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The Crypt Of Istaris
The Crypt of Istaris by Richard Fichera from the January/ February 1988 Dungeon magazine and converted to a nwn1 module in July- October 2022. Originally for 6-8 characters of 3rd-5th level. You received a letter from Father Verdain about a evil Dark Brotherhood with a powerful magical Scepter of Dir-yabon in an ancient crypt tampering with a dead wizards remains who are threatening to blow up your hometown! But how that mysterious bard with the letter from Father Verdain ever found you in that forbidden forest you will never know... It's been years since you left your hometown seeking fame and fortune as an adventurer but now you have returned as the great hero to save your hometown from the Dark Brotherhoods mad schemes. But Can You Survive.....
THE CRYPT OF ISTARIS? Edit: 10-9-2022 Updated module to version 1b- fixed 1 floating tree in start area, fixed alot of placeables that were clickable but empty by either making them static or putting items in their inventory, added lines to Father Verdains and The Priestess conversations and made them give a better reward for finishing their quests, also made a few other minor changes. The original version 1a had 68 downloads before being replaced with this update. Edit 10-15-2022: Added 2 new modules and one hakpak- The Crypt of Istaris 1c which uses no hakpaks and The Crypt of Istaris custom music 1a which uses the one hakpak. Both modules contain the same changes: added two new areas- a music instrument shop and a tiny dungeon area. And made a lot of other minor changes to both versions.. The custom music module has 27 songs written, performed and recorded by me MysticHermitMonk in 2022 using a Tascam DR1 and DR07mk2, and one song (Viola Song in Father Verdains Temple area) written and performed in the fall of 2000 by P. Murch and MysticHermitMonk. Viola Song was originally recorded on cassette tape and recently converted to digital format and edited down from 8mins to 2mins. Here is a link to the mp3 versions of these 27 songs in the custom music hakpak if anyone want to download or just give them a listen- https://archive.org/details/07-viola-song The Crypt Of Istaris 1b had 38 downloads before being replaced with the current version.
Edit 10-23-2022: Added 1 more hakpak- "IstarisXtraMusic" Which has 80 songs that were written, performed, and recorded by MysticHermitMonk from July- October 2022 for The Crypt Of Istaris but I only needed 27 tracks and had recorded over 100 tracks so these are the songs that for various reasons I didn't use in the module. I'm releasing them here separately as a stand alone hakpak if any other builders would like to use them in their modules and I do plan on using some of these tracks myself in future modules. Here is the link to the 80 songs converted to mp3s if anyone wants to download or give them a listen- https://archive.org/details/dr-1284-final ***Please Note*** This last hakpak is not used in any of the modules here on this page so please don't download it unless you are planning on using it to build your own module or want to archive it or something like that..
Edit 11-4-2022: Added two new modules The Crypt Of Istaris final 2a and The Crypt Of Istaris custom music 1b. They both have the same changes- changed Father Verdains conversation to tell about second quest earlier and he now has a key to the Crypt in his chest, locked mausoleum door, made more placeables static on Crypt level 1and a few other minor changes. The Crypt Of Istaris final 1c had 45 downloads and The Crypt Of Istaris custom music 1a had 36 downloads before being replaced with this update.
EDIT 12-16-2022 Added updated versions of both modules containing the same changes. Added a end game portal for exiting the game when you are finished with the quests. Added a locked gate and a new key in Father Verdains chest. Added 3 villagers walking around in Hornboro. Added campfires and cooking fires in Troglodyte village. Added 1 extra pearl in Father Verdains chest for multi-player games. Thank you Proleric and Mmat for your help with the end portal script information and thank you TimG for encouraging me to ask for help on the forums and for suggesting all the changes in this newest update . The last versions before this newest update of The Crypt Of Istaris Final 2a/No Custom Music had 47 downloads and The Crypt Of Istaris Custom Music 1b/With Custom Music had 45 downloads.
Edit 1-24-2023: Added 2 modules with the same updates. Removed several wolves from the outskirts and main town of Hornboro areas, Removed extra pearl from Father Verdains chest because of bugs, Added a sign in End Portal area reminding players to level up and save their character before stepping into the portal, and a few other small changes. Thank you Marklb for your feedback which helped me make these changes.
The last versions had the following download counts before being replaced with this update- No custom music: 40 and With custom music: 41.
***A Reminder*** The first module (The Crypt Of Istaris No Custom Music) needs no hakpaks to work, only the second module (The Crypt Of Istaris With Custom Music) uses the Istaris Custom Music Hakpak, and finally the last hakpak- Istaris Extra Music For Builders isn't used by any modules here on this page it is only intended for other builders to use.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 The Crypt Of Istaris No Custom Music (12) | 1.54 MB |
| The Crypt Of Istaris With Custom Music (11) | 1.55 MB |
| Istaris Custom Music Hakpak (114) | 340.54 MB |
| Istaris Extra Music For Builders Hakpak (61) | 883.15 MB |
Thank you for checking out my newest module! It was one of the first modules I dm'd way back in the fall of 1990. Hope you enjoy it and let me know if anyone finds any problems or bugs.
Is this a single or multiplayer module? Is a DM required? If single player, does it include henchmen or is it a solo module?
This is a single player module but should be ok to also play multi-player. No DM required and yes there are several henchmen available. Let me know if you have any suggestions or any other questions, I will be checking back here at least once a day for the next few weeks in case anyone runs into a problem I need to fix with module.
Well met.
This reads, and looks, amazing. And do appreciate your support with daily looking out for any issues we encounter.
Much appreciated on all counts.
—
Phyte: My heart has been locked for longer than I can remember.
Sharwyn: Done, and done.
—
Thank you for the kind words and hope you enjoy the module! I am working on a custom version of this same module that will use 1 hakpak with my own music that I've been recording over the last 3 months as I made this module. It should be ready in a few weeks and will be posted here on this same page. Thanks again and please let me know if you find any problems/bugs or have any suggestions.
Thanks. Look foward to playing it. Is it set up with the same GUI as seen in the pics above?
I played it through...nice work. I used three NPC retainers. Started off as a 1st lv wizard was 7th level by the time I finished the module. The same level of each of the Retainers I had with me. Of course I had my familiar and summons...so a party of 6. Played through it and barely got injured. I did die once...surprise attack by winter wolf. I was ahead of my party. I played with the strategy of turning invisible and going ahead leading my party in...then attacking from a safe distance keeping my familiar at my side as a back up. Really nice little module. Design was nice using the basic vanilla NWN stuff.
Would amp up the treasure or make things more affordable in stores.
Maybe more encounters. Some usable placeables could not be accessed yet you had them available as clickable...not static. I had to bash a few placeables (which had nothing in them) because I could not open them.
Should maybe have a better start with equipment and gold. You did provide lots of healing kits through creature deaths. That was good.
Good job
Thank you and glad you enjoyed the module! Also thank you for voting and for the suggestions and insights I really appreciate them and wrote them down to fix probably this weekend- fix placeables/make them static and add more start equipment and a bit of starting gold. I can add a few more encounters but I had already added alot more creatures to fight than was in the original module and I tried to not go overboard with fighting but still have it interesting for modern players... And I guess you saw gui but for others who are wondering- yes GUI looks like that on my phone with NWN EE but this module was designed on my 12 year old computer running windows xp with the old NWN 1.69 version so will totally work (but the GUI will look different) on older computers and on modern devices. And also did you finish both quests in the module? Because if you look around for the lizardman temple in the Deep Caves area there is a second higher level quest about the Scepter of Dir-yabon.. Thanks again!
Getting the boss of the DB is obviously optional but should be at least worth a log entry. There is somewhere a scepter? Mmmmh, seemingly I missed it.
There is a floating tree in the very first area.
Yes the Dark Brotherhoods quest is optional but it should give a Journal entry when you bring the Scepter back to The Priestess in the lizardman temple and it's possible I forgot to put Scepter in the DB's leaders inventory- I will check today.. I'm getting old and just wanted to get this module released after working 3 months on it so there may be other small bugs.. will fix that floating tree and will have custom version of this module with my own music ready in a week or two. Thanks for checking the module out and for your feedback.
Mmat I just checked in toolset and everything seems fine on my end with the Scepter of Dir-yabon quest. The Scepter is in DB leaders inventory.. Did you first find The Priestess in the Lizardman Temple off the Deep Caves area? Because she starts the quest for the Scepter of Dir-yabon. I just added lines to Father Verdains conversation to help lead players to look for The Priestess in the caverns beyond the lower level of The Crypt Of Istaris. And added visual effects from lower dock leading in a trail to the lizardman temple to make it easier to find in the dark caves area. Let me know if you still don't find the Scepter and it is in the pallet under special 1 if you want to check it out in the toolset. I will upload a fixed version later today if you have any other problems or suggestions.
>> Did you first find The Priestess in the Lizardman Temple off the Deep Caves area?
Uh, most embarrassing. Probably I ignored the Lizards, which are peaceful. And so I didn't pay much attention to the inventory of the big baddie. Sorry.
I guess it's a good idea to add a pointer at the dialogue with the cleric.
Sorry mmat that I didn't make that second quest clearer to find. And when I replaytested that quest to double check that it was still working- at first I couldn't find the Scepter in the leaders inventory but then I saw there are 2 levels/pages in his inventory and the Scepter is on the second page. Thank you for your feedback I really appreciate it and did you notice I took your advice from my first module? I tried to go simple on this one and there aren't a bunch of hakpaks to download..
Updated module to version 1b- fixed 1 floating tree in start area, fixed alot of placeables that were clickable but empty by either making them static or putting items in their inventory, added lines to Father Verdains and The Priestess conversations and made them give a better reward for finishing their quests, also made a few other minor changes. The original version 1a had 68 downloads before being replaced with this update.
Added two new modules and a custom music hakpak. Only the second module The Crypt Of Istaris Custom Music 1a uses the hakpak.
Here is a link to the 28 custom instrumental songs from above hakpak converted into mp3s if anyone wants to just give them a listen or to download. https://archive.org/details/07-viola-song
Very fun mod. About a 4 hour dungeon crawl, played with a Lv3 Multi-classed Wizard/FIghter/Rogue. Good loot to be had, and all quests were completed. Lots of attention to the little stuff/ambience made this a good one.
Some very minor issues:
A few rooms had way too many loot containers to sort through.
Alot of specialty merchants in town, maybe a few less of those.
Before I left crypt, I finished the lizardman quest, but the NPC in town, said I should go back to the lizard temple to help them out with the dark brotherhood, after I already completed.
--Again all minor stuff, and its great to see new mods being made of old school classic pnp adventures.
Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you Tyvolus for your feedback and for your vote! I will try to rearrange Father Verdains conversation if I can figure out how to correct it. It was written thinking that the player would first return to Verdains Temple when they get the second quest item and then go explore further when Father Verdain tells you about the second quest but I can probably figure out a way to fix it.. The specialty merchants were imported from my first module to speed up the building of this module and I just changed their names, looks, inventory, etc. I agree there may be a few too many stores in town but after I built area I didn't want a bunch of empty buildings with locked doors. The rooms in crypt with lots of containers are how the original author wrote the module I just did my best to follow his ideas but I can make some more of them static if that would be better. I hope to make some more modules like this in the future. Thanks again!
Added two new modules The Crypt Of Istaris final 2a and The Crypt Of Istaris custom music 1b. They both have the same changes- changed Father Verdains conversation to tell about second quest earlier and he now has a key to the Crypt in his chest, locked mausoleum door, made more placeables static on Crypt level 1and a few other minor changes. ***A Reminder*** The first module (final 2a) needs no hakpaks to work, only the second module (custom music 1b) uses the istaris_mymusic.hak, and finally the last hakpak istarisxtramusic.hak isn't used by any modules here on this page it is only intended for other builders to use. The Crypt Of Istaris final 1c had 45 downloads and The Crypt Of Istaris custom music 1a had 36 downloads before being replaced with this update.
We just finished playing as a team of three in multiplayer. Everything worked as it should have and we've had a wonderful evening.
A few suggestions:
Should the troglodyte village have some huts or dwellings of some sort? The Drow leader should say something snarky before he attacks. When we finished in multiplayer and all the quests were completed but the credits never did roll. Should the module end or do we just log out?
Maybe a cut scene at the end similar to the end of Darkness Over Daggerford where the priest thanks the party rfor theieer efforts
All my players are sitting here talking about how good it was. Thanks so much for building it. For us anything multiplayer is just fantastic and when it works like this one did its just a great night.
Thanks from Tim, Pam and DammitDave!!
Thank you TimG for the feedback and for voting! Glad you all enjoyed the module and I agree the lizardman village does need a few huts and I will see about giving the leader of the Dark Brotherhood a rude line to say- great ideas! I kinda rushed through this module and left out a few details like those. But to make this change I will have to buff the leaders stats up a good bit and remove his helpers if he is going to talk before the fight because I don't know how to script his helpers to come in right at the start of the fight.. I tried to make a movie cutscene for my first module but I couldn't figure out how to finish it correctly so abandoned that project- I am clueless about photoshop and c+ scripting but I try to make my modules interesting without those skills.. One of my goals with this module was to have a version with no custom content so I could play this module with my nephew multi-player with him using his Nintendo Switch because as far as I can find out modules using hakpaks won't work (for us at least)on the Switch. But not having a ending movie/cutscene isn't ideal so please let me know if you have any ideas how best to end the module without a cutscene. Or I may can use the credits movies from the original nwn modules if I can figure out exactly where to use them at the end because I figure in solo or multi-player you may want to divide up/check out the new loot and maybe level up then save character and log out.. Thanks again and glad you all had a good game session with this module!
I wish I could help on the "how" but I'm just a player not a builder. I've never successfully used the toolset for anything even though I have tried. Lots of people on the forum would be able to do it or tell you how to do it. I know there are cut scenes at the end of Hordes of the Underdark and Eye of the Beholder 2. The sort of cut scene that I think is most effective is like when the Dracolich shows up in Hordes. It sets the mood for the battle to come.
As far as the Dark Brotherhood leader's comments go I suspect you could borrow the code from Eye of the Beholder 1 or numerous similar occasions in Hordes of the Underdark.
The way Udasus ends modules is with a text that asks if you are ready to end. Then it exports the character and rolls the credits. Typically the query comes up as part of a conversation after all the journal entries are completed.
For the Lizard men and troglodytes village I'd say some cooking fires, huts or sleeping areas and some sort of larder are in order. In the dark brotherhood area the chance to free some lizardmen prisoners for exp would be a nice touch. I'm not sure how closely you are trying to stay to the original source material.
A few people going about their business in the main town might make it seem more lifelike. Just npcs travelling form one waypoint to the next to make it seem "lived in"
We are definitely going to play through again with the larger group which could give me as many as seven people on the LAN all at once. That should be just fantastic. One thing that might make multiplayer go a little more smoothly would be if each player gets an orb of recall when the party leader does.
Thank you for this good feedback and I will open up the toolset in the next few days and see what changes I can make but I want to add that I only started building modules in the spring of 2020 so I'm very much an amateur at building. I can definitely add people walking around in town and can add fires and huts in lizardman/troglodyte villages (troglodyte village has sleeping nests in all the corners if you noticed them?). I can also add more recall stones in Father Verdains chest (how many 4, 5 or 6?). But these other changes I can't promise to make- writing a line for the leader is doable I know how but now that I think it over I'm thinking it will be alot of work for a very tiny change so not sure it's worth all the work but may try to change it eventually.. And making a end door with credits may be possible for me and I will give it a try, but I've learned to not spend too much time on things I can't figure out in toolset because it's really easy to waste hours and days building stuff that I can't get to work right... And on a side note here is a link to my first module, I believe it will work OK multi-player. But it is extremely long/large with lots of details and doesn't have a true ending much like The Crypt Of Istaris. https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/trollslore-mines-custalcon Also it has over 10 hakpaks used so I understand if you don't want to or don't have space or time for all the downloading. If you do try it I would suggest the second Trollslore module on list so you don't need to download the last two hakpaks. Thanks again for the feedback and let me know if you have any other suggestions.
for an amateur module builder that just started a few years ago I think you did great. Not every module has to be Epic in scope nor do they have to have 25 hours of gameplay. In today's busy world a module that can be completed in an evening is a very welcome addition.
I didn't notice the sleeping nests but we have Crypt scheduled for a replay with the whole group now so I will be sure to pay more attention on the next go round.
Some of the modules that I consider to be very good have been teaked on an polished for years. Udasu's Accursed Tower and Dark's Eye of the Beholder are my favorite examples. It took a long time and lots of tender care to make them what they are today. Even if you just make small changes from time to time it keeps the module fresh and encourages people to replay from time to time. Even an occasional "easter egg" moment can getr players' attention.
Anything you can't get to work I would encourage you to post in the forums. The technical expertise available there is jut astounding.
game on and code well!!
Thanks TimG I appreciate the time you've taken to reply here and helping me to make this module better. I just started building another module this week should be done in 2 or 3 months (I hope)- working title Escape From Dominion X.. I mentioned that link to my other module mainly because there are several boss fights in that module with snarky comments like you suggested for this module, and also because I put almost 2 years development in that module. Which has had over 200 downloads going by the hakpak numbers yet only 1 person has ever voted on it in over two years and only a few people have given me true freeback so kinda frustrating to put alot of time and updates into something for free with almost absolutely no return/ interest..
. I feel like the Trollslore module (to me anyway) is as good as or better than The Crypt Of Istaris but I went way overboard at first building areas so its a huge module. The idea about rescuing the lizardman prisoners is a good idea but again not sure I can figure out how to do that with the toolset quest wizard but I will give it some thought. As far as me staying close to original material- I tried to closely follow it (the maps and story) for all of the Crypt (2 levels) which was all the original author had designed- there was no map or design for the town only a mention of Father Verdain and his temple. I created all those areas myself and the entire lizardman quest part was only hinted at in paper version as an extension to the module if dm's wanted to expand it. I completely designed all of those areas from scratch also.
Changed titles to modules and hakpaks on list above to make it easier to understand. Thank you Surazal for the help renaming them all.
Added updated versions of both modules containing the same changes. Added a end game portal for exiting the game when you are finished with the quests. Added a locked gate and a new key in Father Verdains chest. Added 3 villagers walking around in Hornboro. Added campfires and cooking fires in Troglodyte village. Added 1 extra pearl in Father Verdains chest for multi-player games. Thank you Proleric and Mmat for your help with the end portal script information and thank you TimG for encouraging me to ask for help on the forums and for suggesting all the changes in this newest update .
Nice simple, entertaining module. Very smooth and well-debugged. I played it as a solo new character on hardcore, ended up as 3Rogue/9Fighter, had no problems at all other than the very beginning. First level rogue trying to fight cold breathing wolves and such took some work.
Once I was able to meet some henchmen and steal their equipment, things got far smoother. :-) Always be aware what you give the henchmen, and if the player can take it.
One of the reasons for wanting an end game portal is that it should save and export your character. We could do it by hand, but it is nice when the module does it for us.
My teleportation pearl did not work. I used it once while in a dungeon, nothing happened, did not try it again.
I appreciate you building these modules, I very much enjoy them. Thank you!
Thank you Marklb for your feedback and for voting! Yes those wolves might be a little strong for a first Level PC so I may remove more of them or make them weaker in next update. Sorry the pearl didn't work for you because until last update it was working fine so it's probably because I put an extra pearl in the chest for multi-player games in the last update. It may be that I forgot to change the tag on the second pearl.. I will see if I can fix that- may have to remove the extra pearl if I can't figure out what's wrong.
About the end game portal- I am only a amateur builder and I have almost no scripting skills and don't play many other builders custom modules so I wasnt sure exactly how to make an end game portal correctly. I did the best I could and I figured the player would save their character right before exiting the game in the end portal but should I make a sign in the portal room telling players to save their character before exiting the game in the portal? Do you think the end game portal is really needed or should I remove it? Thank you for trying this module out and for taking the time to vote and give me this good feedback!
EDIT: Just checked the pearls in game and I see the first pearl doesn't work but the second one in the chest does work so the first one is probably tagged wrong. I will fix this in the next update.
Added 2 modules with the same updates. Removed several wolves from the outskirts and main town of Hornboro areas, Removed extra pearl from Father Verdains chest because of bugs, Added a sign in End Portal area reminding players to level up and save their character before stepping into the portal, and a few other small changes. Thank you Marklb for your feedback which helped me to make these changes.