A short storytelling adventure featuring custom music, animal husbandry, innocent debutantes, and you!
Class-specific content has been written for bards, rangers, and druids. The included pregenerated PC is capable of seeing all the extra content and "solving" the module in all the ways the designer has anticipated - from straightforward combat to legerdemain and guile - but any character of the appropriate level is capable of completing the quest.
UPDATE: Fixed some xp exploits and typos.
UPDATE 2: Just now realized I didn't give low-bandwidth players a way to download the ETmusic .hak so that they could play the mod even if they don't want to download the music. Fixed.
This file is included in ETmusic.zip, it's here for low bandwidth users who don't want to download all the music but need this file in order to play the mod. Note that without the bmus in ETmusic.zip the mod will run, but NO background music will play at all.
Posted by robert_t_walker at 2012-01-16 01:17:52 Voted 9.50 on 01/16/12
Delightful little story.
Posted by GreenArcher1 at 2008-03-16 15:46:16 Voted 9.00 on 03/16/08
A very nice tale. clearly had an entertaining few hours with this laid back scenario. The visual effect was excellent considering that one only used the standard set, with a very small hak, and of course the moody music did much to set the scene.
Posted by herrjeff at 2007-11-22 20:06:08 Voted 8.50 on 11/22/07
Interesting story, although a bit linear to my liking. Even without any animal empathy skill, my bard/rogue appreciated the help he received against the wizard. The NPCs had developed personalities and would deserve a few extra hours of playtime: e.g. adding a few sidequests to enable the PC to impress Elena.
Posted by fire&ice at 2007-07-28 11:48:01 Voted 8.00 on 07/28/07
A sweet little module with a nice story. Talking to the bear and deer was particularly memorable.
Posted by Astero at 2007-07-02 03:35:13 Voted 9.75 on 07/02/07
*Sigh*, I want more :). I have to admit that I was moved. Music contributed to that, I caught myself just standing and listening.
I agree that putting the narrator inside the inn made me feel a little awkward. As for the audience, it was weird, but personally it didn't bother me.
I would have liked it if I could also report back to the captain about the crypt as she seemed worried. All the npcs were interesting. I liked the family, especially the kids, the historian's anti-social and eccentric character and the bard's snobbish attitude. The mad wizard's change of character after I've showed him the journal was too sudden to be believable. Also, I would have preferred if the choice of the gift was entirely up to him. Having the option to choose, like I was viewing a shop was a bit odd.
My char was a ranger/bard but not the pregenerated character. I enjoyed playing a mod which was class oriented. It was fun talking to the animals. The only two animals that didn't talk to me was the jaguar and the black bear in the wizard's tower area.
A great, veeery short module :). Detailed and well made. Hope chapter 2 is coming soon.
Posted by Razide0506 at 2007-01-20 20:43:51 Voted 9.00 on 01/20/07
A nice little module for an evening's entertainment that was different than most other modules I've played, despite the fact that it's built around a "go fetch" quest. I liked the dialogue, the descriptions, and the use of placeables, particularly in the shack. Rosa's story actually made me a little sad, which is something no module has ever done.
A few quibbles:
- Setting up an introductory area would have been better than putting the Narrator in the inn. It's weird to just have this winged guy standing around.
- Then again, the zombie-like crowd probably didn't notice.
- I liked the music, but the lack of combat music was a bit of a drawback, as the pleasant string sounds don't convey much tension.
- Spiders in a crypt, I buy. Worgs, not so much. Worgs and spiders living together in a crypt, not at all.
Like I said, these are minor quibbles, and most are only noteworthy because they detract slightly from the realism of the module. Overall, I thought this a fantastic first effort, and I hope mine turns out nearly as well.
My kids and I played through this one. Very enjoyable & interesting!
Posted by VeryanRhen at 2006-10-12 01:15:16 Voted 8.50 on 10/12/06
Really short! It's basically just one short quest. But what is there is done very well. Hall of Fame, anyone? ;)
Posted by Maddyanne at 2006-09-28 15:23:45 Voted 9.25 on 09/28/06
I really enjoyed this. Thank you. I played an elven ranger/bard. This is something I wouldn't usually do since she was even less adept with combat than my usual rogue variant, but she was just perfect for this high role-play module. I wish it had been longer. _________________________ Madeleine
Posted by fourpoints at 2006-09-16 20:29:42 Voted 9.00 on 09/16/06
This was lots of fun. The official campaign had gotten boring, and this was just what I need to get back into NWN. Good design, nice story, and brief enough for a short evening's gaming. Additional content for bards and rangers was nice, too.
Posted by Lariam at 2006-06-08 03:28:55 Voted 9.50 on 06/08/06
Ah - I forgot to vote. So, here it goes...
Really liked it. As noted earlier, it was promising from the start, and the quality was consistent over the whole module.
I ran into the little bug that Berliad noted earlier.
Also, the "zombiesh" crowd at the inn was a bit weird, and still there at the end of the module.
Chatting with the animals was a lot of fun. The deers, if I rightly recall, had slightly surpirising conceptual repertoire in comparison to some other animals which seemingly had been done more "realistically". ; )
But those are minor problems (if any), of course.
Waterdeep isn't enough, eh? That sounds cool. : ) But in case you'll end up doing the mod for NWN 2, it might be good to make it so that it isn't assumed in any way that the character comes from Elena's Tale 1. The characters cannot be imported, after all. First I thought that that won't be a big problem (you can level up characters), but the changes in rules seem to be big enough - perhaps especially so with regard to rangers and bards - for continuing in NWN 2 with characters from NWN to be quite problematic.
I'm looking forward to seeing the sequel in any case. Thanks very much for building this one.
I appreciate everyone who's commented here. It's immensely gratifying to me to discover that months after I've first released this little module people are still discovering it, playing it, and commenting on it; it's a great motivation for me to continue work on the follow up. I have taken the criticisms about length to heart, which has led to a maddeningly complex module - so complex that it's far exceeded the original concept I had for it, and has grown to become something quite beyond "Elena's Tale 2." Suffice to say that Waterdeep wasn't big enough for the story I wanted to tell.
This also means that finishing the module will take me a _long_ time. Right now I'm focusing on getting the dialogue down, then I'll work on the scripting. If at the time I'm finished with that NWN2 comes out, I may end up porting the entire module over to the new game.
Posted by Mystaia at 2006-05-28 11:44:02 Voted 8.50 on 05/28/06
Yay. It was a fun story, and it's good to see such a well-written roleplay module (which was what I was looking for). I would like to have seen a cutscene featuring Elena performing at Waterdeep at the end, but that's just wishful thinking. ^_~ All in all, I really enjoyed it! But it was shorter than I would have liked it to be...
Posted by Lariam at 2006-05-16 08:25:41 Voted 9.50 on 06/08/06
I just started to play this module, and wanted to drop a note here.
The beginning (just the first location and the first couple of dialogues, or so) is *extremely* promising. The writing seems to be very good. Some personality is being conveyed in the dialogues. I'm impressed by the clever skill checks (lore, perform), and by the recognition given to the different classes of my character (ranger/bard). The choices of music seem terrific.
I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with this little module. I hope that the sequel is coming along.
More comments (and the presumably high vote) will follow when I'm finished...
Posted by Mirgalen at 2006-04-19 03:29:25 Voted 9.00 on 04/19/06
Good visuals (I wanted to see real roses though), excellent soundtrack and a very well done module overall.
A must for rangers and druids.
Posted by Sogno at 2006-04-16 23:06:03 Voted 10.00 on 04/16/06
*VERY* short, but good nonetheless! :-)
Posted by Drexar_Heulbric at 2006-04-09 12:31:06 Voted 7.75 on 04/09/06
Short; nice story; laundry list of dialogue options take away from the mood; doesn't feel polished.
Posted by Branduff at 2006-03-27 14:25:17 Voted 9.50 on 03/27/06
I loved this module! Extremely amazing, the atmosphere was the best out of any module I've ever played. Ever. I can't wait for the sequel, since this module has renewed my interest in the neverwinter nights community. The only reason I'm not giving this a ten is the few technical glitches in the game. They didn't cause any trouble or anything, but were a little messy looking. Keep up the excellent work :D
Posted by Riona at 2006-03-04 14:14:14 Voted 8.50 on 03/04/06
This was a fun, relaxing little module. While I agree with some other voters that it could have had more "meat" on it's bones (content-wise), a short and light-hearted module can also be a refreshing change of pace. I just finished playing a longer module that felt like a total waste of time, so Elena's Tale turned out to be a good antidote.
The conversations are lovely and amusing (humorous without being jarring or self-aware), the visuals are very nicely done, and even the story--short though it was--was quite affecting. I played a bard/ranger of my own making and enjoyed the class specific content, although I was disappointed that I couldn't make that final Perform check, even though my total Perform skill was 16 (!). I look forward to the next chapter in this series, and I'm happy to hear it will be longer as well.
Posted by Blatob at 2006-02-13 13:28:40 Voted 9.00 on 02/13/06
Very nice first mod. I hope you finish sequel soon. It would be nice if I had more quests like getting revarded by captian when exploring the old krypt.
Story of the sequel mod assumes that you have completed this mod and accepted the invitation that Elena extended at the conclusion of this mod. On the other hand, just because this is the case story-wise does not necessarily mean that you must take the same character. I'm not nearly script-savvy enough so that the choices you made in this mod were somehow saved. So while for continuity's sake you may prefer to use the same character, there's no reason why you can't rull up a new PC (or take the pregen) to better "optimize" yourself for Elena's Tale 2. To be honest, since this was a more wilderness-oriented mod, rangers and druids got to shine. ET2 is set in an urban area, and is shaping up to have more for bards and rogues.
Posted by Lariam at 2006-02-06 10:38:06 Voted 9.50 on 06/08/06
So, will the next module be a continuation of this one in some sense? Or is it an independent story? (The fact that you're providing a pregenerated character for both seems to point towards the latter option.) In other words, will the sequel make somehow more sense with a character from the first module? _________________________ Forgotten Realms Weave
Posted by Berliad at 2006-01-24 20:13:32 Voted 8.50 on 01/16/06
I forgot to mention that I did run across one very small journal bug:
SPOILER!!!!!!!
I bluffed my way past the scholar to get the key to his book. Nevertheless, the journal entry indicates that I cleared out the crypts when i receive his key. I never gained access to those crypts, unfortunately. -B _________________________ My NWN Blog FRW Character Creator
Posted by cegli at 2006-01-20 04:02:30 Voted 8.00 on 01/20/06
Some good ideas but did not go far enough.
Posted by Berliad at 2006-01-16 20:48:36 Voted 8.50 on 01/16/06
A delightful little module. Superb writing, extremely well developed characters (especially given the low word count), and a charming little story. I'll echo other people's comments that this would be a fantastic side quest. That's not to denigrate it though � the emphasis here is on "fantastic" rather than "side quest." The custom music was very nice, but my absolute favorite innovation is the writing for the animals. I hope to see more of your work in the future! _________________________ My NWN Blog FRW Character Creator
Posted by Lariam at 2006-01-16 11:49:12 Voted 9.50 on 06/08/06
Hi - I gather there is a sequel in progress. Is this planned to be a series of how many parts? Any idea? This module seems most interesting - I'm asking because I'm trying to decide which one of my characters might be suitable for being committed to this series of modules. : ) _________________________ Forgotten Realms Weave
I thought this was very very sweet, and some of the dialogue made me smile. I also appreciated the music which I thought added nicely to the atmosphere - except when I was fleeing in hysterical bardic panic from worgs. The module did feel a little insubstantial, I think because you were trying so hard not to over-reach yourself. Someone further up says it would make a nice side-quest somewhere, and I agree with that, but because it's so focused and self-contained it doesn't feel like a "complete" module. One thing I noticed was that if you talk to the red wizard a second time after obtaining the key the dialogue is exactly same. Oh, yes, and I think there's something of an overuse of the word 'puissant' cool though it sounds :) I didn't mean to go off into criticisms, I really enjoyed playing through this, and I think you have a great skill in creating individualised characters - particular kudos for the red wizard and your snobby world-weary bard! I'm afraid I'm not great with comments; I just think it's the least you owe have played through someone's hard work. Thanks.
UPDATE 2: Just now realized I didn't give low-bandwidth players a way to download the ETmusic .hak so that they could play the mod even if they don't want to download the music. Fixed.
Winterfox: To be honest I also identify with Elena most out of all the characters I've written for the module - which is probably why she has so much text, she was the easiest to write for. A character like her lets me have it both ways: I can tell a sentimental story while simultaneously disdaining sentiment. Ass-covering metafiction: not just a literary device any more!
As to the length, your dissatisfaction is certainly valid. It helps to go into the module expecting a short experience akin to microfiction or a single game session, I think, but overall the community has grown to expect modules larger in scale. *Shrug.* Next one is longer, I promise.
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