[ Download Link ]

Mod author: Acifer & Lava Del’Vortel

Version used for review: 1.1.

“Welcome, seekers of wisdom and unravelers of mysteries. Within this shrine, we endeavor to spread the light of understanding and dispel the shadows of ignorance. Let us continue this noble pursuit of knowledge together, for within every book, every scroll, and every word lies a spark of divine inspiration.”- High Loremaster Eyvind Shrine of Oghma, Baldur’s Gate

What says ‘Baldur’s Gate’ more than extensive dungeons contained within the city sewers? Loretakers expands the titular city’s sewers with a two level dungeon filled with things one could expect from a classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure.

I love a good dungeon, and Baldur’s Gate is already filled with them (as well as a few stinkers — no pun intended) so any new dungeon added into the game will be up against some stiff competition. Fortunately, Loretakers’ newly introduced Sealed Sewers hits pretty much every major requirement I have as a connoisseur of the art (connoi-sewer?) of D&D dungeons.

Loretakers has a good hook — the priests of Oghma in Baldur’s Gate suspect that their books are under attack by a curse that originates from an old sewer system that was sealed off due to the evil that once lurked there. Entering the sewers is a matter of back and forth between a few quest NPCs before eventually finding yourself at the entrance. Once within, you’re met with new enemies, dangerous but fair traps, interpersonal conflicts between the residents of the dungeon, item puzzles, a riddle gauntlet, and foreshadowing at a greater threat throughout it all. This is tied together with wonderfully solid writing, thoughtful design, and new handcrafted areas that blend seamlessly into the game.

Perhaps the greatest praise I can give this mod is that throughout my experience with it, I had a sneaking suspicion as to the greater mystery, but when I reached the reveal, and found that I was correct, I was still surprised. It’s been a long time since I felt immersed enough in a plotline in this game to be genuinely surprised at something that happened. Although the resolution is something of a cliffhanger ending, Loretakers does a good job at tying up immediate loose ends and left me feeling satisfied with the adventure that I had, despite the larger implications.

There’s not an ounce of this mod that felt boring or played out to me. It’s a tightly crafted experience that delivers some pretty challenging encounters, and as a standalone mod it works perfectly well — but Loretakers is clearly intended to set up a larger storyline to be continued in Baldur’s Gate II.

The only significant critique that I have is that the dialogue in the opening sequence of the mod can feel a little clunky, but it wasn’t bad enough for me to be particularly bothered by it, and it’s not something I would get too upset over as a player — the original games aren’t exactly bastions of perfect writing all the time, despite what much of the internet would have you think.

For a dungeon intended for parties of level 6 and up, I found there to be an appropriate amount of loot and experience. Many of the expendable resources that you’ll find throughout the mod will be particularly useful inside the dungeon, though in a more subtle and grounded way than “there are trolls in the next room, so have some fire arrows”. There are a surprising number of divine magic scrolls, something that the original games avoided granting an excess of, for some reason — perhaps to avoid rangers being too powerful (as if that was ever going to be an issue).

The final reward you receive is a nifty little item that particular classes will enjoy using quite a bit, and in terms of equipment found in the dungeon, your party cleric may come out with a few new items to use. It’s not overwhelming at all, and I was very pleased with my final rewards.

I greatly enjoyed my time with this mod and will most assuredly be revisiting it often in the future. I can only hope that we will see a sequel for it sometime in the near future, because Loretakers has me decidedly hooked on this storyline.

Thanks for reading.