Your caravan is ambushed near the small village of Lugard. When you agree to aid the villagers in dealing with the bandits that plague the area, you find hints that they are but pawns in a much darker conspiracy. Your only companion is a young ranger, and she resents the fact that the villagers has asked you to do the job she has been unable to deal with.
There's a lot to like about this mod. A very well thought out story. One that makes sense of the conflict within the drow and its impact on the surface realms. And seeing as I think the drow are overused and overrated it takes a lot for me to enjoy an adventure when they are featured. I do enjoy this one, with some caveats. Most of these are noted, but REALLY need to be addressed. Adrienne's issues especially. I have to agree about the Studded Leather +3 instead of an armor which disables her dual wielding. I also found her unable to switch weapons, so she gets crushed if anyone gets to melee range on her via multiple attacks of opportunity. I tired every method of tactics other than 'only melee' but she never switches from her bow. She's a great archer, but not 'that' great. Also agree about the XP hit being 'much' too large for a module where XP rewards are quite low. This works in Fantus' mod because he is rather generous with XP awards, so penalties for henchmen deaths aren't the end of the world. In this mod, losing Adrienne can set you back much too far. In any case, with combat rewards being as low as they are, boosting quest-completion rewards (at least) would be welcome. The jealousy convo bug hit me too. I played this mod the first time with an elven rogue/mage. And I have to agree about certain undead heavy sections being tedious. To be fair, I see this 'a lot' in mods however. I don't know who's to blame for dozens of same-type undead sections becoming so prevalent in mods, but they 'really' ought to have been told that variety, not uniformity, makes for a better mod. It's a good thing there's no rest restrictions in the mod, because the only way to complete a couple sections with my mage was to draw a few out at a time and burn all my spells, then rest and repeat. Personally I hate being forced to do that, but when faced with mutiple rooms filled with shades, there's little choice. Especially when no merchant in the game provides an amulet of health or bone ring. Also have to agree about the need for fire/acid enchanted arrows, heck a healthy supply of arrows +1 would be nice, especially since your henchmen is tied to her bow and rapid shots ammunition away so fast you can hardly track it. I don't want to seem like I'm whining, this IS a good mod, especially on the story side. The English is fine, outside of the boks in the Temple library, given the fact this is the author's second language. The 'flavor' of the mod is exceptional. Perhaps that's what makes the gameplay quirks above so frustrating, as they keep this from being among the very best mods I've played. That said, it is a very worthy 1st attempt.
Posted by mcwkjoyce at on12/28/05
Played through this and although I did feel a little bored at times (huge areas and repeatative combat) I did enjoy the writing of the drow and their motivations. In fact almost every NPC is sufficiently fleshed out to make them real. (Now just to correct their dialogue loops and it would be very good.) On a minor point, I hate to visit "walkthroughs" and prefer to figure out things for myself. The floor levers where the guardian golem was, however, was incomprehensible without the walkthrough. Not that fun, there.
Posted by replicant000 at on12/15/05
Great Module!!
Posted by mcwkjoyce at on12/28/05
very strange. clicked on the author's "user's submissions" then went to community news and clicked the link to his module and then for some reason I could download. I am not very technically minded to explain these sorts of things, but something you could try if you are having problems downloading.
Posted by mcwkjoyce at on12/28/05
would like to play this one, but redirected to a ign page when attempting to download.
Posted by Historian at 2005-11-3013:40:40
A minor masterpiece of a mod, but not without flaws. The author really knows his drow, but should take a little time to better balance the encounters. It is definitely not for a level 8? more like a level 10 to start. I played with an elven fighter-mage and was hopelessly outclassed much of the time. And this is even worse since there is a lack of proper xp rewards and quite a heavy penalty for dying (which happened a lot, at least for me). There?s a lot going on and sometimes you feel a little lost, but that doesn?t matter in the end. The experience is worthwhile and even brilliant at times? the story, the narrative, the dialogues, the characters? and the drow aren?t there just as simple minded killers? their presence is coherent, well presented and not without a few welcome surprises. Excellent job and, with just a small amount of work, should be worthy of the Hall of Fame.
Posted by Cacho at 2005-11-2018:54:22
I cant download module... it appears I have to be an ign insider to use it :(
Posted by Skald at on11/15/05
Really enjoyed this mod! Characters were engaging, had different personalities, and I cared about what happened to them. Thanks M!
Posted by Armin at on11/06/05
Hi Mattias, this is a really good and fun mod that could be truly great if some leftover matters and annoyances are fixed ;) Some bugs/suggestions: - most important thing IMO is to fix Adrienne's scripts. She's such a central element of the story, atmosphere and immersion that it's really a shame she's turned into such a liability. She won't switch weapons like being told, will remain idle in combat if you switch her weapons "manually" often, and she'll keep dying in combat a LOT more than necessary. Especially annoying, sine the player gets the exp penalty for the buggy scripts here - same goes for her being stuck in her jealousy routine. Not being able to change her tactics after the dialogue with Lucetta is very tiresome and also IMO it takes away a lot from her character. A bitchy little girl throwing a tantrum or just a bug in the romance scipt? ;) - Side note: turn her armor into a studded leather +3 (same AC bonus) so she can use her ranger abilities. - Being able to tell her to summon her animal companion would be a nice boost for some PC combos - Especially since you're stuck with only 1 henchmen and that henchie is basically stuck with her longbow, the enemy "mix" in some areas is an incredible exercise in tedium. Example: the 9-million-and-then-some Skeleton warriors in the necropolis. If the PC should happen to be a Paladin, Cleric, or fighter with blunt weapons that's a boring walk in the park. With my halfling rogue I was pretty damn close to quitting ;) Throw in some Curst warriors, rogues, rangers, monks and the like (makes sense in a vampire lair anyway), some ghouls or some zombies and remember that certain enemy types are *extremely* biased for the different classes- - Same direction: with all the undead, it's pretty unnerving - especially for a rogue char who has difficulties with them anyway - that the *only* special ammo available are arrows of ice - which most undead are immune to. Sigh. Help the poor undead-challenged chars by making some acid or fire arrows available will ya? ;) - some cleanup of all the quest variables and dialogue options would *really* help the atmosphere. Constantly having the options to ask about things long gone and done again I find a bit disturbing. - Later in the game there are a LOT of pretty repetitive fights. Having large groups of drow warriors, keep guards and the like over and over again is, again, pretty biased toward some character builds and not that interesting. Making fewer, smaller but tougher fights - especially out of the large number of named enemies that I really like - would be better I think - some outdoor areas ARE pretty large and empty, but not overly so. with the transport system between the dark maiden camp and the village that'S pretty OK. - I actually *liked* the very low amount of magic drops. I prefer the game that way, when the character is not solely defined by a ton of overpowered equipment Thanks for huge amount of work and a fun mod anyway :-) _________________________ With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince... With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D.... ... and still keep the frog you started with.
Posted by Armin at on11/06/05
A good story of mystery, intrigue and a hidden threat nicely told, good henchman and NPC interaction and some nice and relatively free exploration with lots of attention to detail. A truly good mod that could be great were it not for too many bugs left and a lot of very repetitive, uninspired and pretty unbalanced fights (unbalanced not in the sense of too easy or too difficult, but too too trivial for one character and too tedious for another). Details and sugggestions on the comments page. _________________________ With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince... With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D.... ... and still keep the frog you started with.
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