No Country for Old Undead - The Dark Garden

talli0

No Country for Old Undead - The Dark Garden by @talli0

Short Code: NW-DQBGVHH7V
Mission Type: Mainly Story but includes Exploration / Combat / Rescue the Maiden
Average Duration: About 19 minutes
Amount of Combat: Fairly minimal in some sections, intense in others
Starts at: Blacklake District
NEWEST EDIT: Now qualifies for the daily foundry!
Mission Summary:

A posting on the local job board reads:

ATTENTION:
It is I, Cronklyte, Neverwinter's premiere alchemist, thaumaturge, and occultist; researcher into the very depths of the nature of magic; author of a manuscript entitled, "Quarks, quirks, quorks, and phlosons. Interactions occurring during the first 1.8 picoseconds of a spontaneous combustion reaction."

I am in need of highly active and energetic individuals to deal with a minor annoyance that is currently interrupting my latest and greatest brilliant endeavor. A small gang of wererat ruffians are ensconced in the back rooms of a Blacklake warehouse containing minor magical devices, failed alchemical experiments, mysterious unidentified items, and all manner of reagents, equipment, and glassware indispensable for my work.

Please inquire with my apprentice, Nealyn, at the warehouse if you have the requisite skill-set for this posting.

"What could go wrong?", you think.

Author tips/hints:

• This quest has it all: combat, exploration, hardcore theoretical physics, damsel in distress, wtf moments, excessive use of fog, mist, and dust effects, and even glowing signs that don't do anything (Legal Note: Glowing sign now does something!)
• Designed for solo characters (aka mysteriously breaks for groups)
• Tested with a wide range of character levels and classes (wide range = 5)

Screenshots

Umm, is that supposed to happen?



Not REALLY a garden...


Final thoughts

Thanks anybody and everybody for checking out my quest! Please send along any comments, concerns, or issues you have. Work has started on chapter 2 and your comments are needed to make it great!

talli0

Have had a few "beta testers" run my quest and fixed a few minor issues that they uncovered. So the newest version online is even better than ever!

Thanks go out to the few people brave enough to take on my quest! So far all reviews are very positive so make sure to check out this quest now, before it goes huge! :rolleyes:

talli0

The final, fully-tested version is now online! Everything has been tweaked, buffed and seems to be working great. All of the off-the-beaten trail places have been fleshed out for you explorer types. There is even a fully operational and fully functional side-quest. Don't expect to see any more changes from now on other than the correction of whatever typos escaped all my testers.

So, as of this point, I declare my quest the live version!

To celebrate this point, I've having a little lore contest. (I know someone else did this recently on the foundry boards but since I've been planning this for the past week, I'm doing it anyways.) All you need to do is run my quest, find the answers to the two simple questions below, and be the first person to post the correct answer in this thread. The winner gets the grand total of all AD I have so far accumulated ingame (currently 15k...I know, pretty pathetic...) but more importantly, will also be immortalized in chapter 2 of the "No Country for Old Undead" campaign as a very important quest NPC!!!

Questions:
1) What are the names of Quenzixoaczzx's children? (Spelling counts!)

2) What is Tyr's mother's favorite activity? (No guessing profanities here!)

That's it! Explore my quest, find out those answers, post them here and your name will be used in chapter 2!

talli0

This quest is now eligible for the "Daily Foundry" quest rewards! Thanks all for running it and giving awesome feedback.

So now you can run the quest to give me a review/feedback and at the same time get your daily astral diamonds! And note that we do NOT have a contest winner, so keep your eyes open for secret areas if you want to be included as a NPC in chapter 2!

talli0

Recently updated a few parts of the quest, although it was mainly to flesh out parts of the last map to make them feel more alive and realistic. So I'm declaring the new and improved version 2.0!

Continue to check it out and send me any feedback you may have. Been coming along with chapter 2 and have been using alot of the comments to make it an even better quest.

orodalf

Here's my review, as promised.

Typo report to start.

• Quest description: "author of a manuscript entitled, 'Quarks, quirks, quorks, and phlosons. Interactions occurring during the first 1.8 picoseconds of a spontaneous combustion reaction.'" This should be written as "author of a manuscript entitled 'Quarks, Quirks, Quorks, and Phlosons: Interactions Occurring During the First 1.8 Picoseconds of a Spontaneous Combustion Reaction.'"
• This is a bit picky: In Blacklake, at the door, the interact text is "Press F to enter Conklyte's warehouse." Might want to eliminate the period and capitalize "warehouse" for consistency with the rest of the game.
• Welcome Book: "Alltime" isn't a word; it's "all-time." Likewise, "four-story" needs a hyphen.
• Welcome Book: First note should read "The story was designed to be fun but challenging for a solo character of level 10-15, but so far, it seems to work with higher-level characters as well.
• Welcome Book: Third note: "Use it if you need to get out quickly, but remember..."
• Welcome Book: Fourth note: "(it is... foundry), so if you get..." (add a comma)
• Nealyn: "Whatever are you doing here?" ("Whatever" is one word)
• Nealyn: "Well, apparently, a small gang... to this place, broke in and has been..." (Comma after "apparently" and "gang" should take a singular verb)
• Nealyn: "The doors back to the inner rooms are locked, so..." (Comma between "locked" and "so.")
• You labeled a door "Barracaded Wooden Door"; it's spelled "Barricaded."
• Warehouse door: "Looks like this is what you were hired for. You prepare for the likely upcoming brawl." ("And" is too weak to connect the sentences here. Best separate them.)
• Wererat Shaman: "Steiber, that no-good..." (hyphen)
• Wererat Shaman: "pulls out a two-foot wooden rod..." (hyphen)
• The Mists: "The feeling is so striking that your eyes pop open." (no comma)
• Cemetery View: "You step through the mist-enshrouded doorway." (hyphen)
• Cemetery View: "Almost instantly, the mist thickens..." (comma)
• Cemetery View: "... steps forward, but you..." (comma)
• Cemetery View: "... Blacklake anymore, and you have..." (comma)
• Cemetery View: "... gate behind you, but then you..." (comma)
• Cemetery Banner: "... you are not familiar with, somehow the meaning of the words is known to you." (singular verb)
• Cemetery Banner: "Silent, mist-enshrouded headstones" (comma, hyphen)
• Monument: "Written on the monument in an unknown..." (no comma)
• Turris Nox: "... cuts and bruises, including a nasty..." (comma)
• Turris Nox: "... monk or cleric and seems..." (no comma)
• Turris Nox: "Sorry, but I've seen no one around here but you." ("noone" is not a word and "else" cannot here be used.")
• Turris Nox: "Too late, then; they must have taken her." (comma, semicolon)
• Turris Nox: "... any explanation; those creatures..." (semicolon, not comma)
• After entering the crypt (reach point): "... are greeted by..." (misspelled)
• Also, "whispered shout" doesn't make sense. Try "hoarse shout"; I think that conveys the intended meaning.
• Reach point Rosa: "Rosa is unconscious, surrounded by undead..." (comma)
• Turris Knox: "... wake her up, but..." (comma)
• Turris Knox option: "I'd rather not spend any more..." ("anymore" not the correct word)
• Turris Knox: "Technically, I guess you could..." (no comma)
• Turris Knox: "Discordiam Empire, but it is so far away from anything else that no one..." (comma, "noone" is not a word)
• Turris Knox: "ten years back, and rumor has it that he..." (comma)
• Turris Knox: "Glad you pulled yourself together and made it down here, Turris." (comma)
• Turris Knox: "The one who could talk mentioned something about Rosa owing some "Master." ("who," not "that," and end punctuation)
• Turris Knox: "Recently, she has been less sure of her..." (comma)
• The Warehouse: "... when you step through, the mists..." (comma)
• The Warehouse: "... two or three tentative steps, and the mists..." (comma)
• In general: Try to put spaces after your ellipses and to make sure that they only have three dots.

Other things:

• For whatever reason, the warehouse has two tracks of music going on at the same time. It's kinda painful to listen to.
• Mists cause awful lag. =/
• Turris Knox is wearing a cloak emblazoned with the symbol of Kelemvor... That's awkward.
• You can't use "phlogiston theory"... Yes, I know what it refers to in our world, but in DND, "phlogiston" is the stuff between the Spheres.

Pretty good.

dzogen

I like the combination of hardcore theoretical physics and wtf moments. Seems to pair well together. I hope to run this once I get back to the game next week..

talli0

Closing in on finishing Part II of my campaign (hope to have it out before July) and do not have a winner for my contest. The NPC is sitting, forlornly, in my temple, waiting for your name!!

The contest:

-Run my quest, "The Dark Garden".
-Find the answers to the two questions below.
-Post them here.
-WIN 30k astral diamonds!
-WIN your name being used as an NPC in Part II

That's it! Good luck and have fun! Both answers can be found slightly off the beaten track (or sparkly track, as the case may be).

Questions:
1) What are the names of Quenzixoaczzx's children? (Spelling counts!)

2) What is Tyr's mother's favorite activity? (No guessing profanities here!)