My Neverwinter Nights Mod Story Outline

October 21, 2023 – Written By Theodore – 12 min read

As a much-belated follow-up to a post I wrote back in 2001, I had the intention at the time of making an original module for the game Neverwinter Nights (the game can still be bought on GOG.com) that I called Forever Lost. Even though I never got beyond writing the outline, creating names for some of the characters, and thumbing my way through the NWN Toolset, I did, however, create a few original placeable scenery objects in 3ds Max, as I wasn’t satisfied with the limited resources the game initially provided.

Anyway, below is the unfinished story outline that I had written for that mod. The story was intended as my interpretation of a prequel to the Baldur’s Gates games, which I was obsessed with at the time. The story was broken up into six chapters, which I believe I intended to separate into subsequent individual modules. Now enjoy my masterful writing skills from over twenty years ago!

NWN: Forever Lost (Outline)

By Ted Balmer, September 26, 2001

Part I

My Neverwinter Nights hand made placeables — My NWN hand-made placeables

The story goes like this: you (the player) have just returned home from a year or so of the war in the Savage Frontier to find his wife Aleema and infant children missing, and your house is completely undisturbed. You pick up some things and travel to Waterdeep to find your family. While in Waterdeep, you discover very little as to their present location. You do get a handful of leads that end up being dead ends. One of the leads sends you into a vast dungeon. At the top of the dungeon, there is a destroyed Elf encampment, and one of the survivors tells you that a Drow army is responsible for the attack. He then tells you to head into the dungeon to find any clues as to where the army is now. You discover a map and information about a Drow army that’s amassing near Waterdeep. As a last resort, you end up visiting the Lord of Waterdeep, who happens to be your close friend. He tells you about an army massing in the forest outside the city, and that the army has been gathering slaves to help them gather supplies for the assault. So, you decide to investigate this disturbance. You arrive at the camp to find it completely abandoned. After searching the structures at the camp, you discover detailed plans for Waterdeep. You race back to Waterdeep, only to find it under siege by the Drow army. You enter the city and have to fight your way to the capital building, where the Lord of Waterdeep resides. You enter his chamber or throne room just before Aleema and her lieutenants enter. As she enters, she is “hell-bent” on assassinating your Lord. You intervene (conversation) and have to convince her otherwise or fight her to the death. If you convince her to stand down, she will help you dispatch her lieutenants. After the battle, the Lord has Aleema arrested as a criminal, and it’s up to you to defend her.

Part II

Because of their actions, Aleema, the city of Waterdeep, wants to try her as a warlord and criminal. But of course, you stand in the way of this trial that will most likely end in her execution. It’s your job to prevent that. There are three ways you can do this: you can try to convince the Lord to “drop the charges,” which will be impossible to do, and you will end up having to break her out of prison yourself, which will result in your banishment from Waterdeep. Or you can let her rot in prison and ultimately be executed, which will end the game. Or finally, you can try the “legit” way and do several quests (they involve wiping out the remainder of the Drow forces that attacked the city) for the Lord, which, in the end, will not change his mind, and you will have to break her out of prison, thus banding you from Waterdeep. In order to break her out of prison, you enlist the help of the local thieves guild. They, in turn, give you some tasks to complete that involve some unlawful acts. Once you finish your tasks for the guild, they hook you up with some unsavory mercenaries. They assist you in breaking her out of prison, which involves confrontations with the city guards. You fight your way out of the city, leading to your permanent banishment from Waterdeep. On your way back to your home, you have to fight your way through a number of mercenaries (the same ones that helped you out earlier) sent out to kill you by the order of the Lord of Waterdeep. You, with Aleema, can either fight them to death or buy them off with gold. Once home, you and your family live happily ever after…

Part III

My Neverwinter Nights tavern design — My NWN tavern design

One night (months after Part II), while sleeping in your home with your family, dark figures (Drow) break in and “incapacitate” you and kidnap Aleema and your children. You have no idea where they went, so you reluctantly return to Waterdeep (in disguise) with the intention of interrogating the Lord as to Aleema’s whereabouts. He tells you there is a sage in the forest who may know where to find her. You travel to his hut to discover that he is missing, and his apprentice tells you that the sage went down into a local dungeon. You head down into this dungeon with some opposition in your path. You find the sage, and he wants you to retrieve an artifact that happens to be even deeper in the dungeon in exchange for the information you seek. You hack your way deeper into the dungeon and find the artifact. After returning it to the sage, he tells you about a mine that leads into the Underdark and that the Underdark is the most likely place that they would have taken Aleema. Once again, you hit the road and travel to this mine, and you end up fighting your way through it. At the bottom of the mine, you enter the Underdark. Once down there, you need to find a way into the Drow City. As you wander around in the Underdark, you come across a group of friendly dwarves that are under attack by Driders. Once you dispatch the Driders, you tell the dwarves of your predicament. They tell you that they too have a comrade who’s been captured by the Drow, and they would really like to get him back. However, they have no means to stage a full-scale attack on the Drow. They reluctantly suggest that you get help from a colony of Driders. You travel to this colony to be scrutinized by the Driders right away. They tell you that they are unable to help in their current situation, and they send you on a quest to retrieve something and they may consider helping you. You perform this quest and return to them and they ultimately turn you down. You go back to the dwarves, and they suggest that they join forces with the Driders and make an attack on the Drow City. You and the two sides make an attack plan, which involves you entering the city undercover. Once inside the city, your objective is to destabilize the Drow forces in the city. When you achieve this objective, you open up the main gates and let your new allies enter the city. You and your small army hack through the city and ultimately arrive at the temple of Lothe. (The alternative is to charge the main gates and fight your way through the city, which of course is not recommended.) As you enter the temple, a priestess is about to sacrifice Aleema, and you of course intervene. The priest is not surprised that you showed up, and it breaks into a conversation with him or her. The conversation reveals that your children are not yours and that they are the offspring of Bhaal, the lord of murder. At the end of the conversation, the priest slays Aleema, and then you have to hack your way through all the Drow and kill the priest. Aleema then dies in your arms. You take Aleema’s body and your kids with you and leave the Underdark. You return to your house, bury Aleema and burn down your house. You leave the Waterdeep region, never to return, and from there, you travel south to the city of Baldur’s Gate in search of a monastery to leave your kids. Everyone that you meet in that city tells you about a place called Candlekeep, which is to the south of Baldur’s Gate. You travel to Candlekeep, and you leave your children with a sage by the name Gorion. Gorion vows to care for and protect your children. You leave Candlekeep never once looking back…

Part IV

Neverwinter Nights toolset screenshot — The Neverwinter Nights toolset

For months, you travel aimlessly through the Sword Coast region, never stopping in one place for more than a few days. You finally come across an elven city that’s under siege by a small army of orcs and ogres. After dispatching the monsters, you are invited into the city. The queen there tells you that you need to find yourself and that a local dungeon has the answers that you seek. You go to this dungeon, and you hack your way through it to the bottom. Once there, an apparition of Aleema appears and tells you that your children are in danger. From there, you race back to Candlekeep to find the keep completely gone. Elminster appears before you and tells you that Candlekeep has been transported by a very powerful Liche (the female Drow priestess for Part 3) to an astral plane. He tells you that you need to travel to the haunted island of Kaldamar; there you will find a gateway that will lead you to Candlekeep. To get there, you need to charter a ship at Baldur’s Gate. You go to Baldur’s Gate, and there you have to perform a few tasks before they take you to that island. One of the tasks is freeing a couple of thieves from a dungeon prison, all for the thieves’ guild. You eventually get a ship to take you there, but unfortunately, they dump you off on the wrong island (it was a stormy night). You immediately run into some primitive locals who tell you (by drawing in the sand) that they are being ravaged by a red dragon. You enter the dragon’s dungeon and hack your way through it until you finally run into him at the bottom. It turns out that this red dragon is extremely friendly, and he offers to fly you over to Kaldamar if you agree to help him make peace with the locals. You bring about peace between the two sides, and the dragon drops you off at the correct island. You wander the island, fight your way through the undead, and ultimately encounter Liche just before she escapes through the portal to the astral plane. You follow her through and enter the astral plane, where Candlekeep has been transported. Once there, you run into an apparition of Aleema, and she tells you where to find your children. She disappears, and you continue traveling through the hellish landscape. While wandering, you run into Gorion imprisoned, and of course, you free him, and he leads the way to the Liche’s “lair.” You and Gorion confront the Liche, and you engage her in battle. She immediately changes form into a Dracolich (undead dragon), and while in shock, you and your companions go to battle with her. During the battle, Aleema appears and assists you in the battle. Once you defeat the Dracolich, you are morally wounded, and you die in the arms of Aleema. Candlekeep returns to its original location, and everything is back to normal. Gorion raises your children and they ultimately save the Sword Coast from war.

Part V

You are abruptly awakened in a lab. A wizard by the name of Shanadan tells you that he has resurrected you for the purpose of helping his Lord (female) defend the city (Westgate) against evil. You quickly discover that you are not alone and that there’s a small army of people (like yourself) that he has resurrected. The army is divided up, and each person is sent on a specific quest that involves rooting out evil. [Unfinished]

Part VI

Your soul enters another plane of existence, and you are dropped off in Bhaal’s domain. Right away, you meet Bhaal himself. He gives you mixed reactions; he’s happy that you protected his “children,” but he is unhappy that you left them with Gorion (he doesn’t like Gorion’s good values). (Note: You lose all your gear.) [Unfinished]

The End