- Hiding in Plain Sight ||| Blades' Headquarters -

-What this mod does-

I thought an organization as important as the Blades had to have a base of operations on Vvardenfell bigger than the dilapidated studio flat of an old man with skooma problems. A place a new player could use as a house and that has something to offer even to a more experienced one, without going overkill or giving an imbalanced advantage. Given the nature of the Blades though, I thought it shouldn’t be a grandiose castle you find along the way, for everyone to see, or a manor conversion of the house of (someone who has to keep the identity of) a poor drug addict. So, I tried to think of a solution to give the Blades a guildhall in a discreet way, hidden from public eyes, yet easy to access and connected to at least some of the imperial points of interest on the island.
The mod adds the Blades’ Headquarters in a (not so big) system of caves, ideally in the space under Balmora, fort Moonmoth and Caldera. You’ll get access to it after you become a Novice. I tried to be as lore-friendly and plausible as possible.

Here’s a list of its features.

°Built in the caves discovered during the fort’s construction, the hideout has various entry points, all connected by tunnels (or flooded caves): 
- A cellar under Caius’ home
- A tunnel connected to Tyermaillin’s and Rithleen’s building (the two members of the Blades who live near Caius)
- The hills over Balmora (the place where you end up if you “coc Balmora”, just above Caius’ house)
- Fort Moonmoth’s dungeons
- The house of Surane Leoriane (blade’s agent) in Caldera
- The Odai river
Every entry point is hidden behind a moving wall\stone (whose mechanism usually has a trigger nearby).
In building these connections, I tried to balance realism and ease of use - rest assured, you won’t actually walk all the way from Caius’ House to Moonmoth.
Great care has been taken in hiding the main hall. If you're having problems getting inside...

°Caius has a new, redoran-styled oven, complete with a chimney over his house. Amazing, I know.

Spoiler:  

Show

The reason the oven's there is to cover the smoke coming from the hideout's fireplace. If asked about the oven, Caius will respond differently if the player's a member of the organization. If the player isn't, he has a different response for a smart (based on your intelligence), inquisitive player.

°A functioning imperial shrine dedicated to Talos and fallen Blades’ members hosts regalia that can teleport you back to the place (freeing mark and recall) plus a couple of (not so strong) throwbacks to Oblivion.

°A suite, reserved for high profile guests, is included in the hideout. At lower ranks the room will be precluded to you (unless you find a way in, obviously).


°The hideout has a working supply chest for members of the Blades, plus some starting equipment for almost any type of character – nothing too imbalanced (maybe a skill book or two), just something someone fresh out of Seyda Neen could use. A fully loaded larder complements the headquarters’ “sort-of bunker” nature. 

°Every cointainer has a capacity of 5000, for all your hoarding needs.

-What this mod changes-

°Cells touched by the mod (spoilers):


°Actors changed by the mod:
Caius Cosades gets some new topics to give you access to the hq and explain a bit of the lore behind it. It’s mainly flavour text – if you have a mod that overwrites his dialogue making mine not reachable, there is a spare key in his room – available to blades’ novices - that can open most of the hideout’s doors. It's...

-Installation-

1) Extract the .zip and place "Hiding in Plain Sight - Blades' Headquarters.esp" in Data Files
2) Activate the .esp

-Compatibility & Other Info-

The mod has been made with Vanilla Morrowind, as such requires only morrowind.esm & vanilla assets.
The .esp has been cleaned automatically with TES3CMD & manually with the Enchanted editor. I hope there's nothing dirty left.
Let me know if you find incompatibilities, I’ll add them here.
The screenshots have been taken with some replacers, so YMMV.

-Future Updates- 

°Most of the mod is in one cell (Balmora, Caius Cosades' Cellar): this is because I found it weird that there would be doors from the outside leading to a cell named blades' headquarters\hideout; plus the hideout wasn't as big in the first drafts of the mod. Since the cell is pretty big for vanilla standards, if it causes slowdowns and FPS drops on lower end machines I’m planning to divide the place in more cells. I avoided doing this before release because it has many redundant doors (so marker placing will be a time-waster if I ever get around to do this), but let me know if you’re experiencing problems.

°Given the placement of the cellar’s entrance (near Caius’ door), I’m certain it will be incompatible with one Balmora mod or the other. Just let me know and I’ll try to come up with a compatibility version.

-Credits- 

Thanks to the modding community for making Vvardenfell a nice place to come back every now and then. 
Thanks to Abot & Eldax for trying to help me with the moving curtains’ script.