Trial & Terror (requires the Mask of the Betrayer expansion! NOW ALSO SUPPORTS SOZ!!)
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Have you finished Mask of the Betrayer or Storm of Zehir? Do you have a few epic characters ready for some more D&D adventuring? Well, perhaps this will be a module to your liking. In Trial & Terror you can pit your NWN2 ability against a large and bewildering dungeon fraught with peril.
A certain Supreme Priest Sukumvit has invited you to his cult up in the Godswatch Mountains (Teyla Shan). This mountain range is located in a far-east part of Faerûn, near Kara Tur, on the southern border of the huge Plain of Horses. Sukumvit�s cult worships an anonymous God of Terror. In honour of this new god, a former temple of Etugen has been converted and expanded deep inside the heart of Teyla Shan. Curiously, the entire temple also doubles as the very site of the cult's sacred challenge � the Trial of Terror. In legacy of his father � Baron Sukumvit, an infamous deathtrap dungeon master � the supreme priest presents you with a subterranean ordeal that no hero has survived so far. The reward is the soaring amount of 1,000,000 gp. As soon as you agree to the challenge, you will undergo a trance ritual, which will prepare you for your entrance through the Gate of No Return.
Nota bene:
Players, be warned! This is my first module ever. Moreover, before this module, I have had zero experience of scripting. Nonetheless, Trial & Terror is littered with scripts. Any of those scripts malfunctioning is nothing short of my fault.
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INSTALLATION:
As per version 101608, you will need to download and unzip the following 7z-files:
-trialandterrorXXXXXX.7z
-trialandterrorhak.7z
-trialandterrormusic.7z
Mind you, if you wish to use Kaedrin's PrC pack, then you should donwload another hak instead, plus the file with the appropriate 2das. Further instructions on how to install and use his pack comes with the 2da 7z-download (which is version specific):
-trialandterrorhak_KaedrinPCP.7z
-trialandterror2das_KaedrinXXX.7z
In order to install Trial & Terror correctly, you need the �trialandterror.mod� (put in modules directory), �trialandterror.hak� (put in hak directory - or the Kaedrin version, if you are using that one) and then drop the �music files� into your Music directory. Also, you'll need a tlk-file - trialandterror_custom.tlk (put in NWN2/docs tlk dir). If you happen to have files in your Override directory, such as 2da-files, this will corrupt this module, unless it is Kaedrin's of course, provided you have followed the instructions properly.
SOZ OWNERS - INSTALLING
The 'trialandterrorXXXXXX.7z' 7z-file contains five items. First, the mod file - 'trialandterror.mod' (put in NWN2/docs module dir, just as non-SoZ owner do). Then there is a campaign directory - 'Trial and Terror Campaign' (put in NWN2/docs campaign dir), a tlk-file - trialandterror_custom.tlk (put in NWN2/docs tlk dir).
Remember to start the game as a 'New Campaign'!
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As per patch 1.22, a same-named tlk-file with no .tlk extension is no longer necessary to make the load screens work. It had to be put in NWN2/Atari dir, where Obsidian's own dialog.tlk is). If you still need one of these, you can easily create own out of the ordinary .TLK file (just remove the .tlk-extension or extract one from my patch 1.13 mod 7z-file.
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PREPARING YOUR PLAYER CHARACTER AND STARTING THE GAME:
You will start the game in an area that functions as a so-called �lobby�. This Horde Oasis area is populated by various caravan traders, which have more or less everything you will need. If you talk to Mr Soulmolder, he can help you level up and get some gold, if necessary. Although I personally do not always appreciate the features just below, I decided early on to include them in Trial & Terror (mostly because MotB is designed this way):
- Free resting (except one small and special area).
- Over-generous amounts of loot � from helpful potions and an up-and-running crafting system to extremely powerful items and smashingly lavish valuables.
Even if you create your own party, remember that T&T still revolves around your main character!
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Trial & Terror offers
- An adventure loosely inspired by a flip-a-lot novel called Deathtrap Dungeon, by Ian Livingstone.
- A multi-directional module that is action-packed while still offering quite some depth for those players who are interested. In fact, the module has been designed so that a so-called hack-n-slash player can make good progress. Should that player opt to be an evil character, challenging melee will abound, rest assured! Still, it must be underlined that Trial & Terror strongly encourages and rewards the curious, role-playing player, who cannot help picking fitting conversation responses or rightclicking on objects of all kind. Actually, plenty of items, encounters and even entire areas will only be accessible for the talkative and the nosy!
- Replayability
- Depending on the player�s choices of routes inside this huge maze, his or her behaviour when facing friends and foes, his or her alignment, and also his or her character-specific skills and feats, there will be several ways to exit the Trial of Terror successfully. Similarly, there will be different endings.
- Estimated 9-12 hours of gameplay (although there is a special route ending it in less than 1 h).
- Over 100,000 words of dialogue and environmental interaction.
- 10 soundtracks new to the NWN2 game
- Lots of varied monsters and varied difficulty (I want to keep the players on their toes).
- Some opponents will require the use of tactical combat.
- Death requires a reload from a saved game.
- Forgotten Realms lore - some creative liberties have been taken, but the core is canon. The Horde modules have been used extensively as well as other resources. I realise that some of my knowledge may be outdated, since I was primarily active as a PnP player and DM when the 2nd ed was available.
- If you make a special series of choices, some degree of planar travel will take place.
- An attempt at basic multiplayer support (I have tried to script the module so that it allows mp �
this has not been tested fully).
Trial and Terror also offers, to all those owning SoZ (and thus having installed the T&T campaign dir and custom tlk files):
- A new 'unconsciousness' death system
- Create your own party of four (just use Mr Soulmolder's 'Soul Percolator' and create your own party of kindred souls. You can even swap party members in the Hall of Second Thoughts!
- About 50 loadscreen tips unique to Trial and Terror.
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A few tips and tricks good to know before playing Trial & Terror
- Since death requires a reload, saving is your friend. Many encounters can easily floor the best of characters, so save frequently.
- Ensure that your precious character is armed to the teeth. You will need all power and protection you can get! It is possible that poorly equipped level 30 characters will not stand a chance against a few mean fiends! All play testing has been done using the normal difficulty setting. Cranking up that slider to hardcore will probably transform Trial & Terror to something awfully cruel.
- If you only own MotB, this module will not have any companions joining you, not even self-made ones. However, there will be a few occasions where so-called henchmen come to your aid.
- Although playing this module solo is supposed to be a challenge even for a level 30 character with top gear, do not let this circumstance stop the challenge monger within you! Please, feel free to chicken race against yourself. See how low level a character you can have surviving Trial & Terror. Once, I did pass through it using a level 21 character, so everything is possible!
- Bear this in mind: A multiplayer session (should such a thing work with new SoZ add-ons), just like using a full self-created party, will lessen the module�s challenge level depending on the size of the party. I would estimate that a party of four level-21 characters would do fine, if properly equipped.
- Trial & Terror is an epic module with epic beings. Don�t be surprised if killing some creatures� physical manifestations is not the same as permanently eradicating them! There are several examples in the module where entities will keep returning, seemingly unharmed. In fact, a few cases of such respawning are pivotal for the direction various plots will take.
- The main quest is no doubt to survive inside the trial of terror long enough to be able to find the exit. However, there are plenty of subquests that directly affect the outcome of the main quest.
- The module has been deliberately designed as a �killer dungeon�. The dungeon is therefore tough, very large and many things are �hidden� at first, meaning that you as a player must test and touch as much stuff as you can, if you wish to see this module in full bloom. However, such a trial-and-error approach is at times deadly as well.
- There is one bottle neck in this module and that is the exit out of the trial dungeon. It can only be opened by finding the right keys, as it were. Mileage will vary as far as how quickly and reliably different players collect these �keys�. So do not despair, if you do not immediately acquire the key-like objects! As a matter of fact, I have included two of each, so the prospect of your exiting Trial & Terror is rather good, if you just show some patience.
- Trial & Terror entails a massive dungeon. This means that your character�s exploration may soon turn into long stretches of underground trudging. In order to counter that, the module contains alternative ways of transportation, often quicker and able to criss-cross the more obvious routes. Most of these alternatives are easy to find and use.
- A few races will get quite a different module. I won�t tell you which ones. What I can tell you is that subterranean races will obviously feel less of a strain from being locked up inside a mountain.
- If you play with a SoZ-style party, just ensure that you keep the companions on a tight leash! Use their behaviour tabs to set their AI in a way which make them not run off too far on their own. Such heroic bursts of insanity will more often than not lead to certain death!
- It is a good idea for non-cleric characters to bring raise dead/resurrection scrolls or coins of life. This is especially good to have around if party clerics lie before you dead on some dirty dungeon floor!
- Let druids beware! There are plenty of areas which appear to be natural but in fact are not.
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THANK YOU
This module would not exist if it wasn�t for the NWN2 forum over at Bioware�s. That community includes so many kind and helpful souls. I cannot thank them all. But I can thank a lot of them:
Special thanks to:
- SunJammer (you have clarified the basics of nwn2-scripting to me, over and over. Plus that I have implemented several of your nice conversation scripts.)
- Elysius (several key scripts owe their existence to you. Some boss AI is taking full use of some of your solutions in your earliest versions of BotB.)
- ciViLiZed (just for your huge patience! You have ran to me rescue on countless occasions!)
- Raelius Archmannon (you have solved a few tricky scripts like no other!)
I owe heaps of thanks to the following guys and their great modules / prefab areas. They have saved me lots of time and given me great �skeletons� to flesh out:
- Blackstone Keep 2 � Driller (how generous! Btw, BSK NWN1 was a great pw!)
- Malese Kish � Moloch (how generous 2!)
- Temple of Evil � Lady Lilia / Shimmer
- Fort Vibia - TheNine
- Warehouse - Wyrin_D�njargo
- Vordan�s hero creator (the first module I ever downloaded, and the first scripts I ever saw. So, the first area in my mod is inspired by one of those areas.)
- House of Joys - Conall Halfbearded
Half of the music in this mod has been taken from NWN2 OC + MotB. The other half has been made by two composers:
- Inon Zur (Icewind Dale 2)
- Derek R Audette (C) MMIV-MMVI:
- �The Lonesome Death of Jonas Grumby�
- �Ginger Grant�
- �Combustible Coffee Pot�
- �Quantum Entanglement�
- �Cerebral Vortex�
- �A Big Hard World�
- �Toxic Shock�
- �Timestream Station�
- �Shunned�
- �Blueberry Compote�
Finally, a sincere thanks to all custom-content artists:
- Robinson Workshop � nearly all their great tilsesets are included in this module!
- Yaddaman - Robots
- Jonny Ree - Beholder
- Schazzwozzer � Clay golem
- Arsan � Arsan Hood
- ArPharazon - NoMap
- Jester-v01 � Jester�s gear
- SDJ � Oriental 3D Models Pack
- Naisou � Japanese placeables
- BlueNude � BlueFemaleNudes
- Escriminator - handaxes
- Seryn � 20 new NWN2 potions
- Cyric the Dark - Banner headdress
- Lucky Devita - Heucuva
Known issues
- Most areas use a great number of point lights. Unless you have an older machine, please ensure that you have enabled such lights in your NWN2 options panel. The game will look much better that way!
- A few areas are dark (a deliberate design choice). Turn on the �night-vision� button, if you play with a character that has such a racial ability.
- I apologise for the poor quality of the VO in this module! It is corny, cheesy, Darth-in-a-helmet metallic and often sad acting (except for two remixed surprises). The volume is also inconsistent. I have still decided to keep most of it, as I believe it makes Trial & Terror more entertaining. It is a good laugh, if nothing else.
- English is not my first language, so the module is bound to include a few errors funny to native speakers. Let us pretend that those grammatical flaws are part of the entertainment value, shall we?
- Lots of dialogue have been written in a rather special spirit, almost like those bombastic word exchanges used in the strips of Marvel Comics. I just love cumbersome words, I cannot help it!
- If you run around using non-main characters as leaders in the front while playing a SoZ-style party, you may miss out on some narrative convos, including some VO, and also cutscene convos set up with cameras.
- Remember, the first character you load into T&T is your leader and thus your main character. The leader will have more chores to do than the rest. The leader is treated as the true trial champion among you!
- Also, all the new SoZ Party Chat convo windows that was part of T&T (vs 11 Dec & 12 Dec) are unfortunately abortable via the Escape button. From vs 15 Dec this is no longer an issue.
Thank you for playing and please post feedback!
RELEASE NOTES
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-v101008 - First Release. Please, regard this as a beta release.
-v101308 - made a few convo triggers surefire, fixed some typos and a VO bug, tweaked a few cams at the end.
-v101608 - The 7z is now just the mod file! The main quest journal is fixed at the end, same with a few map pins. The mod is now adjusted for Kaedrin's Prc pack, thanks to Shaughn78!
-v101808 - A journal update bug in Mrs S's convo fixed. Sotur convo has been updated so that certain responses does not lead to fall out. Vampire coffins convo was corrupt, but is now replaced and healthy. A decrease of golem archers in a certain area has been done + a tweaking of their script.
-v102308 - on popular demand, the background tune of the Caverns of the Conquerors have been changed, Mordan's speak trigger have been tweaked, certain death lords as well as archer golems have been made slightly weaker. Lastly, a number of typos have been corrected - thanks for finding them, SB
-v110108 - the seneschal convo has been corrected, enabling a quest branch.
-v110608 - ATTENTION - Trial & Terror is from now on updated to patch 1.13. The heart cobbles are now easier to find and non-destroyable. A magical kukri cannot be crushed. Mrs S's portal convo has been corrected. A few typos have been taken care of. The No Map of a certain maze is now covering.
-v110708 - A number of items that can be picked up from 'floors' have been made to work properly, script-wise.
ATTENTION - from 112308 - the v110708 module version should be patch 1.21 compatible. The trialandterror.hak has been changed so that Trial & Terror hopefully can accommodate even the Storm of Zehir expansion owners. This has not been tested yet - also beware of known early bugs in that expansion, which affects area transition speak triggers as well as voiceovers! Further, the Kaedrin 2da-files have now been updated to fit his Storm of Zehir and patch 1.21-compatible version 1.34.1a. The earlier one, 1.33.3, had a few minor errors within them. I am sorry for that. These have been corrected.
-v112808 - This update addresses the speak trigger issues that are caused by the Storm of Zehir expansion - these were not game breaking, but made players miss out on lots of VO and some side quest details. The triggers should be working fine now, unless you have rolled up, say, a gray orc doomguide. For some reason, new races/classes in SoZ still have problems with some speak triggers in T&T, such as the phylactery ones. This update has also ensured that BlueNudes 'naked clothing' does not replace NWN2's original set. Further, certain dwarven graves now have better working spawn triggers - the same graves have been revamped as well - containing much more items. Lastly, a few typos have been corrected.
-v120608 - This is really Trial and Terror 1.1! It has been turned into a campaign, while still being playable as a stand-alone module. The campaign version is available to SoZ owners only! Now you can create your own party and smash T&T into smithereens! 50 loadscreen tips. The SoZ death system. The only real issue with SoZ self-made parties in this mod is that your main char is the only one able to converse with NPCs and placeables, so far, except for lobby area. Other fixes: The Caverns of the Conquerors have been revamped. The dwarven graves crashing at spawning is finally a squashed bug. Some archer guards are less twitchy now. Mrs S goes more properly hostile now, same with a strange dragon. An invisible spider is now visible. A few typos and faulty walkmesh cutters have been corrected. More items have been added.
-v121108 - A large number of SoZ Party Chat convos have been added for those playing Trial & Terror as a SoZ compatible campaign. About 3000 words worth of dialogue has been added! Several new skill checks have been added. In this way, T&T will flow much more smoothly while playing it with a full party! A few more typos have been corrected. A bug where friendly Imaskari 'wizards' got spawned, instead of hostile ones, have been fixed. A new attempt to fix the archer guard bug at Mr O has been done.
-v121208 - HOTFIX!!! For the first time, a game-breaking bug happened to slip through (in v 121108)! Instead of a central gate giving you a gate convo, you got a rathole convo instead! This bug has been fixed in this essential version! Replacing the old trialandterror.mod file with the one included here should make your old 121108-saves work. Another bug fix is a certain skeleton that refused to react upon a certain theft sometimes. Lastly, some safeguarding scripting and journal updating have been added to a few important area-enter convos.
-v121508 - All SoZ party chat convos are now non-abortable! If your party leader is at the front, you will now get more camera cutscene value out of T&T. The starting convo upon entering the pronaos is now much more reliable. The same goes for the starting convo of the Imaskari Hideout. A certain panel in the Rinsing Room won't leave SoZ party chat convo if certain globes are not found (just leave convo and restart it with a new char, if this issue remains). A darkness-comment barkstring in Imaskari Hideout will now only run once. Two typos in the loadscreens have been corrected. Zhordash's deathscript has been improved as far as quest updates go. At the end of the game, two new versions have been added, much because they were logically missing (they lack one line each of VO though).
-v010709 - SoZ seems to have affected a script that counted the number of rings you had collected from certain frost giant baddies. Hence, this mod version has updated the dwarven phantom's convo to check for the rings themselves instead, and not an int variable. Also, the install instruction text has been corrected.
v010809 - Due to a SoZ party script glitch in the troll idol convo, when used, it caused the game to freeze up sometimes. That convo is now fixed.
v021009 - A number of fixes. The spawn scripts in the Dwarven Prehistoric Caves and in the Precipice of Innocence should be crash-safe(r) now. A few dialogue options have been added to Z's convo, all of which are meant to enrage her! The epilogue convo has been corrected so that it accommodates the crushing of Mr O's avatar heart. There are no longer mysterious longbows and rapiers lying around in the Caverns of Conquerors. Dream weapons should now be working in accordance with MotB (it will require you to have the T&T campaign dir in place).
v030309 - This is a patch 1.22-updated version of the mod 7z-file. As per this update, a custom tlk file with no .TLK extension is no longer needed. The 'trialandterror_custom.tlk' will suffice. Also, if a pc takes the scroll from the seated skeleton, that pc will now get his or her hands on it!
These 2da files are only to be used for players still on patch 1.13. Place them in the override directory. Also, they are not compatible with Kaedrin's.
This Kaedrin-pack-specific 7z file contains a hak file compatible with Storm of Zehir. Ensure that the hak file is named 'trialandterror.hak' when you put it in the hak directory.
This 7z file contains four items. First, the mod file - 'trialandterror.mod' (put in NWN2/docs module dir). Second, a tlk-file - trialandterror_custom.tlk (put in NWN2/docs tlk dir). These two are enough if you do not have SoZ installed. Pick "New Game" and you're off! If you have SoZ, there is one more thing to do. A campaign directory - 'Trial and Terror Campaign' (put it in NWN2/docs campaign dir). Lastly, there is an install instruction .txt file. And SoZ owners - remember to start the game as a 'New Campaign'!
This 7z file contains a hak file compatible with patch 1.22 and Storm of Zehir. Ensure that the hak file is named 'trialandterror.hak' when you put it in the hak directory.
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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