This is the second chapter in the Blaark Chronicles. It is also designed for solo play. Playing through the first chapter (Portage) isn't required, but it will help establish the background and setting. Many of the quests can be completed in different ways, but some choices will cause alignment shifts towards good or (especially) evil. Neutral characters may have difficulty playing through to the end without an alignment change. There are henchmen in this chapter. This current version includes many changes recommended by those who have played the module and has been updated for HOTU; see the readme for details.
Posted by ravenscar7007 at 2010-06-24 12:03:27 Voted 7.50 on 06/24/10
Too much running around, was not clear until the end of what the story was about. Guilds were a nice touch. Fights needed to be more challenging, carving through this series like a hot knife through butter. Concepts are interesting but story too loose.
Posted by MikeLM9215 at 2008-07-07 20:29:07 Voted 7.00 on 07/07/08
Fairly decent second module in series. Lots of town quests. Some fighting. Suffers from the multiple quests interfering with each other problem of the original. Respawn penalty now irritating as death happens more often. A quest may require you to pay 1000 gold for information then award you with 500 gold for completion. Not well thought out financially. _________________________ The road to Ravenloft is paved with good intentions.
Posted by SusanMcKinney at 2007-12-09 12:39:04 Voted 9.50 on 12/09/07
This was a fantastic set of adventures. I loved the overall storyline. I loved the nuances of the world as I traveled through them. I hope to find more modules like this!
Posted by WeAreAllKosh at 2007-10-14 21:26:23 Voted 2.00 on 10/14/07
I'm seriously beginning to wonder if there's some aspect of NWN strategy that I don't grasp. It can't be that 90% of NWN builders decided to make their modules five times more difficult than any of the Bioware campaigns, because all I see is comments about they're 'not difficult' and 'well-balanced.' So I'm questing to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
To the people who played this module and determined that it's well balanced ... did you undertake the spy ring quest? Did you fight the bandit chief at the end of that quest? Did you actually think that fight qualified as 'well-balanced' or 'not difficult?'
I was liking this series. I really liked the first one. Combat was tame, as it should be for low-level characters, and common mod-making annoyances were kept to a minimum. The existence of just two merchants, for instance. As opposed to the twenty or so in this module. And most of them disappear at night. And there's no way to speed up the in-game clock. So to buy something I have to take a shopping mall approach, and I need to do it in speed mode because if it gets too late everyone will vanish. Realistic, I guess.
But that's just an annoyance and one I can put up with. The backbreaker is the bandit chief. I fought him with a sword-and-shield wielding warrior. The most 'munchkin' setup the game allows. I was accompanied by 3 of the 4 available henchman. That's not saying much since the 69meh69 henchman AI that this module, sadly, uses is abyssmal. But they were there. They dealt some damage and kept the chief's axe away from me for a little while. Always a little while though. He dealt an average of 15 damage with every strike and he rarely missed. My character had a grand total of 30 hp. TPK never took more than 30 seconds. Any time he was brought down to 'Badly Wounded' he drank a CCW potion and brought himself back up to 'Barely Injured.' He did this often. In fact, he had a seemingly limitless supply of CCW potions. I kept waiting for him to run out, coming back after two deaths and respawns (a wonderfully exciting process without a return portal), and he never ran out. I can only assume he was scripted to auto-regen the potions.
Was the experience much different for the people who think the combat in this module is 'too easy?' What, exactly, was your strategy for combatting this thing? I can't even do much in the way of equipment upgrades because the author wants to avoid 'Monty Haul' levels of treasure and god knows that requires having all of 400 gp to rub together and no better weapon than a mundane sword. I can only assume that I'm playing this game grotesquely wrong. Because this module is well-balanced, after all. Help me, someone?
Why am I even bothering. 3 comments on this page this year. The community is dead and all that's available from the HoF are modules that range from poorly written parodies that boast little more than childish humor, showcases of 1001 varieties of custom content, and hackfests with difficulty amped up way too much for me. I think I'm about ready to give up...
Posted by Nelson The Geek at 2007-09-17 03:21:14 Voted 10.00 on 09/17/07
A great series by Fintallo. I noticed in the Vault posts that this was his first module series. I am amazed. Well polished, with an engaging plot and very few spelling errors.
Some posters have complained about the linearity, especially in the later chapters. IMHO, this is misguided. You are on a save-the-world quest. You're not going to go off on a side-jaunt at a time like that. The most intelligent point made was the comparison to writing a novel. When writing a cohesive series of modules, that's what you're doing - writing a story. If the complainer wants a more free-form module with non-linearity, that only comes with sacrificing the story. I for one prefer a cohesive plot.
Fun - 10, Layout/Design - 10, Dialogue - 10, Originality/Creativity - 10, Quality Control - 10, Overall - 10
Posted by ChrisH at 2007-08-31 08:01:22 Voted 9.00 on 08/31/07
I'm stuck. I'm trying to get to Watertown from South Road for the first time, but I can't get in. The gates are unlocked and open just fine, but when I click for the transition, nothing happens. Do I need to do something (e.g. talk to someone) before I can enter? I've already tried reloading an earlier save and even reinstalled the whole module but neither helped.
Posted by Litepulsar at 2006-09-13 18:01:12 Voted 9.25 on 09/13/06
Taking into account the whole series, this particular chapter I considered excellent, and thorougly enjoyed it, had no bugs or issues whatsoever. Couldn't stop playing it, so that's a sign of a good module for me.
Posted by Spartanfighter at 2006-07-24 19:41:00 Voted 8.50 on 07/24/06
Better then the first one, and the first one was good! This is bigger than number one, and the story gets flushed out around this part.
Posted by 3P3H8K ( 89.138.xxx.xxx ) at 2006-06-04 10:02:45
This module doesn't seem to have an ending, or more likely I'm missing a quest. I've finished about 20 quests. All 3 guilds, the temple, and the people in the town hall say they no longer need my services. I've done the wizard tower quest, and the escort task. I've been wandering around the town trying to find what I think must be a missing task or quest without success. Please help if possible.
Thanks,
Arthur
Posted by ericdoman at 2006-03-12 09:36:08 Voted 9.00 on 03/12/06
As before this is my 2nd time trying out the mod. This time with a sorceror prob less xp gained as I went through msot of 1 to 6 solo with a ftr/rg. This time use of summoning dire badger was essential just to fire off a few spells and so less xp. However if you get your opponent down to near death unsummon badger and finish him off.
Always enjoy city adventures as well.
Posted by weby ( 62.142.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-11-10 05:22:46
Very nice module, one small problem how many hundred fo those footpads are there towaqrds the end? Sofar killed a few hundred. I thought next module was supposed to be for level 6-8 and soon level 9 allready as the whole population of watertown seems to belong to the thief guild.
Posted by John ( 12.222.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-10-27 17:41:38
Help! I cannot find Terry, whom I am supposed to report to.
Posted by Maron ( 65.69.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-08-19 03:22:03
Help! I'm stuck in watertown. I have done the initial Tarry/Jach quest, all of the guild quests, the temple quests and the town hall quests. The last quest I did was the assasins in the Baron's house. Since no one had any further quests I assumed the south gate would open thus letting me continue to the next module. I mean watertown is nice and everything but Maron's got an adventurer's heart and is not ready to settle down.
According to the quests window I have completed 20 quests
Posted by diggin_dale at 2005-08-08 21:14:49 Voted 8.75 on 08/08/05
HELP!!! Stuck trying to find the Sun Elves. How do I get past those doors in the Canyon? Great modules so far.
Posted by diggin_dale at 2005-08-08 21:08:20 Voted 8.75 on 08/08/05
HELP!! I am stuck trying to find the Sun Elves. How do I get past the door in the canyon? So far it's been a great set of modules (except those darn auto closing doors that have trapped me a couple times).
Posted by Kataja at 2005-07-22 12:53:36 Voted 8.25 on 07/22/05
The series has improved from the first episode, probably from experience. I've started III now. Same arguments apply as for the previous, but there are more different lines of quests now, which I like. It seems that it's always night in the town and some of the shopkeepers seem to be out at odd times, but it does give some life to the old town. And you can always find someone to sell things to, so it doesn't get frustrating.
Some typos and such I ran into:
Kelindra on the 2nd quest: "inkeeper" should be "innkeeper".
Garred Sane, when asked about store, goes ", shall we?." - drop the extra period. Some periods were missing from here and there, like in some of my lines in the henchmen dialogues.
Dram says "Trap disarmed." when he's noticed one and heads for it. The unlocking message works more logically. The dwarf fighter whose name I forget used to whack chests once for damage and then say "Done" when I had him and Dram simultaneously - he ought to either finish the job and check for the chest breaking or not whack at all if he's giving space to Dram.
2 of my 3 henchmen (the ones which I can't order directly) vanished between Ramir's cellar caverns and the bridge. Probably got left in the caverns for some reason, but I wasn't sufficiently interested in keeping them around to go back to check.
No show-stoppers, and the module runs rather smoothly. I did finish the guild tasks almost all before finishing the first town hall quest, and was a bit disappointed that my paladin didn't get invited into the fighter's guild or even implied that she wasn't suitable. But all in all a nice module, not overly stressful hack'n'slash and nice support for crafting things.
Posted by Kataja at 2005-07-22 12:44:02 Voted 8.25 on 07/22/05
The slaad can be found via the wizard's tower quest (get it from the thieves eventually). Explore the tower well. :)
Posted by johnathankokoski ( 12.220.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-06-27 15:01:51
Thanks for the thieves guild location! I was looking for it too. Now, like the previous poster, I'm looking for the slaad.
Posted by Vimsen at 2005-04-24 08:36:11 Voted 9.50 on 04/24/05
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2005-04-15 20:50:11 Voted 10.00 on 04/15/05
Excellent city adventure with a little country on the side.
Many different quests from many character classes, each differing in nature. _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2005-04-15 20:49:00 Voted 10.00 on 04/15/05
Where was the Slaad for the tongue for the mage when you were good and gave her fake black dragon blood? _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by mikeyonker at 2005-04-13 19:50:51 Voted 9.00 on 04/13/05
Much better. Lots of fun, I really liked it. The henchwoman I used was very close to useless, and in hardcore mode, was downright dangerous to *me*. Sometimes she would level up, sometimes no. The last time, she levelled up and all the equipment I gave her was gone.
Fun stuff, you got me addicted.
Posted by Nidair ( 213.73.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-03-31 12:37:00
I liked Blaark as far as chapter 2. There I started to die a lot, just because I accepted the help of a hench(wo)man.
1 - I enter rage, to toe-to-toe with some orcs, 1 hits me with an axe for 8 damage, then Ameniewiel kills me with a fireball.
2 - I shoot a bolt at an orc to draw the groups near me. Instead of firing, Ameniewiel berserks in and dies a few seconds later. Not dead, but I have to return to the temple.
3 - I charge a few orcs, I get fireballed and critted by an orc. Frustrated, I exitted the game.
I know the AI of the game is more to blame than Fintallo, but it would be very nice if fireballs, Scintillating Spheres, Ice Storms and CloudKills could be removed from hench(wo)men's spell lists, otherwise such things happen.
Cheers.
Posted by Samson at 2005-02-04 19:32:03 Voted 9.25 on 02/04/05
Posted by Kangaroo at 2005-01-28 16:01:37 Voted 9.00 on 01/28/05
very good entry in the series
Posted by garyh2018 at 2005-01-05 20:53:39 Voted 9.00 on 01/05/05
Fun! Definitely shows more polish than the first one.
Posted by Jarret at 2004-12-25 18:46:00 Voted 9.25 on 12/25/04
A very strong series, deserves more recognition.
Posted by erthule at 2004-12-13 01:57:25 Voted 5.50 on 12/13/04
Posted by ericdoman at 2004-11-15 04:36:00 Voted 9.00 on 03/12/06
Finished 1,nearly completed 2. So far thoroughly enjoyable, HOWEVER. I amy have misinterpreted your comments as I have taken down a CE character (specifically to become a blackguard). This of course seems to be a problem for 3 and 4, as you specify Good or neutral.
My character could never become CN by the end of 2 so I either import a pre-gen good 7th lvl charcter or continue with CE.
As my other 7th lvl charcters, have far more magic and gold than they would have picked up playing 1 and 2. The balance will be all wrong.
I THINK YOU SHOULD MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR IN 1 ETC THAT A GOOD CHARACTER IS COMPULSORY.
THE IDEA OF HAVING TO CRAFT WEAPONS ETC FROM 1 IS GOOD BUT BY THE TIME i HAD FOUND REQUIRED MATERIALS I COULD BUY THEM FROM FENTON'S. ALSO MOST CHARCTERS IN NWN WILL NOT HAVE THE SKILL POINTS AVAILABLE TO CRAFT ETC.
Site
at 2010-06-24 12:03:27
at 2008-07-07 20:29:07
