Category Archives: The Miracle Worker

Posts related to the Sanctum of the Archmage, Part 2: The Miracle Worker

Sanctum 2 v4.2 Remake

I’ve had some inquiries about the status of the Sanctum 2 v4 module remake, so I thought it would be a good idea to re-consider my plans for it and to address them on my blog.

I’m currently about halfway through my original plans for the remake. Unfortunately, as I announced here, I had to put finishing that work on hold in recent months in order to allow time for other projects and priorities. Modding and writing are both things that I do in  the spare time allowed by my career — and finishing and publishing the first book in the Sanctum series, The End of the Beginning, and completing the Sanctum 2v4 remake, were both competing for that time. Given how much more work was still left on Sanctum 2v4, I felt that I could no longer delay starting to get the novels ready for publication.

But I do miss modding, and after a few months away from it I think that I may be able to fit in the time for a more limited module update for Chapter 2. The good news is that most of the important work — especially the custom content implementation and the linkages from Chapter 1 — are already done. Most of the rest of the work I had planned centered around an extensive new quest sequence that I was going to add. If I skip that, then it shouldn’t take me too long to get the rest of the remake ready for release.

So I’ve decided to go ahead with that, splitting time on Sanctum2 v4 with my novel writing. Aside from one new encounter that I’m already halfway through, the only thing I really still have to do is to re-build the flying areas at the end with the new Sanctum Flying Skyscape tileset. So fingers crossed, it should be possible for me to get the update out for beta test by the holidays.

Sanctum at the NEW Neverwinter Vault!

After our recent scare, and in the face of growing uncertainty about continued availability of IGN’s Neverwinter Nights Vault, I have gone ahead and created a new project page for the “v4” remakes of Sanctum of the Archmage – The Sight on the New Neverwinter Vault:

Sanctum of the Archmage – The Sight at the New Neverwinter Vault.

I strongly encourage everyone who wants to download, play, comment, and vote on the V4 releases of the Sanctum of the Archmage modules to do so here, or to use the project’s new page on the New Neverwinter Vault.

The old (v3.4) versions of Chapters 1 and 2 will remain available for now on their historical pages on IGN’s old Neverwinter Nights Vault.

Some Sanctum 3 Previews

I thought readers might enjoy some plot and character previews from Sanctum of the Archmage 3: The Miracle Worker, Act II – Mission to Rayche, currently in development. The following are excerpts from the Sanctum 3 design document, edited slightly to remove spoilers.


Main Quest Profile – Ally With Rayche

The party will land on the roof of Castle Highpeak. The Pegasi will tell them that they will be on call to fly to nearby areas should they be needed, and then leave. If Robin is in the party, she’ll don a disguise to keep her from being recognized by any of the Raychian nobility. When they try to enter the castle, they will be confronted by a squad of guards and brought to the Castellan…

From the Castellan they’ll learn that Chancellor Rhys has just been assassinated and the Royal Treasury looted, and that the city and castle are in chaos. The King has retreated to his apartments under heavy guard, with strict orders that no one except his most trusted and loyal advisors be allowed in to see him. The Castellan is loath to make an exception to his orders until or unless the party can win his trust…

The party will need to fulfill a certain number of “points” worth of quests to build up their reputation with the King’s advisers in order to gain an audience with him. The King and his Court are also influenced by public opinion, so developing a positive reputation among the people will help to win their support as well.


Character Profile: Captain Flynn

Captain Flynn is a young officer who is also Marshal Briggs’ most trusted assistant. He’s charming and a bit of a rogue, romantically speaking, and will flirt mercilessly with a player that shows an interest in him… As a henchman, he’s a fighter with excellent combat skills. He’s charged by the Marshal to help them with the Defeat the Demon Force and Destroy the Demon Base quests… He’s also a skilled dancer, and if the player enters the Dancing Competition in the Grand Tourney she can choose him as her partner.


Quest Profile: The Shield of the Defender

High Priestess Aleanne is worried about the peoples’ morale in face of the demon threat and the crushing taxes that have had to be imposed to make up for the looting of the treasury. She is convinced that they need a symbol of divine favor to inspire them, and proposes that the PC undertake a dangerous quest to recover a holy artifact: The Shield of the Defender, once wielded by the great hero Calindra. The shield is a symbol of the archetype of The Defender from the statue gallery in the Ancient Ruins from Chapter 1.

The Legend of the Defender is an ancient story, now thought by many to be more myth than history. But Aleanne believes in it, and the tale of Calindra is a personal favorite of hers that has always filled her with inspiration. She has faith that the shield can be found again, but doesn’t know where to look for it. She recommends that the party start their search by visiting the library in Highpeak Castle and consulting the definitive book on subject, aptly titled The Legend of the Defender


Character Profile: Prometheus The Giant Slayer

Prometheus Antonos, also known as “Prometheus the Giant-Slayer,” is a member of the renowned adventuring group, The Heroes of Glorn. He was sent by the Magistrate of Glorn as an emissary from the Free City-States of Landis to coordinate the hasty marshalling of the Landissian and Raychian armies at the mouth of Stonegate pass. He can be found in the King’s Throne room and the player can talk to him about his adventures, and the lands of Landis and Glorn. He adventured with Nimrod and will recognize it if the player is wearing Nimrod’s Ring.

Prometheus is a large and powerfully muscled fighter who wields a huge battle hammer named “Iron Thunder.” He also has bright green hair, the result of opening a cursed door in a dungeon on one of his adventures. He affects a pronounced “tough guy” manner, but has a keen intellect and a highly developed sense of honor. Prometheus can join the party during the endgame sequence (for the “Find the Traitor” quest), and as henchman he’s a ranger with giants and demons as his racial enemies.

Copyright Notice. Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

Sanctum v4: More of The World of Glorn

Posts on the Sanctum Blog have been fairly sparse recently, though I hope to be able to start changing that again soon. The main reason for the dearth of updates is that I’ve temporarily had to set aside work on the saga (especially on Chapter 3) for a couple of other priorities. The main one was professional: my career was badly in need of a reboot, and I needed some time this year to work that out. The good news is that I have a new position now, with better prospects and in a better area. I’ll be moving over the course of the next month, and hope to be able to get back to modding again in a more serious way once that’s done.

One thing that I have been working on, though, is a final remake to the first two chapters to implement a lot of the design changes I’ve made to the series for Chapter 3. I mentioned this in a recent blog post, and the changes are actually quite major. Part of my motive in doing the update was that I wanted to get some of the good work I’ve done for the third chapter out there. Some of it is custom content related, such as integrating Project Q and CEP 3.4, using the fabulous Sanctum Flying Skyscape tileset that Estelindis built for me to remake the flying areas at the end of Sanctum 2, revamping the score with some of the new tracks from the expanded Sanctum 3 soundtrack, and so on. The technical base of haks used by the v4 update will be the same one used by Sanctum 3 when it’s released, which will make integrating the third chapter with the first two a much easier task.

Some of the changes, though, are to start removing some of the unnecessary D&D references included in the modules. I originally did a lot of that for convenience, and to help make the setting feel a little less unfamiliar to NWN players. When I first built the modules my ability to do things like create new races and appearances was limited, and using player-familiar ones from the toolset was much easier. Most of these elements really don’t fit well with the non-D&D story world of the Sanctum novels that I’m working on, though, and on which the modules are based. Some examples of this are the Drow and the Deep Gnomes, which don’t even exist in them at all.

I’m reworking a lot of that now, and including a lot more of the lore from the original world of the novels — including things like history, religion, custom races, and the like. (For a spoiler hint about what will replace the Drow, and the new face of General Y’Thra, see here and here.) I expect to have the v4 update out before the end of this year, and be back on track building Sanctum 3 for release sometime next year.

Sanctum v4 Update Coming Soon!

My schedule’s been very hectic this year, for example with work for the AME and preparing for a big job move. In keeping with a desire to keep my blog more up to date, though, I wanted to announce that I’ve started work on a major update to Sanctum 1 and 2, to add a number of features to them that I’ve been developing for Sanctum 3. I’m hoping to get that out in the fall, and it will include (among other things):

  • Updating all the modules for Project Q compatibility, and to use new content from it
  • Adding a number of new tracks from Sanctum 3’s expanded musical score
  • Rebuilding the flying areas in Sanctum 2 using Estelindis’ fabulous Sanctum Flying Skyscape Tileset
  • Updating the first two chapters to use much more of, and be much more consistent with, the original lore from the Sanctum novels (including some new custom races)
  • Creating many more custom items, and a “randomization” system for them that will mix up which items are found, when, and where

and many more things besides.

Patch Update 3.4a to Sanctum 1 & 2

I just posted an update to the “patch hak” (to level 3.4a) for Sanctum of the Archmage Chapters 1 and 2. The patch adds a couple of very minor playability features, and fixes the following bugs:

  • There was a problem in recent releases with Len and Robin frequently not engaging in combat in the North Forest in Sanctum 1. That’s now resolved, and Len is back to his old spellcasting self.
  • The Pegasi in Sanctum 2 were gaining an extra pair of wings when played with CEP 2.4 installed, due to a bug with the new models introduced in CEP 2.4. I added the correct models to the patch hak to fix that.

The updated patch hak is available on the module download pages for Sanctum 1 and Sanctum 2.

The Sky Over Rayche

Here’s a screenshot and video clip showcasing Sanctum 3’s unique flying system. These use the Sanctum Flying Skyscape tileset, custom developed for the series by the very talented Estelindis.

Essentially, there will be two ways to travel in the module. One that should already be familiar to players is journeying overland, using linked areas along the roads on the map that I posted recently. The other, faster and more dramatic method, though, will be by flying through the “Sky Over Rayche,” which the player can ascend to and descend from at designated locations across the land. The video clip (about 75 meg) illustrates this latter method.