Act Four, Part XV: Illithid Supreme Commander, Devastation Spider, Destruction of the Citadel

[Aielund Saga Walkthrough for Neverwinter Nights 1.]

Aielund Saga Final Boss Battle


We need to activate two separate controls in order to gain access to the Commander's chamber and from there overload the engines to destroy the Citadel.


We open a door revealing a large central room in which lurk two each of construct and tech, and one each of wizard and scientist.


The command deck has two wings, each of which contain an observation dome and a control panel; and are occupied by three techs and a scientist. In the northern wing it was nice to see Power Word, Kill actually work for once.


The panel is now activated to open the first lock to the Commander's chamber.


This operation is now repeated on the southern wing with no variation, granting us full access to the Supreme Commander.

Enough of this. I'm going to deal with you myself. - Armored Saqaarin Commander.

We buff up like never before and then charge back out to the central room for the Final Showdown.

The Saqaarin leader is securely encased in an Ironlord suit, but with everyone pulling their weight it doesn't take overly long to beat it down to Near Death status.



I don't need this armor to destroy you!

The Saqaarin leader walks away and removes its minogon-like exoskeleton, after which it immediately buffs itself with the obnoxious Epic Warding followed by Mestil's Acid Sheath.


I will utterly destroy you meddlers!

Though many of our attacks eat through the ward, the Supreme Commander brings new meaning to the word "tank"..

You will become but another upstart race to be destroyed before our might!

 

Two constructs and two techs come to its aid and manage to make nuisances of themselves to the point of Robert dying.

I promptly resurrect him and he immediately rejoins the battle with full HPs (I had seven more Resurrection scrolls to spare).


Behold! An unimaginable terror of the cosmos!

Devastation Spider


The Commander now summons a Devastation Spider - a sort of beefed up and enlarged Bebilith that inflicts DC-36 poison...


... But the Commander takes a pounding before the spider can take the heat off; then realizes the battle is lost..

Impossible. You are nothing but slaves! Nothing but insects! Nothing but mere cattle! Nothing but...


Humiliated beyond words - by mere cattle such as us - the Saqaarin Supreme Commander can do nothing but die (+1680 Exp).


We now hack at the legs of the epic arachnid (+1540 Exp).

 

The Devastation Spider now flips over onto its back, signalling the end to the final showdown.


Peering into the Commander's chamber, we see it occupied by a most repugnant specimen - some sort of overmind.

Terinus Sacrifice


Terinus now prepares to sacrifice himself for Aielund!


At Terinus' command we hurriedly backtrack out of the command deck, the armory and the living quarter levels - the Citadel igniting and imploding all around us - ...


... to reach the safety of the storage room portal from which we first arrived!  


The portal transports us off the Citadel before it detonates!

Blackwood Glade



We now catch up with some old friends..


Saphiron:


Twilighters:


This is a very nice tower, although the little man does talk a lot. - Knight of the Bastion.

This place is a great wonder, Lilura. Thank you again for leading us to freedom. - Sakumi (engineer).

It is pleasant to see you again, Lilura. This is a very strange place, though I think we may be able to make a home here. Peace be upon you all. - Katsumi.

Queen Criosa Roebec


And last but certainly not least, Queen Criosa Roebec is found waiting for us in Terinus' bedroom.




*Fade to black*

Aielund Saga Ending


Now follows voiced narration by the author of The Aielund Saga, Savant, detailing the fates of the companions and of Aielund itself. To save me quoting too much, I'll only quote a select few.

Victory. But, at a price. The valiant sacrifice of Terinus the Black allowed the heroes to escape the doomed citadel, before it's inevitable destruction. By accepting his fate, Terinus managed to strike a fatal blow to his oppressors, ending their meddling in Aielund's development once and for all. The people went on with their daily lives, never knowing how close they came to annihilation. Only a handful of individuals mourned his passing, but were comforted knowing that Terinus had finally found peace.

Criosa Roebec went on to become one of Aielund's greatest leaders. Her experiences over the past few years taught her of courage, and duty. Despite Fairloch's fracturing nobility, Criosa never backed down when she knew she was right, even against threats of civil war. Through the force of her will, the young Queen held Aielund together in it's most difficult years, until once again, the country began to prosper.

Robert Black, rich beyond the dreams of his youth and tired of fighting, finally settled down with a new love, and together aided Queen Criosa in rebuilding the country. Although his gruff attitude caused friction within the nobility, his mercenary background gave him a particular insight into the corrupt dealings of the nobles that Mad King Seamus had placed into power. Robert found himself indispensible when proof of a noble's secret dealings was needed to bring them down, and within a year, had purged the worst elements from the newly reconstituted senate.

Her faith restored, Nellise Sanneman became the new head of the Church of Aielund. With compassion and humility, Nellise guided her wayward brethren back to the true purpose of the church. Though it took many years, the people of Aielund finally forgave the priesthood for the injustices some in their ranks had spread in the name of God. From time to time, Nellise disappears, often for many weeks. Rumour has it she travels to Heaven itself, though such rumours are often dismissed as sheer fantasy.

Aielund has seen more than its share of bloodshed and war in its history, but it now enters a new age - an age of uncertainty, but also an age of hope, free from the manipulation of the Saqarin. Guided by these unique individuals, the country begins to thrive, and prosper. Its greatness is only just beginning, and the sky, is the limit. - DM Savant.

*Cam now zooms out*


*Fade, credits roll*

And this concludes my recounting of The Aielund Saga in its entirety.

Thanks go out to Savant for authoring this epic NWN module that is worthy of being held in high esteem by the NWN community. And to Balkoth, for his many informed comments and technical insights along the way. Cheers guys!

THE END

Aielund Saga Act 1: Nature Abhors a Vacuum Aielund Saga Act 3: Return of the Ironlord
Aielund Saga Act 2: Defender of the Crown Aielund Saga Act 4: The Fall of Aielund

18 comments:

  1. I originally had the final boss fight harder, but Savant decided it was *slightly* too difficult. I did expect people to be rolling in with 20+ Heal potions each (all members of my party had 100+ each at that point).

    Given the toning down of the fight in general, should probably summon the spider sooner (used to be another wave of adds as well).

    "perhaps after its been updated again by Balkoth"

    I'll work on it!

    I can probably have the major bugs fixed within a few weeks, can release that temporarily potentially, will take longer to revamp a section or two (like the Fort Highmarch siege).

    All that said, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the epic recounting. Planning on linking to this for people curious about NWN.

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    1. You guys did the right thing - It's best to balance it for normal gamers, ie not power-gamers and people who know NWN really well.

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    2. Definitely curious what you think about Siege now. I deliberately tried to balance it for normal gamers rather than make it far more difficult...but even then the normal gamers need to pay attention and not just faceroll everything. But that also means that it can feel kind of easy for good players, especially the first few bosses.

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  2. Thanks go to Balkoth for scripting that end fight sequence too, my earlier version was much simpler :) I came over all misty-eyed seeing the ending there again (probably because I just finished writing the saga's end in novel form too). Thanks for taking the time to go through the entire series and publish your adventures!

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    1. Finished writing as in about ready to publish or finished writing as in time to do a bunch of revising/editing and publish in a few months?

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    2. I expect to get the final editing pass notes tomorrow or thursday, then I'll apply them and probably read it through again before getting it published early in february. I'll have the pre-order up before the end of the month though :)

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    3. Just finished listening to this podcast:
      http://www.nwnpodcast.com/nwnp/2011/10/01/nwnp-episode-149-the-aielund-saga/

      I like how you described Nellise as a "generic healer companion". I'm sure she certainly is compared to your novelised version of her, but for a NWN module I found her very likeable and interesting (and powerful, ofc). It's probably somewhat to do with me being a Paladin, so we shared the conflict between following the law of the land and doing what's right, so I felt a bond with her even if it wasn't explored specifically.

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    4. Yes you filled in the blanks yourself, which saved me a lot of writing for the mod :D
      I think my point at the time of that podcast was I didn't have a personality planned for her when I created the character for the mod, unlike Colt, who was 'angry, drunken ranger'. I did at least make Nel 'nice', and it sufficed for the purposes of the story :)

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    5. I'll have to listen to that podcast, never knew existed.

      Savant, I'd say you did far more than make Nel "nice," at least in Act 4. And since people do generally remember the stuff at the end the best, that's likely the most lasting impression. Definitely more "generic" in Act 1 and 3, though.

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    6. never knew it existed*

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  3. Lilura, the link with podcast expired, did you refer to this content: "Neverwinter Nights Podcast - Episode 149: Aielund Saga" ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ1qpUjM0wo

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    1. Yeah, that's the one. I was a lil' disappointed in the interviewers' questions to Savant, though! In fact, I'm gonna say it: those two interviewers come off pretty banal and boring, imo.

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  4. Oh yes, really bad work. They were totally unprepared. We could prepare better questions about Aielund Saga or - in the future - about the new chapters, should they be published :)

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  5. What I want know is the difference if you still pursued Criosa's romance, I f'ed up and gave it back to her in a fit of anger saved over the file like an idoit. Other than that great recounting and module!

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  6. It's done! Part3 was really excellent, bringing the story into the levels of a great space opera. Great writing and "timing" all along: with that I mean that there were multiple occurrences where the player has to continue fighting (or retreating!) without taking a breath, well, maybe just dropping a nice line while sectioning a construct (I'm thinking about Black) but otherwise focusing on the battle at hand. Then when the party arrives in a "friendly" zone, the feeling of relief is palpable. You can breath, eat something and rest a moment, only to be briefed very quickly for the next missions at hand.

    I really enjoyed playing this saga, never felt the epicness so well!

    Bravo!

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  7. AnonymousMay 03, 2017

    Hei ... Thanks Savant and Balkoth for your work ... and Lilura for your blog, really enjoyed it.
    One thing .... do you know that some quests can be exploited for infinite exp/items?

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  8. this was excellent thank you

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  9. Loved the module! Just finished it. This was better than the main campaign by a long shot. My only issue was with the fade to black I didn’t have sound on so didn’t hear the epilogue (that’s on me, but subtitles would have been nice). Having it written out here was great. Overall 10/10

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