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The Gathering Storm
The Gathering Storm
Fortune and glory, that’s what they promised you. Unfortunately your experience of adventuring to date has not really lived up to your expectations.
Two forays in your new profession have left you less well off than when you started and with very little in the way of experience. You were thus pleased to be able to sign up to the entorage of Alexus, a well known and successful adventurer currently resding in Xorhum, in the lands of the Turmish. To date this has not proved to be much more profitable but at least you are being fed if not equipped.
Yesterday that changed however. One of Alexus’s men came to you and asked you to investigate an opportunity. A mountain mining community has petitioned Alexus for help clearing out some goblins. He wants you to go there and find out what is needed and how much money is being offered. Assess the potential for loot and the level of opposition and report back for Alexus to decide if he will send a group of his followers or go himself.
It’s not much but it is work and experience, perhaps a chance to make a little money on the side. The equipment you are supplied for this is minimal but then, as Alexus’ quartermaster pointed out … beggars can’t be choosers.
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Level – Starting characters are recommended, you should expect to be level 4 by the end of the module.
This module was written as the opening for a community project which never got off the ground. It has been sitting on our hard drives for a year or so so we decided to polish it off and post it for play.
It is complete in itself and stands alone as a story.
It is very much a coffee break module with around 3 – 5 hours of play. It has strong story elements but also some areas to explore and pick up side quest elements. The npc’s are worth talking to and some shold be revisited as the module progresses
There are two companions, each is required to progress the story elements relevant to them but they are not both there at once. The more squishy classes should spend money on keeping the second of them (a ranger) well equipped as some of the combat is a touch challenging.
As always your comments are welcomed so please keep them coming. It’s your feedback that keeps me modding.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 thegatheringstormv11.7z (1432) | 60.18 MB |
Finished this one last night. Great work and just what I've come to expect from PJ and M Rieder.
Too bad the larger project never materialized as this was a great intro with the end scene providing hints of dark plots afoot.
Pluses: Great terrain, visually pleasing but not difficult for the player to actually navigate. Realistic dialog, not the stilted neo-feudal filler you see in some mods. Well balanced combat, tough enough that you have to pay attention to what you are doing but not so bad that you had to reload/respawn more than once or twice.
Cons: I only hit one very minor bug. When I got to the mine cart, the module didn't reconized that I already had all of the plot items for the next scene. However it was simple enough to drop them and then pick them up again which caused the correct script to fire and I was off again!
Thank you GCoyote, I am pleased you enjoyed the mod.
PJ
Your module won our little poll. In the following weeks we are going to discuss it, but you know that ;)
http://neverwintervault.org/forums/community-forums-adventurers-club/ac-...
PS: you have got a typo(I think) in description: "is a touch challenging." Though I can't claim I'm native speaker ;)
I would not be at all surprised if there were a typo. I am regularly embarassed by my lack of grip of my native language.
PJ
Nice little module! Everything works fine and has enough "texture" to form a more than decent intro mod. Shame the serie was not continued. Played with a halfling swashbuckler. Tough goblins!
Thanks GB,
It is a shame. I have toyed with creating a follow on myself but I have so much other stuff on.
I enjoyed building this so it is good to see it is still being played.
PJ
Just played through this again as I han't played it in quite some time and really enjoyed it.
Never know PJ, this could be a future project like after you get the Soul Cages finished ;) I kid.
This is a tiny, inconsequential little module. Just killing some goblins who are bothering some miners. Yet playing it reminded me why PJ156 is arguably the best mod builder around for NWN2. Having played a number of very good modules with irritating niggles, this was a lovely reminder of how it can be so right:
1. Dialogue, not just talking. Actual conversations which sound like the person who worte them has spoken to humans before (yes I know this is much harder than it seems).
2. Plot doesn't rely on stupid decisions by participants, or streching credability beyond breaking.
3. Excellent scenery design- realistic scales and pleasent to explore.
4. Pace, but not so much that it seems unrealistic.
5. Things to buy, but not stupid amounts of loot.
6. FInally, those little extra choices about how to acomplish goals which aleviate the boredom.
This is proably overhyping what is just a nice little mod, and should really be posted on his/her magnum opus (Thunder Bay), but I suspect anyone who's played a mod where one of the above goes wrong will know what I mean.
Thank you Dakeyras, your comments are much appreciated.
PJ
This is an entertaining little module!
I have played it just after a retour through the OC and MotB; I remember having killed those two black dragons in the first try and the MotB final boss in the second one, but here I had to reload around 20 times until I finally managed to defeat three goblins (on steroids?) in those mines… The fight (and most of the following ones too) was really hard and those goblins were regularly landing critical hits, especially on my PC, and I really had to save in the middle of the battle after some lucky rounds in order to come through!
This is a linear module, with a simple, standard and quite-predictable story line, yet it manages to be entertaining by the nicely-laid-out areas, the balanced economy, the heavy fights and the progressing pace.
I have reached level 4 as Rogue 1 / Fighter 3, around half-way to level 5.
And now I will go through the few issues that I have encountered, noting that I consider them minor, not really affecting my overall rating:
My main companion’s name appears as Domonic in the character sheet and in the tool tip, but in dialogues it appears as Dominic…
In the first area, while going eastwards from the bandit camp, my PC has suddenly sunken into earth until breast level, but luckily he came out of there quite easily… Yet, the surprise! By the way, I always use the WASD keys for moving.
And the last issue (spoiler ahead!): after the final battle, I have been teleported alone into the village. I have gone to the captain and told him that I have cleared out the mine, and he gave me some careless answer. Refusing to believe that this is the end, I have hoofed the whole way back to the battlefield; my companions were there and started following me as soon as they saw me, as if they were in the roster, but they were not! Then I found a chest there, looted it and then the actual final cut scene has triggered!
But all the rest went smooth, and I was very busy planning how to survive the next goblin encounter! It was the first time ever when I had to resort to using Choking Powder, in spite of my party being choked as well!
So PJ156, thank you for this nice module!
Good write up Tiberfius. I wish more players left this type of feedback.
This is one of my favorite short modules. It would be intersting to ask PJ if he remembers what the plot was for the longer follow on adventure that didn't get built.
Thanks GCoyote, giving feedback is the least that I can do (in absence of a "Give beer to author" button
) as a first-hand testimony that the outcome of the author's hard work DOES reach people.
Fun little adventure with relatively challenging combat at points, and some pretty nice mechanics. The only thing I wish was not in the module, was the 'You killed X or done Y, you decide to return to base' mechanic. I can understand some plot reasoning behind it, but it happened a couple of times, that really kills the exploration aspect, and moreover my enjoyment overall. I'd personally prefer to wander around aimlessly and find an empty of loot or interactable objects area, and be given the option to instantly leave, rather than be forced to leave when a goal is met (provided the lore doesn't imply you should make haste for any reason ofc).
Well, this module seemed very interesting, and well build on the overall, but i had to give up after having searched over and over the mountains near the mines and the game kept telling me that i couldn't get into the mines 'becouse could still be goblin scouts around' where precisely, i couldn't tell.
A fun little module! Great storytelling and good pace in the story. Excellent conversations too, they seemed realistic and I like the scale of the "problem" - you aren't supposed to save the world - this is a more fitting challenge for the level you start with.
I personally don't like the respawn after death option, but I guess that is a matter of taste. Some of the fights were very hard - and some of the Goblins were pretty bad-ass. But, I managed to get trough the story with a Tiefling rogue, and ended up almost level 4. Pretty handy to able to sneak at times.
Thank you for making this :)