Neverending Nights

Race: Invisible Stalker
Occupation: Spy for the Starless Legion
Place of Birth: Old Lanta
Known Relatives: Mother (Unknown Name), Father (Unknown Name)
First Appearance: Neverending Nights – Episode 44: “Seeing The Unseen”
History: As an Invisible Stalker, David was recruited by the Black Dragon, Obsidian to be spy. Obsidian had suspected that her sister, Crimson was becoming overly greedy (as well as too powerful) as she continued to spread her influence over the land. Obsidian sent David to penetrate her defenses and gather as much information as he possibly could. David had successfully spied on Crimson and her growing Legion several times, until dumb luck and misfortune landed David in a locked cell. A glowing, magical weapon had captured David’s attention that had been left in a cell. He had gone in to investigate the magical item, when one of the Crimson Draco Legion saw the prison door open and – without realizing it – closed it on David, trapping him within the cell. David knew he could not make any protest or noise, or else it would give up his location and reveal himself.

He made several attempts to escape the prison cell over the many years that passed; but there was never enough room to squeeze by and make his escape. He had hoped that Obsidian would send someone to rescue her most loyal spy – but that day never came. So there he rotted away in prison, forever trapped – knowing that if he said anything to give away his location, he would be tortured and killed by Crimson.

He even attempted to escape when Peter and Grayson were rescued by Amiee the Armorer; but even she had shut the gate behind them, trapping David within his cell once again. When Ruth the Redeemed came, seeking Peter and Grayson (to help them) – and discovered that they had already been liberated by Amiee, Ruth freed all the other prisoners to form a rebellion and help her and Pawl the Dorf escape in the confusion. However, seeing no one in that cell – she never opened that cell door.

It is believed, to this very day, David the Invisible Stalker remains trapped within that cell.

Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Unknown

Accessories:

POWER: David, as an Invisible Stalker, is permanently invisible.

Race: Gnome
Occupation: Wizard
Place of Birth: Gnome Mountain
Known Relatives: Mother (Unknown Name), Father (Unknown Name)
First Appearance: Neverending Nights – Episode 17: Heroes Bar & Keep
History: Daniel, as a young gnome, suffered greatly from “The Little Man Syndrome.” As far back as to his early days in school, Daniel had always turned to magic to win a fight (a blind spell here, a fire ball there). He had never intended to harm anyone using his magic, but his over eagerness (and his amazing ability to ramble at incredible speeds) often “disrupted” how a spell was supposed to work – and typically, the results were far more serious than he had intended (permanent blindness here, a burning hospital there). All he had ever wanted was for people to respect him (and cower before his magical might, was a nice side effect). Instead, Daniel was branded as Daniel the Destructive.

Alan the Astounding, a Halfling Wizard, took notice of Daniel the Destructive’s potential, however. Alan (“The Astounding!”) took Daniel under his wing and made him a part of Alan’s Academy (often referred to as “AA”). Though Alan the Astounding did teach Daniel some new magic spells (never to be called “magic tricks”), Alan (“The Astounding!”)’s constant drinking had Alan unconscious more often than not. Daniel the Destructive questioned him, Alan (“The Astounding!”) explained that they would begin working on a magical potion that would change the world. However, Daniel wasn’t fooled. Alan actually had Daniel brewing beer for Alan. Despite this, Daniel actually enjoyed brewing beer and began doing so regularly.

Proud of his brewing skills, Daniel eventually left Alan’s Academy and returned home to Gnome Mountain. Within Gnome Mountain, Daniel was approached by a human, adorned in black armor, with a red dragon crest on his chest (he also carried a massive staff, with a red dragon claw holding a crystal at the top). The human told Daniel that he too, like Daniel was a mage, and that he could help Daniel’s brew become even more tasty. Daniel believed him and allowed the man to tamper with the barrels of Daniel’s brew.

During the Brew Fest, it was Daniel’s beer kegs that exploded as Daniel entered the room and cast a simply Dazzle Spell to mark his entrance. The explosion was so massive that it left an enormous crater at the top of Gnome Mountain (the incident heard around the world as “The Explosion Of Gnome Mountain”). Remarkably, no one was hurt, other than a slight case of short term memory loss that Daniel experienced; however, Daniel’s title as “Daniel the Destructive” returned. When Daniel examined the barrels of beer, he discovered that magical runes had been placed on them, so that a simple spell would ignite them. Someone had set him up for failure; however, thanks to the short term memory loss, he did not recall the mysterious figure who had tampered with his barrels of beer, just before the explosion.

Ashamed of the damage he had caused, Daniel the Destructive once again left Gnome Mountain. He wanted to go out into the world and show that he was a good person. That he was capable of great deeds.

It was because of this, Daniel’s life would take an interesting turn. While at the Docks of Port City, Daniel met Andrea the Assassin. Andrea seemed initially annoyed by Daniel’s presence (and constant rambling), and when she excused herself and returned a short while later, she seemed much more friendly and warmed up to Daniel. She explained that two people had stolen a very magical sword from her, and that she needed it back. Daniel recognized his as his chance to do good and make amends, and prove, once and for all, he was a good person.

Little did he know that Andrea was an Assassin for the Crimson Draco Legion; the very same army who served the Crimson Dragon, and had been responsible for the barrels of beer exploded in Gnome Mountain.

Daniel had agreed to help Andrea, and the two of them embarked on their quest to hunt down Peter and Grayson. Along the way, Daniel began to question Andrea’s intentions, as she seemed to have an unusual cruel streak at times. However, there was no doubting her courage as she faced down an Eye Tyrant in the Plains of Desolation. When they encountered the goblins in the Stonefrost Caves, and learned that Peter and Grayson had just passed through; she commanded Daniel to cast a spell that would encourage the goblins to help her. Daniel had merely meant to summon a Earth Elemental that would take part of the Dance Off; and had it won, the goblins would be forced to help. However, Daniel’s magic was still wild and uncontrollable and the Earth Elemental began attacking the goblins instead. Albert, Bob and Charlie all agreed to help Andrea and Daniel.

Later, when Evil Foo killed two additional goblins that had agreed to come along – Ellen and Dink – Andrea immediately in turn, killed Evil Foo. Daniel thought that perhaps Andrea was not so bad after all since she avenged the fallen goblins. (However, Andrea was simply annoyed that someone had killed her servants; she did not do it for revenge or justice, but because she had been inconvenienced).

When Andrea and Daniel finally caught up to Peter and Grayson, it was revealed that Grayson and Andrea had been dating a long time ago in Galana – and a Silver Dragon appeared during the conversation. The Silver Dragon, sensing that a spell had been blocking a part of Daniel the Destructive’s memory, easily removed the memory dampening spell, allowing Daniel’s true memory of the events of Gnome Mountain to return. Rather than teleporting them all to the Crimson Mother Dragon, Daniel teleported Peter, Grayson, Pawl the Dorf and the Silver Dragon to her, leaving Daniel and Andrea in the cavern alone. Daniel confronted Andrea about her being a member of the Crimson Draco Legion; the very legion that had tampered with his barrels of beer, that caused the explosion of Gnome Mountain.

Andrea was ashamed of all that she had done and asked for Daniel’s forgiveness; which he gave her. Andrea gave Daniel a scroll that explained everything the Crimson Draco had done; including the tampering of Daniel’s beer barrels. Daniel took the scroll and returned to Gnome Mountain, where he was cleared of the damage and began the rebuilding of Gnome Mountain, where his peers now called him Daniel the Determined.

Daniel couldn’t help but wonder – what had the Crimson Draco Legion hoped to accomplish by blowing the top off of Gnome Mountain? That part of the scroll had been blacked out, so that not even Andrea knew their intentions…

Eyes: Brown
Hair: Bald

Accessories:
STAFF: Daniel the Destructive has a magical staff. If he knows how to properly use it remains unknown.

Race: Dragon
Occupation: Red Dragon, Leader of Crimson Draco Legion
Place of Birth: Realm of Dragons
Known Relatives: Ankalagun (The All Father of Chromatic Dragons – Deceased), Skatha (The All Mother of Chromatic Dragons – Unknown), Obsidian (Black Dragon – Sister), Cobalt (Blue Dragon – Sister), Emerald (Green Dragon – Sister), Frostmourn (White Dragon – Sister)
First Appearance: (Voice Is Heard) Episode Nineteen: ‘The Hunt’, (In Human Form) Episode 38: Mandatory Flashbacks, (In Dragon Form) Episode Fourty-Two: ‘Oh Mother Dearest’
History: Over two thousand years ago, Dragons roamed the world. During this time, the Chromatic Dragons (Black, Blue, Green, Red, and White) was at constant war with the Metallic Dragons (Brass, Bronze, Copper, Gold and Silver). The resulting War of Dragons changed the land so much, that both sides realized that soon there would be nothing to fight over. The Dragons made the agreement to leave the Realm of Mortals and return to the Realm of Dragons.

For one thousand years after this peace treaty, Dragons had become a thing of myth. However, the Chromatic Dragons had been deceitful in their agreement. They had returned to the World of Mortals, in the guise of humanoids (pretending to be humans). Disguised as humans, they began creating Legions of Soldiers that swore to their Order. The idea had been to create one large Legion to challenge the Metallic Dragons and destroy them; but the Chromatic Dragons in their greed, could not even trust one another – and thus factions were created. Crimson, the Red Dragon, created her legion – The Crimson Draco Legion.

Of all the Chromatic Dragons, Crimson was clearly the most powerful as well as the most deceitful. She purposely sought out those who felt spurned by other humans, and like her fiery breath – she forged that hatred into loyalty to her cause, as she promised the one thing each of them always wanted – revenge. One of those people was a sweet, young woman by the name of Ruth. She sensed much anger simmering in Ruth’s heart and used it to make her loyal. Ruth quickly rose through the ranks of the Crimson Draco Legion. The only person to hold a higher position was The Crimson Captain.

Crimson entrusted her with the mission of finding the Blade of Destiny – said to be forged by the Dwarves when Dragons still walked the world. Rumor had it that it could kill Dragons, in the hands of the ‘Bloodline.’ Ruth, who had changed her name and appearance (to look and sound more menacing) to Andrea the Assassin – had tracked the blade down to a vendor named Ronald, within Stonefrost City. She questioned him about the blade, and once she learned that he had sold the blade only a few weeks ago – she killed him.

Andrea sent a message to Crimson, who then informed her to seek out Daniel the Destructive. Together Andrea and Daniel tracked down the new owners of the blade. However, in a twist of fate, Grayson – who happened to be a part of the Bloodline – found courage in his heart and struck the blade deep into Crimson’s chest, causing a massive explosion.

Crimson had been slain.

Eyes: Red (As Dragon), Red (As Human)
Hair: N/A (As Dragon), Auburn (As Human)

Accessories:

WEAPON: As a Dragon, Crimson was capable of ancient magic. She also possessed a fiery breath weapon that was said to be hotter than any known fire.

… and are you talking about the comic strip called B.C.?

No. This is in reference to a game.

Oh, you must mean B.C.’s Quest for Tires?

Grrr…

Truth of the matter, this dates back to 1990, when myself, and my good friend at the time, Shawn Corum, were dreamers.

You see, at the time there was a massive computer company known as Sierra On-Line, Inc.

But first, a little history about Sierra.

Sierra was founded by husband and wife power couple, Ken and Roberta Williams. Ken was the technical side with knowledge of programming and Roberta was the creative side, with her mind full of wild ideas – ideas that she presented to Ken, who didn’t think some of which was possible. Originally they had wanted to develop software for the new Apple II computer, but Roberta had much grander ideas! Roberta, who had loved the text adventure games (side note – I too was a fan of text adventure games, and made my own called Final Soul – go on, check it out! It opens a new window and runs on modern machines now!) had wanted to bring graphical adventures to the Apple II computers!

This seemed like an impossible notion, until Ken banged his head against the computer several times and found a way to code such a thing – as rough as it might be, they’d discovered a way to add graphics to their “text adventure” game – and thus developed Mystery House.

In 1983, IBM contacted Ken and Roberta Williams and had asked them to develop a game for their PCjr. They would go on to develop the Adventure Game Interpreter (which would quickly simply be called the AGI engine). This AGI engine would go on to be used for the first set of games that Sierra would go on to develop!

In 1984, Sierra would release King’s Quest for the PCjr, which, tragically did not do so well. But when Tandy released the Tandy 1000 (I posted about my own Tandy 1000 SX on here, and also had a picture on another site I run over at Larry Laffer, with me dressed as Leisure Suit Larry standing in front of my Tandy 1000 SX!) – and Ken and Roberta decided to try it on the superior computer, as well as the Apple II – and in this case the game was met with immediate success! This would cause Sierra to employ more games, along the same lines…

• Al Lowe created Leisure Suit Larry
• Mark Crowe & Scott Murphy created Space Quest
• Jim Walls created Police Quest

And this was just the beginning! In 1988 Sierra created a new “game engine” called Sierra’s Creative Interpreter which would go on to simply be called SCI. It was far more complex, allowed for text parser and EGA (16 color) graphics. King’s Quest IV (that’s right, Sierra had already made up to King’s Quest IV by this point!) had originally been released in the AGI engine, was then released with this new SCI engine!

Also at this time, Sierra would bring on others, such as…

• Lori and Corey Cole created Hero’s Quest (which, due to some legal issues with Mattel, who had a board game called Hero Quest, they would go on to change the game’s title later to Quest for Glory).

In 1990, Sierra looked unstoppable. Sierra released King’s Quest V with their new SCI1 (newly improved SCI engine) that now allowed for a stunning 256 colors. The game would go on to sell over 500,000 copies – the first time any Sierra game had done so!

This propelled Sierra ever forward. In 1991 they launched something called The Sierra Network, which was a service you could log into and chat, play games, etc. Oh, it had a monthly fee (or hourly fee), and trust me – it was not cheap. But as someone who was an avid user of it (and spent more time than I probably should have on it!) – it also happened to be where I would end up meeting the woman who would become my wife years later.

Sierra didn’t stop there… they brought on…

• Jane Jensen created the critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight, which included voice actors such as Mark Hamill (you might know him as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, among the thousands! of other voices he now does) and Tim Curry (oh, you know, from a few minor things such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Muppet Treasure Island, Legend and my all time favorite movie, Clue)!

In 1995 they made FMV (full motion video) games such as Phantasmagoria, which was by Roberta Williams, who’d made the King’s Quest series – and she even said it was her favorite game to have worked on! (Side note – it’s such a fantastic game! I have so many great memories tied to that game!)

So how does this all relate to the title of “B.C. Quest”…

Well, see back there where Sierra had made games that all had “Quest” somewhere in the title… that was just some of them (King’s Quest, Police Quest, Hero’s Quest/Quest for Glory, Space Quest) – there were other games too (EcoQuest, Conquest of Camelot/Conquest of the Longbow, The Colonel’s BeQuest)

Well, there Shawn and I were… 20 years old, dreaming big… We looked at what Sierra had done…

• They made a real life city game in a modern world (Police Quest)
• They made a comedy adult game (Leisure Suit Larry)
• They covered the fantasy game (King’s Quest and Quest for Glory)
• They covered futuristic (Space Quest)
• They covered the ocean/economic (EcoQuest)
• They covered legends (Conquest of Camelot/Conquest of the Longbow)
• They covered murder mysteries (The Colonel’s Bequest)

What had they not covered yet?

Prehistoric!

So Shawn and I got to scribbling down ideas. We had a board, where we were drawing out the map, different quest ideas, how the game would progress, different puzzle ideas, we drew a rough map using (I can’t remember the name of it now, but it was essentially Windows Paint… it might have even been called Paint even way back then) and I did some coding using QBasic to try and mimic how some of it might work.

Our game featured a character named Duh Ugg (pronounced “Doug”) who was a caveman, and had his father’s brother (Ugg Kull) who had “ventured beyond” – and now Duh Ugg wanted to do the same. In our game “B.C.” did not stand for Before Christ, rather it stood for “Before Civilization.” Because as Duh Ugg travels, he ends up falling through a lake and getting frozen. However, he’d awake much, much later, washing ashore – and the world has drastically changed. It was now 1990!

It took several months – but the two of us had actually developed a game idea from start to finish. The next part I am not super clear – if we reached out to Sierra and got an NDA or if we worked with Shawn’s dad who developed an NDA for us.

Anyway, we took all of this stuff, printed it out and saved it on a disk as a PDF and sent it on the way to Sierra.

We actually got a reply.

And it was crushing. But also great.

I wish I still had all the letters I used to get back from Sierra (at the time, I was very actively writing into their InterAction magazine – usually those correspondences were with – I am pretty sure it was Bridget McKenna – but I don’t think it was her who replied to our game idea… I can’t remember who that was).

However, it’d gone along the lines of: What you have here is a collection of very wonderful ideas. This looks like it would be a fun game to play and it looks like the two of you put a lot of time, effort and love into this – and this is something we at Sierra love to see! We want our developers to have that passion and drive! And we love seeing that our games have inspired both of you to take this step! However, I am sad to say that Sierra released a game in 1983 called B.C.’s Quest for Tires.

What they said after that, I can’t remember. But it was pretty much “Keep trying and never give up.”

So what’s this about?

Well, I was in a recent discussion on the Sierra Help Forums talking about this… and I dug up the game box we designed and the manual we designed and all of that… and scanned it… along with the “promotional photos” we’d sent with our proposal… and figured, why not post them here for archiving sake? Even though it has nothing to do with Neverending Nights, I truly doubt I would have made Neverending Nights without Sierra… because Sierra was another step in fueling my creativity.

So let’s take a look…

The Mug!

That’s right. We went hard. When we came up with this whole idea, we were so confident this was going to work out, we got ourselves each a mug… I still have mine to this day!

The Promotional Photo(s)… There was more than one?

The “promotional photo” we included with our yellow envelope was this one…

Side note… the bear “rug” on my shoulders… those glasses were from Pizza Hut, from, probably a Back to the Future promotion or something… Edit: My wild guess was correct, it was Back to the Future II… I knew it was Pizza Hut, because I was or had been working there…

But there were other photos we’d taken…

Here are some more scattered photos with the B.C. Quest cover, my mother & father’s dog with our thing we’d made on the sheet, and stuff…

So let’s show off the box art and such, since the above photos barely show them… here’s some scans…

The Box (click the images to see the full size)

Because I didn’t want to use (and lose) an original Sierra disk sleeve, I’d made several “fake” Sierra disk sleeves such as this (this one has the 5.25″ disk that probably, if it still works, actually has text files we put our notes on… sadly, I don’t have a 5.25″ drive anymore to find out what’s on this disk…)

We also loved how Hero’s Quest/Quest for Glory had a little extra manual, so we’d created the same thing…

The Caveman’s Survival Guide

And finally…

The instruction manual

Even though this never became the game we’d dreamed it would be… it became the memory I will never forget, regardless.

• Tawmis.

Race: Human
Occupation: Captain of the Crimson Draco Legion
Place of Birth: Fiezur
Known Relatives: Mother (Unknown Name), Father (Unknown Name)
First Appearance: Episode Fifty: ‘Destiny or Chance?’
History: Very little information is known about the Captain of the Crimson Guard. The only thing known about him before his life as a member of the Crimson Draco Legion, is that he hailed from the distant shore of Fiezur. Under the ruthless and horrid rule of Komp’khaun, a barbaric and idiotic king, the man whose name time has forgotten stole a small sailing boat one night and sailed for new lands. A storm of incredible magnitude blew him off course, and set the small sailing ship sailing into the much feared waters of the Scarasea Oceans, where thousands of shipwrecks pierced the dark oceans, like jagged claws reaching out of the ocean. His skip was overcome by pirates who took him and beat him relentlessly, simply for the sake of entertainment. However, one night, the man whose name time has forgotten – broke free, and murdered the captain of the ship and took over. Thus begun the days of his name simply being known as ‘The Captain.’

His ruthlessness on the seas captured the attention of the Red Dragon, Crimson, who attacked his ship and slammed it into a small, abandoned island. She killed his crew and offered him a chance to either die on the small island or to become a member of her Crimson Draco Legion. The man accepted the position within the Crimson Draco Legion, surprised to see that dragons ever existed (they had not been seen by the eyes of Mortals in several thousand years). He quickly rose through the ranks within the Crimson Draco Legion. Within a year, he was Crimson’s most trusted agent. She trusted a scroll to him that spoke of a highly urgent mission.

The Crimson Captain, as he had been promoted to, ventured to Gnome Mountain where he spoke to a Gnome there named Daniel the Delightful. He told Daniel that he could help his brew become even more tasty (for the Gnomish Brew Festival). Daniel believed him and allowed the man to tamper with the barrels of Daniel’s brew. During the Brew Fest, it was Daniel’s beer kegs that exploded as Daniel entered the room and cast a simply Dazzle Spell to mark his entrance. The explosion was so massive that it left an enormous crater at the top of Gnome Mountain (the incident heard around the world as “The Explosion Of Gnome Mountain”). Remarkably, no one was hurt – as that had not been the intention.

The Crimson Captain was searching for something that had been buried – seeking to awaken something – something that had been noted in the scroll given to him by Crimson. When it did not yield the results he had hoped for, he returned to Crimson.

When Crimson was defeated and killed by Peter and Grayson, it was the Crimson Captain who led the manhunt to track down the two. It was in the City of Pomtom, where the Captain of the Crimson Draco Legion suspected Gariff and Kabewse of being Peter and Grayson, since they wore the same colored armor. This was the first – time, confirmed – that the Knights had ever removed their helmets. Whatever the Captain of the Draco Legion saw in their faces, was enough to give him pause – and in the end, excuse them. Amiee the Armorer had contacted Ann the Armorer, in the City of Ator, to make armor that was exactly like Gariff and Kabewse’s, and was able to easily bypass the Crimson Draco Legion hunting party – who believed it was the two Knights that they had previously questioned.

The Crimson Captain still leads the Crimson Draco Legion, who has vowed to one day have their vengeance against Peter and Grayson.

Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Unknown

Accessories:

WEAPON: The Crimson Claw Staff. This Staff is supposed to grant the owner the same powers as the Crimson Dragon.