TORTURED HEARTS 2



TORTURED HEARTS 2.

by Zoltán Gonda & Jim Grimsley

v.1.24

JOIN OUR RPG CAUSE:



WARNING:

You should not play Tortured Hearts 2 if you:

-can't respect others' hard work!!!!

and you:

-are impatient

-are a power gamer

-are a nitpicky D&D ruleplayer

-are a rollplayer

or if you:

-don't have much time

-don't like complex stories

-don't like the hardcore approach

-can’t deal with a non-linear discovery approach

I mean it... any of the above-mentioned things will ruin the fun factor of this game and I don't want to rob your precious time. It is still not my intent to appeal to everyone. If you can’t seem to get in the spirit of the game, thanks for dropping by and there are 4000 other modules to try.

AS WELL AS MY GIFT TO THE NWN COMMUNITY, TORTURED HEARTS 2 IS PRESENTED AS A DEMONSTRATION SAMPLE OF GAME BUILDING SKILL.

** Do I need to play TH1 in order to play TH2?

No, but it will help to establish the scene and history. There are plenty of references to TH1 in TH2. The story of TH1 is summarized at the end of this description.

You can download all of my mods from here:

nwnmods

** CONTACT INFORMATION

Zoltán Gonda

e-mail: bassman@digikabel.hu

** LETO

Modifying your characters and module through LETO is your option, but there’s no guarantee that things will work better if you do: in fact, they probably won’t. Please don’t do this. We are not responsible for the results when the game was designed otherwise.

** CEP

TH2 is based on the CEP package. You need CEP 1.50 and 1.52 installed if you want to play my game. If you have 2.0 only, it won't work due to missing or renamed files. No matter what it says on the CEP site, 1.50 and 1.52 WILL work with NWN 1.68 in TH2 if you have the 2da.hak. Because these patches are no longer supported by CEP, they are included in the “Critical CEP” files on the supplement page for download. These are the files you need:

cep2da.hak

cep1patch.hak

cep1patch150.hak

cep1patch152.hak

cepanatomy.hak

cepbaseitem.hak

cepcreature.hak

cepplace.hak

cepportrait.hak

ceptexture.hak

The last six items are core CEP files that were installed with earlier versions. If you do not see them in your hak folder, you will need to download the CEP 152 exe which installs CEP v. 1.52. This will not interfere with CEP v.2.0. at all.

** Installing TH2

-First of all, extract the downloaded files with WinRar 3.2+ ()

-Copy the extracted music files into the music folder

-Copy the extracted TorturedHearts2_en.tlk into the tlk folder of your NWN directory

-Copy the extracted CEP 1.50 and 1.52 patches, TH2Misc.hak, and TH2Tiles.hak files into the hak folder

-Copy the extracted Tortured Hearts II module file into the modules folder

If you want to use the Bonus Portraits Pack, extract the TH2_Bonus_Portraits.zip archive into the Portraits folder. If there isn't such a folder, create one:

Path name: NeverwinterNights\NWN\Portraits

PLEASE CHECK THE “KNOWN BUG” SECTION BELOW!!

You are ready to go!

** KNOWN AND UNRESOLVED BUGS IN TORTURED HEARTS 2

-The bubble that indicates your henchman wants to talk to you doesn't appear over the Packbeetle due his beetle appearance. (weird) You have to talk to him with the radial dial or by clicking.

-Custom item graphics disappear sometimes. Quitting and reloading your game will help.

-Some custom tilesets have no minimaps or there are missing tiles

-Sometimes you can get stuck behind closed doors. Don't panic, turn around and open the door using the radial menu.

-There is a vampire in the Pirate Burial Dungeon who leaves an invulnerable gaseous form. Just leave it, it won’t attack or follow you.

-I've tried everything to eliminate all the bugs, but there may still be some others.

** NEW VERSIONS

Please check your versions against the version number at the end of the page. Older and newer files of Tortured Hearts 2 versions shouldn’t be mixed. The old ones should be overwritten by the new ones. The TH2Misc.hak has also been updated. Don’t use your old save games with a newer version. The music files remain unmodified.

** PLAYER RESOURCE CONSORTIUM PACKAGE (PRC)

TH2 is not PRC-compliant. Sorry. I tried, but there’s no way.

** LINUX USERS

Linux users should probably rename the hak and the music files to lower case, since the file system is case sensitive.

** LAG

TH2 is much less laggy than TH1. If lag is a problem, please quit all other applications before playing Tortured Hearts 2. Thank you.

** MULTIPLAYER

The game can't be played in multiplayer mode. Excess players will be booted out of the game.

** CHARACTER LEVEL

This game starts with a level 1 character and you can gain about 20-25+ levels throughout the very long adventure if you take side quests. More XP is available through conversations, activities and quests than through killing things.

Use a brand new first-level character please! If you use imported characters, they may screw up the game!!! If you see an item called "Little pain in the neck" in your inventory, the game is screwed up. In this case don't begin playing! "Little pain in the neck" is actually a Creature Hide and it is supposed to be a part of you, not in your inventory. You'll need it if you want to learn from books and people. If you import a character the custom Creature Hide won’t work right.

In the beginning, if you are creating a new character, you may see a new package on the bottom of the left-hand character creation screen under “Customize Packages.” It will be called TH2 Henchman. As a matter of fact, we wouldn't like the users to select this package, but NWN1 doesn't support this feature unless the henchman custom package is in the "player-selectable packages" list. This package can affect the PC as well: if you choose it and use the automatic “Recommended” leveling defaults to level the PC, it will give you unexpected feats and skill distributions. We recommend you pick a standard package or make your own custom adjustments. The henchman package will work automatically for the henchmen even if you don’t choose it for your own character. See "Regular or Prestige Class Autolevel Packages" below for more.

** NOTE ON DEBUG MODE

While it may be very convenient to jump around in debug mode, perhaps saving your game if you get stuck on the scenery, things don’t work the same, especially triggers. You may walk over a trigger that will not fire or will disappear while in this mode, and miss a quest, even a plot-essential one. Save it for emergencies, please.

** FATHER/MOTHER CHOICE

-There is an assumption throughout TH2 that the PC is the child of the PC hero in Tortured Hearts 1. In case your PC who won TH1 was a heroine, you now have an option of choosing whether the game will refer to your heroic father or your heroic mother. This option required rewriting many conversations and journal entries and one-liners, so some may have been missed. It also happens that an NPC referring to his/her own “father” is now referring to a mother. Please, report any mistakes to the author. Thank you.

** REGULAR OR PRESTIGE CLASS AUTOLEVEL PACKAGES

A package of scripts has been added which allows henchmen to advance to prestige classes, with some guidance from you. Not all the henchmen will be suited to all prestige classes because of ability, alignment or class restraints, but the henchmen have been tweaked so that it will be possible to turn henchmen, within their natural limits, to Arcane Archer, Assassin, Champion of Torm, Dwarven Defender, Pale Master, Red Dragon Disciple, Shadow Dancer, Weapon Master.

This package has been added to provide an alternate way to play with your henchmen, for those who are interested and think the henchmen will be improved in prestige classes. Some people might find it tedious or unsatisfying: Be aware that there will be different results according to how the henchman advances; for instance, alternating class A and class B, one level at a time, is not the same as alternating five levels at a time. As you switch classes, different feats and skills take priority, and you may have to experiment to find the best progression for your purposes.

WARNING: You do NOT need to choose this package when creating a character, and we recommend that you ignore it if you see it in the Custom Packages of the Character Creation screen. It works automatically and if you choose it, then using the “Recommended” button when the PC levels up will give the PC henchman defaults. See “Character Level” above.

** ITEMS AT THE START

-"Magic Lollypop" - By using this item, you can: switch autosave on/off, instruct a companion to wait, check how much your henchmen like you, check your own and your henches’ battle kill statistics, find the location of present and “waiting” henchmen and your ship, and Recall Out. This last feature takes you to the area you just exited, sometimes two areas back or toward Raven Fall.

-Henchman command tokens (HMC tokens) - These will help you command your henchmen in battle or reorder them, without accessing their conversations. If you are playing solo and don’t want them in your inventory, you can eliminate the tokens with the Magic Lollypop. They are very handy and if you dismiss the tokens you can’t get them back.

** INANIMATE AREA OBJECT (PLACEABLE) PUZZLES

A few (but not all) of the item usage puzzles in TH2 involve transferring an item from your inventory into the inventory of an inanimate area object.

** DEATH

There is no respawning for PCs. When you die, you must reload your game. If a henchman dies, a cleric can resurrect him/her, or non-clerics can use a Rod of Resurrection or a Life-Giving Fruit.

** GETTING STUCK

If you can't get an item, or it seems that something didn’t happen as it should have, or simply don't know what to do, don't panic! I'll help you as much as I can!

My email: bassman@digikabel.hu

And for information to learn more trouble-shooting skills, follow this link to the console commands:



** DISCLAIMER:

The musical scores used in Tortured Hearts 2 are copyrighted by:

-Interplay Inc.

Baldur's Gate I-II, Fallout I-II, Icewind Dale II., Planescape: Torment

-Monte Cristo Multimedia

Many of the musical scores are taken from the games Desert Rats vs. Africa Korps, Platoon and D-Day published by Monte Cristo Games and developed by Digital Reality.

Respective Music Composed and Orchestrated by:

Ervin Nagy

Tamás Kreiner

Orchestral Samples from the Vienna Symphonic Library.

Used with the kind permission of Monte Cristo Multimedia.

-Wise Publications

Enya ("Evening Falls" from the album Watermark)

-United Audio Entertainment Ltd.

Mendelssohn (selected scores)

-Mediaphon

Dvorák (selected scores)

-Csaba Béke (Lute music)



This module's author makes no claim on ownership of this music, and asserts the copyright belongs to the above mentioned companies or persons. No challenge to copyright or intellectual property is intended, and due to the freeware aspect, no profits are made from the usage of the copyrighted materials.

** CREDITS

THANKS AND COMPLIMENTS GO TO THE FOLLOWING PERSONS:

The Developers at Bioware

Jim Grimsley, my co-author, who wrote a lot of key conversations for me

Deva Bryson Winblood for the NPC Activities script package

András Gáspár who wrote a few conversations of some very weird characters

DrHoo who proofread all the text and wrote the animal conversations

Jason Smith who wrote the henchman gift poem

John 'Gestalt' Bye for his camera system

Colin Spry for optimizing and fixing a few key scripts

** Special thanks to:

Deva Bryson Winblood - again - for letting me use his name... [pic]

Henning Ludvigsen for letting me use his portraits in the portraits add-on.

Ruduen for making some excellent custom items

** PLAYTESTERS:

Patrick Desbois

Balázs Dobos

DrHoo

And many of You

** THINGS THAT LOOK DIFFERENT IN TH2

When you “inspect” someone using the radial dial, you will not see a difficulty level. You will only see limited information. This is planned. You aren’t going to be able to see if a creature is “impossible,” so take care for an exit strategy in case it really is an impossible challenge.

Some items and placeables will have information that can be “inspected,” most won’t, but will pop up a message on click instead.

Corpses will fade quickly and leave “remains.” Animal corpses fade slowly to give you time to “skin” them.

** TAKING THE FIRST STEPS

-Be patient. Explore everything carefully.

-Talk to people. This is essential! Rudeness has negative consequences! Save before new NPC conversations, because you may want to explore your options and some lines are one-way.

-Very little need to fight in the prologue: As a low level character in the main game you can gain almost one level via conversation without actually fighting at all. If you kill wantonly you may kill someone who can help you later in a side quest; NPCs with non-plot roles are not invulnerable.

-Each path is just one of many. As in life, different paths have different rewards. You can’t have it all, you have to make choices, and that’s intended.

-Beware of using your weapons mindlessly. Use your wits first. You may get a better result.

-Use spell scrolls, familiars, potions

-Hire henchmen. There are 12 of them in the game

-Buy better equipment (for your henchmen too)

-If you are a rogue, steal! (and face the consequences)

-Take advantage of your sneaking skills, invisibility potions, and thievery potions.

-If you can set traps, do it!

-Use combat tactics. Stand and melee is not a good solution most of the time. Only strong and/or well-equipped characters can do that. Instead, run around, stun the enemy, use ranged and melee weapons alternately, use offensive and defensive spell scrolls, lure the tougher foes away (sometimes strong NPCs can join the battle), have some healing materials in your inventory and use them.

-Save frequently (on leaving an area for example)

-Use your imagination when going on with the story. Talk to people over and over. Look for experts. Talk to animals if you are a druid or ranger. Your henchmen give hints in many areas and the “chatter” of wandering NPCs in the background may also give clues.

-Use the henchman command tokens you are given at the start. They will enable you to control the henchmen in battle and reorder them. You will also get a Magic Lollypop which reports game statistics and henchmen status, calls your henchmen to you if they get stuck on the scenery, and recalls you back to the previous area.

The story of TH2 gives you a chance to become an adventurer in the wake of your heroic father/mother and explore what he/she didn't manage to do.

As I mentioned, Tortured Hearts 2 is a heavily open-ended game. Those who are not used to this may become confused by the freedom they are given. Remember, you can always do something, find new people to talk to, new problems to solve; and in so doing, you will often find the clue or item to an older, unsolved quest. The journal tries to give you guidance during your adventures and of course you can jot your own notes as well.

If you can't win a fight in TH2, then you are not ready for it yet and you should leave it alone for a while. Every path is just one among many others.

** USEFUL INFORMATION

You may choose a deity at the beginning.



The following skills are checked during conversations: bluff, intimidate, lore, perform, persuade, use magic device. All abilities are checked somewhere too, charisma and intelligence most frequently.

Shops will sell cheaper if your charisma and appraise skills are good. Shops never run out of gold.

You can have as many as 5 henchmen at a time.

Take care of your relations with your henchmen; if you are persevering and lucky, one of your henchmen may fall in love with you. “Love” is a prize, not a change in game play. If you act against their advice or alignment, they can also quit.

You can give your companions gifts to raise your relation counter, but usually raises occur at the end of quests. A relatively high relation counter may prevent your henchman from leaving you in a questionable situation; they don’t necessarily put up with everything you do.

Never give your henchman a container. It could be lost if the henchman dies.

Don't give a henchman any important looking item. You may easily forget that it is in your possession, and many things won’t happen unless the right item is in your own inventory.

Your henchmen can guard a position. It may be advantageous when planning a serious combat situation.

They are also very good at choosing the appropriate weapons in combat, so you can give them melee and ranged weapons as well.

Sometimes your henchmen may become level drained. You can tell this quickly by noticing that their maximum HP has dropped dramatically and get the details by examining them with the radial controls.

You can instruct your henchmen to pick up items automatically, including gold.

If you want to command your companions to whack an object, start bashing and select Attack Nearest from the radial menu of the henchman at the top of the henchman icons.

Keep a stock of healing potions in your companions' inventory and tell them how to heal themselves and others. They can also use buff potions but tend to waste them, so save it for serious fights.

Don't save your game with the PC near to dangerous places like live traps, because when you reload, the henchmen are positioned by the program without taking hazards into account.

Sometimes your henchmen will stay in an excited state after bashing a door. Don't panic, select “follow” from the radial menu of your first henchman and the excited state will be reset.

If you want to use lanterns, use oil on them first. Torches and Lanterns will go out after a time.

If you have the Mining skill but no use for the ore, you can buy an “ore disenchanter” which will turn it to gold for you. You receive one-third the gold value back.

Ammunition has weight as well. You can't walk around with a large number of arrows, bullets and bolts in your inventory.

Drow items get destroyed under sunlight.

You can rest as frequently as you wish, but it’s not allowed in Raven Fall and spawns monsters in many spots. NPCs never sleep in TH2.

Sometimes, it may matter in which order you pick conversation options. After your first conversation, click again: sometimes there may be newer options (if not, you’re done for now). And, there may be new options after you find something or talk to someone else.

If a conversation seems to be going down the wrong track and you have not yet heard the “ding” of the plot journal updating, sometimes you can save the situation by aborting the conversation with the Escape key and non-critical plot branches can be cleared or changed. There are a few NPCs who will become angered if you do this, notable the Gate Guards, Uptown. If you break the confiscation conversation, they will kill you.

** GOOD HELP IS EASY TO FIND

There are eleven henchmen available, one of whom has two forms, representing all classes and several alignments. You can have up to five at once, and direct their class advancement. The HenchMen Controls (HMC) will help you control them in battle and reorder them. They have personalities and opinions, and will form a favorable or unfavorable opinion of you according to your actions. If their opinion of you reaches a maximum of 10 (12 for Siley) they will declare their love for you (Platonic, no following love-related episodes; you’re still on a mission). There are items which are gifts for henchmen, 3 per henchman, scattered throughout the game, but most increases or decreases in reputation come as a reaction the PC’s actions in taking and completing quests. There are also episodes where, if their opinion of the PC is not very high, they can go into a negative range and leave in disgust. The henchmen also have interactions with each otherif the party gets too scattered and the involved henchmen are too far apart, this conversation will break and only one line appears. Don’t worry about it. Character information is being given, not plot information. As you enter an area, you may see white “thought bubbles” over their heads; it means they have comments about the situation. Use the radial options to speak to them. Beetle will not have a bubble, but if the others want to talk, he does too, and if you click on him, he will.

** TORTURED HEARTS 2 FEATURES

Areas: 260+

Words in conversations: 412,000+

Estimated playing time: 100-150+ hours

Work involved: 4000+ hours (again)

Alignment: Any, good and evil choices and outcomes

Race: Any

** THE AUTHORS

Zoltán "Bassman" Gonda, aka SubBassman

Year of birth: 1967

Profession: Game designer

Place of residence: Budapest, Hungary

E-mail: bassman@digikabel.hu

Jim Grimsley

Profession: Novelist

András Gáspár

Profession: Novelist, game designer

** Proofreading and QA

DrHoo

Profession: Psychologist, game designer

** ADDITIONAL INFO

This module was created between December 2004 and May 2007, including testing time.

Check out this website too:

newcomer.hu

There you can see where it all started and where it all leads to...

** VERSION HISTORY

#1.240 - Final Version, Sixth Revision (27 Sept 2012)

-To prevent him getting killed, an NPC in Mulgrave Point has been set to plot until you meet him.

#1.230 - Final Version, Fifth Revision (16 Apr 2012)

-Henchman dual convo conditions have been fixed

#1.220 - Final Version, Fourth Revision (26 Jan 2012)

-A generic “jump between areas” issue was fixed

If you have 1.21 running and the Flying Carpet messed up your game, please use the TH2misc.hak included in the folder named “121_Fixed_Hak”

If you start a new 1.22 game, you don't need to do anything.

#1.210 - Final Version, Third Revision (2 Oct 2011)

-Henchman dual conversations have been enhanced. Now hostiles won't break them.

-You can't use the portable hole at the end

-Fixed a typo

-How about a sequel? Stay tuned...

#1.200 - Final Version, Second Revision (9 May 2011)

-TH2Misc.hak hakpak was modified. Be sure you replace it.

-9 new areas to visit, explore and loot

-Some new characters foreshadowing a sequel

-Mulgravian Full Plate and Half Plate armors have been fixed

-Beggar in slums has been set to plot. He was mysteriously disappearing time to time.

-Deck of Hazards has been removed from the game. It caused several problems.

-Automatic item identification from revised TH1

-Some holy water has been put in the game

-Minor faction problems have been fixed

-Henchmen can't be disbanded in the abandoned house, uptown (due to future lockup)

-All crafted items are now set to plot to avoid some exploits

-Paladins' Detect Evil as in revised TH1

-Cloaks are fixed

-The story issue with Agnet Bowbender has been fixed

-Another story issue with the Halfling Priest and the Pirate Queen has been made less confusing

-One of the “minotaur situations” is fixed

-Wizard henchman's level up package has been fixed

-Vampire in burial dungeon will now die completely

-Your character is exported when the game ends

-The Avatar of Mielikki gives you a different reward if you're a druid

-A pit in the Archaic Dungeon has been enhanced

-A desk in Down Below, Sanctuary can be bashed now. It's not easy though.

-Removed an ability check from the Jovial Merchant's convo (Merchants's Guild). Now it's easier to get a gift for Anyndur, the bard henchman.

-Greater Werewolf (orphan) doesn't drop his hide

-Beetle should always transfer all his items to Dechard when transforming back to him

-More romance triggers

-Appraise exploit should be eliminated

-OLD HC henchman script has been removed, it is stock NWN now

-Henchman levelling has been simplified (and a bug fixed)

-Some bad tiles changed

-Pickpocket XP has been fixed

-Shipwright's script is fixed

-Items that you used a light gem on, can't be sold any longer

-Small issue with wandering monsters is addressed

-Many small fixes here and there

#1.100 - Final Version, First Revision (25 August 2007)

-Nodeken, the mercenary's kobold henchman, now takes the money for teaching you

-Typos fixed

-Ropes in the Cave of Trials are now plot objects

-Minor bug of the Highett Burrows Priest's story was fixed

-Landlord's reward is fixed

-Toman's Summoning Circle has been fixed

-The rogue in the Hideaway has some healing potions

-Henchman talk bubbles will be displayed longer when they want to tell you something

#1.000 - Final version (23 June 2007)

-Dialog .tlk was updated

-Multiplayer option is discarded for good (I don't have enough time to fix all the issues) I'm sorry for that.

-There are more generic NPC's in the Ancient Crab Inn

-A few journal entries have been clarified

-Siley has a new starting outfit

-Henchmen can pick up stuff for you again and won't duplicate picked up money (Thanks Colin

Spry!)

-Blessed Crossbow Quarrels are fixed, now kill Rakshasas on hit

-Very Typical Dungeon End Part has been changed

-You can't use the services of prostitutes after one of the henchies has fallen in love with you, but they will still give needed information

-More Phials of True Form are available

-You can't use Stone to Flesh on Siley before using the antidote on her

-Endboss won't duplicate himself (rare bug)

-A few more items for your convenience

-Small fixes to items, descriptions, and convos.

#0.9951 - Beta revision 5.1 (23 May 2007)

-Multiplayer is not confirmed

-CEP patches 1.50 and 1.52 are no longer included in the package, but can be downloaded from my supplement page.

-Beetle has his creature proficiency at the start, again. You won't find his claws and teeth in his inventory.

-Talk bubble messed up the buffs of henchmen. Now it's ok.

-Typos fixed

-Small changes here and there

#0.995 - Beta revision 5 (20 May 2007)

-Dialog .tlk was updated

-Necessary CEP patches 1.50 and 1.52 are now included in a package.

-TH2_Misc.hak was updated. IT IS COMPATIBLE ONLY WITH THIS VERSION, 0.995 OR HIGHER. (So it is imperative that you download the new hak. Thank you.)

-Multiplayer is still not confirmed

-Uptown crashes due to a bad tile are eliminated at long last, we hope: please notify if you have one!

-Pirate Island: You can jump to the caravelle more than once

-Shady Forest - Old Dungeon: You can melt the ice block with more kinds of scrolls and spells, also bash it and still retrieve the holy symbol.

-Henchmen can now technically reach level 40, but you probably won't [pic]

-Henchmen can now use the HoTU prestige classes, too

-Henchman level up by custom skill/feat tables (Please tell me if their feats/skills need more tweaking.)

-Henchman dump-ability script was enhanced (levels by classes, feats, alignment scores)

-Some item properties that used feats work again

-From now on, you can use enhancements on CEP melee weapons

-Small changes here and there

#0.994 - Beta revision 4 (07 May 2007)

-Dialog tlk file was updated again

-TH2_Misc hak file was updated so that you could see the HP you gain when levelling

Please download it from here:



-Known issue: Uptown still crashes sometimes, we're working hard to find this one. Once you've been to another area of RF, Uptown doesn't crash.

-Multiplayer is still not confirmed

-Now you get different talismans when you choose your parent

-Finally, corpse fading is truly fixed

-While adding the ore disenchanter in the last version, I managed to ruin the desert heat script.

It's okay now.

-Solo players can discard their henchmen command tokens via the magic lollypop

-Beetle's base class is fighter instead of vermin

-The journal script was revamped

-Door closer script has been put back (was removed in earlier versions due to a bug)

-Giving the almanac to the Wood Trader is fixed

-Jump waypoint of the guild cook is fixed (when you want to invite her for a little "game of souls")

-Now you can enter the Guildmaster's room

-Some father/mother references have been corrected

-Tutor's wand fixed to avoid being not able to use your ship again

-Farhills Clergyman's convo has been set right

-City Guard Commander's reaction on the Rogue Guild actions is enhanced

-In Pikedale, Toady's journal is fixed

-The Mad Priest of Tyr in Pikedale has a shop now

-The shop of the Temple of Cyric in Pikedale has new weapons

-Standing Stones in Agnethelm should now blow up properly

-Agnet Bowbender's quest was still bugged. I hope it's ok now.

-End Boss has been weakened a bit

-Few typos fixed

-Small fixes here and there

#0.993 – Beta revision 3 (15 April 2007)

-Although several multiplayer issues have been set right, it isn't still confirmed.

-Big thanks to Colin Spry who optimized some scripts to eliminate many problems.

-At the beginning, you can select the gender of your parent and conversations, journals adapt accordingly. This is a big-big change, so you might find glitches regarding this. Please notify me about them.

-NPC dialog (.tlk) has changed due to the mother/father choice.

-Mining and Gold Panning tradeskills have been fixed (they didn't produce ore as intended)

-Ore Disenchanter item added to convert ore to gold. You can purchase it in Highett Burrows.

-Henchman one-liners didn't work correctly.

-Rogue Hideout drinking contest left permanent hangover. Now it seems to be ok.

-Lootable corpses are supposed to be fixed (big desperate hack)

-Annoying invulnerability issues are supposed to be fixed (yet another big hack)

-Some faction problems have been fixed

-All journal texts have been revised

-Queen Aserac's petrification can't be removed using the Stone to Flesh spell.

-Quest bug of the Nomad Leader in Carrum Heads is fixed

-When you finish the quest of Down Below, the insomniac woman won't stay in the garden possessed

-The quest of the Highett Burrows shopkeeper can be finished now even if the husband was angry with you earlier.

-Journal issue regarding the Obelisk in Mulgrave Point and the Standing Stone in Agnethelm should be fixed.

-Journal never again updating after Bowbender/Bruno quests should be fixed.

-Proctor's daily schedule has been enhanced

-Rickshaw driver's jumping has been enhanced a bit

-The conversation of Gryne the Druid was a bit messed up. Now it's okay.

-A few bits of the Agnet Bowbender quest have been made clearer.

-The behavior of resurrected henchmen is supposed to be enhanced. (Thanks to Colin again)

-No escaping the Raven Fall gate guards confiscation by breaking the conversation now.

-A good many enhancements here and there

#0.992 - Beta revision 2 (07 March 2007)

-Multiplayer is still not confirmed

-Very ugly bug of a reward has been fixed (Ancient Mage's Chest in Down Below)

#0.991 - Beta revision 1 (05 March 2007)

-Multiplayer is still not confirmed

-A nasty bug at the beginning has been fixed (the guildmembers were deleted by mistake)

-Some random encounters in the sewers were defective

-Now you can check the Greatest Damage Dealt by each player with the Magic Lollypop

-Fixed some creatures with lootable corpse flag

-Due to a possible NWN1 bug, now on entering a new area, god-mode will automatically be set to off on PCs

-A few more items have been added

-Some item fixes

-New node added to the Ropemaker's conversation

-New conversations for the circus animals, Circus dog’s conversation corrected

-Small cosmetic changes

-Test script was removed from the Warehouse door conversation—was giving the password prematurely

-Another nasty bug with the obelisk of Mulgrave Point has been fixed. A female PC coming near it would be permanently slowed and stunned

-The Druid in Agnethelm now takes your money

-The Dye Merchant in the Merchant’s quarter now takes your money

#0.990 - Beta Version Released (25 February 2007)

** BACKSTORY: TORTURED HEARTS 1

(Note: For easier reading, it is assumed in this synopsis that it was your father who did all this, but at the beginning of TH2 you have a choice to declare whether it was your mother or father.)

Based on my father's journals and stories:

While my father was on his way to his homeland, he was attacked by orc ruffians, led by an annoying character named Nulb. The orcs confiscated all his belongings and, laughing, left him in the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on his back. With a heavy heart, he began searching for the nearest town. Fortunately enough, he found Pikedale, which became the center of his adventures. His fate was hard, but at least he was alive. He arrived in the night and slept in the shelter of a bush.

His first experience was to witness the attack of a young woman. The attacker was a black-clad halfling. As it turned out later, these halflings were the bodyguards and minions of the so-called Winblood mages. (see below)

After questioning the locals, Dad learned vague information about two families who had recently lost their children: One family their son, the other their daughter. His task was to find them and restore family peace. When he took on the task, he had no idea how difficult and dangerous it would be.

This is what he discovered:

Sir Leonard Wildbrand, who had a fancy Castle near Pikedale, laid heavy taxes on local merchants, who then started grumbling. As a civic initiative, they launched a protest to stop the young lord's spendthrift actions. In the meantime, Pikedale's defenses had to be reinforced due to the new threat from a barbarian city called Cape Crest, but the lord used the money and built a castle instead, and retired behind its fortified walls.

Wildbrand was in touch with a world-wide organization, a mage-clan known as the Winbloods, and had no qualms about helping them with their undertakings, which nearly always involved illegal activities. They drew up plans together. Wildbrand's motivation was money and power.

Pikedale's corrupt High Priest of Tyr, Thanyr Tate, who was also touched by temptation, puzzled out the young nobleman's underhanded dealings. Unlike Wildbrand, Tate had a good reputation, so he didn't have to worry about arousing anyone's suspicions. He began to blackmail Wildbrand, threatening to give him up to the Magistrate on charges of malfeasance in the operations of the shire in order to fund his luxurious and devil-may-care lifestyle.

The High Priest decided he could use this opportunity to obtain a young woman for his experiments, so he singled out the daughter of a middle-class family, the Lynds. Her name was Arela. Tate had been mesmerized by her beauty when she attended the occasional services held in the Temple of Tyr.

As is often the case, the girl's fiancé, Fenor, who was the son of a rich family, the Breyouls, was in the way. Tate knew how dangerous an opponent Fenor might become as a cleric of Lathander. Leonard Wildbrand could be very useful as a way to remove the young Fenor as a threat. On order of the High Priest, Wildbrand had the boy and the girl kidnapped.

The Winblood clan was also in touch with Thanyr, and although their relationship was still budding, they helped him by starting some diversionary actions in the background to deceive the Magistrate and the people of Pikedale. They sent orc and gnoll mercenaries to the sewers with Arela’s necklace, as if they had kidnapped her in the first place. The nearby Rangerbane tunnel was packed full with vile creatures, and the Winbloods kept summoning new ones through a portal.

There was a mage among the kidnappers; Wildbrand's childhood friend, Darence Fernsbane. For money, Darence would do almost anything, but later on, frightened of Wildbrand's new Winblood associates, Darence tried to minimize the damage to Fenor.

Wildbrand's minions received the merciless order to kill Fenor, but this Darence fellow (who had a keep in Pikedale and later was hiding in the inner forests of Cape Crest), took pity on him. Since Darence knew Fenor already, he didn't want to kill Fenor. Instead, he turned Fenor into a polar bear (there was no better spell at hand) and placed him in the depth of a cold cave under the city. Darence waited for the proper moment to turn the young man back. In the meantime, he already regretted the crimes he had committed, but he was afraid of the Winblood clan's vengeance as well. He took to his heels quickly, but he didn't know that there would be dark elves pursuing him almost at once.

When the Winbloods got wind of Darence's about-face, they wanted to catch and kill him, but he was nowhere to be found. One of Wildbrand's minions, under torture, gave away an important clue, namely: Wildbrand knows how to enter Darence's new, well-protected keep.

With their trust impaired, the Winbloods detained Wildbrand to worm more info out of him, but he knew nothing and was of little use. They didn't want to kill him for the moment, because he was a very influential and powerful nobleman, so they handed him over to his cat-and-mouse allies, the Drow. (This was actually a big mistake on the part of the Winbloods.) On the chance that the dark elves might be able to get the necessary info out of him, they played one of their aces. Both factions played a nasty game against each other in the background.

The Drow put out a rumor that Wildbrand was still living, but had traveled to a distant land. They even sent carrier pigeons to Wildbrand's home bearing fake messages from these supposed distant lands. Wildbrand's concubine was enticed to confirm these rumors.

The Drow matron, Carralia Daranaver, managed to get the information the Winbloods needed. Using clever, guileful spells, she forced Wildbrand to tell them how to gain access to Darence's keep. As a key, one needed a particular wand which the Drow found in the castle. After this, they captured Darence and hauled him along to the matron to be interrogated.

At first, Carralia wanted to kill Darence right on the spot, but the fallen wizard begged for his life and in return offered to tell her everything he knew about Thanyr, details concerning the defenses around Pikedale, and even offered to help the Drow in the future, too.

The Drow began to suspect that Toman Winblood, one of the big bosses of the Winbloods, was taking lessons in magic from Thanyr Tate, the former Priest of Tyr. This bothered them immensely, to say the least, particularly because Toman was neglecting his political obligations to them. His fickleness further deepened Carralia’s already crushingly low opinion of human beings.

Carralia, before she dismissed Darence, bestowed on the wizard a demonic pair of wings so that he couldn't walk unnoticed among commoners. She allowed only those whom she chose into Darence’s keep. She didn't trust the Winbloods, with good reason.

Wildbrand, as time passed, outwardly showed repentance for ever having dealt with the Winbloods, and became truly sick of the Drows, too. However, he wasn't aware of the fact that they had gotten information out of him.

Carralia was bothered by another problem as well, namely her lost ponytail. She kept part of her power in it. The valuable appendage was in the possession of Zarax, a beholder who had sold part of his underground empire to the Drow long ago. It was the beholder who had the ponytail stolen by his quasit minions. Carralia and Zarax had always been on bad terms and it needed only a little spark to set the Underdark ablaze.

This little spark was my father. How I envy him...

At the end of his long journey, packed with incredible and sometimes sad tales of tortured hearts, he beheaded the matron and gave her severed head to the beholder. At long last, he found the rod that was needed to enter Darence's keep on her corpse. With Darence’s help, Dad found the secret hideout of Thanyr Tate and Toman Winblood, and put an end to their foul wrongdoings. In the heat of the final battle, Toman slipped away...

In Tate’s chest, Dad found Fenor's book of love poems, and by means of it he released Arela Lynd from stasis. On the same day they returned to Pikedale in glory.

As a side note:

Will I ever be able to follow his footsteps? Hardly.

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19

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