17d — Cursed Isle

Identity

Story and premise

Haldric travels by sea to the fog-covered Isle of Tears, where the long-dead members of an elven clan remain cursed. Jessene distinguishes these ancient elf-dead from the more utilitarian undead once used by the Wesfolk. Minister Edren treats the mission as a holy purge.

Two Spectre leaders openly command the island. A Vampire Lady called the Midnight Queen is hidden in one of three central temples and appears only if the player enters her assigned temple. Her awakening changes the displayed objective.

Map description

The 35 × 42 map is an elongated island surrounded by ocean, with beaches, grass, forest, swamp, villages, roads, water channels, two undead keeps, three central temples, and holy-water sites toward the southeastern approach. Fog conceals the temple identities and enemy distribution.

Sides and AI

Easy rosters contain Ghosts, Ghouls, and Vampire Bats. Higher difficulties add Shadows or Wraiths and Necrophages. Each side begins with twelve villages.

Random temple assignment

Three local macros generate the temple interactions:

A random value from 1 to 3 rotates these roles among temples at 11,13; 10,17; and 9,15.

Dynamic objective rendering

If both visible leaders die before the Queen is discovered, queen_awake

Midnight Queen encounter

Entering the selected temple:

1. Creates the Midnight Queen as a Vampire Lady on side 2.
2. Creates three Blood Bats, plus a fourth on Hard.
3. Runs an enthrallment scene in which Jessene breaks Haldric’s fascination.
4. Sets queen_awake=1.
5. Refreshes objectives.

When the Queen reaches last breath, she curses the party; Haldric observes that the remaining undead are fading. The scenario kills every side-2 and side-3 undead unit without firing their death events and immediately ends with bonus victory.

Holy water and Minister Edren

The core OBJ_POTION_HOLY_ALT macro places holy water at 29,24, with a second pickup at 28,26 on Easy. Minister Edren also receives a special line whenever he kills an undead unit.

Hub-state write

{VARIABLE_OP num_done add 1}
[set_variable]
    name=cursed_isle
    value=1
[/set_variable]
[set_variable]
    name=last_done
    value="Isle"
[/set_variable]

The local random variable is cleared after assigning temples. The Queen flag is cleared when victory resolves.

Lessons for campaign authors

Scenario WML · Map source · Core holy-water macro · Quest comparison