Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide
Developer(s)	Floodgate Entertainment BioWare
Publisher(s)	Infogrames/Atari MacSoft
Series	Neverwinter Nights
Engine	Aurora engine
Version	1.69[1] (as of July 10, 2008)
Platform(s)	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	Windows: NA June 21, 2003 EU June 27, 2003 AUS June 27, 2003 Linux: GE June 30, 2003 Macintosh: NA August, 2004
Genre(s)	Computer role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 12+ ELSPA: 11+ PEGI: 12+ OFLC: M
Media/distribution	1 CD-ROM
System requirements 500 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM (256 MB for Mac), 16 MB video card RAM, 24X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 8.1, 1.2 GB available hard disk space, Windows 98

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide is an expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights developed by Floodgate Entertainment and BioWare, and published by Infogrames Entertainment (now Atari). It was released in June 2003. The expansion pack adds a new campaign and new features including five prestige classes: Arcane Archer, Assassin, Blackguard, Harper Scout, and Shadowdancer; new creatures, feats, and spells, and other nuances such as allowing the player to access and modify their henchman's inventory. The Windows version also included scripting options for the Aurora toolkit.

Campaign storyline

Chapter one

The campaign takes place at the same time as the events of the original campaign. The protagonist is an apprentice of the dwarven adventurer Drogan Droganson in the small village of Hilltop located in the Silver Marches who is studying along with fellow apprentices Xanos, Dorna, and Mishca. The campaign begins with a kobold attack on the village and Drogan himself, leaving him poisoned and barely alive. During the attack, certain valuable artifacts are stolen from Drogan's laboratory. Soon after the attack, Ayala, an elven Harper arrives and uses her magic to sustain Drogan. She then reveals that she and Drogan are members of the Harper order and that Drogan was assigned by the Harpers to guard four magical artifacts: the mummified hand of the dead lich Belpheron, the tooth of a dragon, a mask which once belonged to a high priest of the Lord of Shadows, and a statue of a tower that was found in a desert tomb. Being Drogan's favorite apprentice, he places the hero in charge of recovering the artifacts.

As the search progresses, it is discovered that a mage named J'Nah desires to collect the artifacts on behalf of a mysterious hooded woman whom she serves. She had originally been in alliance with a dragon named Tymofarrar, who led the kobolds. She had her gnolls attack the kobolds, after they had left Hilltop, in order to try to take all of the artifacts for herself. Upon the collection of all four artifacts, it is discovered that the tower statue, which was believed to be the least powerful of the artifacts, actually contains a crystal of tremendous magical power. Drogan, who has by now recovered from the effects of the poison, requests that the hero visit an archeologist named Garrick who is investigating some Netherese ruins in the Anauroch Desert, believing that he may be able to identify the crystal.

Interlude

Upon Drogan's request, the hero sets out across Anauroch with a halfling caravan on the way to an encampment of Ao worshipers at which Garrick is located. Upon meeting up with Garrick and showing him the crystal, Garrick reveals that it is a mythallar, a crystal containing incredible magical energy akin to those that were used by the Netheril Empire to levitate their flying cities. He also mentions that he and a party of fellow archeologists were exploring some ruins to the north located in a certain Valley of the Winds when they were attacked by a mysterious hooded woman who lead a horde of demonic creatures who was trying to open some kind of portal, The hero takes this woman to be the master of J'Nah. After entering these ruins, the protagonist sees this woman travel through a portal which disappears soon after. At this point, Drogan uses magic to teleport to the protagonist's side and aids him/her in reactivating the portal. After the portal is reactivated, it is discovered that the woman had placed some kind of trap on it which causes the ruins to begin to collapse when triggered. Drogan uses a magical shield to sustain the weight of the collapsing ruins long enough for the hero to enter the portal, but he himself is crushed soon afterwards.

After passing through the portal the hero emerges back in the desert and pursues the hooded woman to another area of ruins. Upon confronting her, she removes her hood, revealing herself to be a medusa and uses the medusas' petrifying gaze to turn him/her to stone. While in this state, she takes the mythallar from him/her, and speaking to him/her in this state, identifies herself as a powerful sorceress by the name of Heurodis, and claims to have sought the mythallar so that she could use its power to raise the ancient Nether flying city of Undrentide, the ruins of which she is located on, and use it to gain power over Faerûn.

Chapter two

The hero returns to normal form after Ashtara, a reptilian merchant and slaver who is searching the ruins of Undrentide for treasure, uses a magical potion to restore him/her. He afterwards clamps a magical collar around the hero's neck with which he can force him/her to do his bidding by sending electrical charges through the collar. Upon destroying the city's guardian golems who were preventing Astara's slaves from their search for treasure, Astara frees the hero, allowing him/her to search the ruins for Heurodis, who at this moment is in the process of completing a ritual which will restore Undrentide to the skies. It is discovered that she is atop a certain Tower of the Winds located in the center of the city and has used a magical force field to prevent anyone from entering the tower. By using three magical artifacts, the Wise Wind, the Dark Wind, and the Death Wind, known collectively as the Three Winds, the force field can be broken, however. Upon the hero collecting these artifacts, opening the force field, and climbing the tower, Heurodis has already succeeded in raising the flying city. The hero ascends to the top of the city, where he finds that Heurodis, who is now a lich, has set up a circle of crystals through which the power of the mythallar flows in order to keep the city in the air. In the ensuing battle, one of the crystals is destroyed just as the mythallar's energy is passing through it, causing the energy to escape and the city to plummet. Knowing that as a lich Heurodis might be able to survive the fall, the hero kills her with his/her own hands, and afterwards uses a magical mirror which was found within Undrentide to escape to a plane of shadows and avoid impending death.

Reception

Shadows of Undrentide received mainly positive reviews. GameSpot referred to it as "not the most memorable RPG with BioWare's name on it, but it's got plenty of good, new content to satisfy most any Neverwinter Nights fan", and praised it for the quality of its campaign.^[2]

See also

• List of Neverwinter Nights characters
• Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark

References

1. ^ Bioware (2008-07-10). "Neverwinter Nights: Patches and Updates". http://nwn.bioware.com/support/patch.html. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
2. ^ Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide for PC Review - PC Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide Review