==============================
Tales from the Lake of Sorrows
==============================
Lord Tysan of Thunder Bay needs adventurers. Men and women of all classes and backgrounds are invited to present themselves at the town of Littlelake, where they will be taken on on a first come first hired basis.
That was what the bard had said when he came into the inn on that wet afternoon late in the summer of 1374. That was the day your adventure started and the day your life changed forever.
Location Forgotten realms � in the area of Neverwinter.
Setting The module is set at the same time as SoZ against a backdrop of hard times in Neverwinter brought on by the war with the King of Shadows.
Play time 25 - 30 hours (plus 6 � 8 hours (see notes))
Level 1 - 13
Class Any
Companions 5 but not all at once
Tales from The Lake of Sorrows is an adventure for any class which will take your character from level 1 to level 12 � 13 over 25 � 30 hours of gameplay. The story is set on the Lake of Sorrows, a large glacial lake which I have located to the Southwest of Neverwinter. It takes place at the same time as Storm of Zehir and several locations and people will be recognised from that campaign and the OC.
If the player wishes you may also play a sixth part of the series, from this comes strength. This tells part of the story from a different viewpoint, that of Solace the npc. This should be played after chapter 4 and before chapter 6 and adds an additional 6 � 8 hours of gameplay. This additional module must be downloaded from the vault spearately.
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.
Note on combat � Unless you are an experienced tactical player keep all the companions with you, the combat is balanced to be challenging at times on normal game setting but with preparation and tactics none of the encounters will be too difficult to manage.
With the exception of the video file the folders are zipped and named as thier destination folders.
The modules files 1 and 2 should be unzipped to:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\modules
The campaign folder file should be unzipped to:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\Campaigns
The Hak file should be unzipped to:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\Hak
The music file should be unzipped to:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\music
And the file named tlos_open.blk should be placed as it is (it is not compressed) into
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\movies
Having done this you can launch thegame and you will find the Tales from the Lake of Sorrows camapign in your list of campaigns.
Notes:
=====
1. You do not need to overwrite any haks you have but it does not matter if you do.
2. Some of the music files will overwrite if you have any of my stand alone modules on your hard drive. It is okay to allow them to overwrite.
3. It is useful to read the campaign notes before you start; in particular, note that Ember is faithless. Keep her that way and the story will make more senseTales from the Lake of Sorrows
===================
Things you should know:
===================
There are no race restrictions, but humans are the order of the day.
Combat difficulty varies and is tough in places but if you have the NPC's provided with you then you should always prevail, particularly if you use the terrain to your advantage. I have balanced the game for normal rules setting switching to hardcore will make the game much tougher as will leaving behind any of the npc�s I have given you.
Your facilitator for the first four modules is Ormin, if you find yourself not sure what to do and the journal does not help then you probably need to be talking to Ormin. In Modules five and six the facilitator is Matthias. Other npc's are carried along with the story and it is worth visiting principle protagonists as the story develops.
Transitions 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 use the door like everybody else.
=====
NPC�s
=====
Your npc's are:
Ember(see below), Honour(Mage), Solace(ranger), Alan(fighter) and Harald(fighter).
In each module not all of these will be available to you except Ember. She starts out as a rogue but her stats are such that she can be used as a mage, fighter or other class. For story reasons do not make Ember a cleric and do not give her a god. She is faithless for a reason and you should keep her so to fully enjoy the latter part of the series.
Always talk to the the npc�s often. Each has at least 8000 words of dialogue, not all of which will be available on any given run through. They will give you hints if you need them and will develop the plot as well. None of these conversation are required to progress however and if you wish to ignore them you may.
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 have back stories which you can access as the module progresses if you have a good enough relationship with them.
=======
Romance
=======
Ember is the only Romance available. It does not kick off properly till the end of Chapter 2 though to get that you need to be in her good books. Thus you need to start wooing her from the very start. There are three other conversations that will launch the romance later in other mods. Once started it cannot be stopped except by talking to one of the working girls in the last major town. She takes a very dim veiw of that. Any race or sex may romance Ember.
====
Time
====
This mod is very time based. Shops shut at night and certain npc's are not available at certain times. Resting is restricted in places but generally you can rest where you need to. All of the innkeepers and the sundial in the market square, 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 in the main town of thunder bay you will hear a bell from time to time. This rings on the sixes, giving you a general idea of the time of day.
===============
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. Talking to every one will reveal opportunities to gain exp and the barkstrings of no core npc's will change as the story develops.
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.
========================
What this mod does not have:
========================
SoZ style conversations.
Flexible npc hiring and firing.
===========
Big thanks bit:
===========
Thanks go to the following for their parts in the making and testing of the mod.
M.Reider - for all his support in the development, testing and scripting for this module. Without M.R. it would not be the same module.
R. Lebeau - for his help in getting some o the coversations right. R.L. has put many hours of effort into testing and conversation checking, all of which have been much appreciated.
Arkalezth - for his playtesting and help with character builds.
Lance Botelle � for his support and gold tinting for various statues.
OfficerDon - for playtesting and help with the lore of the sword coast.
Toupon � for the amazeing city Hak
BTH � for his houses and towers sets.
Realms of Trinity team � for the placebales set.
Quixal - for his support in play testing.
Alupinu - for his play testing support and walk mesh hints.
AllThatJazz - for her dialogue support.
Uncle FB - for the Uncle FB's NPC control.
Lilac soul for the script generator � all scripts, not written by Matt, were written using this.
RWS for the stirges model and the dungeon, sewer and circular building tilesets.
Finally thanks to the forum users especially Chaos Weilder who helped me with all the techie bits which I can't do, which frankly is all the techie bits.
=====
Music
=====
There is a lot of custom music in this module much of it drawn from my developing interest in medieval music, particularly where played on original instruments. Credit is due to the following persons.
For the playing of La Manfredina which may be heard in Thunder Bay, Grien Sluis which is played in the afternoon in the market Tavern and the Trotto which in played in the Market Tavern late at night thanks to Susan Sandman and Derwent crocker. This music in played on authentic instruments and, to me, sounds great. If it sounds good to you then you can find these and other tracks on The Medieval Lady, available on Leonarda productions. I payed royalties for these tracks please do not rip them.
For the playing of The nite watch (Anthony Holborne 1545 � 1629) as played at certain times in the Red Griffin and In this trembling shadow (John Dowland 1563 � 1626) as played in the afternoon in the Market Tavern thanks to Jon Sayles. Check out his website for an enormous free resource and also develop a love for his art.
For other tracks which I shall not list except by exception below, all were written and produced by Tillman Silescu and may be found on the Freesound website.
Portent (used in littlelake) - Todd Galtreau
Evil King � Peter Calandra.
Kyrie � James Wilson.
Broken hearted and Black arts � Mike Newport.
If you consider that all other custom Tracks were written by Tillman Sillescu it goes without saying that I am exceptionally grateful to him for sharing his art. You can find out more about him at Link
Thank you for the very kind comments and vote. In truth, for a day job, I design sewage treatment plant for cruise ships. Quite a long way from Honour and the rest of them :D
Honour will be back. I had thought to leave these characters behind but, as you say, she has more story to be closed out whereas the others had reached an ending. It will be a while though.
Thanks again for playing and the bug reports. I will squish them soon enough.
PJ
Posted by Rosie at 2013-05-12 02:58:29 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
Just finished. just the best experience I've had in NWN2. That last area in VotD was so atmospheric!
Your characters are incredibly memorable, your stories compelling, and your area design lovely to look at. It was good to see your confidence and assuredness with the toolset increase as the campaign progressed, and I enjoyed the humour throughout as well (the bit in Neverwinter when the barmaid expressed surprise at a group of adventurers suddenly appearing from the basement was an especially amusing exchange...)
I got a few little bugs (one final thing to report is that I can click on Honour's father's book multiple times and keep getting xp for it), but I refuse to take any marks off for that stuff because there was nothing that hampered my enjoyment. If I'd bought a game with this calibre of stories and characters, I would feel like I got my money's worth. Honestly, it's mods like this that are the reason I keep coming back to NWN2.
I really hope to see more of Honour in the future - there's definitely more story to be told there! I'm genuinely sad to say goodbye to Ember, Solace, Harald and co. You have a real gift for telling stories and creating characters - I don't know whether it's something you already do for a living in some capacity. If it isn't, it should be!
Hello [b][i]Prince Argrath{/b]{/i], Thank you for the vote and detailed comments. I am pleased you had a clear run through :D I was starting to get despondent ...
PJ
Posted by Prince Argrath at 2013-05-12 01:09:51 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
I have just finished this and I have to say it is better than the sum of it�s parts, all of which I have played before. Everything I like about the writers work is here and it seems to get better in the last part.
I did not have any of the problems posted here and had a smooth run through, yes there are typos but the quality of the writing is more than good enough and even made me smile in a couple of places.
For me, the npc�s make this story, they are well written and interesting and have plenty to say for themselves. I played out the romance and that was good as these things go though I generally leave them out if given the choice. It seemed better paced than some others.
The area design is very good and some of the areas are, for me, outstanding. Beregost, Leilon and the graveyard and tombs stand out in my mind. I think, for the two towns, the music really does add to the overall feel for the area. Where do you get the music from, is it free.
Beregost seemed a little empty for a crowded town but it was also a little crunchy to walk round. Frame rates dropped to point where play was not affected but you could see a slight stutter. But that�s just my machine.
Also in the last areas I enjoyed the lady in the bathtub. That did give the impression of people living on top of one another in poor surroundings.
If I have to be picky then I would say a few jump to base doors might have been nice. I spent a lot of time in Caravan
Club walking the same empty area. Perhaps you could port in some bad guys to keep interest up (I am thinking of the cave and its approach areas here), to balance that the rebuilt cave outer area is a real improvement on the old one which was not bad in itself.
The combat is variable but tends to be easy rather than hard. Some fights stand out but for the most part I did not find this challenging on normal mode unless I was being lazy. Am am thinking that is hard to balance to please all play styles and experience levels though.
Some of the set up conversations are a little long winded but I guess there has to be plot development and there was enough PC butting in to break them up a little.
That reminds me of the boy crying sapphire tears � I really like the imagery in that conversation.
And that�s it, I�m going with the flow and giving this a Ten. In time I will replay the series again and find that second ring you just told Thezabain about.
Thanks to you for your time and effort in building this.
Morag has a secret place a "comfortable room" in the Tysan estate. (Built for her by her son while he put in the foundations for the new wing on the house). If you find that then the other ring is on the counter top, again we are in z key and mouse territory. It is her dis guarded wedding band and worth finding.
The remarrying is an obscure one from CC, though you can talk to both Ormin and Morag about it.
If in CC you talk to the new bard in the Masons rest (Arabellas husband) he will give you lots of background to the whole first three modules. One of the things he tells you is that Hal Tysan lost his first wife (to Taneth) and was to marry again. However in LDotR Morag is looking for a more suitable wife. It is a side quest that never made the cut though vestiges remain int he conversations for background story.
Posted by Thezibaim at 2013-05-11 22:03:04 Voted 10.00
A conversation bug with Ormin in LDotR, though - upon visiting him in the Market Tavern after being escorted to see Morag the first time, there is a conversation option with Ormin that says "I thought Hal is to remarry?" - a holdover from the later chapters, I think? _________________________ Timmmeahhhhhhhhh!!!!!
I hope you enjoy, there are some new areas (rebuilt areas) in LDotR so it should not all be too familiar.
PJ
Posted by Rosie at 2013-05-11 15:04:30 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
Hey again PJ
Sorry I keep posting so much - I'm playing TLoS at the moment and am bringing issues to your attention as I find them, just so they don't disappear from my brain entirely (things do that these days ...)
MINOR SPOILERS AHOY
After returning from Neverwinter and speaking to Matthias, Solace joins my party. However if I speak to Matthias a second time, a second Solace appears. There is actually quite an appeal in having a party of Solaces (great character), but I thought I should probably let you know ...
Also, while I remember - in the graveyard area nr Beregost, I could not get the half elven girl to appear at all (lots of reloads to see if I could get her to appear, only saw her in the graveyard once and never in the tomb), but the ghost that (it seems) should have attacked me when I opened the tomb with the helm in never spawned either.
Sorry about that, PJ! It was my bad - I had thought WinRAR had extracted the .haks to the /hak folder, but it seems it only put them in the /hak/Hak folder, causing the foul up. Loads normally now, after copying the files into the base /hak! Cheers. _________________________ Timmmeahhhhhhhhh!!!!!
I have just checked and they are all there.
Take the folder hak version out of the Neverwinter folder and manually check you have all those hak files in place? If you have them all and it still does not work then perhaps the problem is not in the modules though I would not know where to start looking for it?
But major error when trying to load module 3 - says required Hak packs missing, and to check log files for required Hak packs. I've redownloaded the Hak file from the vault, and have unzipped it to the Hak folder, both as Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\hak and as Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\hak\Hak, the latter being how the Hak file was downloaded from the Vault (i.e. opening tlos_Hak.7z shows the contents under a "Hak" folder, so I'm not sure whether the individual .hak files belong in \hak or in \hak\Hak) _________________________ Timmmeahhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Whatever that was. Downoaded again and now it works fine. I swear I downloaded this 4 times before and it went wrong every time. Whatever. Started now and all is well.
Posted by Rosie at 2013-05-11 13:03:53 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
Thezibaim - As soon as the message appears, press the 'Z' key in that area. The thing you're looking for is reaaaallllly small :)
Posted by Thezibaim at 2013-05-11 12:57:40 Voted 10.00
In the basement of Crassus' Lair (chapter 4), when you fight the 2 skeletons, a successful Spot chek tells you there is someting on the floor and you must search careffully.
thanks for your fast reply but something's odd here. In the meantime I downloaded the files from Rolo Kipp's Vault project and started a game. Walkmesh ssems odd right away, e.g. I coulödn't access the ruins door right in the first area. Then, I suppose there were some kobolds which should appear and didn't and ain Lakeside itself none of the area transitions are working.
Strangely enough, now after 4 unsuccessful download at least the file size of the files above seems to be right.
Can't find your dropbox link, though.
Whatever. I'll see if I can work it out and maybe re-downnload and reinstall the mod.
Posted by Rosie at 2013-05-11 12:05:24 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
Oh, and no probs! It's a pleasure to play, even with a few quirks here and there! x
Posted by Rosie at 2013-05-11 12:04:39 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
Hiya PJ
No, she didn't say anything, the cutscene ended with Harald introducing her, and then the convo stopped abruptly. I was able to recruit Harald with no problem by talking to him again(though he had no gear).
That�s an odd one, did Moss�s lines run okay. She does not spawn she is a fixture so I will check her faction. The only thin g I can think is that Harald killed her, which happens if the factions are wrong but it has always been okay in play testing.
The girl in the Market Tavern may not be there in VoTD, she should be but I might have forgotten. She was a very late add in to add some more colour to Harald's tale. She is there in LdotR and DdoW so you could have spoken to her. In fact you should have spoken to her to get that option.
I will sort the Later Helem out in the next fix. I must have borked her skills when resetting her stats.
Thanks for the help in the debugging. You�re into the last part if you have got to Moss.
That�s three people affected by that bug and I cannot for the life of me see why. Others are getting past it okay and there is only one thread there. Taking her out by roster appears to work if you do it before you meet her on the dock so we have a fix but I will go back into the tool set to look at that.
Thanks for the update though it is very useful to know.
Have fun with the rest of the module :)
The original files were corrupted but I did not think the current one was? I tested it myself to be sure. That said I have posted links to my drop box account above and you can take them from there. I hope you have fun with the module.
1. In the phoenix the barman give you a letter from Ember. It is that which tells you about the murder of Helem and LJ, there is no journal associated with it so it�s easy to miss.
2. I left crafting out for game balance reasons as I did not understand the mechanics well enough to not upset the game by including it.
I will have crafting in my next project but not in this one.
Thanks for the further comments,
PJ
Posted by Rosie at 2013-05-11 11:01:09 Voted 10.00 on 05/12/13
Hi PJ
Still enjoying VotD - Moss doesn't spawn in the Red Griffin - seems a bit strange to get a cutscene with Harald talking to himself :p Nor does the girl in the Market Tavern, though I still get a high INT option to tell Harald we've found her.
Also while I remember - after rescuing Helem in CC, she could no longer use her light hammer (though was able to use it fine before). I ended up equipping her with a quarterstaff as it was all I had available.
I have gotten the same issue with Solace as other two lads here. For some reason I start the second chapter with her in my party (even when I finished the first chapter without her in my party). I will try eb52t workaround.
the campaign folder seems to be corrupt. File Size is only 127 MB when I download and I get an error message extracting it. I tried multiple times and always to the same effect.
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
Site
at 2013-05-12 04:39:00
at 2013-05-12 02:58:29
