It has been a while since we’ve checked in with Melavir Sauin Dragon and his ongoing work on The Sosarian Paradox. This, if you don’t recall, is a Neverwinter Nights-based remake of Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash, the rare 1983 Sierra On-Line game that sits awkwardly in the Ultima canon.

The biggest news from Melavir lately is that his work on the remake has progressed far enough that he feels confident in declaring the third act of its story complete, a point he elaborates on briefly in this message on the Ultima Dragons Discord server:

Act 3 is complete! I finally made it to the Epilogue!

It’s been a long road (which officially began at the start of March 2025) … and the end is now within my sights.

I’m set now to connect “The First Age of Darkness” to “Revenge of the Enchantress” with this game set between them, based on “Escape from Mount Drash.”

SOON ENOUGH, I’ll release a Beta Version for anyone willing to playtest it. I need to make sure it’s playable for ALL character professions.

There’s not a lot of detail about the specific content or plot path of this act of the remake, although (based on earlier messages in the same Discord channel), it would seem that quite a few Monty Python jokes and Easter eggs have been woven into the story.

Melavir also released a number of sample images of the various loading screens that the remake will feature.

I thought I’d tighten up the number of loadscreens I’m using for my “Ultima” module using the Neverwinter Nights 1: EE engine. Instead of 1 for each area (now around 100), I shortened them to 8 … and I’d like to share them with you now!

A couple you may recognize: Shadowguard, the Nexus of the Worlds, the Abandoned City from Mars … and of course, Sosaria and the twin moons: Trammel and Felucca.

Neverwinter Nights is very much an area-based game, not open-world, and transitions between areas in any module for the game are quite frequent. As such, loading screens are commonly-encountered, and Melavir has done what he can to make the screens you encounter as you play the module feel relevant and Ultima-themed.

You can follow this thread in the Ultima Dragons Discord server if you’d like to stay abreast of work on this remake.