The Chronicles of Azaelus 1: The tower in the marsh (v1.2)
You are travelling with your mentor to the hamlet of Westfeld, to visit an old friend. Along the way, an unexpected event forces you to act on your own; your mentor cannot protect you anymore...
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This is the first chapter in a series I'm planning. It started out as a little project to get me familiar with the toolset, but along the way I got inspired to take it a bit further.
You will be given the option to equip yourself and adjust your level to the difficulty of the module at the start of the game.
The mod is designed for good characters, although at certain points your alignment (good/evil) is taken into account. There are also situations where you can be rude or mean, but I felt adding a genuinely evil path to be too ambitious for this mod.
After the initial release of the mod I have spent some time at balancing some of the encounters. They are a bit easier now, but might still be considered tough for some classes. Be sure to save often in different slots, and play to your strengths. For example if your character can sneak attack, position him or her so sneak attacks are possible.
I tested this mod with all classes (including rogue) and managed to complete it every time (but of course, I did write the mod).
Recommendations: Make sure you talk to everyone, and read your journal if you're stuck. Use your skills, feats and abilities, use the equipment you find or give it to somebody who can use it for you. There are some conversation skill checks in this mod, so if you've got plenty of skill points...
Have fun!
Version history:
Version 1.0
Original release.
Version 1.1:
-Fixed a bug where the final baddy wouldn't attack when you left a certain task to a certain somebody else
-Toned down the tunnel quest
-Toned down the loot
-Fixed a bug where the game would crash after picking certain dialogue options with the mayor.
-Fixed some dialogue-options I wasn't happy with.
-You get less money to start with, and the items cost more now :-p
Version 1.2:
-Fixed the bug where walking through the village with companions would be jittery
-Fixed the bug where loading the game in certain stages of the game would give you XP
-Made sure the player had an extra edge against some of the enemies
-Improved the looks of one of the areas somewhat
-Gave monks an extra edge in the game
-Put a warning to evil characters in the prelude
-Expanded one of the stores
-Added possibilities to regain lost levels
-Added a story twist to make it easier to defeat Blake
Hi Rasvar, Thanks for the response. I have the map of the Marsh and Branley's journal (is that the diary?). Was the bird supposed to give me a verbal message or a written one?
Posted by Rasvar at 2008-05-1022:09:26
Hi gmfeier, sorry for the late response, I was on a holiday. The messenger bird is supposed to appear and give you a note. You also need a map of the marsh, and a diary. Did you get those? If not, let me know and I'll give you the console commands you need to get into the marsh. Corvus_Viridis and cirdrag: Thanks for your votes! _________________________ Howls in the Dark The Chronicles of Azealus 1: The Tower in the Marsh Rasvar's module development blog
Posted by cirdrag at on05/08/08
Great Mod, played with a human barbarian, right amount of challenge, still i felt it was alittle short, but besides that its all good, maybe some more sidequest , and maybe u could have made it so "monster underbed" quest could be taken later instead liek right at the start since its impossible, anyway, thats my score, great job
Posted by gmfeier at 2008-05-0319:49:56
Can someone please tell me what the message I didn't get from the bird was?
Posted by Corvus_Viridis at on05/01/08
Didn't encounter any bugs, had lots of fun playing this! Went thru with an Aasimar bard and it was exactly the right amount of challenge!
Posted by gmfeier at 2008-04-2715:47:05
OK, I seem to be stuck. The messenger bird won't talk, and the Marsh says I'm not ready to go in yet. Spoilers I've run off the bully, rescued Anita, hooked up with Malfat taken out the stuff under the bed and freed the lady at the cliffs. What now?
Posted by Pirunnyrkki at on03/25/08
Thank you for doing this mod! I started playing this mod today. At first it felt quite difficult, even though i used character of higher level than recommended. I still enjoyed it a lot. I happened to find a bug, with which you get lot of experience many times over. I don't know how i should go on about posting this bug here and you might know about it already, but here it goes... ***Possible Spoiler*** When i found Marley and released him, i got exp. Then i tried talking to him again and got the release reward exp again. Over and over.
Posted by Rasvar at 2008-03-0802:46:56
Hi Macabroid and Dormammu, Thanks for the comments. @Macabroid: I'm still planning on making a sequel (and actually have put a lot of work into it). At a certain point everything became too complicated to work on it at this stage. There are a lot of subquests and other little ideas and it became hard to put it all in a believable form. That's why I started working on a smaller scale module, to gain a bit more mod-making experience before taking on something big. @Dormammu: thanks for the compliment, but I think I'd rather have my next mod reviewed :) _________________________ Howls in the Dark The Chronicles of Azealus 1: The Tower in the Marsh Rasvar's module development blog
Posted by Dormammu at on03/03/08
This is a really solid little mod. Even if the subject matter is a little over the head of what one might consider for level 5-8 characters, it still plays very well. Consider dropping this in the review queue!
Posted by macabroid at on02/24/08
I think this module is slightly underrated. Maybe it would be better to remove from its description the phrase ?It started out as a little project to get me familiar with the toolset, but along the way I got inspired to take it a bit further.? It hints that this module is something fragmenary, unfinished and made for testing purposes only. This is not the case. This module is quite finished, polished, balanced and well thought-out. The story behind its creation MAY be interesting, but it would be better to move it in a far corner of readme file ? otherwise it'll just disorient the potential player. Pros: good sense of humor, good cutscenes, good (although sometimes too hastily-made) area design, some non-standard plot twists. And I had no problems with balance with my newly-created cleric. Yes, this mod is challenging, but I think it's a plus. Contras: No custom contents. The ending is too formulaic and overdramatic. And I completely hated that all-knowing, ?deus ex machina? wizard that trades in mayor's cellar (How did he get there so fast? And why? It looks like he's here to kill Azaelus, and all these story with Blake ? it's just some kind of a silly test with predefined results). Anyway, thanks for the quality module. It's actually better (and more coherent) than many well-known NWN1 modules. And it's certainly better than another senseless adaptation of another ?classic? PnP oldie. Hope the story will continue ? although judging by the ending cutscene, I have certain fears that it'll be just another ?Hordes of the Underdark? clone. If so, maybe it'd be better to start a new series...
10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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