Luke Scull's Blog
January 1, 2023
Happy new year!
A very happy 2023 to all my readers! 2022 was a pretty good year. I had two short stories published, Boss of Bosses for the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar setting and The Dark Son, a Grim Company story for The King Must Fall anthology. On the gaming front, I released Siege of Shadowdale Enhanced Edition, a passion project 20 years in the making.
A modest output, to be sure, but I’m more excited about the stuff I’ve been working on that hasn’t yet been released, or indeed announced. Aside from another Age of Sigmar short story, I’ve been hard at work on both my debut horror novel and the next Grim Company standalone (I know, you’ve been hearing this for a few years…). I’m hoping my agent will be able to start shopping the former to editors in the spring, and the latter… well, keep your eyes peeled on Kickstarter later in the year!
In fact, I have no less than 13 novels planned over the next five years – a mixture of epic fantasy, horror, and young adult/crossover. If 2023 goes as hoped, my career renaissance will rival Robert Downey Jr.’s – except for the hundreds of millions of dollars. Just one would be nice, to be honest.
Back to the gaming stuff, if you follow my gaming projects, you’ll know that I’ve dived back into the world of Neverwinter Nights with the foolhardy aplomb of a man with a 100kg weight tied to his neck. That is but one of my projects. You see, Ossian Studios, for whom I’ve had the honour of serving as design lead for the last 15 years, will be sharing some huge news about its current project in the next few months. We’ve been working on a terrifically ambitious game for a great IP, and I’m very excited to be able to share more details in the months to come.
There’s also the possibility that I write some more for Black Library and Warhammer. I had a lot of fun with the previous stuff I wrote.
As always, you can keep up-to-date with everything Luke Scull-related via my Twitter @Luke_Scull, and sign up to to my formerly-monthly-but-now-decidedly-irregular-newsletter on this very website.
Have a wonderful 2023!
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August 6, 2022
August 2022 update
Welcome, friends It’s been a busy six months. I’m still working on Doom of Icewind Dale, the first of my Blades of Netheril campaign for Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition.
I dipped my toes into the Warhammer universe, writing a couple of short stories for Black Library.
My short story for The King Must Fall anthology has been made available to backers, with the anthology going on general release in October.
I’m currently doing some writing for an exciting new setting based on Japanese mythology. My main writing project, however, is a horror novel that I hope to finish by the end of the year. It’s my first horror novel, and I hope it can make the same kind of splash as The Grim Company.
On the subject of The Grim Company, the next novel in that world is still in development. Head of Zeus cancelled my two-book deal back in 2018, but I have another partner lined up in a new approach that may just make some waves in the industry. I hope to have the first draft of the provisionally titled Kingdom of Snakes finished by mid-next year.
If my schedule allows, I’d love to release regular short stories set in the Age of Ruin starting some time later this year. I’m also weighing up the possibility of a novella. This would likely take place in the time leading up to the Godswar, five centuries before the opening of the trilogy.
The young adult/adult novel I started is currently in a state of stasis, but I feel very confident about it and will return to the book once I’ve finished the horror WIP.
That’s a lot of projects, and there are many more currently gestating in my big old noggin’. I haven’t released an actual book in over five years. Like the proverbial London bus, it’s entirely possible two or three will come along at once.
If you haven’t yet done so, head on back to my home page and sign up to my Newsletter. There’s a free short story in it for you, as well as sneak peaks of upcoming projects and the occasional terrible joke. And, of course, you can follow me on all the usual social media outlets using the links above. Cheers!
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February 16, 2022
February update & video interviews
It’s been a while since I added a blog post here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. Why, my Patreon page and monthly newsletter have been a veritable hotbed of activity! If you’re not a fan of monthly spam but you’re curious about what I’ve been up to, the following interview with Adrian Collins of Grimdark Magazine provides 40+ minutes of me discussing my various projects at length:
If that’s not enough, there’s also a brief conversation with me and Chris Johnson of Games Vault here:
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July 14, 2021
Announcing The Blades of Netheril – an unofficial sequel to the Neverwinter Nights original campaign
Fantasy author and Ossian Studios lead designer Luke Scull is thrilled to announce The Blades of Netheril, an unofficial sequel to the Neverwinter Nights original campaign! The story is a direct continuation of the Wailing Death storyline. Cast out in disgrace and erased from Neverwinter’s history, the hero is thrust into a struggle between ancient powers that could ultimately rewrite the fate of Faerûn. Familiar faces will return alongside new allies and enemies as the player embarks on an epic quest that is both world-changing and deeply personal.
The Blades of Netheril will be split into three chapters each approaching an expansion in scope. Each chapter will include:
20+ hours of gameplayA fully narrated intro cinematicDeadly new monsters to fightNew portraits and a gorgeous world mapNew musicThe level of quality one would expect from an official campaign or premium moduleThe first chapter begins in Skullport, also known as the Port of Shadows—a city of slavers, monsters and villains festering far below Waterdeep. Waking up in a dark cell with no memory of they how they came to be there, the hero will discover a dark conspiracy that spans the breadth of the Forgotten Realms.
As well as acting as a direct sequel to the original campaign, The Blades of Netheril will serve as a sequel to Shadows of Undrentide, Hordes of the Underdark, and Luke’s previous AL series of modules.
The first chapter of the Blades of Netheril is targeting a release date of June 18th, 2022—exactly 20 years after Neverwinter Nights was originally released on Microsoft Windows. Subsequent chapters will follow six to 12 months later.
The Blades of Netheril is currently planned to be available free for owners of Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition on Windows/Mac OS X, while other versions may follow later. Multiplayer is planned but may be added post-release.
For regular updates on The Blades of Netheril, subscribe to Luke Scull’s Patreon. You can also visit his website at www.lukescull.com and follow him on twitter @Luke_Scull.
About Luke Scull:
Luke Scull was the lead designer and writer of NWNEE: Tyrants of the Moonsea, NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate, The Shadow Sun, and the Gemmell award nominated The Grim Company trilogy of novels. He also created the classic NWN Hall of Fame modules Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr and is a veritable depository of Forgotten Realms lore. The Blades of Netheril is his personal project and has no affiliation with Ossian Studios.
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June 23, 2021
Signed books exclusively at Forbidden Planet!
For a limited time (i.e., until they run out), Forbidden Planet are stocking signed hardcovers of the entire Grim Company trilogy at less than cover price. Best of all, they ship worldwide! Just click the image above and add them to your basket.
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June 12, 2021
New look, same great Luke
Long-time visitors may have noticed the site has recently undergone a radical upgrade. You can now sign up to my monthly newsletter, which will go out on the first Friday of every month. In the newsletter I will be talking in detail about what I’m currently working on, as well as sharing snippets of WIPs. I will also be returning to the Great Realms Read-through very soon: Fans of the Forgotten Realms can re-live the nostalgia with me as I read and review every FR book in published order.
If you’re a first-time visitor, welcome! And if you’ve been keeping check on this site for a while, thank you for sticking with it. I have plenty of exciting things to share in the days ahead.
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September 30, 2019
The Halfling’s Gem by R.A. Salvatore
(Forgotten Realms #12, The Icewind Dale Trilogy #3)
(First published 1990)
The ruthless assassin Artemis Entreri has kidnapped the halfling Regis and is taking him to Calimport to deliver him to his erstwhile master, Pasha Pook – kingpin of Calimshan’s criminal underworld. Fortunately for Regis, his friends Drizzt the drow elf and Wulfgar the barbarian are hot on their heels. Meanwhile, another friend thought lost struggles to survive a perilous situation. It is a case of out of frying pan and into the fire for the Companions of the Hall as they make their way to sprawling Calimport, the largest city in the Realms deep in the heart of the desert nation of Calimshan.
Regis, or Rumblebelly to his friends – or at least his friend, the dwarf Bruenor – has a lot to answer for. Not content with a life as the Pasha’s most prized thief, he made the foolish error of stealing his master’s most valued possession, a ruby Pendant of Beguiling able to charm any creature within sight of the gem. Taken at face value, one could argue he deserves whatever dire fate Pasha Pook has in store for him. Look a little deeper, however, and… well, he still kind of deserves the fate the Pasha has in store for him. I mean, Bruenor himself has a chest in Mithral Hall in which the severed hands of thieves are kept.
Hmm.
Muddy morals aside, honour demands that Drizzt and Wulfgar rescue their friend from the clutches of the wicked Artemis Entreri. What follows is a somewhat abbreviated journey south, aided by some rather convenient magic and punctuated by scenes that range from memorable to rather silly.
Firstly, the memorable: the tavern scene in which Wulfgar chooses restraint in talking down the hilariously-named Bungo shows some nice character growth. The scenes between Pook and his minions are frequently amusing and, as with Salvatore’s earlier efforts, paint villains with greater nuance than some of his contemporaries. There is an exciting sea battle between the heroes and a small pirate fleet that rewards Drizzt with a heart-warming moment of acceptance as his race-altering mask slips and the crew choose to embrace him despite his heritage. The showdown between Drizzt and Entreri, when it eventually happens, is a blood-pumping confrontation that will have readers on the edge of their seats. As always, Salvatore writes combat with an energy and level of detail that highlights every thrust, slash, parry and wound dealt.
As mentioned, though, the justness of our heroes’ cause is less sure in this novel. For all Drizzt’s introspection regarding respect and honour, he allows his hunger to prove himself better than Entreri to occasionally cloud his thoughts. For his part, Entreri massacres an entire ship’s crew in perhaps his most villainous act of his career. There’s a certain twisted logic behind his doing so – but it feels gratuitous and jars with what we know of his character.
The novel’s biggest misstep is the journey into Tarterus, an Outer Plane crawling with native fiends known as demodands. Here the action crosses over into the absurd, with the heroes surviving hordes of fiends (mostly) unscathed and constantly making million-to-one odds seem a sure thing. Drizzt’s obvious attraction to Catti-Brie becomes a tad uncomfortable given she and Wulfgar are clearly an item – there’s a stolen kiss from an unconscious Cattie-Brie that is certainly eyebrow-raising – and Drizzt claims highest-level hero privilege to shunt both Bruenor and Wulfgar to the side and become the star of the show in decidedly dickish fashion near the end. There’s the feeling that here was where R.A. Salvatore decided a certain drow elf was absolutely the main event and plotted accordingly.
(Of course, the Dark Elf Trilogy remains the jewel in the crown of the roughly 400 subsequent Realms novels, so in that he was absolutely correct!)
One thing that grated that I must mention is the dialect used for some of the characters, particularly the Calishite Sali Dalib, whose broken English (or Common) is embarrassingly denoted using “de” instead of “the,” among other abominations. Maybe it read better in 1990 – but, as with the stolen kiss, it makes for slightly uncomfortable reading in 2019.
All in all, The Halfling’s Gem is the weakest of the original Icewind Dale Trilogy. It lacks the rough charm of the first novel and the charming character growth of the second. Nonetheless, it presents a memorable cast of secondary villains and henchmen which it delights in knocking down, and features an iconic showdown between two iconic characters. An uneven plot and some questionable character choices don’t detract too much from the book serving as a satisfying conclusion to a story that brought to life some of the most prominent locales and colourful characters in the Forgotten Realms. For that achievement, the Icewind Dale Trilogy was crucial to the runaway success of the setting.
*** 1/2 out of *****
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September 18, 2019
Signed books for sale – 50% discount!
– Many copies of the Sword of the North and Dead Man’s Steel US hardcover
– 3 copies of the German and French Grim Company and Sword of the North
1 copy of the Italian Grim Company and 3 of Sword of the North
2 copies of the Dutch Dead Man’s Steel
1 copy of the Polish Grim Company
3 copies of the Czech Sword of the North. I may have copies of the first and third books in Czech somewhere, but finding them will involve rooting around in spider-infested corners of a shed. This is probably a death sentence, so only enquire if serious.
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August 26, 2019
Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition: Tyrants of the Moonsea released
A long, long time ago (2005), I was contracted by Bioware to develop a premium module for their hit PC roleplaying title, Neverwinter Nights. Unfortunately the module was cancelled after Atari pulled the plug on the premium module service. 14 years later, I’m delighted to announce that Tyrants of the Moonsea has been finished by Ossian Studios and is now available on the Steam store! (Beamdog client and GOG versions will follow shortly.) Here is the official description:
Developed by Ossian Studios and based on the original module by Luke Scull, this new, enhanced version of Tyrants of the Moonsea vastly expands this former premium module by adding 70% more story and gameplay, as well as a large amount of new art and audio content.
The harsh frontier land known as the Moonsea is besieged by demons. A mysterious cult has arisen, bent on death and destruction. Amid the chaos, war is imminent between the powerful city-states and their tyrannical rulers. Accompanied by the dwarf merchant Madoc, you approach the town of Voonlar just as the worst snowstorm of the year hits. You soon discover that only you can prevent the total annihilation of the Moonsea at the hands of a legendary and ancient evil…
Explore the treacherous region of the Moonsea, including the infamous Zhentil Keep! Travel by foot and horse through the dark and mysterious lands of Cormanthor and Thar, and by ship across the pirate-infested waters, engaging in ship-to-ship combat. Encounter monstrous foes of unspeakable power in a high-level adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat. As the old Moonsea battle cry goes: “Dare… and beware!”
Features:
An expansion-sized high-level adventure with 20+ hours of gameplayUse the world map to explore 18 areas in the Moonsea region including Zhentil Keep, Cormanthor, Thar, and prominent city-states.Recruit from 5 different companions for your party5 new monsters to do battle with14 new character portraits35 minutes of inspiring new music including exhilarating combat tracks1,000 lines of new character VOBuying the enhanced edition of Tyrants of the Moonsea helps to support Ossian Studios’ goal of bringing you more Dungeons & Dragons adventures!
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June 16, 2019
“A Ring to Rule Them All” now on Kindle!
My first short story set in the Grim Company world, A Ring to Rule Them All, is now available in the Kindle Store! Here’s the description:
“A Ring to Rule Them All” tells the story of how the legendary swordsman Brodar Kayne escaped the clutches of his immortal master, the Shaman. The first, thrilling short story set in the world of the Grim Company also acts as a prequel to the award-nominated series.
A week inside a wicker cage will break a regular man. A month will push the bravest to the very edges of their sanity.
For Brodar Kayne, it has been almost a year since he was forced inside the fiendish prison. His crime? To defy his master’s command to massacre a town and people he once loved.
Even a year trapped in a cage could not break the spirit of the legendary Sword of the North. But having just watched his wife burned alive on a pyre, death would now be a merciful release.
However, Kayne’s most loyal friend has other ideas. The Wolf is as grim and implacable as death itself. And he never forgets a promise.
UK Readers can purchase the short story here. North America-based readers can get the short story following this link.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
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