Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde Adventure BETA 1 release

Glad to hear you beat it!

 

@anatoliy glad to hear that you kicked Covid's butt

I know you wanted to have the module released by now, but any plans for Beta 2 (either public or private) before the main release?

 

Yes, I agree it would be better option to have Beta2.

Essentially NPC interaction and quests are main issue here. Only that part which is left untested. @Shiningted did great job with Armory, last dungeon NPC and quest related work. Now only testing which is left.

All combat encounters are done. Very hard though ))

I will evaluate when Beta 2 could be ready to play and let you know.

 

Hi @FDR4PREZ

I consider this version to be OK to beta 2 release. Can you try out?
https://github.com/anatoliy-savchak/ToEE.ZMOD.ShatteredGatesOfSlaughtergarde
Simply download Code, and unpack into ToEE root.

 

OK, i've downloaded it and I will test it out tonight

 

This is not a good release for beta 2.

The west/cave is OK

The north/temple is NOT ok. When you first enter the temple, there is one unarmed guard and the rest of the temple is completely empty. You kill him and walk through the entire map.

 

Using the Beta 2 version, there is no storage upstairs

 

I'm still not a fan of the pit with the ankheg - it just sits there as we pelt it with arrows/bolts/etc

There is no reason to climb down there, so the only reason to kill this poor thing is to be able to get the green camping tent - so you officially clear out the cave.

It's just free XP for no risk

I was just reading the d20srd about them. It seems that their acid range attack is only a one-time thing (every 6 hrs), but it says it will do it in a 30-ft line. So treat it as a breath weapon (for the fun of it) and it will do a fair bit of damage to a 1st level party.

Can this acid range attack be added?

I know they like to hide in wait under ground and jump out to get you. One of its skills is Climb, so can we have it actually climb out of the pit and directly interface with the players?

 

Ankheg supposed to burrow itself and come up near PCs. So it should not Climb, but burrow. But I have not implemented it.
Also, it has Spit Acid (Ex), once per 10 minutes. I decided to not implement it as well.

Ankheg is tough monster for 1-2 level PC. And due to it does not have treasure aside of experience, I thought his special abilities are low priority.

What I can do is to widen "climb" passage, to let him simply go to PC. That should work.

 

Is that from the module itself?

From Ankheg :: d20srd.org and 3e SRD:Ankheg - D&D Wiki (dandwiki.com)

says it is once per 6 hours, but no worries from me. I'm just curious. Whether it is 10 minutes or 6 hours, the thing won't live long enough for it to matter - especially if you don't implement it. Although there is a breath weapon used on you in the Temple that is fun to get.

Yes, it is a tough monster for a low level party, especially if the DM plays it right. Nothing like getting grappled and getting sucked underground with it.

When you approach, you get these two descriptions and you automatically lower the ladder for some unknown reason:



Would you be willing to change up these two descriptions a little, and keep the ankheg hidden (burrowed) for now?

The first line could be something more simple like: "About 20 feet below you a massive pile of debris - lots of rotted food, smashed crates, and a few corpses." <1. Continue>

Then the second line could be something like: "A ladder lies on the ground near the edge of the cliff. You do see a little movement in the pile, but maybe the spice barrels you are looking for are down there."
<1. Lower the ladder to go down there>
<2. Do not lower the ladder and walk away>

Keep the ankheg hidden, but try an entice the players to go down there.

Maybe add some random lowlevel loot in that massive pile of debris - and include a silver dagger in the randomly scattered loot (for a bit of foreshadowing/hint of what is to come)

If the party decides to lower the ladder, then the ankheg can wait until they are down there to search around. Then the ankheg can "jump out" at them. So at least someone needs to go down there to trigger the battle.

If the party decides to walk away, then the ankheg can jump out immediately and start the battle, and then it can "burrow" up to the top for the next round.

 

@FDR4PREZ, first of all - I really like you being involved

Secondly - I don't mind altering this encounter a bit. I like the idea you suggested.

So let's try to think how to implement it.
Currently there is no ladder, it is purely imaginative. There is free passage to the cave. I can either remove the passage, or widen in more to allow monster movement (due to it being 10 ft wide). I cannot do it dynamically (I can but using special hacks, which are not nice). So either passage is present or not. Passage means that ladder is kind of lowered.

Therefore if Player will choose not to lower the ladder, it will be silly situation when passage is clear, but ladder "is not lowered". Moreover, even if monster will jump out to them in such case, there would be no dialog option to lower the ladder, if Player would decide doing it. There is nowhere to click to bring the dialog again.

So let's come up to some workable solution.

 

Thanks

Yeah, I can see how the ladder is not really there within the mechanics of the programming and the map itself, but both of my choices would lead to the battle, so the passage will be used and should be no reason for the dialog to reappear. If you click 1 to go down, then the battle starts when you go down there. If you click 2 to not to go down, then the battle starts up immediately and the ankheg moves up there. so the passage is needed for both scenarios.

How's this suggestion:
Can you redraw that portion of the map so the ladder appears to be already going down there? and then maybe the room description can be something like this:

"About 20 feet below you see a massive pile of debris - lots of rotted food, smashed crates, and a few corpses."
<1. Continue>

"A ladder goes from edge of the cliff down to the bottom of the pit. You do see something that catches your eye in the debris pile. Maybe there is something exciting down there."
<1. Go down there to search the debris>
<2. Do not go down there and walk away from the scary pit>

If they click 1, then someone will need to go down there - and the battle starts when they approach the hiding ankheg. So in this scenario the ankheg stays hidden until approached.

If they click 2, then they stay up there, but then the ankheg appears immediately and the battle starts immediately - and then the ankheg can move up there to get them. You just need to find a way for the ankheg to have room up there in the middle of the party

It is only giving the illusion that the players have a choice on how to proceed. So both will lead to battle and the passage way is needed for both choices.

If the player clicks 1 but they never actually go down there, then the cave will never be cleared. So they will need to go down there at some point if they want to clear the cave completely, but there should be no reason to show that dialog again. They made their choice the first time, and now the player needs to do that choice (they need to go down there).

Is that all possible?


Other thoughts:
I still like the idea of having some scattered loot down there in the debris pile, so there is really an incentive for someone to go down there.

They can find a tarnished silver dagger, and maybe some other low value trinkets in the debris pile, etc. In KOTB, in the map with the baby dragon, there are a few scattered items placed on the ground you need to walk around and pick up. So you can so something similar here in the pit.

In KOTB there is a process available to take rusty weapons to Nobby and he will clean them up (convert them) to be normal weapons (ask @Shiningted about it), so maybe you can add a similar process to bring in the tarnished silver dagger (unusable in this condition) to the jeweler or weapon merchant and that merchant can clean it up for you for a fee and a few days of time. Once it has been cleaned/converted to be a standard silver dagger, then it can be used as a weapon. That will add more dimension to the game.

In KOTB there is supposed to be a rusty shield that is found and when it gets cleaned up it is discovered to be a +1 shield - right @Shiningted ? Maybe this rusty shield can be down in this pit, since it is missing in KOTB

Another thought:
That same process can be done if you are able to salvage the ankheg shell (the shell appears in its inventory when killed) and the armor merchant can convert it to Ankheg Plate Armor - just like in Baldur's Gate (that is some good armor) Take that shell to the armor merchant and he can "work with his smith" to get it made as armor for a fee and a few days of time.

Or salvage the ankheg shell to be sold to one of the merchants to be used as a component for their magical needs. Or sell it to that little lady in the bar for some quick cash.

Both ankheg shell options will also give some incentive to go down there and kill the beast. And it adds a bit more dimension to the game.

If possible, why not try and add some more roleplaying aspects into the game?

 

Yeah, sorry, I couldn't resist the little jab

Yes, ultimately it is his decision.

The extra bits is just a recommendation for a bit of world building and fleshing things out.

 

Nope. I have exactly zero graphics competence. I can supply you this 256x256 bmp, so you could try out yourself))

Yes, sure, I can do it.

Currently we cannot do a "pile" model as it does not exist in mobs library. And creating new one is extreme pain. I would love to have flat mob which I could reuse to pain anything like pile, trap, trapdoors, ladder etc.

Yes, OK. I can also place it in the monster as well.

I'm not going to do it, but I'm fine if you could join dev team and try))

I was thinking the same during development. But ankheg armor is not RAW, and homebrew options grant disappointing result. So I'm not going to do it. You could though))