The continent of Flanaess (World of Greyhawk); more specifically, in the Yatil Mountains (somewhere between the gorge of the Velverdyva River and the hills east of the town of Krestible).
Language
English
Level Range
01 - 08 (beginners can level up)
Races
Any
Tricks & Traps
Light
Roleplay
Light
Hack & Slash
Heavy
Classes
Any
Scope
Medium
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
08
Max # Players
01
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
01
Content Rating
Everyone
Gameplay Hours
12
Description
Nearly a century ago, the arch-mage Iggwilv sent her evil minions to conquer the lands around her abode. So successful was she that the Marches of Perrenland were subjugated for a decade, and great indeed was the loot brought to Iggwilv�s lair.
Legend states that Iggwilv gained much of her prowess from discovering the lost caverns of Tsojcanth, wherein was hidden magic of unsurpassed might. It is certain that Iggwilv ruled her domain from these caverns, where she also conducted arcane experiments and rituals, trying to further increase her powers.
These experiments were ultimately her downfall, for during one she accidentally freed the demon Graz�zt, whom she had imprisoned and forced into servitude. There was a terrible battle, and although the demon was forced back to the Abyss, Iggwilv was so stricken that her powers were forever weakened.
With the wane of her evil, Iggwilv�s realm was sundered. Her former slaves stole her treasure and scattered to the winds in the face of enemy armies. The arch-mage, however, used the last of her powers to prepare a hiding place within the lost caverns of Tsojcanth for her remaining wealth. Legends say that this included several tomes of great power, and the fabled lamp called Daoud�s Wondrous Lanthorn.
What else might be hidden no-one knows, for no-one has yet discovered the lost caverns of Tsojcanth or Iggwilv�s precious hoard. Thought to be located somewhere in the Yatil Mountains between the gorge of the Velverdyva River and the hills east of the town of Krestible, the fabled caverns of Tsojcanth have yet to be found... but that day is nigh.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This classic module was originally written by E. Gary Gygax for the Official ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Game in 1982. Included in this faithful conversion of the classic PnP module are a number of new and/or updated creatures: Bar-lgura, Behir, Carrion Crawler, Cave Moray, Chasme, Cooshee, Crystal Ooze, Dao, Djinn, Dracolisk, Formorian Giant, Gas Spore, Giant Badger, Giant Cave Beetle, Giant Eagle, Giant Owl, Giant Snapping Turtle, Gorgimera, Hieracosphinx, Lacedon, Leucrotta, Marid, Marlgoyle, Mobat, Pech, Piercer, Roper, Shambling Mound, Subterranean Lizard, Wolfwere, Xag-Ya, Xeg-Yi, Xorn, and more.
NOTE: You MUST also have the Rocky Mountains (v1.02) Tileset installed in your HAK directory. You may find it here.
Your adventure begins at the Bissel outpost in the foothills of the Yatil Mountains.
Pushing across the punishing wilderness of the Yatil peaks, your first task is to find the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.
While your travels will take you far and wide across the expanse of the Yatil Range...
...you must step lightly when encroaching upon the contested territories of the nation-states of Ket, Perrenland, and Highfolk.
Even worse, the foul Lord Iuz has assembled a formidable force to thwart your attempts to discover Iggwilv's hoard.
Deep within the planar nexus of Iggwilv's Tsojcanth, each encounter is more odd than the next! From exotic beasts, like Behir...
...and the dread Chasme, you will soon discover that Iggwilv's old magicks are alive and well in these accursed caverns!
As testament to this, each subterranean chamber is more puzzling and bizarre than the next.
But succeed you must! Having discovered a magical craft with which to ply the subterranean rivers of Tsojcanth, ever closer to Iggwilv's inner sanctum shall you venture...
...until you literally stand at the door to Iggwilv's legendary hoard of riches and magical artifacts.
But who is this mysterious dark maiden, deeply held in some enchanted slumber? Perhaps she alone holds the secret to Tsojcanth...
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2012-04-21 07:04:01 Voted 9.50 on 04/21/12
Didn't like the non-mapping in the caverns or the door to the inner sanctum... too time consuming. _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by Steve_Savicki at 2012-04-07 19:25:49 Voted 9.50 on 04/21/12
I can't get back to the castle! _________________________ Steve's Characters - please don't forget to vote on them if you play them.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by udasu at 2012-04-07 13:38:49 Voted 10.00 on 10/19/09
Congrats on the HOF! _________________________ Well, y'know... Sometimes you eat the bar, and..
This module certainly lends itself to multi-player, as it will take a party of 3-4 strong characters to be successful. I designed the module to be played as a single-player module and play-tested with several AI henchmen in the employ of the main character. I have not tested it as a multi-player module; best I can suggest is to give it a try in mp and let me know where the mp-bugs are, and I will try to fix as you bring them to my attention. Cheers! _________________________
Posted by electryc at 2011-02-25 07:28:36 Voted 9.00 on 02/25/11
Pretty Good Module, love the old school monsters, congrats on HOF finally ;)
Posted by LordBishop08 at 2011-02-24 08:42:37 Voted 10.00 on 02/24/11
Awesome adventure! With an engaging storyline! Great module. _________________________ My artblog and other crap! Link
Posted by LordBishop08 at 2011-02-17 07:10:45 Voted 10.00 on 02/24/11
My first comment and my first NWN Module! Awesome adventure really brings you into the game! Loved it! _________________________ My artblog and other crap! Link
So glad you appreciated all the subtleties - comments like yours make all that hard work worthwhile! To answer your SPOILER questions: The Laird will grant several different gifts, depending upon your conversation choices. He will allude to a few concerns; if you take care of them in the course of your travels, return to the Laird from time to time and he may have some goodies for you. And with regard to the cave-ins deep in the caverns, some are simply impassable, but there is one in particular (guarded by a VERY bizarre beast) which is "inter-active". If you need more specific guidance, let me know. Enjoy! _________________________
Posted by renter6 at 2011-02-04 12:24:47 Voted 10.00 on 02/04/11
I've enjoyed playing through this unique module immensely. It must be a blast played with a few friends and a DM. All it was missing was someone in the party being a total jerk, picking our pockets and getting us all killed, or at least a few of us.
This isn't very systematic but here are some things I liked:
1. The logistical game. Finding food and water was part of my fun (but then, I was playing a ranger). I was in and out of the caverns three times carrying off my loot to sell and re-equip. I would go one further and use a gold weight system. Ten GP to a pound - take that, mule! Take that, Flemin!
2. The one-off, non-magical, unique treasure items. Apparently a huge part of PnP gaming was odd bits of treasure, ivory pendants, belt buckles, earrings, pieces of fine crystal, furs, inlaid bowls, the variety of treasure in this mod was fantastic. You are really on to something there. Those unique items make the difference between cookie-cutter predictable stuff (read: NWN OC) and something with originality. I don't have the module on hand, so I don't know how literally that stuff was taken from the module, but you really captured the way Gygax spread around his treasure. Yes, there is something to be gained besides GP, gemstones, potions, and equipment. What about this? Think this might be worth sumthin'? I had forgotten all of that.
3. No map!! This was great! It was frustrating, but yeah, I made a map with pen and paper as I went along. The module probably took twice as long to finish for that reason. That just means I got to draw out the experience and postpone finishing it (because there is nothing else like this to follow up with !!).
4. A couple years down the road and suddenly the fights aren't such a challenge for our computers to handle. I played through this on a chintzy MacBook and experienced no problems at all with lag.
Got a couple questions as I decide how to finish.
***SPOILERS***
1. What is this "talisman" from Laird Gwaylar? He gave me a damned potion of invisibility. Is that really gonna help me?
2. Gotta wonder about that rockslide down in the deepest caverns. Maybe if I had some giant strength or ogre power magic items, I could shift those rocks around, and see whats on the other side? Guess it isn't too late to try that one out.
Posted by olivier_leroux at 2010-12-05 08:53:32 Voted 9.50 on 12/05/10
Yikes! I made lots of notes, gave ample feedback, we exchanged e-mails and in the end I didn't even remember voting?! Shame on me.
Except for a minor bug I found in the henchmen system and a few personal issues with the deus ex machina ending, this was a blast: Lots of action and exploration and a well told story. This is Hall of Fame material and I remember it fondly.
Posted by Epona at 2010-08-11 15:17:35 Voted 9.00 on 08/11/10
You made one fricking cool module there SirOtus, big thumbs up! I really enjoy the look and feel of it, and it has been a great pleasure playing it. Love the resting-system, and most things are balanced very well. Also enjoying the maplessness in the caves a LOT, cause like you already pointed out, it adds to the exploration feel. I'm not completely done yet, but I'm nearing the end, so I decided to drop my rating and a comment before I forget everything again (lousy memory..:)) Because I do have some pointers which I wanted to share...
*SPOILERS AHEAD!*SPOILERS AHEAD!*
*WATCH OUT, HERE THEY COME!*
1: First of all, I was very lucky to go the long way round from the start, because I really loved the mountain exploration and its encounters. It was very funny to discover that the Horn was actually around the corner, but it would have been a real shame if I found it right from the start. All your hard work spend on those mountains would have been for nothing, and it would have shortened the module significantly. I truly hope most players took/take the long route and your design does encourage that, but there must have been a few who found the entrance very early in the game, and they've missed out on a lot of good stuff. I've never played the PnP version, and maybe it's intended this way, but it just feels like a very big waste of space and hard work.
2: The oozes! Oh my Gods, the oozes...Although I find it very realistic that some monsters simply destroy your weapons, it's also very frustrating to lose all of your leet fighting gear. My cleric henchman is now fighting with his bare hands (the poor fellow), also because he's not able to use the light flail you've put in his inventory :( The wizard/fighter is the only one with his initial weapon left, but the nice shield I gave him also went up in ooze. Not to mention the 10 or so torches I lost (I went back to the outpost after my first ooze encounter to stock up), and the one I'm using now is my last. This would not be a very big problem if there was some nice replacement gear to be found, but I can't find those anywhere. Maybe I haven't explored the caves well enough? And of course I could always go back to the Outpost or the Gnomes, but from the point where I'm at now, that really wouldn't add to the fun factor.
3: Those nasty chickens. Dealing with them was easy, finding them was like sucking donkey private parts! The journal entry says they are north of the Pech excavation site, so I searched those caverns until my eyes started hurting. I marked my path with the glowing stones from the Gnomes, but because I was convinced they were in that cave area, I started to doubt myself. I actually started yelling at myself several times; "you blind cow, you must have missed a hallway, go back, go back!" Yeah I know, sometimes I'm a bit pathetic while playing games :P After a while I convinced myself they really weren't there, and out of sheer frustration I peeked in the read-me file for some spoilers. Oh. They're in the FLOODED caverns! Crap. Basicly my own fault for not trusting my markings of course, but it would have been nice if those Pench gave me that clue in my journal entry.
*SPOILERS DONE, I REPEAT: SPOILERS DONE!*
That's about it really. Forgive me for my long comment, I can never keep things like this short. All in all, like I said before, this is one kick hiney module. Thank you very much for all your effort, you did a great job!
_________________________ "By believing, one can see"
I have purposely disabled the automap function while in the lost caverns in order to give players the feel that they must be more careful and thorough in their exploration strategies. There *is* the capability to use lighted trail-markers, but those are items which must be procured elsewhere in the adventure (prior to exploring the lost caverns)... _________________________
The non-existent map underground makes it very difficult to explore it, and then there were the weapon-destroying acid blobs or whatever they were called. Without a proper map, I don't know if that encounter is obligatory or not. Sorry, I guess I won't finish that module :(
Velcito, here's how you get to Iggwilv's Horn (i.e. the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth):
***SPOILER ALERT ***
Explore the Southern Yatil Range, where you will find an enclave of Mountain Dwarves. In the southeast corner of this wilderness area, you will find a small canyon which will lead to contested territory, presently occupied by a roving band of Gnolls in the employ of Iuz. Beyond their camp you will find Iggwilv's Horn, and the entrance to the Lost Caverns on the south face of the Horn... _________________________
I'm probably missing something obvious but I think I've explored all the areas I can get to and yet I can't possibly find those caverns I'm supposed to find..WOuld anyone spoiler me please?
Just starting and I gave my new fighter the weapon specialization/dwarven-waraxe feat. But then found none in the merchant. Is there a waraxe somewhere early in the mod?
JML, I'm not sure why it's crashing on you. Perhaps you're right - there may be some unknown conflict with running the game with v1.69 and CEP 2.3 of which I am unaware. For the life of me, I don't know why that should present a problem... Sorry. _________________________
'can't play it. The first "A rude awakening" map loads fine but after 5 seconds, the game crashes, not matter what I do, even if doing nothing.
(with 1,69 + CEP 2,3)
_________________________ @ + jml, level 52
"Overgod? Is that like Supergod or something?", from "Citadel"
"M�not shr this ishych u g�dea.", from "Prophet" series
Posted by slingbld1619 at 2009-11-13 08:45:22 Voted 10.00 on 11/13/09
Excellent conversion!!
Posted by udasu at 2009-10-19 20:53:39 Voted 10.00 on 10/19/09
Well done!
-U _________________________ Well, y'know... Sometimes you eat the bar, and..
Posted by murf09 at 2009-08-23 19:50:28 Voted 10.00 on 08/23/09
Great fun -- brought back fond memories. Thanks for all the hard work.
1 suggestion (do away with lost writ at the beginning) and 1 possible bug (purchased Ogre Gauntlets and afterwards, sell price showed in the millions +). Thanks again
Posted by whocares3 at 2009-08-10 18:21:34 Voted 9.75 on 08/10/09
nvm i figured it out
Posted by whocares3 at 2009-08-10 18:02:18 Voted 9.75 on 08/10/09
Are you just supposed to wait until your defeated by the evil minions of luz in the last battle? I have no idea what im supposed to do. I have already gotten the token from that spirit and that amulet from the gnomes so I have nothing left to do! please help me!
I've been a little strapped for time lately, but I'll try to make all those minor equipment adjustments as suggested by eric. Unfortunately, the AI for henchmen does not recognize "cast spell" abilities on the items. Using the Javelins of Lightning yourself should work just fine (I'll test to make sure), but I'll have to explore another way for the henchmen to use such items. Thanks for the detailed list of suggestions - it is always helpful (I try my best to make the module perfect prior to release, but sometimes I just can't catch 'em all)... _________________________
Posted by ericdoman at 2009-07-30 18:44:35 Voted 9.00 on 07/30/09
Just finished the game and enjoyed it. Started as an elf 1 wiz/ 8 clr, a character I had saved from NWN OC so no real uber euipment max +1 for most items, the rest normal.
Picked up a level near to the end of the game and one more at the very end, although there is no chance of saving.
Downloaded and reinstalled yesterday however the mod states it was modified on 13th Feb.
Never played the pnp version or any version and so really enjoyed the game. Thought combats were generally very easy until ..... numerous. Used E the fighter and D the rogue and when I had finally reached the doors hired the ranger just for strength purposes (although not probably necessary, if you click on the door again and again it was within our str limit ie 3 of us).
I am pretty sure I checked out every area, above and below ground. Originally I had found the entrance very quickly but decided to explore. Travelling between areas, tired, resting, ambushes very good.
Maybe it is because I did not have the updated mod installed but found a few things.
1 Crossbow of Speed has rapid shot not rapid reload.
2 Pech Hammer has wpn prof martail as a feat but as My character did not have wpn prof martial I could not use it
3 Gnome armoury. 5000gp for a longsword +2, 77000 gp for +2 throwing axes!
4 The decanter of endless water didn't work, especially when I ran out of water. Even so always liked the use of rations etc. Especially when you are running low.
5 Why give Ethelrede javelins of lightning as he couldn't use them and neither could I.
6 There was no option in companions AI for them to use ranged weapons. The only way they would is if I took all hand to hand weapons from them. Not possible for the ranger. This was essential when it cam to fighting the oozes.
I use zen archery feat with clerics but for some reason NWN ignores this. Even checked out pgc character creator mod. It meant my 10 dex wiz/clr was not very good with ranged weapons.
Played hardcore throughout which apart from the big differences. Got attacked by the rogue because I damaged her with alch fire vs trolls. Also most of the derro savants killed themselves with evards black testicles and so I didn't want to use the sorceror/wizard with confusion spell.
Anyway Sir Otus excellent. excellent.
Will probably be downloading your other mods and playing. Just wondering is there a Forgotten Evil Part 3 on it's way?
ok, VERY stuck here and need some help! Playing as a paladin and trying to free the soul trapped in the chamber with the rune piller and fungus farm, but CANNOT find a way to damage the piller! Suggestions... PLEASE! Thx.
_________________________ angry_yard_gnome
________________
Dave
Posted by biren666 at 2009-07-03 10:56:58 Voted 9.50 on 07/03/09
I had a great time playing this. My quibbles (below) are not enough to spoil the game. Great job.
SPOILERS
- I had a small problem with the wish from the Genie. I wished for 'experience', then I cast a fireball and got out of the prison. Being 40th level allowed me to womp all over everything (except the last fight), which kinda spoiled the fun, so I went back from a save and wished for something else.
- There isn't really any hint that you are about to face an unwinnable fight with the agents of evil. Perhaps there could be more evidence of that (and that you need some holy artifact/help or you are toast??) It doesnt have to be directly stated, but the player should be given a chance to know this (or at least, to run away from the last fight). Seems kinda random or not whether you decide to see the gnomes again or figure out how to help the ghost.
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