THE EVERGROWING FOREST version 1.0
created by Glen DeBiasa
(C) September 21, 1993

The Evergrowing Forest is the sequel to Mystery at Nightvale.  It is NOT a
standalone game and requires Unlimited Adventures to play the module.  It is
designed for a mid level party (levels 6-7).  Feel free to "bring" your players
from Mystery at Nightvale into The Evergrowing Forest (you WILL carry the items
over as well, more instructions below).  If you haven't played Mystery at
Nightvale, I strongly urge you to, even though it is not required.

Characters created in The Evergrowing Forest have certain advantages (in
general, better overall equipment than those tranferred), however, they will
not possess the variety of magic items available from Mystery at Nightvale.
Either method should allow The Evergrowing Forest to be challenging without
being impossible.

For those of you who played Mystery at Nightvale, you know my philosophy about
the area view.  Even though I prefer having area view enabled at all times,
there are two portions of the game that have it disabled (when you see them,
you'll understand why).  For the other areas, if you prefer mapping, or enjoy
the challenge, just don't use the area view.

Even though I don't consider The Evergrowing Forest to be a hack-and-slash or
Monty Haul adventure, there are challenging battles and magical items to be
found.  The battles ARE winnable and powerful magical items ARE very rare.
Like Nightvale, I like to think that this module is story driven.  It is larger
than Nightvale, and the story is somewhat more complicated, but I hope you
enjoy this as much as you did Nightvale.  Again, I am looking forward to your
comments, concerns, and honest criticisms.

At your request, you'll find the random wandering encounters to be rarer than
in Nightvale (I personally find them too rare, but then again, I don't have to
do all the looking around that you do.).  However, they are there and may
surprise you at an inoportune moment.

Be frugal with the items you find.  It IS possible to finish the module with a
party created at the beginning and with the items you find in the module (of
course, don't forget about the items that you enemies carry!).  As with most
other games, do keep more than one save file.  There are a few areas you might
find it useful (although probably not criticial).

Again, much of the new artwork and combat icons are courtesy of other users of
America Online.  I have taken my hand to some of the drawings (mostly ones I've
captured from UA itself), but there is really no original art of mine in the
module.  So I REALLY appreciate all the great artwork I've found and another
tip of my hat to all those users who recognize their work in my story.

I've made some more new monsters (or at least new to Gold Box games).  Most are
from AD&D sources, but some of their abilities needed to be slightly modified
to conform to Unlimited Adventures specifications.  Some are more powerful than
you might think, so beware.

HOW TO TRANSFER CHARACTERS FROM MYSTERY AT NIGHTVALE

1.  Load UA and select the design Mystery at Nightvale.

2.  Load the saved game that has the most recent characters (preferably, the
saved game you used after you solved the Mystery).

3.  Use Remove Character to remove ALL the characters from the party.

4.  Quit the game and then quit to DOS.

5.  Go into the directory that have the saved games for Nightvale.

6.  COPY *.CCH to the directory that will hold the saved games for The
Evergrowing Forest.

7.  Load UA and select the design The Evergrowing Forest.

8.  Use Add Character to add the characters you just copied to the party.

9.  Begin Adventuring and enjoy!

HOW TO TRANSFER THE VAULT FROM MYSTERY AT NIGHTVALE

1.  If you desire to transfer the items you stored in the vault in Nightvale to
The Evergrowing Forest, save the party you transfered in the steps above into
saved game A.

2.  Quit the game and Quit to DOS.

3.  Go to the Nightvale directory and copy VAULT#.DAT (where the # is the
letter of the saved game that you copied the characters from) to VAULTA.DAT
in the saved game directory of The Evergrowing Forest.

4.  Load UA and Play The Evergrowing Forest.  When you load game A, your items
will appear in the vault (you probably won't need them, but you can have them
anyway).

This version was designed for the IBM, but if Macintosh users wish to convert
the PCX and LBM files into PICT format, then import them into the proper
location, they too can play the module.  The file MACFORST.ZIP has the artwork
used in this module (again, with great thanks to the original artists).  The
accompanying file MACUSER.TXT has the information about what pictures go where.

There's no password this time because:

1.  Apparently everyone knows how to get the password anyway.

2.  Macintosh users need the password to edit the artwork (import the PICT
versions).

3.  I thought you might be interested to take a look around, but play the
module completely before you go poking around.  This way, none of your fun will
be spoiled (if you fun is spoiled, you'll be pulling out those 40th level
characters anyway, so...).

I still have plenty of other stories and characters to meet on the land of Drym
(AND the mainland).  If you want a part 3, let me know.

I can be reached on America Online as GlenDB.  Enjoy!
