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Public discussion of the extensive development of new levels in the Ruins of Undermountain.

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Halaster Blackcloak
Lord of Undermountain
Lord of Undermountain
Posts: 3945
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:47 am
Location: Undermountain
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Post by Halaster Blackcloak »

Well, here's some good news!

First, a background bit. In the original Ruins of Undermountain box set they described Halaster's seven original apprentices, referred to as "The Seven". The original box set detailed three of them - Arcturia, Trobriand, and Muiral. Mention was also made of a fourth one, Jessiyra Kestellharp, who left Undermountain and later went on to become the Magister (she is now dead). That left 3 other apprentices unaccounted for. I decided to detail them in Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels. Or at least some of them.

I developed one of them, and that apprentice turned out to be an unusual one, different from the rest. And that's all I'm saying about that apprentice other than to say that even though the original box set described Trobriand as Halaster's most powerful apprentice, that is not quite true. This newly revealed apprentice is indeed more powerful. I decided that even though we are staying extremely faithful to the original box set, we were going to take a few small liberties with the material. After all, who is to say that the information out there is necessarily 100% correct? As Elminster says in the gray box set (paraphrased, too lazy to look it up) - "On my honor as a sage, nothing I say here is a lie, though some of it may prove to be untrue".

Those small liberties (and there are only two I can think of off hand) can be either used or ignored without taking away from the rest of the material in our project, nor will either using or ignoring it detract from the original published material.

Anyway, I decided to also detail one of the dead apprentices. However, seeing as how that apprentice died on Level 2, there was no way to write that apprentice (notice how I am avoiding all mention of "he", "she", or "it"? when mentioning the newly revealed apprentices? :twisted: ) into the current project, as we are dealing with Level 7, Level 8, and a sub-level below Level 8. I really liked the idea I had for this apprentice, and the apprentice as a character (NPC). I thought I would have to leave this one out, but I just had a brainstorm and came up with an actual workable way to incorporate the apprentice while also enhancing the story behind the details. I am very happy about that!

As for the final dead apprentice, I have come up with a tentative idea of who it was. However, the fate of that apprentice really cannot be worked into this release, except perhaps as a historical almanac style background write up.

So...back to writing! Two more rooms done tonight, and hopefully 1 or 2 more before bed! :D
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