Small Village Woes

Woah! Updated after eleven years, and by no other than the original author himself! The great news indeed! :) That's might be more than good enough reason - for nominate your module for next NWN1 module pick @ Adventurer's Club Nominations Thread.

I have added ID for the old vault entry - this way a duplicate won't be uploaded.

Alas I have a bug to report. I wandered around the village and got myself the female hench person. I then went back to the wine makers house which I hadn't visited before. Entered and went upstairs. Upon reaching this level I experienced a graphical glitch that was halfway between the area transition screen and the upstairs of the wine makers (they were both trying to show at once). After upwards of 10 seconds nwmain crashed. My conclusion is that there is an on area enter script and something in that crashed the game.

This was in win XP.

TR

WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW!


I downloaded it today, believing it to be a nicely done module for a single evening (or morning for that matter) and, well... I was right.

The module was very detailed. I loved how I needed to wait for my mug of ale, since the innkeeper had to pour it, and then I was handed the ale instead of it simply appearing in my inventory without any of the characters moving. These were small things that barely affected gameplay, but it was a nice touch for sure. This also resulted in a somewhat handicapped trading system, though, but for the purposes of this short module, it wasn't much of a problem.

Similarly, I liked one-liners of important enemies that occured while fighting. Be it a description of a breaking construct's body, or a last shout of anger of a dying foe, they were all great.

Time for a more important part. The story of the module was original and well-thought. The plot twist was, like a plot twist is supposed to be, unexpected, but didn't feel unfitting, which isn't all that common a case.

I'd be lying, however, if I said I found no negatives in this adventure.

First problem was the camera. I believe I understand the motive behind the frequent utilization of cutscenes. I assume the author wanted to make the module more moviesque by having camera rotate or be fixed in various ways and I'm aware that many players might like it. I, however, do not. I found myself having to change the control settings all the time, due to camera type switching automatically to the one I don't like every time a cutscene is played. I don't mind doing this once or twice in a module, during events that can really make use of cutscenes to emphasize them and/or force PCs to "play their part" in these little movies. I do believe, however, that a simple walk on a bridge should not trigger a cutscene of my PC crossing said bridge. Similarly, I see no need for a cutscene which aims simply to show an enemy (skeleton demon) appear behind the player. Worse yet, this very cutscene was bugged, so that I could not rotate my camera right or left even after the cutscene ended. I needed to go back to the bridge to trigger the previous cutscene and only after it ended did I regain control over my camera.

This is my main concern. Others are simple nuisances: The Priest having no name whatsoever, despite being a pivotal character in the storyline (it might have been intended, but it still doesn't feel right to me), companions having close to no character development or role in the story other than bashing heads that the PC wants them to bash, a rather specific form of dialogue with NPCs that describes what a PC can say instead of saying it... These are all small things that didn't really make a difference to me in the long run.

All in all, I give this module a rating of 8/10 and I am hopeful you don't take it to be a bad thing, since I liked your adventure very much! There could be many more modules like this one - simple, yet detailed and entertaining, stories perfect for a few hours of bore at home.
Thank you very much!

Aw, you stripped items this time.

Could you please make a non item strip?

Thanks Werelynx; dang you've known me longer than I thought.

Wow, the community seems to be very helpful.

Does this mod get the "oldest mod to be updated" award?

Okay, still a couple bugs:

1.  When confronting the priest, Farmer Fred must be made invulnerable.  If any beasties follow him in during dialogue confrontation, they will kill him and thus we cannot continue.

2.  The new henchwoman in Graveyard Gary's attacks Willy when he confronts the final demon.

When updating, please remove the item strip.

Since there is an option to disagree with the priest before visiting the Bre'i, if Bort continues to update this, I suggest there be an option of entering the Bre'i village peacefully and get their side of the story.

Hi

Just played this module yesterday. I found it very entertaining.

I found the merchant-system a bit tirering (slow), but understand why it was implemented (I guess it gives alot more freedom to control equipment economy). But since it is a short module it isnt a big problem.

I would also like different opportunities than jusy kiling all the Br'ei. By the time I talked to the priest this much was clear to me:

1. The Br'ei where looking for a book (the way they searched bookshelves at attacked locations). This was even more clear when I entered Lennys lodge.

2. Fred had unwantingly began to summon undead through a book (likely the one sytolen from the Br'ei). Thus it was quite an "evil"-book, but there where no stories of the Br'ei using it for such.

3.The barbarian Br'ei had lived for long without attacking the village before the current events. Thus it might have beenpossible to restore a "truce"-of some sort. At least enough to consider it/investigate the possibility.

4. The priest was definitely involved somehow (from Freds talk and letter, and the Priests response). I only wondered if the church alter was also a clue (it had a description as covered in dust, that is: unused).

Even as a lawfull good Paladin I did not like to just slaughter the whole tribe (on the command of an untrustworthy local Priest) which I expected was not the root of the problem. I really wanted to track down Fred instead and figure out what was happening before "slaugther commenced".  Especially since the Priest was very fishy indeed, I strongly suspected him using me as a way of getting rid of his trail of evidence. I my character had been low Wis - I would gladly had taken fast and impulsive action against the barbarian, but my chracter really first disclained the priest mission, but it was clear that there was no other way to move forward.

This to me was the biggest issue. But otherwise a great module. I would rate it around 7 or 8 out of 10, with 5 being average.

Thanks for this grim adventure!  I really enjoyed the writing, the merchant system, and the conversation system.  I was playing as a NE human ranger with a bit of an attitude problem and definitely had fun imagining my own responses in dialogue.  (I would hazard a guess that this conversation system lightens the author's load, too...)

*SPOILER BELOW*

The most memorable encounter in this adventure for me, besides stripping rotten body parts off of zombies, was in Farmer Fred's crypt.  I had just laid to rest a family of zombies and was feeling particularly weak and nervous, having consumed the last of my healing potions.  When those conspicuous piles of human bones came to life and started chasing me, I ran like hell, stopping only long enough to hack down one skeleton that barred my path!  I ran out the manor and all the way town, yelling for help.  The village boys helped me defeat the horrifying monsters, and I felt appropriately shaken by my very close call with death.

I wonder if this one is still being updated.

So what was the update?

Plain and simple, but marvellously crafted.

Fun adventure with an interesting story. Heavy on the hack and slash, but with a lot of ambience.

One small bug: when I reloaded the final encounter, one of the companions disappeared and couldn't be rejoined. Managed to survive with the help available anyway, but watch out for that!

It stripped me! I was unwilling to go in and do all the work to keep this from happening so that is what I get! Module was okay, a bit minimal and bleak. Killing the barbarians was an onerous task only if you knew the story ahead of time, which I did not. Too bad, but these things happen! All seemed to work and the end played out. This may be the longest post string that I have ever seen for so small and inconsequential a module! 

A big thanks for this quality module. I used this as a starting adventure for low levels before leading into the OC for EE (as once one has learned how to play the "training academy" isn't a very compelling start point for me). Works great and I didn't run into any bugs. It also has the benefit of not requiring digging around in CEP stuff.

This quality module is very entertaining. Played right into my love for linear plot, hack and slash action, and well-thought-out conversation and lore. Low level and loot were a plus, too, though I was suprised that by the end while fighting demons and such that I had no magic weapon. It worked perfectly. The only thing I wished for was conversation, banter, and even side quests to give depth to the henchmen.

The ending was a nice wrap up, too.

This is a definite must play for a low-level romp with undead!

***************************************
SPOILER
***************************************

Only bug I found was a guard by the northern-most village house during the fires must have had some kind of cyclic respawning so that the corpse was stacked ad infinitum.

This is a really nice module. It's a short, self-contained adventure - my favourite kind, since it can be played with a character who can go on to have varied adventures in other similar modules, rather than tying you in to an epic saga. The story unfolds in a well-paced way, with a tragic aspect to it that matches the moody, atmospheric feel of the whole module. There are some nice little touches, like descriptive feedback as you whittle down the HP on big boss monsters, and the combat encounters are pretty well balanced. There's a couple of exposition-heavy dialogues and the sheer number of enemies gets a bit gruelling towards the end - not too difficult, just dense. But on the whole, a really cool, well-crafted module well worth the couple of hours it took to play. 

Short and small but carefully crafted, with lots of details. Liked the camera cinematics and general atmosphere.

Bug : can't remember where, but one armoire created infinite traps-kits as loot (re-create 1-3 on-open event)

Hello. Where can I find and download the old version for the original NWN1? Available version only for NWN:EE :(