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stealth
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 23 Mar 2002
Posts: 261
Location: Valhalla |
| Moonsea Region (Hillsfar) |
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I've been toying with the idea to create a NWN module set in the Moonsea region. I'm particularly interested in the city of Hillsfar and the conflict with the nearby Zhentil Keep. I already have a map of Hillsfar and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book. So I was wondering if anyone knew where I could learn more? Any novels which are set in the region? |
Sat May 18, 2002 2:52 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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In the dales? Oh geez... uh... most of them? 
Spellfire, Crown of Fire, Book One of the Avatar Trilogy: Shadowdale, Prince of Lies, Azure Bonds, Song of the Saurials... those come to mind instantly. I know there are more.
The Avatar Trilogy along with Prince of Lies and Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad are hands down the BEST Forgotten Realm novels out there. Oh sure... the Dark Elf series by Salvatore is good (I love them) but the Avatar Trilogy was much more mature. the avatar trilogy book one Shadowdale has probably the best references to and descriptions of Zhentil Keep ever printed.
Hillsfar is largely ignorable. They're sort of... there. *shrug* I don't know of any books that feature the city (Azure Bonds, which is a pretty good read anyways, has a lot of Hillsfar troops fighting with a lot of Zhentil Keep troops over Yulash... the key point of contention, as it's the big trade road nexus common to both the Keep and the Hill.)
Spellfire and Crown of Fire... well... suck. Sure the Forgotten Realms is Greenwood's personal campaign setting but the man cannot write novels. The best he can do is brag about how much his favorite wizard is like Gandalf.
Heh. Little off topic book review there.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Sun May 19, 2002 1:57 am |
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stealth
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 23 Mar 2002
Posts: 261
Location: Valhalla |
Thanks! You seem to know your FR novels. Personally I’ve only completed Salvatore’s Dark Elf & Icewind Dale trilogies. Started on the series involving The Silent Blade when I realised I had enough of Drizzt for now (is it possible?). I have considered reading some of Greenwood’s Elminster books so thanks for the warning. 
Anyway, too bad there aren’t any novels involving Hillsfar, so Zhentil Keep will have to do. I’ll try picking up Shadowdale tomorrow. |
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Sun May 19, 2002 9:54 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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If you pick up Shadowdale pick up Tantras and Waterdeep too or you'll be kicking yourself. They're not as fast paced as a Salvatore novel, but they're much more mature and descriptive.
Prince of Lies and Crucible can wait for a little bit.
Another fairly mature and solid series is the Moonshae Triology... Darkwalker, Black Wizards, and Darkwell. The second series there, the Druidhome trilogy, is pretty good too... though I really only like one or two of the 'new' characters introduced, so...
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Mon May 20, 2002 4:05 am |
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Guest
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Of course I’ll get the rest of the Avatar trilogy but it won’t be today as I forgot it’s a holyday. 
Actually I think I read half of Darkwalker once. It was a translated version and they take up two books instead of one. I only read the first and I guess I wasn’t that impressed with it since I didn’t bother to get the second half.
A little of topic but have you read the old Dark Sun: The Prism Pentad trilogy by Troy Denning? It seems quite interesting but it’s unfortunately out of print. Maybe I could get them second hand somewhere I’ll look around a little. |
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Mon May 20, 2002 11:11 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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The Prism Pentad is possibly my favorite series. I loved Dark Sun SO much... Denning did a great job with it, blending fantastic high sorceries with mundane events.
Darkwalker depends on when you read it. I read it when I was 12 and thought 'yawn... boring... I don't like this guy. He'd a jerk. I don't like him either. Or her. That was lame....'. I read it again when I was 18 and appreciated it much, much more for the politics behind it and layers of character developement.
That said, Black Wizards and Darkwell are better books than Darkwalker.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Mon May 20, 2002 7:27 pm |
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Jaz
Late Night Spook
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 9708
Location: RPGDot |
The Prism Pentad! Woooow, I loved this series! All in all the ONLY AD&D book series that convinced me because it was more dark and gritty than the others...
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Jaz |
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Mon May 20, 2002 7:41 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Darkwalker on the Moonshae, Black Wizards, and Darkwell are pretty dark fantasy as well if you haven't read them. The first Forgotten Realms novel written was Darkwalker on the Moonshae and it was written by a vetern fantasy novelist so it doesn't come across as blatantly D&D. The second was The Crystal Shard. They represented a split in views on pulp fantasy novels produced by TSR. On one hand was a more serious aimed at adults novel series, on the other hand was a well written light natured classic 'module' type story.
In the Moonshae Trilogy by Niles you could see where everything was thought out, written in, and served a purpose. Like he was writing a non-pulp novel with established traits.
In the Icewind Dale trilogy by Salvatore you could see whenever he got stuck and seemingly rolled on the random encounter table to write a chapter or three of filler to get his excellent key story up to 320 pages. As if he was writing a module.
The second style won out.
I love both styles... but the second when overdone gets juvenile. Like Greenwood whom I thought while reading "Wow! Three dragons and two archwizards in one chapter! What do you do for an encore? OOOOOOOooooooo BLEW UP THE MOUNTAIN!!!"
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Tue May 21, 2002 2:50 pm |
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Maggot
Magister of the Light
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 392
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland |
Does anyone remember the game? It was a diversion to the SSI gold box games, you could export a character to Hillsfar, play Hillsfar with that, and import the character back into the Pool of Radiance series. I can't remember much besides that, it was a bit RPG light, really.
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Don't force it - use a larger hammer.
-= Non Flamer & Written Word Worshipper =- |
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Tue May 21, 2002 2:57 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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RPG lite? It was AD&D's answer to the olympic games that were popular in the computer business that year. A bunch of map running and horse jumping and option using (pick lock, cast knock, use chime of opening). It had nothing in common with the gold box games (the box was even silver. )
And you could import to and from Curse of the Azure Bonds. You couldn't import to Pools of Radiance, just from.
And spells active when the character was exported became permanent when you reimported (but not listed on the magic effects screen). Me and a friend had a bunch of minor globe of invulnerability, double fire shielded, permanently 24 strength, 20 con hasted protected from evil fighters blitz naked through Curse using club's +1 and studded leather armor for a lark
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Tue May 21, 2002 3:36 pm |
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stealth
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 23 Mar 2002
Posts: 261
Location: Valhalla |
Lol. Yes the Hillsfar game was quite bad. It was actually the game that made me think that someone must have included the city in a book or two.
I went in to pickup the Avatar trilogy today but they didn’t have Shadowdale and they weren’t sure they would get it again. So I had to order it from Amazon. I'll have to wait a little but that's allright.
The Prism Pentad will be more of a challenge. I’m not sure anyone will mail it to someone outside the US.  |
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Wed May 22, 2002 5:05 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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It's amazing what crap gets printed for decades at a time and what good stuff is discontinued.
Avatar Trilogy and the Prism Pentad are both worth the wait. Between the two of them, the Pentad is probably better... but then, Denning co-wrote the Avatar Trilogy as well (well, he wrote Waterdeep). Richard Awlingson is a pseudoname for three authors (Richard All-In-One).
A NWN module for Yulash would get you the essence of the war between the Zheeks and the Hillsies. Constant war between the two factions all for a hill that oversees the trade point between the two cities and the rest of the Dales.
Last I heard Zhentil Keep was destroyed, though...
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Fri May 24, 2002 2:36 pm |
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stealth
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 23 Mar 2002
Posts: 261
Location: Valhalla |
quote:
Originally posted by EverythingXen
Last I heard Zhentil Keep was destroyed, though...
Hmm.... You are partly correct. Sections of Zhentil Keep was destroyed in DR 1368 but has since been rebuild.
I managed to find someone who were willing to send me the Prism Pentad so with the ultra fast mailing services I'll have them in a month or two.  |
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Fri May 24, 2002 2:51 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I read the novel where Cyric had his hissyfit and spanked the city. Pretty much flattened the joint.
Awww... enough of a community spirit existed to rebuilt the evil city that is Zhentil Keep? Weird.
You'd think they'd just conquer Yulash and rebuild IT and call it Zhentil Keep. The Keep was located in a pretty crappy place for a city...
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Fri May 24, 2002 10:25 pm |
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Maggot
Magister of the Light
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 392
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland |
Erm, EX, that may actually have happened in one of the books you recommended to them.
_________________
Don't force it - use a larger hammer.
-= Non Flamer & Written Word Worshipper =- |
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Fri May 24, 2002 10:42 pm |
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