The Crystalmist Campaign Chapter 2: The Lichway

Your friend, the Baron Hochoch asks your help in dealing with a group of vile Svarts causing trouble in the local area. You also hear rumours of an ancient tomb newly discovered – could the two be connected? Other adventurers have already ventured to seek the tomb's treasures - would you care to join them?

This adventure is a classic aD&D dungeon crawl first published in White Dwarf 9, way back in 1978 and republished in Best of White Dwarf Scenarios 1, written by the late Albie Fiore, converted to NWN2 by Clyordes. According to Wikipedia, it was the first full adventure ever published in White Dwarf, so I guess its kinda historical, but for me it'll always hold great memories as one of the first adventures I ever ran once I got a copy of this weird new game "Basic D&D" & convinced a group of friends to give it a go.

Who's it for?

2-4 Characters, levels 3-4. Just add more or higher level characters (or companions) if you're struggling. If you've played through "Against the Cult of the Reptile God", this is designed to be a short follow-on adventure for the same characters. Another short adventure will follow, to get characters up to the right level to attempt a remake of "Oasis of the White Palm" which is also buried deep in the toolset at the moment.

How long will it take?

Unlike Reptile God, this isn't that long – its just one dungeon. Allow a good evening of 3-4 hours to play through it. It'll take more if you're cautious & less if you run in like a bull in a china shop (assuming you don't die & have to run back from Hochoch too many times – see "Death")

Experience:

As in my previous adventures, little XP is given for killing monsters – so if your play style is not hack & slash, you won't be penalised here. Instead, Experience is gained from completing quests, which you can do any way you like, and if you complete them all (there;s one main quest and 3-4 subquests that you can pick up in the local tavern), you'll be around mid level 4 by the time you finish.

Death:

Resurrects you back in the starting town. If you don't like what could be a long walk - remember to save often, or adventure cautiously. Or use the chance to stock up on equipment.

Resting:

Unlimited, apart from when there's monsters right next door – the denizens of the Lichway hate to give adventurers too much peace.

Mapping:

Lance's mapping hak is implemented here – which only allows you to see where you've been on the main (screen filling) map. Although if you want to "overrule" this, the minimap is unaffected.

Custom content:

This adventure uses the HAK you've already used in Reptile God – there's not much more to download if you've already played that adventure – just the following:

• The Lichway.mod file
• The Lichway campaign file
• The Lichway.hak file

The Crystalmist.hak file if you haven't still got it from Reptile God.

If you haven't already played the Reptile God adventure, you really ought to, as it came out really well & is designed as the first adventure for a band of new characters which continue their travels here. All the same, if you haven't played it, you'll need all of the files listed below.

Make your own party:

Like Reptile God, this adventure has been set up as a campaign, allowing you to adventure with a party of your own characters if you wish – just ask at the local inn to find out where the other members of your party are (& remember you need the campaign file below & choose "Start new Campaign" when you start Neverwinter up).

Credits:

Many thanks to the mighty RWS for their custom tiles, placeables & creatures which I used in the dungeon, and all the other builders of creatures, prefabs (such as the base town I used for Hochoch) out there – you're a great group & can't take enough credit!

Update history:

30th December 2011 – New version uploaded, fixes a couple of minor issues that players have noticed - should be a final version now, but shout up if anything's not right.

24th January 2013 – Added a new area between Hochoch and the Lichway, changed a few features in line with the other adventures in the campaign.

Dedication:

This adventure was originally written for White Dwarf magazine by Albie Fiore – one of many things he did in D&D's early days. Accidentally coming across his obituary a couple of months ago was what got me wanting to remake it for NWN.

So this is for you, Albie – although I never knew you, you sound like a great bloke & you write a great adventure – hope I did it justice.