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the-great-elwisty · 2 years

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NWN2 cut content: Neverwinter Wood #9

GROBNAR

I stumbled across this one in dialog.tlk while looking for something else, and was delighted: at last, what you’ve all been waiting for, Grobnar’s origin story!

Well, not quite. It’s an alternative introduction for Grobnar which is tied up with a new location and a quest. Quite a big quest in its original design, I suspect. Not as endless long generously-proportioned as the hunt through the orc caves at Old Owl Well, but possibly with more variety in its characters and situations.

It took me longer than usual to write this partly because I went looking in the wrong module for Grobnar’s in-game opening. It isn’t in stored with the Old Owl Well Stuff, as one might expect given the PC encounters him on the way there. Instead, it’s in with Elanee’s Skymirror material.

This is because you were originally meant to meet Grobnar while out in the Neverwinter Wood at the behest of Axle or (perhaps, this is unrecorded) Brelaina. Lt. Danger figured out the existence of the lost quest in his Let's Play, but didn’t explore further beyond reproducing a lost cutscene, one of the series of Garius-Lorne-Torio meetings:

Garius: (Black Garius is confident that Torio has succeeded - voice thick with anticipation of a prize being delivered) Torio, I trust your mission was a success. Have you brought the Heart of the Wood?

Torio could have responded to this in two ways:

Torio: (Pleased) I have, my lord Garius. Garius: And what of its condition? Torio: It is unspoiled, and every bit as potent as you surmised. Its part in the ritual will be considerable.

Torio: (Uneasy, she's not sure how to handle this for once) Milord, there were... difficulties.

So the trouble in the Neverwinter Wood was being caused by agents of Garius looking for quest McGuffin the Heart of the Wood. Apart from pointing to the lost quest, the cutscene’s interesting for another reason, in that shows that different outcomes were possible. Garius’s Evil Plans could be held up, or could apparently succeed, assuming that the object a victorious Torio brings with her isn’t just a clever forgery.

Large sections of the NWN2 plot were on rails, and already by the end of Act 1, the total failure of Garius et al. to beat the PC at anything were rather undermining whatever credibility he had as a villain. I like the idea of the game allowing Garius a clear win for once. (Not that a double-cross with a forgery wouldn't have been fun.)

Druids are also involved. Remember speaking to Naevan in the Skymirror quest? He says that hasn’t been able to make contact with the Circle of the Neverwinter Wood. That’s a plot threat that should have been picked up later, but was instead lost with the rest of the quest.

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Anyway, you and your band of companions – at this point rather small, since we’re mid-way through Act 1 – are travelling through the Wood and reach a camp full of Halflings. Then:

Cutscene begins from a distance, two Halflings looking at the player's approach. They're talking to themselves, gauging the approach.

Zeph’s Friend*: (Slight exasperation) By the Gods, Zeph - is that another group? (Slightly eager) Maybe whoever is here will take that crazy gnome back to his workshop so he can murder more instruments.

|As player walks up, gets quieter at the end|

Zeph: I doubt it - they're too sharp-looking for that. (Whispering) Go on and greet them, I have a plan.

Zeph’s Friend: (Slightly pained, trying to be cheerful, but failing because he's being driven insane by an unwelcome houseguest) Welcome, travelers, well met, well met. Uh... not staying here, are you? I'm afraid we're full up at the moment. Right, Zeph?

Zeph: (False geniality, and a little loud, as if he wants to be overheard) Now, now, that's no way to treat visitors. Especially experienced travelers such as yourselves!

Zeph’s Friend: (Hissing, as if Zeph is about to wake up a bear) Zeph, are you mad? You're going t- ("to make him notice us")

|Cut to a scene of the camp. The camera is a worm's eye view, showing lots of Halflings facing someone off-camera. All you can see is the back of the person's feet - this person is Grobnar, but there is no face shot yet. The Halflings all turn and look off-camera, presumably in the direction of the player. Preferably, a Grobnar bard tune would be playing at this time, as if giving a performance, you can hear his sing-song voice. In the audience, it would be cool to hear a small child wailing in pain.|

Grobnar: Now this here is whitethistle, can give you the runs, you know, and I made up a song for it, quite a catchy tune... Sings) Whitethistle, whitethistle, all in a row, in Neverwinter Woods they all grow...

Zeph: (Still keeping the loud tone) My, I bet you have such tales to tell that would curl our hair!

|Cut to a scene of the camp, same camera and the Halflings suddenly turn to face the Grobnar angle. Frightened murmuring. Everything falls silent except the wailing of the child. From the camera shot, you should see the gnome's feet turn to face the direction the Halflings were looking. There should be a feeling of impending doom.|

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So Zeph’s cunning plan is to sic Grobnar on us. Humph!

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Zeph: Grobnar, these travelers have, uh, traveled far, and no doubt are off to someplace much more exciting than here, we shouldn't keep them.

Grobnar: (Alarmed) More exciting than here? Is it possible? Nonsense! (Beat, confused) Is it? (Confused, can't imagine it) What would be better than here - you have thistleroot, root-thistle, an adoring audience...

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And the inevitable happens. Grobnar starts talking at the PC and companions. While the latter become comatose with boredom, Zeph gives the order to break camp. When the PC wakes up, the halflings are gone, and have thoughtfully left behind one good-natured gnomish bard as a parting gift.

* Actual description: This is Zeph's Friend. After a severe blow to the head he suffered a bout of amnesia and forgot his own name, so now everyone calls him "Zeph's Friend."

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EVENINGWOOD

Halfling Barbarians discovered in the toolset. Caption competition?

Not much survives of the real reason you’re in the Neverwinter Wood in the first place. If there were meant to be clashes with Torio or the forces of Garius, I can’t find them. However, at some point the PC does run into a settlement or camp, this one containing halfling barbarians. It’s full of people who look like this:

This halfling lass is dressed in furs and pelts, adorned with the claws and fangs of numerous monsters.

Or this:

Despite his tiny stature, this fur-clad halfling warrior looks as though he'd make a formidable foe.

This camp may be an earlier elaborated draft of the camp where you have Grobnar dropped on you. Grobnar’s initial introduction was chopped and changed a lot – I imagine this kind of thing must have gone on through large sections of the game, but this is the only instance I know of where three different introductory scenes are preserved in dialog.tlk

Anyway, there are a couple of chatty NPCs in the camp. One is a halfling barbarian called Larla: she arranges a series of sparring matches for the PC; the challenger in each match demonstrates a different method of fighting.

Larla: Ever since the Mayor-in-Exile brought us here, we've been working on ways to get better at fighting. The ring is where we practice our battle stances. We learn after the animals of the wood - the badger, wild cat, and boar. They're small, like us. But they're fierce, too.

At the start of each fight, there’s an animation. If the PC is a big half-orc, the sight of him/her squaring off against a three-foot halfling warrior pretending to be a badger could have been quite something.

Apart from Larla, there’s also an older halfling who fills you in on his people’s backstory. This halfling may be the same Zeph that abandons you with Grobnar in the introductory scene.

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Maybe-Zeph: Our fair village of Eveningbrook was nestled under the shadow of the Spine of the World. A wild place for a village to be - harsh winters and even harsher monsters.(Thinking back) But the soil there was rich and fertile. The crops we grew! We got by well enough trading the autumn's bounty with the human villages. But slowly monsters and troubles drove our neighbors off, and we found ourselves... defenseless.

Before the monsters came to slay us all my father led our people into exile. He said once we'd learned how to protect and provide for ourselves then we'd come back. So he led us here - and here we've been ever since. We train to fight, learn the natural ways, so that one day we'll be strong enough to take back Eveningbrook.

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Oh god, it’s another destroyed village. Maybe-Zeph goes on to say:

<We’ve learned to> live off the land without the help of others. We relied too heavily on others to do what we should've been doing for ourselves. (Solemn - with a touch of martial pride) The people of Eveningbrook will march home one day, and the orcs won't know what hit them.

You’ll just have to imagine your own snarky-Bishop comment here.

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You also get a nice little mini-quest:

Maybe-Zeph: You've got free run of our camp and you can share our fire for a night or two. All I ask is if you come across an old horn, please return it to us. It was my father's, then my brother's, and now it's rightfully mine. It's the warning horn we used on the ramparts of the fallen village of Eveningbrook. It's a battered old thing - worthless to you but a treasure to us. We'd be grateful if it was returned to where it belongs

PC: Any idea what happened to it?

Maybe-Zeph: Years ago, my brother took it on a hunting expedition deep into the forest. As fearless a hunter as he was, he must have met his end out there. I've combed leagues of the forest for any trace of him.

At some point while snuffling around the Neverwinter Wood, the PC does find it, and can return it along with some comfort for Zeph if he or she chooses to be nice:

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Maybe-Zeph: Welcome back, .

PC: I found the Horn of Eveningbrook.

Maybe-Zeph: You have?! It was a good omen when you came here. Not only did we get rid of the gn... {"gnome"} Er - well - not only that but you've found the horn, too. We won't forget this day.

PC: Your brother fought valiantly. We saw the remains of many orcs.

Maybe-Zeph: (He's very thankful) I do not have the words... Thank you.

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Maybe-Zeph is able to give you some information about the goings-on in the Wood that you’ve come to investigate:

Some humans have been spotted recently, too - and a furtive lot they are. We stay clear of them, though. Seems like they're looking for something. And if they're not careful they're going to raise the ire of the Ring of Swords.

There she blows! Main plot in sight! Sadly, that’s the last we hear of it unless there’s material in the game files yet to be discovered.

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THE CIRCLE OF SWORDS

The Crossroad Keep druid grove would have looked nothing like the above.

The ‘Ring of Swords’ that Maybe-Zeph mentions is almost certainly the same thing as the ‘Circle of Swords’. These are the druids of the Neverwinter Wood, the equivalents to the Circle of the Mere whom we meet and ultimately butcher in Act III. The Circle of Swords are still referenced in the game – the injured druid-wolf that turns up in Neverwinter is a member, and when we head to Skymirror, Elanee says it’s to find out about them:

Elanee: If we want to do something, we should seek out the druid lore-masters in Neverwinter Wood, as I suggested.

But the vision of Elanee's Elder Naevan, who in the game as shipped is definitely a Mere druid, can only say that they’ve become uncontactable, and might all be dead.

Well, they’re not. Their boss is a druid called Sellane, and he has a lieutenant who could be recruited to Crossroad Keep, before his role was possibly taken by Naevan, Elanee’s mentor, and then cut altogether. His characterisation can be succinctly described as “holier-than-thou elvish nature snob”. (I write this as someone with a bookshelf full of Robert McFarlane, Helen McDonald, and Esther Woolfson. No offence to the ecologically-minded is intended. I am so-inclined too. Ain't elvish though.)

The druid-lieutenant’s name doesn’t appear in the dialog.tlk, so I’ll just call him Maybe-Naevan, going with the possibility that Naevan was originally meant to be part of the Circle of Swords, until the cut Neverwinter Wood quest led to some hasty rewriting.

Maybe-Naevan: (Explaining why he thinks he's on a fool's errand) The only ones from the race of men to live at peace with the Great Mother are labelled barbarians. Civilization exacts a price on wood and stream. (Bitterness) And men are all too eager to pay it - perhaps at one point they knew what they were sacrificing. But that time is long gone.

At Crossroad Keep, you would have been presented with three options about what to do with the old church, not just the two that made it into the game:

Rebuild it into a proper Church.

Make it a Monastery.

Tear it down and build me a Park.

Did I say we’d heard the last of the main Neverwinter Wood plot? That wasn’t quite true. We get a nod to it in Maybe-Naevan’s dialogue at Crossroad Keep, where in his later Definitely-Naevan incarnation he also profiteers manufactures magical elven armour for the Greycloaks.

Maybe-Naevan: (Outrage remembering this) He sent armed men into the Woods to steal one of our sacred relics. Since then we have sought to (each word said deliberately - and by punish he means execute) punish every last trespasser. There is one left we know of - but he may know of others. A child of towns and cities may have more success finding him than us….

Why yes, he is giving you a quest.

Maybe-Naevan: …the last trespassers must die. (Grim satisfaction) They know full well that men come for their blood. His name is Raggarn and he is somewhere in Luskan. Our laws are not city laws, so you may have to be careful.

Luskan? Obsidian weren’t planning on sending us to Luskan as well were they??

And that’s about it for the Neverwinter Wood. Since what has survived of it is so bitty, it’s hard to tell how much fun it would have been to play through. My broad reaction is:

Halfling barbarians – fun!

Serious druid people – urgh, do we have to.

It wouldn’t have greatly advanced the main plot. I don’t think anyone has got to the raid on Crossroad Keep and thought to themselves that something feels missing, probably something sacred-druidic-object-shaped. That said, I would have liked to know why Lorne taunts Torio with the words: “A common villager outmanoeuvred you, Torio.” That sounds as if events were meant to be a bit more complicated than just wandering through a forest beating up Shadow Priests.

In my next, penultimate post I’ll be packaging together a few more things that were dropped in development.

Final motivational quote:

Halfing Barbarian: You freed us from the gnome. Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.

#nwn2 #neverwinter nights 2 #cut content #i want nwn3

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the-great-elwisty · 2 years

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NWN2 cut content: The Rattlebag Inverted #11

In my last post, we met various characters who might have joined us at Crossroad Keep had not the jealous game development gods decreed otherwise. Zohan and Kralwok the Uthgardt, Iriana the Ruathym barbarian, Melia the unwilling assassin, and an astounding number of gnomes; someone at Obsidian must have been running a gnome-based D&D game. (“Go on, Feargus, just one more, I’ve got this mad cool gnome PC that loves experimenting with vampirism and beetroot-based cocktails!” "No, no more gnomes! Stop putting gnomes everywhere - aaargh!! )

And we’re still not finished. Well, we are finished with the gnomes you will be happy (?) to hear. But we still have more people to pack into Crossroad Keep.

ULFANG

Ulfang would have been a gruff but competent and reliable dwarf recruited from Clan Ironfist.

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Torio: The Ironfist Clan has recently moved back into their old clanhold in Old Owl Well, and one of them, Ulfang, I believe, has a talent for finding minerals and making use of them.

Khelgar: {Reluctantly agreeing} Ulfang does have a nose for precious metals. {Beat, suspicious} What, you think you're going to drag him here?

Torio: If you are in need of armor or weapon upgrades, or if you need someone to supply minerals and ore to your blacksmiths, I think Ulfang may be of use... although you may need your dwarven companion to persuade him.

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Sadly, neither the recruitment conversation nor Ulfang’s appearance are retrievable. The image at the top of this post shows Revorax, the smith at the reconquered Ironfist base.

Kana finds she can’t use Ulfang like a normal sergeant, but his talents emerge when he’s allowed to do his own thing:

Kana: {exasperated, but lighthearted} I've never dealt with a more stubborn dwarf. Ulfang told me in no uncertain terms that he refuses to recruit, train men, run patrols, or go on special assignments. Since he arrived, he's taken it upon himself to critically examine our defenses and survey our mining efforts.

Ulfang’s arrival:

Ulfang: And this is your Keep, eh? Looks like it had hard times not too long ago. {Gruff} Fair to middling work for humans. Still your Master Veedle seems a shrewd one.

And some more of Kana being stunned:

Kana: {uncertain} Ulfang has given me... a list of his recommendations for how to best utilize him. He is interested in hunting for minerals, smithing weapons and armor, and helping to fortify our walls.

His confidence in his own abilities is justified. Edario’s really impressed by him:

Edario: {He's a bit awed by Ulfang} Ulfang came by and he said working together we could make some fine armor - better than anything I could ever make, that's for sure.

Assigned to smithing, he’s able to help Edario and Jacoby produce enchanted metal weapons and armour. (Naevan the druid would have made enchanted leather armour had he not been cut). This gives rise to a small quest –marked B priority – where you retrieve cinder coal for Ulfang from Mount Galardrym. As side quests go, it doesn’t feel like much of a loss. ‘Long live the Knight Captain of Crossroad Keep, shard-bearer, dragon-slayer, fetcher of slightly unusual fossil fuels!’ Uh, no.

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TEELAH AND JAZREN

We’ve known Teelah for ages – well, since we gained access to the Merchant Quarter in Act 1. She’s the chatty dancer in The Moonstone Mask who wants to save money so that she can train in Waterdeep. After Ammon’s attack, when she’s feeling traumatised and less than keen on staying on, you can recruit her:

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Teelah: I just... wanted to thank you. Nobody else tried anything to stop that madman, or to save the girls upstairs.

PC: I could use a dancer at my keep

Teelah: Milord/Milady, I'd be honored. Ophala won't mind, there's plenty of girls willing to dance at the Mask. Even in the common room.

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Then at the Phoenix Tail – and this dialogue is in the toolset:

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Teelah: | One-time only, if player previously met her | Oh... it's you! I hope you don't mind that I'm here. It's just that they were evacuating the city... and I didn't want to be a burden on Ophala or the other girls...

PC: | Good Response | It's all right. You're welcome to stay.

Teelah: Thank you, Captain! A year at the Mask, and I've learned to entertain almost any crowd, no matter their mood. Rustic jigs, elven interpretive dance, gnomish waltz...

Teelah: I even know a dwarven dance. It takes a false beard, though, and hardly any clothes. Well, you're supposed wear the beard in place of clothes, and twirl it about provocatively...

Teelah: Maybe... you shouldn't tell anyone that I know that dance, actually.

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Apart from dwarven dances, she’s a cheerleader for your PC:

Teelah: |Post-Siege|Your name is on every singer's lips, Captain... the Hero of Crossroad Keep!

Ahem. Just of Crossroad Keep? We are saving the world here, you know!

So Teelah comes to dance in the Phoenix Tail Inn, and an unknown character, Jazren, apparently comes with her.

The above image isn’t a mock-up. I opened up the Phoenix Tail Inn in the toolset, and there they were. Teelah (blonde) is on the right; Jazren (dark-haired) is on the left.

Teelah’s in-game description:

This fine-featured Tethyrian woman throws her body into the dance with gusto. Whenever your eyes meet, she smiles at you briefly.

And a cut description from dialog.tlk:

Teelah is a pretty young woman who can always be found near her best friend Jazren.

Jazren’s dialog.tlk character description:

Jazren is a common presence in the Phoenix Tail Inn. She is very flirtatious and sometimes dances to amuse the soldiers. Because she spends so much time at the Inn, Sal jokes that he should start paying her.

Jazren has an earthier attitude than Teelah. Whoever she’s meant to be, she didn’t learn her stuff by sucking up to nobles and rich people at The Moonstone Mask. She’s got no substantial dialogue left, but her reactions to events do survive:

Last place I danced had a dirt floor, an' half the patrons were wanted men. I've learned so much from watching Teelah...

Me an' Teelah draw quite a crowd. The music helps, too.

The Keep is bustling, Captain. War or no war, Teelah and me are stayin' here.

King of Shadows, my arse. Doesn't even fight his own battles, does he?

It would be good to know more about her, but unfortunately I can’t find a trace of the dialogue where she introduces herself and explains why she’s hanging round in a castle with an ex-high-society dancer.

I don’t really get why Jazren and Teelah were cut. Joy, the aasamir sister of Light-of-the-Heavens, does come and dance in the Phoenix Tail, but she seems like a less interesting/relevant character to include. Teelah has a story: aspiring artist goes through horrible traumatic experience but bounces back with your PC’s help. Joy is so flat in comparison. (Seriously, one of her script prompts is “tinkling laugh”. Don’t you just want to throw a crocodile at her?)

It’s possible that one of the writers decided there was no way that Teelah would hang around in Crossroad Keep once Ammon arrives, but that seems unlikely given that no one else is allowed to bugger off to Waterdeep at the start of Act III. Besides, why miss the opportunity to add in some angry dialogue? That wouldn't be very Obsidian. My guess is that there was a small bug with Teelah and Jazren, and given the time pressures the devs decided that cutting the pair of them would be the quickest way to solve the problem.

That said, Joy is in the finished game. Was she written to replace Teelah and Jazren? But that would suggest that time pressures weren’t the reason for the cut. Hmm.

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IVARR AND LORD GRANFEN

Build the church dedicated to Tyr instead of the Temple of the Sun Soul, and it comes with the dwarf priest Ivarr the Blessed. “Ivarr's eyes shine with wisdom and compassion. His strong devotion to Tyr has made him somewhat resemble the god.” In the playable game, he can give you a small quest. Well, not that small – it’s to kill the red dragon Tholapsyx, though since most PCs end up doing that anyway, it feels like a bit of a cheat.

However, another quest was meant to exist which you could only get from Ivarr. It would have been called ‘Justice’s Arm’.

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Ivarr: There is one important matter you could attend to. {Warning that the explanation may take awhile} The goal is simple - the reasons may take some explanation.

PC: Tell me the full story.

Ivarr: During the Luskan War the enemy had... many advantages - golems, the Arcane Brotherhood, and siege equipment. But to make matters much worse - there was a highly placed {said with venom} traitor. His name was Lord Granfen - and he served with the Nine on the military council.

He was a general of no small skill. Why he turned traitor is not known, probably gold or greed. But he opened the northern gate and let the Luskans enter. Amidst this chaos - the Hero of Neverwinter managed to rally our forces. Granfen's betrayal was not discovered until after the war had ended.

Before he could be brought to justice he fled with men that were loyal to him. The church of Tyr has hunted this notorious criminal for years. Recently, we heard rumors that the King of Shadows wants to make a deal with him. This cannot happen. His head holds too many deadly secrets about Neverwinter's defenses. I've been tracking him for years - but I must stay here.

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Ivarr appears to really despise Granfen. He works himself up into a fury over him, which is odd for a priest who’s on the more laid-back side of the spectrum.

Ivarr: He's in the Wood. Search for his men. Bring him here - dead or alive would serve in equal measure. The church of Tyr has placed a generous bounty on his head. And I will personally contribute more. {Each word pronounced with emphasis} He must be stopped!

Neverwinter does seem to have had a real profusion of aristocratic turncoats in the recent war. Lord Dalren, Lord Brennick and apparently this Granfen chap too.

At least we have a good idea why the quest was cut: he’s in Neverwinter Wood. As you may recall, a whole section of the game based around Neverwinter Wood was dropped. Granfen is probably a late-game casualty of the missing areas.

No dialogue survives from the PC’s confrontation with Granfen. However, based on Ivarr’s surviving dialogue, it’s clear that when you find him, Granfen claims he’s innocent. Then you can either let him go or kill him.

If you kill him, Ivarr’s happy about it and gives you an item from his reliquary in personal thanks. The item would have been something customised to the PC’s class.

If you let Granfen go, Ivarr is not a happy bunny.

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Ivarr: {Excitement and hope} Do you bring word of Lord Granfen? Has he been dispatched?

PC: After talking with him, I'm not convinced he was guilty. I let him go.

Ivarr: {Outrage - then mad at himself shortly after} You what? But... But... Curse me for a fool, this is not the first time he's talked his way out of justice.

Ivarr: {Some derision} What man bound for the gallows confesses his guilt? The {like "jails"} gaols are filled with innocent men.

PC: And there's no possibility of his innocence?

Ivarr: {Knee-jerk reaction} None... {Beat, considers - he's honest enough to consider his own reaction} Well, perhaps a small one.{Admits - bitingly} Only the gods know for certain the guilt of any man - as their servants we just do our best. But there was a trial - many witnesses talked of his actions. Lord Nasher himself pronounced the sentence. {Pondering} Tell me - why did you spare him?

PC: | Major Law| He shouldn't be executed without a fair trial.

Ivarr: {Sighs} A worthy sentiment. {Slight doubt - convincing himself, "As fair as any trial could be at that time subtext"} His trial was fair, though.{A little weary - doubtful at the end} We are done with this matter then - hopefully the King of Shadows won't enlist him.

PC: Was this hunt personal?

Ivarr: {Truthful} Granfen's betrayal is personal to every man, woman, and child of Neverwinter. I spent years looking for him - trekking through the wilds for clues. I am a disciple of Tyr - and it pains us all that such a notorious criminal walked free.

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It could have been a nice, knotty little quest. It offered plenty of scope for PC roleplay – apart from your unknown dialogue with Granfen, the surviving content shows that you can let him go and lie about it to Ivarr, let Granfen go out of compassion, let Granfen go because of a bribe, think Granfen’s innocent and kill him anyway etc. Plus, the companions could have got entertainingly worked up about it. (My guess is the Casavir, Grobnar, Monk! Khelgar and Elanee would have tended towards letting him go; Bishop, Ammon, Fighter!Khelgar, and Qara would be in favour of killing him; Sand and Zhjaeve would have demurred; the Construct’s opinion is sadly unknowable, and I’m not sure about Neeshka).

And to close this post and perhaps also the series, depending on whether I can dig up something about MotB, here are my top writers' notes to the voice actors. Yes, I'm sad and yes, I'm sure I would enjoy creating a longer list:

Neeshka, when the PC asks her about her background:

{She's actually pleased to be telling her miserable story, but the punchline is that she's going to list a bunch of terrible things and be excited by it} This is so exciting... wow, where to begin.

2. Ammon being himself: {Slight irritation, like a strict teacher - "don't point a gun at your sister, ever!"} One should never summon anything without purpose, especially from the Lower Planes.

3. Shandra meeting Kistrel:

{Horrified, but morbidly curious as stares at spider they just fed} It looks... happy. Gods, those fangs are huge. And it's... still got insect bits on them.

4. And bonus prompt from Qara’s plot:

Grobnar: {A spectral assassin has just appeared} Why, it looks like we have a visitor! Hello there!

5. And when it returns:

Grobnar: {A spectral assassin has just appeared, oblivious to danger} It's the same elemental as before! Why, it must be tracking our party so it can kill us - how fascinating!

Goodnight :)

#nwn2 #cut content #i want nwn3 #lobby for nwn2 enhanced edition

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the-great-elwisty · 2 years

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NWN2 cut content: The Privy Man

This may be the most (in)famous cut quest. Portions of it still exist in the toolset including the Privy Man himself, almost all of it is extant in the dialog.tlk file, and it looks as if it was pretty close to making it into the finished game.

The ultimate point of the quest was probably to supply the PC with knowledge from lost pages of the Tome of Iltkazar; when the quest was cut, the missing pages were quietly forgotten about and the Tome was placed on the corpse of a Shadow Reaver. Aldanon uses it to create a portal into the Merdelain.

Of course, none of that is obvious in the PC’s first encounter with the Privy Man in Act I/Act II.

'This man is wild-eyed and unkempt, with a mad gleam in his eye and an aroma only the most charitable could describe as “merely unpleasant”.'

When you approach the privy, sorry, Privy for the first time, the following encounter is triggered:

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Privy Man: (Dramatic panic, marginally insane) Whoah! Whoah! Hold there. You weren't thinking of going in there, were you?

PC: You mean in the outhouse here?

Privy Man: (crazy) For the love of your life, don't come any closer! This here privy is haunted!

PC: A haunted outhouse? Ridiculous.

Privy Man: (desperate) Just listen to sense, wo/man. You must resist the urges of your bowels and go!

PC: How do you know the privy is haunted?

Privy Man: (crazed) Why, just take in the air of the place! (dramatic) It is so foul, so evil, that it could not possibly come from the Light.

PC: It smells like a normal privy to me.

Privy Man: (aghast) Oh no! Tell me you can't whiff the scent of rotting corpses, and the putridity of evil's breath?

.....................................................................................................................

So there’s a privy, and it may just be a privy or it could be a haunted, corrupted dungeon that’s full of dead bodies. What option sounds more likely? Your poor PC is still naïve enough in the ways of CRPGs to think it’s the first option.

.....................................................................................................................

PC: I’ll be going now.

Privy Man: (relieved) Yes, please go! Behind a bush, on the streets, wherever. Go anywhere but here! (beat, calmer) I have saved another soul today...

.....................................................................................................................

However, if you return to speak to the Privy Man again, he’ll come out with a sad story about a boy called Timmer, who used to play with his sister Nya by the privy. One night, Nya left her doll there, and returned alone to find it aaaaaaaaaand…

I was going to summarise the rest, but on looking at the dialogue I think I give up. He’ll have to tell it in his own words:

She opened the privy to find her doll and from deep within she heard a whisper. "Nya, you lost your dolly. Come hither and I will give you something better."

Nyaguk was so innocent and young, she did not understand or fear true evil. So she plugged her nose and climbed down the privy. Within was the lair of an ancient creature called the Anuck Pile. This creature was spawned from centuries of mortal refuse, swirling together.

The Anuck Pile beckoned to Nya and she approached it, unsuspecting. It bid her sit in its lap. She did so and the creature proceeded to brush her hair. Then, the Anuck Pile drove a needle and thread straight through one of Nya's ears to the other. Uttering a foul spell, the Anuck Pile turned Nya into its undead servant.

Nya returned to the surface, and none were the wiser, for she was no different, except perhaps paler and quieter, with a faint stench that would not wash off, even with lye. Shortly thereafter, the killings began in the Merchant Quarter. Dozens of people died, including Nya and Timmer's parents.

Nya tries to recruit Timmer to be an undead minion, but:

Privy Man: So terrified was Timmer that he drew his rabbit skinner and severed his dear sister's head from her body. Then, weeping and stinking, Timmer fled the Anuck Pile's lair.

PC: You’re Timmer, aren’t you?

Privy Man: (On the verge of tears) Indeed I am, and now perhaps you can understand why I stand vigil at this privy. What happened to my dear sister Nya must never...(bursting into uncontrollable sobbing).

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The PC still thinks it’s all ludicrous, and walks off. And, seriously, it is ludicrous. This has got to be even madder than Grobnar’s Wendersnaven plot. I still kind of like it though, even if it does feel as if it was magicked up from overtime, sugar and caffeine at the witching hour of night. Tone-wise, it feels a bit like a Baldur’s Gate side-quest.

I think the old Infinity Engine games tended to be more accommodating of this kind of zaniness. NWN2 is a bit uncanny valley as far as graphics go – 3D, but with very stiff character animations even compared to Dragon Age a few years later. The Privy Man’s dialogue looks fun on the page, but if it had played as a cutscene, I’m not sure if the humour would have worked. As a normal dialogue box, it could have been fine, of course.

Anyway, that’s where most of the toolset content ends. We have to switch to dialog.tlk to find out what happens in Act III.

The PC doesn’t make their way back to the Privy independently. Instead, we have Startear as our quest giver. Now, since in the finished game Startear is an optional character who is only recruited if you choose to build a Wizard’s Tower rather than a tower for the Neverwinter Nine, there’s some uncertainty as to what Obsidian would have done to ensure that all PCs got the quest. I’ve certainly never seen any dialogue snippet where Sir Nevalle tells the PC to climb down a privy for the sake of the glory of Neverwinter and Nasher.

Startear: A task, a quest, things that need doing...There was purpose to my visit to the Prime. Your Toril has had many empires rise and fall - one of which interests me. The last Mage-King of Iltkazar, Shoon, was exceptionally powerful in Art and Weave. An arcane tome he wrote but pages were removed, pages he still keeps in his undying hands.

PC: So what’s the deal?

Startear: (Ritualistic and clipped) The deal is this - I provide the key, means of entry to Shoon's lair. The mage undying's trove of treasures is yours to keep - and more from me. But the lost pages are mine.

SCRIPTER: A secret door in the Neverwinter City tombs is now accessible

Startear: (Intones) May Oghma, giver of knowledge, uncloud your mind and allow your eyes to see truth from artifice. (Beat) A key has been given to you. Go to the traitor's last home in Neverwinter. Search those tombs for a door that isn't there. I urge you to be cautious - Shoon will guard his lore by all means available to him

.....................................................................................................................

The Neverwinter tombs? Didn’t we meet a raving maniac there who said that an evil force was killing innocents and turning them into zombie slaves? Maybe he wasn’t so mad after all. Oops.

So off we go back to Neverwinter to visit the Privy Man, except that because this is Act III and the tone is more serious, the Privy Man is of course as dead as a doornail. Obsidian thoughtfully placed all the companion reactions in the toolset.

.....................................................................................................................

Khelgar: {Under his breath, a little surprised} Looks like he died while taking his leave. Horrible way to go.

Neeshka: {Dead man on the toilet, a little under her breath} Not a good way to go... so to speak.

Elanee: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Ah. It seems we interrupted something - a little too late, perhaps.

Qara: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Please tell me that's not what I think it is...

Sand: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Ah... and I was about to say it smelled like someone died in here. {rueful} The gods and their little ironies.

Zhjaeve: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Is this a graveyard? It seems an unusual place for one of Neverwinter to die.*

Ammon: {Seeing dead man on toilet, a little to himself} Not a good portent, to be sure.

Bishop: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Now there lies a true knight of Neverwinter... they usually die near the privy, near the keg, or in the throes of passion at the Moonstone Mask.

Casavir: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Come, let's move on. There's little time to waste.

Bishop: Was that a joke?

Casavir: {Confused, doesn't get joke at first - then irritated} No, I... ah, Bishop, such the wit.

Bishop: {Snide} It's to make up for the lack of yours, paladin. Shall we?

Grobnar: {Seeing dead man on toilet} Oh my, we certainly do see some amazing things in amazing places.

*Zhjaeve's best line in the game, and tragically cut. Who now wants to know more about the toilet culture of the githzerai?

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Sadly, the search for the hidden door and companion reactions to having to clamber through the sewers looking for an undead Mage-King haven’t survived. They would have been beautiful. Instead, we catch up with events in Shoon’s dungeon. Shoon doesn’t have a named model in the toolset. However, at least one lich does appear rather randomly in the Merdelain near the end of the game, and judging by the crown he wears, the model was probably intended to be used for Shoon.

| SCRIPTER: This conversation starts from a trigger in the central room of Shoon's dungeon. Door to the entrance closes.

|{AUDIO: Loud sounds of animal and beasts grunting and snarling}{highly intelligent, malicious}

Shoon: What, oh what have I caught? More pathetic beasts to use in my experiments? (disappointed) But no. It is a worthless Neverwinter soldier of flesh and blood. Too fragile for my tests and too troublesome to let go. So you will fill the bellies of my pets.

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To be honest, Shoon isn’t hugely interesting. He’s a mad evil lich, with the odd fun line:

My zombies all rotted away into clattering bones. I don't mind the stench, but the clattering! The clattering I cannot abide.

He’s also got a connection to Levistus:

Shoon: (gleeful) What, you did not know the Tome is cursed? How amusing.I wrote that volume ages ago when I was the Mage-King of Iltkazar. (reminiscing, laughing at himself} It was originally entitled the Tome of the Unicorn, of all things. I did not realize at the time that my pen-hand was guided by the archdevil Levistus.

Shoon: (gleeful) Oh but I repayed him for infecting my mind with his hidden whispers. I revealed his plot to Asmodeus, for which I was rewarded with perpetual unlife.(proud of himself) And as for Levistus? Asmodeus froze him still within an iceberg in Phlegethos.(loud cackle) Ha! You are a bold one, aren't you? I'll tell you what. You can have the pages over my dead body. (irony) But wait, my body is already dead. You are quite out of luck. And my pets are hungry.

Levistus a.k.a. the Still Lord is tied up with a couple of other characters. He’s Mephasm’s boss (and Mephasm has an unexplored connection to Neeshka), and he’s probably the power that Ammon Jerro sold his soul to in exchange for Gith’s sword. At a guess, he was being lined up for a role in a possible expansion pack before the devs went with Mask of the Betrayer instead.

.....................................................................................................................

After much fighting, first with Shoon’s pets, then with the lich himself, the PC retrieves the missing pages, and heads back to Crossroad Keep. I assume that everyone immediately goes for a long hot bath, before trooping over to the Wizard’s Tower:

Startear: (Pleased - and trying to hide being impressed) And you have brought the lich's lore. (Formal) The terms are complete, the bargain kept.

|SCRIPTER: Give gold and a cool item|

Startear: Coins of gold are yours and an item of considerable power.(First time he sounds like he isn't doing a ritual, and he gives a cautious compliment) You would do well, denizen of Toril, even in the lands Beyond. (Beat, not unkind but he wants to look at what he's bought) Leave me for now - I must study these pages you have brought. The lich's notes will take some time to decipher and master. And so here I will remain.

QUEST COMPLETE

Wow, that was a long entry. It feels almost as if I’ve climbed down a privy and done battle with a lich.

Would you have left the Privy Man story in? Me, I like it. It could have added some entertaining padding to Act III, and would have made the city of Neverwinter feel less like a footnote after spending so much of Acts 1 and 2 running around there. Plus, I’m always up for adventuring with one of the most dysfunctional, disharmonious bands of heroes to grace a CRPG.

#nwn2 #neverwinter nights 2 #cut content #i want nwn3

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the-great-elwisty · 2 years

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NWN2 cut content: Casavir

The game doesn’t exactly hide that Casavir’s troubled by something in his past, and that his campaign in the mountains is as much about him running away as it is about him being suicidally brave. We were naturally supposed to get a side-quest that would give our PCs the chance to learn more about him and his history. In this case, I don’t think the cut was made just because of time-pressure, or because the Obsidian devs are cruel cruel people – I think it didn’t make it in because it was a bit rubbish. Not irrecoverable, but it needed a lot of work doing to it.

The characters

Casavir – gloomy paladin

Lord Pierval – a high-status, wealthy Neverwinter Lord who’s old enough to have an adult son.

Harcus – Pierval’s son, very dead.

Mordren – pretends to be Casavir’s friend. He isn’t. The name is a clue. Good characters with ‘Mor’ at the start of their name are quite a rare species.

Ophala – this is (due to Moonstone Mask references in the dialogue) meant to be the Ophala Cheldarstorn that runs Neverwinter’s premier tavern-with-bordello-like-attributes. Level sixteen mage in FE lore, retired adventurer, may have had a colourful history involving the Luskan Kurth. One oddity: Ophala doesn't have her own appearance. Instead, the toolset shows her to be borrowing the appearance of one "NPC_Sarya". Quite why this is beats me. I can't find any dialogue about or involving Sarya in dialog.tlk (1)

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So, before Casavir’s excursion to Old Owl Well, he was involved in a passionate (apparently chaste) relationship with Ophala but: “…I made vows, and she was promised to another. It is not the way of things. It is not the way of Neverwinter to do such things.”

The "other" that Ophala was promised to is Lord Pierval.

Mordren acts as go-between, carrying letters between the couple who don’t appear to have consummated their relationship, but are obviously falling in love. Unbeknownst to them (this is the kind of story where you should use the word ‘unbeknownst’), Mordren himself is in love with Ophala:

If only you'd seen her, Pierval, falling in love day by day to a fool who gave up everything for ‘paladinhood’. To read those letters, those foul letters to him, when she would not dare entertain my affections, a man of status, of power, who could have been hers.

He arranges for Pierval and Harcus to see some incriminating pieces of the letters. Mordren may also have told Harcus that Casavir ‘forced himself’ on Ophala. Harcus flies of the handle – he finds Casavir, and tries to kill him to defend his father’s honour, and instead is killed himself. Possibly by Casavir, possibly in some sort of accident. At this point, it seems that Ophala rejects Casavir – at any rate, their not-a-relationship ends, and Casavir heads off to Old Owl Well to attempt suicide-by-orc.

When the orcs lay dead, I could still hear her words to me. (Frustrated) It was unbearable. I could not shut her out…I... thought to do good. And I thought that my execution should be done in service to others.

Once the PC and Casavir are back in Neverwinter, the plot kicks off when Casavir meets Ophala in the Moonstone Mask. (I can’t find the dialogue for it, but there are references to the meeting in the surviving text). Ophala, presumably still trusting Mordren, tells him that she’s seen her old flame in the city again.

Cue cutscene. Mordren shows up, pretending to be Casavir’s friend, actually there to discover his intentions.

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Mordren: (Slight disapproval) Have your vows robbed you of your sense? You endanger not only your life... but Ophala as well. Do you care so little for her that you would see Lord Pierval's rage fall upon you both?

Casavir: I intend to answer for it. Ophala committed no crime, and I am the only one who shall suffer. I will go to Lord Pierval, tell him the truth, and let punishment fall upon me as it should have. I will have no more blood shed for me this day.

Mordren: (Sighs, secretly realizing he needs to kill Casavir, shaking his head) Casavir... you were always the stubborn one. (Thinking, try not to make this sound like he's setting him up) The gates to Blacklake are closed, Lord Pierval cannot meet with you yet. Let me see what I can do to smooth things with him before you meet. I will try to convince him again what happened was an accident - until then, keep your head down and say nothing of your return to anyone else.

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The shit hits the fan probably sometime in Act 2, after the trial. Lord Pierval abducts Ophala from the Moonstone Mask to “keep her out of the way of your...intentions. If you intend to force yourself upon her again, false paladin, then you will speak to my blade.” Mordren has probably put Pierval up to it, and fetches Casavir, hoping for a bloodbath.

Unbeknowst to Mordren (yay!), our heroes have acquired some letters from Mordren – letters from Casavir to Ophala and Pierval – which provide evidence of Mordren’s duplicity. When I say our heroes, the hero I mean is Neeshka, who after encountering Mordren for the first time responds so:

Neeshka: (Checking out Mordren, appraising him for theft) Who's the mark? Smells of nobility.

Casavir: A friend who has already risked much for my sake.

Neeshka: (More to herself, smiling) Looks like he has more to lose - if his purse is any indication. Might be worthwhile to pay his home a visit.

So grand larceny carries the day. Take that, knightly ethics.

Mordren realises his double-dealing has been exposed, and attacks. In the end, good PCs end up with Mordren dead having picked on the wrong set of people – the PC has killed about a million orcs – Ophala entering into a loveless marriage with Lord Pierval, motivation unknown, and Casavir walking away with the PC, not looking back.

Now, this was quite a complex plot to get rid of. But I’m so glad they did —the last thing Casavir’s character needed was a melodramatic failed romance in high society. There are just so many better reasons for giving up on life and running away to the mountains. It also sits oddly with Casavir’s age: he’s meant to be well into his thirties, yet the story of him falling into the classic paladin (but my vows!! I cannot!!!) impossible relationship, then panicking after he killed a man in self-defence and fleeing, sounds much more suited to a much younger man.

Speaking as a person well into her thirties, I can conclusively say that being over thirty-five doesn’t endow you with an infallible anti-stupidity spell. But Casavir presumably made it through the Luskan War. Even if his paladinhood was recent, he hadn’t made to his thirties without some experience of dealing with the grimmer parts of life.

Other people have said that they object to the inclusion of Ophala in the cut quest because she’s kind of old and runs a brothel, and Casavir would never <…> etc. My objection is the opposite. I object to her exclusion. Who is this meek kidnap victim ready to enter an arranged marriage with someone she doesn’t love, while sending love letters through a deeply untrustworthy go-between to a paladin who – according to Mordren – wasn’t very forward about his own feelings? She’s meant to be a businesswoman and a high-level mage FFS. She runs a famous festhall, and has done for decades. I’m happy to admit that Ophala and Casavir are an unlikely pairing, but at least using the ‘real’ Ophala could have made it an interesting one.

Instead we get hammy stage dialogue and a plot of inexplicably strained star-crossed love. (Seriously, Not-Ophala, if you don't want to marry this Pierval guy, just don't). The redeeming element was Neeshka being awesome and not at all paladin-like. I wonder if a conversation was ever planned between her and Casavir post-showdown about the ethics of stealing. That would have almost justified the melodrama.

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(1) The NWN2 writers seem a bit unclear about Ophala in general. The book The Northern Four Adventuring Troupe describes her as part of a successful band of adventurers that included Nasher and Kurth. However, in the game while she's presented as an able businesswoman, her power is downplayed - she doesn't show signs of springing into action when Ammon and his demons show up in Act 2, which is a bit surprising considering her history and magical ability.

#nwn2 #neverwinter nights 2 #cut content #i want nwn3

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the-great-elwisty · 2 years

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NWN2 cut content: West Harbour

A couple of weeks ago, once more at peak NWN2 obsession, I re-installed the game and went fishing through the dialog.tlk file. I've put together enough material for ten posts, but have been putting off tidying it up and uploading it. So instead of one big post, I'll do a series of little ones. Apologies for some of the oddities of spelling - I'm writing in British English, and quoting from text in American English.

#1:

Loads more people from West Harbour were meant to survive. A side-quest in late Act 2 (with Georg as quest-giver? I can't tell who the speaker is from the file) would have had you looking for the people of West Harbour who had scattered after Daeghun warned them to flee the village. Brother Merring escaped with a load of children, and is thought to be in Neverwinter:

Georg (?): Brother Merring and the children made it here the other day. He knows where many of the families are. I know us Harbormen may not be too taken with Lathander, but thank the gods for the light's servant.

Although the Mossfelds might be in trouble – they and a lot of other Harbourmen “went straight into the swamp” – part of the surviving dialogue indicates that you can rescue them. In fact, the Mossfields brag to some Greycloaks that they once beat you in the Harvest Brawl.

Mossfeld brother: I told some of the Greycloaks that us Mossfelds beat you in one of the Harvest Cup games. They didn't believe me.

There would also have been some nice exposition from Tarmas about Illefarn – he originally moved to West Harbour to study the remains of the great port of Illan-Miere, and had an agreement with Georg that in return for staying in the village, he’d train some of their young ones.

In fact, the only characters confirmed dead in the original version of the attack were Retta Starling, Wyl Mossfeld, and the Mossfeld's father. Daeghun fans would have been happy since much is made of his heroism in rousing the village and getting people out.

Georg (?): It is a bright day indeed for us all to be here. West Harbor has been bloodied, but not beaten! Once the Mere of Dead Men is tame again, we'll go back and rebuild. {Determined and strong} We've done it before, and we'll do it again. All of West Harbor owes you a debt - especially those Mossfeld rascals.

Aw. How touching. Pity it didn't actually happen like that and loads of them died.

#nwn2 #neverwinter nights 2 #cut content #i want nwn3

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the-great-elwisty · 2 years

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NWN2 cut content: Qara

Qara’s story had three components, which made it into the game to varying degrees.

Her hatemance with Sand

The animus elemental

Her father

All aspects are tied together of course. Qara’s father kicked Sand out of the Academy. Her unusual position as both rebel sorceress and daughter of the Academy’s head no doubt helped fire up the students who attack her outside the Sunken Flagon, sparking the anger of Johcris, who is then more than willing to conspire with Sydney Natale… Lt. Danger gave a fantastic overview of much of the missing content in his Let’s Play, so I’m not going to spend time reiterating what he said much better.

Sand

Go read Lt. Danger. He included large chunks of cut dialogue in his chapter on the Act III ambush.

The Animus Elemental

I’m not even sure to what extent this is still in the game. I’ve seen the initial cutscene, where Johcris and Sydney Natale conspire to create it. I’ve seen the Elemental in Sydney’s Act III attack. However, I don’t think the random encounters with the Animus Elemental have ever triggered in any of my games. Pity, because the dialogue’s fun.

Grobnar: {A spectral assassin has just appeared} Why, it looks like we have a visitor! Hello there!

And when it returns for its next appearance:

Grobnar: {A spectral assassin has just appeared, oblivious to danger} It's the same elemental as before! Why, it must be tracking our party so it can kill us - how fascinating!

Lt. Danger thought that the Animus Elemental storyline might once have led into a thaw in relations between Sand and Qara. Maybe it would have, however, I don’t see it that much myself. I mean, you can imagine the PC nudging Qara towards either completely unleashing all her power to obliterate the Elemental, or else holding back and following Sand’s advice, and perhaps that leading to Qara and Sand both learning something from the experience. But looking at the surviving dialogue, what you have is:

Qara: So I kill it by not attacking it while it's weak? Seems to me Sand's setting us up to be its victims.

PC: I believe Sand, and I think you should, too.

Qara: (Scoffs) Whatever. He can keep his tomes... I can handle this elemental my own way.

You can get Qara to accept that reining in her power could be worth trying, but you have to be willing to lose influence with Sand to do so. I have a feeling that the influence see-saw mechanic that culminates in the final battle was decided on quite early in the writing of the two characters, and from then on ideas of a kind of mutual redemption took a back seat to conflict.

Desintis

One thing that does interest me that hasn’t been discussed all that much before (afaik, naturally) is the role of Qara’s father, the head of the Academy. His character actually exists in the toolset — he’s the older man standing next to Qara at the top of this entry. His description:

This is Qara's father, an aging man of considerable wealth and prestige amongst the mages of Neverwinter.

It seems clear he was intended to have a larger role in Qara’s arc (which was more of a meteor crash in the game-as-shipped). Quite what that was is hard to determine. One full conversation survives between, not Desintis and his daughter, but Desintis and Sand.

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SCRIPTER: This cut scene automatically fires as soon as the player enters the Moonstone Mask with Sand for the first time.

Sand: (Slight sarcasm, Desintis is in brothel) I didn't think to see you outside of the Academy, yet here you are in these opulent surroundings. Catching up on your privacy, no doubt?

Desintis: (Recognition, doesn't like Sand, thinks he's dangerous) Sand. Why are you here?

Sand: (Wry, this guy kicked him out of the Academy) Well, there are few places I can go since the Academy doors are closed to me. Upon your request, I recall.

Desintis: (Firm) Yes, it was my request. (Beat) Have you come to contest it? {

Sand: (Still a little pissed) Oh no, I know why you refused to grant me a post. And I know why I have been struggling for work in this foul-smelling city. (Makes his strike, coldly flippant) And I know why you are here, lingering in this place, without your daughter, seeking "privacy." (Mocking, talking down) And they are all very sad reasons.

Desintis: (Firm) You've had more than enough chances to prove yourself, Sand. And you have refused them all, except when pressured by the Nine. Change your path, prove yourself, and perhaps then we can have a conversation.

Sand: (Mocking) Oh, High Mage, we just did. (Beat) But like before, you weren't listening. | Turns to player |(To player) Are we done? This place has suddenly become quite tiresome.

“And they are all very sad reasons.” But what were they, Sand? What were they? This is no time to be discreet! Perhaps Desintis got the chop because the Obsidian writers realised they didn’t know what the reasons were either. In another snippet of dialogue, Sand just said that he and Qara’s father had “academic differences” which could include more or less anything from a lukewarm book review to murder and world domination. Obviously, Sand's Host Tower background is part of it, but there seems to be more implied as well.

There’s clearly a power struggle of some sort going on between Johcris and Desintis, but Johcris is clear that it’s his ‘house’ that are out of favour with Lord Nasher. Desintis should be on the winning side. So what’s Sand taunting Qara’s father about (apart from him being in a posh brothel)? (God, he’s not another desperate suitor of Ophala, is he?) Also, was the conversation cut because it wasn’t possible to ensure that Sand could talk to Desintis without Qara being present, since if she were then she’d definitely have something to say?

There is this tantalising fragment in dialog.tlk:

Set Flag for Qara/Desintis to have their chat on next enter of keep interior.

Would Desintis have been the key to getting Qara to look at herself and where she was going? By (probably inadvertently) giving the PC insight into why she is as she is? Even if the conversation ultimately lead to the same pile of rocks falling on her head, it would have been interesting to have it included, and made her less of a one-note character.

#nwn2 #neverwinter nights 2 #cut content #i want nwn3

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