Note: My first language is not English, so there will probably be grammar and spelling mistakes in the mod and the descriptions. Just let me know it and I will fix it.


1. Description

This quest mod brings you the early “Iliac Bay Edition” of Tamriel’s one and only newspaper, the “Black Horse Courier”. As we all know from The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, the newspaper was founded by three Khajit brothers in the Imperial City, but few men and mer know that in fact the “Courier” exists since at least 3E403. From that time, a letter is giving us a few more information:

Dear Varnard Bienne,

I am writing to you after I've read your excellent summary of the demise of the "Black Horse Courier". It was an inspiring read, but I want to add a few points, based on my own historical research.

As we all know, the "Black Horse Courier" is a newspaper that was run by three Khajiit brothers in the Imperial City. Few men and mer, however, know that in fact the “Courier” existed already in 3E403, and not just in Cyrodiil. Over the years, I have gathered a collection of early issues. I think these early issues were an attempt that failed in the end, due to missing funding and support, which the later "Black Horse Courier" enjoyed. Therefore it's understandable that most historian's accounts on the topic don't speak of the early "Courier" issues.

During the early years, the three Khajiit were quite young. As far as I know, they already operated from the Imperial City, but just from a small shack in the Waterfront. Especially one of the brothers, Ji’Radh (much later to be known as Ra’jiradh) tried to expand the circulation of the “Black Horse Courier” to other provinces, namely High Rock, and all the early issues I got hold of were from the so-called "Iliac Bay Edition".

With this letter, dear Varnard, I send you a copy of one of the early issues. I found it inside a bank in the city of Daggerfall, amidst other old documents. If you are interested, I can provide more early issues from my archive.

I even have a copy of the very first issue, which is especially interesting since its owner used the back of the paper for writing a personal letter. In it, she hints at some contacts she had in the Imperial City and to the Elder Council. She wanted to inform the council about this Khajiiti project. My impression is that she was quite sceptical regarding the Khajiit brother's intentions, the origin of their funding and if news brought by Khajiit can be trusted at all. Maybe it were her actions that led to the shutdown of the early Black Horse Courier, before it got revived and officially sponsored by the Elder Council much later (but this is just speculation on my part.)

Yours sincerely,

Manane Nelaai

Merwark Hollow, Wayrest


2. Features as of version 0.5:

I wrote this quest package to get used to Daggerfall Unity’s quest language, and because Daggerfall desperately needs story quests which bring some background to its otherwise generic lands. What is included should be fully working, but I will add more quests over time. The main quest currently ends once you are awarded a press pass, to show your status as freelance reporter. The press pass is used to determine if you view other quests from the perspective of a reporter, or from a normal citizen (one side quest is included to show the idea).

- main quest consisting of 4 quests (2 of them are mutual exclusive to each other, depending on outcome of previous quest)
- 7 side quests
- 5 custom books
- 11 issues of the “Black Horse Courier / Iliac Bay Edition” (partly given during quests, partly to be found)
- 3 new locations in Tulune (partly already used)

You may wonder: “Is this a mod for me?”

- Yes, if you like to read a lot and have no problems with post-Daggerfall lore integrated into Daggerfall

- No, if your main focus is on dungeon crawling, you don’t like to read lengthy texts written by a non-native speaker, or you want to keep Daggerfall-lore clean of future additions.


3. Download and Installation

Copy the .dfmod from the downloaded zip-file into the “StreamingAssets / Mods” subfolder within your Daggerfall Unity folder.

The download also includes a walkthrough as PDF (although I don't think it's needed, if you read the texts carefully).


4. Required Mods

Since version 0.5, the following mod is a hard requirement:

- Daggerfall Enemy Expansion (DEX)

The mod will not work if DEX is not installed, because of missing enemy types.


5. Recommended Mods

None of the following mods are strictly needed in a technical senses, but the in-game texts (newspapers, books) assume that the game world includes them:

- Basic Roads - for where you have to find places by exploring
- Hidden Map Locations - to prevent cheating in quests where you have to find places by exploring
- Travel Options - to make travelling on roads faster
- Interesting Eroded Terrain - for much more interesting landscapes
- World of Daggerfall- for even more interesting landscapes


6. Starting the Questline

The preferred way to start the questline is by starting a new character. The quest will then start automatically at game start.

You can manually start the questline with an existing character by opening Daggerfall Unity’s console window and entering “startquest MDBHCSTART”.

It is currently not possible to safely upgrade an already on-going older version of these quests with a new one. Start a new character in these cases.