Our journey begins in Caer Cyflen, capital of Margarth and home to the Legacy Council – a council with representatives of all major political factions in the area tasked with making sure knowledge and magic recovered from the Badlands are fairly distributed. The Council is always looking for agents to help with the dangerous job of patrolling and exploring the Badlands. Hero’s journey has brought him here as he and Tess are as fascinated by the history of the area as anyone. And it is here, he fells, where he can make the most difference in the fortunes of his world.
First they all had to swear oaths to the Council, that they would fulfill their duties without overly favoring any of the entities which made up the council. Their first mission was to investigate an outpost in the Badlands which had ceased responding to messenger birds. They dealt with some minor trouble on the way, including a goblin ambush, but nothing terribly serious. But when they arrived they found the outpost damaged and seemingly empty! Above the outpost they could see the remains of a Manacolon tower sticking out at a bizarre angle from the nearby cliffside. This was not an unsuaul sight in the Badlands, where magic had done far worse in the Cataclysm. They were on their guard, but Roland was determined to search for survivors.They heard voices within an inner keep, but the voices were quite angry and distrustful. Whatever had happened had led them to be seriously suspicious of aid. They tried to approach to parlay, but this led to an encounter with a some of the mutated beasts of the Badlands – Winged Vipers!Once past the vipers, Roland was able to talk the survivors in the inner fortifications into letting them in… But the surviving soldiers claimed to believe they might be Soraks! Mythical shapeshifting lizardmen that no-one had seen for a thousand years… They claimed that Soraks had sacked the outpost, but taken away all the bodies so there would be no evidence. Naturally, they found this just a little hard to accept at face value.. Roland was able to talk a little sense into them, as they tried to determine what, exactly, had *actually* happened.They made enough headway to determine that a scout had just brought back… “something”… from nearby Manacalon ruins before the attack began. When a “something” leaped down from the wall and killed one of the survivors! As often, Falcon was reacting before anyone had time to make sense of things. And in moments they realized that what lay at their feet was, in fact, a dead Sorak…While the others furiously discussed what this meant, and how to get the body back to Caer Cyflen. Falcon grew bored and took a peek outside. He soon came back saying, “I hate to intrude on this critical conversation, but I think there is something I should tell you.” “What Falcon? This is rather important!”. “I understand that, it is only that there are dozens more of them climbing the hills outside…”Fortunately, Tess had also wandered away from the discussion, her attention drawn by ancient Manacalon symbols in the cliffside in a suggestive pattern.. and she discovered a secret door! They had no idea where it led, but it had to be better than staying where they were with an army of Soraks on the way. So they gathered the remaining survivors and headed into the unknown.The passage got pretty uncomfortably small and tight in places, but it eventually opened into a larger corridor. Tessa was absolutely enthralled by the hints of Manacalon ruins buried down there, and grabbed a few scrolls as she could. But this was not the time for archaeology.They soon came upon a possible passageway out… but it was being patrolled by a small group of Soraks Better these than the larger group surely following!They soon came upon a possible passageway out… but it was being patrolled by a small group of Soraks! But better to go through these than the larger group surely following! So they had to press the attack!Fortunately, Tess’s eagle-eyed nightvision noticed another Sorak sneaking up behind, and she was able to take it our before it counter-ambushed from the rear.
They finally made it out to daylight in relief. For now the priority would be to escort the wounded survivors back to safety, and then they would make their report to the Council.
Author’s Note: I love the the UB mod has added the ability to use portraits! Instead of staring at 3D renders I can look at this:
4 responses to “Solasta: Beginnings”
atcDave
Looking great! And between Winged Vipers and Soraks you’ve got a few new monster types I’ve not seen before.
I discovered in customising portraits for this that I can ask the AI for “portrait,plain white background” and then get an image where I can easily adjust transparency in image tools. That allows the portraits in the GUI above – where it actually does a pretty amazing job at blending the faces in with the rest of the GUI.
I’ve also been playing with styles again, and found a fair bit of utility here and there in “Wayne Reynolds” style. He’s the guy who did much of the art for Pathfinder RPG, and his style is the Oath and Roland calming the soldiers in the pics above.
Hmm… Layered images… It hadn’t really occurred to me before that I could render a few characters separately with transparent backgrounds, then render the background, then merge them together in layers… Hmmm.. Wouldn’t work well if they are physically overlapping, but a lot of pain-in-the-butt scenes where I want something specific in the foreground and something else specific in the background I could try that way. Hmm.
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