Bounty Orbit Quests: The Chaplain's Informant and the Warden's Old Case

The Bounty Orbit Quests are Immortal Realm's bounty-system on-ramp — two short, self-contained narrative quests that introduce you to the prison, the chaplain, and the warden through specific small-stakes work. They aren't the Blood Market arc; they aren't combat quests. They're the kind of one-session content that gives a non-hunter a real feel for the bounty system's people before deciding whether to engage with it more deeply.

This page covers what the two quests are, what they reveal about the bounty system, and how they fit alongside the broader Bounty Hunting and Blood Market content.

What the Orbit Quests Are

Two distinct quests, both anchored at Serpent's Hold (Trammel) where the bounty system's prison sits:

• The Chaplain's Informant — Chaplain Meris (a traveling cleric working the prison) is carrying a letter from a prisoner named Corwin to his family in Trinsic. Delivering the letter and following up on what the prisoner mentioned is your work.
• The Warden's Old Case — The Warden has a sealed testimony that needs to reach Captain Hale of the Trinsic city guard. Carrying the testimony and closing the case is your work.

Both quests:

• Are mostly narrative — Chaplain's Informant has one Felucca step (no combat objective, but Felucca rules apply); Warden's Old Case is Trammel-only.
• Are open to any character — no skill, rank, or system membership requirement.
• Pay 10 Time Tokens each (AddReward("10 Time Tokens") on both quests, no other reward bundle).
• Are single-session, one-time-per-character — DoneOnce = true. A new character on the same account can run them again from scratch.

The shape is deliberate. Where the Blood Market is a three-chapter arc with combat depth, the orbit quests are the light counterpart — quick, narrative, low-stakes content that introduces the same NPCs in a less demanding context.

The Chaplain's Informant

The four-objective track:

1. Speak with Chaplain Meris at Serpent's Hold. She's titled "traveling cleric" — not the prison's permanent staff, just a visitor doing the work that needs doing. She's carrying a letter from a prisoner named Corwin who's serving time after a bounty contract went wrong.
2. Deliver the prisoner's letter to his family in Trinsic. Corwin's wife Elena is at a house in Trinsic. The letter mentions Marcus, their son. It's a short, plain letter — "I am alive. I am in the prison at Serpent's Hold. I will not lie about what brought me here." Delivery is the second objective.
3. Check the location the prisoner mentioned. The letter pointed to a place — a camp east of Britain in Felucca. The proximity check fires only on Felucca, which means this leg is the one place the orbit quest brushes against PvP rules. There's no required fight, but bring travel sense.
4. Return to Chaplain Meris. Close the loop at Serpent's Hold.

The quest is about doing what an institution can't do for itself — Meris can hear confession but can't deliver letters or visit Felucca camps. The work is between her and the prisoner; the player is the part that connects them.

The Warden's Old Case

The three-objective track:

1. Speak with the Warden about his past. The Warden left Britain under circumstances he doesn't discuss, and Trinsic has reopened an old case where his testimony matters. He hands you the sealed testimony.
2. Escort the Warden's testimony to Captain Hale in Trinsic. Hale is the Trinsic city guard captain — Trammel side, no Felucca step on this quest. Hand off the sealed document.
3. Return to the Warden. Close it out at Serpent's Hold.

This quest is about the cases that don't close themselves. The Warden has been carrying this one for too long; the player who helps him finish it produces a small civic resolution that wouldn't have happened without them. (Elena and the Trinsic family thread belong to the Chaplain's quest, not this one — the two arcs share Trinsic as a destination but not as a cast.)

How the Orbit Quests Connect to the Bounty System

The orbit quests are the soft introduction to the bounty layer. After completing them, you've:

• Met the chaplain — the spiritual-care NPC at the prison.
• Met the warden — the enforcement NPC.
• Visited the prison interior and felt the institution's tone.
• Traveled to Trinsic in a quest-driven context.
• Earned Time Tokens through bounty-adjacent civic work.

A player who's never engaged with Bounty Hunting or Civic Justice before now has a foundation for understanding what those systems feel like. The orbit quests don't gate access to the bigger systems, but they do make the bigger systems comprehensible — when you later see a Crown Writ on the public board or your character ends up at the Warden's prison after a successful bounty claim, you already know the place.

How They Compare to the Blood Market

The shard has two narrative tracks orbiting the bounty system:

The orbit quests are the introduction; the Blood Market is the payoff. Doing the orbit quests first gives the Blood Market more weight (you already know who the warden is when his world gets shaken up); doing them in reverse order isn't broken but loses some context.

Pace and Status

Both quests are short — Chaplain's Informant has four objectives (talk, deliver, Felucca check, return), Warden's Old Case has three (talk, deliver, return). A focused session knocks out either one in well under an hour; the bottleneck is travel time, not objective count.

In-game status command: [BountyOrbitStatus (registered as AccessLevel.Player). One command reports both tracks — it lists Chaplain's Informant and Warden's Old Case status side-by-side as Active / Done / Not started.

Replays: per character. Both quests are DoneOnce = true on the BaseQuest, so a given character can only complete each one once — but a new character on the same account can run them fresh.

Why the System Exists

The shard's design instinct: systems with mechanical depth should also have narrative entry points. Two failure modes the orbit quests are built against:

• Mechanical systems with no faces. Most MMO bounty systems are pure mechanics — a board, a target, a reward. Immortal Realm's bounty system has people: the chaplain, the warden, the prisoners, the family in Trinsic. The orbit quests put names and dialogue on those people so the mechanical layer has a human shape.
• Narrative content that demands prior commitment. The Blood Market expects you to already understand the bounty system; the orbit quests don't. They're the entry point for a player who hasn't yet decided whether the bounty layer interests them.

The orbit quests are also a clean 20 Time Tokens for any character (10 per quest, no other reward bundle). A new player who's overwhelmed by the bounty system can run these for the tokens and the lore without committing to anything bigger.

How to Engage

If you're new to the bounty system:

1. Start with The Warden's Old Case. Trammel-only, three short objectives, cleanest introduction to the Warden NPC and the prison setting.
2. Then do The Chaplain's Informant. Adds the Felucca intel-camp step — a lighter way to feel out crossing facets in a quest context, without expecting you to fight your way out.
3. Then decide. With both done, you've met Chaplain Meris, the Warden, Captain Hale, and Elena — the people the bigger systems orbit. Decide whether to engage with Bounty Hunting, Civic Justice, or the Blood Market arc next.

If you're already engaged with the bounty system: the orbit quests are still worth running once per character for the lore and the 20 Time Tokens. They're light play with real narrative payoff.

Where to Read Next

• For the bounty system the orbit quests introduce, Immortal Realm Bounty Hunting.
• For the deeper bounty narrative arc, Blood Market Quest.
• For the broader civic-justice layer the warden and chaplain serve, Civic Justice.
• For the broader system map, Immortal Realm Custom Systems.
• The download page is the on-ramp when you're ready.

Visual reference

Click to enlarge.