The series will be six modules in length, the fifth of which is work in progress. All will appear under the
campaign title of Tales from the Lake of Sorrows, late in 2012.
Please enjoy the modules and don't forget to vote :)
The Caravan Club.
After two weeks of kicking your heels in the Masons Rest Inn, Ormin the Cleric finally has some work for you. A farmer and his family, missing, presumed dead, a wayward Mielikki priest, missing, presumed drunk. Both require locating, and you are the person for the job.
Should be simple enough?
But life for you has been anything but simple over the last few weeks and it's not about to change now.
Two murders committed miles apart but somehow connected, the evil Samuel still at large and out for vengeance and the little matter of some unfinished business with the smugglers you put down. Your investigations take you from your comfortable room in Lakeside to the fortified Waggoners Inn, through a vast cave system and to the city of splendours itself. What starts as simple quests quickly becomes a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the most challenging enemy you will ever have to face, a superior adventuring party.
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This is the second module in what will become a series under the title Tales from the Lake of Sorrows. The Caravan Club takes place two weeks on from my first module, Sheep and Stone picking up the story where where the first module leaves off. It can however, be played as a stand alone. It will take your character from level 3.5 to around 5.5. It also develops the plot lines which will be the backbone of the third mod in the series, which I hope will be completed by early 2011.
This is a linear story led mod, there are some side quests and conversations which boost your exp but this is not a sandbox mod by any means.
One folder titled The_Caravan_Club
Two hak files
seven sound files (in the override folder)
To install.
Put/copy the *.hak files to you hak folder.
Copy the sounds files out of the folder I sent them in and place them in your over ride folder.
Copy the module file The Caravan Club to your modules folder.
The module will now run from your modules start up screen.
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Things you should know: ========================
The mod should be fine for any class though magic users may need the respawn button in the earlier combats. There are no race restrictions but Humans are the order of the day. You can start at any level, there is a little intro section that will take your character to around level 3.5 unless you are higher than this. New characters, and to some extent, less new characters get some money to spend in town. Also in the chest in the bedroom I have placed 1000 gp and a dagger. This is there to reflect your time spent in Sheep and Stone. I expect you to reach around 14000 exp by the end.
Your facilitators are Ormin and Isla (in the first third of the mod). If you find yourself not sure what to do and the journal does not help then you probably need to be talking to Ormin.
Transition are made without a world map. In each outdoor area you will find either a stone, a sign or an area transition that will get you out. For indoor areas, that are not big caves, use the door like everybody else.
Your npc's are Ember and Solace. Solace is optional after the first main quest is complete however, if you don't have a fighter type class I suggest you keep her with you. If you do drop her you can pick her up in the Waggoners as long as you have sufficient influence with her. Once you have done this she is with you till the end. You should be aware that you need to treat her at least moderately well to have her stay with you. Look at the pop up text for clues on what she finds acceptable and what she dislikes.
You will know how well you are treating the npc's by the way they talk to you. The less well you treat then the less you will get out of them.
The npc's both have back stories which you can access if you have a good enough relationship with them.
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Time. =====
This mod is very time based. Shops shut at night and certain npc's are not available at certain times. Resting is restricted. You have a room; in this you may rest and pass 8 hours. Many transition points allow you to jump to this directly. All of the innkeepers will allow you to pass up to 4 hours without resting so you should never be stuck waiting. Note however, at night most, if not all, npc's go to one of the inns. If they are not there then they are not plot movers. While the general rule is shops close at night you can always buy potions from Melissa and when you are in desperate need the shops will open.
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What the mod has: ==================
This is a linear story driven module. There are side quests but limited possibilities for sandbox style play. That said there are places to explore with rewards for doing so. Talk to everyone at different times of the day, there are hidden exp rewards with some of the characters. Hint � Talk to Melissa, while she is studying during dinner, for a chance to use craft alchemy.
The module has a good degree of npc interaction and the npc's have back stories which will be revealed as the mod plays out.
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What this mod does not have: ============================
SoZ style conversations.
Flexible npc hiring and firing.
A romance � however you can develop the relationship with Ember and there are rewards associated with that.
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Big thanks bit: ===============
Thanks go to the following for their parts in the making and testing of the mod.
Uncle FB- for the Uncle FB's NPC control.
Lilac soul- for the script generator � all other scripts were written using this.
Jet Truebow- for his play testing input.
ciViLiSed- for his play testing and comments.
SGK73- for the black skydome Hak.
Gordon Gregory- for his playing of Grien Sluis. This is a piece of Lute music written around 1550 credited to John Dowland, it is a variation on Greensleeves. Gordon plays both the treble and the ground in this piece. (A WORD OF WARNING; I have permission to use this piece not you lot! If he catches you with it his people will come for you in the night and turn you into a frog � probably.)
Jhonen Olains Eberron journal elven translator provided the Elven Language used by Min and others.
Finally thanks to the forum users who helped me with all the techie bits which I cant do, which frankly is all the techie bits.
I hope you enjoy The Caravan Club and hope also than you can find time to vote and comment.
Thanks and enjoy,
PJ
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Hint =====
If at some point you find yourself in a big cave and it's a long way to get out.
1.Move to where you can look down on some mushrooms and click there to move to them.
2.Your character will cross a river on the way, stop there. Look down the line of the river and click as far up stream as the cursor will lets you (past the second waterfall).
3.When you arrive there you will see the entrance you can click there and travel the rest of the way. If you don't have the dexterity use the side entrance.
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Version 1.1 =====================================
In this version I have fixed or responded to pretty much every comment that has come up to date, and a few that I have seen or found off line.
1. I have moved some journal triggers and keys to ensure the flow of the module is not easily stalled.
2. I have changed the CR so creatures appear as tough as they are - You know when to fight and when to run,
3. I have fixed a few convo probelms with barkstrings appearing as cutscenes.
4. Some Typo's have been fixed.
5. I have extended some convo's so that npc's respond appropriatly to a mid game event.
6. I have balanced the fighting so that the ride is not so difficult if you choose not to take Solace I still strongly advise that non combat classes take Solace along
found it; thank you :) _________________________ Where the World Once Stood the blades of grass cut me still
Posted by PJ156 at 2012-10-1403:36:43
Hello grassBlade, Sorry if the Hak reference is not clear. I do it more precisely in the text docuemnt in the zip but that is word and may not open for you? There is only one Hak. *** SPOILERS *** The entrance you want is behind the ruined house on the lake shore. The path to it is on the opposite side to the stone platform with the door to nowhere (my bad). The door is one level lower down right on the lake shore. I hope this helps, please come back to me if you have any more problems. Kind regards, PJ
Posted by grassBlade at 2012-10-1315:14:41
downloaded the mod and started it up as "Caravan Club" (campaign). Got the assignment to Dragon Scar; however, once I got there I had problems opening the doors... Couldn't reach the one at the dock since there is no mesh leading up to it, and while the one on the cliff opened, it exposed a solid wall rather than the usual black transition. Also, the instructions above talk about 2 hak packs and there is only one in the zip file. _________________________ Where the World Once Stood the blades of grass cut me still
Posted by calagorn at on06/27/12
Awesome stuff!
Posted by barrister at on05/31/12
Great Mod - better than the main game.
Posted by PJ156 at 2012-04-1505:43:38
Thank you Dromano for the very kind vote. The last combat is tough and not resting will have caused issues as you say. You can rest though, they waiting bad guys are not going to be upset, I disbaled the timer for various reasons, mostly I could not get it to work. So you could have another go at it. I'm please you enjoyed it and I hope you enjoy the next two in the series. PJ
Posted by Dromano at on04/14/12
I really enjoyed this one as well, even though the plot didn't surprise me like in Sheep and Stone (given that I already had an idea of the kind of NPCs we were dealing with). Just a few glitches for me, like Solace on the dock not offering to join my party (re-load) and initially missing part of the river cave that I needed to explore for the plot to advance (my fault). *spoiler warning* For the final battle, I think it might have been better for the bald woman to say "be there at dawn" rather than "in an hour." With only an hour, I didn't rest and hence didn't get new spells for Hemen, and since her stock spells were kind of poorly chosen, the climax battle was brutal -- my Swashbuckler/rogue ended up doing a lot of running around getting chased as the other characters regenerated from death to pop up for a few seconds, shoot some arrows at Tanath, and then get killed again. Eventually I wore him down though. This leads me to another suggestion though -- I think the SOZ death system is more realistic and would be better for the modules. In any case, really enjoyed it -- thanks a lot.
Posted by PJ156 at 2012-04-1314:00:28
Hapolekaren, thank you again for the kind votes and comments. I tried to balance the shops to keep the cash low in these early stages. Others has said the same as you. I should have done it in a different way, something to think about for the final version. *** SPOILERS *** Helem is the key to the last fight if you find it rough going. Keep her alive and stock her up with lightning spells. You will find the bad guys drop easily enough. I hope you do see improvements in the next two mods. I do get better at it I think :) Cheers PJ
Posted by harpolekaren at on04/12/12
And so the story unfolds... I actually liked this one even better than SS, reason being the npcs deepened story and traits comparing to the prequel. I grew particularly fond of Isra Landry, and cursed her brother on more than one occasion. Another memorable moment was the ogre mage, I really wished I could have spared him. Well, I could go on and on about things i loved, like the beautifully crafted areas, or the well-designed plot, but i suppose you are more interrested in things to improve. On the negative side: The shops runs out of money very fast, in the second half of the module I didn't even loot things if it wasn't immediately useful, since it would just sit in my pack. As far as I am conserned, item values could be tweaked down quite a lot. Perhaps it is just me, I am not a very skilled tactician, but the last fight was a bit on the rough side. Only way to win it was to make use of a glitch i encountered. (one that is in NWN2, not specifically in this module) Writing in English takes forever for me, so I'd leave it at that. I hope the next two modules aren't getting better, otherwise a score of ten won't be enough for the last one. :)
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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