I've got 9 exteriors built, but not decorated (YATT simply makes NWN2 building fast), and they cover the mid north west of this map.
I've just registered the domain anauroch.net for 12 months, created some boards and reserved some space. This cost $20. I love the internet.
The map above is from the Netheril Box set from years and years ago, but it fits perfectly with the new conception of Anauroch, and I'm creating a version that combines current features with this aesthetic masterpiece of a map.
I'm going to be aiming to go Live when Rick does with Silver Marches, and will build till then. I really do prefer to build alone, but if there is a DM who is interested in taking control of this region once built to a workable state, as Rick has done with TSM, please contact me so I can build features into the server that suit you.
Here are some preliminary screens of some area experiments I've been working on. I'll be posting more after my break this weekend, hopefully with a few more detailed screens of finished areas. These are all north east areas which are dominated by rock formations and, increasingly, bodies of water.
It's in the southern regions you'll find sand dunes, if that's what you're looking for.
The last two seem like a bit much... remember, they only started restoring the desert about a year ago (except refilling the new Shadow Sea), and the Chosen stopped it before it got too far. I don't have much experience in reversing magical lifedrained deserts but I'm guessing it'd take a bit longer to get rolling green hills and deciduous trees that look to be at least a couple decades old.
My other suggestion, depending on exactly where you are, is to grey up the ground a bit. At the north end it's almost more permafrost than desert. There's that long band of tundra from Ten Towns across the north/central Silver Marches and then down over northern Anauroch.
The colors are the experiment GF....so far I've only ever really used textures for color, but the green is just color. Ddn't realise how potent it could be.
My idea at this stage is to have the Shadovar playing with biological mosses...breeding a crawling mass of living organism that can spread rapidly. There won't be lush meadows of grass, but a much more unusual, almost artificial green-ness to their lands.
The northern regions is the Shadovar laboratory. Here they're setting up ther mosses and lichen, as well as settling their lakeside communities. Who knows how far their experiments will go. What is important to recognise for the campaign however, is that the Shadovar have taken responsibility for clearng out the more deadly elements of the Anauroch in those places they are 'civilising', ensuring a playground for low-level adventure.
I'd play around with making it funky-looking. Something to make it clear that it's not grass. Maybe mix in one of those greenish mud textures, there's one that looks sort of like peat that might give it the right effect. Can't remember which offhand though. And a couple areas where the experiments went horribly wrong would be pretty awesome.
Potentially dumb question (whether to Indio or anyone else who's in the know): what's ALFA's starting year (or at worst, starting canon) planned to be?
For those of us not reading a lot of novels or hoovering up sourcebooks, it'd be good to know if there's a timeline we're agreed upon, especially if there's these funny things like spellplague (?) to contend with, even in terms of backstories, and certain gods knocked off or hiding. Same info probably useful for both players (oops don't roll up a cleric of Mystra just yet!) and DMs/builders (sure you can build a giant canon temple of Selune... but she's hiding and not granting spells).
ALFA NWN2 PCs: Rhaggot of the Bruised-Eye, and Bamshogbo
ALFA NWN1 PC: Jacobim Foxmantle
ALFA NWN1 Dead PC: Jon Shieldjack
1374. None of the big events like Spellplagues or gods dying or any of that stuff has happened, that's 4E. The Silence of Lolth, the Shade War, and the Last Mythal stuff have happened.
Edit: To be clear, the canon Shade War, not the one in ALFA1.
Last edited by Grand Fromage on Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
If you intend playing through the module being released by WotC called Anauroch - Empire of Shade, don't read below.
Anauroch: The Empire of Shade offers PCs the opportunity
to a t las t conf ront the ambi t ious machina t ions of the Pr inces
of Shade, who have the power of Karsus himself within their
grasp. The PCs must sift through history to determine what
threat looms over the land, and then overcome the challenge
of trekking through a hostile environment without the com-
fort of the Weave and its magic to aid them. To stop the shades
from advancing their ambitions against the rest of the world,
the characters must penetrate the very heart of the Empire of
Shadow. Only by scattering the pages of the Nether Scrolls can
they put a halt to the Shadovar scheme and prevent Shar from
shattering magic forever.
Chapter 1: Windsong Tower. The characters explore the ruins
of Windsong Tower in ancient Myth Drannor and learn that
agents of the Shadovars were there very recently, searching for
information on the Dark Diviners, the Book of the Black, and
the Leaves of the One Night. The PCs discover that the shades
accidentally found a set of the Nether Scrolls, in the form of a
magic beech tree known as the Quess Ar Teranthvar, and took
it back to their ? oating city.
Chapter 2: The Crypt of Augathra the Mad. Following
some clues received by an ancient denizen of Windsong Tower,
the PCs set off in search of the last known resting place of the
famed seer who initially scribed the dark secrets of Shar’s magic.
They discover that Augathra has not died, but has existed as a
prisoner of the terrible phaerimms for many centuries. After
defeating the magic-eaters and speaking with Augathra, the PCs determine that they must ? nd the fabled Terraseer if they hope
to stop the shades.
Chapter 3: Research and Developments. After combing through
some of Faerûn’ s mos t complet e l ibrar ies, the PCs a t las t know
their next destination—the lost city of Oreme, a remnant of a
c i v i l i z a t i on in Ana ur oc h tha t p r e da t e s e v e n Ne the r i l . Kn owin g
they cannot brave the heat-scoured and magic-dead landscape of the
desert without proper equipment, the characters visit Biradoon, a
traveling caravan city that roams the fringes of the sandy wasteland.
Then they set out, seeking the hidden abode of the Terraseer.
Chapter 4: Beneath the White Towers. Next, the PCs must
defeat a terrible abomination that has taken the Terraseer pris-
oner, and then learn what is needed to put a stop to the shades’
scheme. Their success relies on an artifact that they must secure
from well-guarded vaults deep beneath the desert. After battling
the legendary thaluud, they at last have the tools to complete
their quest.
Chapter 5: Shadow Seashore. The characters’ ? nal confronta-
tion leads them into the very heart of shade territory. They must
? nd the Quess Ar Teranthvar and destroy it before the shades
can complete their ritual. If they succeed, it is a mixed blessing,
though, for the same act that scatters the pages of the Nether
Scrolls also destroys the last remnants of the Sharn Wall (see page
46), freeing the phaerimms completely.
This gives the all-clear for my intended campaign to unfold without any change, as this module had the potential to create some difficulty. However, it seems fairly inconsequential and points to how WotC will morph 3.5 FR to 4.0 FR.
