An Artifact from the Depth

tarum89 · May 2013

Kurkallah - The Lost Artifact
Chapter 1: An Artifact from the Depth
by @tarum89

First Chapter Short Code: NW-DB5GERXA3
Campaing Short Code: NWS-DKKFTX8ZK

Lenght: depend from the choices, 20min - 1hour
Type: Explore, fight, role-play and solve mistery!
Difficulty: A good challenge for 1, easier for 2 or 3 chars.

Hail Adventurers! I'm really sorry if the lenguage is not perfect, i'm not English native. The quest is the first chapter of a larger story.
Current Version: 06

Description:
One day, the messenger of Neverwinter brings you a letter. He seems to be in rush. Even before you can open your mouth the messenger runs away, leaving the envelope in your hands. The envelope has a decorated seal well executed.
Broken the seal you read the letter:
"I need your help, join me as soon as possible to the tavern of Wintertop, I can not tell you more!
Red blood is the sunset but dark is the sky. "
The letter ends abruptly with that sort of poetry, nor a signature, not a note.
You think it's worth investigating. The Wintertop Tavern should not be too far away.

Images:
It's nice to see the sky after a trip in the depths...

Khaladas the Drow, the one who will guide you on your adventure.

Duergars coming from a Magic Portal, will you be able to close it?

I hope you'll like it, i'm doing the second chapter too.
Do not exitate to critique and comment, it's still improving thanks to you!
Cheers

franziska1991 · May 2013

Hi,
I played your quest but I couldn't write a review because the reward chest was buggy.
Yesterday I play it again and I saw several changes that I like.
- As for the D&D Lore I'm not an expert (I just played some videogames of it) but the quest seems to match perfectly;
- Some fights were a little bit difficult, but I was able to complete the quest without dying;
- The dialogues were well structured: I like that it's possible to intimidate NPC;
- The monsters were well placed;
- In every fight there were many things to do.
So you found a good balance.

I can't wait for the second chapter :P
Do you have planned to put some svirfneblin (deep gnomes) in your next chapter? I saw them in Baldur's Gate II. It would be nice to see them since your quest seems to be placed in the underdark.

I'm doing my first quest with the foundry. Would do like to review my quest when it will be finished?
Thanks

franziska1991 · May 2013

Ah, I forgot to tell you that I gave you 5 stars

tarum89 · May 2013

franziska1991 wrote: »

Hi,
I played your quest but I couldn't write a review because the reward chest was buggy.
Yesterday I play it again and I saw several changes that I like.
- As for the D&D Lore I'm not an expert (I just played some videogames of it) but the quest seems to match perfectly;
- Some fights were a little bit difficult, but I was able to complete the quest without dying;
- The dialogues were well structured: I like that it's possible to intimidate NPC;
- The monsters were well placed;
- In every fight there were many things to do.
So you found a good balance.

I can't wait for the second chapter :P
Do you have planned to put some svirfneblin (deep gnomes) in your next chapter? I saw them in Baldur's Gate II. It would be nice to see them since your quest seems to be placed in the underdark.

I'm doing my first quest with the foundry. Would do like to review my quest when it will be finished?
Thanks

Many thanks

I really like Baldur's Gate, actually it's one of my favourite game.
I had not planned to add deep gnomes in my campaign but that would be a fantastic idea, actually, i'd like to involve Umber Hulks, Githyankies, Trolls, and some nice crawling in the Underdark with the idea to switch dimensions while you are there.
Surely i'd need to create them using the editor, i think there are no one of them in the game right now...
If i could i would model and texture them in 3d, but i see there's no "import obj" in the Foundry

samuraikings · May 2013

I actually wanted to finish this before, so I am glad you fixed it.

Just played "An Artifact from the Depths - NW-DB5GERXA3" again, this time as a 60 TR.

The first map is pretty solid still. Nice character movements(I loved the pig, not sure if that was there before and I didn't notice it), interesting story and everything needed seems to be there, even a nice exit if you want to quit. The only problem seems to be a few tiny grammatical errors. The Bard's first answers(2 and 3) have a mistake. #2 should read "Shut it, bard!" and #3 has two "R"'s. Most of the others seem to be fixed.

The second zone outside has really nice mob placement and patrols. Really good. It was exactly what it needed to be, not much to say. They added key drops made it even better though.

The third zone, you seem to have fixed the drows dialogue, it is pretty good now. I love the dead bodies that rise up when you walk over them. I feel like the fights are fun even though I am not about to die, I can probably learn a lot about mob balance from this quest. Moving the seals into separate rooms made it much better. Not just smoother but it makes sense to have each key guarded separately, very nice.

The fourth zone, after the teleport is pretty solid. You are very good at changing it up and not making it a boring fight quest. Switches, seals, levers, keys etc. The first npc dwarf has a few words missing here and there, specifically in the first dialogue he says, he says "You killed many of my, do not tell me you" I think "kin" is missing after my. The dead drow female has a few grammatical errors, mainly on the page about the duergars digging around the door making the galleries collapse. I love the object interactions, you use the Foundry to the fullest for sure.

The fifth zone, King Hukhalium response number 1 should be "You will" rather than asking him "Will you taste my wrath!". Second dialogue from the second option, "I will not let you, even my successors, the Duergar, get a hold of Kurkallah." the "even" should be replaced with either a modern "or" or "nor" if you want to use a conjunction mix of neither and or. I personally like nor. Wow, tough fight with the king, even as a 60 TR in 8.6k GS lol. I died 3 times before I beat him, though the third time was easier. I kind of wish I brought Cleric to knock him into a hole lol.

The sixth zone, where you fight Turglas, when he turns on the first dialogue, the third option has an error. The Mind Flayer has a few typos as well. The fight was really good and i can't wait to play part 2, I will be subscribing.

After finishing it I have to bump it up to 5 stars. It is a really great, solid story. I get the feeling you are a D&D DM and you make stories like this for your group lol. You might want to tone down the King Hukhalium fight a tad for level 60s, those zombies and archers he spawns really hurt because the scaling is so bad. If you want it to be really, really hard though, it is doable by TR at least. Otherwise I would say it is ready to submit to cryptic, i think it could be featured one day, honestly.

tarum89 · May 2013

samuraikings wrote: »

I actually wanted to finish this before, so I am glad you fixed it.

Just played "An Artifact from the Depths - NW-DB5GERXA3" again, this time as a 60 TR.....
....After finishing it I have to bump it up to 5 stars. It is a really great, solid story. I get the feeling you are a D&D DM and you make stories like this for your group lol. You might want to tone down the King Hukhalium fight a tad for level 60s, those zombies and archers he spawns really hurt because the scaling is so bad. If you want it to be really, really hard though, it is doable by TR at least. Otherwise I would say it is ready to submit to cryptic, i think it could be featured one day, honestly.

Many thanks, your review was fantastic, i'm going now to fix the dialogues, many many thanks for the accuracy!
I will re-check your page for updates of your quest, i will play it with my girlfriend next time

I will remove the archers from the last fight in the crypt and fix the dialogues right now, you were fantastic!
Do you know how can i submit the quest to cryptic? thanks

EDIT: just corrected the typos error, many thanks!

samuraikings · May 2013

When you enter the foundry, either before you click edit, or right after in the "Quest" tab where you enter the quest name, at the top right of the screen it should say "submit to Cryptic" but once you submit it and it gets accepted I don't think you can edit it. So make sure it is perfect and probably make a copy.

tarum89 · May 2013

samuraikings wrote: »

When you enter the foundry, either before you click edit, or right after in the "Quest" tab where you enter the quest name, at the top right of the screen it should say "submit to Cryptic" but once you submit it and it gets accepted I don't think you can edit it. So make sure it is perfect and probably make a copy.

I'm not sure but probably i already did it, in the foundry, if i enter in my quest, in the right tab where the image is there's Submitted day <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>. Maybe that "submitted" means that's aready submitted to cryptic... i hope.
Maybe i clicked it thought it was for publishing, my fault

joomin · May 2013

Great idea cant wait to play this one!

tarum89 · May 2013

joomin wrote: »

Great idea cant wait to play this one!

thanks

Actually it's online if you'd like to try it

keylord02 · May 2013

Played your quest and greatly enjoyed it!

You come off as someone familiar with D&D. I loved the inclusion of duergar dwarves personally! The combat was in that "goldilocks zone" that I like. It felt action packed but never dragged.

Dialogue was fantastic with multiple options, which I consider a must for my enjoyment of a Foundry mission. I want to play the character my own way, so I thank you for allowing that!

All in all, a fantastic quest. Definitely looking forward to more!

imivo · May 2013

I was unable to finish this quest. After getting the four rings from the crypts, I think I was supposed to use "forge 1" (the sparkles led there and the forge sparkled, too). When interacting with "forge 1", I get an error message saying that "You can't use this object right now." (after the interaction bar fills completely). The character was not in combat. I feel I might have overlooked something!

I enjoyed the quest up until this point. Wish I could have completed it!

(At the very start when talking with the barkeeper, there is some Italian text in the dialogue.)

tarum89 · May 2013

imivo wrote: »

I was unable to finish this quest. After getting the four rings from the crypts, I think I was supposed to use "forge 1" (the sparkles led there and the forge sparkled, too). When interacting with "forge 1", I get an error message saying that "You can't use this object right now." (after the interaction bar fills completely). The character was not in combat. I feel I might have overlooked something!

I enjoyed the quest up until this point. Wish I could have completed it! (At the very start when talking with the barkeeper, there is some Italian text in the dialogue.)

Argh i absolutely must translate it! thanks for checking

Regarding the rings.. umm are you sure you got all the 4 rings? If yes, it's also probable that if you are with another player, and you have not all the rings because your fellowship has one or some of them, than you should alternate finding the right sequence.
I placed 4 forges one in the top of the other. As you place one ring, that forge disappear and appear another one.
When you did it 4 times than it gaves you the new big seal to open the door.
I tested it many times (in part too) and it always worked trying both players to do that.
If you were not in party please retry it, be sure to have all the 4 rings

tarum89 · May 2013

keylord02 wrote: »

Played your quest and greatly enjoyed it!

You come off as someone familiar with D&D. I loved the inclusion of duergar dwarves personally! The combat was in that "goldilocks zone" that I like. It felt action packed but never dragged.

Dialogue was fantastic with multiple options, which I consider a must for my enjoyment of a Foundry mission. I want to play the character my own way, so I thank you for allowing that!

All in all, a fantastic quest. Definitely looking forward to more!

Thank you so much! i'm really happy that you liked it!
Yes i'm familiar with D&D but not too much, most from old titles like Baldur's Gate I and II: Shadow of Amn. Than all the neverwinter nights saga.
I wrote also a rpg, but it's not complete... and it's in italian right now

An Artifact from the Depth

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