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Aribeth's Redemption - Chapter One
Submitted by:
Submitted by Daniel Muth on 2014-07-31 22:13.
Last modified:
2017-08-24 11:48
Old Vault Category:
modules
Old Vault ID:
5044
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| Title | Aribeth's Redemption Chapter 1 |
| Author | Daniel Muth |
| Submitted / Updated | 06-27-2006 / 04-10-2007 |
| Category | Official Campaign |
| Expansions | HOTU-1.67 |
| Setting | Neverwinter, on your successful return from giving Morag a well-deserved heave-ho. |
| Gameplay Length | 5-7 |
| Number Players | 1 |
| Language | English |
| Level Range | 14-17 |
| Races | Any Male |
| Tricks & Traps | Light |
| Roleplay | Heavy |
| Hack & Slash | Medium |
| Classes | Written mainly for Paladins, but any Lawful and/or Good character should work. It ought to be someone Aribeth would be interested in. |
| Scope | Part of Series |
| DMNeeded | No DM Required |
| Single or Multiplayer | Single Player |
| Max Character Level | 17 |
| Max # Players | 01 |
| Min # Players | 01 |
| Min Character Level | 14 |
| Content Rating | Everyone |
| Alignments | Lawful Good; Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral |
| Gameplay Hours | 05 |
| Description | |
| This module is a continuation of the Official Campaign (OC) for Lawful and/or Good male characters interested in pursuing the Aribeth romance. Your character should have saved her at the end of the OC and believe that a fair trial will mean that she gets something other than the end of a noose - and, of course, he has some sort of romantic interest in her. HINT: It's not for everybody. Your chaotic neutral halfling thief will feel distinctly like a dork spouting half of this dialogue. | |
Files:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 aribeths_redemption.zip (3900) | 1.71 MB |
Required projects:
Since there were not so many "post-OC" modules this had to be a must try. Good module to further your lawful good character especially if you are a fan of the elven paladin.
The very verbose dialogues can be a little annoying playing the module a second time and the fact that the sentences are not placed for being properly clicked with your mouse you find yourself moving the pointer all the time in order to progress faster.
The mod is well balanced apart from the second encounter which I found a little bit hard but the encounters (at least in the church's basements) were a little bit repetitive.
Surely the mod was able to make me feel guilty everytime Aribeth was to be resurrected if she died in action...
On the contrary, sir, there are some post-OC modules: http://neverwintervault.org/article/reference/campaigns-and-module-serie...
Psst - shameless plugin :) I have some more to add for post-OC category.
And then sir I have to thank you in return. Really!
I can't count the number of evil characters I put aside in order to use them further. Some of them I put through the terribly difficult "A Hunt for a Necromancer": splendid mod but way too difficult for a non epic character.
As Deekin says when turned from stone to flesh near Ashtara:<<Thank you, thank you, thank you!>>.
I've played the module now and I found it to be more enjoyable and well-balanced than many others out there.
I may have found a bug though or perhaps I did something to disable a necessary trigger... I can't find the Dwarven heirloom halberd "Spike" or "Smike" or whatever it's called. I have looked everywhere but to no avail. Does anyone know how and/or where it can be found?
After you bear through trial and first few encounters it gets better and better.
- there are walls of text, followed by walls of text written in hard and official if not pompous tone. Typos all around as well(in conversation, if not prompted otherwise): "servent" - Lord Nasher; "canker"(should be cancer? I am not sure.) - Darene Fettian; "ought"(should be "nought"?) - Tulduil (trail conversation); "my L.ady"&"it is to hoped" - Aribeth; "siince" - Delinus mountor; "the"(should be "she") - aarin gend; Possibly many more typos and grammar errors, I advise to use NWNSpellchecker.
- one door in city core is openable but with no transition
- can't make stakes by smashing WOODEN doors, chests etc. on the 2nd level of basement
- vampire cultists attack gaseous forms..
- undead trolls ain't undead
- no black market to sell traps to
I fully agree with Werelynx, but would like to add that I find the story interesting. I would have hoped the trial to be conducted more like in the OC, where you had to find clues and convice the jury (I didn't look in the toolset if there were any conditional scripts, but often the dialogs have only one reply).
Anyway it's well-balanced and nice to play (even if your PC is not a paladin. Mine is not even Lawful Good [actually, I started the OC Neutral, but ended Neutral Good because of various subquests]), although some encounters were quite difficult.
If you'd like to know what happens to Aribeth, don't hesitate to try.
Must agree with the others, And I am an Aribeth fan. Top mod still.
Some walking, but great!
Re-playing this great series after a long time, and it's still one of my favorites!
Onwards to Chapter 2!
Played the series with a half-orc barbarian (CG) from the OC. :-) There seams to be no restiction. Well, taking the plot not too serious could be some extra fun ...
Regarding the plot and having extra fun... you can play a drinking game with it. Take a shot whenever someone says "Lord" or "Lady". No, wait, don't - you will die.
For statisticians: this module contains 453 "Lords", 400 "Ladies", including 78 "Lady Aribeth"s.
I enjoyed this a lot, it is a good way to continue the story of your character from the OC, and of course, I love Aribeth - don't we all?
It is hard to rate this love / almost hate module.
Storyline - LOVE
New designs/New character NPC types/ -LOVE
New environments. Overjoyed with LOVE.
The care put into the storyline and the feeling of adventure . LOVE
Not starting at level one. Oh thank you! LOVE
Ability to equip followers with cool items. LOVE
Epic for sure. Love it.
All three mods:
1. Some areas were not balanced...attacking monks with ridiculous AC when I had 32 to hit , epic spell casting...nothing harmed them. There were no tricks or observations to figure out how to bypass.
2. I am uncertain why rainbow levers are supposed to be so easy when no instruction was given, no rewards or clues given to the observant adventurer either. When in our childhood have we learned which colors of a rainbow are first, let alone in which order? I had to give in and read the walkthrough.
3. If I had 4 people in the group and I wanted to check inventory on the 4th follower, I would have to ask the the same character to see the inventory 4 times. Every time I asked, it would 'unhire' the previous party member until the npc I wanted to make a transaction with, was the only one left. I would then have to 're hire' each member.
4. At the end, I had 73 AC and they were still hitting me. It was easier to just let everyone die and wait out the enemies buffs, then resurrect the one guy who could actually hit them every 1 minute.....oh my goodness...
It took 3 seconds to kill the main objective (trying not to spoil it) and it took 40 minutes to come close to defeating the adepts, then dying, then trying a new tactic that would take at least another 30 minutes.
5. Dialogue demeanor and flowery narration are good, then not so good. In other words, the same flowery notation from each npc talking in the same conversation; is a double whammy and lessens the good experience.
6. All three mods had limited uninteresting capes, magical items and bags until the end of the story. At the very end there were interesting and fun items including bags, but who cares since the game is over.
I played a lawful neutral druid. I am a female and I was aware this mod was written for young males to fantasize adventuring with a controversial character. I thought that would be the only thing I had to deal with. I was wrong.
1. Scripts didn't trigger and I had to replay an earlier save after I realized I had nowhere to go and out of desperation went to the only logical place that I had already been to; and the scene changed because dialogue finally 'fired'.
2. The entire story was based on the love of two people and immersion so easily broken because I had to single play for the entirety of the third mod. I couldn't even advance faster because I was sharing with another and was afraid to let her leave the party in case I might miss parts of the story with her not there.
3. I had built up Aribeth in the second mod and the third mod and even went broke. All the gear I labored for was stripped after agreeing to quest for the 'Holy Order'.
When I went to reclaim original gear..... +4 regen ring-gone Aribeths upgraded avenger sword--GONE.....Aribeths shield-gone. Aribeth's body armor----gone. At one point my ring of power was downgraded to lesser (even though it was obtained legally in one of the earlier mods).
Other items-gone. I was very unhappy.
4. In the third mod, I had to reload because towards the end, I had died in the epic battle where I had at least 8 people joined with me. The issue was
when I reloaded, they were not joined with me and were 'red' enemies inside the area they were supposed to be attacking.
I deleted that save game and loaded an earlier one an the guy who is in charge of the entire operation attacked his second in command. So I had to delete THAT save, Much time wasted.
I finally got past that part only to have the issue reappear, this time I didn't die to trigger it. Once I lost camera control and the Lord Nasher was making his speech, everyone went crazy, killed Lord Nasher (WHILE I was reading his dialogue).
I reloaded the ending part again with same conclusion. On the thrid attempt, I had to PAUSE, read dialogue, pause, read,pause; etc ) and that was how I managed to get around it. But then, the epilogue had the same issue of people attacking, distracting me from reading.
Much frustration over fighting bug monsters.
All 3 mods together made one lovely story and is easily more than 15 hours. I must have played for at least 30 hours for just the third mod, if not more (minus glitches).
This is a mod that deserves attention because it is a litmus test for other modders to measure up with.
This mod series has soul.
"IHateRegistering" -
OK, so I'm late responding here. Sorry. Regardless, these comments are deserving of a response. I very much appreciate the kind comments and am glad to hear that you generally enjoyed the series. As to your concerns:
1. I get the issue with the ridiculously overpowered monks. I found them difficult if I rushed out and took them all on at once. If, on the other hand, I kept my group in the adjoining room and lured them in one at a time, they're pretty beatable. Let's face it: you have a pretty overpowered group yourself and have infinite heals/resurrections. But, yeah, they're tough. I sympathize.
2. Maybe the rainbow thing is a testament to my engineering background. Every basic physics class on the planet teaches you ROYGBV. I simply couldn't imagine someone not knowing that. My younger brother is a philosophy professor. He tells me that there are people who don't take physics. Oh. My bad. Sorry again.
3. I hear complaints like this and the "Aribeth doesn't help" line fairly often - and always because you have a .hak file loaded (TonyK or something like that) that these modules were not written in anticipation of. Delete it and the thing should run fine - or at least as fine as my limited programming skills will allow.
4. See my first comment above. Try a different strategy. Regardless, I sympathize.
5. My regrets on the clunkiness - particularly early on - of some of the dialogue. I was pretty fixated on matching Tolkien and managed it at times - at others not so much. I particularly regret occasionally mixing up the terms "aught" and "naught" and occasionally misspelling the latter. Duh. Otherwise, as I've said before, I wrote this for me, not necessarily for you and it's no surprise that our tastes occasionally clash. Keep in mind: I prefer Gregorian chant to the Beatles. Just saying.
6. As to the capes, they actually were interesting colors, etc. when I originally wrote the story. Somewhere along the line, Bioware or whoever modified things, washing out the colors. I don't know why. Of course, it could have been on my end. I'm honestly not sure. You can always gather up the cool stuff at the end and use it elsewhere. But again, I sympathize.
I think the foregoing covers most of your other comments. Just a couple of other things:
7. While I freely admit to giving inadequate warnings about the tendency of Bioware to destroy your bags if you leave anything in them when you're stripped for the Ostler's Guild adventure (mea culpa), you get plenty of warnings to not leave anything on Aribeth at the end of each module and when you have her change careers at the beginning of Chapter 3. Plenty. Of. Warnings. This one's on you.
8. Yeah, I screwed up the autosave at the battle where the whole other team joins you. That one's on me. I should fix it. I really should. Some day. Maybe.
On the whole, I appreciate your candid feedback and understand your frustration. I'm particularly glad to hear that your experience was a generally positive one. I try to be clear that this series isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's mine. I did pretty much everything I wanted to with it and am at fault for any and all storytelling issues. And yes, for some of the programming issues as well, though not all of them, as noted at times above. I certainly appreciate anyone who feels strongly enough to take the time to comment at length and grovel in mortification that I didn't get back to you earlier. You deserve a response. I trust that all is well otherwise. Best regards - DWM
i love this mod. i played this thru multiple times. is this compatible with the enhanced edition?
Thanks for responding. I am hating EE so far btw. They screwed up the camera. I wish they wouldve added new lvl cap
Yes it is. I'm currently halfway through Chapter 3. Playing it with NWN :EE on a Chromebok ^_^
What the Shadows of Undrentide expansion should have been and was not. Good story rate 10/10
I loved this mod. Best one I've played of all mods imo. I played it through a few times just because it was so good. My problem now is, I wiped my hd and cleaned up my laptop and can't find a way to get all of these mods and the cep? Can't remember the name of the platform i had that saved all of the mods on. Can anyone help me?
Is this a joke? neverwintervault.org is the site. You are on it if you posted this review. Is there a score for the module?
Look on the front page. At the top of that page on the left there is a link to the Mod Installer Tool (aka NIT aka Neverwinter Module Installer tool). That is probably what you are thinking of.
TR
Far too verbose. The dialogues are so long and adorned you have to scroll even in full hd dialogue size. The plot is hamfisted. Anything and everything Aribeth does or did is forgivable. There are also sequences and actions that make absolutely no sense, which I won't share to avoid spoiling. The module is short, clearly old and most probably a first effort by the author. If so, it is a good first effort. He does warn this isn't for everybody, though.
This was a fantastic mod! I basically binge-played it over the past week or so! While some of the dialogue was a bit long, the storytelling was top notch, and the gameplay was addictive. Thank you for building the series!!!!
Thank you for making this modules, enjoying it most of the time. My review:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/82259/finished-my-first-playthroug...
I reponded to "marcnivar" over at the Beamdog forum thus:
Smooth transition from the OC makes playing this afterwards nearly a MUST for anyone who loves Aribeth / NWN deducted one point from perfect because of the too verbose dialog which I know was needed for storytelling but it could have been executed better
Maybe it's just me, but I think that if the Hero of Neverwinter (as well as the world, and different alt universes) as a reward for their service would demand release of Aribeth to remain under his/her care, on a condition that she'll be forever banished from Neverwinter, it would have been just fine. They carried survival of that city on their back since chapter one, I'd say that Nasher - and everyone else - owes them a pretty damn significant debt.
Other issues and some exploits:
Regardless - something tells me that if Aribeth would receive a second chance, last thing she'd do is to slip into the lie that made her hate herself and finally snap in the first place and make the same mistake again.
Tristan Gray -
Sorry to be a smidge late with this. I don't check this site all that often. Much of what you have to say, I don't really need to respond to as it's prety well-worn territory by now. I disagree with the notion that that there's any implausibility with the story set-up, particularly as it relates to Aribeth's relative guilt - at least of the crime of high treason. I'm clear on that: she's not guilty of *that* crime. She is most definitely guilty of dereliction of duty (a potentially capital offense, I might note) and she's rightly convicted. I think the explanation for her sentance is entirely adequate. On the whole, I think I provide an entirely plausible scenario. You're welcome to disagree, of course.
I'm surprised you were able to get into the farm prior to the trial. I haven't checked it in a while, but all the buildings in that area save the monastery are supposed to be locked tight. My regrets if I missed something. I'm guessing, however, that you're entirely aware that those conversations weren't supposed to fire until later in the story. It's pretty obvious, isn't it?
There is most definitely a container for the water on the first level of the dungeon. I can't say why you didn't find it. Keep looking around. It's there.
I'm aware that some people have issues with the performance of some characters. It's usually because you have hak files or some such from other games that interfere with this one in ways I haven't the expertise to correct. The issue you describe with the Old One Lich has never happened to me and I've never heard of it before.
As to your comment re the setting, that is actually addressed in the course of some of the conversations you were glossing over vice reading. My theory is this: you never actually meet Aribeth in HoTU. What Morag had done was kill servants whose True Names she knew and sent their spirits to the world to seek likely candidates to enter into in order to aid in bringing Morag back. During Aribeth's bloody orc hunt, she unknowingly came into contact with one of these beings, whose True Name was Va'ardalia the Twin-Souled (I think that's what it was). Part of Morag's control over Aribeth lay in her ability to manipulate the spirit that inhabited Aribeth and responded to that name. You actually meet a vampire on the third level of the dungeon who calls Aribeth by the True Name from HoTU and she doesn't respond. The reason is that at the moment Morag was slain, that entity was unable to continue inhabiting Aribeth and left, eventually winding up in Cania as per HoTU. By this time, the entity has come to think it's actually Aribeth and interacts with you as such in HoTU. But we all know better: the real Aribeth is married to you and having the adventures I wrote.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the series. Best - DWM
I don't think there's any need to justify Aribeth's appearance in HotU. It doesn't make sense other than for nostalgia points and higher sales (which apparently worked since HotU sold better than SoU).
Personal opinion: this module series gives Aribeth the best treatment possible and a satisfactory closure to the OC character's arc. It gets the trial part done rather quickly, sure, but its role is to simply give the characters an acceptable motive to embark on the whole journey.
STAY AWAY from these modules.
So, imagine spending hours playing them. All three parts. And eventually, one tiny little thing goes wrong. You collect four pieces of a broken item, which supposedly make a key, so that you can enter some sewers and further this game, and finish this experience, yet nothing happens. And all your efforts, all the hours you spent, all the energy you have invested just.. lead to a dead end. Imagine the frustration, the disappointment, the anger.
Find something worthwile and more serious.
"N3m3s1s" -
It sounds like you had an issue getting the keys fixed in the Waterdeep Docks area. If you're having trouble, you might ask here or even try reading the README file attached with the module. In this case, you place the key parts in the Alchemist's Apparatus - and nothing else - then step back and cast a heal spell on the apparatus. That will fix the keys. I give you at least one heal spell. Again, refer to the readme file. I hope it works for you. And I hope you're not always this combative when you're feeling frustrated. Best regards - DWM
Note it's not any old healing spell. It's Heal that's needed.
This module was like a good old memory trip. After all these years, i dusted my Elf Wizard hero, and happy i was... meeting Aribeth again; helping her redeem herself, and at the same time cutting a battle path throu interesting dungeons with her. The game was a little too verbose for my taste and i encountered some minor problems with conversations and various little imperfections (mostly described by other players in this thread)... but the journey was well worth it ! Lots of thanks for making this.
This is a great module and I played the series before. I love Aribeth, so this was doubly fun and rewarding for me. This time however, my computer freezes frequently and will not come back. I have to Ctr-Alt-Del and use the Task manager to kill NWN. This can happen several times in an area and really makes playing this a chore now!
I am giving up as something is making my machine lock up in the past two modules that i have played! Terrible thing for me, as I play a lot of NWN, but I have no idea why this is happening. Nothing has changed on my PC except a new CoolerMaster CPU fan, which should make things run even cooler than before. Other than that, no changes to software or hardware. Sad times...
I really enjoyed this module. One of the things I was really curious about going in was how this module series was different from Poecile's Aribeth's Revival series. I think I've got a good idea now. Both series are very good, but with very different approaches. Poecile's is more romantic in tone, with far more focus on the PC and Aribeth's relationship and the other elements more on the backburner. Aribeth's Redemption, on the other hand, puts all those elements front and center.
Overall, I've found it to be very satisfying so far. The dialogue definitely is designed for a specific voice, but that's made pretty clear from the onset, and it's not really a problem. I did occasionally find myself getting a little tongue tied when trying to read them outloud though. :-D
I really liked the trial as a set piece. The logic for Aribeth's conviction and punishment is reasonably solid (even if I, as a player, might not entirely agree) and I liked that the major players all had their own concerns and priorities. I also like that there are characters who still have resentment toward Aribeth, and aren't demonized for it.
I do wish there was a little more interactivity with the trial. I didn't go in expecting something as involved as Rolgan's trial or the trail of the PC in NWN2, but it might have been nice to have some choice in how to present the player's perspective, to give a little more illusion of active participation. Instead, it was more like an interactive cinematic, and I wasn't quite as invested as I wanted to be.
I liked the depth and breadth of conversation that the player can have with Aribeth. I particularly liked that we could go in depth and talk about religion or philosophy, as that makes a lot of sense as something that my paladin and former paladin Aribeth would talk about. I did think that occasionally it drifted a little too far into Western Christianity as opposed to the Forgotten Realms. This is something addressed a bit in the readme, so I don't want to ding the module author too hard for it. The only time I thought it was jarringly against established lore was the use of the Overfather/Ao in lieu of the Christian God, with associations with principles of goodness and order. It was fairly easy to move past that. And honestly, even if I don't necessarily agree or don't think my character would agree with the substance of the discussion, I appreciate its existence in the mod anyway. It's good food for thought.
(Tangentially: I'd recommend Crucible: the Trials of Cyric the Mad as a look at how mortal morality intersects with the role of a deity within the Forgotten Realms, though obviously, it isn't particularly relevant to this module. I just really enjoy the book and like to plug it at any given opportunity.)
The Ilmateri monastery was pretty fun. I hadn't actually realized that the farm houses and such outside would be open after the trial (they were locked earlier) and almost missed some subquests. Fortunately, finding the undead people pointed me in that direction, and I was able to do things like send the spoiler character to Neurik before the resolution of things. It was a happy ending in the end and I'm looking forward to parts 2 and 3.
Kalinara, much thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments here. It's been almost 17 years since I wrote the blasted thing and there's no doubt I'd do some things differently if it were in development today. Frankly, the trial probably isn't one of them. Oh sure, I'd adhere more tightly to Forgotten Realms lore, shorten the dialogues, and avoid real world religion as my purposes could easily be achieved with more subtlety. But that's as it may be. I made a conscious decision to give your character just as much control over the trial as he had over the events that resulted in it, which is to say essentially none. I found that part of the OC quite frustrating.
You make a good point that more dialogue options would undoubtedly give the PC more of a sense of involvement. One commenter back around the time the original was posted described the first part of the module as essentially an extended cut scene, which is pretty accurate. The idea is to set up the situation with you and Aribeth on your way to mend what she broke in the OC. No question, there are more appealing ways I could have gone about it.
I appreciate your comments re the discussions with Aribeth. I should have given the PC more options regarding viewpoint, though in some cases at least, my guess is that Aribeth wouldn't be much interested in someone whose view of honor, goodness and order differed overmuch from her own. I didn't see much point in going through all this only for her to conclude that you're dude just isn't her type. But it's a fair enough point. While I wouldn't bother with modern secular thinking (I honestly don't think that the muse of Kant or Descartes, much less, say, Foucault, would have much appeal to someone like Aribeth), some discussion of, say Helm or Ilmater vs.Tyr would have been interesting to explore, given that they do represent legitimate perspectives, even in our world. It was a missed opportunity.
Once again, I appreciate your thoughtfulness and am glad that you enjoyed my effort here. All the best to you. DWM