Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Peek #2

RPG Vault takes another peek at the upcoming expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2, as designer Eric Fenstermaker leads us through the area of Ashenwood.

Many battles have been fought along that border, some among quarreling neighbors of Rashemen whose war spilled over into their territory. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Tuigan horde have also made attempts to take the shores along the borders of the Ashenwood, but the might of the fearsome Rashemi berserker legions, supported by the Witches and aided by telthors, have always repelled would-be conquerors. Lake Ashane is known by another name – The Lake of Tears – among Rashemi for the violence that has revisited the region time and again.

Of late, however, the forest’s troubles seem to come from within. Though there are few who have ventured far enough into the Ashenwood to see it with their own eyes, there are rumors that blight has taken hold in a major portion of the forest, and that its spread is rapid and without apparent cause. Elsewhere, a wildfire rages and refuses to die, despite the trees in its radius having already been reduced to little more than cinders and ash. And while all this goes on, most troubling of all is that the Wood Man, whose province it would be to deal with these threats, is nowhere to be found.