Lords of Darkness 1 - The Fugitive (V3.0)

This is one of my all time favourite mods.

I loved this Module. Absolutely one of the best if not the. The best use of shadowdancer/assassins of any I have played. He actually makes high level opponents which attack you like a human.  I love the story line, plot twists, right up there with the best of all time. Challenging and rewarding, masterpiece.

I still recall playing this series a number of years back. It was hands down one of the greatest mod series for NWN!

Now I'd like to play it again. Unfortunately, after downloading everything as per the instructions above, when I try to launch the module, I am told that a required custom talk table is missing. Can anyone help?

Do you have the CEP1 talk table in your tlk folder? It comes with the CEP1 download.

Thanks for pointing that out - I updated the CEP1 link to the latest version.

I just replayed this mod after many years, and I enjoyed it even more this time around! I'm looking forward to continuing to Part 2, Onwards! :-)

Great mod!

This is the vote for the whole saga. Comment under the 4th module.

relatively good saga

No way :) When you think you played everything that's best on the Vault, another highly-rated saga you've never heard of pops up...  I should thank those of you guys who update "Top Modules" list on the main page of neverwintervault.org. Added to my to-do list. 

A rating for the whole series. The comment will be under Part 4

Hi, two questions:

1/ Can somebody who completed the saga tell if this story allows for fighter/mage build? I mean does it offer items with negative Arcane Spell Failure?

2/ In spite of installing custom music I keep hearing standard motives in module 2. Is music implemented only in module 3 and 4 ?

Great module, perfect level progress, you never get bored!

Note for whoever is having problems playing this module due to 1) cloak being invisible in inventory and/or 2) game crashes when opening a store:

USE CEP v1.x haks and *DO NOT* use "Cep1 complete (pre-release)" files. Problems just disappeared.

Just finished playing through all four modules in this series, and what a ride! :D Lots of fun and interesting challenges

Suprisingly, I don't typically enjoy hack'n'slash adventures but I found I couldn't stop playing this series. There's enough fun storyline, just a smidge of roleplaying, and romance scenes to sate my need for a roleplaying adventure (dialogue options can be very linear, but ultimate end game choices & relationship determinations are all up to you, which was great!) I ended up loving my character too (i'm so sad to see the story end, but it was a very satisfying conclusion!) and the combat was challenging enough to keep my interest in gameplay from ever waning. :)

LOVED IT! <3 Thank you for your hard work making this series!!!!

I'll repeat here my review added under chapter 1 of this saga: 

I've completed the whole saga on level 27 or so (rogue/fighting cleric) and I am suprised how hack-n-slashy game can be enjoyable and challenging. For those, who are into this type of gameplay, I would rate it 10/10 (a perfect choice!), but for those who are all about the story, it would earn 7/10 or 8/10. In general, I believe  it deserves 9/10 with a caveat that chapters 1-4 will become increasingly hack-n-slashy by the end and that the game offers many plot cliches. It is also linear - so not too much choices apart from how you treat (romanceable) Alanya and one good/evil choice in the last chapter. In short, it is more of an Icewind Dale than Baldur's Gate, but it's enjoyable and you can develop your character to epic levels and tinker with his/her fighting skills propely.

Sometimes the areas are too bloated (forget looking for some chest tucked away in the map's corner - the corner wil be most likely an empty space not worth visiting), but you can see the author made his best to make player experience rewarding: landscape tilesets are interesting and there is a nice selection of custom battle-encouraging music added - something that is frequently neglected by the module authors but adds a lot to an overall climate of run-run-we-must-prevail! setting of this story. Just as nice selection of armors and weapons suitable for most classes. The modules are also bug free: I experienced only a minor bug by the end of last chapter (if you're not accompanied by Alanya, the officer won't talk to you due to script malfunction and you will have to figure out by yourself her key opens cellar in the castle).

Anyway, the experience is rewarding and I would gladly play another epic hasknslash saga by the author.

I believe that this is the second 10 star rating that I have given. I am not a Module developer but I do know what I like, and this was a true masterpiece.The best part for me was the Henchperson interface, with full control and dialogue throughout the adventure. This review is for all four parts combined. All transitions and quests seemed to work, and I am a fan of the more linear adventure, which this is. There were some very nice items to buy or pick up, especially as things went along. And the twist that happened was unlooked for, but should have been expected!

Tremendous work. Thank you profusely, Fantus.

Many thanks for sharing this most enjoyable series.

Really enjoying this so far.  I do feel though that some of the area design is a bit repetative.  

This was, by far, one of the best modules I have ever played! Expertly written and created1 Pantheon of NWN Module greatness. 

This was, by far, one of the best modules I have ever played! I love the history, the character, well done, congratulations to the creator of this module... it´s amazing ;)

A great mod to return to the fold... it has been years since I played NWN, but it was just like meeting an old friend... and what a nice story he had to tell me... or at least the author of this mod had. A nice prison break story with a twist regarding your companion's past that will be adressed in the next mods... very good indeed, and since I played this one I am definitely playing the other 3 mods of the series!

I have no words to describe this incredible adventure! I'm excited! Where to start praising? The story was amazing, the dialogues flawless, the battles incredibly balanced, the romance with Terence idyllic, the work it took to get this result is something I don't want to think about! Congratulations to the author. It is now one of the top 3 adventures I've played so far. I was never bored at any point in story and believe me it's a feat for me! It has to be played by everyone here!

Module Testing Tournement 2020

I just finished this mod, and thought it was very well put together, even though a little difficult in several encounters. Very few syntax errors in all the info presented in the dialogs (for a German speaker ). 

I only found one serious defect in the whole mod, that being in Castle Lyonard. I say serious defect since it has the only merchant in the whole mod, and crashes CTD every time I tried to access the store. I checked the area via the toolset, and found the Merchant did not have any 'OnStoreOpen' or 'OnStoreClose' scripts. That was the only problem I spotted, and not even sure if those scripts are needed/used to start a merchant. 

Has anyone else had this problem? I really wanted to sell most of the stuff I had gathered during the adventure, but was unable to do so because of the CTD that occured every time I tried to start the store.

Thanks to Fantus for a very well thought out Adventure! On to Part 2! As an aside, when installing this MOD to your module folder, be sure to also install the Part 2 stub. Otherwise when you reach the end of the game, the screen just goes black and everything just stops. Once I installed Part 2, then loaded my save game (of Part 1), when I reached the end of the module it loaded Part 2 faultlessly - a really nice feature!

Great Series, much better than "Defenders of Faith". I had no Problems with the shop in part 1, maybe there is a problem with features from CEP in override. (see koros message).

The propensity to just give everything a 10, has made module review scores useless in the NWN community. 

This module was good in it's day (2004), but compared to later modules it's just kind of basic. It's just hack and slash on rails. Cringy attempt at writing romance with henchwoman. Zero well written enemies. For hack and slash the combat is terrible and illogical, with overused stealth, that just has piles of enemies appearing.  

I can't get over how people crap on the NWN OC, and then praise something like this. The OC is better than this.

I know it is a hack n slash module. But I think it is too much. I agree with SnowDog's comment overall.

This is a bit tough for me to rate, because on the one hand it's quite clearly a highly polished, well-made module that the author put a lot of effort and passion in, back in the days. The writing seems fine to me, the encounters are balanced and comparatively varied. There are no obvious flaws, and many veteran players seem to have fond memories of it. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy it all that much, myself, because at least in this first episode, the story is quite simple and, let's say, traditional, in the sense that there's hardly anything surprising or unpredictable, it's all somewhat familiar, and the conflict is very black-and-white, plus the obligatory female companion is just the nicest, the most beautiful, the most humble and grateful companion ever, and in all seriousness. There's nothing wrong with all that, if it's your cup of tea, I just don't find it very interesting, personally. There isn't all that much story to begin with though, compared to the length of the module. There are some cutscenes and longer dialogues (or monologues, as they hardly give choices), but most of the time in the game is spent on a linear hack and slash run through big maps that don't feel very rewarding to an explorer like me, because there isn't a lot of optional content to discover beside more opponents and basic loot containers. And, as mentioned above, there's not a lot of roleplaying either, although I have to admit, I did not dare to be mean to the companion or try to get rid of her, and that is actually about the only choice you get (apart from possibly skipping a side mission?). Maybe that could have made it a little more interesting, but I doubt it. It all seems pretty much on rails, which in itself doesn't have to be a problem, but for me to enjoy it, such linear gameplay would have to be offset with a truly gripping story, and I did not really see that here (yet?). That being said, this review is just for the first part, and I'd assume there is a good chance the series gets better with the sequels.

If anyone runs into the issue of the merchant shop making the game crash to desktop, you probably have the wrong version of CEP1 installed, and contrary to what koro wrote above, I found that installing this version fixed it: https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/hakpak/cep1-complete