Hidden Vale
A Drakan adventure by Signal

Backgroud: 

The weekly caravan which passes through your village brings with it an additional rider this day.  He is a messanger who's task for the past week has been to carry a note to you.  He wearily hands you the wooden scroll tube and heads for the inn, ready to rest in the comfort of a soft bed.  With shaking hands you break the wax seal of the tube and pull out the stopper.  Upon removing and unrolling the parchment, you are greeted by your friend's handwriting.

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As you know, about a year ago Raynard left our village in search of the Hidden Vale, a mythical valley said to exist in the mountains to the east.  As the myth goes, the Vale contains a fountain which has the power to return complete health to any individual who drinks from it's waters.  Who or what constructed the fountain can only be guessed at.  A week before he left Ray told me he met an elderly mage who, under strange circumstances,  confided in him the truth about the Vale.  The mage gave Ray clues to its location, in addition to information about the fountain and a massive cave.  As Ray told me, the mage claimed he used to live in the Vale undetected by it's inhabitants.  He found an old cave and actually teleported an entire house into it.  From this laboratory, the mage used water he had taken from the well to make powerful healing potions.  He claimed he also perfected a few other formulas while researching there as well.  Including a potion that can render the drinker invisible!  As far as the Vale's inhabitants go, Ray told me that according to the mage, a war giant and his band of orcs claims control of the valley.  However, because the mage marked the entrance to his cave with bloody runes, he doubts the giant will have been able to pursuade any of his orcs to go into it to investigate, even though the runes are just false, harmless symbols.  Ray's goal was to make his way to this cave and return with the stockpile of potions.  He also mentioned something about a magic bow.  Apparently the mage found a woodswoman who also survived in the Vale and traded some of his potions with her in return for one of her magic bows.  I made Ray a promise that in a year, if we hadn't heard from him, that I'd pick up where he left off.  Well, I've now found what I think is the entrance to the Vale.  Tomorrow I will head in and attempt to find the mage's cave.  In addition I'll look for signs of Ray.  I hope for the best, but I fear the worst.  Tell Delon I miss him and will return shortly.

Your friend,    
Rynn

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How to play the Hidden Vale map:  

Make a new directory under your Drakan directory and name it Hidden Vale.  Unzip all the files into that new directory.  You should get four files: Hidden Vale.lvl, Cave1.db, Cave1.odb, and this Readme file.  To play the map, start Drakan in developers mode (hold shift down while starting Drakan then click the 'Enable Developers Mode' check box under the Developers tab).  Then choose 'New Game' to see a list of all the maps.  Double click on 'Hidden Vale' to load the map.

You start with a mace, a magic boomerang, and a suit of studded leather armor.  As soon as the map loads you need to start moving!!  Good luck!!  Surviving in the Vale seems daunting but it's not really that difficult if you put the weapons available to you to good use.

Boomerang: 

You can swing the boomerang just like any hand held weapon with the normal attack button.  Use the secondary attack button to throw it.  When it completes its attack it will automatically reappear in your hand.  Use it against close, slow moving targets.  If the monster is close enough the boomerang will auto-target.  When used properly this weapon does heavy damage at short distances.  Don't rely on it in hand-to-hand combat however!  Be ready to switch to another weapon for that.


Feedback:  

Please e-mail me any feedback you have at dbosch@accesscom.net.  Especially if you find spots where Rynn gets stuck.  If there are enough requests, I can also throw together a tutorial on some of the techniques I used in making this map.   
