Neverwinter Nights Storyline
The first and final chapters of the story in the official campaign deal with the city of Neverwinter itself, but the lengthy mid-story requires the player to venture into the countryside and then northward to the city of Luskan. Neverwinter is a city on the Sword Coast of Faerûn, in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons.
Chapter One: The tutorial takes place in the Neverwinter Academy. The player must complete their training and make their way to see Lady Aribeth to graduate from the Academy in order to help combat the Wailing Death, a plague sweeping the city and killing thousands. However, an attack on the Academy at the hand of a mysterious group of assassins results in the majority of the Academy’s students and teachers being killed. The player, having survived the first wave of attacks, is charged with fighting their way to the stables of the Academy to protect Neverwinter’s hope of a cure: Four monsters sent from Waterdeep. Once the player reaches the stable, they discover the mages have beaten them, the Waterdhavian Creatures have been released, and they are the last survivor of all the Academy’s students.
The game proper begins at the temple of Tyr in Neverwinter’s City Core, where the player is properly introduced to Fenthick Moss and Desther, two men in service of Neverwinter. Fenthick Moss explains that Aribeth, his lover, requires an adventurer to seek out the Waterdhavian creatures and praises the player for their work in the Academy. Desther, however, is dismissive of, and at times outright rude to the player, regardless of their actions towards him. Aribeth charges the adventurer to solve some of Neverwinter’s problems, while gaining the necessary parts for the cure. The 4 Waterdhavian creatures are: a Yuan-Ti, a Dryad, an Intellect devourer, and a Cockatrice.
The Yuan-ti is found in the Beggars’ Nest, having taken control of a local gang, the Sword Coast Boys, and raised an army of undead. The player fights the Yuan-Ti, who calls herself Gulnan, before destroying the pillar created by a priest of Cyric to channel undead energy and end the hold the zombies have on the Beggars’ Nest, leading to the thanks of Neverwinter’s leader in the Beggar’s Nest, Harben Ashensmith, and of Aribeth (once the Yuan-Ti’s heart is returned to her).
Another reagent can be found in the Peninsula District. This district holds Neverwinter’s prison, and upon arrival the player finds the prisoners have been set free by the head jailer for reasons unknown. The leader of the guards in the District, Seville, asks the adventurer to enter the prison and find out why the jailer has released all the convicts. The player breaks into the prison and fights their way through to “The Pits”, thanks to the advice of the final surviving guard, and discovers the head jailer possessed by an Intellect devourer. The player defeats the Intellect Devourer and returns another Waterdhavian reagent to Aribeth. The Dryad is to be found in the Blacklake District, picked up by a sorcerer and imprisoned.
The Blacklake district is the high-class, noble district, relatively untouched by the plague. However, all is not well, and the player finds a wizard named Meldanen has not only been acting strangely, but is apparently withholding a large stock of grain that could be used to help the starving in the city. The player is consequently asked by a young lady to gain the key to his grain store to feed the poor, and to bring the tooth of the dead wizard to prove he will not bother them again. The player gains access to Meldanen’s estate, either through a magical portal, or violently through the front gate, and must fight their way to the imprisoned Dryad, to find she had charmed Meldanen to prevent him from harming her. The wizard then appears and attacks in a rage, forcing the player to fight him to a stand still, at which point he explains himself, and the player can choose to either kill or spare him. The dryad willingly gives the player a lock of her hair, the needed reagent for the cure, before leaving. The reagent is returned to Aribeth, who expresses gratitude, and encourages the player to continue hunting down the remaining reagents.
A fourth creature is found in the Docks District, a violent area where fighting between muggers and Bloodpirates is a frequent occurrence. The player is forced to fight a number of thugs to get anywhere in the docks, and is quickly able to find an Auction Note. This note explains the reason for the increased unrest in the Docks: the leader of the Bloodpirates, Vengaul Bloodsail, is auctioning a Waterdhavian creature. A short investigation reveals dissension in the ranks of the Bloodpirates, Callik, Vengaul’s lieutenant, is attempting a coup. In order to find him, and thus the location of the Cockatrice, the player must travel through the ‘aqueducts’, where the kindly ’sewer guide’ poles them downstream. The player discovers Vengaul and Callik exchanging angry words, as Callik wishes to take control of the pirates, while Vengaul wishes nothing but peace. The player quickly defeats Callik, gains Vengaul’s thanks, and has immediate access to the final reagent. Upon delivery to Aribeth, she invites the player to witness the cure creation, as thanks for all their hard work.
As the player finds the reagents for the cure, they draw the attention of the cult behind the spreading of the plague, resulting in the player being attacked by mysterious assassins at three points during their search. Each time, the player finds an anonymous note on one of the assassins, hinting at a sinister agenda behind the Wailing Death.
Chapter One - Finale: The player must talk to Aribeth, Desther, Fenthick and Lord Nasher (in his first appearance), ruler of Neverwinter, who has been afflicted by the plague. Aribeth, Fenthick and Nasher are very grateful, while Desther seems unimpressed. It transpires that Fenthick has given Desther his portal key to draw on extra power, creating a small gap in the castle’s defenses. However, no one seems suspicious, and the ritual begins. The ritual is successful and the cure is created. However, Desther then declares the cure is his alone, calling upon his false Helmites to kill everyone. Desther escapes through a portal with Fenthick in pursuit.
The player, with the help of Aribeth and priests of Tyr, kills the Helmites, while Aribeth sustains the portal. She charges the player with stopping Desther, bringing him to justice, and discovering Fenthick’s involvement in the plot. The player enters the portal, and is sent to Helm’s Hold.
A strange woman appears in front of the player, warning the player that fate always catches up with a person. The player then enters Helm’s Hold, and is given the option of removing the dark taint placed by Desther, or increasing the power of evil. However, the player must reach the top to encounter Fenthick, who claims he had no idea of his friend’s treachery, and promises to wait while the player stops Desther. The player then enters the top tower to discover Desther performing a ritual to increase his power. The player should defeat all the ritual creatures to damage Desther’s power. While undead attack, the player attempts to defeat Desther and break his power. Desther promises to surrender quietly, ending Chapter one with the death of both Desther and Fenthick as scapegoats for the plague. Aribeth, broken hearted at the loss of her “only love”, relocates to Port Llast, north of Neverwinter, bringing the player and all possible companions, with her. This begins Chapter Two…
Chapter Two: The player arrives at Port Llast to find Aribeth, who asks for the player’s help in locating the cult who attacked Neverwinter. She advises the player to speak to Aarin Gend, Lord Nasher’s spymaster, who tells the player to check out nearby caves, where humanoids have been busier than usual, and suspects cult involvement. The player fights his way to the bugbear leader and discovers a cult member has indeed been rallying the humanoids. Aribeth congratulates the player upon the return of the cult member diary, but asks for evidence of the cult’s location. The player then explores Charwood and finds a haunted castle where a massacre of children has occurred. The player judges one of two brothers for the slaughter, the guilty one being lead to the purification point of the town, while the innocent is lead to the town becoming ablaze. Either way, upon leaving Charwood, another cult member is encountered, and, upon defeat, furthers evidence shows that Luskan is the cult’s base in this area. On the way back, the player is attacked by Solomon, a halfling who presented the player with a ring. The player dispatches him and brings both the note and diary to Aribeth. However, she still wishes one more piece of evidence to prove the city of Luskan as the base of operations. The player is charged with investigating Neverwinter Wood, where a dwarf attacks the player. When he is killed, he also has a note, this time from “Maugrim”. When the note is presented to Aribeth, she again congratulates the player, but asks for concrete evidence. Therefore, the player enters Neverwinter Wood to discover that “The Spirit of the wood” has gone mad, and is causing all the animals of the wood to attack humans on sight. The head druid asks the player to discover the problem, as well as save the other druids he has sent to investigate. The player saves the druids in the different areas and is told that stabbing him/herself with a special dagger while standing in a spirit pool will teleport them to the spirit’s realm. After this, the player discovers yet another cult member, gone mad by the spirit realm. The player kills the cult member and takes his diary. The player takes the spirit poison and reaches the spirit. After the player damages the spirit enough to surrender, the player can then decide to kill the spirit or save it with the cure. The player is teleported away to the druid camp, and is rewarded upon the delivery of the news to the druid chief. On the return to Port Llast, a half-orc called Vardoc, sent from Maugrim, attacks the player. The player kills him and takes a note from Maugrim. Aribeth says this confirms that the Cult is to be found in Luskan and bids the player speak to Gend. Gend tells the player his friend will get him into Luskan, to meet him and Aribeth in Luskan’s temple. The player then enters Luskan, either by killing Gend’s friend and stealing his key, or by peacefully gaining admittance.
Chapter 2 - Finale: When the player enter the Temple of Tyr in Luskan, he realizes that Aribeth has already gone into the Arcane Brotherhood’s Tower, who are the true rulers of Luskan. Currently, there is a battle between two of the five captains on who should rule Luskan; the other three are presumed dead. Gend wants the player to align himself with one of the captains and battle their opponent in order to gain their seal, which allows them into the Brotherhood tower. After battling one of the two (the player can battle both of them, but will only get one reward from either captain), Gend makes a fake seal that allows the player in the tower. As he enter, he hears that Lady Aribeth is joining with the cult. Now the player is forced to stop her by traversing all nine levels of the tower, the last floor being the Pinnacle. On the floor before the pinnacle, the player meets a former member of the brotherhood who was overthrown by the cult leader, Maugrim. He opens a way to the Pinnacle, where the player sees Aribeth, Maugrim, and the Dreadqueen Morag, Queen of the Old Ones, talking. They disappear and leave the players with a group of Old One warriors to fight. After this encounter, the player returns to the temple and reports to Gend of Aribeth’s betrayal and the cult’s plan of retrieving relics of old magic called the Words of Power. The party goes to Beorunna’s Well and starts Chapter three….
Chapter Three: This chapter revolves around the retrieval of the last three words of power. There are four in total, but the cult has one of them which was acquired in Chapter Two in the Neverwinter Wood. When all three are found, the hero goes back to Neverwinter for the final battle and also confronts a rebellious Old One named Haedraline.
Chapter Four: It was revealed that Morag is actually using a projection to talk to Maugrim and that she is actually in the Source Stone, a magical stone used as the portal to Morag’s world where she and the Old Ones sleep. The hero needs to confront Aribeth and either redeem her (If s/he has completed a side-quest) or slay her, and then confront Maugrim to get the last Word. After that’s done, the hero goes to the Source Stone and enters it using all Four Words of Power. In there he has a final battle with Morag. When she is dead, the Source Stone and the world in it explode, but Haedraline creates a little portal for the hero to escape. The game ends with a movie showing the Source Stone’s destruction and an epilogue.
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