Introduction

The Adventurer’s Journal is your guide to the Pool of Radiance Remastered. It is also your character's diary and contains useful information which your character has gathered about Phlan. As such, your journal will grow with each new adventure that your character experiences, and every new chapter of Pool of Radiance Remastered that you play.

It is worth keeping in mind that, as with the journal from the original Pool of Radiance (1988), not every piece of information is true. Of course, some of this is due to the very nature of rumours. But sometimes your character will hear and record lies only to discover their actual veracity later. The task of sorting falsehood from heartspoken truth will fall to you and your character.

Installation Guide

To play the Pool of Radience Remastered open the PORR1xx.rar archive and extract the *. file to your /My Documents/Neverwinternights 2/modules directory. The *.bik files should be extracted to the My Documents/Neverwinternights 2/movies directory. After you have done this you can begin playing Pool of Radiance Remastered by selecting New Module from the main menu. Make sure to have the latest version of Neverwinternights 2 installed before starting a game.

Known Issues

Sleeping opponents sometimes remain standing even after their death. (Currently, we can not correct for this and suspect it may be a bug specific to NWN2.)

Movie handling is broken with NWN2 version 1.03. so we had to remove intro and endgame movie triggers. We will update this module as soon as movie handling works correctly without stalling the game. Please check our site at www.schlegels.de for more information about this issue.

- 1 - Character Selection and Roleplaying Background

Although, the Pool of Radiance Remastered has no restrictions as regards character race, players are advised to consider the story's setting before making their selection. The traditional races of human, , half-elf, dwarf, gnome and all provide excellent roleplay opportunities. Whereas, drow, duergar, half-orcs and tieflings are deeply mistrusted at best by the residents of Phlan. Such races are not supported.

The intent of Pool of Radiance Remastered is to adhere closely to the feel and the setting of the original Pool of Radiance. The storyline is such that your character is a force for good and destined to become one of Phlan's greatest heroes, if not its greatest. Their name will be spoken off fondly and with reference in the future. (Naturally, whether your character achieves their destiny depends on your choices.) This means that a character outliving an evil-alignment will neither flourish nor prosper. Using one of the best game engines available, we have given a classic game a more modern feel. However, allowing for evil player characters would represent a fundamental shift from the original version and would not be worthy of the name.

We hope you like what we have done.

- 2 - Journal Entry 1

The harbor district of Melvaunt wouldn't have been the first place where I would have expected to find a bookshop, let alone a good one. It was hidden in a shadowed back alley, away from the path beaten by drunken sailors between many taverns. It was there that I found a drawing of Phlan in its heyday. True to Melvaunt, the owner was charging a small fortune but I’m sure other adventurers would have paid even more than me.

- 3 - Journal Entry 2

They sold maps of the civilized parts of Phlan at the harbor. It’s pretty clear that this is just a cheap trick to make good coin with useless paper but who knows?

- 4 - Journal Entry 3

My bag was on my shoulder and my feet were almost on the path that would finally take me away when Tymora played her hand. I met an old man who looked cold and hungry. Melvaunt is a cruel city with many starving people, but this guy had something at him that touched my heart. Although my purse is not heavy I bought the fellow a warm and hearty meal and shared a flagon of ale. It was fortunate that I did because he started a tale of his hometown - Phlan. It turned out he was a scholar and possessed a collection of old papers and books at his lodgings. He invited me to look at them as a reward for my kindness them and offered to copy anything I like. Amongst poems, old heraldries and older tax records I found two articles that will help me in the next few weeks. I’ve added them as the following pages of this journal.

- 5 - Geography of the Moonsea Reaches

(An excerpt from Faerun – A geographical overview by Calimbal of Waterdeep)

To most inhabitants of the lands of the Inner Sea, the Moonsea and its cities represent the border between civilization and barbarism. To one side of it lies the mountains of Vaasa and to the other the Nomad Steppes. The Moonsea protects the civilized lands of Cormyr, Sembia and the other southern territories from the savage incursions of fierce Northerners who range. from immense cold and unforgiving wastes. And even on the occasions when the southern kingdoms find themselves threatened by orcs, dragons or other such fell creatures they take comfort in the fact that it’s worse around the Moonsea.

The Moonsea Reaches are defined as being those lands bordering onto the Moonsea itself and lying around its major contributory rivers. The Tesh flows past the blackened and bloodied battlements of Zhentil Keep; the Wyrmflow, a cold stream flows from the east; the Duathamper, or the Elvenflow, begins deep in the heart of the Elven Court and flows north; and the Barren River flows south, out of the Dragonspine Mountains and emptying into the Moonsea at Phlan. All of these waters are carried by the Lis to the Inner Sea.

The Moonsea is an odd combination of abyssally deep troughs, ship-ripping shoals and rich freshwater reefs and is also the main means of trade and transport for the people; with travel across its chill waters generally being much safer than making a journey by land. Safer does not mean that the Moonsea is not dangerous. Those monsters that call it home are more powerful than their land-bound cousins. Numerous ghost ships have been sighted leading to several regions being marked as haunted on most maps.

C.B.

The Rebirth of Phlan

(An essay by Duncan, the Sage)

The destruction of Phlan in the Year of Thunder should have been the end of its history. But this was not the first time it had been destroyed and some remembered and took heart from the tales of Valjevo. Whereas others took their counsel from forbidden powers; adventurers, smugglers and traders brought back tales of Phlan under the control of cruel masters. Although many buildings were burnt others had been spared. What was once Tyr’s temple was now dedicated to some darker, more sinister god and Zhent spies and agents of evil Vasaan nobles met and planned there.

- 6 - But in time, more modest men, inurred to such stories, returned to Phlan and built a stockaded community. They intended to take advanatge of the fact that Phlan occupies a prime trading position on the Moonsea. However, before Phlan could begin to regain some of her former glories the bulk of the old city, which lay beyond the stockade’s walls needed clearing, the Barren River needed cleaning and the influence of the competing city states of Moonsea needed removing.

Two years ago, in the Year of the Worm, a couple of things happened that changed New Phlan’s future. The first was the Flight of the Dragons that surged through the northern regions of the lands of the Inner Sea, destroying all in their path. Many of the Moonsea and Daletowns suffered massive damage in the battles that followed. Yulash was annihilated and suffered greatly when the body of an ancient dragon fell into its harbour, blocking the entrance and more importantly trade for over a month.

Phlan was also affected by this airborne menace but not negatively. Instead the violence of the dragons worked in the favour of New Phlan since nearly all of the damage occured in the older, ruined section of the city, which was home to various evil warlords. The Flight broke the power of these warlords and finally, the honest men of Phlan had a chance to emerge from their shadows.

The second thing that happened was the refounding of the Council of Phlan. Descendants of the former council had survived the turmoil of the Year of Thunder and several wished to return to the land that their forebears had called home. These leaders were not great mages or mighty fighters. Rather they were traders, merchants and clerics. Today their leaders count amongst their number the shrewd and successful trader Ulrich Eberhard; the retired mercenary captain, Werner Von Urslingen; Braccio, bishop of Tyr and young Porphyrys of the ancient house Cardorna. The council of New Phlan has formulated a plan which is a replica of that formulated by Valjevo - the old city will be cleared by recruited adventurers.

The old city holds the lure of great treasure, which will be ample reward for men who are willing to risk life and limb. To achieve this goal, the Council has published notices and paid travelling bards to make sure that the story of Old Phlan’s waiting riches is spread around Moonsea and beyond.

It is a good strategy and it appears to be working well for Phlan. However, whether this is the birth of a new Moonsea power remains to be seen.

C.B.

This is all I could find about Phlan so far. My bags are packed and my ship is waiting. Adventure, I’m coming!

- 7 - Contributing members of the Pool of Radiance team were:

Markus ‘Wayne’ Schlegel: idea, storyboard, concept, lead design, project management, area building, scripting, artwork

Thomas Schultze (Toxicwave): community management, story design, editing, testing

Denis Douette (Hoar): area building, scripting

Jasna Rajic: story design, editing, testing

Patrick Smith (Kiaransalyn): editing

Snerft: movies

Iain Douglas: Voice Acting

Special thanks to:

Walker Schlundt, Isaak Everett, David Godwin, Panajotis “Omadon“ Oikonomou, Carsten Schöps (Agrafes) and Maximus of NWVault.

Pool of Radiance Remastered is based on the Pool of Radiance computer game by SSI (1988), the Pool of Radiance novel and the AD&D campaign set "Ruins of Adventure". All rights of the fantasy background are owned by Wizards of The Coast and their contractors.

All artworks of Phlan and its surroundings were created by Markus "Wayne" Schlegel. The Pool of Radiance cover was created by Rico Holmes. Some of the pictures used in the movies were taken from printed sourcebooks of Wizards of the Coast.

This module is no stand-alone product. It was made with the Neverwinternights 2 Toolset and requires this computer game for playing.

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