In 1981, I was 11 years old and in the 6th grade. One afternoon, I went to a classmate’s house after school. In the middle of his dinning room table was a mighty castle. It was about 2’x 2’ and made entirely out of glued together sugar cubes. “Wow” I exclaimed! “What’s this?” My friend’s older brother smiled and asked “Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons?” …Soon, we were whiling away the small town hours, delving into the depths of the earth and conquering the barrier peaks.
Baltron’s Beacon harkens back to those days. It's not a globe spanning epic, or a ground breaking saga. It’s just a short dungeon crawl, 1985 style.
A strangely delivered advertisement has led you to a sage named Demetrios. He needs a rare component to complete a desperately needed potion. The journy to retrieve it will take you through a large, unexplored swamp to a ruined keep, the former headquarters of a vile cult that once claimed the lives of many innocent youths.
You cautiously accept the mission. But who knows what monsters lurk in the vast marsh? Are the old ruins occupied, perhaps by things even more dangerous than the previousl residents? Beware, for the eerie green light shining upward from the central tower, the beacon that guides your way, may attract others as well. To succeed, you must penetrate the keep and find a unique Black Flame worshipped by the old cult. Could those evil ones be lurking about still? You will know soon...
To solve the mysteries of Baltron's Beacon, you must excel in handling wilderness, building ruins, dungeons, traps, puzzels, and monsters.
Player- Single or multi-player.
Level- 5-7. New players leveled to 6. finish at 8 or 9.
Game play- Hack and slash. Don’t look for any mushy romances, or intellectual orations.
Play time- About 6 hours.
Companions- There are 4 possible companions, any 3 selectable at a time. Fighter, rogue, wizard, and Cleric.
Crafting- Standard OC crafting is used.
Use the Module Control Book for your favorite module settings.
SoZ and MotB are required to play.
v1.3- updated the module control book
installation;
Place .mod file into your mydocuments/nwn2/modules folder
place .hak files into your mydocuments/nwn2/hak folder
place .tlk file into your mydocuments/nwn2/tlk folder
I made a walkthrough for folks having trouble with the swamp areas;
Link
Hints and Cheats;
Link
Attachment | Size |
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I'm going to start playing this tonight. I'm looking forward to some dungeon bashing.
PJ
Just finished and I gave this an 8 out of 10.
A very good fun module with a fantastic PnP feel to it. I did not need the walkthroughs and I liked that I felt lost in the marshes. It is, after all, a big marsh.
The module carried a nice dungeons and dragons feel to it all the way through and I especially enjoyed the gatehouse area.
It does what it says on the tin with regards companions but the picture intros are enough to get a feel for the party. The party is well balanced though I might not have chosen those stats for the cleric :)
For me the downsides were the resting which left me having to physically walk away from the game for 30 mins at one stage as I could not do anything more without resting, and some of the polishing.
On the V1 system this would be "very good, recommend to anyone" and I think that is true for this module. So, if you just read this, download the mod and play it. It's lots of fun but stock up on consumables to offset the resting system.
PJ
Very good module and I'm having fun. However, I am stuck. I seem to have missed the key needed to use the portal. I've been all through the marsh/swamp and marked each transition area to know where I have been... still to no avail. Went back to the "big encounters" like the dragon and the lizardman lair in case I had missed the key... nope. Retracing my steps and wandering anew in the swamp all to no avail. If anyone could please tell me where I can find the portal key (or where I must have missed it!) I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
The portal is just for convenience, but I sent you a PM how to find the key
Just finished a run through with the Ranger character I'd used in Tamoachan. Overall, not bad.
Nits:
Good:
Summary: It was fun. Definitely worth a try.
very nice module, enjoyed it! thanks for your work :)
Good adaptation! In fact, the very minor flaws I can find in it are caused by the fidelity of the author towards the original. An exception could be the ring DFMI, wich is a poor solution (and a lot of work) to certain requeriments of the module I don't understand why the author choosed that kind of mechanics.. but, well, it's OK.
Beware: you can miss a lot of material if you don't explore with care. Also, equip your team before entering the swamp... I can't tell you more without doing spoilers ;-)
Old-school PNP feeling in the air. Ah... the old times of Greyhawk! Meeeemorieeeees...
I love this mod, but I am so stuck. I have a door my rogue can't open, and another door that is dangerous to even try. Past that I'm pretty sure I explored everything. Is that walkthrough posted anywhere else?
Did you read my first two comments above regarding doors?
On the plus side, it's well made from a technical viewpoint.
Spent a very long time wandering round a swamp. A douzen or so identical (literally 2 different ones) large areas with nothing of note apart from occasional attacks by green enemies on a green background.
Gave up, bored, at this point.
Average hack & slash module but its disappointing to be honest. Nothing memorable about this adventure but I appreciate the author's effort.
Apart from the initial parts, NPCs have little to say, especially important NPCs who just have a one-liner then attack you.
Exploring the swamp got on my nerves because of terrain issues and diffculty finding the area transition points. Also, annoying snakes that poison the whole party in a manner of seconds.