After a few days of code reading and testing, I think I can start with the sidequest design.

Please find my first approach below. Let me know what you think.

The background information I used I took from the Ultima 7 conversation with Quenton.

Plot Design
What happened so far…
Quenton, a humble fisherman lost his wife Gwen a while ago and ever since took care of his only daughter himself.
Life has been harsh as fishing only hardly pays your bills. Whatsmore: Marney always was an ailing girl, who constantly was in need for medicine.
Quenton has not been able to purchase the medicine for Marney for quite some time, when he got in contact with Michael, who offered him a predatory loan.
Desperate as he was he agreed to take it, despite the extortionate interest rates Michael demanded.
The inevitable happened: Quenton was not able to pay back the loan in time and Michael decided to take measures.
Quenton was killed soonafter: in the middle of night on his way from the local pub to his home.
He left the local pub, noticed Stivius (hopelessly wasted) in his wineyards, and made his way to the well.
There, Michael attacked him from behind and slit his throat in cold blood.
Alas, Quenton wanted to shout for help, but wasn’t able to, due to the nature of his lethal wound.
He died on the spot, but his will to watch over and care for Marney was so strong, his spirit refused to leave the world.

The present:
When Quenton senses the virtous Avatar nearby he is willing to talk to him, hoping he might bring Michael to justice.
Even moreso since Michael is so bold as to philander with Marney. When casting the Seance spell Quenton can communicate with the Avatar directly and points him to Michael as his murderer. The Avatar travels to Yew to let Lenora know what happened. She in return thanks the Avatar for solving the matter and assures him to take action against Michael.

Sidenotes:
– Dezana knows about the Seance spell and tells the Avatar that he will sense, if it is worth casting the spell, once he starts talking with a shade
– If the Avatar decides to confront Michael with his findings Michael will get hostile towards the Avatar.
– Rudyom eventually will sense that the Avatar considers to use the Seance spell, and warns him not to use it hastily.

Implementation
My tests so far are quite promising, if I may say so. What works so far is:

– Talking to Rudyom
1. When leaving Rudyom he will “sense” whether the Avatar is in possession of the Seance spell and warn him about the use of it.

– Talking to Quenton
1. Check, if the Avatar is in posession of the Seance spell. If so, offer to cast it
2a. If the Avatar wants to cast Seance, check if his magic level is 5 or higher (Senace is a circle 5 spell) If not, display a message
2b. Also check, if all indigrients required are available. If not, display a message
3. If both checks are ok, substract the reagents required and let the Avatar talk to Quenton directly.

– Talking to Michael
1. Check, if Avatar has talked to Quenton.
2. If so, offer an alternative dialogue in which the Avatar can accuse Michael to be the murderer of Quenton.
3. If he does so, make Michael hostile towards the Avatar

– Talking to Lenora
1. Check, if Avatar has talked to Quenton.
2. If so, offer an alternative dialogue in which the vatar can tell Lenora what happened
3. Lenora Thanks the Avatar and his Karma is raised by 10 points.

Things, I have yet to figure out:
1. Is it possible to “teleport” Michael to the prison in Yew?
2. If not: is it at least possible to delete the character Michael from the game?

Any idea how to make one of the last two work? 🙂

Modifications done in the various conversation files en detail:

Rudyom:
keywords: bye
1. If no Seance spell is present: “May peace follow thee, Avatar.”
2. If Seance spell is present: “I sense that you consider to use the Seance spell. \n Hence, a fair word of warning: Do not use the spell in haste, Avatar. Seance is no spell like any other. \n May peace follow thee, Avatar.”

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Dezana:
keywords: manipulate,environment
1. If no Seance spell is present: “Yes, you know, make him demonstrate his answers by, say, shaking a branch.”
2. If Seance spell is present: “Yes, you know, make him demonstrate his answers by, say, shaking a branch. \n Unless you are knowledgable in the @arcane arts.” She looks at you scrutinizingly.”

NEW FROM HERE:
keywords: arcane,magic,arts
“Yes, there is a spell, that allows to to communicate directly with the spritual world. \n But the Seance spell is @fragile and can only be casted by the most @experienced mages.”

keywords: fragile
“Yes, unlike other spells, a Seance cannot be casted directly. \n Instead, it is neccessary for the mage to first address the shade as if he was talking to a living person. It is only, when the shade, too, wants to communicate, that the mage will sense that the spell may be casted with success. If he has enough @experience in the arcane arts, that is.”

keywords: experience
“Seance is a spell of the 5th Circle of Magic and it is only the best and worthy mages are capable of casting it successfully.”

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Lenora:
NEW:
keywords: michael,quenton,murder
1. If Quenton has not revealed his murderer: “Noble Avatar, we hardly have time to chat about $Z in view of the perils facing our land!” (taken from the standard reply for unknown topics)
2. If Quenton has revealed his murderer: You tell Lenora that Michael has been identified as the murderer of Quenton. She listens to you carefully and thoughfully. \n “I thank thee, noble Avatar, that you have taken action to settle this utmost disturbing matter.” \n “I will send out men to take this ruthless culprit into custody to await his trial.” \n “It is all thanks to you, that we shall be able to sleep again safe and sound.” (10 karma points added)

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Michael:
keywords: murder,kill
“All men have enemies. A @debt needed to be settled.” \n “He hadn’t the strength to settle it, so someone decided to take the initiative.”
NEW FROM HERE:
“Too bad, that he cannot reveal what really @happened that night…”

keywords: happened
1. If Quenton has not revealed his murderer: “Well, he is dead now, isn’t he.”
2. If Quenton has revealed his murderer: You tell Michael that you have been able to talk to Quenton’s ghost, that he has told you what happened and identified him, Michael, as his murderer. \n Michael grows pale and swallows hard at first but regains his compulsure quickly. “I have no idea what you talk about. But stop wasting my time.” (He either stops talking, flees or attacks)

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Quenton:
If Seance is NOT present: regular conversation
If Seance is present: You sense that the ghost might want to communicate with you. Do you want to cast the Seance spell? (Y/N)

If Seance is NOT casted: regular conversation
If Seance is casted:
If reagents required are missing: You lack the reagents required for this spell. (jumps to regular conversation)
If reagents required are avilable:
If magic level is 4 or lower: You cannot cast spells of this circle. (jumps to regular conversation)
If magic level is 5 or higher: You cast the spell and suddenly sense the presence of myriads of souls, which you have not noticed before. \n Quenton seems to look at you more direct than before, too. (jumps to new SEANCE conversation)

keywords: name
“Quenton is my name, milord.”

keywords: job
I once was a fisherman, just like my friend @Yorl. Today I do my best to watch over my @daughter, whom I had to abandon so early.” \n “But never will I betray her @trust again. I will stay right here with her.”

keywords: friend,yorl
“I cannot tell you how much it means to me, to see, how he cares for my little @Marney.”

keywords: daughter,marney
I will never be able to hug and feel her. For me, that is the worst of everything that @happened.

keywords: happened
Sure, I made @mistakes. But all I wanted was that my daughter gets well again…” \n “But, of course, @he wouldn’t listen.”

keywords: he,listen
“Yes, this @Michael fellow.”

keywords: mistakes
“Marney always was sickish. And we have always been poor. It always has been a struggle to pay for her medicines.” \n “In my desperation I asked this @culprit for a loan.” \n “All was good, until one day I could not pay him back in time…”

keywords: michael
“Yes, the bloke that lives outside the town. All on his own.”

keywords: culprit
“I left the pub to head home one day, when he waited for me in the dark and slit my throat right open.” \n “Shortly before I had noticed Stivius in his vineyards and wanted to shout for help, but of course I was not able to utter a single tone anymore.” \n “It would not have changed anything, though, I suppose. Good old Stivius was as drunk as a lord and would not have been able to be of any help anyway.” \n “And it all happened so fast…”

keywords: stivius
“It is not him I blame. It was all my very own fault. I should have known, that I should not mingle with folks like Michael.”

keywords: trust,betray,stay,abandon
“I have to do my very best to watch over my little girl. It is bad enough as it is. But I will never ever leave her alone again. I will go, whereever she goes.” (to pre-explain his behaviour in U7)

keywords: bye
Just as you turn to leave you notice that the spell wears off, leaving you a vaguely unsettled feeling. \n You cannot tell for sur, whether you have just dreamt or not.

keywords: *
The ghost looks at you puzzled.

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Update 21st September:

As it seems impossible to delete Michael from the game, I’ll make some changes to the Lenora convo: She’ll ask the Avatar to turn in Michael himself. In order to do so, he needs to confront Michael with his doings, after which he’ll get hostile towards the Avatar and needs to be killed.
Sorry folks: best I can come up with for the moment.

It feels somewhat wrong to leave the convo with Quentons daughter unchanged so I also add a convo line to Marney: when asked about her father, she’ll reply as usual but the new convo reflects that the Avatar considers to inform her about his recent Seance with Quenton but decides against doing so.

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Any suggestions? Corrections? Opinions? Keep them coming please 🙂 Here in the comments or over at the Ultimacodex – just as you prefer. I’d be grateful for your input either way.

Thanks in advance!!