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Untold Tales of Tolkien - The Umbral Abyss (Updated 2021)
MIDDLE EARTH MEETS D&D
The sequel to Untold Tales of Tolkien: The Indanthrine Prince (2013, Updated 2020). This campaign is the second in a planned trilogy. The Untold Tales series are story driven, action adventure role-playing games set in an adaptation of Middle Earth, telling new, untold tales. The Umbral Abyss boasts gameplay in the region of 60 hours and is designed for characters of level 12-20.
Whether it was revenge or justice you served to those who attacked your home and murdered your friends and loved ones - Fairfields had been avenged. The savage Maltok was slain by your hand and the mysterious Cerulean Dawn was reduced to ashes. The price of this victory was dear. Your father-like mentor, Thorburn was lost in the daring assault and the enigmatic Indanthrine Prince fled the blazing scene. Nonetheless, a great evil had been stopped, unable to strike at those close to you again.
The long journey home from Rhun barely began before a swarm of unknown Easterlings detained your company and declared that you were to be their prisoners. You have been held captive in the Easterling city of Yahmul Balotz for the last year. Separated from your companions, you have been interrogated repeatedly about your business in their kingdom and, worryingly, the preparedness of Rhovanion for war. How much more of this can you take? War is coming to destroy all you cherish!
The time for heroes has come to Rhovanion. Indeed, an Easterling King has succeeded in uniting some of the most powerful tribes for one almighty assault upon Dale, the jewel of Rhovanion. Spurred on by agents of Sauron, including the infamous Hand
of Sauron himself, the situation is grim indeed. These agents erode the strength of Dale from within and the city risks losing it's head before the real battle has even begun.
But there is always hope. Allies of Dale are on the cusp of launching a grand expedition to reclaim a lost city, deep within the northern mountains, wherein there is said to be artifacts of immense power. The adventure carries great risk, for this city has a dark, horrific past. Nobody writes of the terrors that lurk in the deep umbral darkness of Middle Earth - maybe it's best it stays that way.
From humble beginnings, some now call you a hero. Be that hero. Defend Rhovanion and be it's deliverance - or die in the attempt.
A story driven, single player, action adventure campaign (select from up to 7 controllable companions)
For characters who have completed The Indanthrine Prince*, progressing to level 20
Game length in excess of 40 hours
* = Alternatively, new characters will be given the experience for 12th level.
A note to Youtubers and streamers - I love watching your playthroughs! The custom music tracks found in this campaign are licensed for use on my Youtube channel. In the event you share gameplay of the campaign with the music playing, it is likely that you will be prevented from monetising your content. It is unlikely anything worse will happen, but do proceed with caution! If you wish to know more to do this safely, do contact me.
A short trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i7HUXHQoQE
Despite this being a major update, I still anticipate the need for smaller, further improvements. I will revisit this at some point, once the final part of the trilogy is either completed or close to that point. Naturally any major issues will be dealt with as quickly as possible.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 DETAIL OF ALL CHANGES | 10.11 KB |
 PUT THIS IN YOUR CAMPAIGN FOLDER (172) | 410.62 MB |
| PUT THESE IN YOUR MODULES FOLDER (Updated 10-Jun-21) (577) | 330.95 MB |
| PUT THESE IN YOUR HAK FOLDER (1048) | 829.26 MB |
| PUT THIS IN YOUR TLK FOLDER (89) | 19.12 KB |
| PUT THESE IN YOUR MUSIC FOLDER (58) | 73.09 MB |
| modules.rar (12) | 330.95 MB |
All files are now uploaded!
If you are experiencing missing tiles during the chapter 1 section of the game, a temporary fix has been added to the files list. A permanent solution will be in place when the first major update is completed.
I've recently finished the Indanthrine Prince and am really looking forward to playing the Umbral Abyss. I installed it carefully and have a problem almost right away and am wondering if you have any suggestions...
In Chapter 1, early in the mine, if I ever save and reload the game, it crashes with a message "Neverwinter Nights 2 has stopped working". I also get this message when I exit the game from the Umbral Abyss campaign. I have very carefully re-downloaded all of the files from the Vault and carefully re-installed per the Quickguide and tried restarting the campaign with a brand new character, and I have even completely removed and reinstalled NWN2 Complete in an effort to solve this problem. I have tried applying the EMERGENCY FIX although I saw no missing tiles. I am at a loss what further to do. I am running on Windows 7 and have no difficulty playing any other campaign or downloaded module so far.
Any suggestions or information will be appreciated!
When I try to play the Indrathine Prince, it often crashes while saving, corrupting my previous save and ensuring I can't play very far in. How can I avoid this?
Hi there, sorry to hear about your crashes. I cannot offer you a guaranteed solution, but here is some advice which may help stop/reduce crashes;
* Try turning down the graphics settings, or at least doing this when saving.
* Use multiple save slots
* Check your display drivers are up to date.
Worse case scenario, there is some sort of corruption with your save folder and/or files.
Of course I would like to eliminate any chance that something in Indanthrine Prince is causing a problem, though this is the first report since 2013 of any major crashing problems. Is there any pattern to the crashing? Does it just crash whenever you save, or do you notice anything that might be contributing?
If you encounter any issues with The Umbral Abyss, this is the place to report them too.
This comment is on the Nexus for Indanthrine Prince: "had a problem using this mod with Tchos HD UI. I couldn't save my game anywhere outside the starting zone without crashing. To overcome this issue, I removed Tchos HD UI mod from my UI/custom folder, progressed as far as into the village outside the first building, saved my game (successfully), then reloaded the same savegame with Tchos HD UI back in the UI/custom folder. Quicksaves and normal saves work for me now."
I wasn't using that mod in the first place, but I've found that doing the described method has stopped the crashing so far.
Well spotted! I will add this to the notes for anyone else with this problem.
I got through Indanthrine Prince. Pretty good, I liked it.
Going through Umbral Abyss, unfortunately I'm stuck during the battle at Talath Harroch as nothing happens after I beat the four Black Uruks. Done it a few times, always stuck at that point. Looking at the patch notes, I'm guessing I'm not the first, and unfortunately they don't seem to help. Is there a way I can manually trigger the cutscene for now?
The new patch 1.5 will hopefully address this :)
EDIT: Afore mentioned patch is now available
Yep, that took care of it. Good stuff.
In the quest Show me your hand. When I enter the Court of the King, nothing happens. Khaev is there, but talking to him does nothing.
Please check your private messages for a proven fix for this issue.
I'm having the same problem - how do you fix it?
A copy of the same successful fix and instructions on how to use it have been PM'd to you.
Stuck in the Warrens. Everytime I fight the Ivory Claws the game crashes after I've killed two or three of them. Nothing in my override except your fixes above and without those the Warren walls disappear. Everything was great up to this point.
Any help?
Hm. Perhaps tuning down some of the graphics settings, running in windowed mode for this small part might help? I'm not sure what else to suggest. If this problem persists, I can prvide you with the means to bypass this small part of the campaign.
No dice. I tried all of the above. Roughly when the third assassin starts to cast his spell I get an imediate crash.
Thats a shame :(
I just had a better idea than me just jumping you past the enccounter.
Send your save file to kevin.balmer@gmail.com
I will deal with the encounter and then return the save to you!
On its way.
And returned ;)
Same problem as GCoyote in the warrens with the ivory assassins... :-(
P.D.: I lowered the graphic resolution AND killed the pyromancer REALLY FAST and game didn't crash. It does the trick!!!!
If you have high enough skills in Hide and Move Silently and perhaps a bit of magical help, you can also sneak past them or at least get into a good spot to nail the pyromancer.
And now I've lost the Assassins. The trail just runs out near the Seamstress Marie and there are no nearby locations to enter.
[See screen shot for last dust location.]
Am I missing something or did I break it again?
Also the building north of the party's position does not have solid walls. We got a little lost in the masonry.
Thanks for the report!
Try inspecting for a trail south and east of your position ;)
Okay, got it. Zero dust hits from that last position to the gate, then two to the door but it was the only door so ...
Anyway, I"M OFF AGAIN!!!
[Absolutely outstanding story so far.]
Possible bug report.
After the cut scene "four days ago" in Mirkwood, my party spawns in the cut scene area. The two principles are there but neither reacts to the party. Speaking to the female elf triggers the text of the intro text "four days ago" but not the animation.
It cleared up after I restarted NWN2 and went back to an earlier save and now I can't reproduce the problem.
So - FYI
I suppose we need failsafes to account for NWN2 general glitchyness.
I thought a little about how to do this and I am considering a script which fires, say a few seconds after the scene ends. If the player is still in x area and not back in y area, jump them there. Seems to be a good idea.
I've encounted this problem, and the issue seems to happen whenever there are more than five party members (including animal companions or summons) in the party at the time. This will cause the characters to shift slightly on the map, just enough to cause the trigger to fail. The simplest solution is to ensure you have no more than five party members right before leaving the city.
Gabit at the Gate,
Now nothing is happening. My journal hasn't changed since I talked to Girthess upon arrival. No more enemies and no relief troops. Nothing.
Help?
Hm this is the second query I have had about this. Perhaps my pointers in the Journal need to be clearer. Apologies.
There are 4 groups of miners to evacuate in various interiors via Girion's Gate. One of these groups is locked inside a house and will only exit when the other 3 have been escorted. Rescuring this final group also advances the quest. Try this and apologies again for the misleading ingame info.
Aha, and to compound matters, my party had already visited the other mines which were of course empty at that point in the plot. Didn't occur to me to recheck them.
Off again!
Aha :)
I think I need to be clearer with the journal entries.
Fear not though, this is not DA2, we won't reuse areas and pass them off as different places altogether ;)
Looks like I hit the same snag with Khaev that the others mentioned above.
No problem. The solution is very simple and won't cause you to miss out on anything in game.
First, you will require a copy of my testing widget. You can use the console to obtain the item. Acting under the assumption you haven't used the console before:
1. Open the console by hitting the ` key
2. Type: DebugMode 1
3. Type: GiveItem merptestingwidget
4. Type: DebugMode 0
5. Close the console by hitting the ` key
Next you will require a new copy of the conversation that the widget uses. You can get this from my dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wohome9f5vfiis7/merp_test_widget.dlg?dl=0
Place the file in your Umbral Abyss campaign folder and overwrite the old one.
In game, use the widget's special power and in the resulting conversation list, select option 2 ("Launch Q018 Show Me Your Hand - Khaev and Brand cutscene").
I recommend positioning your party next to the exit door of the hall when you do this, so that the scene displays properly.
My apologies for this problem and I hope that it hasn't impacted on your enjoyment too much. I have a good solution ready to be added in a new year update! Enjoy
Thanks, and not aproblem. I'm just beginning to mod myself and the number of ways a planned encounter can fail is eye opening experience.
I'll get back on track tonight.
First problem of 2016
I tell Ibun I have the four stones. He replies. Then nothing. The lock-posts do not become useable and the gate just remains locked.
Got a script I can run?
I think that this problem may be due to the absence of a speaker.
When you say that Ibun replied and then nothing - do you mean he literally said one line and then the conversation ended? As one sure way of finding out if the conversation finished; did your journal update when it ended?
I'm pretty sure what the issue is and I can quickly prepare a fix for you. Once you can confirm I will send it over.
The PC speaks to Ibun, I select option 1. "I have four stones:, he replies, and I click on my only choice, 1. "Continue ..."
The Journal still says to gather four stones and talk Ibun.
I just noticed there is also an open journal entry to speak with Dorn again after he's returned the dragon toy to the PC and battle. Might that be affecting another script? He's still in the forge.
I will get back tonight to see if there is anything else odd/incomplete that I can spot.
And Happy New Year!
That has narrowed it down enough for me, thanks!
Try checking on the forge area - speaking to Dorn after the Krake battle makes him and Lolinus return to the gathering point, which will fix this problem.
If this doesn't work:
Grab this fresh copy of the test widget conversation. Overwrite as before.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wohome9f5vfiis7/merp_test_widget.dlg?dl=0
In game, select option 1 "Put Dorn and Lolinus in Position".
Then try the conversation again.
It was the convo with Dorn. I'm in.
Good stuff.
That little continuity issue will be added to the update list.
I'm probably 80% of the way through. Feedback sent by email in case I've found a bug not mentioned elsewhere.
Absolutely outstanding work!
Fix a few bugs, simplify the crafting system.
This is a TEN!
That's very generous of you. I wouldn't have scored it that, but that's the beauty of having our own opinions (and me being my own biggest critic). So thank you for the feedback.
Crafting is certainly an area for fine tuning now that we have gathered a good deal of player feedback. A lot of improvements to come in terms of inventory management, difficulty and simplicity. (Smelting system and it's ingredients is one opportunity for simplification).
A lot of potential/known continuity bugs have been squished for update 2.0, so watch this space if you are hankering for a replay :)
Keep in touch: http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/
The provisional list of changes for version 2.0 can be found on the blog. The update itself should be avaialble very shortly.
http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks!
Sounds like something broke here! Curious that this occured in chapter 1, which nobody has reported any broken content like this. There was one player who had all kinds of crazy problems which I couldn;t locate - a full reinstall of NWN2 worked for him. However I won;t suggest that until I have more details.
Can you provide me with more detail on things like area name, what you have done so far, etc? You could also send me a copy of your save file to kevin.balmer@gmail.com so I can have a closer look.
It sure does! It sounds like you do need to reinstall NWN2.
If you are being attacked by characters at the very begining, something is very wrong. These characters are set as non-hostile. There is no way this can be affected unless something somewhere on the install is broken!
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