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The Crystalmist Campaign Chapter 1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God
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. 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.
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
- Kaedrin's PrC pack
And if you're like me & hate the hamster ball spell effects for most protection spells,
- Clubok's much needed Less obtrusive spell buffs
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
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
- The All Critters, RWS creature convert & Misc creatures packs
- BTH Shields
- Lance Botelle's Fog of War
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.
THANKS & FEEDBACK
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...........
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| crystalmist_1_-_against_the_cult_of_the_reptile_god_v1-6.7z (0) | 132.64 MB |
This is a well-made module that I am enjoying. Well, was enjoying. I am stuck! I've cleared the first level of the dungeon (looking for the Naga), and cannot find any entry to the second level. I have found a couple secret wooden doors, but they don't work. I walked all through the level again... no luck. If anyone can please tell me where the entrance to the next level is, I'd really appreciate it. TIA.
Hi TWS,
Sorry for the slow reply, I don't come along here much these days due to real life getting in the way of important things like this - in fact, this version of the vault is all new to me.
*** SPOILER *** Anyhow, if you're still looking for the exit to the second level - you need to find the lake in the cavern, and from the lake, find its southern exit. The rowing boat is the easiest way to find this - if you can find the rowing boat! Then follow the passage east & watch out for the smelly guards, and find their key to the second level.
I'm a little surprised that people are still playing these adventures, or Neverwinter 2, but I guess there's still not much to replace it eh?
Now, since I came across this during an idle surf around, I'd better go check the forums for the other adventures I made.
ps - Not sure what was going on with those secret doors - but if one of them was in the north-west, a few people have reported problems with that one - never could work out what was wrong with it.
Good luck!
Cly.
Hello Cly,
Thanks for the help! I recall the boat. It appears as a usable item, but when I click on it, nothing happens. From your post, it doesn't seem it needs to be anyway. I'll go back to that area and make sure I take the Southern exit from that lake, go East, and find some "smelly guards" lol.
Yes, I still play NWN2 off and on. I often set it aside for several months at a time ( about 11 months was my last break, that real life thing you mentioned) but right now I'm trying to spend a little time on it. Yes, I too recently discovered that the original vault was gone and this is the new site.
Thanks again,
TWS91
A nice conversion. What's interesting is the amount of content that's been squeezed into levels 1-3. Nice work.
You're very welcome - and re content - I had plenty to work with from the original module author - the hardest part was replicating it all in NWN!
I get an error message about a missing HAK file.
Did you download the hak file? For some reason they didn't put it in the files section above, but there's a link to it in the custom content bit - takes you here https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/hakpak/original-hakpak/crystal...
Then you need to put it into you hak folder - should find it in your MyDocs/Neverwinter Nights 2 folder
If you've done both of those, I haven't a clue I'm afraid, as that's all you need to do - good luck!
Hello Cly,
I hope you are still checking the forums. I came across Crystalmist 2 Lichway and downloaded it. Then I decided since it's been 2. 5 years, I'll create level 1 characters and do #1 against the Reptile God again and then move onto the 2nd adventure. However, I have managed to get stuck. We have killed Abramo and have his keys but I cannot find the "cage" or anywhere else to use them - besides the obvious one for his quarters. I cannot advance the plot and I cannot remember from 2.5 years ago what I am missing. The Mayor will not fire a further conversation. He is still repeating our initial talk. And I cannot get the hermit to open his door and join us - I seem to remember at some point he comes out and joins the party. I also cannot use any of the exits out of Orlane - they all say I still have unfinished business. So I went back over the Abramo's temple with a fine tooth comb... still found nothing new. :(
Good morning! Well done for re-playing the adventure - I had a lot of fun making it (as well as a lot of frustration & harsh language at times!).
Father Abram has (I think), a key to the cage in his room that holds his captive, but I think he may also have one to *** SPOILER here *** the underground section of the temple - there are two or three ways in if I remember right - the monk's cell, the kitchen/hall & the priestess's room (I think). I have a feeling that the temple sectin can't be completed until you have something from the underground area to show to Ramne as proof of their naughtiness.
Have fun & by all means comment again - turns out that I get an email every time someone comments - otherwise I'd never have known you'd left a comment.
Clyordes.
Hello Cly,
Thanks so much for chiming in. I'll pull up the game and search those three areas. I vaguely remember from my play through 2.5 years ago that there is an underground section now. I was searching the upstairs like crazy and turns out I should have been checking the ground floor. Yes, I think I got three keys off Abramo and one is label for his room, another for his "cell" and I think the third is unlabeled. I believe the cage is in the underground section as I could not find it upstairs.
Back in I go!
Got unstuck last night. SPOILER: The secret door in Abramo's chambers was very hard to detect. Had to be in search mode and walk around/stand around in that room. I even got frustrated and bashed the piles of rags, which made them disappear and allowed me to get closer to the wall until the secret door was finally revealed. That way I could have the convo with the captive and finally advance the plot.
Hi, glad it worked out for you. Not sure why Abramo's secret door was so hard to find. Most were fairly straightforward for anyone with reasonable rogue skills, in detect mode & standing close enough. But, there's always a chance something might go wrong - maybe the rags meant you stood too far away until you bashed them. Just out of interest. Have you been off from the village to the east into the forest yet? I was pleased with the encounter to the east of the village, once I worked out how to use multiple factions, and it (hopefully) encourages scouting ahead with someone stealthy rather than a more 'diablo' approach, although if players prefer more of an action style, they'll definitely get it if they charge around in a big group!
Give my respects to Her Vileness, if & when you meet her.....
Conversion of a classic, old-school feeling, and fidelity to the original adventure; wich usually means: direct, but fun enough. All worked well enough for me, except for the annoying dead companion treasure dissapearences glitch and the slowing mud effect becoming permanent for some of my characters (perhaps my haks or override folder fault? ). Apart from that, I noticed that game crashed about 50% of times when I tried to load a saved game. Onwards to part 2!
George, did you find a way to fix the permanent mud-slowing effect? I'm having the same issue...
Aside from that, it's great stuff!
Hello there! Apologies for the slow response - I've not been near the toolset in years & couldn't remember what had happened with the slow effect in the mud.
I could never quite work out why it caused problems sometimes & turned into a permanent effect but other times worked perfectly. If I remember right, it seemed to be a problem if several people went through the triggers within a very short time. NWN2 never seemed to like lots of things happening in a short space of time & it seemed like the engine started getting confused.
You could try just sending one character through the mud at a time - it'll slow you down, but not as much as the permanent mud effect! It's a real shame NWN2 was released how it was - I'm just playing through the NWN1 official campaign with a friend and apart from the graphics, it just works so much better than NWN2, although the toolset is massively limited compared to the NWN2 toolset - I'm still a bit surprised the game engine was never made at least as good as the NWN1 engine, but there you go :-(
Good luck if you try the mud again. I had a great time building these adventures, despite the amount of time they took, and I think they came out pretty well.
When one party member leaves Hochoch heading East, everyone gets grabbed and teleported. This was OK, but during a battle with Abramo, actually before him but upstairs, one of my party members died. He respawned back in Hochock. OK. NP. Sometimes dead characters pop back up with 1 hp. But when he left the town on his way back to us and went throught he transition, with the rest of us in the temple, we all got teleported to the mountain pass map. Does it always grab all the players no matter who moves throught that transition?
And Abrame, with his friends upstairs were a bit much for four level 2 characters last night. So to gain some more experience and gold and maybe gear, what side quests could or should be done before fighting him? In our investigations, the temple on the hill was part of a progression, but after the bandits and undead, that was maybe the 3rd battle. Were we there too soon?
Hi Titanion,
The party area transitions are set so when one person leaves an outdoor area, everyone else follows - I just felt it the most sensible way of moving across the different outdoor areas (actually, I'm not sure individual people can be controllable in different outdoor areas at once, although it's been years since I was in the toolset, so I may be wrong).
For indoor areas, individual characters should be able to move on their own between different rooms & levels, so stealthy characters should be able to scout ahead without dragging the whole party behind them - I really hate when the whole party gets dragged through a door or similar straight into a room full of bad guys that a stealthy character could sneak past. Some people have complained that this means every character has to be moved individually from one indoor area to another, but that's just how I wanted it to work.
Re dead characters, I can't remember how I set it up (again - it's been many years) but if a character is not completely dead, they should stay in the same location in case they can be revived, but if they're completely dead, I think I took them out completely - although I think they can be resurrected at the temple & will reappear in the inn - at least that's how I vaguely remember it being intended to work. The reality sounds like it may be slightly different - hope it doesn't cause too many problems. What I wanted to generate was a desire to not die, and if it happens, to have major consequences, rather than being a slight inconvenience for a couple of minutes.
A few people have commented that the inhabitants of the temple are a bit tough & they're meant to be. Try looking around the other buildings in the village for secret exits & you might find something you haven't already seen, gaining XP as you do. I can't remember if I intended Abram & co to be dealt with by a 2nd level party, but if I remember right, the adventure is for levels 1-3, and Orlane is pretty early on, so level 2 sounds about right, although the temple should be the last part of the village to be encountered.
Don't be afraid to run away! Unlike MMOs, the inhabitants of different areas stay dead - although they'll stay on the alert - so if you can deal with a few temple inhabitants, run out & heal up before heading back in, you'll have fewer to deal with each time. I don't like adventures that assume that every encounter can be dealt with by the party - some encounters might be too tough - it's up to the party to decide which battles to fight & which to run away from - hope you've got a rogue to help you scout & decide which are which!
Good luck & hope you enjoy the adventure - it was great fun to create & really took me back to D&D in the 80's when I first ran this scenario with some mates. Hopefully one day something similar will be created - I'm still surprised that all of the RPG games produced since NWN2 have claimed to do a similar job, but have failed massively in the scope of what can be created compared to NWN2.
Love old school conversions. Will give it a try.
i enjoyed it so much. very beautiful maps and the spirit of the old scenario is here.
I had some bugs during loading and when some henchmen was dying they were loosing stuff.
otherwise great. i'm going on lichway. thank you
I've noticed now i've never remembered to vote it. This is the version i always liked the most, although in the last replay i noticed that there are some scripting errors, one for example is if you loot the cabinet of the old woman, you get cursed, then each time you do that it happens the same, although if you crush it, nothing happens lol.
Some areas are more simple than others, but on the overall they're pretty nice. Nice idea making the town's npcs appearing busy coming and going, but some perhaps would have been even better making them chatter between them. The most appreciable thing of this module (and likely of the others Clyordes made as well) is the freedom you have on how deal the thing. You could almost go straight to the boss if you know where he is, or you could follow each bit of the story, or skip some points. It's up to you. Probably that is always the best idea if you have to port a DM needed campaign into a nwn module like.
I had a blast playing this module! I really enjoyed the scenery, and the athmosphere the maker has created here is high quality. Managed to create the tension i Orlane - you got the creeping feeling that something was amiss.
Started with a level 1 Fighter - and ended up close to level 4. Be sure to explore everything.
Used the npc companions, and the old wizard, and it wasn't too hard even though some fights were harder than others.
Only trouble I had was that dead compainions lost alot of their gear/treasures when they died. So remember to loot them before they ressurect.
Thank you for making this enjoyable module.
Thanks Fjell, it's really good to hear that you enjoyed the adventure - I can't believe that I first posted it 11 years ago! Really enjoyed making it, and i was really pleased with how it turned out - about as close to the original pen & paper version as I could get, and I'm really glad you liked the atmostphere - it's such a large part of this module.
Hope you enjoy the sequels just as much - they're all old adventures I first played with my mates back in the 1980s when we were at school, and I wanted to see how close I could get with the toolset to what we enjoyed back in the olden days!
Thanks again,
Cly.
Thanks again :) 11 years!?! Wow time flies I guess. People like you keeps the game alive. I have only played the OC - not MoB or SoZ. Heard that MoB is probably one of the best rp experiences of all time.
But have played alot of custom made adventures though, and looking forward to your sequels :)
Hello hello. It's me again and it's been a few years so I'm doing another play through. I greatly prefer the campaigns and modules where I can create my own party. And... no surprise... I'm having trouble finding things again.
I do hope people still visit here as I am stuck and could use a bit of help.
SPOILERs: I have defeated Father Abramo at the temple but cannot make any further progress as I cannot find my way to the Naga. I took a good look at the Naga statue he had but could not get it to do anything.
I also retraced my steps in the temple basement. I seem to recall from a former play-through years ago that I needed to explore the cave-like section (?) but so far have only found one North to South cave passage with area transitions on each end. Both area transitions take me back up to the temple. I must be missing something that will start me on the path to the Naga. Any help or hints would be appreciated.
I don't currently have this one installed. If you don't get an answer here, click on the Forum link at the top of the page and post your problem in the NWN2 section there.
Good luck.
It's been a few months already, so I believe you found the dungeon. Otherwise, in the cave passage you mention, there's a door on the side leading to the rest of the underground section.