[ Download Link ]

Mod author: Lava Del’V0rtel

Version used for review: 1.9.

“Bridge’s Block is a small quest mod from the Athkatlan Grounds quest mod series, which adds new areas and quests to Shadow of Amn’s main city location. You’ll also be able to take up a new job inside the great wall that’s part of the Bridge District – an investigation, as the Block’s caretaker believes she saw a strange monster roaming the halls.”

The Bridge District is already Athkatla’s central location for the player to demonstrate their skill as a detective, so why not take it one step further? Bridge’s Block is the smallest entry into the Athkatlan Grounds series of mods, adding a new interior location consisting of two floors into the Bridge District. Within this aptly named block, a mysterious grey creature has been seen lurking around, and it’s up to you to find out the truth of the matter.

Bridge’s Block is a mostly inoffensive mod that doesn’t overstay its welcome and offers some extra worldbuilding, magical items, spells, and not much else — to its credit, I think. There are four new quests, though I would argue that it actually counts as three, and they’ll likely take you under an hour to complete, save for one involves a hunt for three items that you’ll naturally stumble across while adventuring through Athkatla.

When approaching the Block for the first time, the player is intercepted by a woman named Mrs. Yawnhex, explaining the matter at hand in an exceptionally lengthy piece of exposition, going over the Block’s origins and the mystery that Yawnhex wants solved. You are given an option to say something along the lines of “That was way too much information,” which displays that it is aware of the fact that, yes, it is way too much information. There’s a surprisingly fine art to writing overly verbose characters (Jan may be annoying, but he isn’t boring), and unfortunately Bridge’s Block misses the mark on this one.

One within, things change for the better. Considering we are inside a glorified wall, it’s not exactly a visual spectacle, but Bridge’s Block does enough to distinguish itself from the other interior areas of the game.

It is on these two floors that our investigation takes place, though it is required to travel to two other districts to complete the quest. It’s a perfectly serviceable quest, with interesting enough characters that the experience is worth seeing through to completion. Although it isn’t hard per se, it does feel as though you’re acting as an actual investigator, and that type of immersion is something I enjoy in mods. The resolution to the quest comes at an appropriate point, after enough prodding the residents and exploration, but the final answers we get are… logical, I suppose, but they aren’t to my taste. I’ll preface the quest by saying that there will be no monsters to fight here.

What I did like immensely in this mod was the recently divorced rat named Mr. Rat, who is seeking to impress his ex-partner sufficiently enough so that she’ll let him look after his kids. Love it. No notes, just perfect writing.

The quest that will likely take you the longest involves a treasure hunt. A wizard will ask you to find three parts of a glyph that was taken after his master died. These glyph fragments will turn up if you venture off Athkatla’s beaten path enough, and once you’ve returned them to Bridge’s Block, you’ll receive some scrolls — new spells, exclusive to this mod, that I actually like quite a bit. They’re the only copies you’ll get, though, so be careful.

There is also a selection of new minor magical items to obtain (and probably sell), but they’re not really the focus of the mod. The tangible rewards take a back seat to the characters and their development, which is a little strange to say for a mod that will add no more than an hour onto your playtime, but I appreciated the focus for the most part.

If you’ve enjoyed the Athkatlan Grounds series, or if you simply appreciate investigatory quests, then Bridge’s Block isn’t a bad mod to check out. It’s a fun little diversion, and it’s not trying to be anything more than that. Expanding the world in fun little ways seems to be the primary focus of the series, and Bridge’s Block does just that.

Thanks for reading.