor not “newly discovered” is not prohibited. I also felt that from a gameplay perspective having to turn over all your Dwemer weapons and armor or receive a death warrant was too restrictive.

Also, Legion NPCs will be more peaceable if you are a member of the East Empire Company or Legion, with the player simply handing over all of the type of contraband in question as opposed to being shaken down for all contraband items. 

• I decided not to add the ability for the player to acquire an Imperial Charter. 
  

The fact that Cunius Pelelius is still breaking the law by selling raw ebony outside of the proper channels despite having an Imperial Charter, made me feel that there would be no point in allowing the player to acquire one.

• In accordance with in-game dialogue, stealing from raw glass or ebony mines will now be an instant death sentence.
  

What This Mod Does - Further Breakdown

Let’s look at who will refuse service for contraband and how that will play out.

Note that I have filtered service refusal lines by class to reduce the chance of service refusal for services where bartering goods is not an option. As such, several factions have service refusal lines despite not having any NPCs in the vanilla game that would refuse you service. I did this for the sake of mod compatibility.


Fighters Guild 

As the Fighters Guild is chartered by the Empire, and Fighters Guild members guard Vvardenfell’s East Empire Company store rooms, I felt that members of the FG would be less than inclined to buy and sell contraband.

The Fighters Guild will turn a blind eye towards Dwarven weapons and armor.

There are no vanilla NPCs in this faction who would refuse you service for contraband.

“The Fighters Guild is chartered by the Emperor and has a responsibility to protect commerce. So don’t even think about asking me if I want to buy that raw ebony.”

Imperial Knights

While this faction does not feature at all in vanilla Morrowind, I added service refusal lines for compatibility with other mods.

Imperial Knights will turn a blind eye to Dwemer weapons and armor.




Census & Excise Office

Refuses service for raw ebony, raw glass, Dwemer artifacts, weapons and armor. Appropriate dialogue changes exist for if the player is a member of the East Empire Trading Company.

There are no vanilla NPCs in this faction who would refuse you service for contraband.


Imperial Cult

Much the same as Census & Excise but there are several vanilla Imperial Cult NPCs who will refuse you service for contraband.

Imperial Legion

If you are a member of the Legion or East Empire Company, then service refusal will be much the same as with the above mentioned factions, with the line taking into account the player’s rank. However, if you are not a member of either faction, then you will be given a choice, to hand in the contraband or face the penalty for treason.



East Empire Company


You would think that East Empire Company(EEC)  members would expect you to hand in contraband on penalty of being reported to the guards, and I would agree with you. But the EEC members in the vanilla game (both Morrowind and Bloodmoon) who also offer bartering services, are not high ranking officials who would have the authority to collect contraband on behalf of the company. As such, service refusal is standard. Although a disposition drop will occur if you are in possession of raw glass or ebony and are not a member of either the EEC or the Legion.

Extra Features

• Many service NPCs will refuse to barter in corprus flesh and weepings, the exceptions being alchemists and apothecaries.
  

• Publicans will also refuse to barter if you have vampire dust or human flesh.
  

• Non-Temple NPCs in Vivec will not deal with you while you are carrying Inodril armor.
  

"Only the Temple can do dealings in sacred Indoril armor. %Name cannot risk her skin by trading with someone who carries it."

• Added greetings to Temple members in Vivec city, commenting if you are wearing Indoril armor. These vary depending on your status but here is an example:
  

• If you are arrested (pay gold or go to jail) you will now have contraband removed as well as stolen items. Thanks abot for the script!
  

• Service NPCs in the Legion will now alert the guards if you try to bring skooma or moonsugar to barter with them.
  

• The Camonna Tong and the Thieves Guild as well as the two vanilla NPCs who sell Skooma and Moonsugar no longer refuse you trade for having those items.
  

• As a non-East Empire Company member, handing in contraband voluntarily by walking up to an EEC official and selecting the topic “hand in contraband” will give you a very small cash reward (1 gold piece per contraband item). If you are a member of the East Empire Company or Legion and you hand in contraband, the reward will be significantly more, 5 gold pieces per item for Legionnaires and 10 gold per item for Company members.
  

• The East Empire Company NPCs in Ebonheart were not technically part of the East Empire Company faction in the vanilla game, because that faction did not technically exist before the release of the Bloodmoon expansion, and they never bothered to fix it, so I have made it so these NPCs are now officially members and thus you can hand in your contraband to them if you wish. Half11, Reizeron and I had fun figuring out what ranks they should be.
  

• Fixed the bug mentioned here about the 0 alarm guards. This was done via a fire-once and then end startscript so it will work even if you are using mods that make changes to those NPCs.
  

• Added some new dialogue for East Empire Company NPCs, introducing the “hand in contraband” topic and also referencing the Company’s Solstheim operations when the player is over level 5.
• Canctunian Ponius will no longer keep introducing himself after you've already met.
  

Text Changes

• Vanilla response to topic “East Empire Company”:
  

“The East Empire Company is a monopolistic merchantile enterprise charted by the Emperor and managed by a board of directors appointed by the Emperor. The Company has sole authority to trade in certain goods, like flin, raw ebony, raw glass, and Dwemer artifacts, and it also enjoys favorable tariffs and regulations for import and export of other common and exotic goods, like kwama eggs, marshmerrow pulp, saltrice, and Telvanni bug musk.“

This mod changes it to:

“The East Empire Company is a monopolistic mercantile enterprise chartered by the Emperor and managed by a board of directors appointed by the Emperor. The Company has sole authority to trade in certain goods, raw ebony, raw glass, and Dwemer artifacts, and it also enjoys favorable tariffs and regulations for import of things like flin and export of other common and exotic goods, like kwama eggs, marshmerrow pulp, saltrice, and Telvanni bug musk.“

Not only does this fix two typos, it also specifies that flin is brought in from Cyrodiil and that it is not illegal for the player to trade in. I do not believe it was the developers' intent to make flin a restricted item and I am unaware of any other dialogue that might suggest it is. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.

• New variations of this line specifically for Legion and Imperial Cult members:
  

“The East Empire Company is the mercantile enterprise chartered by the Emperor and managed by a board of directors appointed by the Emperor himself. The Company has sole authority to trade in raw ebony, raw glass, and Dwarven artifacts. They have offices in Ebonheart and Fort Frostmoth.”

And for the East Empire Company:

“We are the mercantile enterprise chartered by the Emperor and managed by a board of directors appointed by the Emperor himself. The Company has sole authority to trade in raw ebony, raw glass, and Dwarven artifacts. We have offices here and at Fort Frostmoth on Solstheim.” (Last sentence varies depending on NPC’s location)

• 2x end sentences of vanilla journal entry IC13_rich (From Imperial Cult quest “Donation from Cunius Pelelius”):
  

“If I sell these pieces of raw ebony, I should be able to get 500 gold and more to deliver to Iulus Truptor for the Widows and Orphans Fund”

Changed to a more euphemistic tone with the goal to work with a broader range of role-playing styles:

“If someone were to sell these pieces of raw ebony illegally, they might fetch 500 gold or more.”

Compatibility

Requires Tribunal and Bloodmoon
Cleaned manually and with Tes3cmd

OpenMW - Recommended 

Patch for Purists - Recommended

Expansion Delay - Recommended

Rarer Scrap Metal - Recommended

Sane Ordinators - Recommended

Hospitality Papers Expanded- Should be compatible, please let me know if you run into any issues as this will save me time when it comes to creating the full version of "Finished Morrowind - Inconsistencies"

Tamriel Rebuilt - Vanilla behavior in mines (bounty for stealing rather than instant death warrant). But everything else should work fine.

Morrowind Rebirth- Unknown, may or may not be compatible. Anyone, including Trancemaster, is welcome to use anything they like from this mod or make patches if needed.

Illegal Items - See comments section.

Hide the Sugar Hide the Skooma - Unknown. Certainly won't auto-hide contraband items.

Service Refusal Expanded - Incompatible (This mod covers the same things)

No One is Above the Law - Incompatible (This mod covers the same things)

Any other mod that adds service refusal for contraband should be avoided.

Credits

A very special thanks to rotouns AKA rotat AKA rot for spending many hours helping me to get the dialogue scripting to work properly in the vanilla engine and for being generally supportive on Discord. I could not have done this without you!

Another special thanks to R-Zero AKA Reizeron whose lore knowledge and support on Discord was also essential to making this mod what it is.

And a special thanks to everyone who has worked on the Unofficial Elder Scrolls page. I could not have done this without the amazing resources found there!

Thanks to abot for creating the contraband removal on arrest script.

Thanks to my Dad Nogbad for the "Leave it" script, which stops you from being able to drop contraband on the ground to get out of having to hand it in. This script can be found in version 1.0 if anyone is interested but it has been taken out as of 1.5.

How You Can Help Make This Mod Better

If you come across or know of any NPCs who are not in one of the above mentioned factions, but would have reason to refuse service, please let me know.
Likewise, if you know of or come across any NPCs who *are* in one of the above mentioned factions but have reason *not* to refuse service, please let me know.

Also, I have tried to make the dialogue blend in with the vanilla game as best I can but if you have any suggestions on how to improve something, please don't hesitate to mention it in the comments or in a DM. 

FMI - NotAllDunmer