[mod] The Dreadful Tales: Juniper and the Stone Leech

LavaDelVortel

Juniper and the Stone Leech is a new mod that introduces a new Throne of Bhaal adventure along with a new companion that will ask you to join her in the investigation of the otherworldly realm of Har'Akir, part of Ravenloft. Help Juniper and travel with her to the mysterious land. See the dark temple, located in the dark desert of Har'Akir, fight enemies, discover the halls of the temple and find the source of the disturbance that troubles your new friend.

If you decide so, you may ask Juniper to stay even after the quest is finished, but the decision is yours. The Daughters of Bhaal that decide to let her join right away, are not in any other romantic relationship, and show interest in Juniper, may start a more romantic relationship.

This mod is part of a new series - The Dreadful Tales - that introduces mods that revolve around horror, death, dread, and even Ravenloft, the Domains of Dread.

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I hope Juniper will become a reason for you to at least for a moment change your ToB party. In exchange, you will get a quest that includes new areas, enemies and items!

Special thanks to hook71, Acifer, GoForTheEyes, and Sarah for helping with this release!

Trouveur

Sounds great!
I really like Ravenloft, so I look forward to try it !
Thank you Lava

LavaDelVortel

Thanks! Keep in mind this is Har'Akir (it's more Egypt-like), not Barovia. What will the future bring, though? We shall see.

megrimlock

Excellent - have been hoping for more ToB mods.

Acifer

Congratulations on the release! I've had the chance (and honor ) of playing this adventure already. It encompasses all the elements we adore about Lava's mods - a captivating narrative, intriguing characters, and impressive locations. However, what sets this mod apart is its extraordinary, unprecedented setting in ToB. The quasi-Egyptian look and feel seamlessly integrates and blends in with the ToB game, resulting in an unparalleled and innovative mod!

Seth_Divine

Lava grats ma man. Smells like Barovia time as well. First thing came to mind was the masterpiece Stoneprophet when i checked this. P:)

LavaDelVortel

I never played Stone Prophet, I knot about it and watched a gameplay, so yep, I thought it would look cool when mixed with ToB, but the plot of Stone Prophet and that of Juniper and the Stone Leech are not connected. The word "Stone" is there, because I thought it would be fun for Stone Prophet fans -- people who would most likely feel thrilled to see Har'Akir again

gorgonzola

Thank you for this new quest mod, most of the quest mods I play are your mods so I want to try also this one, your mods are top quality in my book. I have a couple of questions: it is possible to play it with every Charname's alignment or forces you towards the evil or good route? How is Juniper's xp treated? I usually go with small, so over levelled parties, will Juniper get a fixed amount of xp or it is dependant on the level of Charname when he meets her the first time like it happens for the SoA regular NPCs? It would not be a problem to have her behind the levels my small party has in ToB, I am just curious about it.

I don't ask you about the new items, her class or other as it is great to have completely new, not spoiled content for those of us that have played the vanilla game so many times, so please if some other forum member ask you about give the answer under a spoiler so is possible to continue to read the thread without spoiling the excitement to play some new, not spoiled material.

LavaDelVortel

Juniper is neutral and I would say that no matter if you are good, neutral, or evil, there are different motivations there for you to take the quest: like obtaining the items, as Juniper is not interested in them. She's there to investigate. But you may also want to help her just because she needs help. It should work with different CHARNAMEs

I added a script that should get her some extra XP if the XP difference between her and PC is great.

I hope you'll enjoy the mod! Cheers!

ErykEryk

hurray!

BenofAvalon

Oh, looking forward to this one (and the new series!), for sure!

Most of your mods (for the BG series, and IWD both) are a standard part of my playthroughs by now, so just wanted to thank you for your work

LavaDelVortel

Thank you!

Gorionix

Thanks for the quest mod. It's always good to see how a modder goes beyond BG art. And it will show the world in which you can plunge into the history of mod, quest and art locations. Which again encourages to explore new areas and look for something new in them.

Endarire

More ToB content? More Ravenloft content? Lava, you did a thing which makes my heart a-flutter!

Alleluia!

EDIT: This mod installs on EET, though I've not tested it thoroughly.

LavaDelVortel

This is kind of a experiment, I used AI to create areas, but had to fix them a bit, because it... well, added some really weird details. There is another mod I may create that way (maybe, it's already partially written, but I also feel a bit drained, I've been working much on mods lately), but there is also another one that has new art that wasn't created that way, but I need a moment to finish it...

And just to make it clear, generated stuff will never be as good as stuff created by people like Acifer if you don't know what I meant just check how great his areas are!

Brokenkatana

Amazing!

Caszidy

This is simply amazing! Looking forward to play this mod!

LavaDelVortel

Thank you!

Aerakar

Outstanding news! Thank you for helping to keep the game fresh, even after all of these years

Thrasymachus

ToB definitely could use more mods and this looks very interesting! Thanks for creating it!
I'll be sure to play though it when my character makes it to ToB.

PeterBazooka

Can I get a tip on where to find the person Juniper is looking for in Amkethran?

LavaDelVortel

Thrasymachus wrote: »

ToB definitely could use more mods and this looks very interesting! Thanks for creating it!
I'll be sure to play though it when my character makes it to ToB.

I kinda hope less people will resign from their runs once there will be more story mods for ToB

PeterBazooka wrote: »

Can I get a tip on where to find the person Juniper is looking for in Amkethran?

IIRC he should be somewhere here. Remember to take Juniper there with you

mled

LavaDelVortel wrote: »

I kinda hope less people will resign from their runs once there will be more story mods for ToB

That's... exactly me. Never got really far past the start of ToB.
Maybe this will grant me the required motivation

gorgonzola

LavaDelVortel wrote: »

Thank you for answering without spoiling for those that want a completely new not spoiled adventure, I really appreciate it.

gorgonzola

mled wrote: »

LavaDelVortel wrote: »

I kinda hope less people will resign from their runs once there will be more story mods for ToB

That's... exactly me. Never got really far past the start of ToB.
Maybe this will grant me the required motivation

Even if I like to play ToB as the high levels allow to try a lot of unusual tactics, with a versatile party you can really fight the same battle in so many completely different ways ( I often reload and fight the same battle many times each time self imposing some rules like ranged weapons only, no spell used, only spells used without physical attacks, soloing with each party member and on and over ) it is way too linear, you can only choose if you will go first for the dark elf or the lizard. To add new content for it adds a lot of value to that part of the saga, we have gazillions of quest mods for BG1/SoA and so few for ToB.

Endarire

After installing this mod on EET, I checked Amkethran and didn't find any in way to reach Juniper nor the area where she is. How to reach her with minimal spoilers?

Thankee!

LavaDelVortel

Erm, she's not supposed to be in Amkethran? The question above was about HER QUEST, not the initial meeting.

She may be found in the River Area, the one outside Saradush, standing next to the attacked merchant. It's best to talk to her once you visit that area for the first time.

Allbrother

LavaDelVortel wrote: »

This is kind of a experiment, I used AI to create areas, but had to fix them a bit, because it... well, added some really weird details. There is another mod I may create that way (maybe, it's already partially written, but I also feel a bit drained, I've been working much on mods lately), but there is also another one that has new art that wasn't created that way, but I need a moment to finish it...

And just to make it clear, generated stuff will never be as good as stuff created by people like Acifer if you don't know what I meant just check how great his areas are!

The area in the title screenshot looks great. Could you go into more detail on what you use and your process in general? Or maybe you'd consider publishing a full are creation tutorial? I'm not sure anything up to date is available.

TheWildestMage

LavaDelVortel wrote: »

This is kind of a experiment, I used AI to create areas

I'm not going to give you too much of a hard time, cause I understand the desire to have something to make modding easier and at least you're not profiting off of this (inevitably stolen) "art", but as someone with lots of artist friends I simply cannot support the normalization of AI "art", so I appreciate the disclaimer, but, if you continue to use it, I hope you'll add the it to the OP instead to make it more visible!

And, yeah, I downloaded the mod just to look at the areas in NearInfinity and they very much look AI-made, with very inconsistent art styles (the AI clearly stole from some 3D-modelled art at some points and from some painted stuff in others) and all.

I appreciate many of your other mods, but I'll have to give this one a skip, unfortunately!

gorgonzola

Talking of what is Art, what is "art" and what is simply a new area in a modded game without any claim to be an art masterpiece would be a long talk. To put some poop in a can can be art, that doesn't mean that all the canned poop is art and somehow stealing ideas or even more then ideas is one of the ways art works and has ever worked. Is it a problem if a Spanish painter used the work of an Italian one just adding moustaches to the face, was it stealing, was it not art but blatant thievery? I don't think so and if a modder that without personal profit uses some AI that "steals art" to make his work easier I don't see any ethics related problem (I still have to download and play the mod so I can not speak about the aesthetic result of the process).
You obviously are free to skip this mod, nothing wrong about it, but being myself an artist and having other artists as close friends I fail to see how Lava using an AI engine to create some new areas for his mod can be a problem, a theft of other people art or whatever. The AI engines will surely create art related problems, they are doing it right now, but this one IMHO is not a problem at all and no artist will be damaged in any way by it.

LavaDelVortel

The area in the title screenshot looks great. Could you go into more detail on what you use and your process in general? Or maybe you'd consider publishing a full are creation tutorial? I'm not sure anything up to date is available.

Not sure how to write a tutorial on that, I can say I used Midjourney + spent another few hours editing the images in GIMP. I wouldn't say there's much to add. Plus, as I said, I am already drained, and I don't feel like writing any tutorials right now.

I'm not going to give you too much of a hard time, cause I understand the desire to have something to make modding easier and at least you're not profiting off of this (inevitably stolen) "art", but as someone with lots of artist friends I simply cannot support the normalization of AI "art", so I appreciate the disclaimer, but, if you continue to use it, I hope you'll add the it to the OP instead to make it more visible!

And, yeah, I downloaded the mod just to look at the areas in NearInfinity and they very much look AI-made, with very inconsistent art styles (the AI clearly stole from some 3D-modelled art at some points and from some painted stuff in others) and all.

I appreciate many of your other mods, but I'll have to give this one a skip, unfortunately!

You're free to skip it. If I tried to hide it, I wouldn't add the information in the readme. I am actually glad you're going to stick to your own rules and beliefs.

What you get is content that is by a fan, for other fans. I am not profiting from this and even if AI wasn't an option, I wouldn't buy the areas / commission them, because I already spent 12 years on creating content for mod and I cannot now invest hundreds of dollars to get original art, so... that money wouldn't end up in artist's wallet. All I could afford was the soundset and yes, I actually paid for it so people could enjoy a voiced character instead a silent one.

Sure, some would say I am quick when it comes to creating mods, but working on them is like another job for me, even if it looks easy. And I am doing this without getting paid. I released over 60 mods over all those years (that's equal to releasing somewhat... ~15 books?) and I haven't got a single dollar. Instead, I paid as much as I could with my time, effort, and actual money to provide the best possible content for players to enjoy. But there is a limit to the resources I can invest in this.

BTW, some could actually argue, that when creating mods based on original BG art, I am also using other artist's work and none of these artists is being paid. And yes, it's using the existing resources for the same game, but so what? I am still copying and manipulating someone else's work and I use it to release my own stories etc. That's the problem with modding.

Rest assured, though, as I always include information regarding the authors and resources and actors and proofreaders in the readme. If you want to skip those mods that have anything to do with AI, do so. It's not like I get anything per download... I only pay for the servers to keep the mods available to people.

I wish I could offer you more, but - at least now - that is not an option.

That said, I am glad players can decide what they play and how they play and that selectivness is great, even though it will vary between users, because it's a matter of perception, beliefs, tastes, approaches and many other things.