Return to Menzoberranzan - A BG2 mod that will never be....

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So as I mentioned here, I found some old stuff I wrote a long time ago. Well, back in those days, I was something of a infinity engine modder. I had all the TeamBG tools, WeIDU, and a few other tools, and though I wasn't great, I was working on a team that was loosely affiliated with the Forgotten Wars Projects (Before the split with FWS, and waaay before the Pocket Plane Group...this was back in the day when Chev was a pain to the admin...oh wait, he still is. ).

Anyway, I had big plans for a bigger mod. I had just finished reading The Dark Elf Trilogy, and I wanted to make a mod loosely based on the books. It was going to be called "Return to Menzoberranzan" and I knew I was going to need some serious help from some of the folks I knew at FWP (JCompton was#1 on my list after seeing his awesome work on Kelsey), so I wrote a very detailed description of how I wanted it to be so I could send it out to anyone who agreed to help me.

However, that never happened. I'd still love to see this mod come to fruition though. Anyway, here's the overview for anyone interested in reading it.

Return to Menzoberranzan
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This is what will be included in the mod:

• There will be 1 major area (Menzoberranzan), and several minor areas within and around the city.
• There will be one major quest within the area of Menzoberranzan.
• There will be one joinable, romancable male NPC: Drizzt Do’Urden (Chaotic Good, Drow Elf, Male, Fighter/Mage)
• There will be one joinable, romancable female NPC: Vierna Do’Urden (Neutral Evil, Drow Elf, Female, Fighter/Cleric)
• There will be two main quests, after they join the party, one for each of the Do’Urdens, and several minor quests, being specific to him or her.
• Both of them do not have to join your party, you can choose to keep Drizzt, Vierna, or both.
• There will be several new items, new spells, new creatures, and new innate abilities.
• There will be a lot of dialog, many with voice clips…hopefully
• Hopefully there will be flirting
• There will be interactions with BioWare NPCs as well as other fan made joinable NPCs…like Kelsey, Solaufein, or Valen.

***NOTE: Since many people have objections to having Drizzt as a joinable NPC, Dinnin, Drizzt’s brother can be used instead of Drizzt. Although the mod will turn out a lot different than what I had first hoped for, Dinnin may be a better choice. Drizzt would be preferred, that way there is one evil and one good NPC in the mod.

Menzoberranzan:
This city will be accessible as soon as you get Brynnlaw. The entrance to Menzoberranzan will be in the lower right hand side of Brynnlaw. When you arrive near the underground city, you will meet Vierna Do’Urden, who has been sent by Matron Mother Baenre to find someone, or something to aid House Baenre. Chaos has erupted in the city, and every house has fallen out of Lolth’s favor. Every house is at war with each other in hopes of regaining Lolth’s favor, as well as becoming the 1st house in Menzoberranzan. If you decide to help Vierna, she will let you in to the city.
NOTE: Once you leave Brynnlaw, the only way back is to charter a ship from the Athkatla Docks, by talking to the bartender at the Sea’s Bounty Tavern. Not many sailors want to go to Brynnlaw and times are rough at the Sea’s Bounty, so the price will be between 15,000 to 20,000 gold pieces.
**The Blades of Brynnlaw mod may interfere with this**

Drizzt Do’Urden:
After returning to the city of Menzoberranzan after such a long time, Drizzt begins having wicked dreams, and confusing thoughts of his past. He will confide within you, and speak his mind often to gain advice from you. He will also speak of his oldest friend, who kept him from insanity during his solitude, the Black Panther, Guenhwyvar. Drizzt will also speak to you of the famous ranger, Montolio DeBrouchee, which he became friends with during his stay at Mooshie’s Grove. If you are a female, then he will attempt to romance you, speaking often of his many years of solitude, and how he wishes to have someone to settle down with. Drizzt is interested in Solaufein, as well as Viconia and how they came to be in the party. They will speak often of their pasts, the present, and what they hope for the future. If you are currently romancing Anomen or Kelsey, when Drizzt tries to romance you, then he will argue and fight with either one of them to “get the girl”, so to speak; but in the end, it will come down to you to choose your lover. Drizzt will also become friends with Keldorn. They will speak often about their adventures, and how Drizzt was Keldorn’s hero while he was working as a squire within the order.

Vierna Do’Urden:
After joining your party, Vierna will talk with you often, greatly interested in your past, your heritage, and your life on the surface. She is very stern with you at first since she was a High Priestess of Lolth, and since you are “just a male”, or “just a surfacer” if you are a female; but that changes over time. After breaking through the emotional wall she has around her, she will “accept” a romance between the two of you, or just a friendship if you are female. She is also very interested in her exact opposite: Aerie. The two of them will speak and argue often, usually provoked by Vierna. If you are currently romancing Aerie when Vierna accepts a romance, Aerie will not allow you to continue to have a romance with her if you romance Vierna. Vierna will speak with Viconia often, speaking of how House Do’Urden attacked House De’Vir, and won. The two drow will often be at each other’s throats, arguing over the past. Over time, with the help or the PC, Vierna and Viconia will call a truce, and possibly become friends. If you are currently romancing Viconia when Vierna accepts a romance, Viconia will allow a dual relationship if you tell both drow that you want them both, and that you can’t decide which of the two to stay with since “all drow women are so perfect”. The dual romance will go on for a while, but when things get really serious between one or the other, Vierna will make you choose between them. Either way, you’ll have to break one’s heart, and you’ll be able to sleep with the other. Sorry, no lesbians in this mod…

Overview of the mod:
When you arrive in Brynnlaw (the island next to Spellhold) there will be a guarded entrance to the Underdark on the lower right hand side of the town. To get in you will have to pay them off, out smart them, or kill them. Once you enter the cave, you have to go down a split corridor. Either way you go will be filled with more hostile guards, drow warriors, spiders, and some of Lolth’s other pets. But most importantly, you will meet Vierna Do’Urden where the split corridor meets back up. She will explain to you that her adopted Matron, Matron Baenre has sent her to find aid for House Baenre. She will explain everything to you then. Afterwards, she leaves you to decide. When you can talk to her again, she will ask what your decision is. If you agree, she’ll let you into the city take you to House Baenre. Matron Baenre will talk with you, and scold Vierna for bringing surfacers into her house, but after awhile she will accept your aid. She will then give you two choices: either assassinate all the Matron Mothers that will be at attendance in the Chamber of the Ruling Council (except her), or you could track down the rouges that are responsible for causing all this chaos. Either option will be difficult, and either option will put Matron Baenre back in Lolth’s favor, so she can put an end to the chaos.

Quest A: Killing the Ruling Council.
If you agree to assassinate the 7 Matron Mothers on the ruling council, Matron Baenre will tell you exactly what needs to happen. She then tells you that if you need anything, to talk with her head servant, who offers rooms, and supplies. When you have everything you need, you will have to talk with Matron Baenre again once you’re ready to go. She will transport your party inside the Chamber of the Ruling Council, which is currently empty. She tells you that she will cast a spell on the party that will summon you back into the chamber once the meeting has started. At that point, you will meet the 8 Matron Mothers. They will get really ticked off that you interrupted their prayers. You can talk with them for a while if you really want to or, you can just attack them as soon as you get the chance. Once you attack, Baenre will teleport back to her House, so you don’t have to worry about area effect spells. On the way out she also magically seals the exit, so neither you nor any of the other Matron Mothers can escape. The 7 Matron Mothers will talk to you, mainly explaining to you how they are going to cut your heart out. After a few lines of cursing you, they will teleport to their own sections of the Chamber to await your coming. In the hallway to each of their personal quarters, you will meet their guards, which will attack on sight. Inside their quarters, you will meet the doomed Matron Mother, her high priestesses, as well as the rest of her guards. Once all the Matron Mothers, and their guards are dead, Matron Baenre will transport you back to her house.

Quest B: Tracking the Rouges.
If you agree to track down the band of rouges responsible for causing every Matron Mother in the city to fall out of Lolth’s favor Matron Baenre will tell you to search the city for them, and kill them all. She doesn’t know here they are hiding, but she will give you a few hints on where to look. The rouges are hiding in Tier Breche, the City’s Academy. The problem here is that the rouges have split up in to three groups, and are in the three different sections of the academy. A full one half of the rouges are in Melee-Magthere, the fighter’s section of the academy. One fourth of the other rouges are in Sorcere, the wizard’s section of the academy; and the last of the rouges are hiding in Arach-Tinilith, the priestess’s section of the academy. After you have killed all of the rouges and their leaders, the head leader will teleport in front of you and talk with you. He asks you why you killed all of his men, and why a “surfacer” is involved in the city’s affairs. At one point he gets really pissed off at you and attacks you along with 5 of his best men. Once they are dead, go back to House Baenre and talk with her again.

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Once you have completed one of the above quests, and have returned to House Baenre, Matron Baenre will congratulate you and gives you a few magical items, as well as some experience. She then runs off to offer a sacrifice to praise Lolth. Once se is gone, Vierna will speak to you. She will discuss what has happened to her personally, and how she plans on leaving the city soon. She will ask about what the surface is like and how a rouge drow would be able to survive there. She will also speak, or argue with a few of your party members, namely: Aerie, Viconia, and Keldorn. After some dialog, Drizzt will teleport in and talk with you and Vierna. The three of you will discuss several different issues a drow will have to overcome before he or she can live in peace and acceptance on the surface. The three of you will also discuss the feelings she has been feeling recently. This portion of the mod will contain a lot of dialog, so there will be an option to have Drizzt explain everything to her by himself. This is not recommended, but if you are impatient, you can skip it.

If you decide to skip the entire interesting block of dialog, the screen will go black for a few seconds, to give the feeling that the two of them have been talking for a long time. Anyways, after either option, Vierna will tell you that Matron Baenre is plotting to have all the remaining “lesser houses” in the city combine and have one massive raid on the surface, killing everything in sight. She proposes that you either foil Baenre’s plans directly, or destroy the exit to the surface nearest to the city.

If you choose to foil Baenre’s plans directly, she will attack you but when her health drops to a certain point she will teleport away, leaving you to deal with the rest of the guards, and other members of her house. After they are all dead, you can complete the quest by going to Matron Baenre’s quarters and killing her once and for all.

If you decide to destroy the exit to the surface, you will need to talk with Vierna’s loyal servant. She will tell you of a contact she has with a very powerful wizard who will offer to sell you a scroll (which will be very expensive) that will collapse the tunnel out, as well as place a strong magical barrier to prevent anyone from trying to clear the tunnel. If you accept, she leaves to go fetch the wizard. After a bit of dialog, you can buy the scroll, and he will instruct you on how to use it.

Either way will prevent the raid on the surface.

If you decide to kill Matron Baenre, Drizzt and Vierna will offer to join your party after she is dead. If you decide to collapse the exit to the surface, they will offer to join you while Vierna’s servant is away. You can either choose to let Drizzt as well as Vierna join, or just one or the other. Keep in mind that if Vierna joins, your reputation WILL drop two points, but if just Drizzt joins you won’t loose any, since he is already a known hero.

Drizzt’s sub quest:
After you and Drizzt are good friends, or lovers, you will be approached by a human from Drizzt’s past, who wants to settle a score between the two once and for all. This time, when Roddy McGristle finally catches up to Drizzt, he has a few loyal allies to back him up. Roddy is still very angry that Drizzt killed his dog, as well as the loss of his ear. If you have good charisma, and say the right things, you can get Roddy to accept a fight between him and Drizzt, with no help from either side. If Roddy losses the fight, then his “back up” will turn and leave; never to speak of the incident again. If Roddy wins then you and the rest of the party will have to leave at once, but not before you give him all of your gold of course. But since you’re not about to give up any of your stuff, you can refuse, and Roddy will send his “back up” to attack the party, as he stands back and watches.

Vierna’s sub quest:
After awhile, you will encounter a party of drow warriors sent by Matron Baenre to find and kill Vierna and her companions. Apparently, Matron Baenre wasn’t too thrilled that Vierna just got up and left, not to mention foiling her plans of the surface raid. After a little dialog, a messenger runs off to tell Baenre the news, while the others attack you. When you kill the leader, he will tell you that an even greater foe will soon be coming for her, his dieing words hint of Zin-carla.

After you and Vierna are good friends, or lovers, you meet that “greater foe” that the drow leader spoke of. It is indeed Zin-carla, Lolth’s greatest gift: raising a fallen corpse to do the bidding of a Matron Mother. Matron Baenre has raised the corpse of Jar’son, her former lover that Baenre had killed when House Do’Urden fell. He goes straight for Vierna, even as she tries talking to it. This thing is not going to be an easy fight. It will probably be borderline Demilich. After it is dead…again, the romance will be put on hold for a while, since the sight of her former love has left her very confused and terrified. It will resume after a couple of dialogs though.


Changes to the game:
When you come out of the “real” Underdark later on in the game Elhan and his sages will have a lot more questions for you and the new Drow that are now in your party, and if the wrong things are said, Elhan and his men will attack.
Obviously, if Drizzt joins your party, then you won’t be running into him and his friends after you leave the Underdark, he WILL call on a few of his friends to help fight Bohdi for the last time though, so that won’t change much.
There will be a few custom items that you will get from Matron Baenre, and a few other custom items that Drizzt and Vierna will have that only they can use.
Oh, and the new entrance to the Underdark. Since this mod will make changes to Brynnlaw, it might not be compatible with Ghrey’s mod, Blades of Brynnlaw, although, if RtM is installed after BoB it should work fine. I will have to see how much BoB changes the game.

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Ok...so that's it. I realize that there are inconsistencies, a few things need to be changed, and there are a few spelling/grammar problems, but this is the untouched version that I wrote so long ago.

Feel free to discuss.