It's only been a few days since Northdark Reaches went live and Neverwinter players are still powering through the new content and uncovering the mysteries and secrets of the Underdark once again. Although this content should keep players busy for months, it is only part one of a two-part set.
The Neverwinter team collaborated with the Salvatores to produce two modules that tie-in to The Way of the Drow trilogy of novels. Northdark Reaches, which is live now, takes place between books one and two. In 2023, module 25 will arrive and add to the story, with new events that take place between books two and three.
The exact details of module 25 are still a mystery, including its name. Game ZXC recently sat down for a chat with Neverwinter's Narrative Director, Winter Mullenix and Principal Lead Game Designer, Randy Mosiondz and did manage to uncover a few hints about the next module though. Here is everything we learned...
Randy: Working with the Myconids as part of the quest lines and how they've been caught up in the middle of this evolving war within the drow. And they're myconids! They're not happy about being involved in that. We lean into a lot of those sorts of themes and as we go into module 25 development, we're really leaning more into a lot of the evolving themes and touching more into the drow war elements and the warfare that's happening. I don't want to spoil too much M25 stuff, but it's neat to see how it starts off in Northdark Reaches and then evolves into the next region.
Game ZXC: That sort of large scale war and battle can be one of the hardest things to pull off in an MMO, where players are just one individual. It'll be exciting to see how you tackle it.
Winter: It is exciting! There will be lots of surprises.
Randy: And of course a lot of stuff for this development is figuring out how we can convey a sense of warfare. As battles are occurring. In Northdark Reaches (M24), it really is the ramp coming up to that and then it's going to get more involved as the next module gets released. It's really just falling in between. So this module is between book 1 and book 2 and then module 25 will be between book 2 and book 3. So, read the books! And you'll get a good sense of what we're doing.
Game ZXC: So, we've talked about the next module a couple of times. Part 2 of this two-part set. Any other hints you want to drop about that?
Randy: We're really taking a dive into the heart of drow culture with it. And like the ongoing story between the blaspheme and Lolth loyalists so, where that leads... I think there could be some speculation, so I'll leave that to the fans.
Winter: I will say that we will explore some unexpected things and aside from that... People will have to wait until next year for more details.
Clearly players are going to have to wait a handful of months to learn more, but luckily they have plenty of content to work through in module 24 to keep themselves busy. Be sure to check back in the near future for more Neverwinter updates, news, and strategy guides.
Neverwinter is free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Northdark Reaches launches on November 8, 2022 on PC.
