A Harper’s Tale - Part 1 - Escort Duty - Quest Journal
As a relatively inexperienced adventurer, it comes as a bit of a shock that Calum has sent for you specifically. You cannot resist the call of this old friend, however… he saved your life many years ago, when you were hardly an adolescent. But he has become a Harper now, and seeks your help. Will you join him as a Harper, given the chance? What path will you follow?
A Harper’s Tale - Part 1 - Escort Duty
Creator’s: Dave Mason
Expansions Needed: SOU and HOTU
Setting: Forgotten Realms.
Gameplay Length: 5-15 hours.
Starting Level: Level 8.
Classes: All classes tested and welcome (Rogues have the toughest time, but it can be done).
Races: Story dictates Human, Elf, or Half-Elf. All other races will be imprisoned.
Alignment: Any non-evil. All evil characters will be imprisoned.
Link To Module Download at NWVault
Author’s Description
None.
Tested Version: 1.10
Journal
This is a wonderful short adventure 
You can if you wish play the prelude to this but it’s so ridiculously easy and you may just prefer to use a leveler tool to alter an existing character to level 8 or create a new one. If you still wish to play the prelude then by all means it’s not bad, just very easy.
If you are a looter, pack rat and/or completionist then this short module could take you a fair amount of time. There are quite a few easter eggs to be found and created, some are even repaired or combined (see spoilers post for more information).
I’m all 3 and it took me a good afternoon and evening to complete the game, the game can be finished much quicker though and although I was thorough looking for everything and using everything I had found the adventure is not so long that it gets tedious and you can even use items found in part 1 in part’s 2 and 3.
There’s some nice story elements to the adventure, or nice touches I should say, the basic plot is simple enough and it’s a mostly hack and slash affair with a large amount of secrets thrown in. Keeping your hencman alive should be your only worry and he/she comes well equipped (see spoilers post for more information).
I made about a million gold pieces in this adventure, short as it was and found some nice loot, even if I didn’t use the majority of it, I thoroughly enjoyed reading their descriptions, some of which hint at things soon to be seen in future parts, it really is a looters paradise, so if you love loot come into the adventure with plenty of magic bags of holding.
Overall I liked the adventure, as I did all 4 in the series, a good simple story and main quest, a few side quests, plenty of secrests to keep most people happy and if you have a looting personality then the constant respawns will be a joy too!
A Harper’s Tale - Part 1 - Escort Duty - Screenshots
A Harper’s Tale - Part 1 - Escort Duty - Spoilers
A Harper’s Tale - Part 1 - Escort Duty - Spoilers
Henchmen
There is only one henchmen in the game and in the game they (the henchman will be the opposite sex to what the PC chooses) are also as part of the story and a love interest. He/she is pretty good at disarming traps and opening doors so you needn’t worry in that department. The main thing you have to worry about is that if your henchman dies the game ends! Keeping him/her alive can take a fair amount of effort sometimes but it helps if you tell him/her to use only ranged weapons.
You may notice from the screenshots that I have a fair few henchmen, that’s because I use the OHS add-on that allows you to add custom henchmen into almost any module.
Respawns
There’s a fair amount of triggered respawns going on, head into a map one direction and respawns are triggered elsewhere so often backtracking yields more combat (and more loot!)
Meat found after Animal’s Death
You might wonder at first what purpose the meat drops from some animal MOBS, well, you can buy a magic plate that when used can turn the meat into a hot meal, you can consume the meal and heal some hit points or you can sell the meal for over 300gp at most vendors!
Magically Appearing Chests
These chests are often placed in tucked away corners, at the end of dead end corridors or in innocuous recesses. They contain a host of goodies, some of which won’t be worth much on their own but can be used to create items that are either very handy, can be converted to something better by Moll Tingly (see below), or can be sold for a good amount of coin.
Archenbridge - Moll Tingly
Keep all your magical components, rods of frost, gems and stuff you’ve created from items you’ve found as Moll Tingly can convert them into rings or necklaces (your choice, she can even supply the base items) that although expensive initially to make can be sold at a very large profit in her shop.
Archenbridge - Paulson’s Clothing Store
The proprietor of this store sells ordinary jewellery and clothing items. Not useful to an adventurer? They certainly are! The magic talismans you find in the magically appearing chests (see above) can only be used on ordinary items and while the odd item or two thusly enchanted can be useful, chances are you will want to sell the rest and they make a good tidy sum to go into your pocket too and if greed doesn’t motivate you enough to give you the idea it also means you can sell basic items you find or buy for greatly improved profit when you use the talismans on them.
Archenbridge - Avi Keddem
He can be found in the House of Pleasures. If you want to do the side quest to find the missing items you will need to speak to him so that you can speak to Maggie, she has a trapped trapdoor in one of her rooms leading to a secret basement area that has all the missing items.
Archenbridge - Zhor d’Arz
You might have found several broken weapons and damaged armour, this smith can repair them and some of them are pretty good even. If you’re not keen on them you can always sell them back to him for a profit.
Zhor can also make a special suit of armour, if you’ve already sold or used most of the items he needs to make it then you can find all of them under the Archenbridge Temple in the catacombs.
Many of the items are on the lower level that can only be accessed by secret trapdoors hidden on the catacomb level. Look out for plumes of coloured mists to find most of them. Of the other two, one can be found where you meet the resurrected vampire, in the middle near the fencing. The other, can be found directly north to the right of the gate that you face on your way out in the north of the map.
Resurrected Vampire
To kill him permanently you need to destroy his coffin first.
Below the Ruined Keep - West of Archenbridge
Here you will need to pass a door that automatically closes once you pass it, however, for me it closed before I could go through, I thought it was a show stopping bug but one of my henchmen (see above) must have bashed through it as the door vanished once I used the debug command to teleport past it.
Broken Link Pin
If you accepted the side quest to get the link pin fixed from Sully in Sister Mercy’s Mill near the beginning of the adventure you can visit Zhor to get it fixed in Archenbridge then once you complete the adventure head back to give Sully the repaired pin and collect your reward.
It’s not actually that far and yields a good amount of coin and experience but don’t expect to get much richer than you may have already been made in this short jaunt, he’s just a miller after all