Here’s a new screenshot from Sanctum of the Archmage 3: The Miracle Worker, Act II – Mission to Rayche. This one uses a fantastic new tileset custom developed for the series by the very talented Estelindis.
Category Archives: 3 – Mission to Rayche
The Legend of the Defender
I was thinking that players might enjoy a story “teaser” from the next chapter. Here’s the text of a book of lore found in Sanctum of the Archmage 3: The Miracle Worker, Act II — Mission to Rayche, titled “The Legend of the Defender.”
The Legend of the Defender
Many thousands of years ago, a great war between the Gods and the Demons came to the world. The Demons had opened a door from the realms of hell itself, and their armies threatened to overrun the earth. In those ancient times most of the world was wild and unsettled, with the exception of two great centers of civilization. These were the Kingdom of Nuracinth (now the Northern Plains), which was ruled by humans; and the realm of Eldacinth (now the lands of Elde and Carlissa), shared by the elves and faeries.
The world then was still under the active protection of the Gods, and the army of Heaven prepared to meet the Hordes of Hell in battle. The races of the time were asked to fulfill their oaths of obedience to the Gods and to stand beside them in the Great War. Although men have long forgotten them, the elves still remember The Faeries, who commanded powerful magic but refused the Gods’ call. They retreated to the land of Faerie, and wove the sparkling curtain around it to forever cut themselves off from the rest of the world.
The other races were afraid and hesitated to fight. The Demon Horde began to ravage their lands and many were killed, until the Goddess Tianth finally saw and took pity on their fears. She appeared to Calindra, a simple warrior woman from Rayche whose spirit was true to the Gods and filled with courage and faith in The Divine. She spoke words of hope to her, and gave to her The Shield of the Defender, allegedly forged from a shard of the goddess’ own heart.
Inspired, Calindra rallied the elves and men of the time to stand with the Army of Heaven, and they met the Horde in the heart of Nuracinth. The Kingdom was devastated by the war and remained barren for a thousand years, and even now only the hardiest of nomads can survive there. But the Army of Heaven prevailed, and Calindra — protected by the magic of the Shield — herself slew the Captain of the Horde. Thus the Demons were driven forever from the face of the earth.
Over the next thousand years the Gods left the world to return to the Heavens. Before they left, they established the Church of the Divine as a covenant with those who had shown their faith by standing with them in the Great War. They promised that they would always hear and answer the prayers of their clerics, who to this day wield the magic of the Divine in the Gods’ name. Because of this covenant, the races of men and elves have become known as The Children of the Gods, or simply The Children for short.
The Kingdom of men had been devastated by the Great Battle, and in its aftermath the rulers of the lesser realms that remained vied for dominance. Calindra had become a hero among The Children, and she tried to use her influence to help unite them into a new great kingdom. But the leaders and statesmen of Ancient Nuracinth were gone, and the rulers who remained were men of lesser stature. They tried to use Calindra to their own advantage, and to expand their power by drawing her into their petty wars and intrigues.
Dismayed, Calindra eventually left them to return to her homeland of Rayche, there to wander the countryside as an adventurer. She vanished from the knowledge of history, her final fate unknown, and the shield vanished with her. But according to the legend, it still lies somewhere in the world, in the last resting place of Calindra the Defender. And it waits for the day when its power will be called upon once again to strengthen the hearts of the people against a great evil.
Copyright 2010 by Anthony Donadio. All Rights Reserved.
A Pre-Update on Sanctum 3
Aderyn recently asked: “By the way, how is the Sanctum 3 going now? Please update soon!”
Sorry to keep you in suspense! The reason I haven’t updated in a while is that there are a few things that I’m currently working on that I want to complete before doing so. In particular, Estelindis and I have been developing some very unique new custom content for the module. When it’s ready for screenshots I think you’ll find it was worth the wait. 😉
Some New Screenshots
I thought I’d post some preliminary screenshots from Sanctum 3.
Nicodemus’ Tower
Highpeak Castle
I also noticed that I hadn’t done anything with the screenshots on the module pages for Sanctum 1 and Sanctum 2 since before the v3.2 update. I’ve updated them to (among other things) show the new Pegasi and companion heads.
Companions vs. Henchmen
A player asked me the following regarding a recent post about my plans for Sanctum 3. I thought it might be of general interest, so I decided to re-post it here.
- “A question if I may, what do you mean by three companions and five henchmen?”
This is probably my own terminology more than anything else, but by “companions” I mean long-term party members who are tied to the overall plot. In Sanctum, that’s Robin, Orion, and Diana. By “henchmen” I mean party members who join or are “hired” mainly for combat support and story flavor on a specific quest or quests. Since I made you leave one of your three companions behind near the end of Chapter 2 (and don’t worry, you’ll see them again in Chapter 4), I felt that it would be a good idea to let you be able to “hire on” some temporary help in Chapter 3 if you need it. There will be five such “henchmen” available in different areas and for different quests. Although they’re intended to be more “henchmen” than full “companions,” they’ve already developed very vivid personalities in my mind that I want to try to translate into the module as well. Two of them will also be potential (though not long-term) romance options (one male, one female).
Mission to Rayche
There’s now a page on my website for the upcoming module:
Sanctum of the Archmage 3: The Miracle Worker, Act II – Mission to Rayche
Sanctum 3 Designed
I just wanted to post a quick update on the progress of Sanctum 3. I’ve been alternating between design work and technical integration to make the module compatible with Project Q, and I’m pleased to be able to report that both of those tasks are basically done now.
A lot of basic 2DA and Hak work was needed to make the new module compatible with both its previously existing custom content (including CEP 2.2), and Project Q. This was a big job, and while it had several very tedious parts to it, it turned out not to be as bad as I’d feared. The worst part was moving some of the conflicting phenotypes to new numbers, which required a lot of editing and renaming of individual files. Now that it’s done, I’ll be able to combine features from Sanctum Chapters 1-2, CEP, and Project Q.
I’ve also been working feverishly for the past month or so to complete a comprehensive design write-up for the module’s quests, areas, and custom content. With that done, I now have a clearer idea of what the scope of Sanctum 3 will be, as well as some material that I can give to collaborators. To give a hint at the scope, the current design comes out at:
- twenty-two quests
- sixty-six areas
- three companions
- five henchmen
- five romances
I’m also happy to report that I now have two confirmed members of the Sanctum Team, one of whom is the very talented Estelindis. You may know her from her NWN1 CC work, and as the creator of the new custom heads for Orion, Diana and Robin in Sanctum v3.2. She’s going to be helping with some very special custom content for the next chapter, which if it works out as we hope should be really terrific. Aderyn has agreed to join the playtesting team, and several others have expressed interest in helping as well.
So barring complications, the pace of development on the saga should be ramping up substantially in the near future. I’ll keep you all posted. 😉
An Update on Sanctum 3
It’s been a while since my last blog post, so I just wanted to take a few minutes to say “Hi” and to give everyone a quick update on the progress of Sanctum 3.
I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can spend most of my spare time working on the next chapter, and I’m having a great time at it. It’s coming along so well that it’s actually exceeding my expectations, which I’d set pretty high for the project. I’m still aiming for a release sometime this summer, although it’ll be a couple of months yet before I know how well my progress is matching that goal.
One of the things I’ve done to help expedite the next release is to scale back the scope of Chapter 3, which as I’m now planning it will only cover the quest to ally with Rayche. I’d always intended the Rayche mission to be the most extensive and elaborate of the quests to form the alliance, and I think that will give the module a good starting point as well as a good point of closure. Now that I have most of the quests written out in detail I’m also realizing that it’s going to make a sizable module in its own right (and will certainly be much longer than Chapter 2 was).
It’ll also have a somewhat different design from my previous work. Chapter 1 and especially Chapter 2 were very linear, and had what I think was an unusual quest structure compared to most other modules. In Chapter 3, though, I’m planning a more non-linear plot with a more familiar adventuring quest style — but without compromising any of the story-driven focus that players have come to expect from the saga. The different quest threads will be thoroughly interwoven with the main plot, but they will also offer a lot more choice regarding which quests to do, in what order, and how they can be resolved. Indeed, I expect that it will be difficult to complete all of the available quests on any one playthrough (and impossible to see all the outcomes), which I hope will make Sanctum 3 an especially good module for replayability.
Add the Rayche Quest to the End of Sanctum 2?
I posted this to the Sanctum 2 module page, and thought I’d post it on my blog as well.
Here’s a question for players. I’ve seen a number of criticisms and downvotes on Sanctum 2 recently for its short length and ending in the middle of a quest. I was planning to release Sanctum 3 as a new module with a new architecture using project Q, but setting all of that up is understandably taking some time. I could get the “Mission to Rayche” quest out much more quickly if I added it to the end of Sanctum 2, where most of the necessary infrastrucure is already in place. I did the same thing for the Wind-Walking / Flying scenes, since the first version of the module actually ended with leaving the peak to start on the mission to Rayche. (I thought that players would appreciate the added content, and that the price of having to stop in mid-quest to continue my graduate work would be worth it.)
Adding the rest of the Mission to Rayche at the end of Sanctum 2 would make the module longer, and allow me to once again end it at the end of a quest. This could help address the criticisms and downvotes of those who are objecting to the module’s current length and ending, and to get some sequel content out faster. I could probably even rig up the necessary scripts to allow players with a savegame at the end of Sanctum 2 v3.2 to jump right to the continuing point in the new module, so re-playing the whole thing might not even be necessary.
The price, though, is that the quality of the Rayche quest wouldn’t be as good, partly because it would be missing some of the new features and the new Q-based infrastructure. Those seem to be particularly well suited to the Mission to Rayche quest, which is one reason why I’ve resisted adding the quest to the end of Sanctum 2 in the past.
So what do players think? Should I continue with my current plans (which would probably get Sanctum 3 out in Spring ’10), or add the Rayche quest to the end of Sanctum 2?
NWN Podcast Interview
In case anyone missed it, I was this week’s guest on the Neverwinter Nights Podcast. Trey and I talked about Sanctum 2 winning the Golden Dragon Award for Best RPG, as well as my plans for the next chapters in the series. Here’s the link:
NWNP Episode 68 – Golden Dragon Winner Andarian
My interview starts at about 9 minutes into the podcast. I’m not sure why, but this time they decided to use a “listener greeting” from a non-guest instead of the one that I sent them. If anyone was looking forward to hearing my intro, here it is. 😉