[mainline] The North Remembers

[max_torch]

Well Ravanal seems to do cowardly things like entering a duel with Dacyn with him (Ravanal) having a means of escape whilst knowing that should his opponent fall his opponent wouldnt have teleport. And yes there is that incident in the Duel scenario. And also the twisted game that he is allowing his lieutenants to play in the Mal-Ravanal's Capital scenario.. it is like the sickness in the head of his subordinates are a reflection of their ultimate influence, Mal-Ravanal. And also like Loki the trickster God, in the scenario Weldyn Besieged he employs deception tactics such as having all the liches look exactly like him.. So he can have this evil, crafty, deceptive, detestable schemes and character. He is always using unorthodox or innovative tactics that unsettle his opponents.

[santi]

I remember discussing the EI maps very long time ago. However, HttT is irrelevant to this matter because EI happens LONG after HttT. This leaves room for additional exciting stories/campaigns to explain the new borders and faction locations
P.S. Given past experience, please try not to use terms from other, copyrighted, material in Wesnoth or other open source projects

[Whiskeyjack]

@santi: Never worry, I would never even consider something like that.

@Zookeeper and possible lurkers: Just wanted to drop a quick note that I am still working on this (since I am already a week late) but that I found way less time and working in English takes me even longer than expected. I can not say for sure, when I will be finished, probably when I next find a big chunk of time to get some work done...

[pyndragon]

Dead Water
Only a minor quibble on this one since the campaign itself is rather well written (and fits into canon far better than EI): Why are there necromancers and liches northwest of the Heart Mountains trying to raise undead minions while Mal Ravanal is playing all out war on Wesnoth? And how did they get there? The only good reason I came up with was that Mal Ravanal was not sending his people to specifically only the Mermen but that he was also attacking the whole north and that getting swimming undead was only part of the plan. The only problem this poses is that it would set Lintanir and the NA to fight Ravanal as well, furthering the problems with Gweddry & Co. travelling through the northlands without seeing anything of this, but at this point I´m almost willing to declare non-canon on EI because it does not fit in with the rest anyway.

Actually,

DW S2 says:

Mal-Ravanal, it seemed, was a great human wizard who had transformed himself into a lich. He had attacked the edges of the kingdom of Wesnoth, and was building a fearsome army of undead humans there. He had also sent necromancers to attack the orcs, and even the elves, in a quest for undead soldiers of different races.

[Whiskeyjack]

@pyndragon: Awesome! Seems I missed that part. This fits rather neatly, even if it could probably use a mention of the NA.

Finally, here comes my rewrite suggestion for EI:

General notes: There are quite a few points that are not set in stone or where I suggest more than one option. Because of this I have not formed dialogue lines for most new scenarios I suggest. The scrapes that I have included are not to be taken as my final versions. Once the story is set I would especially want to rewrite and –distribute the dialogue lines between Gweddry, Owaec and Dacyn to give their characters more depth and consistency (as especially Gweddrys and Owaecs meek following of Dacyns nebulous suggestions was met with criticism in the current version). Note for this the already included anger and thirst for retribution of Owaec upon discovering the fate of his homeland. I tried to insert enough foreshadowing that the story feels connected and not like a random string of events but I am happy about feedback if the amount is lacking/too heavy (from what can be seen at this point).

One additional part of dialogues would come through the NA companion/ally but since this matter is yet to be decided, I have left it open as of now.
I guess looking back at the things I put together over some weeks I suggested heavier reworking the further I got in the campaign and lost track of the storyteller-thingy so that’s something to track back for concrete writing changes.

I am not very good with naming, thus you will only find "Lieutnant" for our part-time antagonist and also no names for new leaders and units that are suggested.

Below are my suggestions for the individual scenarios. I mostly brought up suggested changes to existing scenarios or my concept(s) for replacements.

I suggested a big rewrite (including gameplay) on 4 scenarios so I guess this draft is somewhere in the middle between the small and the big rework...

Scenario 1: The Outpost

Spoiler:

Pre-scenario:

To the northern outpost he sent Owaec, a clan noble. Too the southern outpost, he sent Gweddry, who would be accompanied by Dacyn the mage. Our story begins there.

-> We sould decide if we want the “storyteller”-approach and if so, utilize it. I personally think this is fitting, but needs a little more consistency across the campaign.

Dacyn returns:

Dacyn: There is no time to explain. If you wish to survive, you will escape through this trapdoor.
Gweddry: But what about the outpost?
Dacyn: This outpost is already lost. We must defeat this evil if Wesnoth is to survive. Now, come on, we do not have much time to spare!

-> Somewhat random. Replace with:

Dacyn: There is no time to explain. If we want to survive, we have to escape through this trapdoor.
Gweddry: But what about the outpost?
Dacyn: This outpost is already lost. We have to warn the king and find a way to defeat this evil if Wesnoth is to survive. Now, come on, we do not have much time to spare!

Scenario 2: The Escape Tunnel

Spoiler:

Pre-scenario:
Add one sentence like "They descended into the darkness…" if we want to take the narrator way.
The whole cave system with trolls and dwarves setting in the escape tunnel is kind of strange but that would be a thing for the bigger rework I think.

Scenario 3: An Unexpected Appearance

Spoiler:

Intro-talk

Dacyn: We are in the middle of the eastern mountains, in a mountain pass leading east and west. We need to head north, but we cannot go through the mountains… we must go east, or west, and hope we can get around them.

-> […] We need to head north towards the second outpost, but […]

Defeating Mal-Skraat:

Mal-Skraat: No! You have defeated me and can re-enter to Wesnoth!

-> No! I have failed and the road to Wesnoth is open again.

Scenario 4a: An Elven Alliance

Spoiler:

Intro talk:

Gweddry: Would it be possible to rest in your lands for a while? […]

-> Hail, Volas, would it be possible to rest in your lands for a while? […]

The writing style of this campaigns first scenarios sounds really strange (simplistic?) to me. I´m not sure if that´s just me or if it should be considered bad. I don´t think, I could replicate it on a fitting level.

Gruga-Har appears:

Gruga-Har: Intruders!
Dacyn: What? Orcs! Where did they come from?
Volas: I know not. But they have made camp on the northern path. You will have to fight them to move on.
Gruga-Har: Bring forth the assassins, we may be able to poison them!
Nafga: Your Warlordship, I am the only assassin left! Do you want me to go and poison their leader?
Gruga-Har: Perfect! Go, into the forest!
Gweddry: They have sent an assassin into the forest. We will have to be careful, and make sure he does not come out and attack us unexpectedly.

-> Replace with something like the following (I connected these orcs to the ones in scenario 6):

Gruga-Har: Tree-huggers. They will make a fine prey before we return to the warlord.
Dacyn: What? Orcs! Where did an orcish raid come from now of all times?
Volas: I know not. But they have made camp on the northern path. You will have to fight them to move on.
Gruga-Har: Send out the assassins, it´ll be easier when we poison them!
Nafga: Raidleader, I am the only assassin left! Do you want me to go and poison their leader?
Gruga-Har: Perfect! Go, into the forest!
Gweddry: They have sent an assassin into the forest. We will have to be careful, and make sure he does not come out and attack us unexpectedly.

Scenario 4b.1: The Undead Border Patrol

Spoiler:

Intro-talk:

Dacyn: This is no ordinary Lich you hunt. Even if you manage to find him, how will you prevent him from simply teleporting away? We should head north; there is much I must learn before we confront this menace.

-> We should retreat to the northern outpost; we do not have the power to confront this menace right now.

Scenario 4b.2: Mal-Ravanal's Capital

Spoiler:

Not much to do here. Mal-Ravanal could pull a malicious quip each time one of the riders is executed if we want to go for max_torch's suggestion to make him more evil.

Scenario 5: Northern Outpost

Spoiler:

Pre-scenario:
Add a line like: Finally they reached the northern outpost.

Intro talk:

Dacyn: Indeed, they do. And do not think you will be able to defeat them. They are too powerful. We are heading for the Northlands, where we hope to find a means to stop this invasion. Will you join us?

-> Indeed, they do. And do not think you will be able to defeat them. We came to warn you about this threat, they are too powerful. We have to warn the king and find a way to stop this invasion. Will you join us?

Win dialogue:
-> If the player took route 4a, he misses a lot of information. This scenario should be used to compensate that.

Owaec: Well, both the outlaws and undead are defeated. We have some time to spare now before more undead arrive.
Dacyn: Good! Now we must move onward, north. Tell the villagers to pack their belongings and head west.

-> Replace with something like the following:

Owaec: Well both the outlaws and undead are defeated. What do we do now?
Dacyn: Send riders to warn king Konrad about the impending doom. Tell the villagers to pack their belongings and follow them west with the few soldiers we can spare to guard them. Gweddry, I propose we head north and seek help from the Northern Alliance. I fear Wesnoth alone will not have the strength to withstand this invasion.
[Route 4a:]
Gweddry: That sounds like a good idea, but do you really think one Lich is this dangerous?
Dacyn: Yes, I knew him before he forsake life. I hid at the outpost so Mal-Ravanal would not recognize me and while you fought I was able to get glimpses of the forces he has assembled. We need all the help we can get.
Gweddry: Fine, let´s head north to the Great River then.
[Route 4b:]
Gweddry: You are right, we need all the help we can get against the forces he is gathering in the Bitter Swamp. Let´s head north to the Great River.

Scenario 6: Two Paths

Spoiler:

Scenario changes:

• Campaign map: Relocate the scenario farther west so that it takes placed under the center of the Swamp of Dread (at the moment the scenario ist directly west of River Weldyn, but shows mountains on the eastern map side…).
• Switch the position of the orcish and the undead leader.
• Note the foreshadowing for Mal-Ravanals lieutenant here. I thought that the road through the Swamp of Dread would be the most reasonable for him to take if he wanted to sneak towards the Heart Mountains undetected (considering that the land between the Mountains and Lintanir is the place of an open attack…).

Intro talk:

Owaec: We´re in the land of the Clans now; I know it well. The road north leads directly to the Great River; across it lies the orcs´ home country in the Northlands. The westward road will keep us inside the realm of Wesnoth for a time, before we reach another river crossing north of Glyn´s Forest. If we travel west we will not have to fight orcs immediately.
Dacyn: We should probably go north to the orcish lands as quickly as possible. The longer we tarry in Wesnoth, the more undead we will have to face.
Owaec: The orcs are more powerful than you suspect. I doubt the few undead in Wesnoth can rival the might of the orcish homeland.
Gweddry: Either way we will have to fight. Look, the orcs and undead block our path ahead!
Mal-Arnai: Well, orc, we can either continue this fight, or we can crush the humans and battle later. How shall it be?
Wak-Rano: Hmm… I know. We will make a pact to destroy these men, and continue our fight later. (Perhaps he will die, and I will win our battle without fighting.)
Mal-Arnai: Very well, we are allies for now. (This foolish orc will surely perish.)

-> Replace with something like the following:

Owaec: We´re in the land of the Clans now; I know it well. The road north leads directly to the Great River; across it lies the Swamp of Dread. The westward road will keep us inside the realm of Wesnoth for a time, before we reach the Ford of Abez. If we travel west we will find an easier crossing and will not need to skirt the swamps.
Dacyn: If we go west, we can reach the Alliance faster. The Fort of Abez is a mayor trading point with Wesnoth. But the longer we tarry in Wesnoth, the more undead we will have to face.
Wak-Rano: That fool Gruga-Har has still not returned and these stupid undead block our path home. I´m the unluckiest warlord our clan ever had.
Mal-Arnai: Well, orc, I do not have time for this silly fighting, my master has already crossed. Shall we lay aside our battle for now and crush the humans together?
Wak-Rano: Hmm… I know. We will make a pact to destroy these men, and continue our fight later. (Perhaps he will die, and I will win our battle without fighting.)
Mal-Arnai: Very well, we are allies for now. (This foolish orc will surely perish.)
Gweddry: I really cannot believe the fact that these orcs are raiding Wesnoth now of all times. Regardless of the way we take, we will have to defeat one of these two to break through.

Wak-Rano dies:

Wak-Rano: Arrgh! I have failed to defend the northern homeland!

-> Arrgh! I will never see the northern plains again!

Scenario 7a: The Crossing

Spoiler:

Scenario changes:

• Campaign map: take the route more directly north.
• Replace Garnad (the undead leader) with Wak-Rano (Anm.: The fact that the orcs are faster than undead should not affect this, as this scenario is not winable without leaving units behind to slow down the enemy.)
• Restructure the northern end of the map to fit a swamp (note: this scenario takes places directly under the swamps even in the current version).
• Replace Draka-Kura with Garnad and place the Lieutenant (should be a level 3 or 4 lich) next to him.
• Replace the ogres with saurians
• I think the undead appearing at turn 8 can be kept (as the first enemy normally should be defeated at this point anyway), but should spawn their own castle a little farther east. This could also help with the issue that you can intercept and kill the lich without him ever reaching recruiting grounds.
• Objectives should include crossing and killing Garnad.

Intro talk:

Gweddry: We have come to the Great River. Should we cross here, or try to find a ford?
Dacyn: We must cross here. The undead are chasing us, and their hordes are much too great for us to defeat. Reinforcements for the undead will arrive soon. We must be across the river before that happens.
Owaec: Across this river lies the Northlands. If we can get there, we may be able to get some ogres to help us – but the orcs will definitely attack us before that happens.
Grug: Grug say we no help you! We finish must battle orc with!
Draka-Kura: Was that comprehensible to anyone? Silence, foolish ogre. I will deal with you later. Right now there are men trying to cross this river.
Grug: Orc foolish! Die you now!
Dacyn: If we show ourselves as enemies of the orcs, they may aid us. But first we need to cross the river.

-> Replace with something like the following:

Gweddry: We have come to the Great River. But look, there are undead on the other side marching into the swamps. Should we cross here, or try to find a ford farther west?
Dacyn: We must cross here. The undead invading from the east will soon reach us and we would couldn´t stand our ground.
Wak-Rano (moving into the camp behind them): Harr, boys now only those humans stand between us and return to our homeland. Let´s crush them and take their gold and weapons as trophies with us.
Lieutenant: I have more important matters ahead of me. Garnad, clean up this rabble and follow me afterwards. (leaves the map into the northern swamps)
Saurian Leader: You will not sssslay the young onesss, foul apparition.

Upon victory:

Dacyn: Good! We have crossed. Now let´s see if we can get the ogres to join us. They have been convinced to work for the Crown in the past; maybe it can be done again.
Grug: Grug say join you will he.

-> Dacyn: Good! Our forces have crossed and we have beaten the undead. Now we should hurry east and try to convince the Northern Alliance to help us.

Scenario 7b: Undead Crossing -> Fort/Ford of Abez

Spoiler:

Completely overwrite with new scenario Fort/Ford of Abez (whichever is liked better).

The setting:
Undead units travelled across the river bottom to start a surprise ambush on the Ford of Abez to hinder communication between NA and Wesnoth. The Wesnothian town is completely burned but the fight at the Fort (the fortification on Alliance side) is still ongoing.
Campaign map: Set the scenario one river bend farther west at the Ford of Abez.

Pre-scenario dialogue:
After defeating the orcs they travelled west towards the trading towns at the Ford of Abez. But as they neared the ford they saw a black column of smoke on the horizon...

Gameplay:
I have two/three options in mind: One is that the undead could be spawning in the deep water of the river without having a leader and the win conditions would be to cross only, after which the NA forces retreat north together with the heroes. The other is that the undead leader is situated either in the destroyed Wesnothian town or before the Fort on the northern bank and has to be defeated to win the scenario.
Dialogue: Would depend on the gameplay picked. It would explain the above mentioned setting, some conversation with the NA leader and perhaps a few lines by an undead about the scale at which Wesnoth is f***** because Ravanal not only invades and cuts them off from all allies but also sent one of his lieutenants to raise an army that can attack from the sea (-> Dead Water reference).

Scenario 8: Capturing the Ogres -> The Northern Alliance

Spoiler:

I am still considering if the original scenario should be included later (which would easily be possible as it is a filler scenario story wise and could be situated before/after the new scenario 9). I always felt like the ogres where pretty useless and unnecessary. I only used them in 11: Captured as a meat shield against the spawning level 3s.

At this point I would set a short talk only scenario with either the highest ranking person at Dwarven Doors or the Lord Protector himself. (This does not necessarily have to happen at DD, it could be somewhere on the road east as they meet parts of the assembling NA forces).
The talk should include: 1) The NA forces mustering to face the undead gathering in the east; 2) the resulting inability to provide help in a short time. 3) Talk about how Ravanal can be beaten; 4) and the mention of the deeds and knowledge of Father Morvin and Sister Thera and their retirement into the Heart Mountains. 5) A gryphon arriving and reporting an undead army that exited the Swamp of Dread and is now marching through the mountains towards the Arkan-thoria. 6) The decision to cross through the Knalgan tunnels as a shortcut to confront that army and search for Morvin and Thera afterwards. Could include the deployment of some NA troops who accompany the player as allies (or something like 3 units (one of them loyal and auto recall to replace the ogre from 7a) the player receives). 7) A warning that in the northwestern Heart Mountains a big group of orcs and trolls that have deserted the NA/never where part of it have taken over the local cave systems and are threatening the borders of NA territory around the Arkan-thoria. I have included this for 3 reasons:
First it is quite hard to include enemies in this campaign that are not undead (considering the setting and battlefields). Second I think Captured is a fun scenario and should not be cut. Third the capturing itself was very random. A little foreshadowing can not hurt…

Scenario 9: Xenophobia -> Race Against Time/Ravanal's Lieutenant

Spoiler:

As I have described in my first post I think the current scenario needs to be gone.
For its replacement I had two ideas.

Setting:
After travelling through the Knalgan tunnels and crossing the Arkan-thoria, Gweddry & Co. meet the Lieutenant. They are situated in the southwest corner, the undead in the southeast. They trashtalk with the Lieutenant and he drops a hint about his objective (incapacitating Thera and Morvin) which Dacyn connects to his knowledge about Ravanal being from the north to realize the Lieutenants target.

Gameplay:
Option a)
I would love to have a true race here with both adversaries trying to reach the northern edge of the map while the wilderness in between is inhabited by some of the following: gryphons, ogres, trolls, wolves. Furthermore I would like to have the player not lose upon the undead reaching the northern edge but instead just get a handicap in the next scenario.
I do however lack the knowledge about the possibilities (especially for AI behavior) in WML to make this work so as to stay a challenge and be fun to play. I thought about something like the Lieutenant just moving north on a certain route and dropping undead bosses on small castles to slow down the player. The terrain would have to be arranged in such a way as to force the player to send riders for engaging and thus slowing down the Lieutenant to even get the chance of reaching the edge first. Winning this scenario should be really difficult (as it would make the following scenario considerably easier).

Option b)
Because of the above mentioned problems and the possibility to do some stronger story building here, I tend towards this second version (which is also easier on the balancing part):
This version somewhat resembles the original scenario: The player and the Lieutenant meet and get ready for battle, when some Drakes show up and claim that this land is their territory and they will destroy anyone trespassing on it (can of course also include orcs/trolls/gryphons or similar if one wants a forth faction).
Killing the Lieutenant will result in something like the following lines:

Lieutenant: Ha! You think you can slay me this easily? I have learned from Mal-Ravanal himself. Your weapons can not harm me anymore and you have no power to restrain me! (Revives and teleports to the northern edge of the map.)
It is high time that I bring my true task to an end. (Leaves the map.)

I think this is important because if the player did not go very ham and tried to reach Ravanals capital (and even tried to kill him) he will be missing important information about what it is we are fighting (and why we need help of the special sort).

Scenario 10: Lake Vrug -> Haven of Sages (or anything else fitting the scenario, I am not really convinced by this title myself)

Spoiler:

Lake Vrug was (from what I gather from the feedback thread) one of the most hated scenarios of mainline Wesnoth. Shroud, bad terrain and enemies that could attack from two turns of fog away. With different enemies and a better playable terrain (by which I mean less ice and mountains and also less roads) I think the search style of this scenario can easily be conserved with the story I proposed while being a lot less frustrating for most players.

Gameplay:
The version I currently have in mind has the mages hidden in a village (might be placed or picked form existing villages at random) and the Lieutenant somewhere out of sight of the player who starts at the southern border (if option a) is taken for scenario 9 and the player won I would disable the shroud and swap the position of undead and player). The objective is to find the mages. The moment a unit (of either side) captures the village, Morvin and Thera are spawned and the objective swaps to killing the Lieutenant. (If the Lieutenant is slain before this he just revives again.) Upon killing him with any unit Morvin and Thera teleport to him and stop his escape and revival. Gweddry asks them if they want to help them but they decline. They do however agree to teach Dacyn the way to counter the Lich and his spells (I went this route because I thought getting two immortal white mages as retainers would be too powerfull).

Scenario 11: Captured

Spoiler:

Map:
This should be positioned farther west in the mountains from scenario 10.

Pre-scenario dialogue:

After reaching what they believed was safety, Gweddry and his men had been captured by northern orcs.
Gweddry, Dacyn and Owaec were promptly taken before the orcish king, Dra-Nak, while the rest were thrown into the orcish prisons to await their turn…

-> Replace with something like the following:

But they tarried too long in the northlands while the two sages taught Dacyn counterspells against the Lich-powers and teleport abilities. Orcish scouts had spotted them and after a good days march they were surrounded at dusk by a great host and imprisoned in the orcs base of operations.
Gweddry, Dacyn and Owaec were promptly taken before the orcish king, Dra-Nak, while the rest were thrown into the orcish prisons to await their turn…

Scenario 12: Evacuation

Spoiler:

Map:
South of Captured, east of Lake Vrug.

I have no skill with accents whatsoever (not even in German) and thus I am not really sure but is the way the Engineer talks truly a valid one? It looks very random to me. There becomes dere and one sentence later its theah. Anyway, if this is wanted, no problem, but I won´t be able to provide that…

Intro talk:

Dacyn: We have to get out of the Northlands as quickly as possible! Run for your – what the …?! Who are you?
Engineer: I´m an enginea´. I s´pect you´ll have a need of me services. I bet you´re gonna want me to blow up that bridge ov´r theah.
Owaec: Why would we want to do that?!
Engineer: Well, I see those orcs are chasin´ you, and if I blow up the bridge, they can´t get across. It´ll help you to escape.
Dacyn: I see… I think it is a good idea to hire him. How much?
Engineer: I ain´t charging gold – I wants protectshun! Everywhere I go, I see orcs, undead. ´T´ain´t safe ´round ére!
Gweddry: Very well, we´ll protect you from the undead. But we can´t help you until we get off this island. Now let´s go!
Engineer: Deal. I c´n blow´er up once I get to that signpost ov´r dere. That´s where my eq´pment is. But ev´ryone not ov´r theah on that side when it blows w´ll be killed by the orcs fa´ sure!

Replace with something like the following:

Dacyn: We have to get away from these orcs and reach Knalga as quickly as possible. Run for your – what the …?! Who are you?
Engineer: Engineer of the Northern Alliance, at your service. I´ve been tasked to blow up this bridge over the Arkan-thoria as this trading route is not used anymore and we hope to stall the orcs here until our forces are finished with the undead in the west and can take care of this little problem.
Owaec: That sounds like a good plan.
Gweddry: And good luck for us that we managed to reach you before you blew the bridge up.
Engineer: Well, would´ve been difficult anyway, with all the orcs around us and all that. Can you cover me while I get to my equipment at the signpost over there?
Gweddry: Alright we will do so.
Dacyn: But make sure to evacuate our troops first, anyone left on this side will be free sport for the orcs.

Upon winning:

Gweddry: Good, we have escaped from the orcs. Now we must return to Wesnoth.
Owaec: How do you propose to do that?
Dacyn: We head south. My research revealed that the dragon Krahkrahs is in possession of a Null Stone; with it I will be able to block Mal-Ravanal´s teleportation. Once we have retrieved the stone, we must travel to Weldyn. Our experience fighting the undead will prove invaluable in the defense of our homeland. Also, I have advice to give the king: I know Mal-Ravanal´s weakness.
Gweddry: Very well, we will head south. Let us hope we reach Weldyn before Mal-Ravanal.
Engineer: I´ll be followin´ yah from now on. Hope yah can get to Weld´n an´ all so I c´n stop runnin´…

Replace with something like the following:

Gweddry: Finally we have escaped. We must make haste to reach Wesnoth, even with the heavy losses we took our experience in fighting the undead should prove invaluable in the defense of our homeland.
Owaec: Let´s hope that Weldyn still stands.
Dacyn: It must! I have learned much from the Sages and if we do not stop Mal-Ravanal, no one can. I dare not imagine we could be too late.
Engineer: I will accompany you till Dwarven Doors and see if I am needed in the eastern campaign. Otherwise I may follow you to Weldyn.

Scenario 13: The Drowned Plains

Spoiler:

Map:
Move the route through Knalga and the Ford of Abez.

Gameplay:
As far as my experience and the feedback in the scenario thread goes, the scenario itself is quite fun, but the movement of the dragon is rather erratic and the search for him can be unnerving because of this. I am not sure what the best solution is and this is again one of the problems where I do not know about the possibilities of AI behaviour. One possibility I can think of is to have the dragon attack the player (in this version he is a rampaging beast, not my Null Stone prey…) in a hit and run style (retreating once he took more than 30% damage or something. This could be coupled with either something between regenerating and a full heal (if he manages to leave the players sight) or a raise on his arcane resistance to compensate for the higher risk in his behavior.

Pre-scenario:
After they escaped the orcs they the tunnels and roads of the Northern Alliance ensured a swift return to Wesnoth. Barely on the other riverbank, they were met with bitter tidings from the few surviving farmers and villagers,found hidden in woods and caves. No riders from the capital had come to warn them of the impending doom that befell them.
Mal-Ravanal had laid waste to the land and few had survived his onslaught. Some reported that his army had already reached the sea and crushed all of Wesnoth, others said it had been halted by the king’s troops in the hills northeast of Weldyn. Even direr were the news that a new obstacle lay on their path: the Horse Plains had been flooded and defiled and the villagers rumored that an undead dragon had rampaged through the Horse Lords settlements.

Intro talk:

Owaec: Now, we have reached the Horse Plains, the fair homeland of my people. They may be able to help us find- What?! Swamps?! Those undead have destroyed the grasslands of my House, and they shall pay for it!
Dacyn: The lich-lord must have flooded the valley. The undead like the swamp. It is death, decay, everything that they are themselves. I can sense them lurking in the swamps, waiting to ambush us.
Engineer: I s´ppose we´ll hav´ to wade across it anyway… ugh.
Krahkrahs: Findshhhh… slayhhhhh... Killhhhhh…
Gweddry: What was that?!
Dacyn: That was the dragon Krahkrahs. He was a powerful beast indeed in the time of Haldric, living in the Northern Mountains. But he radiates a dark power these days, and I know not why he has taken up residence this far south. We must find him, and pray that he still has the Null Stone.

-> Replace with something like the following:

Owaec: What have they done to the beautiful grassland of my people?! The rolling hills and plains from horizon to horizon... turned into this… ugly swamp.
Dacyn: Gather your wits Owaec, now is not the time to mourn. They will pay for their deeds but right now we need to reach what is left of Weldyn before Wesnoth is completely overrun.
Krahkrahs: Ssohhhh… you haveshh comehhhh… to shhplayhh withhhh mehhh!?
Gweddry: What was that?!
Dacyn: I fear that was the dragon the villagers warned us about. We will have to take him down before we continue our journey. Such a foe is too dangerous to have at our back.
Owaec: Let him taste my ire!

Spotting Krahkrahs:

Dacyn: Ah! It appears that the mighty Krahkrahs is no longer among the living. But this undead abomination does not appear weak to my arcane powers… he must still have the Null Stone!

Replace with:

Dacyn: Ah! I believe this abomination might be Krahkrahs, a dragon known from Haldrics time. Mal-Ravanal has truly dove deep into the dark arts if he is able to raise such mighty beasts. But the apparition is not solely controlled by his spell; some of the dragons own magic must remain as he appears not to share the undeads usual weakness against my arcane power.
Owaec: Spare the details for later, Dacyn, let´s hunt that monster down!

Upon killing Krahkrahs:

Dacyn: The Null Stone! With it we may finally defeat Mal-Ravanal!

-> Replace with:

Gweddry: We did it! I can´t believe we just defeated a dragon out of legends!
Owaec: No time to celebrate, we need to reach the king´s defenses. My revenge will only be completed when I stand over the Lichs broken bones.

Scenario 14: Approaching Weldyn

Spoiler:

Nothing to see here.

Scenario 15: The Council

Spoiler:

Pre-scenario dialogue:

[…] A mage from the east named Ravan, and myself. […]

-> A mage from the north named Ravan, and myself.

[…] He went deep into conversation with the spirits of darkness, […]

-> In his lust for power and success he went deep into conversation with the spirits of darkness,

[…] As he lie there mortally wounded I prepared to excise the darkness in his soul.

-> As he lay there, mortally wounded, I prepared to excise the darkness in his soul.

Scenario dialogue:
This is one of the dialogues that will need finer tuning to stay in line with the other changes to the campaign, once final choices for those scenarios are made.

Scenario 16: Weldyn Under Attack

Spoiler:

Nothing to see here.

Scenario 17a: The Duell

Spoiler:

This scenario is picked for two reasons: You do not like the big battle (or don´t have the troops for it anymore) or you expect a Duell between two lifelong rivals to include some good story and/or trash talking. The latter option is sorely lacking. A few lines should not hurt at this point and of course the Null Stone reference must be removed.
If Mal-Ravanals evil nature is to be embraced more, his cheating needs to get some more lines too.

For both scenarios:
Things like the lines when striking Ravanal and stuff like that should be adapted to the new version (especially Owaec).

Scenario 17b: Weldyn besieged

Spoiler:

The intro could use some more dialogue to make the disguising spell more understandable and obviously the sentence about the Null Stone must be rewritten.
I also think a few lines upon hitting the first lich (and perhaps even subsequent ones) from the party would not hurt.

Scenario 18: Epilogue

Spoiler:

This scenario needs some adjusted lines for the engineer, possibly the NA companion and the removed ogre. Depending on the way the characters are built a little bit of closure on their personal quests would also be nice (Dacyn and his nemesis, Owaec and the horselands (if that little revenge tale is picked up); Gweddry seems fine to me).

Edit: After I posted this and shut down my PC I realized two mistakes I had made: First I noted down what came to mind for every scenario and thus this is probably not in a very good shape for getting an overview since the contents for the scenarios stem from different parts of the developement process. Sorry for that.
Second I only omitted to, but never clearly stated the following: I would like to give some more depth to the main characters and thus allow them some developement. For this I had in mind having Gweddry transition from the trustfull follower of Dacyn´s advice to a seasoned commander. Owaec as a dutifull soldier who goes north with them, but struggles with the fact that he could have stayed to defend his homeland (and the following vengeance quest upon their return). Dacyn is older and should not get such drastic changes over the course of the campaign but I´d like to embrace in the latter scenarios his doubt and self-reproach about not having stopped Ravan when he could.

[zookeeper]

I can't seem to manage to write the long-form reply I've been meaning to, so I'll be brief:

Sounds good in general. Unsurprisingly, the tricky part is scenarios 8-10. I wish we could get rid of the whole teleportation blocking subplot, but aside from the NA, it still seems like the only possible justification for the northern detour. Getting help from the NA can't alone explain them ending up at Lake Vrug, either. But assuming that Evacuation could be changed to happen somewhere a bit more south, I wonder if the plot could be re-arranged a bit like this:

1. Try to find the NA at Dwarven Doors (or similar location).
2. Get captured by orcs.
3. Escape orcs, blow up bridge.
4. Find NA, get help.
5. Head back to Wesnoth.

That way you could do away with the whole teleport subplot (which is a retcon and ultimately unnecessary) and avoid having to go as far as Lake Vrug. Of course, since finding the NA would be the whole point, there would need to be some kind of payoff for that in the form of getting them to actually help you. Breaking the siege of Weldyn or otherwise clearing the path would seem like logical choices.

Extra wild idea for point 3: rewrite Evacuation to happen underground and have the player escape through the Dwarven Doors, and instead of blowing up a bridge, have them close and bar the doors behind them so the orcs can't follow. Once outside, immediately run into some NA folks camped outside.

One thing I think wouldn't work that well is setting up Captured in the story screen only. Even if the current way of just spawning enemies in the end of the previous scenario is very awkward, it's still a kind of concrete setup where you can see what happened. It'd be very weird to have the capturing of everyone happen entirely off-screen, when you just finished the previous scenario in complete safety.

[Whiskeyjack]

Extra wild idea for point 3: rewrite Evacuation to happen underground and have the player escape through the Dwarven Doors, and instead of blowing up a bridge, have them close and bar the doors behind them so the orcs can't follow. Once outside, immediately run into some NA folks camped outside.

One thing I think wouldn't work that well is setting up Captured in the story screen only. Even if the current way of just spawning enemies in the end of the previous scenario is very awkward, it's still a kind of concrete setup where you can see what happened. It'd be very weird to have the capturing of everyone happen entirely off-screen, when you just finished the previous scenario in complete safety.

I like the idea for Evacuation, that could be a cool way to do this and the current scenario is kinda... lacking in a sense.

I saw the problem with Captured as well but couldn´t think of a good way to include a visual capturing. One could have the capturing take place in the Knalgan caves: An orc lord is actually allied with the necromancers and tried to overtake Knalga while most of the troops marched west. (But that would still need a reason why they are in the caves and not with the NA)

I see a couple problems with the rest of your ideas: First we need a reason that Mal-Ravanal can´t be killed in Scenario 4c. Teleport is easy and unproblematic here. That does not mean we have to take it for the northern plotline, but I don´t think we have a good way to get rid of it completely.

Second your setting for the NA search. From the story told in NR/THoT as well as the strength of the NA at the times of SotBE we have to assume that the whole lands north of Wesnoth are firmly in the hands of the NA. Everything specified in the timeline underlines this as well (building a tradenetwork, new cities, and so forth). The final nail in the coffin in my opinion is that the timelines specifies that a lot of people flee after the desaster and seek refuge with the NA. That would not have happened if the lands north of the Great River are under the control of hostile orcs.

My biggest problem with this rewrite (and the reason I sticked pretty close to the existing storyline) was that it is very hard to a) find non-undead enemies at this time and b) a location they can reasonably fought at.
With my version they travel too far (if not as far as Lake Vrug) north and are probably too long under way even if we assume that Mal-Ravanal is slowed heavily by the Wesnothian defences. But I just can not imagine a good setting how they should meet enough enemies south of the Heart Mountains for several scenarios storyline.

It should of corse be no problem to shorten the northern scenario line but honestly, except for Saurians in the Swamps of Dread and a couple undead trying to cut off Wesnoth from the NA I find it very unplausible to have strong enemy forces in the heartlands of the Alliance. And every travel farther north sets the clock of the invasion ticking again...

Completely changing the timeline so that the NA is smaller and less powerfull would be difficult as well because that would not sit well with SotBE.

Just throwing my thoughts on this around here, I will try to think up a better solution.

[zookeeper]

I see a couple problems with the rest of your ideas: First we need a reason that Mal-Ravanal can´t be killed in Scenario 4c. Teleport is easy and unproblematic here. That does not mean we have to take it for the northern plotline, but I don´t think we have a good way to get rid of it completely.

I don't think that's really a problem. He's on his own turf and can have pretty much any kind of special magical defenses which make him unkillable there. If attacked or damaged heavily, he can retreat a little bit and collapse the ground around him into chasms and make himself untouchable, or he can simply have too tough guards, or otherwise nullify attempts to hit him. After all, he's an exceptionally powerful lich in his own little castle which he might have been magically fortifying for decades, so he can conceivably be practically untouchable there without special methods the kind of which even Dacyn can't just come up with on the spot.

Second your setting for the NA search. From the story told in NR/THoT as well as the strength of the NA at the times of SotBE we have to assume that the whole lands north of Wesnoth are firmly in the hands of the NA. Everything specified in the timeline underlines this as well (building a tradenetwork, new cities, and so forth). The final nail in the coffin in my opinion is that the timelines specifies that a lot of people flee after the desaster and seek refuge with the NA. That would not have happened if the lands north of the Great River are under the control of hostile orcs.

Yeah, I'm not very versed in the timelines of that era or NR/THoT in general, so that might be a pretty big inconsistency. Still, the Northlands are really big, mostly mountainous and relatively sparsely populated, so I've always assumed NA to be more of a loose coalition of cities/factions/nations rather than a strongly interconnected entity which decisively controls all of the Northlands; wouldn't there always be room for even large rogue bands of orcs to pop up and cause trouble? It might be a stretch to say that such a group managed to take Knalga and fortify themselves inside (if it was situated at Dwarven Doors), but if it was some smaller dwarvish outpost? Doesn't sound that far-fetched that something like that would happen every now and then.

[Whiskeyjack]

Ah, you´re right on the defense part, I was stuck there on the teleporting.

Yeah, I'm not very versed in the timelines of that era or NR/THoT in general, so that might be a pretty big inconsistency. Still, the Northlands are really big, mostly mountainous and relatively sparsely populated, so I've always assumed NA to be more of a loose coalition of cities/factions/nations rather than a strongly interconnected entity which decisively controls all of the Northlands; wouldn't there always be room for even large rogue bands of orcs to pop up and cause trouble? It might be a stretch to say that such a group managed to take Knalga and fortify themselves inside (if it was situated at Dwarven Doors), but if it was some smaller dwarvish outpost? Doesn't sound that far-fetched that something like that would happen every now and then.

The story as told at the end of NR has the NA beating all orcish tribes in the area into submission and subsequent joining of the Alliance. I think that the area between Knalga, Ford of Abez, Wesmere and the Swamps of Dread should really be secured after almost a hundred years of expanding their power. I think if raids are taking place they would take place northwest of Wesmere, north/east of the Swamp of Dread or north of Knalga. Orcish territory (except for tribes that are part of the Alliance) should be only west/north of the Heart Mountains (the lands shown in SotBE and the areas around Glamdrol).

I got the following idea: The lands where the Arkan-thoria flows into Lustra and the road south are probably not owned by anyone. That was the area I thought the Lintanir-elves and the NA would battle the necromancers.
Another problem is that we already have one unlikely orc raid (the orcs in scenarios 4a/6). If we connect those to a big orcish tribe, that tries to establish their own kingdom in the hills/mountains northeast of the Swamp of Dread, we could have what we want. Then we could include a messenger from Soradoc at the end of scenario 5 with the following message: The escape took too long and they were overtaken by the undead vanguard that destroyed Soradoc. Encircled by the undead on three sides, they are forced directly north (like in earlier versions). This way would take them across the battlefield-to-be and right into the hands of the orcs. Furthermore it would give yet another reason to reach the NA: They would have to find a safe place for the villagers (which would be the NA, or they send them off with some guards in the direction of Lintanir, if it´s deemed not suitable to have civilists as part of the capturing).
Since we probably need some more scenarios we could include a retaking of the Fort/Ford of Abez from the undead to reach Wesnoth again and/or problems with Saurians when they pass the swamps.

Another very intriguing but much harder to pull off scenario would be, to use NA orcs: They travel somewhat like the above scenario and meet bad informed orcish forces assembling to face an invasion from the east. The orcs meeting a foreign army decide to capture them but the prisoners decide that they don´t have the time to wait for a diplomatic solution (especially since the orcs are not very cooperative). The hard part would be to write it in a way that would still leave the possibility to convince the human/dwarvish NA troops to help them (this could include a mission for the NA, but that would be something that can be done in a short time.*)

The problem itself was not that it would be hard to find possible enemies in the northlands but to find enemies in the heartlands of the NA because if they travel much farther it becomes strange that they make it back to Weldyn in time (we could of course always include some explanation later, like that a big
collaboration of Alduin mages invoked a big spell that slowed the undead advances considerably, if we need more time but I do not really like this and if we find a solution that does not depend on this I would prefer it.)

*The only idea I have would be to send them up Highbrook Pass which is sealed by the NA, so that noone would disturb Ro'Arthian and Ro'Sothian. The two brothers said that in great need the NA may come to ask them for help (which they now want against the necromancers (for the battle in the east)), but the NA does not want to risk any troops by inciting the wrath of the two thus they send the Wesnothians to do their bidding.

[name]

My biggest problem with this rewrite (and the reason I sticked pretty close to the existing storyline) was that it is very hard to a) find non-undead enemies at this time and b) a location they can reasonably fought at.

How about the location being Wesnoth itself? It's been a little while since a played EI, but my recollection is the Kingdom of Wesnoth is nearly crippled after this conflict. So towards the middle/end of the campaign half of Wesnoth's armies might be destroyed and the rest pulled away from almost everywhere to the eastern front. This leaves the land wide open to raids and looting by everyone from small criminal human and saurian bands to orcs and even drakes.

Might help illustrate the scale of the conflict to see the land in such an atypical state.

[Whiskeyjack]

How about the location being Wesnoth itself? It's been a little while since a played EI, but my recollection is the Kingdom of Wesnoth is nearly crippled after this conflict. So towards the middle/end of the campaign half of Wesnoth's armies might be destroyed and the rest pulled away from almost everywhere to the eastern front. This leaves the land wide open to raids and looting by everyone from small criminal human and saurian bands to orcs and even drakes.

Might help illustrate the scale of the conflict to see the land in such an atypical state.

I like this idea but I think raids from outside (orcs etc.) would again not be possible for the routes our heroes can take (remember, they need to be there for the final battle at Weldyn in time and the enemies would have to a) realize all the troops where gone, b) organized a big raid and c) made it to the battle ground) but I think including a scenario with outlaws/bandits looting a town (or attacking a treck of refugees) because all the soldiers where commanded to the front would be great.

[name]

I like this idea but I think raids from outside (orcs etc.) would again not be possible for the routes our heroes can take (remember, they need to be there for the final battle at Weldyn in time and the enemies would have to a) realize all the troops where gone, b) organized a big raid and c) made it to the battle ground).

What if Mal-Ravanal tipped off all Wesnoth's enemies at once before or immediately after beginning his campaign, so as to sow additional chaos and bloodshed behind enemy lines?

Just another thought; could there be a between-scenarios event along the journey back to Wesnoth which pins down the heroes for a number of months, such that by the time they emerge, the war would be more advanced?

[Whiskeyjack]

What if Mal-Ravanal tipped off all Wesnoth's enemies at once before or immediately after beginning his campaign, so as to sow additional chaos and bloodshed behind enemy lines?

That is a great idea again, thanks! Shouldn´t be a problem to include an orcish raid that way.

Just another thought; could there be a between-scenarios event along the journey back to Wesnoth which pins down the heroes for a number of months, such that by the time they emerge, the war would be more advanced?

That would certainly be possible from a story point of view, but why? We already have the problem that travelling to the northlands takes long (perhaps too long) since Mal Ravanal starts at the same point as the heroes and advances in a direct line on Weldyn. Considering the way he´s overwhelming the Wesnothians, he shoulnd´t be stalled too much by this. Remember, this is medieval warfare, not WW1 trench warfare. If not for a deus ex like the above mentioned mighty collaboration of Alduin Mages (if they don´t all have the ability to teleport this is already unbelievable, with them being on the other end of the kingdom) that slows the undead armies down with some kind of spell, we are at our limit of time.

[name]

That is a great idea again, thanks! Shouldn´t be a problem to include an orcish raid that way.

Cool! Bonus points if there can also be encounter(s) with saurians, drakes or even those dastardly elves.

One of the issues with mainline campaigns in general is they have you fighting either orcs or undead maybe 80% of the time, which makes for very repetitive game play. Story-wise, I can think of a few possible motivations for groups beyond these two staple adversaries to have entered Wesnoth:

Saurians: The saurians are naturally very violent and opportunistic. If they need further motivation, Haldric did commit a couple of unprovoked atrocities against them during The Rise of Wesnoth campaign, so maybe they have held a grudge for all these years and want to be there for the fall of wesnoth.

Elves: At this point in the timeline, the southern elves have just recently gone to blows with Deoran during The South Guard campaign. Because elves live hundreds of years, there could easily be greater bad blood lingering after a hundred years since Heir to the Throne, during which humans acted primarily as the villains and launched an unproved attack against the southern elves, annihilating at least a whole settlement (except for the escorts of Konrad). Some elves may feel after these events that it was a mistake for their people to gift the plains of Wesnoth to humans in the first place (during The Rise of Wesnoth) and see this as the opportunity to correct the mistake of their forebears.

Drakes: In general, drakes may not have any particular quarrel with the people of wesnoth, but the land of wesnoth is essentially a giant barrier between the wilderness of the north and the wilderness of the south. So some of the lesser tribes may see the emptying and disruption of the kingdom as a chance to migrate to the warmer southern wilderness(es). If you wanted to spice things up, perhaps the migrant drakes have females in tow stolen from a larger warband, with said warband giving chase. There could be a fight with one group of drakes in one scenario and a temporary alliance with another.

[Whiskeyjack]

One of the issues with mainline campaigns in general is they have you fighting either orcs or undead maybe 80% of the time, which makes for very repetitive game play. Story-wise, I can think of a few possible motivations for these groups to have entered Wesnoth:

I agree with you there. A special point of EI though is that you need (a lot of) units specialized against undead in the last scenarios and that does not include spearmen, bowmen and cavalry. HI and mages on the other hand are... not especially usefull in a lot of those matchups, at least not on the scale you need to build your army. Therefore one should not go overboard on those other encounters if the gameplay spirit of (restricted) Loyalists vs. Undead of the campaign is to be preserved.

Saurians: The saurians are naturally very violent and opportunistic. If they need further motivation, Haldric did commit a couple of unprovoked atrocities against them during The Rise of Wesnoth campaign, so maybe they have held a grudge for all these years and want to be there for the fall of wesnoth.

Including Saurians would be easy as - as I have already suggested - a scenario in/next to the Swamp of Dread on the way to the NA would easily be possible.

Elves: At this point in the timeline, the southern elves have just recently gone to blows with Deoran during The South Guard campaign. Because elves live hundreds of years, there could easily be greater bad blood lingering after a hundred years since Heir to the Throne, during which humans acted primarily as the villains launched an unproved attack against the southern elves, annihilating at least a whole settlement. Some elves may feel after these events that it was a mistake for their people to gift the plains of Wesnoth to humans in the first place (during The Rise of Wesnoth) and see this as the opportunity to correct the mistake of their forebears.

I have to confess that playing TSG is a long way back for me. I do have trouble with this because the northern elves (Wesmere, Lintanir etc.) are probably on pretty good terms with Wesnoth as well as the NA and are not suitable and the southern elves coming farther north than Weldyn seems strange as well. A band of human and dwarvish bandits on NA territory would be more probable IMO.

Drakes: In general, drakes may not have any particular quarrel with the people of wesnoth, but the land of wesnoth is essentially a giant barrier between the wilderness of the north and the wilderness of the south. So some of the lesser tribes may see the emptying and disruption of the kingdom as a chance to migrate to the warmer southern wilderness(es). If you wanted to spice things up, perhaps said migrant drakes have females in tow stolen from a larger warband, with said warband giving chase. There could be a fight with one group of drakes in one scenario and a temporary alliance with another (in a different scenario maybe).[/indent]

Not sure if this fits with the race description, but I can imagine this scenario. Might be easier to situate on the route than an orcish raid as well (and we already have one of those)!

@zookeeper:
I played this campaign pretty lazily and am thus not sure if my feeling on this is correct, but I made the following experience for Evacuation:

On easy I crushed the orcs no problem and could probably have taken the big battle in the last scenario but took the duell for above mentioned laziness reasons.
On medium I probably wouldn´t have had the troops for the last scenario anyway, but I had to choose between defeating the orcs (and taking some losses in the process) or losing most of my level 2 units because I did not recall and take them with me. I tried to start the last scenario and got the feeling that my army was too weak (small) to finish this (I again did not try my hardest to beat it).

I get that the design of the scenario serves to reduce my army strenght somewhat. If my above assessment is correct, I would favor including some more scenarios after this one before we reach Weldyn (all the stuff discussed here comes to mind: A quest for the NA, problems with saurians in the Swamp of Dread, raiding bandits/orcs in Wesnoth, migrating drakes in Wesnoth, retaking the Ford of Abez from some undead). If I just didn´t put enough effort into this and the last scenario is not as hard to beat as I thought, the inclusion of more scenarios of such a skirmishing design would result in breaking the balance of the last scenario (making it too easy). On the other hand cutting the Lake Vrug part would result in 3-4 less scenarios between the Northern Outpost and Captured, therefore I think including some more scenarios to compensate would be good. Not sure how to approach this.

My current suggestion would look roughly like this:

1) Scenarios till Northern Outpost remaining mostly unchanged
2) One or two scenarios leading to a crossing (almost) directly north
3) Capture by the orcs -> Captured and an underground version of Evacuation in the southeastern hills of the Heart Mountains
4) A story scenario with the NA and before/after some scenarios from the above mentioned possibilities (~3 companions or an allied computer player!?)
5) Scenarios from The Drowned Plains to finish mostly unchanged (gameplaywise)