In Exile: Escape from the Pit, you were cast into the underworld by the Empire. In Exile II: Crystal Souls, you claimed the pit as your own and fought off the Empire. In Exile III: Ruined World, you battled to return home, to return to the surface and the sunlight you thought you had lost forever.
Now, with Blades of Exile, the adventures continue. On the surface, rebellion is brewing. In Exile, a new war is tearing the subterranean nation apart. There's plenty of war and strife, and plenty of chances for a band of adventurers to make their fortunes!
Blades of Exile is a classic role-playing game originally created by Spiderweb Software in 1997. It wasn't just a game – it was an adventure construction kit. In addition to shipping with three large adventures, you could download dozens of free user-created scenarios from their website, and if you were ambitious, you could even make your own adventure to share with the world.
Ten years later, in order to ensure that all those user-created scenarios would continue to be playable, Jeff Vogel released the source to the game. A number of eager developers set to work to make it playable on modern computers, with some success.
Blades of Exile uses an upgraded version of the Exile III engine and comes with three full adventures and one short adventure:
- The Valley of Dying Things
- The introductory adventure. In Skylark Vale, everything is dying, the animals, the plants, the people. You have been sent to find out why. Unfortunately, you're dealing with a bizarre foe unlike any you've ever fought before.
- A Small Rebellion
- You are the Empire's weapon to end the decades long rebellion on Morrow's Isle. The more you learn, however, the more unclear it is who you should be fighting for. An open ended scenario design lets you decide which side to end up on!
- The Za-Khazi Run
- Fort Cavalier will fall to its attackers in 3 weeks, unless you can get a shipment of powerful magic to them in time. Between you and them? Hundreds of miles of the nastiest, twistiest caves in the underworld. Better hurry ... dawdle, and all will be lost.
- Bandit Busywork
- A short adventure created by Jeff Vogel some time after the game's release, as a demonstration of how much can be done in a small scenario. It was originally quite rough around the edges, full of typos and such; this is being worked on for the open source release. The scenario follows your party into a remote valley with a bandit problem.