Generic. Can be fit into any world, and any campaign with little, or no modification.
Gameplay Length
If one is motivated enough, I assume you could race through in a couple of hours. If you're thorough, and like to explore, expect around 5 or 6 hours of play, possibly more.
Number Players
I suggest a party of at least 3, but a party of 4 or 5 will function best. Single players may have difficulty in parts.
Language
English
Level Range
14 - 25
Races
Any
Tricks & Traps
Heavy
Roleplay
Light
Hack & Slash
Heavy
Classes
A balanced party will always do better, and a character with at least 8 levels in rogue. All things plot should be able to be opened/bashed by those not having a rogue. A rogue will help a party find more treasure and traps.
Scope
Medium
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player or Multiplayer
Max Character Level
25
Max # Players
06
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
14
Content Rating
Teen
Alignments
All alignments supported.
Gameplay Hours
06
Description
The Autarch has a problem. His kingdom is on the brink of war, and his royal viziers tell him the only hope for the future lies in gaining three unique magical items, each of surpassing power. But the items are held by guardians of such evil that the viziers tremble at the thought of facing one, let alone all three. Recovering those items means almost certain death.
The Autarch glances down at his desk, noting a message from this morning. Spies report the arrival of adventurers, ones of some renown. Instantly, he has the solution to his problem. Adventurers can get those items. They'll do anything for money.
Even if it kills them.
PnP Original source by: Steve Winter and Laura Craig
((Please Note that this adventure is incomplete, but it's only missing one final area with a bit of role-play at the very very end of the module. Hence, this is why the version is marked as Beta, but it should be bug-free. The DM Guide is still being written, and I hope to have this uploaded at the same time as version 1.0. More info in the Readme file.))
Any feedback, bug reports, rants, praise or what-have-you is not only welcomed, but encouraged and appreciated. There might be small bugs or typos, and if you find any, I'd love to hear about them, so they can be fixed.
Posted by werelynx2 at 2012-08-20 14:22:26 Voted 9.25 on 05/05/12
Now that I look at it, the ending was never done, I wonder what would happen to the Autarch after using that helmet... _________________________ Thanks Rolo:)
Posted by werelynx2 at 2012-05-05 04:15:23 Voted 9.25 on 05/05/12
Enjoyable. Started with 24 lvl Bard/RDD solo. Would love to see the final room, I was suspecting the Autarch to get corrupted and attack me. Maybe even I could be a general in the upcoming war?
- some critters gave me only like 3 XPs
- disenchanting does not wear off for rings, but thanks god you can avoid that corridor using secret passages
- every time I load the game and have the withering staff in my inventory I get my levels sucked. Not worth the trouble, sold it.
- too much loot for single player(especially in tower), run out of place
- some stuff is undroppable, even after the end, maybe make better clearing and export PC at the end(bandages, death rules and statistics etc.)
- can't rest even with supplies(both types), resorted to only restful objects
- walkthrough would be nice
- in some place windows in the tileset are placed wrongly, like you see green mountains underground in the tower or in the palace where there should be wall on the other side of a window.
- ale kegs in the tower - the most cunning trap I've encountered so far: charges you with 2GPs each time you click, why? Oh why?\
- "autacrh" typo - vizier about tomb
- in one place in the tomb(embalming room I think), when I used a rope near pit trap it(rope placeable) spawned at the other end of the hall(by the way there is a respawning encounter in that area)
- no merchant buys stolen items(like traps)
- annulus is not taken from me in the end(by the way funny name for an artefact) _________________________ Thanks Rolo:)
Posted by murf09 at 2009-12-10 18:44:34 Voted 9.25 on 12/10/09
I started TTT with a 15/7 Fighter/Thief. It went well, combat was good on Hardcore. The Tower Boss was a bit too tough with a ranged touch that killed. Ghool, thanks for a great mod.
Ghool
belay that request about the enchantment loss, I figured it out after reading the comments and managed to complete part one with the hesper and get out of the Pit.
So far this has been quite a challenge, and well worth playing.
I am not a big fan of complex puzzles where there are a myriad combinations cause they usually stump me but so far so good. _________________________ micon
Can you explain how to get your enchantments back from the cloud of dust! I can''t figure this out and it seems pretty stupid if the loss is permanent. I mean how am I to replace them, no shop. Leaves me totally defenseless and
utterly perplexed.
I read the posts and it seem that this effect is not permanent so I will try again and see if this effect goes away by itself although I am not hopeful as I waited for a long time.
ps. Hope you get a new PC soon, I would love a newer one myself but affording one is a another story.
best regards
Micon _________________________ micon
I know about that rat room, and I 'thought' I had fixed it, by only having the generators fire a fixed number of times. My guess is, I didn't, based on your feedback. There were a couple issues on your list which I was planning to fix some time before I ran into PC problems. ;p
Unfortunately, I can no longer fix anything, let alone finish this mod, since my PC got a massive power surge which burned a quarter-sized hole in my MB. Since the PC was so old, I just gave it the ol' heave-ho. I have since been trying to raise the funds for a new PC, but I can't seem to justify a couple thousand dollars for video games (which I no longer play much of anymore). So, I would fix this problem, if I could. But, my current financial situation simply won't allow it. However, one of these days, I do hope to get back to these things, I just can't say when, or even if it will happen.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed what was there. ;)
This is a fantastic mod that has the potential to be a 9.5 or so but there's one script in the third section which, if the player or players take actions the mod-designer didn't intend can, without them having any idea why, slow down and ultimately lock up game play and even perhaps damage your system. This and a couple other things make the mod unrateable as-is.
Specifically, and a spoiler >>
There are rat generators which generate a certain number each round. Without having looked at the details of the two scripts involved I seem to understand that they fire on entry and on exit and then just keep firing over and over and over upon exit even after you've left the area. I had a wizard which walked through the area invisibly, ignoring what were, at that time, the few rats instead of destroying the rat-generators like he was "supposed to". Some while later my system began to slow down and get patchy for no reason that I could tell. This got progressively worse and worse. I tried reloading, restarting, and more to no effect. I finally used a scroll to teleport outside for rest since I was out of spells and hoped that it would be better but no such luck. I then proceeded back in, taking several seconds to walk every 60 feet or so and never really knowing quite where I was at any one time. Retracing my steps I entered the rat room again only this time it was so densely packed with rats that on entry I was actually placed at a random tile far from the door since there was no room there. My familiar was actually placed inside a wall in one corner since there was no room for him. I decided that I'm going to kill these rats just because they're messing up my game and the designer said that he has some heavy resource scripts so I suppose maybe they're supposed to be here. I tried to lay AoE's down on the rats to rapidly clear the room but NWN is just not meant to handle 400+ saving throws all made at once >> game locks up tight and you're lucky if you can ctrl-alt-delete to close program. I had to kill power to my computer. I try it again ... same thing. Finally I blow all my firebrands, chain lightnings, igms, etc. to clear up a couple hundred, maybe only 10% of the total. I cut my way through to my familiar in the corner, pull him out of the wall, and flame him so he can help clear. Unfortunately after some help he starts generating script errors when he tries to cast improved invisibility, presumably due to the sheer numbers of foes >> unsummon him. Then I get creative and use an item to summon a skeletal chieftain ... power attack and cleave should work well I think. I leave and go have lunch while my toon is still hacking away, just trying to clear a path to the generators. I save the game, having made some progress. Reloading later I see that the rats that were stacked on top of one another in some areas have, with the reload, been repositioned and are now once again blocking my way to the generator >> Begin hacking again ... this time all the 20-hour duration buffs are gone and I'm just a mage with a knife. The rats rarely actually fight back at all. I suppose this is because there are just so many of them that even they realize their numbers should be thinned. Leave him hacking, while I take a nap. Come back later and check his xp tally ... yes, he's leveled and killed over 1,500 dire rats and cleared much of the room but he's gone the wrong direction ... need to work my way back to the generators and there are still several hundred rats left. Summon another skeletal chieftain and go do some housework. Yes... we're almost there at last. But, oops, the chieftain ... what's he doing? He's letting the rats force him towards a pit. He falls into the pit! Ooops, that initiates the on exit script. More rats or relocated rats. Sigh. Enter debugmode out of curiosity ... yes... over 292,000 AI overflow errors. Abort game. Reload a game from much earlier.
This was, by far, the most frustrating and bizarre NWN experience I've ever had. It was so frustrating because things were so good up to that point.
Other errors:
In the vizier's description of the third artifact it should be "comprehending". There's one more typo too but I can't recall what it is now.
The rope up to the prayer room from the storage room doesn't work. I went up there with a movetoarea jumptopoint after I had broken down and finally opened up the toolset after the rat fiasco.
The final artifact can't be recovered at all without a rogue because you have to make 30DC open lock checks on plot locks that magic won't work against. That means that no non-rogue can, even in principle, complete the mod solo unless maybe they have a pixie familiar. This should be changed. Remove the plot locking and just raise the hardness &/or hp of the sarcophagus and raise the open lock DC. That way it would be at least possible for a nonrogue to complete. The other option is to just clearly warn people at the start that they won't be able to finish the module without the ability to make a 30 DC open locks check. >> move to area jumptopoint again.
A new scroll of recall is placed in your inventory each and every time you reload a game. That's certainly nice but is it intended?
The mod's finale clearly shows that it's unfinished which is fine, since it was listed as a .99.
I hope this helps. Fix that rat script! NWN should never have 2,000+ monsters shoved into one small map. Faithfulness to a pnp adventure can not justify that many rats.
Unfortunately for me, and everyone else, my PC has decided to implode, and I'm stuck with my Mac. Until such a time as I can get a new PC, which won't be for a long while I assume, I wouldn't expect anything very soon.
That said, I'd like to take a look at what's been done with 1.69.
And who knows, I might have a module or two left in me. ;)
-Ghool
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2008-07-18 09:26:10 Voted 9.75
1.69 is now available *awaits anxiously*
Hey, some people remember your work. :) _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Once 1.69 is official, I'll probably go back and give this module the ending it's been needing. I'll also update the other two, and possibly give everything a bit of a tweak for the new content.
Life's been extremely busy for me since my commissioned miniature painting business has taken off. It's not likely I'll complete the end, since it's been nearly 4 months since I've gotten any feedback or votes, and I just no longer have the time. I'm not sure if there's that much of a demand to see the end of this one anyways.
-Ghool
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2007-10-17 11:52:08 Voted 9.75
Is this mod still going to be updated so we can see the end? _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by TAMAKAS Red Dog at 2007-07-31 20:38:45 Voted 9.50 on 07/31/07
Great mod, I'm loving these pen and paper conversion modules, much more enjoyable than the official campaigns. I soloed my Treasure Hunter rogue through this one (took her through Dungeon of Graves to work up to it) and got her from Level 18 to Level 20. It took every "get out of jail free" card and trick she's collected through her travels from mod to mod to get through some of the fights but it was doable. A henchperson would have been nice at times, but with the way the fights were set up they'd likely have been whittled down to nothing just as bad as my summoned creatures were :-).
I loved the custom items and creatures, though the undroppable items are a bit annoying to have to be stuck with through the mod when I didn't need them. And my heart was crushed when I made it to the end and the final area was still under construction :-(. I'm assuming it has something to do with that locked room with all the chests in it in the palace, but oh well. Great mod nonetheless and I can't wait to tackle Tomb of Horrors next (hopefully I"m high enough level). _________________________ In the beginning there was the end...
Cursed Rats! I'll have to re-do that area again it seems. Thanks for the feedback, and vote Astero! Glad you enjoyed it!
-Ghool
Posted by Astero at 2007-07-10 02:24:59 Voted 10.00 on 07/10/07
I enjoyed the module immensely. Great atmosphere, visually it was exceptional, unique monsters, sufficient loot, nasty traps, puzzles, secret doors, basically what ever your heart desires for a memorable dungeon crawl experience.
*Spoilers*
I soloed the module with a rogue/fighter char and ended it using only one rope. It was nice making it retrievable. Stealth was my best friend :). I fought only when it was necessary and saved a lot. Fighting the Faceless One was the easiest battle, although I expected it to be the hardest. When he died I waited for his remains to appear but nothing. I reloaded and the second time everything worked out fine but I was starting to experience an annoying lag. I found it difficult to make one simple step. I reloaded, same thing. I restarted my pc, same thing. I used a recall scroll to return to the palace and nothing changed. I reloaded again and decided to use a console command to move to another area inside the tomb cause I left some rooms unexplored, so I picked one. Boom, Rats! It seemed like thousands of them. The first time I was in that room, some rats started to show up, so I killed them and then used my rope to descend to another area. I never thought that they will keep reappearing. So that spoiled the fun for me near the end :(.
Despite my misfortune I won't hesitate giving your module a 10, I really had a great time and I will definitely replay this when you add the last area.
*End Spoilers*
Thank you for yet another wonderful module :)
Posted by Scrotok at 2007-06-23 20:43:28 Voted 9.75 on 06/23/07
Amazingly done! Like all of Ghool mods, TTT rocks.
Posted by Scrotok at 2007-06-23 20:41:21 Voted 9.75 on 06/23/07
Ghool,
Just finished the mod -- AWESOME!!! You put a huge amount of work into the mod, and it showed. Thank you so much for keeping my gaming group fully entertained!
Some more feedback:
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
(1) The final boss was a bit easier than I expected, but it was easy to predict that he was the final boss, so we were buffed. Also, we were all standing around the sarcoghagus when we opened it, so he didn't stand a chance (ganged up on him). I know he doesn't spawn until you pick up the golden death mask, so it might be impossible to "fix", but such is the fate of spellcasters -- maybe give him Time Stop or some "instant buff" (Sequencer) item?
(2) The one-way "prison" room was amusing, but somewhat annoying, since we didn't have a DM. We had to log off, log on as a DM, jump PC to the rest of the party, etc. Or re-log as a PC. No big deal, and kind of "Tomb of Horrors" like in terms of brutality, so it was enjoyable.
(3) I really liked the way the water drained out in the muddy tunnel. Tile magic?
(4) I liked the way the Vizier said, at the end, "Go talk to the king. I'll be there in a minute (just as soon as I buff...)". Most amusing :)
(5) The PC who found the Annulus put it on his head. When we returned to the Vizier, the Journal said that the Vizier had taken the item, but the PC still had it.
(6) I liked the "I'm warning you!" sphixes. I kept expecting them to attack when we got close to the throne, not the doorway to the next area. So, one PC sat on the throne, nothing happened. So I sat on the throne, nothing happened. Then, while I was still on the throne, some PC went close to the exit and I was stuck with 2 angry sphixes in my face :)
(7) The final gold sarcoghagus: After trying DEX-boosting spells and items, we got our lockpick skill up to +9... almost, but no cigar. We tried Knock, but it didn't work (8th-level Wiz). We tried Find Traps item (Lens of Detection), no workie. We tried to jump back to the Vizier's palace to buy lockpicks, but the Vizier's convo wouldn't allow us to do so. We finally had to DM spawn a +10 lockpicks. Not a big deal, but a bashing option would be nice.
(8) I never played the PnP version of TTT, but I agree completely with you that the "3 mini dungeons" idea translates well into NWN.
Take care, and thanks again! I'll ask my gaming buddies (Andreus, Target, Grath, and Visrow) to vote for the mod.
2. He's fixed in the version I have. I noticed that last play-test. He should attack with full force from now on.
Nigh-invincible?! Hence why YOU were sent instead of Head Vizier Hazim....
3. Still trying to figure that one out. I think it has to do with such a long script, and MP.
4. Weird. That thing is still a bit buggy as well, and it's in the proccess of getting fixed.
Glad you're still having fun!
Cheers!
-Ghool
Posted by Scrotok at 2007-06-02 21:22:56 Voted 9.75 on 06/23/07
Ghool,
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
(1) I'm not sure what the memory moss does, when we're fighting it in combat.
(2) The "Tower" boss was near-invincible (took us forever to kill him, had to wait for crit hits from our fighter). For some reason, the boss (once he ran out of spells) would walk away from the throne, then jump back to the throne, then walk away, then jump back, etc. (endless loop) without attacking us. Strange.
(3) In the "Tomb" there's a trap where the hall fills up with stone blocks (very cool VFX). My PC was standing by the entrance, and although he was trapped/stuck, he was not injured. Another PC (in the middle of hall) was stuck, and later was killed (something like "you've been crushed by the walls").
(4) For some reason, my PC can't use the Scrolls of Recall. 8 Wiz/7 Ftr, Abjuration specialist (I think).
Overall, we're having a blast with this mod (4 players on average per session). Extremely well done!
They aren't, really. I've just made the level requirements on all three coincide so that one can play a 'Ghool' campaign. ;)
-Ghool
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2007-05-01 10:14:06 Voted 9.75
It's up to you, but I hope you complete the series (I didn't know Firestorm Peak and TTT wer prequels.) _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
I could never find the sequel in print (and I just might have converted it....), and I had no idea that Acererak's plan was to become a God. Eerie...but great minds think alike I suppose. ;)
-Ghool
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2007-04-30 10:35:39 Voted 9.75
Ghool, was there a PnP module that carried the story past Tomb of Horrors? _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by Scrotok at 2007-04-27 11:22:28 Voted 9.75 on 06/23/07
Ghool,
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
(1) I like brutal. "Don't go changin'..." It would be cool if the non-petrified party members had a way to return to town (perhaps at great cost), BEFORE finding the Hesper, in order to purchase the Stone to Flesh scrolls they forgot to buy initially. But then again, I like the idea that sometimes heroes don't return...
(2) Just to clarify, we saw the "swirling vortex of doom dust" twice (it leaves a trail of small gray dust clouds, right?): once when we entered the hall from the Purifying Chamber, and later when we entered it from the Hall of Relics. The Ring of Regeneration +5 (found in Hall of Relics) was the only item on my PC which lost its enchantment, and the enchantment never returned (at least not yet -- we saved the game). Other players noticed all of their equipped gear was disenchanted.
(3) I thought I was driven permanently mad, as the conversation with the Hesper suggested. I laughed, because I was the only one with a scroll of clarity in my inventory... I agree with your assertion that healers need to be... healers :)
Thanks for the praise and comments. In answer to your questions:
1. The petrification is permanent, with no death GUI. I did this to prevent respawning, and it might be a bit brutal, come to think of it, especially for single players.
2. This might be another bug, as it isn't supposed to go off a second time. I'll check to see if the scripting is all right, and working for multiple disenchants. The effect lasts for a d6 roll in turns (up to 30 real minutes). I did notice that the PC's rings were not having their properties returned as well.
If you find any bugs, and the PC's equipment does not get it's properties returned, you can jump in as DM, and recover the disenchanted items. To do so;
Jump to the area; Rules Staging
Open the inventory of the Disenchanted Items Chest (it's a creature), and remove all the items. Replace these with the PC's current items.
3. Likely, you were driven mad by said effect. It can be removed with a Clarity (assuming you have a healer-type....or some one with a scroll). Most of these effects are permanent, and require the healer to do the PnP job of well, healer. Remove fear, Clarity, Remove Curse, Restoration, are not only suggested, I'd say they are required. ;)
4. Great idea. I shall do so.
-Ghool
Posted by Scrotok at 2007-04-26 22:36:32 Voted 9.75 on 06/23/07
Oh man, this mod is AWESOME!
Some feedback after Session #1:
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
(1) When starting the first quest, one of our party members was turned to stone by a certain CREATURE OF TERROR on the beach. In some mods, this effect is permanent, and the player sees the death GUI. In other mods, the effect wears off after some time. Which one is it for your mod? We waited a long time (10 min of real time), then someone jumped in as a DM and healed him.
(2) When we entered a certain hallway in the temple (first quest), some of our party members had some or all of their equipped gear disenchanted by the moving, swirling dust vortex of DOOM. It was most amusing to see their reaction :) However, they soon began asking, "When will this effect wear off?" Eventually, the effect did wear off (I think). However, when we returned through that hallway later (after recovering the first major item), some of the PCs had their gear disenchanted again, and we saved the game (back at the starting palace) without knowing whether or not this effect would wear off a second time. It would be nice to know how long this effect lasts.
(3) My PC, being the Master of Lore, was self-selected to interact with the first major item. This caused my PC to become a bit... CONFUSED... much to the amusement of all concerned (except when I hacked them down in my confused state). We waited a long time, hoping it would wear off after a while as it often does in other mods. They eventually found the exit and left me behind, hoping to find a cure later. Unfortunately, since I was left behind, and since they couldn't get back to me, I missed out on the next few rooms (Rats -- must replay in SP mode!). Eventually, someone DM-healed me. Was that effect permanent, or temporary?
(4) Based on the above, you might want to include a placeable sign showing "The Penalty for Failure" in the starting area. This sign could have the rules for petrification, disenchantment, confusion, etc., so that players know how long to wait around before getting DM-healed, etc. Although it is entertaining (and good roleplaying) trying to find a solution to each of these problems, I don't want to waste too many real-world minutes doing so, so it would be nice to be able to "cheat" by looking in the DM's Readme, etc. Similar to the way HABD works (you know the rules in advance about how death/bleeding/etc. work).
Just a suggestion. I plan to do something like this in my next mod. If you respond to this post, can you send me an email/message also, to remind me to check this site? Thanks!
I can't (and won't) merge S1 and this one simply because of all the custom module-specific scripting involved in each module. With both merged, it might create a fair bit of latency, plus it would be a monumental task to do-so.
I purposely made this one to be the level bridge between Firestorm peak and S1, technically allowing a party to play a Ghool-style campaign from level 10 and up.
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