Anyone who’s played the pen-and-paper version of Dungeons & Dragons knows that the game isn’t complete without a stack of modules, or pre-created adventures, to select from when looking for a short quest to play. While MacSoft’s Neverwinter Nights moves the excitement of Dungeons & Dragons to the digital realm, it still retains the concept of modules with Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, two expansion packs that extend the game and provide you with fresh adventures.
Both packs also offer new monsters, spells, prestige classes, weapons, and more. You can use the characters you created for Neverwinter Nights or set up new ones for these adventures.
Four Artifacts and an Adventure
Shadows of Undrentide takes you to a remote mountain village called Hilltop, where you and three other promising students train under Master Drogan, a dwarf mage. On the eve of your final tests, a group of kobolds attacks Drogan and poisons him. A mysterious woman named Ayala Windspear shows up in time to help your group defeat the kobolds and revive Drogan with her magic.
You learn that she and Drogan belong to a secret society called the Harpers. When he retired, the group entrusted four artifacts to his safekeeping, but the kobolds have stolen them. They consist of a mummified hand from a powerful lich named Belpheron, a tooth from a dragon, Hephaestagon, who was skilled in the black arts, a statue that was recovered by one of the Harpers from a desert tomb, and a mask that once belonged to a high priest of the Lord of Shadows.
All four artifacts could be used by those with evil intent to further their goals, but the Harpers aren’t sure how. Ayala sends you off to find the artifacts and bring them back before the kobolds can bring them to whoever sent them on their mission. Your journey takes you from Hilltop to an Elven crypt, a dragon’s cavernous home, and even the Plane of Shadows, among other exotic places.
