[Cerek the Barbaric]

There is a "loophole" in the NWN Engine that will help you improve your chances of finding the heavy crossbow (or any other item) you seek.

SPOILER AHEAD
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Unlike the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights will allow you to SAVE a game during the middle of a fight!!! So if you want to improve your odds of finding treasure or magic that your character can use...just wait until you have a Big Boss at Near Death - then Save the Game!

Each time you kill him/her, you will find different items in the chests located in that room (and often on the Boss themselves). The determination is random, but does seem to follow a certain logical pattern.

For instance, each Big Boss Fight will usually reward you with one Big Magic Item. This item will change with each encounter, but it seems to cycle through items usable by various classes. The first time, it might be a sword or axe. Next, it might be a club or mace. After that, maybe a cloak or perhaps a rod or wand.

The point is that - if you do it enough times - you will eventually find an item your character can use for something other than pawning at the local tavern.

Of course, you could always SAVE your Character and bring him/her into Ziroc's Mod - Escape From Undermountain. You will find a TON of treasure there. Then you can go back to your regular NWN game, open it as a multiplayer game using Local Internet/LAN, and re-insert your character in the same spot, but with some nice new items.

Escape from Undermountain requires at least a Level 7 character (either single classed or combined levels) to survive for very long, but you can always just Search the chests and barrels in the Main Hall and upstairs, then come down and sell them to Durnan. This will build up your gold fast. Also, most encounters on Level One (but not all) are survivable by lower level characters as long as you're careful..and there is some nice treasure there also.

Once you have enough gold, you can always just buy a heavy crossbow from Durnan...he has a most awesome supply of items in his store.