FRUA: Neverwinter Nights, 2

Following the advice of their new companion Milkbottom the halfling rogue, our intrepid adventurers made their way to the wharves upon the coming of the morning.

Passing through the east gate from Neverwinter Square, they were greeted by a slight breeze and river birds circling overhead. "Well, where to?" Kylie asked, looking at Milkbottom. He hesitated for a moment, than said confidently, "This way!" marching off to the south. Passing a few nondescript warehouses, the group came to a somewhat fancy looking building with a brass sign proclaiming it the "Neverwinter Health Society."

The building was strangely dark and silent. The group nodded at each other, drew their weapons, and Kylie slowly pushed open the door. The main lobby area appeared to be relatively intact, but dark and empty. This was conspicuous for certain. Searching about, our heroes heard noises coming from doors in the back of the lobby. A crash and then a snort like that of a pig... they went to investigate. They found, not surprisingly that the small rooms where overrun with evil humanoids! The party's weapons tasted first blood as they brought these foes down with ease.

Oh no! An orc...

This kobold has little chance of victory.

Their confidence growing, the group continued to explore the wharves, finding that while guards were still posted here, the district was crawling with kobolds, orcs, and other nasties. A ruined temple to the god Helm was the den of giant frogs.

Croak...

In addition, Milkbottom personally wet himself as two massive beasts crawled from the river and assaulted our dear adventurers.

When crocodiles attack!

Across the river in the northeast section of the wharves was the fish-packing district. The buildings here were of stone and mortar, heavily weathered from exposure to the river mists. This area proved no more inhabited than the first, even less so perhaps, as the occupants were often of the formerly-living types. Entering the first building as they crossed the river, the group was immediately assaulted by the stench of improperly preserved fish. "It smells awful in here." observed Kylie.

Hastily making their way through the room, all were forced to cover their noses, and a few choked entering the next room. "It smells UNBELIEVABLY awful in here," quipped Milkbottom.

The unbelievably awful room linked to an ice closet, occupied by a formerly living entity. The party surrounded it and took it down. Milkbottom was somewhat surprised that he was able to use the tricks of his trade to effectively strike at the vital organs of this animated body, finding it effective even though he was fighting a walking corpse.

It's worth noting here that the first time I fought zombies I was completely man handled. Looking in the editor, I saw they had been set to do something like 12-18 damage per hit. I assume this was a mistake, and set it to a more reasonable 1-8. As is not so rare in these modules, there have been a few things which I have assumed are mistakes and gone in and corrected them. Some minor annoyances, but nothing bad enough to make me want to quit all together. For example, a door or two were missing on the wharves map. I also set the encounters to not happen only once, as I think in a game like this it's necessary to be able to grind a bit, just like in the original. Otherwise heading to new areas will leave the party low on experience and coin.

 Purists may balk, but I've never had a problem with making edits to FRUA modules if I think it will increase my enjoyment of it. I think it's reasonable to assume there will be some mistakes made, since you're getting a game designed mostly by a single individual, then go in and correct them. That being said, FRUA is still an AWESOME resource. It's an endless supply of Gold Box games. A thought so cool, when a couple upperclassmen in my 7th grade gym class told me about it, I did not believe them. I thought to myself, "A Gold Box construction set? Things that cool do not happen." Oh, but it did, and the world has been ever better since it's release.

This particular module is by GoldBoxFan, and is version 1.16.

I downloaded the module at the UA File Archive at http://frua.rosedragon.org/, which is the go to place for all your FRUA needs. There is a link to modules at the top.

There ends tonight's ramblings my friends, join me again next time, for This Bard's Tales!