Gladiatrix III - Week 47 Update

The war of the realms is upon us. Members of the Shroud must break off into separate fighting units for the campaign. Sierra must pick the force that she will lead. Will she choose the towering treants from the Crystaline glade, the elite Valtrescan archers, the mighty Dakari warriors or the illustrious wizards of Sylvandaryn? The fate of all the lands is in her hands.

Gladiatrix III - Week 46 Update

For those who demand more sexy, well here she is! Meet the Handmaiden of Lolth. Isn't she lovely with her many all-seeing eyes? Matron SinDreeza has ordered the Devir household to the temple in a ritual to summon Lolth's handmaiden. She comes forth, but she is royally pissed about being disturbed in her infernal realm. The handmaiden relents and indulges the matron by telling her that the rival house is not in favor with Lolth but is making strides to appease her. The handmaiden also warns SinDreeza that the slightest misstep could spell doom for her own house. She also warns SinDreeza that if she disturbs her again it would be at her peril.   

This screenshot is backtracking a little. I've actually completed the Everdark chapter of the module. I didn't really have a good shot to use with what I'm currently working on without giving too many spoilers away. 

Gladiatrix III - Week 45 Update

A raven has delivered a letter to Sierra. The message claims to be from Kristaly Windsong, a friend that has been missing for some time now. The note says to go to a remote shipyard and look for her on an airship called Tempest. The message requests her to come alone. Sierra is anxious to see her dear friend but has no way of knowing if the letter is really from Kristaly or if she is even alive. Could this be the reunion she has been looking forward to or a trap?

Gladiatrix III - Week 44 Update

Tessa has been missing. Your search for her leads you to this freak of nature. Are you too late?

Gladiatrix III - Week 43 Update

Sierra has agreed to join House Devir in an assault on House De'Mizzare. If House Devir successfully destroys the rival house then they will move up in the city hierarchy. In other parts of the world it is considered the ultimate treachery to blindly attack a neighbor without provocation. In drow culture it is applauded when a house makes a well-planned and strategic attack on another house as long as there are no surviving nobles to name the attacker. If a single noble survives then the attacking house is set upon without mercy by every other house in the city. Sierra has no interest in the political maneuverings of these dark elves, but she does have an interest in the attack on this particular house.

I hope to be finished with the Everdark portion of the module this week or next week at the latest. After that I'll be setting the stage for the grand finale. 

Gladiatrix III - Week 42 Update

Sierra is now known as Sienza Westyn'tavian in her Everdark disguise. She is introduced to SinDreeza Devir, matron of the eighth house of the city of Nar'Kasteel. Xanderfein explains that Sienza would be an asset to the house's strength, but the matron is skeptical. Sienza will have to prove herself in order to gain admittance, but will she survive the trials?

I made good progress this week reworking what I lost. It is much quicker a second time around since I already had everything in my mind. I should be finished this week reworking what I lost and hope to be back on track. 

Gladiatrix III - Week 41 Update

 

Well, this isn't my usual fun update. That is because disaster struck over the weekend. I walked away from my laptop for about twenty minutes and when I came back, the system had completely locked up while the toolset still had my module open. This has happened before, so my normal routine is to make a copy of both the module file and the backup file before attempting to open the toolset again. This usually keeps at least one of the files intact. Well, not in this case! Somehow both files ended up FUBAR. Okay, so I take a deep breath. I've been a little more diligent making backups of my module since I had a similar disaster while making the first module... or so I thought. I went to my offsite storage, and to my dismay, the last good copy of my module was from Feb 18! I was certain there must be a more recent copy, but none was to be found. I guess I've gotten complacent since my last disaster was over a year ago. 

Anyway, the good news (if you can call it that) is that I was able to open the backup file in the toolset and export the areas I created. The bad news is that the conversations can't be salvaged. So I'm having to rewrite, relink and rescript several thousand words of dialog that I had written over the past few weeks. And the past few weeks just so happen to be some of the most diligent work I've done on this module. The evil spirits of computers timed this perfectly and they laugh at my torment!

A word of warning to anyone who designs NWN modules, and I know a few of you do. After any significant amount of work has been done on your module always back it up off system. When you least expect it your system WILL crash and the toolset WILL eat your module. This is a guarantee. The toolset is unbelievably fragile and destructive to modules. Never leave the toolset open when you're not working on it. If your computer locks up or crashes while your module is open in the toolset, be scared. Be very scared and prepare to go digging for the last backup you saved. Don't think that saving it somewhere on the same system is good enough. The evil spirits of the computer world will take advantage of your misstep and just destroy your whole system to achieve their nefarious schemes. This is a guarantee. Let my ill-timed neglect be an example and ominous warning to other builders. It's daily backups for me from now on, no matter how much of a pain that is.

Never fear, I'm not letting this get me down (too much). I'm making progress rewriting what I lost. Unfortunately, this is going to move my target date well into April, so you'll have to indulge me just a little more time to finish. I should have a more positive update next week.