If you have any questions, comments or feedback of any sort, I would be thrilled to hear from you; feel free to email me at [email protected] , or just post on the module�s message board on the NWVault.
This module requires NWN version 1.68 and the CEP 1.68, which is available as a download to your right.
Premise:
Many a sage knows the sad tale of Sammaster, the brilliantly-powerful wizard whose passion and gradual descent into madness caused him to rise and fall in the Goddess Mystra�s favor; she took him as one of Her Chosen, only to revoke the status when his lust for power and vengeance finally overshadowed the few morals he had ever possessed, and he confronted (and was slain by) three others of Mystra�s Chosen.
Yet after falling out of Mystra�s good graces and losing his God-given powers, Sammaster�s tale was not done; together with a poison-tongued Priest of Bane who revived and manipulated the wizard under orders from Bane himself, he founded what is known today as the Cult of the Dragon, an evil organization formed around the belief that dragons, specifically undead dragons, will come to rule the world�Sammaster and his followers in the Cult dedicated their lives to convincing the evil dragons of Faer�n to choose to partake in an unholy ritual and become Dracoliches.
Sammaster�s and the Cult of the Dragon�s actions after the wizard�s resurrection did not go unnoticed by the good folk of Faer�n; the Harpers in particular were anxious to eradicate the Cult as soon as possible. After an ambush which culminated with an epic showdown between an Avatar of Lathander and Sammaster himself, Sammaster was reduced to ashes and the unifying-piece of the Cult was gone.
Sammaster had been prepared for such an eventuality, and had arranged several chain-contingencies upon his death; he became a lich, and 300 years later, in the Year of Many Mists (1282 DR), he emerged from a crypt high in the Desertsmouth Mountains near Shadow Gap and began to gather an army of dark minions and servants, included dragons and the occasional dracolich, under his banner.
In the Year of Blacksnake (1285 DR) a group of adventuring paladins known as the Company of Twelve rode off to confront Sammaster and his growing army. The paladins, supported by the Harpers, attacked the lich and his powerful dracolich-mount in the ruins of an ancient city then known as Harrowsmouth, or the �Gates of Hell.� The battle was immense and nine of the Company of the Twelve died, but in the end Sammaster was defeated and the mad mage fell once more; the paladins and harpers who were slain in the battle were interred with Sammaster at Harrowsmouth to act as eternal guardians against the lich�s resurrection.
Despite the best efforts of the victorious forces of good after the battle at Harrowsmouth, no-one ever did locate Sammaster�s phylactery, which was said to be an un-cut diamond of tremendous monetary value, or the Tome of the Dragon, the artifact book containing Sammaster�s and his Cult�s unholy prophecies and teachings which the good people of Faer�n would have liked nothing better than to have seen destroyed once and for all.
The Current Situation:
The year is 1360 DR, 75 years the lich Sammaster�s defeat at Harrowsmouth, and strange rumors abound, rumors pertaining to the evil Cult of the Dragon; there are fearful whispers amongst the people of Faer�n that the highest-ranking members of the Cult, known as Those Who Wear Purple for their trademark robes, plan on performing a vile ritual in order to resurrect their First-Speaker, Founder and Prophet, the Fallen-Chosen of Mystra known as Sammaster, whose remains are said to lie deep beneath the long-abandoned city known as Harrowsmouth, or �The Gates of Hell.� In life, Sammaster was a mage who wielded power comparable to that of Elminster or Khelben �Blackstaff� Arunsun�in undeath as a lich, he was even more fearsome a foe, until the Company of Twelve, a band of powerful paladins, with aid from the Harpers, defeated him. His phylactery, of course, was never found after the battle was over...
If a scheme to resurrect Sammaster truly does exist, it would be grave news indeed�and so, eight of Mystra�s Chosen, all of the known Chosen except the Drow Priestess Qilu� Veladorn, have gathered to discuss which course of action to take�if the Cult of the Dragon indeed has the means to somehow resurrect Sammaster, they must be stopped at all costs.
The Module:
�Perchance to Dream�, an adventure of epic proportions (both in story-content and level-range), places the player in the role of Khelben �The Blackstaff� Arunsun, a level 26 wizard and one of Mystra�s Chosen. This module includes 10 new custom spells designed by yours-truly specifically for this adventure; included in these 10 is the Silver Fire epic spell/ability, along with 1 other non-Chosen-Ability-epic spell and 8 more high-level (7-9) custom spells. You must use the pre-provided character for this module (Khelben �Blackstaff� Arunsun); he already has all of the custom spells and abilities learned and set-up, along with a complete memorized spell-book and three full quick-slot sets for easy-access to his abilities, items and spells.
The fate of Faer�n hangs in the balance, and it�s up to you to see that, if the Cult of the Dragon truly intends to resurrect Sammaster, they are not allowed to do so.
Armed with Mystra�s blessing and an arsenal of spells deadly enough to lay-low a small army, you will soon be journeying to the ancient abandoned ruined-city of Harrowsmouth (The Gates of Hell), where a showdown with the highest-ranking members of the Cult of the Dragon seems to be in order...
RULES:
Resting: Restricted in some areas
Death: Automatic transportation to an alternate dimension, from which you will be returned to the location at which you perished by your Goddess, Mystra
XP-Scale: Experience is awarded at certain points in the game; XP is not awarded for killing creatures
Number of Players: Singleplayer only; the game will break otherwise, trust me.
Starting Level: You MUST use the pregenerated �Khelben �Blackstaff� Arunsun� character, or you will not be allowed to start the module. I will not be changing this restriction, so don�t even ask. If you want to change it for your own use, be my guest.
Level Advancement: You will most likely gain one level near the end of the module, just-before or during the final boss-fight.
Hak & Music Credits:
Portraits by Phaere, DarkAnya, Gwendolyn
Elemental sword models by V3par
Kroqadilla and Dracotaur by HydromancerX
Dragonkin by Bloodsong
Wyverns by Swiftbow
DragonGolemsCEP by Princerouse
Piles of Gold by Bloodmonkey
Spawns of Tiamat by nirvy
Lich Lizards by St4scream
Dwarven Halls Tileset by JDA
Sky / Atmosphere Tileset compiled by Chaos_Theocrat, originally designed by Spelljammer team
�Wheel of Fortune� track by Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Carribean)
�Kan-on� track by Kitaro (Sacred Journey Album)
�Buried Secrets / Whispers� by Jack Wall (Jade Empire Soundtrack)
Special Thanks To:
Alazander & Murdane, my Forgotten Realms and story/plotline advisors
Cowface for designing the logo
Gary Webster for composing music exclusively for �Perchance to Dream�(!) (Shadowdale, Battle Theme)
...and to my faithful Beta-Testers; your help was much appreciated!!!
(Alazander, Aessinus, nunza, Mungo_D, Phantasma)
So yeah, thanks to everyone in the NWN community for their support--this will be my last mod (for NWN1), and it's been a good time. :)
I can't seem to get to liking this game. Forcing you to take a certain character aside, I found it a bit too difficult. Mostly the beginning part where all the cultists outside the temple come at you.
They just kept coming and coming and coming, so many of them. Even when I put the difficulty down to easy I still ended up getting killed. This turned me off to the game before I even entered the first dungeon/temple.
I say this having played NWN for years and having a lot of experience with magic characters, yet still I found there was simply way too many cultists, especially when every single mage has spell mantle, you have to start dispelling their spells while at the same time melee type characters slash away at you constantly. Then once you *do* get rid of the spell mantle they simply friggin cast it again and you have to waste spells on them just trying to eat away at their mantle..only for them to then cast spell mantle yet AGAIN.
Point is, I shouldn't be dying 3-4 times before I even enter the first real area.
Posted by DSenset at 2009-07-07 20:59:52 Voted 10.00 on 07/07/09
Enjoyed. Quite a lot. _________________________ Five Flagons Inn: Link - ds-tl Theater Scripting Language: Link - dstl NWN2: Link - NWN2 one-click GUI away (except chat-windows): Link - NWN1 small file extensions for SP (and General MIDI): Link - Suggested Naming Conventions: Link - DS Sneaking: Link - DS Base (Pseudo-)Maze: Link
Posted by Jedijax at 2009-04-03 22:26:52 Voted 9.00 on 04/03/09
Ok, I find myself in a very peculiar position regarding this module. There are many little things I didn't like about it, but those are not flaws, bugs or mistakes at all. One must be as objective as humanly posible when it comes to reviewing.
I thoroughly enjoyed Perchance to Dream... though now that I think about it, I don't see much sense in the title...
Anyway, it is a small module which could be compared to a small story in a D&D magazine, and it delivers.
I think the tilesets and lighting options were wisely picked and correctly implemented. It reminded me of Commche's Shadows Over Darkmoon, in terms of visual composition.
There were many cutscenes, of course, many for a module of its size!! The background information is very detailed and accurate, an excellent choice, not many hack&slash works seem to care for, specialy when they are this small.
There were several details that made the play even more entertaining, like the thayan incident, which made me laugh out loud!, and the netherese rug. The climax regarding the baelnorn was also unexpected and challenging.. and maybe a little... just a little... threatening and scary... seeing as I was half dead by the time this bozo chose to go judas on me!
Now, for the things I didn't like, we start with the fact you "must" play with Khelben Arunsun. It is not a production flaw, but most of us certainly like to play with our veteran characters, developed over hours of gameplay, from Neverwinter Nights to who-knows-how-many-other-modules (which I did, anyway! Never let an author stop you if you can bend the rules a little, I say!). Also, the starting sequence, in which the Chosen of Mystra are reunited to decide the course of action, seemed useless. It was nice to see such, specially if you are very much into the Forgotten Realms mythology; however, the way Elminster makes one-sided desitions, and the docile attitude of the others makes you wonder why they had to be gathered in the first place. A simple carirer pigeon or projection would have sufficed.
I also think the choice to not award XP for kills is somewhat ilogic. I have read lots of authoral explanations for such, but I never seem to be convinced about it.
As I explained before, these are not mistakes or flaws in the module, merely details I didn't like about it.
I must confess I had never cared much for your work, Hugie, and prefered other big names when it came to choosing my next adventure, but I really enjoyed your module. It was short, indeed, but the kind of short that leaves a nice impression.
I gave it a 9.00 instead of a 10.00 for two reasons mainly: The fact even for a short module it is REALLY short, and the fact that, even though everything is perfectly implemented, the length really limits the amount of development one may find deployed. I was left wanting more of the same. So, as you can see, both reasons are actually views on the same issue.
Whatever!! I am an old man who complains too much!! (Please, don't read my review on Darkness over Daggerford...) All in all, a nice little module with lots of sparks and booms that will make your eyes hurt while you smile at the thought of being a Small-straw-picker of the ever whimsical Mystrap in the interesting prelude to a monumental event of the Forgotten Realms history!! Go and flash some Silver Fire to blind yourself for over a minute!! Pchiuf!! Pchiufff!!
Posted by DrakeWyrm at 2008-10-18 00:05:27 Voted 1.00 on 10/18/08
Pregenerated only? Rubbish.
Posted by Rarosu at 2008-09-21 09:24:39 Voted 9.00 on 09/21/08
Making me happy, filling the air with so much magic, I cannot even see my own character =) Remember me why I love playing mages so much. Only thing I really can complain about was the length of the module, only reason you won't get a 10.
Cheers!
Posted by treas25 at 2008-07-22 06:19:34 Voted 9.00 on 07/22/08
I was giving it a 9.75 but I found a bug and the baelnorm diddn´t join my party.
Thanks guys! fire&ice, I don't have NWN1 installed anymore, so I can't fix the typo, but thanks for the heads-up! :D _________________________ Alex "Hugie" Hugon
Writer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's first Adventure Pack Moonshadows - An Action-Packed, Story-Driven Adventure in the Forgotten Realms [Development Blog] The Third Sign - A Novel-to-NWN2-Module conversion of Gregory A. Wilson's book [Purchase from Amazon]
Posted by fire&ice at 2008-01-01 05:03:31 Voted 9.00
(Mod is still great, some notes)
I previously had repeatable crashes with this mod at the start unless I turned the music off. With new graphics drivers (ATI) this crash seems to have gone away.
Posted by Gel214th at 2007-12-28 07:18:25 Voted 8.00 on 12/28/07
Perchance to dream was a nice, short adventure. Playing as Khelben was fun, though for some reason I find Wizards a bit difficult to fight with (I'm more into the melee warrior churning out 265 damage every round *big grin*). The storyline was good, it engaged the player without becoming too overbearing.
There is lots of combat,and I needed every Epic Spell that Khelben possessed to get through some encounters. Luckily you can rest just about anywhere that an enemy isn't present. And those rests will certainly be needed! :)
I had a lot of fun with this adventure! I would like to see the second part, and hope that one would be just a tad longer ^_^.
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2007-11-16 09:22:12 Voted 10.00
Hugie,
Did you get my email at your andover address I believe? _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by Bloum at 2007-11-12 10:08:30 Voted 10.00 on 11/11/07
Thank you for your kind reply.
The end of the module was so great ! And now, I feel a little frustrated ! :D
Thanks and congratulations again for this fantastic module !
Very glad you're enjoying yourself so much thus far! :D Yup, it's normal for the prison pit to be sealed--it's there more for ambiance than for anything else, iirc.
Posted by Bloum at 2007-11-11 03:28:05 Voted 10.00 on 11/11/07
First of all, English is not my language, so I apologize for the mistakes there could be in my commentary.
And then, the most important : congratulations for this great story. Even if I haven't finished it yet, I've got so much pleasure to play it that I don't hesitate to give you the maximal note.
~Spoiler~
I've got one question : In Harrowsmouth Upper Halls, I cannot open the door at the Pit Prison. Is it normal ?
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