neverwinter nights nights

nope, no mistake in the title. that's what i'm losing my nights with lately: neverwinter nights 1, because nwn2 won't work on my stupid computer. yet. :D dungeons&dragons based rpg game. there.

on the past few days i was looking something up, and stumbled on a walkthrough for the game made by a chick for an online women's magazine. woo-hoo for rpg playing chicks. boo for stupid rpg playing chicks.

This is a really hard game to write a walkthrough for. You have many options of what to do at every step in the game. You can choose to help people and become more "good", or hurt people and become more "bad". Just because I choose to do something in my own style of gaming doesn't mean that you couldn't do the exact opposite and be playing just as well.

ok, i got that. so you want to be 'good'. at a first guess, seraph and i thought she might be a paladin given her desperation to acquire 'good' points. apparently she played a ranger. if she started out with a good alignment... how exactly was she acquiring more points? anyways... well, you can find the walkthrough here, if interested. i'm just going to point out a couple of things, in the chronological (sort of...) order of the game, from the introduction and chapter one. i'll do another entry, i guess, when i'm done with chapter two of the game.

In this little library area is a book you can grab - The Northern Four Adventuring Troupe.

false. except for quest items and certain stuff certain creatures drop when dead (ex. fire beetles always leave a fire beetle belly behind), stuff you find in bookshelves, piles of books, piles of skulls, chests, boxes, crates, armoires, corpses, wells, rubble, piles of stone and garbage (yeah, look into that too) as well as remains from defeated enemies... it's never the same. this mistaken affirmation appears throughout the walkthrough. you find a potion of xyz there, you find the abc book in that other place. ntz. doesn't work that way.

Fenthick asks you for help, and you level up again.

false. you level up based on how much experience you accumulated. you get that by killing enemies or doing quests.

There are four henchmen you can hire to help you out. Note that you should end up hiring ALL FIVE of these during Chapter One.

errrr. ok. it's five, really. and she goes on mentioning them:

• tomi undergallows, halfling thief. not really, the character class is rogue, which covers much more than a thief. trust me, i play one.
• daelan red tiger, half orc fighter. not really, he's not a fighter but a barbarian. image attached. different class, different skills. oh, and his mom did not fall in love with a 1/2 orc, but with an entire one. and the 'falling in love' part is not too clear either.
• grimgnaw, lawful evil monk. why state his alignment instead of race, as with all others? dwarf monk.
• sherwyn, human archer. she's a bard, really. an archer
• class does not exist. am not too sure about that human part either but i guess it's correct... and her name is sharwyn. she's deliciously stuck up, so you might not want to address her other than her name.
• linu la'neral, the cleric. she is an elf.
• boddyknock glinkle, mage. mage? whuzzdat? he's a gnome wizard. after completing his quest, he doesn't give you a lantanege ring, but a lantanese one. because lantan is the place he comes from.

tomi is to be found in the temple of tyr, where you start out. the other four are in the trade of blades, not trail.

Desthar is annoyed. The Nurse, when pressed, says that Desthar and the Helmites showed up just after the plague came, very suspicious. North is Arabeth.

false. it's desther and aribeth.

Nyatar by the tree wants animals freed - gives you a zoo key and transport via plants scroll, for the BlackLake district. You get 200xp and 400gp when you do this task, and then he becomes a merchant.

false. another mistake appearing throughout the walkthrough. characters who give you quests do not become merchants. they have wares for sale from the start. if the option doesn't appear in the dialogue, just re-enter conversation with them.

Moonstone Mask is a whorehouse. Ophala Cheldarstorn in there wants you to rob some nobles of their artwork. I refused. Giles wants you to kill someone. I refused. To let you in the back, she wants a letter from Oleff. If you go and get one, and pay 200 to Torgo, you get a coin. Up on the third floor is Tamora, Luce, and Tanith. I was female so only Tanith was willing to talk to me. Really he says nothing at all interesting and won't do anything "illicit".

oooo-kay.
(1) you refused loads of experience and gold by refusing to steal the artworks. had you done it, you would've also found out that maybe ophala was right...
(2) gilles doesn't want you to kill anyone. he wants you to bring the artifacts from the tombs to him rather than to oleff, so that they can be desecrated and grant power to the goddess talona. i refused it myself, though it's worth more gold to be evil, just like in real life. i draw lines too, but i draw them more comfortably ;)
(3) you don't steal artworks from the rich... but you did pay to have a date with a male prostitute. interesting attitude :P

by the way. this is one spot where the game is not balanced between genders. normally, gender doesn't influence your character but males have one more quest here, for the prostitute tamora. she'll give you her broach to go to the docks district and frighten hoff out of bugging her. you can sell the broach to hoff for 200 GP, frighten him and return to tell the story to tamora or kill him for the XP. they could've made tanith the brother of tamora so he can give you the same quest when playing a female character, or else find something. whatever.

Peninsula district:

A corpse by the fountain has the Sword Coast book. {...} When you finish clearing out the above-ground area, it's time to head into the estate, in the northeast. {...} There are firebelly monsters here. Head into the prison. {...} Head west, grab the gauntlet in the chest, and head downstairs.

1. that book... or something else.
2. or use the prison key... whichever.
3. fire beetles. they leave behind firebeetle bellies when slain.
3. the gauntlet or... whatever.

Beggar's Nest:

There are lots of zombies, a skeleton mage and Gulnan in here. She's a Yuan-ti. Lure the mages/skeleton over to one side to kill them (the mage first) without involving Gulnan. Then go kill her altar to weaken her for 200xp. Finally kill her off, being sure to run when she starts casting a spell at you. You can dodge most of them and just beat her down.

well, i've let my henchman take care of whatever zombies he could and ran straight for the altar. once destroyed, the undead disappear and only the yuan-ti is left.

Blacklake:

There are various noble estates on this map. If you're playing evil, you can steal things from them and do a quest to steal artwork, given to you in Moonstone Mask. I was a good character and left the houses alone.

errr... i was playing a neutral character that ended up being good. still, i did the quest. you don't even need to kill off the owner, just the guards. he gives up the items to you and explains why ophala wants them. oh, and poking your head into every box, crate and barrel is part of the game. nothing evil about that. you get evil points only for killing people at a whim or doing something purposely evil, such as giving the tomb artefacts to gilles, i presume.

If you leave the doors closed you can do it without killing them, or if you're seeking revenge for the poor animals (as I was) you can kill them too.

nice ranger. good ranger. you kill people for keeping a bear locked up but won't steal a statue :)

You find a +1 greatsword in this room which you can have Marrock turn into a Harbinger Kin Greatsword for the sword, Adamantite and 500gp. It's a great sword! Does fire damage. Get down to the main room with the tree on one side and cage on the other. Save here because you're about to fight Meladen. Touch the cage doors to start the fight. I found it REALLY easy - just two or three hits with my Harbinger Kin Greatsword. Let him go, get the key, he gives you nothing else.

(1) the stonefire axe, from a +1 axe, adamantite and 500GP does more damage and the same fire damage.
(2) meldanen is pretty easy to defeat once you got here. you should also have a belt that offers +12 magic resistance by now, so no problem.
(3) he does give you something else. for example, 500 GP to leave him alive. without you taking good penalties :P you might also kill him, i hear, to get one of his teeth to give to formosa. and to stop all trouble in blacklake. i admit i didn't. i just pressed him for his gold and got the key.

You need to kill everyone you can get your hands on (that is evil) to get red coins.

that is not evil. they have "thugs" and "ruffians" written above their heads and they attack you.

In 20 In a Quiver, Jerol sells stuff. You can buy 3 red coins from him at 150g a coin. He says Gilda at the Golden Apple has one or two more. If you head over there, Gilda has some but refuses to hand them over.

you really needn't buy those coins. plenty to be found on various muggers, thugs, ruffians and bloodsailors. i didn't spend my gold on coins and gilda did give me, one or two, i can't remember.

OK on to the Seedy Tavern. First, Jalek enters a drinking contest with you. You drink: Neverwinten Sailor Spirit, Dockside Dunn's, Orc blood Brew, Dwarven Red Eye, Thayvian Fire Juice, and Catoblepas Death Cheese Wine. He admires your spirit and says you can talk to Christov now. Christov gives you a tavern key to get downstairs. The auctioneer will sell you things for those red coins you found. I bought the +1 longsword for 10 coins, the AC2 +1 leather armor for 5 coins and the shimmering sash of spell resist 12 for 6 coins. None were anywhere near as good as the stuff I already had. Good for selling I suppose.

i didn't enter the drinking contest. then again i am a rogue and open most doors for myself. i bought some stuff for myself and when i finished off the entire district, headed back and bought some more for the coins i had left. there's nothing else you can do with them and the stuff you buy is virtually free, since there is an abunadance of coins being carried around by the various thugs you have to kill off anyway. i sold for good money whatever i didn't need.

OK, back to the stream. Charox sends you downstream. [...] Note if you go back to tell Dara'Nei that all is OK, she's gone. There's a note there with instructions on an alternate entrance to the sewers.

errr... it's charon. and the note was there ever since you freed dara'nei, it was on one of her guards, which you supposedly killed already to free her. people... do pick up remains from corpses. you never know ;)

Helm's Hold

Yuri the Knife is in one cell - if you free him and he runs to warn the others. You have to kill him to stop him. I just talk to him and then leave him there.

errr... and miss out on 200-something XP for killing a bad guy. how do you survive this game? i'm not advocating pointless killing here but... errr... whatever.

OK, now head over across the bridge. You'll meet a visage that tells you Desther served his purpose and now tries to defy his fate. Go into the courtyard. The corpse right by the doorway holds a gem. The gem activates some robotic "friends" that help you kill the enemies. I actually don't like to use the gem until the end because I want to kill all the enemies (and get all the XP) myself.

i'm not sure, but i think you'd get the XP anyway. you do when your henchman does the killing, after all. if you enter the room with the robotic friends (which don't really fit a d&d universe, miss... they're animated armours actually) without the gem, they attack you. you can thus either enter on the right side. or take the cave entrance.

Working your way around, Chaohinon of the Void is in the top right. He wants the Black Grimoire ritual book in the study. I refuse to free him and take the book. Up center is a book of Helm on a shelf. South of here is where the 'main entrance' is - you can put the gem on the pedestal if you want to activate the robots to help you out.

ok, not reading creatures' dialogues and quest book descriptions carefully leads you to here... the grimoire also contains banishing spells. put it in the altar before the demon creature and banish it for xp and good points, i think. then place the book of helm there instead and you can summon the spirit guardian of the place, which had been destroyed by the demon. you get another batch of XP, good points i think and the spirit lets you choose a reward. a magical weapon (a longbow with + i think), a magical item, the blessings of helm (true ones this time: increased attack, strength, endurance, defense etc... there were like six green belssing icons next to my character) or his insight on things. i reloaded and took the magical item, which i later identified as a ring of element protection (fire, ice, acid, electricity...).

The room left and straight is the final room so clear out the other two first. Then go in to kill Desther. Kill the rest before starting in on him. He gives up and you get 300xp.

errrrm. not quite. go in the main room first. kill off some ritual creatures to break desther's defence and try to kill him. i couldn't, so i just lured the creatures into the corridors and took them out as they came, but not all came. when desther arrived and he surrendered, all creatures disappeared, except the ritual ones, which i killed off easily. it also cleared the neighbouring rooms, so raid the chests there. make sure you've done everything else in the hold before going for desther, because once you entered that door, it seals shut with a force field.
well... this was my 2 cents on the walkthrough. presuming anyone interested finds it... coroborate it with what this chick wrote at the link i provided. am not sure there aren't other things left out, but at least you have more covered now.