Ravenloft: Ch1 Journey to Barovia

apocrs1980 · May 2013

Ravenloft - Ch1 Journey to Barovia
by @apocrs1980

Short Code: NW-DMHM6HXH5

Mission Type: Solo medium story with combat that ramps up.

Average Duration: 30 min
Amount of Combat: medium

Starts at: The Old Keg Tavern (on the over world map)

Mission Summary:
You have caught word of a family in need of help, claiming to be under constant threat each night by something that is unknown.
They would like to hire a mercenary to patrol their homestead and find out who or what has been visiting them each night, a large sum of coin is offered as compensation to anyone who can help remove this threat and give them piece of mind.
Answering the call, you travel deep with in the Kryptgarden woods to find their homestead, only to come across a large blanket of fog, which persistently grows thicker.
Soon, you're wondering for hours, loosing your way in the mists, until you can finally make out a small light, protruding through the silhouettes of the thick woods and heavy laden fog, is this the families homestead? Or something else entirely? Your journey begins...

Author tips/hints:
I wanted to let people know that the last fight can be incredibly difficult if you choose just to skip over side quests and only follow the main quest.
There are a few parts to it that will decrease the difficulty.
When you start out, Bildrath the merchant is there, you need to sway him to let you trade for one of his items, he will want some gnarl root for the exchange, you can find this neat the Old Keg Tavern.
There are 3 to choose from once you bring the gnarl root to him, a merchant's crest, a sword, and a bottle of elixir.
When used correctly in the Village of Barovia, these will impact the final fight in 3 very different ways:

1. Do nothing = 100% chance that zombies will break down the gates and swarm the square from all four directions.
2. Choose the merchant's crest = this will avoid a fight with Nicoli and also reduce the chance of zombies spawning by roughly 50%.
3. Choose the sword = if you choose to show this to Nicoli He will trade it for protection, this will assure that guards are protecting you when you encounter Strahd, and they will fight the zombies for you.
4. finally, if you choose the elixir, you can trade it to Ivar for his carpenter's hammer, once you have the hammer you can construct barricades in 4 major locations around the square, each barricade will reduce the chance of zombies breaking through by 100% in that area.

Note: You can fail these objectives by choosing to interact with the NPC's incorrectly at any time. Also, Strahd does not die, you can't kill him...yet.
But, he will try and kill you and then laugh over your corpse.

Screenshots/attachments:

coanunn · May 2013

Apoc, I was so looking forward to this quest and I have heard nothing but awesome things from those who have played it. Then I get there.. I unwittingly failed the side quest option and from there it was rather linear. Gorgeous quest, everything well done and in it's appropriate place. The combat certainly ramps up but never to a point that it is unnecessary.. until the end.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Ok, so here is the problem, I killed Strahd, slow reader that I am I didn't see the instructions of what to do next and instead found myself fighting endless waves of undead and wolves. When my death happend due to the stacking of those encounters and I released I released in aggro of the encounters and was instantly killed over and over again. After finally clearing all the undead I have a circle on the map to "strike the vision from the world and protect the village" but there is nothing going on. I can see Strahd up on the wall looking down but literally nothing in the town to interact with. Thinking this was a bug I hit the abort exit, relogged and went back in, and bam, now I'm stuck behind an invisble wall cutting off the front half of the village from the combat zone. I figure I'll be forced to drop the quest and redo it later in order to resolve this but frankly it really takes the desire out of me with the thought that simply because I'm a slow reader I'll miss some timed event that causes me to fail the quest altogether.

apocrs1980 · May 2013

Thanks for the feed back Coanunn,

I never gave thought as to what would happen if people leave and come back during that point in the fight, I'll remove the wall as I don't really see any other reason it should be there. I did nerf that last fight to where if you kill Nicoli there is only a 100% chance for zomies to breach the Northern gate and a 50% chance that zombies will breach the other gates. I am still fine tuning this fight so that it's not overly difficult but not a complete push over either. last time I ran it on my CW and none of the zombies spawned except the ones at the northern gate. looks like the opposite happened when you played

I want to be sure to give an advantage to those who choose an item from Bildrath while giving consequences for killing town guards. I'll just to need work on this more.

coanunn · May 2013

apocrs1980 wrote: »

Thanks for the feed back Coanunn,

I never gave thought as to what would happen if people leave and come back during that point in the fight, I'll remove the wall as I don't really see any other reason it should be there. I did nerf that last fight to where if you kill Nicoli there is only a 100% chance for zomies to breach the Northern gate and a 50% chance that zombies will breach the other gates. I am still fine tuning this fight so that it's not overly difficult but not a complete push over either. last time I ran it on my CW and none of the zombies spawned except the ones at the northern gate. looks like the opposite happened when you player

I want to be sure to give an advantage to those who choose an item from Bildrath while giving consequences for killing town guards. I'll just to need work on this more.

Oh, man please! I'm totally not complaining at all! I just am super bummed I didn't get to finish it! It is by far one of the best looking quests in the foundry and really only has a few small things that seem out of place. I had a few conversations that didn't seem to line up with the grave robber (felt like she was responding to things that weren't actually said) and again just that "rushed" feeling at the end that it seems if you are a slower reader/player you can fail the quest outright because of not reacting quick enough. I don't mind being punished for my slow reflexes but full failure seemed harsh, but again no way to tell if that was by design or an individual bug that I ran into since I came back and can't get up there.

apocrs1980 · May 2013

Yeah, it shouldn't destroy you that's never fun at all, only increase the difficulty a little on the last fight.
I herd that after killing the shadow wolf the 2nd time that all the zombies did despawn correctly but then Bildrath never came out. Seems that this is a cryptic bug, I just removed that invisible wall, and I also moved the location of the re-spawn point so players are not creamed by the roaming zombies.
This should also make life easier as you can just pull 1 pack as the pat around. I just republished and I'm going to go run it again and see what happens at the end. I'll also look into the dialogue with the grave robber, I am by no stretch of the imagination a solid writer, so I appreciate all the community feed back from those who are more skilled than I.

apocrs1980 · May 2013

Just ran this a few hours ago and everything looks to be working as intended. Had no weird spawns or pathing issues. Only problem is it will only show in the catalog if you put the short code in or the word "journey."

Cheers!

chili1179 · May 2013

Completely biased bump of greatness.

apocrs1980 · June 2013

Okay I believe most of the bugs have been squashed.

Only thing I can't to do make the NPC disappear faster during dialogue prompt reached that's beyond my control.
Chapter 2 is in the works, enjoy!

apocrs1980 · June 2013

Just an added note, sparkly trail will not work in the Slavich Forrest, this is due to it wanting to take the most direct rout to the quest item, this is not something I am able to fix, the trail is biased and will often pass through cosmetic details or invisible walls. Sorry about that guys nothing I can do :P I would suggest playing without the trail however, as the quest is very straight forward. If you get lost then I have done something wrong.

Other than that Chapter 2 is well on it's way to being finished up I can't wait to share the next part in the series with you all, for the old time Ravenloft junkies do you remember Ashlyn Lightbringer? You will enjoy chapter 2

sominator · June 2013

Excited for this! Love Ravenloft!

apocrs1980 · June 2013

Thanks Som,

So far it's been a blast to make, it's an honor to tackle and reinvent the classics. This one will be very creepy, if I get a few jumps out of people then I accomplished what I was going for in this chapter

naruon · June 2013

apocrs1980 wrote: »

Thanks Som,

So far it's been a blast to make, it's an honor to tackle and reinvent the classics. This one will be very creepy, if I get a few jumps out of people then I accomplished what I was going for in this chapter

I absolutely loved part 1 and cant wait for the next one! quests like this really show how bad the official content can be...

apocrs1980 · June 2013

Thanks so much naruon!

Yes I am excited about chapter two, only one map left to complete and it should be ready for testing.

wylloh4242 · June 2013

My wife just got to the 'end' of this quest and was horribly disappointed to have blocked off the barriers correctly, killed Strahd's human and werewolf forms, and done everything right, so far as she knew, only to wind up standing around, looking up at Strahd up on the wall. This quest was a complete waste of time, effort, and potions, and it wouldn't even let her review it in-game since she had to abort just to get out of it. Seriously, how on earth can you have put SO much time and effort into making this quest look so good, only to let it end with no way out or forward, and nothing resembling a reward, or even a message clearly stating that a failure had happened?

apocrs1980 · June 2013

wylloh4242 wrote: »

My wife just got to the 'end' of this quest and was horribly disappointed to have blocked off the barriers correctly, killed Strahd's human and werewolf forms, and done everything right, so far as she knew, only to wind up standing around, looking up at Strahd up on the wall. This quest was a complete waste of time, effort, and potions, and it wouldn't even let her review it in-game since she had to abort just to get out of it. Seriously, how on earth can you have put SO much time and effort into making this quest look so good, only to let it end with no way out or forward, and nothing resembling a reward, or even a message clearly stating that a failure had happened?

Sorry to hear this happened to you, however, what you have posted is a Cryptic bug, nothing of my own doing nor design.
As soon as the last shadow wolf is slain, Ismark is set to appear and talk with you to collect the final reward.
If he didn't, then you were struck by the unfortunate Cryptic bug, I have experienced this in a number of foundry quests and it tends to happen after a patch is done. Sorry to hear this but it is totally beyond my control. There is no way to "fail" a foundry mission

if she did not drop the quest and goes back in then it should reset the next part of the quest and Ismark should appear so you can collect the reward.

wylloh4242 · June 2013

Thanks for the advice; we'll try that in the future. Fingers crossed!

apocrs1980 · July 2013

Removed the sparkly trail for the Slavich forest as people assume that authors have control over where it goes, since it's a custom made map the trail ignores the invisible walls and map pathing that was made, taking the shortest route to the objective which is through impassible walls. Since this was confusing it was removed, players will now have to search for the items.

mayhem64 · July 2013

I tried to play this, but was also at a standstill when dealing with the zombie hoard during the fight with Strahd. Kept getting killed, even to the point of being ambushed immediately upon respawn because I tried to run away and died near the campfire. Also, I was unable to use any option when talking to people other than what would start a fight. The other options only had a "You do not have the skill to do this" (paraphrased) in the text. The paths in the woods are very narrow as well. I don't know if it was intentional in order to create a sense of thick woods, but you might want to consider widening them a bit.

On a positive note, the visuals and atmosphere are excellent, and the look of the town in very gothic village.

apocrs1980 · July 2013

Hey there mayhem,

Thank you for the feedback! The final fight can be a tough one, each entrance has a 50/50% chance for zombies to break into the square during the fight with Strand and his minions.
There are three ways to lessen the difficulty and it has to do with the options you mentioned that you could not select when talking to Nicoli.
In order to get one of the three items you'll need to complete a small side quest for Bildrath in the beginning, the details are in the OP of this thread.
As for the trails on the Forrest map, that map is completely maxed out on assets and space there for widening the path would require the entire area to be built on a larger map, this proposes 2 major problems, I would have to completely remake the entire area on a larger map and doing so would drain the map of assets and leave areas barren and looking unfinished since we have the same budget limitations for a small map as we do a medium or large map. Its a foundry limitation on the budgets we must adhere to.

And I also moved the re-spawn point so now if some one does unfortunatly die, they will not get mobbed upon re-spawn.

Regards,

Apoc

apocrs1980 · July 2013

Just a quick update, chapter 2 is nearly finished! Just hammering out the dialogue and banter between th. PC and the new characters you will meet in the next instalment of your journey.

For those familiar with Ravenloft you're going to get to meet the Lightbringers and explore the infamous church, and trust me things have gone from bad to worse. Get ready to relive the old adventure Never winter style!

lolsorhand · July 2013

Played through Ravenloft, and liked it. Though the fog gave me fps drops they weren't so terrible I couldn't enjoy the scenery and atmosphere

gr7ph · August 2013

I *highly* suggest that you change pathing at the very start to be certain that you do not progress past the tavern without choosing one of the items. I was blocked from talking to the merchant after speaking with the shady messenger, so I carried on. The end fight became, therefore, ridiculously unfun. Point to be made: I have never had to go looking for an exit/abort button in all my time until now .. Please be sure to properly classify optional side-chain only when it is in fact optional to the enjoyment, if not simply the completion, of the quest.

thralgaf · August 2013

I can be extremely literal/dense at times, so I am very confused with this quest right off the bat. There is a book at the very beginning that warns about skipping side quests, particularly one given by someone named "Ismarck to the right". I cannot find an npc named ismark in this location, nor in the tavern. Am I missing something?

thralgaf · August 2013

Gave up at black powder keg. Killed some skeletal soldiers, and then......I dunno. There is nothing going on, ran back to beginning, ran back to gate, ran, ran, ran, ran, explored, ate a sandwich, watched some tv, went shopping, grew a beard. gave up and abandoned until Cryptic decides that The Foundry is a $%#@!*& part of the game. Unreal guys-fix the foundry already.

apocrs1980 · August 2013

thralgaf wrote: »

I can be extremely literal/dense at times, so I am very confused with this quest right off the bat. There is a book at the very beginning that warns about skipping side quests, particularly one given by someone named "Ismarck to the right". I cannot find an npc named ismark in this location, nor in the tavern. Am I missing something?

Ah nice catch this was actually suppose to be Bildrath, not Ismark, I will change the name in the note, the black powder keg is back up the trail from when you first entered the area, next to the dead body you pass on your right just before you see the shadow wolf, the sparkly trail is disabled for this quest as it does not work, it instead wants to cut through mountains and invisible walls to reach the shortest path to the objective, which does not work for a custom map.

hope that helps

skandrann0n · December 2013

The keg is pretty hard to find. She says it is by the wall, where she came in. I can see two broken kegs there. Why would she hide the keg up a hill, past the ferocious wolves, in the bushes, next to the dead body... when the wall was so far away.

This is the only Foundry I had to look up to complete.

Other than this one thing, I like it!

-Skan

apocrs1980 · December 2013

Hey all thanks for the feed back, I'll consider revising where you pick up the keg, however, it may shorten the time to complete the quest, this would reduce it under 15 min of completion if people are speed running making the foundry no longer eligible for the daily rewards.

I am aware of a problem in chapter 2, you're not able to progress past the church with the Hunter/Ranger as there isn't a skill set set up in the dialogue for them to choose. Apparently the Hunter Ranger shares no skill sets with any of the other classes (ie Dungeonereing or nature) I attempted to fix this last night however, whenever I click on the dialog box to edit it, the box on that node disappears as soon as I click on it.
Not sure what the problem is, I can click on the node further up the dialog tree and it opens just fine, but that one keeps closing before I can even do any editing

It's one of those things I'm going to have to wait for Cryptic to fix.

Cheers for now

Apoc

casmelak · January 2014

@apoc: RE: "the box on that node disappears as soon as I click on it"

Try scrolling to the right. I've found that with dialog prompts with several response options kicks the edit box off to the right and it looks like it pops in and disappears. In my experience if you use the scroll bar on the bottom of the frame to scroll to the right the dialog will be open and you should be able to edit it there.

GL

apocrs1980 · January 2014

Thanks for everyone's patience,

There was a profanity filter bug preventing me from publishing the dialog to add the nature skill for hunters, this has been addressed now that the filer has been patched by Cryptic.
Sorry for all the trouble. Hunters now should be able to progress in Chapter 2

Regards,

Apoc

apocrs1980 · January 2014

Patch notes for CH2 I'll fortunes:

* encounter with Danovich has been reworked, he now spawns portals and encounter base types for Danovich, Margaretta, and Fenrick have been changed to adventurer encounters.

* Many diolog nodes have been revised to add more description to the story and fix minor typos.

* some sounds in the church have been altered to make then more audible during suspenseful moments.

* flavor text added to a portrait in the church that looks like Decard Cain.

I believe CH2 is for all purposes finished.
Currently working on CH3 entitled "Children of the Night."

-Apoc

orangefiree · January 2014

Part three is coming after all then? Awsome!

Ravenloft: Ch1 Journey to Barovia

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