Updated: 06/19/18
Since 2013 we have been developing a campaign that closes out the OC/MotB/MoWG/SoZ storyline. We have contracted some incredibly talented 3D modelers, artists, programmers and designers to bring our vision to life. We plan on using this thread as our development diary and announcement platform as we push to 1.0. Thank you all so much for the encouragement and support!
Narrative Summary:
The plot is driven by the Arc-Demon Graz’zt’s attempt to usurp Shar’s divinity using an unsealed tear in the Shadow Weave. (A hole created in Black Garius’s attempt to usurp the King of Shadows… and located in Crossroad Keep’s basement). To this end, the demon sent a powerful band of villains to seize control of Neverwinter and sow chaos along the Sword Coast. The Knight Captain, freshly returned from his trials in Westgate and the Unapproachable East is all that stands between the fiend and ultimate power.
Working Title:
Nightsinger’s Bane
- A reference to The Kaiser and Graz’zt effectively killing Shar if their coup succeeds.
Planned features thus far:
- Re-spawning farming grounds for level 1-7.
- Arenas where players can spawn and battle difficult monsters and NPCs.
- An epic-level “bottomless dungeon” - Shandra Jerro’s Tomb.
- Integration of the Charlie’s Appearance Customization System to personalize equipment.
- Randomized “fetch” style quests from Volo, Daeghun or Axle (Based on alignment).
- Main-quest line play Balanced for a six man party, levels 20-30.
- Merchants, starting zones and player housing is main plot-independent.
- A functioning Thieves Guild with a Brothel, Bar, Dice and Card Games.
- Over 500 new magical items, potions, backpacks and other interesting tools - the latter of which are usable at various places in the game world. Ropes can be purchased to climb sheer surfaces for example.
- Silverwand Scripted Weapons: Staves of Power, the Magi, Malak. Silver Sword, Dream Dagger and a Rod of Lordly Might.
- A writing crafting station, giving players the ability to draft letters to place in housing mail boxes.
- 50 types of food, some of which which provides minor physical enhancements when consumed.
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A survival element added to the game - Iron Rations or a Food Item must be consumed in the inventory to rest. Additionally a water gauge will track hydration - the players will be required to stock Waterflasks, drink at Inns/Taverns or discover natural water sources, (if they have high survival), to quench their thirst.
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kevL’s Hydration System Specifics: All players and NPC’s will occasionally need to drink to maintain their Hydration Bar. The Hydration Bar decreases 2% every in game hour, (10 minutes). At 75% the player begins accruing small penalties to their stats, and as the bar decreases, the severity of the debuffs increase exponentially. When the gauge reaches 0%, the character dies of dehydration, (a process taking a bit over two in game days with nothing to drink). Drinking Water, Wine, Ale or Spirits will increase the Hydration bar. Drink Values: Water 5%, Wine 3%, Ale 5% or Spirits 1%.
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All Companions begin a level 1 and auto-level to 20 - offering full customization beyond base class.
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One upgradeable equipment set per companion. There will be three tiers of upgrades. Each tier requires special ores which drop from the monsters in the infinite dungeon below Shandra’s Tomb. 10 ores will allow the player to upgrade one suit of equipment: (25% Complete)
Tier 1: Asterite Ore - Found on level 10 Monsters.
Tier 2: Netherium Ore - Found on level 20 Monsters.
Tier 3: Arcanium Ore - Found on level 30 Monsters. -
The return of previous companions: (100% Complete)
- Kelgar Ironfist - NWN2: OC
- Neeshka - NWN2: OC
- Ammon Jerro - NWN2: OC
- Safiya - NWN2: MotB
- Gann of Dreams - NWN2: MotB
- Kaelyn the Dove - NWN2: MotB
- One of Many - NWN2: MotB
- Rinara - NWN2: MoW
- Charissa - NWN2: MoW
- Mantides - NWN2: MoW
- Ribsmasher - NWN2: SoZ
- Finch - NWN2: SoZ
- Umoja - NWN2: SoZ
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The Return of Popular NPC’s from NWN, NWN2, PT, BG, SoA and ToB: (60% Complete)
- Duncan
- Bevil
- Orlen
- Chir
- Sand
- Lastri
- Quarrel
- Zhjaeve
- Cormick
- Kana
- Daeghun Farlong
- Caelryna
- Jan Jansen
- Wolf & Minions
- And Many More
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Five NEW Companions: (95% Complete)
- Kistrel - Sorceress
- Bodvarr Falgeirrson - Barbarian
- Terukawa Urakami - Fighter
- Eirinn Mac Cathmhaoil - Fey
- Ithefelle - Necromancer
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Four NEW Familiar Types: (100% Complete)
- Pseudodragon
- Sylph
- Skeletal Minion
- Intelligent Sword
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Six tiers of multi-player housing: (90% Complete)
- A Room in Crossroad Keep.
- A Suite in Crossroad Keep.
- A Peasant House Outside the Castle Walls.
- A Merchant House Inside the Castle Walls.
- A Mansion Inside the Castle Walls.
- The Deed to Crossroad Keep Itself.
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18 New Stores and Merchants: (85% Complete)
- Sand’s Magic Mercantile
- Caelryna’s Trade Goods
- The Beginner’s Merchant Caravan.
- Mur’eil & Mar’tauren Hadwell’s Jewelry
- Stablemaster McGuiness’s Leathercrafts
- Uncus’s Shadow Market
- Raelis Shai’s Crossroad Theater
- Lady Sa’Sani’s Merchant Company Headquarters
- The Church of Tyr
- The Barracks
- The Pheonix Tail Inn and Tavern
- Roger the Fence
- Edario’s Smithy
- Deekin’s Curios
- Jacoby’s Forge
- Drow Black market
- Cromwell’s Pavilion
- Ribald Barterman’s Traveling Emporium
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Tarim’s Katar’s are for sale - exotic weapons for exotic characters. (Uses Kama proficiency). Eleven different types of Katars are abaliable from the Caelryna’s Trade Goods: Normal, Magical +1-5, Adamantine, Alchemical Silver, Cold Iron, Darksteel and Mithril. (100% Complete)
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15 Unique Quests broken into 3 Chapters: (10% Complete)
- Whispers of Turmoil.
- The Rescue of Casavir.
- Unraveling The Mystery of Kistrel.
- Restoring the Construct. (Optional)
- The Way of Zerth.
- Delving the Tomb of Horrors. (Optional)
- Tholapsyx’s Curse.
- Orbakh’s Revenge.
- The Puppet Master Unveiled.
- The Call to Arms.
- The Battle of Crossroad Keep.
- A Red Wizard’s Love.
- The Dreamer’s Reverie.
- Farewell to Old Friends.
- One well hidden Easter-egg style quest. (Optional)
- Featured Areas: (75% Complete)
- Cromwell’s target/weapon/spell testing range.
- The Crossroad Keep Vault.
- The Crossroad Keep Barracks.
- Safiya’s Laboratory.
- Shandra Jerro’s Tomb.
- Ammon Jerro’s Lair.
- The Crossroad Keep Caverns.
- The Crossroad Keep Theater.
- The Pheonix Tail Inn & tavern.
- The Shadow Thieves Gambling Hall & Brothel.
- The Rashemi Consulate.
- The Neverwinter Consulate.
- The Church of Tyr’s Catacombs.
- Startear’s Tower.
- The Training Grounds.
- The Planar Arenas.
Files:
Tomb of Horrors - Hard Edition (85% Complete)
We have been working for the past 5 months to revamp Morbane’s Tomb of Horrors, drastically upgrading the visuals/effects, and increasing the difficulty many fold - to the point of it being nearly certain death to any player group of any level and configuration. Even a fully upgraded MotB Evil-campaign Soul Eater will have great difficulty with this module. The intent is to make this module the gold-standard for brain-bending deathtraps, punctuated by demonic-spider type enemies - worthy of any Nintendo-Hard optional content.
The focus here is not only learning the tool-set but experimenting with dialog options, working out the logic which will be used for the scripting of the entire project, and setting the foundation so that our dialog options/behavior are consistent throughout the campaign. We also plan to release it when completed as a stand-alone campaign - for those multiplayer fiends who want to murder their friends on game night.
Crossroad Keep - Conclusion (Working Title, 23% Complete)
Override Folder: (Contains all campaign item assets)
Optional Files:
Crossroad Keep - Conclusion Campaign Overview (Plotting 40% Complete, Narrative 20% Complete)
The plan here is three-fold - create a MMORPG style NPC community, with a functional housing zone and market, which is accessible at any level as stand alone content. Running concurrently, at a pace dictated by the player, will be a side-campaign that ties off the dangling plot threads of the Knight Captain/Spirit Eater’s story. One last hurrah so to speak. Old friends are set to return, past actions may come back to haunt the KC, and new friends will turn up in unexpected places.
A dialog is planned when loading into the module’s Lobby, that will adjust plot details and NPC interactions based on a series of questions the player will answer. The complexity of this will be dictated by our resources. We’d like the option to cater to Evil, Neutral and Good, wile still keeping with the canonical endings of The OC.
Map Key:
- Map Note - GOLD: 255, 255, 255
- Guest Book - ORANGE: 250, 133, 0
- Merchant - BLUE: 0, 174, 239
- Player House - GREEN: 6, 161, 55
- Wolf’s Minion - PINK: 255, 0, 255
- Area Exit - RED: 121, 0, 0
- Quest Giver - PURPLE: 68, 14, 98
OC Assumptions:
This is the assumed path taken by the KC up to this point - this is written in stone, and based on the assumptions made by Obsidian when developing MotB and our own opinions on how the story ended.
- Amie Fern is dead, killed by the Githyanki.
- Shandra Jerro died in Ammon’s Haven.
- West Harbor’s known survivors are Tarmas, Bevil, Orlen, the KC and Daeghun.
- The KC was given command of Crossroad Keep.
- The Construct Was repaired.
- The KC sided with the Shadow Thieves, Axle survived.
- Neeshka resisted her geas.
- Qara allied with the KoS and was killed.
- The Construct chose Grobnar over Bishop.
- The KC destroyed the KoS.
- The Illfarn ruins collapsed on the party.
- The Construct was smashed - but not irreparably so in the cave-in.
- Elanee and Grobnar died in the collapse.
- Sand Transformed into an Iron Golem and survived.
- Neeshka dodged her way clear of the collapse.
- Khelgar tanked his way clear of the cave-in.
- The KC was taken by Gargoyles.
- Ammon Jerro pursued the Kidnappers and was captured.
- Zhjaeve plane-shifted to safety.
- Casavir survived with a shattered spine and was captured by Luskan.
- They KC either moved-on to Gann/Safiya, or gave up on personal attachments if they romanced Casavir/Elanee.
(Optional) MotB Assumptions:
This may or may not be assumed, depending on development resources and time - ideally, the MotB assumptions will be variable, and player selectable. At a Minimum, the player will be able to choose between Gann, Safiya or neither for relationships, and whether they created One of Many.
- Bishop was consumed by the wall of the faithless.
- The Ideal ending was achieved - the Spirit Eater Curse was forever ended.
- The Slumbering Coven was destroyed.
- Ammon Jerro was rescued from the Academy.
- The Founder survived.
- Myrkul was not consumed or he was released.
- The PC still has the Sword of Gith.
(Optional) MoWG Assumptions:
Currently, having the player “become” a vampire is simply not feasible unless we can scrounge up more assistance. It’s more scripting than I am capable of or Injate is willing to write. Complicating matters is the difficulty of getting at MoWG resources, not certain how they protected them, but I have a hard time getting even the sound sets working, let alone the scripts to run a PC vampire.
- Mantides was fully redeemed, and vowed to protect the KC in his further adventures.
- Rinara returned to help the KC in the end.
- Charissa followed the KC back to crossroad keep, treating him as something of a “reclamation project.”
- Orbakh’s offer of vampirism was refused.
- Orbakh’s human cattle facility was destroyed… and he’s definitely one to hold a grudge.
- The Domino Mask Curse was lifted.
- The Ebon-Claw guild was destroyed.
- Zymena was unmasked and banished back to the lower planes.
- The KC quickly left Westgate to avoid the retribution of Orbakh and his remaining Nightmasks.
(Optional) SoZ Assumptions:
As with MotB, we would LIKE to vary the plot/story based on player input, to better keep in line with their experience, but we also recognize that we are not Bioware, and Mass Effect levels of continuity may not be possible with our resources. At a minimum we’d like to tailor Sa’Sani’s demeanor to account for the player’s version of SoZ events.
- Khelgar was appointed to the Neverwinter Nine.
- Sa’Sani still has Volo enthralled, and he’s continuing keep her company.
- Sa’Sani’s Merchant guild is powerful and well respected thanks to the actions of the PC in SoZ.
- Sa’Sani’s more brutal tendencies were curtailed by the PC of SoZ, and she is slowly “becoming the mask.”
- Zehir’s avatar was destroyed, and the plot to take over the sword coast was thwarted.
- Chir was rescued from the Mind Flayers.
- Umoja is on a vision quest for his god, and has traveled to the Sword Coast for a time.
- Finch is currently… “enjoying the safety of Crossroad keep” after swooning a vindictive Hostower Sorceress.
The Protagonist - Knight In Sour Armor?
Presented below is the world as our protagonist, The Knight Captain, has experienced it thus far. The information following helps the reader see things from the perspective of a character who has, by the beginning of our story, become more than a bit jaded . (With very good reason).
One thing to consider about the KC’s sarcastic tone is everything the poor sod has been through. At this point, the Kalakcha has to be getting more than a bit cynical, or he/she would go insane/collapse emotionally. When you consider the KC’s lot in life, being a smart-arse becomes a survival mechanism. Their entire existence has been a case-study in “from-bad-to-worse.”
He/She began their adventure as an orphan exiled from their hometown by their own foster-parent, (after potentially watching their childhood crush die), was shortly thereafter framed for murdering an entire village, used as a pawn by both Neverwinter and Black Garius, watched Shandra Jerro die at the hands of her own grandfather/great-grandfather - in the act of saving them, fought a war against a horrifying eldritch abomination, was betrayed by at least two long-time companions, had the ceiling dumped on their head as a reward, and finally watched many of their companions die protecting them, (Including possibly their first real lover).
And that’s just Book 1.
By the Knight Captain’s second tale, he/she found themselves kidnapped by polymorphed gargoyles, endured ad-hock open-heart surgery at the tender hands of Nefris, was made the unwilling host of a horrifying, life destroying entity, regarded at best as a serious threat to the Unapproachable East, simultaneously manipulated by a cabal of Red Wizards, a dead deity’s minion, a fanatic Half-Celestial (with an impossible agenda), a Titan Demi-lich, a Wyrm Blue Dragon, a Fallen Solar, a coven of man-eating Hags and no less than two gods. Also, we’ll note that the poor Spirit Eater - an endearing title if there ever was one - had to commit quite a laundry-list of highly amoral acts in the process of saving his friends, surviving the long chain of entities who’d just as soon see them dead, and twisting the machinations of those using him/her to save their very soul from oblivion.
By Book three, the KC is de-powered substantially after the separation from Akachi, being slowly driven insane due to a cursed domino mask, separated from their entire circle of friends (and possibly their new/first lover), and again finds themselves a chess piece in a deadly game between a cabal of were-rats, a vampireized Manshoon clone and a horrifying Demon looking to kill all of the above, protagonist included. For allies, the KC has fire-forged friends and lovers replaced by an amoral former assassin (who near everybody in Westgate wants dead), a severely disagreeable Tyrian cleric and a washed-up fallen Paladin - with a serious drinking-problem. Things look bleak. With this band of misfit toys, the Kalakcha has to play the competing agendas against each other, outwit a creature who annihilated Elminster - twice - and somehow un-curse themselves before they go stark raving mad.
Now we get to Book 4 (Our Story), where the poor KC, having been through all of that, begins the tale nearly dying to Nightmask retaliation, returns to a less than pleasant homecoming in Neverwinter, becomes a pariah due to the machinations of a Cambion - who’s all but taken the place over - (and is considered a hero of Knight Captain proportions by the general population no less), gets sent on a series of deliberate suicide missions, has their reputation tarnished in a chain of out-of-context distortions and winds considered by the population of the Sword Coast to be a Black Network level threat. Amidst all of that, they have to deal with a foe who is their true equal in not merely physical terms, but at the game of Xanatos Speed-Chess. In The Kaiser, The Knight Captain is opposing someone capable of matching his/her ability to play sides against each other, making this quite possibly their deadliest foe. Our hero has stood down stronger entities - even gods - but this creature can match the KC in manipulation - which as we’ve seen in the entire story, has been the TRUE power of our hero.
When one considers the biography above, (which is in reality a testament to human suffering), a narrative that our protagonist only survived by outwitting everybody and everything they’ve encountered, The Knight Captain might be forgiven for having a few jerkish tendencies - developed purely as a coping mechanism.
The Kalakcha’s entire story reminds us of “The Odyssey.” He/she simply can’t catch a break, and when they do, often times they screw it up through their own missteps. While the protagonist is truly a legend, they have real flaws, and even on a good play-through must delve well into black and grey morality to survive. Like any real person, they’re exasperated by a lifetime of torment and mental abuse. They’ve been the playthings of fate, have been subjected to every imaginable injury and suffering, watched their friends and/or lover(s) die and their typical reward is mere survival. Even a lawful-good paladin is going to show some rough edges after that level of emotional trauma.
The Team:
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Writing: Sabranic
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Art: Chad Springer
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Editing: The NWN 2 Community
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Play Testing: Xaylla, Injate, Littlepirate, Aramina, Arenaceusmaga, Swaygr, Injate, Akamas
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Level Design: Sabranic, Swaygr, SGK73, Super Midget, Ugly_Duck, Alaster Wolf, seraphimsage, Morbane, Chaos_Theocrat, botumys, Gremlin, Issacjr, Glimmlampe, Ladyelvenstar, SDJ, Ho5a, and Ithalyan.
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3D Modeling: Schazzwozzer, MisterBritish, FokSiGen, Xaltar, rjshae, ArtEChoke, Arpharazon, and Anon-Team-Member. (He or She has requested to remain anon. But they are good - VERY GOOD).
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Programming: Injate, the above Anon-Team-Member and a very honorable Mention to kevL, who has made it very clear that he is not a part of the team per say - he’s a knowledgeable helper who has gone above and beyond what you could call help, creating the thirst system and some extra-nasty goodies in the ToH. He also did a great deal of work in the Morbane Branch of the ToH - so he has no small amount of interest in our adaptation of it.
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Item design: Sabranic, Kaldor Silverwand, Clangeddin86
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Game System Design: kevL, Kaldor Silverwand, brockfanning, ChimneyFish, WarmachineX
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Installer Set-up/Programming: Injate
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Music: Manabu Namiki, Azusa Chiba, Norihiko Hibino, Kimihiro Abe, Yoshitaka Suzuki, ukihiro Jindo, Thomas J. Bergersen, Nick Phoenix, Matt Uelmen, Jeremy Soule, Russell Cox, Rebecca Evans.
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Technical Support: Clangeddin86, Tchos, Kaldor Silverwand, ColorsFade, Knightmare, kevL, PJ156, kamal_, Lance Botelle
Special Thanks:
(Without the help of these people we’d have a pretty looking map that does nothing interesting).
- Kaldor Silverwand
- ColorsFade
- Knightmare
- kevL
- PJ156
- kamal_
- Lance Botelle
Note: Please feel free to use anything we have created in any way you’d like. This is a labor of love, and if any module, script, conversation, icon item, NPC or anything we’ve build is helpful to your own projects, it’s yours. (And if you want fork our work and do better than us… GREAT! We’re trying to make the game we want to play here - if you can do it better, we’re all ears).
