Morrowind

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Created by

Seelof and Melchior Dahrk

Uploaded by

seelof

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About this mod

This mod adds a new dungeon to the Bitter Coast Region: Drethos Ancestral Tomb. Ancient and forgotten, it hides a sad story about loss and grief. Will you find your way through root and rock to uncover both it and an old and forsaken artifact?

Requirements
Permissions and credits




Description & Features

Drethos Ancestral Tomb is a new dungeon located in the Bitter Coast Region, just east of Gnaar Mok. It is completely overgrown with roots, vines, fungi, rocks and - of course - the Undead. If you can muster the will to forge your way through this inhospitable environment, you may be rewarded with a story of two lost souls and an artifact shrouded in mystery ...

Features include:

  • A new Ancestral Tomb as you have never seen it before (*). Fight your way through 3 epic cells full of environmental storytelling and loot!
  • A new quest: the last member of the Drethos family has come all the way from the mainland to learn about her ancestors. Talk to her in Gnaar Mok to find out more!
  • A new unique artifact that should not be missing from any collection: The Ardor Knife!
  • A few new assets to enhance the dungeon delving experience!
  • Verticality, and even more verticality!

(*) Unless of course you have already played my Modjam mod Heran Ancestral Tomb Overhaul, which has been made obsolete by this mod.

How to get started

There are two ways to start the quest:

Either:
1. go to Gnaar Mok and talk to Antjurah Drethos. She can be found walking around outside.

or: 
2. just enter the tomb on your own volition and start exploring. You will stumble upon the quest eventually.

I highly recommend to explore the final dungeon cell during daylight hours. It will be much more of an eye opener that way!

Background

Drethos Ancestral Tomb is a complete rework of another mod of mine: Heran Ancestral Tomb Overhaul. I made Heran Ancestral Tomb Overhaul for the Summer ModJam 2023, but I've never been too happy with it. It felt too small and too rushed to me. Plus, it was incompatible with some big and important mods such as OAAB Tombs and Towers. I quickly decided to both expand the mod and turn it into its own new and original dungeon instead of an overhaul to an existing dungeon that has already been overhauled. Thus, Drethos Ancestral Tomb was born. Do not use both mods together!

Installation

Extract the contents of the zip-archive into your Data Files folder, then activate the mod in your Morrowind Launcher. Regenerate Distant Land and make sure to enable the „Include large interiors“ option!

Compatability

Drethos Ancestral Tomb is compatible with the vanilla engine+MGE XE, as well as with OpenMW.

The following vanilla cells are edited in a very limited way:

Gnaar Mok: A new NPC wanders around the village
BC -6, 3: The entrance to Drethos Ancestral Tomb is located here.

Limited as these edits are, I would hope that the mod will be compatible with most other mods, including GRAHT Morrowind Swamp Trees. If there is a conflict with another mod, it should be easy to fix.

Do not use Drethos Ancestral Tomb together with Heran Ancestral Tomb Overhaul. One, there is no reason to. Drethos supercedes Heran in every way. Two, I'm pretty sure they are incompatible due to similar naming conventions.

Recommended Mods

Let There Be Darkness (lets you adjust the radius of light sources, very handy for your torches, requires MWSE)
MCP Actor Collision Box fix (to better navigate some tight spots)
Jammings Off (the same thing but for OpenMW)

My other dungeon mods:

Caldera Priory and the Depths of Blood and Bone
Of Eggs and Dwarves - Gnisis Eggmine & Bethamez Overhaul
New Ilunibi
ReadMe - Library of Vivec Overhaul
Berandas Overhaul

Special Thanks

I'd like to give a huge shoutout to Melchior Dahrk, who contributed substantially to this mod. The new assets, including the unique artifact, were made by him. He also wrote the scripts to go along with some of the new assets and he playtested the mod, coming up with new ideas and giving me vital feedback. He made the amazing title banner as well. Thank you!