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The Soul Cages - Chapter 1 Loose Ends
Honour, your long time adventuring companion needs to find her mother. Many years earlier they were separated when she was taken into the foster care of her uncle and, the last she heard was that her mother inhabited the gang controlled flesh pots and low places in the Mistshore area of the great city of Waterdeep. In truth she is not sure her mother is still alive, and if she is, she is not sure how much she cares. She knows that she must find her though, she is determined to meet with her one last time.
But your task is not so simple and it soon becomes obvious that you are not the only ones seeking Maria Lestry. It appears that the difficulty is not just going to be in finding her, but in making sure you are the only ones who find her and not getting her or yourself killed along the way.
This module follows on from the module series Tales from the lake of Sorrows. The story begins a few months after the ending of Vault of the Damned and carries on with the story threads from that module. It can be played without having played the main campaign and is stand alone in terms of story content.
Text is supplied to give your character and the main npc some background for those who read such things.
Update to 1.1 contains the following modifications:
- Honour's reaction to your finding Mortimer Lestry's diary is extended. Her response is important to the progressing story.
- Yondala is now male and his conversation has been extended if you go and speak to him in the temple after your first meeting.
- The Foxes will attack when provoked,
- The red gate tavern is now properly populated.
- The Maria Lestry painting is no longer an xp mine.
- There is a change in layout to the lower floor of the Lestry mansion and you can now find an artifact that is important to the progressing story.
- Jack Blacks father appear later in the mod under a lamp post outside the Selune temple in the Sea Ward.
- Quite a few typos ...
Things you should know.
Location Forgotten realms – in the area of Water deep.
Setting The gang controlled area of Waterdeep known as The Mistshore.
Play time 7+ hours
Level 14 – 16 (17)
Class Any
This story may be played using any character of fourteenth level, you should target around 100,000 exp if you are rolling up a new character yourself, a character of less than level 13 will have their experience set to 102000 in the first conversation and will be awarded enough cash to buy basic supplies.
There are three companions. One will not join till the very end of the module, the other not till you reach the Mistshore. All are required for this module but may be dropped later should you desire. I shall not spoil but there will be a mage, a bard and very much later a swashbuckler variant. There is no custom party building in this mod and no party chat.
Note on combat – Unless you are an experienced tactical player keep all the companions offered to you with you when you can. The combat is balanced to be achievable at Normal difficulty. In general the hardest fighting is in the side quests.
Known Bugs
1. Journal - The journal does not work. I tried many things to fix this and none worked for me so the journal (J key) is blank. Instead talk to Honour and ask about our quests and she will have a journal entry at each stage as well as showing you which are open or closed.
2. Incendiary cloud – During testing, some post combat conversations did not fire when incendiary cloud was used during combat. I take this to be that the spell causes the spell keeps the player in combat mode? I have tried to fix this with scripts and it has been okay since however I would suggest not using this spell.
Transitions are always made without a world map. In some outdoor areas you will find a stone, a sign or an area transition that will get you out. Indoors, stairwells may have area transitions allowing any floor in the building to be selected.
The npc's have back stories which you can access as the module progresses. There are the seeds of the romance options for later in this module series.
Loading instructions
Loading instructions are included in the zipped file.
The module will run from your campaigns start up screen.
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 occasional sundial, will allow you to pass up to 4 hours without resting so you should never be stuck waiting.
To enter the shops in the Sea ward, walk through the door and the roof will fade. There is no transition to these shops.
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. The module has a good degree of npc interaction talk to them and they will talk right back :)
Big thanks bit:
Thanks go to the following for their parts in the making and testing of the mod.
Arkalezlth for his play testing and advice on character builds.
Gcoyote for play testing and support.
Septreves for play testing
Officer don for play testing and advice on lore.
Pains for his monster and appearance compilations.
All of the modders who have placed most excellent custom content on the vault in particular RWS for the creature and tile set mods.
Finally my thanks to the forum users who helped with my questions.
Music
There is a fair amount of custom music in this module. I hope that I have captured it all below.
Tillman Sillescu
Opening Well
The Mistshore Holy Grail
The laundry Dark Spirit
Tanners Guild The plauge is on us
Hope Tombs dark flow
Peter Calandra
The Warrens In the mist
The sewers Under the world
Celestial Aeon Project
The Arena Challenge
Hawkspit Island Outer Straight into ambush
The keep The Ancients
Epic Soul Factory
Castle Hope memories of a geisha
Have to mention area design first, everything, sewers, slums, dockyards, to islands are just incredible to walk through, fitting down to the finest detail. Now for my favorite part of any story is the story telling and dialog, hells, if the NWN2 OC was even half this good I would have played it a bunch more than I did. Characters, the PC included have more dimension than any between this and maybe Planescape Torment. More chapters from PJ156 will always be welcome.
Thank you ralebeau,
PJ
I didn't even started yet, but I had to say thank you! Tales from the Lake of Sorrows is one of the best campaigns for NWN2... and it is great to be able to get my character from her retirement and see what new adventures she'll get into... I am sure they will be great!
Thank you Vidal,
I hope to put an update up at the weekend. It all works in version 1 but the update tidies a coulpe of things.
Whenever you play, I hope you enjoy :)
PJ
I created an account just so I could let you know what a fantastic job you have done with this entire series. I was a fan from the start of TLOS series and you continued to make each installment a bit more polished and refined than the last, and the current installment certainly keeps that momentum going. The visual details have, once again, been made even better. Your talent with the toolset is impressive, but more to my liking is your storytelling. The characters you have created and the directions you have taken the story are very well thought out and really make the game. I've played TLOS with three different characters and was just in the middle of my third run when you released Soul Cages, so it worked out great. No spoilers for others, but the character directions for the PC and NPC's have injected a very realistic and intriguing change of direction and I cannot wait to see how this all evolves. I really like the balance you have with putting the right level of maturity into the actions/dialogue without going overboard or making it too vanilla for a story with the themes you have throughout. The modding community, as a whole, have taken the bland offerings of the OC and really made some of the best adentures I've had in forgotten realms. My hat is off to all of you, but I wanted to expressly thank you PJ156 for keeping NWN2 loaded on my PC. Already devoured Soul Cages ch1 so,...really fiending for the next installment!
Thank you Mjesp53,
It's post like that which keep me modding. It's great to hear you enjoyed it and I hope you like the next one as much. It's work in progress at the moment but it is coming :)
PJ
Then I did my job right :)
Thanks for the post draky.
PJ
Great job so far! The story follows the events of the original series nicely and brings Honour to the spotlight, I really like it.
But it seems I'm having some hak problems... I can't see no sahuagin in the mod... I just noticed that...
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
I was going to the island in Eleanor's boat and she said the sahuagin were attacking, but nothing happened... I experienced the same problem soon after that, when we're supposed to fight more of them. That's when I recalled that despite the name the subterranean hideout had no sahuagin or anything like it.
*** SPOILER END ***
It doesn't seem to be a big issue, but I wanted to know if there was something wrong. Actually, I didn't follow the instructions that called for the campaign folder to go in the hak folder (tried that and the game wouldn't load) instead I put it in the campaign folder and it worked like a charm... my only problem has been the fishmen absence. Is it the hak?
I'm not sure what is going on there. Do you have moster pack rws, ree and ree2 in your hak folder?
I see, as you say, that I asked you to put the campaign folder in the hak folder, that was a mistake which I will rectfiy :)
This should not stop you progressing as the sahaugin are a side quest here you can still do what you set out to do I think :)
PJ
PJ156.. I do have those three files in my hak folder, to be sure I tried downloading them again, but the problem remains. Could it be another missing hak?
I just checked. The sahuagin are in the rws hak and it is certainly called by that module.
I will ponder this and investigate in the morning. Sorry for the issue I hope we can resolve it.
PJ
I don't think so no. they are in the RWS hak, i am pretty sure of it. I will check in the morning.
Nothing will over write the hak, it's top dog as far as custom content is concerned so the only problem could be the critter is not in that hak.
That combat on the spit is one of the toughest in the module. Would not want you to miss it :)
PJ
I had no problems seeing the sahuagin during any of my playthroughs, so maybe something else in your files(vidal) is conflicting? I did find(PJ156) that several of the quest XP rewards can be awarded infinitly.
***MINOR SPOILERS MAYBE***
Example, when you find the correct picture of Honours mother in the house, you can keep clicking on the portrait and recieve 2500xp everytime. Not really a game breaker by any means, but it also spawns a whole squad of Selene Priestesses waiting for you when you go downstairs. It looked like she cast BG2 mirror image on herself! Also the scroll in an adjacent room starts a dialogue where you can infinitly gain xp for using a skill check or gain influence with Honour. Again, not game breakers. The quest of the missing boy seems to have no resolution in this chapter, not sure if that's intended. Found the boy and freed him safely(3 times in 3 playthroughs), but never was approached by his father. I did, later, run into a fellow named Jack(in a very interesting merchant area) but he had nothing to say about a missing child.
***END POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
Still loved the mod and have found nothing that actually breaks the game after 3 playthroughs! Keep up the amazing work, your story had me hooked from the minute I stepped into Lakeside!
Thanks for those tips I will be updating soon and they will be fixed.
As I am building the next chapter I have gone back and made two subtle changes to the first one so if you choose to play again there are some very small things to look out for. I will also make the Jack Black resolution easier to find.
Thanks again,
PJ
I should have know it was an override issue... I completely forgot to empty my override folder. Now it worked, thanks a lot! and let me say, the Mod is just great... a worthy sequel to Tales from the Lake of Sorrows. And Ralebeau is totally right, the area design is truly amazing, it is a very detailed environment, well done indeed!
Thank you Vidal, I am pleased it got sorted.
Thanks for the vote, I guess it was you. It is nice to get feedback from players now the download count is so much lower.
PJ
You're welcome... yes, I voted... it is a pity the new vault doesn't have such an active community as the old one... perhaps the vote system is not as interesting or is just a certain lack of enthusiasm on the part of the "New Vault Dwellers" (sorry... I'm an old Fallout player).
I really loved the mod, the only thing I can think of mentioning are a few typos (you know... *thier* instead of *their* and little things like that)... all the rest is just great. Even the way you manage to deal with the previous relationship of the PC is actually interesting and believable.
I don't know how the new vault will deal with things like the old "Hall of Fame" status, but I am pretty sure The Soul Cages is a winner... and I am already waiting for the rest of the series!
Since you're updating the first chapter thought I would mention a couple things. Not going to turn into one of those fans that loves your stuff but constantly points out all of it's flaws, I promise:)
Just two things that keep making me think I'm missing a quest or two, or something isn't triggering correctly. The Red Gate Inn. I go in and there are NPC's that have actual names that will not interact at all with me, not even offer me a room to rest in. Upstairs are even more people that seem like they should be important but, nothing. It seems like something should be happening in there, but it doesn't. Also, The Arch Way Inn(?) or something like that, close to the merchant who sells magic bags. I go inside and it's apparently a gang enlistment location. I can get into a verbal discussion with the Gang Leader, but even if our conversation goes downhill and he's ready to fight, no combat ensues and nothing seems to come of it other than me just walking back outside. I only found these in my mad quest to find the ellusive Jack Black and get that quest out of my journal.
Even if you only make minor changes, I'm totally gonna run through it again and I didn't forget to vote for you either!
Mjesp53
Hello Myjesp53,
Please pick away I like to know where things have gone wrong. Both of those issues will be fixed in the next update :)
I am just running through it myself to make sure I have not broken anything else along the way and it will be up.
PJ
Okay, so I finally finished playing the 1.1 update for Soul Cages. It took me a bit to get there because I created a whole new character and started TLOS all over again. It was kinda cool to go back and start over, knowing what you find out in Soul Cages. I'm not sure how far out you plotted your storyline, but I really picked up a lot of conversations in TLOS that seemed to be a lot more foreshadowing than I realized at the time. It was also a bit hard to go with the romance options with Ember, knowing how that goes now, but I did..it still seemed appropriate to the story and it made the beginning of Soul Cages sting a little bit more since Ember and the PC had just declared their love for each other. Bummer,..but..there was quite a bit of dialogue between Honour and PC that I had previously brushed off that now appears to really suggest Honour may have had feelings growing for the PC, but respected Ember and the PC enough to keep that in check. Actually, the scene with the demoness really kinda brought that out. I imagine the first few times I played through I probably didn't catch the conversation between the demon and Honour in Thalantyr's tower because,...the demoness was naked. Yeah, no need for you to stop having moments like that:) Your sense of timing when it comes to putting adult material is very good. You don't overuse it, so it seems more valid when it happens. Anyway,..the demon refers to Honour as the PC's woman and she corrects the demon saying she is not and then it seems the demon does a bit of soul searching and reveals to the PC just how much Honour really is sarting to care for the PC. Yeah,...that totally slipped by me because....she was naked. Well,..90% naked. Naked enough. So, the direction your taking the story has much validation from TLOS and once again, great job. Also realized you have a lot of plot threads and NPC's the PC has delt with that may come back into play. Again, not sure how far you've storyboarded this out but if TLOS is book 1 and SC is book 2, well,..trilogies are all the rage. A book 3(i'm kinda trying to encourage you if this isn't already your plan) would probably take the PC into Epic Level and that can be hard to do right it seems. MoTB was not good for many reasons but it sucked the most becaue of,..Epic Level Gnolls...that's why. I fought a group of Epic Level gnolls and Epic level everything else who were just hangin' out. Just hanging out being Epic Level dicks? Why would epic level gnolls just hang out and not be ravaging the countryside and ruling over regular non-epic gnolls? I'm not saying gnolls and orcs and goblins and all those things wouldn't have their champions who might be epic level characters(King Obould fer instance), but every damn thing you meet doesn't and shouldn't be an epic level this or that just because your PC is! Kinda ruins the moment of being epic at all really. "Hey I'm an epic PC!" "Yeah dumbass,..we're all epic in this campaign, it's epic level!". Anyway, I truly truly digress and I apologize. Importing a character straight from TLOS to SC was also a better start for me. I forgot about all the artifacts you collect from Mortimer and the Vault trials. Good stuff to have and glad it all still works! So in conclusion um,..oh yeah..version 1.1! All previously mentioned bugs seemed to be fixed except,..Jack Black! Where are you?! He still didn't spawn:( Also, Selune priest still referred to as 'she' when he responds to your questions. Bit of a ramble, cause i'm super tired, but really enjoy your work and appreciate your effort. Thanks!
Thank Mjesp, That was fun to read :)
I don't know about trilogy ... but this one's going to take you to lv20 and that worries me enough. I will throw a gnoll or two in though ...
I have fixed the gender changin Selunite, she becaome he when I realised just how many npcs' are female. He will be a short companion for the next module and I want a few males in there.
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for taking the time to comment and vote,
PJ
Yes !! Time to get back my character form TLOS!! I am so happy to see this one coming..you know, I loved so much your old series and I already know that by playing this new game it will be just like coming home to meet some of your most beloved friends.. and what a friend: HONOUR, my favourite character, the "real" romance of my character (even if he never had the occasion to express his feeling for her !!! xDD) I don't know if you remember my post in the old vault but I asked you if it wasn't possible to get a better ending for her, and now my wish just became true: I don't know what the future will reserve to her (and to us...), but for now... thank you so much PJ !!!
Off to adventure !!! :D
EDIT: Actually the diary in my game is working fine... did you fix it?
I did fix it thanks. I left the bug up for anyone playing the older version.
I hope you enjoy it. the Honour relationship is something of a tease. I would be pleased to hear what you think.
PJ
A magnificent game as usual..now I cannot wait for the next chapter of the story!
As for the Honour relationship I like very much how you are managing it: I mean: you are a broken heart now and Honour has always considered you and Ember her best friends (and she still cares about her very much), therefore IF a feeling between your hero and Honour is going to arise it must happen slowly and in the right time. As for myself I should confess that I'd always have dropped IMMEDIATELY Embers for Honour during TFLOS if I just had the occasion, but we must roleplay right?xDD So let's try to get closer to her a bit at a time and who knows what will happen then? I think you are the only one who have the answer now, but I repeat, no matter what you are going to do with her, providing Honour as a romance or not, I am already happy to be able to adventure with her again! :)
Back to the game I found a couple of small bugs.. in order to keep this post short I am going to PM them to you. They are just minors flaws which don't affect the experience at all: an utterly magnificent module.... 10/10 and keep up the good work! :)
Hello Maxlubas,
Thanks for the kind comments and vote. I have read the bug list and I will get to those. It's a pain becuase I thought I had those beat for the most part. I will delve back into the toolset and see what I broke fixing them last time.
As for the romance ... that depends one where the storey goes. For that we will both have to wait and see :) The next part is under construction and should be out mid next year, hopefully there will still be player about.
PJ
After playing through TLOS and SC and having time to reflect on it as a whole, I'm inclined to agree with Maxlubas accounting of the situation. Like many people who enjoyed TLOS, I thought Honour was a fantastic addition to the group and had she been introduced a bit earlier and was romancable, i think many would have chosen her over Ember. Not that Ember is a bad romance option, I just think Honour's situation and backstory seemed more enticing for romance material. But, the Ember romance really covers a lot of ground throughout TLOS and the characters do develop a realtionship that is put to the test on several occasions. If you stood by Ember and she by you, it makes the beginning of SC a much harder pill to swallow, especially since there is nothing you can do as the PC to change the intro. Ember makes some pretty steep demands of the PC at the end of TLOS and, ostensibly, your PC agrees to the conditions of Ember's continued affection. Well, that doesn't work out so good for you. Apparently if you can't rout the evils of the land as an adventurer, the PC is reduced to a stinky, stumbling alcoholic. Ahh love. I never imagined Honour would make such pre-nuptual demands as Ember did and so the thought of a romancable Honour starts to really sound like a much better option as SC unfolds. But is it? I think when I started SC I was so happy that I COULD potentially romance Honour I never stopped to ask myself if I SHOULD romance Honour. After TLOS, Ember and the PC are truly Honour's two closest friends and companions. She probably feels as much love for one as the other and never shows any sign of jealousy or envy at the Ember romance. Seeing Ember and the PC fall apart over the winter may not be something she was happy to witness or, more to the point, Honour has never held ulterior motives regarding the PC and Embers romance. Perhaps absense will make the heart grow fonder for Ember, we have no idea what she is doing with Solace and Alan, but Solace probably has similar feelings as Honour regarding Ember and the PC. The burden of character change and developement may not even rest on the PC's shoulders but, rather, on Embers if a reconcilliation ever occurs. The PC stuck by Ember through all of her drama in TLOS and when the PC starts to have issues, she kicks him out and starts flirting with Alan? Well, maybe not flirting,.. we don't know. Perhaps my PC is just jealous of anything that has dialog with Ember now that he's a broken heart. Obviously, this is a RPG so our decisions may greatly impact what happens to the fate of the other characters. Whatever happens, I'm excited for the next installment. If the Ember PC romance truly died during that cold, harsh winter than so be it. Let's not forget, Honour is actually on a mission that isn't really motivated by romantic opportunity, she wants her father back and know's the PC is badass enough to help her get him! I love your storytelling PJ, if not evidenced by how much thought you have provoked as to the future of these awesome characters you've brought to life. I can promise you there will be at least one player about to download the next bit. I'll just have to settle for DA3 to keep me occupied until next year i guess:)
MJ
Oh yes, I'll be there too or three!
My thanks to all of you,
For three people ... I'll do it.
Thanks for the kind review MJ.
PJ
Great module! 10/10. As always, good attention to details. It was kinda of a shock for me to see all those people living dirt poor, but it's reminder how things was in the past... or even today sadly enough.
I just realized I didn't finished all the siequests. How do you get the reward from Jack Blacks' father? I'm at the end of the module (Caris is with me) and I don't see him near Selune temple. I waited all day near the lamp post and I just see some randon merchant/bodyguard/servant.
Also, I raided Dex's lair and I can't unlock the chest. Its says a need a specific key and I can't find it anywhere.
The love letters in the journal is still up and Honour never mention it in her listing of quests. Is this the bug you spoke of for the journal?
Thanks
Hello stc196
The boys father should turn up but this may be a bug. I will fix it so he turns up at the strat of the next module. Tis but a small thing but details matter :)
I will check that, It should not belocked at all since you cannot get there till Dex has died. In truth I did not test that chest so you could well have found another bug.
Love letters should close when you talk to the leading npc lady at the end. There should be an option to give her the letters and she will explain a bit more back story. Let me check later and I will repost here.
PJ
I do love details (maybe a little too much).
Yes, I raided Dex's lair after his death and you can enter it. You get "bounced" if you try it while he's around.
Silly me. I didn't thought of speaking to the NPC lady before dealing with Wendy and the gangs. I also missed the XP for giving her the ledgers. I'm going to backtrack and reload my old save.
Thank you again.
You should be able to talk to her afterwards or during the gang quests. I don't thik you have to go right the way back.
PJ
I tried again and I didn't get the option to tell her about the letters and ledgers. I could ony report on Wendy's death and the gangs being dealt and then she leaves with my bard companion. But it's OK, I just reloaded a previous game, done eveything right and I have finished the module.
Thanks.
Okay and thanks, I will look ata that vbefore the release of the second part.
PJ
I'm really looking forward to the next chapter!
It's coming :) Slowly ... but it's coming.
for some reason when i try to travel to the mistshore (i think thats what its called), my game goes to main menu and say that there is some missing hak-files. but im 100% sure that i have all the hak files in the right folder.
other than that i would like to say, that i simply love this module and also Tlos.
Is this the first time you travel there from Honours home area? You should have 5
Looking at the pack I am not entirely certain I put the rws all in one in. This is a common hak so you may be the first not to have it in your hak folder anyway? Can you have a check please. I will get it to you if you do not have it and post a link in the downloads.
PJ
yup it seem like you forgot the rws all in one in.
Now linked above :)
Sorry about that,
PJ
Hey PJ,
Just stopping by to say I hope progress on Soul Cages: Chapter 2 is going smoothly. Still very much looking forward to the next installment. Lot of fuss over biowares new DA installment, and I admit I've spent a considerable amount of time enjoying their latest effort, but I still check in weekly to see if SC:CH2 is getting closer to being on my PC. Thanks for all your hard work!
Mjesp
Thank's for the support Mjesp,
It is coming .... much to do, but it is coming.
PJ
Great mod so far, but Im experiencing a rather nasty bug.
SPOILER
After dealing with the undertaker and being ambushed outside his shop nothing else happens. Ive tried going to the sewer to speak with the guy at the Koa-Toan base, and everything else I can think of. Some scrip probably wont fire as it should? Should i reload? My other save is several hours old. :((
A script should fire. Where it has failed in the past (though I made an effort to fix this) is when a persistant damage spell is in play at the end of the combat. Firestorm was the worst for this but I thought I had corrected that.
Grab this file and put it into the campagin folder
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5332985/00_c_argan.DLG
Then speak to Arganar and you should straight away get the conversation that should have fired.
That will progress the plot, the next place to go will be obvious I think :)
PJ
thank you for your fast response, but that was probably the wrong script. What happened after i dropped that in the campaing folder is that angemar repeated his very first dialog from when the pc meets and hires him at the inn. He also rewarded himself a few more levels of xp.
Plot does however not progress. :(
thank you for your fast response, but that was probably the wrong script. What happened after i dropped that in the campaing folder is that angemar repeated his very first dialog from when the pc meets and hires him at the inn. He also rewarded himself a few more levels of xp.
Plot does however not progress. :(
That's odd, try this one. Same place and let it over write the existing file. Note however that this one will break the game on a re run if you want to start again at any time (and I hope this has not put you off doing that) the reinstall the campaing folder and save just before the fight outside the undertaker :)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/225a9c8io9v7yv3/00_c_argan.DLG?dl=0
With this converstation, talk to arganar and ask him where we should go now. It will be the top question.
Come back to me if you have an issues again but it will be in the morning that i respond. Good luck.
PJ
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