Setting is similar to Forgotten Realms but not the same world and takes a couple of ideas from Planescape.
Gameplay Length
7+ Hours.
Language
English
Races
All
Tricks & Traps
Medium
Roleplay
Medium
Hack & Slash
Medium
Classes
All
Scope
Medium
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
05
Max # Players
01
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
01
Content Rating
Mature
Gameplay Hours
07
Description
You have hired yourself out as a guard to a wandering magical supplies merchant called Herent Aylomeigers. The arrangement with Herent is a little unusual.
Recommended for levels 1-5. Herent will give you level 3 if you ask him. You should be around level 9-10 by the end of the module.
Tested with Paladin, Fighter and Wizard characters. Henchmen will be available to balance gameplay.
Rated mature for a small amount of partial nudity and some themes that may not be appropriate for children.
Features:
A varied subterranean world to explore designed by me using crayons and graph paper.
Some dialog that is meant to be humorous, and some that isn't.
Henchmen made using the Module Builders Henchman Kit for people who don't want to go it alone.
Implementation of David Corrales Anti-Theft script for would be ne'er-do-well.
A fair amount of scripting by myself, including puzzles and combat encounters.
A friend was kind enough to 'spoil' me a little by telling me that there was indeed a way back up, I just had not explored so far yet. It worked, yet alas it was too little, too late, and the magic in the mod was gone already. I dropped the diff to easy and raced through the rest of he mod. Out of an autoamtic 10 that I wanted so badly to give to this module: 1 point for the endless running up and down in the beginning. 1 point for having me solve an extensive, complicated puzzle to be able to enter a room, inside which was a machine which *BROKE* as soon as I touched it and ended the quest. What a letdown that was. 1 point for pretending to have a henchman healing system when half the time it doesn't work, no reaise dead scrolls, leaving me to play the save-reload cycle game, which I hate. All in all a 7 for what could have been a fantastic mod but turned out to be just a letdown. 7 actually seems a little high. But I'll leave it at that.
Posted by Tropico at on06/18/06
Well, I gave it a good shot but... I think I'll be 'shelving' this mod for while. I'm just fed up with running up and down, up and down, up and down. Having to walk the entire dungeon levels from top to bottom and back each time I have an artifact for the mage or a note for the sheriff. Please. Pity, because otherwise this mod was gonna be an easy 10. Oh well.
Posted by Tropico at on06/18/06
Alright I've managed to 'tame' the henchmen: I took away all their melee weapons and set the dialog options to maintain ranged attack, keep a long distance away and always keep stealth on. Stealth was the key; apparently it's the only way to convince them to hang back and shoot while I'm in the melee. But all cool now. Also I've discovered why going back and forth to the camp isn't necessary in the first place. Very nice.
Posted by Tropico at on06/18/06
Scratch my previous comment about the henchman system, they will actually often die permanently, bypassing the whole system entirely, which, having no ready access to raise dead scrolls, ends up being very annoying anyway. Plus the fact that no matter what setting you put them on, no matter how far you tell them to stay away, they will always end up just rushing into the middle of combat and being killed. I realize this stuff probably isn't the failing of the module author itself, but rather of the scripts he chose, or something like that. Still, annoying. I will probably just end up soloing the entire damn dungeon.
Posted by Tropico at on06/18/06
Is there some fast way to move from camp to mine that I'm missing? Or is one supposed to run all the way back and forth from the dungeon level up to the camp and then back down again every single time? I'm giving the benefit of the doubt for now because the rest of the mod is just so good... but... seems like a pretty big and annoying oversight to have in the game.
Posted by Tropico at on06/18/06
Im in the middle of playing this mod. So far I'm loving it. Excellent pacing, dialog, dungeon design, and monster variety. Very good money/magic balancing, keeps it active but interesting. Characters and story are engaging and interesting -without- the need for a lot of text and overly verbose descriptions... very well done, that. And the henchman dying-healing system is brilliant, just bad enough to make you go "Dammit!!" but just soft enough to not take away any fun from the gameplay. Well done. I'll be back to give a vote when I'm done.
Posted by mattd at 2006-06-1711:59:47
@Alabore Thanks for leaving the feedback, and sorry to hear that you had such a frustrating time with the module. As you might have guessed I don't use Oldmanbeards henchmen system myself and don't really know how it works. As I said in the readme I'm using the "Module Builders Henchman Kit" with a limit of 2 henchmen and that may be what is causing the problem. I'll go back and check the docs and see if I can find anything I messed up myself. Could be that the 2 arn't compatible unless you are very careful. The ending bothers me as well, think I might take another look at it.
Posted by Vidal at on06/17/06
Pretty good module in two parts, the first one being just a prelude. The way to deal with the mod transition was quite clever and helps to set the mood of the relationship with your employer. The main dungeon area is actually a bit confusing, but nothing that a seasoned player couldn?t handle. It is a good adventure with some nice conversations and even an interesting plot twist. It is well worth a try? recommended.
Posted by Alabore at on06/19/06
Interesting and challenging, at Hardcore lev. Encountered a weird bug with henchman cap, though. * SPOILER * I have Oldmanbeard's Henchman System in my override folder. I managed to hire two in-game henchmen; then rested, Linkboy joined us, then we went underground. Found the Outsider Wizard in Solitary Cell, had her join. Travelled on some more, loading and reloading without a prob. Encountered some resistance, so went back to surface, and hired Barbarian henchwoman, and OHDAed [dropped] the OHS Linkboy. Went down again with 4 in-game henchies. Didn't know about the 2-max cap, yet. Entered crypt with respawning zombies and Drow raiding party. Got defeated. They are tougher with AI overrides. Reloaded. Only two henchwomen remained, Wizard and Barbarian. Rogue and Cleric quit; found them lying just outside main chamber. Dropped Wizard and Barbarian. Saved. Reloaded. Tried to rehire Rogue and Cleric but they had turned Hostile. Had to face them - while the Drows were fending the zombies off! Managed to defeat my former henchies, rehired my surviving henchies, faced Drows, Drows killed off Barbarian, and, well, got tired of reloading... :D To make a longwinded story short: went on with Outsider Wizard alone. Later fights vs Constructs proved tough, so I had to turn difficulty down a notch. I don't know what caused henchies to turn against me. Maybe a faction issue. Module seemed good, but it behaved strangely on me, probably because of the extra stuff in my override folder. I would agree with review: it requires much more than 5 hours. Curious or greedy players might spend twice as much, exploring every single nook and cranny, and waiting for the next respawning undead. Managed to finish all given quests though. Nice logical puzzles. I would suggest more portals/teleport items. Backtracking is not severe, but once char finds a way up, or down, a shortcut item would come in handy. Also, I agree on the loose ends, and the abrupt ending sequence. As I mentioned elsewhere, an end-game shop where you can retrieve stuff from henchies, and sell module-specific stuff off, would be nice. I'm not voting yet; you might want to look into my henchmen prob first. :)
Posted by hmdai at on05/27/06
Although it is mainly hack'n slash, it does have some interesting elements that keep me going. It is indeed an interesitng mod. :) _________________________ Overlooked Module Report February 2009 | Master List | Forum Thread Academy of Modding Excellence Romance Module List Horror Module Collection Starlight's favorite module list
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