The Sad Regression of Neverwinter Online

This is a post I have avoided for some time. Neverwinter, an MMORPG based around 4e Neverwinter in the Forgotten Realms, released in 2013. In early 2015 it went into beta on the Xbox One and released later that same year on the console. While I’ve played a tiny amount on the PC, the Xbox One beta is where I began my journey.

I was immediately gripped by a couple things. At the time I had enjoyed other video games set in the Forgotten Realms, particularly the Dark Alliance games, but I had never played Dungeons & Dragons nor read any novel set in the Realms. What really gripped me was the action in the gameplay. I’ve played many MMORPGs throughout the years, from RuneScape to World of Warcraft to EverQuest and things more far afield. I had never played one that had a limited number of attacks, that made combat fast but engaging rather than tab based. It was new and exciting! Not to mention the first time I had spent many hours on a MMO for a console, though I had tried Phantasy Star, DCUO, etc.

Besides being mechanically fun, I really became engrossed in the story. Going in the different districts of the Jewel of the North, going without to Icespire Peak, the Underdark, Helm’s Hold, and so forth. It was all a grand adventure. It was alive. By time I read my first novel in the Forgotten Realms it was a story connected to Neverwinter, and the ones afterwards were too! These were Brimstone Angels, Cold Steel and Secrets, and I even tried Gauntlgrym (before realizing that is a bad place to start with Drizzt).

It wasn’t my introduction to the Realms, but it was like puberty, pardon the analogy. It led to so much more. Reading, playing, writing this. I loved that the recent movie was set largely in Neverwinter!

It’s because of this love that I sadly feel obliged to share my disappointment. More than a year ago I tweeted this video from Josh Strife Hayes, it is too accurate: 

2015-2019 were my golden days in the game. I got married and started having children and the game took a backseat. My first room was named Hemvar and we explored things together. In 2017 I made Farideh, recognize the name? This was the first character I got to end game with. I’ll admit, I was never a big fan of how the story was handled once level 60 was hit. Or 70 for that matter. It is also free to play and has too many microtransactions, though I never spent money on the game. 

My disappointment started to blossom in 2022, when I returned to the game a little. The game had made some big changes. While it was built around 4e, a huge overhaul brought it more inline with 5e. Bard was introduced as a class, the other classes were renamed (scourge warlock became simply warlock, for example), the intro quest was revamped, and the max level became only 20. Exciting enough right?

Sure. But while most games keep adding content as they get older, this large overhaul saw much content shuttered. I realize this happens some in MMOs, I get it. But the leveling before endgame (the endgame I didn’t like much anyhow) became shorter. We lost several zones: Blackdagger Keep, Pirate’s Skyhold, Tower District, Blacklake District, and even more! I didn’t understand it or enjoy it. Some has been added back in in pieces or enhanced but only intermittently and for endgame. I don’t appreciate chopping up your game so you can make “development” easier by just using old material.

Helm's Hold

In January, almost ten years after the beta release on Xbox, I noticed I was close to getting an achievement for slaying dragons. So naturally I go to Neverdeath Graveyard, still in the game. Imagine my surprise when the green dragon, Charthraxis, wasn’t there. Just his bones. So I went to Icespire Peak, another zone still in the game. Was Merothrax (not to be confused with Cryovain) there? Just his corpse.

I feel like I’m walking in the corpse of something once great. It is depressing. The only thing I can experience of these things are my memories. I feel I must say amarast to it 

But not all is bad. While frustrating, the game still is pretty and my girls enjoy playing it. I think I’ll play it as long as the servers are up, but I can easily say I’d be there more often, like an old home, if it felt like what I remember. And that’s not just the nostalgia speaking. 

Charthraxis

That being said, I will keep on playing. It’s still fun in levels 1-20. I’m sad they cut it short, but I’ll enjoy the journey. I’ve always been a journey person in MMOs, it’s why I never really liked WoW (which is very endgame heavy even if you can max out in a day). Lord of the Rings Online, EverQuest, RuneScape: all have lovely journeys, where I can take my time and enjoy the beauty and the story, not so much the mechanics. Neverwinter is there too, just not as much as it used to be.

Tower District

Blackdagger Ruins

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Movie Review: Honor Among Thieves

 Earlier this month I read two prequel novels for Honor Among Thieves, The Druid’s Call and The Road to Neverwinter. On the 29th I was able to attend an early screening of the movie’s release on the 31st. Overall, I was happy with the film. Here are my thoughts.

The movie starts far north of Ten Towns at a prison called Revel's End. Edgin and Holga were previously caught in a heist and so are prisoners. Their companions, Forge and Simon safely escaped, but the duo has not seen them for a couple years. Edgin's biggest regret is his absence from his daughter, Kira. We learn of Edgin's background and introduction to Holga as told in The Road to Neverwinter. It starts rather comic but epic and doesn't let up. It had me chuckling throughout the formation of the team for a new heist. 

The baddies are a certain betrayer and the Red Wizards of Thay, which seek to take over Neverwinter. This is an adventure fraught with peril for Simon the fledgling sorcerer, Doric the young tiefling druid, Holga an exile of the Uthgardt, and Edgin formally of the Harpers. There is much magic, great battles, dragons, a displacer beast, mimic, gelatinous cube, intellect devourers, undead and more! 

Seeing the world of Faerun brought to life, seeing Selune in the sky, the beautiful cityscape of Neverwinter, the Underdark, and hearing of places like Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep, is truly magical as a longtime fan. My wife, who is not familiar with D&D or the Realms, also really enjoyed it.

My few gripes lie in how Elminster is handled, which I am largely confused about so maybe I can suspend my dislike of what they did. I am glad he is somewhat present though. Also, the paladin's deity is never mentioned, which is a shame. There were a few things that did not work too well for me, such as Doric's character development and a scene resembling too much one from a Marvel movie. But overall it is exciting, funny, and in the end, there is honor among thieves.

My very initial thoughts right out of the theater are on YouTube. Check out all the details of Realms Lore and Easter eggs here: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Forum:Honor_Among_Thieves_-_Easter_Egg_Hunt

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Review: D&D Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter

The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson is the adult prequel novel to the upcoming Honor Among Thieves movie. It was released at the end of February ahead of the movie's release at the end of March. It is a story of the origins of the party that are the protagonists in the movie. I’ve already reviewed The Druid’s Call, The YA prequel telling us of the tiefling druid, Doric. 

As opposed to Johnston, Johnson is a Forgotten Realms veteran, for example her Mistshore is a lovely tale of memory and revenge set in Waterdeep.

At the start of the story, Edgin is playing with his daughter, Kira, who shortly settles into bed and Edgin begins telling her a story of their past. It starts on the Sword Coast when he was recently a Harper agent. This framing narrative is cool and a great setup, we know Edgin will survive but we really knew that anyways, since he is the main protagonist. We also get some interludes back to the bedtime story.

Kira is a newborn babe, Edgin's wife is recently diseased and he left the Harpers as a result of her death. He lives in an unnamed village (at the start, that is) on the Sword Coast. Being part of the Harpers, he was once an entertainer, a bard, but now he’s just a single father, though part of the prologue seems to imply he has found a new partner and leaves some promise either for some potential romance in the novel or movie. Don't get your hopes up there.

He passes out at a tavern, and shortly meets the Uthgardt barbarian woman named Holga, of the Elk Tribe. She is similarly feeling lonesome. This is quite a unique start to a D&D adventure. A widower father and some barbarian meeting in tumultuous inner times but peaceful on the outside, in some sleepy village. These first couple chapters are also nine years before the rest of the story. 

Shortly in we get a story about the Zhentarim, which is more Realms stuff than The Druid’s Call had. Pendra is a pawn broker and has connections to the Black Network, which makes him a target for our protagonists. In the interveening nine years Edgin and Holga had made a living as thieves, a sort of odd Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, but Kira, as she gets older, joins the party. 

The party technically lives in Targos, one of the Ten Towns in Icewind Dale. It is not spoken of as being particularly cold early, nor is it named for the first few times, on so you could mistake it for a village nearer to Neverwinter. But the Trip and Shuffle tavern is mentioned and seen, which is cool.

Since Edgin is a bard and plays the lute, it would have been cool if it was a more Realms specific Yarting was used, but that is just me being picky. He does us his bardic talents some in this book, though it is not a great amount.

Eventually the party of the movie takes form; the trickster Forge Fitzwilliam plays cards, 3 Dragon Ante, with Edgin. With a name like Forge I’d think he would be a dwarf but he’s a human. In reality everyone is human with one exception

Simon Aumar, who has an inferiority complex is a fledgeling sorcerer that is related to Elminster. He comes in later and is a half-elf, making him the only non-human of the party.

The jokes are very recent movie faire, something like Marvel movies, I’d think they make you smile when seen on the big screen, I was waiting to laugh out loud. I'm not sure how affective they will be on a second watch. Potatoes are mentioned several times. 

The themes are largely about what makes someone a hero. This is connected to the father daughter relationship that I feel is very rare in fantasy. It's rather touching at times.

So as far as Realms lore goes, Johnson satisfies. We get things from 5e, like Icewind Dale, but also Neverwinter which has been ignored in 5e up until now but is probably my favorite place along the Sword Coast. 

This is the late 1490s. The novel ends a year before the movie, and we know Forge Fitzwilliam is the Lord of Neverwinter in that movie. I’m not sure what happened to Dagult Nevermeber. There are comics and maybe even the junior novelization answers some of the questions that arise between the end of this novel and the start of the movie. I am not sure I will read those, since I am largely concerned with the normal novels. Overall, The Road to Neverwinter satisfyingly sets up the characters of the movie in Good fashion. Paired with The Druid's Call, I don't think you could go wrong.

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Review: D&D Honor Among Thieves: The Druid’s Call

The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves, has giving us a blessing, though whether it is from Tymora or Beshaba, I think you will have to decide. It was 2016 since we last got a novel in the Realms besides Drizzt. It is nice to be back in the Realms, but is it utilized to its full potential?

If you would like, there is a video version of my review found here.

The Druid's Call is a young adult novel telling us the prequel of the druid Doric who in the movie is played by actress Sophia Lillis. It is written by E.K. Johnston, a newbie to writing in the Realms.

Doric is a tiefling, a mortal with infernal blood. She was orphaned because of her obvious nonhuman traits, horns and a tail, and grew up in Neverwinter Wood. There she was raised by the wood elves. Her backstory is actually a bit more tragic, and this is told to us in special sections of flashback marked with different paper in the physical version.

Doric is not naturally built for the wood like her adoptive kin. She can’t seem to hunt for the life of her, even with her training as a ranger, but she gets an opportunity to prove herself when her and her friend Torrieth go to check out a disturbance. It turns out to be loggers and they encounter a bear who has gone without food because of these loggers. Doric has an interesting interaction her, one that leads her to becoming more in tune with the nature around her. 

In the trailer Doric appears shape-changed, called wildshape, as an Owlbear. I felt this novel satisfyingly answers as to why that is possible, but some will likely feel it does not. For those curious, the other movie prequel novel, The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson is a more direct prequel of the party of adventurers led by Chris Pines character.

In The Druid's Call character group is Doric, Torrieth, and Deverel. Toriath is good at everything and popular. Deverel is very optimistic and good hearted, even giving Doric credit where others would see an obvious failure. 

Later there is even a character that uses 3rd person singular pronouns as they/them. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that in a novel. 

This is a D&D adventure and this one takes us south to Ardeep Forest near Waterdeep and involves the Emerald Enclave, not surprising based off its general status in 5e. We get a ton of races of characters, more than you normally get in Forgotten Realms novels, probably because the Realms have gotten a lot more colorful since 4e. 

The verdict for the Realms is that it doesn’t push a lot of boundaries for the Realms, no great amounts of lore utilized, but it was nice to be in the Realms again. Sadly, if you changed the place names around this could easily be set in any other generic fantasy world. I realize this is partially due to it being a young adult novel, but more likely it is because Wizards wants to sell you D&D, not Forgotten Realms. This comes as no surprise, as the Realms has been mistreated in 5e so far. I do not blame Johnston for this.

If you would like a YA novel that uses the Realms phenomenal ally and also happens to be in and around Neverwinter, try Brimstone Angels by Erin M. Evans.

Oh, and Simon who is another character in the movie appears in this book too. He is apparently a decedent of Elminster

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Review: Tomb of Annihilation Tie-in Fiction

There are two stories split into four parts that connect to the 2017 adventure Tomb of Annihilation. In recent years most Forgotten Realms fiction we have gotten are short stories from Dragon+ that relate to the recently released adventures, such as Ice Out for Rime of the Frostmaiden, Kallinor's Charge for Descent Into Avernus, A Man & His Dog for Storm Kings Thunder, and so forth. Today let us get into the gritty, undead-filled jungles of Chult.

Prelude

From Dragon+ issue 14 from June 2017, by Bart Caroll.

Pion, in Neverwinter regales us with the local news: a curse over death,  resurrections are not working, and what about those who were resurrected in the past? (RAFO)

Pion is a gambler, but someone needed to check out the cleric Alfin Biscop’s house, he’d been gone for more than half the twelvemonth. Pion gets the job somehow, poor luck working for the Shadow Thieves. It’s interesting as Pion often thinks in the term of lancebords and chess.

We also get a brief follow up for the antics of the first part of Prelude, where an artificer is in the Positive Material Plane, also known as the Positive Energy Plane and the Plane of Life.

Good, but exceptionally short. There is little here, and it really works as a prelude.

Part 1

Found in Dragon+ issue 15 from August 2017,  by Adam Lee

The story starts with an epigraph by Jessamine, Merchant Prince of Chult, this adds a nice touch, rare enough in fantasy novels, let alone short stories.

Qawasha is a chultan druid of Port Nyanzaru and Kupalué is a vegepygmy. They are partners and work as guides for Jobal the Spider.

There isn't much of a story here, just Qawasha explaining his past. It’s relaxing and fun to read as he explains his interest in the jungle and ruins. He also touches on the influx of foreigners coming to Chult.

Part 2 

From Dragon+ issue 16 October 2017.

We learn that Kupalué means “weed that walks” and that special drink called chatali can be brewed from a plant in the jungles. I am curious if this is similar to coffee or chocolate.

The story starts with the flowering of the two’s friendship, continuing right where part 1 leaves off. But this is mostly dialogue of Qawasha describing the lost city of Mezro to a curious visitor from Baldur’s Gate.

It’s interesting but mostly exposition in the form of dialogue, not much story.

Part 3

From Dragon+ issue 19, published April 2018.

This part is longer and better.  I think fans of the Lost Empires series (my review here

chwinga, elemental spirits native to Chult

) would enjoy this tale. This is one of the few tales in Chult besides The Ring of Winter and The Fanged Crown.

This last part of the tale really shows us a beginning. Qawasha is truly the main character and the title is bit misleading as it could easily be called “Qawasha, Kupalué, Samrith, and Zara.” This last part we also get a sliver of combat for the first time, for those looking for action.

This is an Acceptable tale, if it had more substance beyond just being a prologue, the writing would easily elevate it to good. So for the tie-in fiction for Tomb of Annihilation we have a prelude and a prologue, nothing too exciting. I have not played Tomb of Annihilation though, are any of these characters present? 

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Completed Series: Cold Steel and Secrets by Rosemary Jones

Cold Steel and Secrets is a novella by Rosemary Jones set in Neverwinter and divided into four parts. It follows Rucas Sarfael as he infiltrates a rebel group that are against Lord Protector Dagult Neveremeber's rule in Neverwinter. I’ll keep this short because I don’t remember much besides really enjoying it. The story itself involves undead from a Red Wizard of Thay and the mystery of the necromancers identity. 

I read this in March 2018 over a couple days, the same week I first played Dungeons & Dragons . I wish it was available in a format that had all four together (and a physical version at that). Anyways, this novella led me to read City of the Dead by the same author. If you don’t mind the couple dollars for each part, it’s a swift and exciting read.

For a novella, Cold Steel & Secrets is Exceptional.

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Completed Series: Brimstone Angels by Erin M. Evans

This is the first in a series of post that cover the Forgotten Realms series that I have read all of the novels in.

I will give the books and whole series a grade but it is not empirical, but is based off feelings at the time I read the books and how I feel now. The ratings do not have specific qualities that mark them, they are just descriptive words. Here they are for your reference from worse to best.

Ugly

Bad

Poor

Mediocre 

Acceptable

Good

Exceptional

Amazing

Brimstone Angels by Erin M. Evans is the first series of Dungeons & Dragons novels I ever read. This was from the end of August to the middle of September 2017 when I read all six in that two week period. At the time I had never played D&D, though I had played other TTRPG's, Brimstone Angels was a strong factor for my later start of playing of the game.

The books are such:

Brimstone Angels (2011) - Acceptable

Brimstone Angels: Lesser Evils (2012) - Good

The Adversary (2013) - Good

Fire In the Blood (2014) - Good

Ashes of the Tyrant (2015) - Good

The Devil You Know (2016) - Good

My first impression was that it was fun but a little slow. It slogged a bit because of strong usage of lore.  This changed drastically during Lesser Evils as the story got more exciting when the Harpers went to search for the library of the netherese Tarchamus the Untielding. From there  I flew through most of the books. There is a decent focus on relationships, which range from okay to a little annoying, but that takes a backseat from the great action and the unfolding storyline involving devils, gods, warlocks, and politics.

Farideh and Havilar are easy to relate too, and a fun set of twins. This is probably is heightened because I myself am a twin and am relatively their age. There story takes them from Neverwinter to Waterdeep, to Suzail, to Djerad Thymer and to lost libraries and secreted Netherese fortresses. The cast of characters, from the Zhentarim, Harpers, nobility of Cormyr, devils of Malbolge to the devoted of deities is very rounded and likable, even when they aren’t necessarily of good alignment.

Farideh is the main character and at the start of the story she makes a pact with a cambion which results in exile for her glaive wielding twin sister, Havilar, and her adoptive dragonborn father, Mehen. Ilstan, Dahl, Tam, and Lorcan are among the most memorable support characters.

Book 3 is also book 3 for The Sundering, and I feel it fits in pretty well. It did not seem forced to me, while some things in books five and six maybe could have been condensed.

Lore wise, I gained quite a bit of knowledge about Cormyrean politics, the denizens and hierarchy of the Nine Hells, a plethora of draconic curses, tiefling types, and a nice guide to deities statuses during the Second Sundering.

A note for those who wish to own books physically (like myself), the first and second books are generally quite expensive though 3-6 can be found easily at reasonable prices.

Overall the consistent quality of the books makes me say that Brimstone Angels is: Exceptional.
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