Terror by night! The village of Orlane is dying. Once a small and thriving community, Orlane has become a maze of locked doors and frightened faces. Strangers are shunned, trade has withered. Rumours flourish, growing wilder with each retelling. Terrified peasants flee their homes, abandoning their farms with no explanation. Others simply disappear...
No-one seems to know the cause of the decay - why are there no clues? Who skulks through the twisted shadows of the night? Who or what is behind the doom that has overtaken the village? It will take a brave and skillful band of adventurers to solve the dark riddle of Orlane!
This module is a remake of the classic 1982 TSR Dungeons & Dragons module by Douglas Niles, for a party of 4-7 characters level 1-3, ideally new first level adventurers. The odd bit here & there is different due to the limitations of the toolset (& the builder), but on the whole I've tried to keep the feel of the original.
WHO'S IT FOR?
The adventure is designed for Single or Multi-players, and help is available in the starting town if any is needed to add skills, power and support to the party.
Depending on your level, experience & play style, you may need more or less of them to help you on your way. If you're struggling, either add more characters using hte Party Editor in the Purple Sloop, add more henchman hanging around in the same place, or use a higher level character. Maximum party size is 4 player made characters + all 4 henchman + another companion from the original P&P adventure you can recruit along the way. This makes a total of 8-9 characters, so no encounter should be too tricky, although you may need to use the pause button every now & then to issue commands.
Please be aware though, Brother Gareth gets a little excited sometimes & forgets to equip his maul in his enthusiasm to get smiting. I've talked to him many times about this, but he's just too 'enthusiastic' for his own good sometimes. So if you notice in any given encounter that he's waded in bare handed, just give him a nudge & equip his weapon for him - thanks ;-)
STARTING THE ADVENTURE:
This adventure is set up as a Campaign rather than a single Module. This enables use of the Party Editor (as seen in Storm of Zehir) which allows you to create your own party (ask at the local taverns where your friends are if you can't find it).
Start the adventure by choosing New & then New Campaign.
IMPORTANT - CUSTOM CONTENT REQUIRED:
Because the content that comes with the original game, even with the expansion packs, is still a little limited for what I wanted to do here, I've also used various custom content HAKs, combined into a single file to download - see the links in the 'FILES' section. These include extra creatures, scenery, objects and scripts that allow cool things to happen.
CAMPAIGN FOLDER:
As well as the .mod file that needs to be unzipped into your My Docs/ NWN2/ Modules folder, there's also a Campaign folder that needs to be pasted into your My Docs/ NWN2/ Campaigns folder.
DEATH:
Penalties seem a little harsh for low level characters, so here it doesn't incur any penalty other than a long walk back to wherever you got into trouble, but at least you won't be stuck where you died & you'll have a chance to stock up with new equipment before you head back into the fray.
Your companions don't suffer that fate if they're overcome in combat - they'll merely be out cold for a few rounds, then get up & wander round a bit dazed.
STARTING EQUIPMENT:
Speaking of equipment, as this is aimed at beginning, or low level characters, you'll be given a reasonable amount of gold as you enter the adventure to kit yourself out with (maybe represeants your life savings) - spend wisely!
CRAFTING:
I've had a bash at implementing crafting. One of the shops in the starting town specialises in crafting materials & there's a crafting hall to get busy in. Unfortunately its a fair trek back to town if you pick up new materials along the way, so there are workbenches in different areas which should help most crafters.
MAPPING:
I've implemented a slightly edited version of Lance Botelle's fog of war HAK & you have a choice: Use the minimap & you'll see the usual things - namely everything regardless of whether its behind a bush or a castle wall. Use the regular map & you'll only see what's in your line of sight or have already explored. The choice is yours which you use, although the minimap obviously only has a small radius. If you use the big map, you'll also notice its hard to map when you're in combat!
NOT AN MMO:
I'm sure most players already know, but P&P style NWN2 is not an MMO, and a different approach is often useful for encounters. Running into an unknown area & hoping for the best may be fairly safe in most MMOs, but here its often a good way to get killed. If nothing else, learn to scout, look for an enemy's weakness, and hit 'pause' at the start of a fight in order to best organise your - very squishy - party.
ENCOUNTERS:
Think tactically. Some opponents may be too tough for your party - before you start any fights, take a good look at the your opponent & make sure you can finish them, and maybe take a look at your environment to find the most advantageous positions to fight. And maybe save often. There's sometimes help available too - remember you're low level - one good hit & a little bad luck & you're out of the adventure!
I used 4 of the available party members, TonyK's AI Override & hard core rules in playtesting & quite a few encounters were tricky, but possible with a bit of thought.
However, one was downright impossible at 1st level. Hopefully this won't be too much of a spoiler, but don't mess with the law in Orlane!
OVERRIDES - OPTIONAL, BUT MAKES PLAY BETTER (IMHO):
I'd really recommend using TonyK's AI as it really does make a big difference in the way everyone (and every monster) behaves - find it here: Link And if you like that P&P feel - definitely make sure you turn Hard core rules on - there's nothing like seeing your fighters struggling with a bunch of goblins & wondering if they'll survive if you fire off a fireball into the melee!
You may also want to use the following:
Rearon & Trekari's Spell fixes Link Kaedrin's PrC pack Link And if you're like me & hate the hamster ball spell effects for most protection spells,
Clubok's much needed Less obtrusive spell buffs Link
All are override files, so just unzip them into your MyDocs/Neverwinter2/Override folder & you're good to go.
XP:
You DON'T get much experience for killing things. What you DO get it for is investigating successfully & discovering useful information that will help you on your quest, and for exploring. This means that whether your approach is to kill everything you come across, or circumvent it by means of charm, hold or sleep magic, or just old fashioned stealth - you'll get the same XP awards - so no class is favoured, and none penalised.
Overall, XP is calculated such that a 1st level party will finish the adventure around 3rd level. This can be influenced by exploring more or less and killing more monsters, although the latter won't influence things that much.
CONVERSATIONS:
As this module can be a little chat-heavy, I thought about building different communication skills into the conversations, but time constraints stopped me. I may come back to this at some point, but to be honest, I'm quite happy with how the convo's work already, and I'm itching to get cracking on my next project.
CREDITS FOR CUSTOM CONTENT USED:
Gorgeous as Hochoch is, and several of the interiors of buildings therein, I can't take credit for them - They're pulled from the prefab area of the vault Link I'd credit the builders individually, but I've completely lost who they are - really sorry guys, but your work's awesome!
Also used:
RWS all in one HAK
Link The All Critters, RWS creature convert & Misc creatures packs
Link BTH Shields
Link Lance Botelle's Fog of War
Link
VERSION HISTORY:
V1.1 uploaded 10.4.11
Transition back from the Plains should work now.
Priestess in Hochoch temple will now heal party members if you ask nicely.
The massive sale held by one of the vendors in Hochoch has now ended - sorry folks!
A few of the encounters have now been weakened a little, although your main approach should be seeing the opposition before they see you & setting up the encounter to give you the advantage - or avoiding it.
Two of the companions available have been boosted up to level 2 - should help keep them alive a little longer.
Captive in the cage doesn't have an infinite loop in her conversation any more.
V1.2 uploaded 14.4.11
Removed the teleport ring from the reptile god's temple.
Various other issues resolved that have been mentioned by players.
V1.3 Uploaded 21.4.11
CREATE YOUR OWN PARTY! The module is now converted to a campaign, so you can use the guest books in the 2 main inns to create your own party (up to 5 characters). If you want to, you can still add in the companions hanging around the Sloop to bolster your party - taking the maximum party size to something approaching a small army - no complaints about the fights being too hard now please :-) There's a slight issue with some messages duplicating if you're not controlling your 'original' character when they're triggered, and for some reason the active character keeps jumping back to your original character on some transitions & the occaisional trigger - which may be a little disorientating, so hope its not annoying while I'm looking for the cause. Happy Easter!
V1.4 Uploaded 26.4.11
Fixed the Fog of War problems some people were reporting - Many thanks to Lance for your help with that - much appreciated!
V1.5 Uploaded 15.7.11
Added a 'head' to the main protagonist's inventory - forces the final journal update when you pick it up in case the her death script doesn't fire properly as some players have fed back.
Nerfed the initial encounters a little as some were finding them a little too hard - OK, so maybe an ogre is a little powerful for 1st level, even a party of 8 + the local militia!
V1.6 Uploaded 24.1.13
Fixed most of the few remaining bugs, added a few relatively minor features in line with the other adventures in the series.
Many, many thanks to all the people who've produced the custom content that I've used, and who've helped me solve problems on this project via the vault & bioware social forums - you really are awesome & I don't think it would have all come together without you.
Thanks folks!
Finally, its only my second published module for NWN & I'm still learning how to do things, but hopefully I've managed to keep a good PNP feel throughout the adventure.
Any feedback or questions are gratefully received, so please let me know anything you liked, didn't like, or just anything at all. If its major, or just easily fixed, I'll sort it. I check in here pretty much every day, so expect a quick response.
Keep rolling 20's!
Clyordes.
PS - Next stop: Oasis of the White Palm...........
This is the main adventure file - Just unzip it into your My Docs/NWN2/Modules folder.
Now the adventure is in 'Campaign' Format - you'll also need the Campaign folder - see seperate entry here.
Start adventure by choosing 'New' & then 'New Campaign'
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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