Under the Night (a planned two-NPC Romance)

[Windfallen]

Hi everyone! My first post on these forums. ^o^ Posted this over on SHS forums, but wanted to get some feedback here as well. Love me some BG2 and BG2EE, and have been wanting to try to create a really fun NPC mod for BG2/ee. I'm been writing through several ideas of who I'd want to create and I finally hit upon something I. I love elaborate stories that go along with a character. I think I've finally come up with something interesting but I wanted to get feedback on it. I've decided to try my hand on two female NPCs, both with a romance in the same mod. I wanted to try something a little more adult and engaging then a traditional romance:

Both girls will have two quests in SoA and at least one quest in ToB:

Eaess'n (eya-sin) of House V'uloyve (v-yuu-low-v) is the voluptuous and stunning young daughter and the fifth born daughter of a House Matron in a minor house stationed in the Drow City of Guallidurth under Calimshan. She was known for her excess in the pleasure pits and intrigue in the Temple City of Lolth rather than her devotion to the Spider Goddess and she eventually had to be expelled for her lack of faith. Her tastes were considered unusual for drow in that they revolved around pleasure more than torture. She avoided torture and execution thanks to a well-placed tip and slipped out of the city, apparently on the run with nothing but the clothes on her back and the skills she had acquired. She has had to fend for herself quickly and eventually fell in with a small cult of Vhaeraun, the Drow Masked Lord. She found his teachings amongst intrigue and guile more appealing than Lolth's demanding strictures, despite the god's focus more on male drow, and so became a student of both his teachings in divine magic and made herself learned the ways of the sword from her fellow cultists. When she finally left their enclave to try her hand at adventuring she had gained enough skills to become a formidable opponent. She, perhaps foolhardedly, has very little fear of surfacers that generally comes with drow who embark to the surface, using her natural talents and charm to slip out of most situations, and divine power and strength of arms where charm will not work. There are many who say her demeanor towards nondrow is most strange and unbecoming of a former drow of her status.

Her closest friend in Athkatla, the wealthy and beautiful daughter of a wine merchant, Temmira Belgarth, is her gateway into the land of high intrigues with Athkatla's elite, where she runs rampant. She is romanceable with male and female PCS of any race or alignment; given her predilections to hedonism. She does however seem to prefer females and females will have an easier time with the romance.

She gets along with most NPCs given her open worldview, which will perplex or disgust many of the more stringent NPCS with gloriously entertaining dialogue but not drive them to want to kick her out (she's careful not just rub people the wrong way like Viconia). There will be a vicious feud if Viconia is in the party which could lead to bloodshed if the PC isn't careful. Not only is Viconia abhorrent of how non-drow Eaess'n acts, but she despises how much easier a time she's had since being on the surface just by her more casual demeanor. Strangely, Viconia has never heard of House V'uloyve.

Her stats, as planned so far:

She is a multiclass drow (elf) cleric (Vhaeraun)/fighter

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

STR: 12

DEX: 11

CON: 10

INT: 14

WIS: 17

CHA: 18

When asked about her past, EAESS'N smiles wrly and winks as you gaze upon her magnificent form. You could swear every moment in your company with her is another seduction. She speaks in vivid detail of her glorious days in the pleasure pits of Guallidurth and the webs of intrigue she spun so deep they struck the heart of the Spider Queen herself. She seems remarkably open about her past and quite non-condescencing for drow, and mentions how she came to Athkatla specifically because the layers of deception run high here and keep her interest for the moment.

----

Temmira Belgarth is the fetching young daughter of an overly wealthy and influential wine merchant who recently rose into the ranks of the city's nobility with careful bribes and favorable contacts. She has short (neck-length) fiery red hair, an upturned nose and piercing green eyes. A bit of a tomboy, she found herself wanting something more than just a favorable marriage to an idiot nobleman. Her father has other children, after all. So while she has become something of a black sheep for her wanderlust, she also has some powerful connections with the Council of Six, and through her connections was able to learn how to fight from the elite of the city guard. She began gaining some experience in local troubles with mercenaries and adventuring groups, but mostly enjoys the seedy mess of Athkatla proper and rooting out trouble.

Temmira met Eaess'n through one such run in with the Shadow Thieves over a shipment of black lotus that got "lost" in the slums. The two have been friends since.

Temmira is only romanceable with females, and is blind to race.

Temmira is a dual-class human cleric/fighter as well as Eaes'nn, but no one's really sure what god or goddess she worships...

Temmira's stats are:

Alignment: True neutral

STR: 12

DEX: 11

CON: 10

INT: 14

WIS: 17

CHA: 15

When asked about her past, TEMMIRA just chuckles with a whimsical, mischevious grin. She grew up in Athkatla with five siblings during which her father, an affluential wine merchant, had a meteoric rise to prestige. She says there are nobles of old blood who look down on her family because they have not been in the city for generations, but she really could care less about her family's status. She's out for herself and to have a good adventure, not sit in some lavish palace while people call her 'lady', allowing life to pass her by. She has some skill at divine magic, but doesn't seem to keen on mentioning from who...

Temmira also gets along well with just about all NPCS. She became an adventurer out of sheer boredom, so she has a very cavalier attitude about what happens along the way.

If you don't want to be spoiled on the mod, please don't read the below text~

Throughout the course of the mod you will find you can only take one person at a time, Eaess'n or Temmira. Also, despite being great friends, you never seem to see them at the same place at the same time. There is a reason Eaess'n acts so unusually uncondescending to surfacers and has a most nondrow attitude towards many surfacer things-- she is one. There is no Eaess'n of House V'uloyve or even a House V'uloyve...she is a fabrication. Eaess'n and Temmira are one in the same.

Temmira is who she says she is, a bored young human noble who went adventuring, but she's not telling you the entire truth. She also is a highly devout member of a very secretive mystery cult to Vhaeraun. (her patron god) To explain to those who don't know, first described in third edition Deities & Demigods, a mystery cult is a sect of a religion, usually surrounding one god, who believed in secret mystical rituals, stories or esoteric truths that would lead to salvation. Demeter and Dionysius in the Greek religion and Thoth in the Egyptian religion had similar real-life cults.

Temmira is deeply involved in a mystery cult surrounding the drow god Vhaeraun, which was started in Amn by a Crinti from Dambrath (a half-drow born of the union of the priestesses of Lolth who rule the country and the followers of Loviatar Lady of Pain). This cult was designed to actually cater to the rich and powerful human elite of various cities who see the drow as this exotic, forbidden culture and seek to experience the lifestyle, or at least their idealized version of it. The cult leader, a powerful mage, actually designed exotic lifelike face masks of drow that when worn can actually transform the wearer into a drow, thus allowing the members of the cult "experience the drow form" through these masks, helping them develop "personas" for their facades . In Temmira's case, that facade is Eaess'n, thus the overly done proportions. It is the cult leader's hope that by training the nobles in clerical magic and increasing their loyalty to the cult he can spread his teachings across Faerun's social elite and strength Vhaeraun's power.

When the PC eventually figures out what is going on, Temmira will have the mask as a permanent item in her inventory that will allow her to change back and forth between her human forms and drow form. She is VERY about being in character, and will always act of the personality of who she is portraying. She is even willing to do things as a drow that she isn't as a human, such as romance a male character, because being Eaess'n makes her feel more free and open.

 

So that's the basic idea. I want to do at least a couple of quests each for SoA and ToB (both BG2ee), I want to have a LOT more banter and interjections than standard PCs (but give an option to turn it on or off depending on if people don't like chatty NPCs), ToB ending, etc. The mod is going to be quite a bit more adult and in-depth than a standard BG2 npc because the interactions are going to be deeper. I want to give something special for longtime fans

I really want to go all out here. I'm interested in getting a voice actress for both Eaess'n and Temmira , and am trying to get 3 custom portraits done from Isandir as well. Have a lot of dialogue already written.

That's it so far; just wanted to get a feel about what people think^^

[lynx]

nice set up.

[Windfallen]

Sorry this posted 3 times. ><. I'm trying to delete the other two posts but I'm having difficulty. I deleted all the text on them.

[Almateria]

Those stats are really bad

Like bad enough that Temmie could literally never dual-class into a fighter.

What's up with terribly-statted npcs anyway

[Windfallen]

Roger so I need to tweak the stats.~ Thanks flr the feedback. Strength and Con higher? Also what do you think of fhe concept?

[InKal]

1) She is a multiclass drow (elf) cleric (Vhaeraun)/fighter

STR: 12

DEX: 11

CON: 10

INT: 14

WIS: 17

CHA: 18

nahh

STR: 17

DEX: 19

CON: 16

INT: 14

WIS: 16

CHA: 12

/94 total/

o-o-o-overpowered? well...considering the stats protag usually has - not really. fitting and natural for a minor house brat becomes independent strong woman? imo, yes.

ofcourse cleric can use Crom Feyr. with that meta in mind:

STR: 11 or 8 or even 3 whatever

DEX: 19

CON: 16

INT: 14

WIS: 16

CHA: 12

2) Temmira is a dual-class human cleric/fighter as well as Eaes'nn, but no one's really sure what god or goddess she worships...

Temmira's stats are:

STR: 12

DEX: 11

CON: 10

INT: 14

WIS: 17

CHA: 15

 

non-humans cannot dual-class. ;]

 

should be more like this imo:

fighter 9/cleric ......

 

STR: 17

DEX: 19

CON: 16

INT: 12

WIS: 16

CHA: 10

 

consider to make her fighter/thief or even single class assassin. you have two npc and both are clerics. that is just wrong. ;]

 

imo, Eaess'n (shoul be simple Essin, imo) is shrugging off all that drow "executions, murder, maim, maim...." a little too easily. You want your npc to be a little more deep? just look at Viccy - she's tormented by all this drow stuff. I'm not just telling you "make a sorry ass copy of Viconia" more like make this "Her tastes were considered unusual for drow in that they revolved around pleasure more than torture. She avoided torture and execution thanks to a well-placed tip and slipped out of the city, apparently on the run with nothing but the clothes on her back and the skills she had acquired. She has had to fend for herself quickly" a fundament for her character and built and develop her further from that. which is probably what you are planning form the start anyway...well...sorry....I can't speak english.... ;]

"There will be a vicious feud if Viconia is in the party which could lead to bloodshed if the PC isn't careful." hehe, very nice. make this also a romance conflict. some ruckus with Annoyingman and Hair Dallas also would be nice.

[Windfallen]

 

consider to make her fighter/thief or even single class assassin. you have two npc and both are clerics. that is just wrong. ;]

 

Well it's actually a little more complicated then that which explains the similar class sets. You should probably read the spoilers section to understand that one.

 

imo, Eaess'n (shoul be simple Essin, imo) is shrugging off all that drow "executions, murder, maim, maim...." a little too easily. You want your npc to be a little more deep? just look at Viccy - she's tormented by all this drow stuff. I'm not just telling you "make a sorry ass copy of Viconia" more like make this "Her tastes were considered unusual for drow in that they revolved around pleasure more than torture. She avoided torture and execution thanks to a well-placed tip and slipped out of the city, apparently on the run with nothing but the clothes on her back and the skills she had acquired. She has had to fend for herself quickly" a fundament for her character and built and develop her further from that. which is probably what you are planning form the start anyway...well...sorry....I can't speak english.... ;]

"There will be a vicious feud if Viconia is in the party which could lead to bloodshed if the PC isn't careful." hehe, very nice. make this also a romance conflict. some ruckus with Annoyingman and Hair Dallas also would be nice.

 

Again, there's a complicated reason for the fact Eaess'n doesn't talk all tortured about of the darker side of the drow and is so over the top--again, read the spoilers.

 

[Sister Vigilante]

Y'know, I like it, but

 

won't it be difficult to make sure they never show up in the same place at the same time? And if you go to lengths to make sure they don't, won't the player catch on fairly quickly? I mean, you could have some excuse as to why only one of them can be in the party, but if you wanted to switch, the other one couldn't show up at the appointed meeting place until you had kicked the first one out of the party, seen her leave, and presumably waited a bit so that she could change her outfit. Not to be mean, but it reminded me of this:

 

 

I think it would make more sense to stick with one character and have the other one "appear" as an NPC in her quests.

 

[Windfallen]

 

Thank you for the feedback! Yeah you're right I do need a better way of keeping the mystery alive the change without completely tipping off the player.

That being said I do still want two romances. What I think I'll do is kind of a mix of what you said--whoever you recruit, you can only recruit one of the two (and maybe the option to recruit the other will disappear), and the other 'persona' of Temmira/Eaess'n will only appear as an NPC for the until the reveal. So in essence, it will be a different experience for the player depending on who they chose to initially take with them.

In the case of Temmira, though, I did want to emphasize it's not multiple personality disorder. It's not one personality taking over. It's absolute devotion to portraying a character. Temmira's involvement in the cult has her believe portraying Eaess'n is akin to almost a religion experience and thus has absolute obsession over playing the character, reacting, and thinking like the character would.

Also, the fun of the duality of the character isn't the entire core of the mod is about. In fact, I will probably do the reveal about halfway through the game because the real meat of the story comes AFTER you find out the truth. Depending on which NPC you picked first, if you romanced them, and how you react to the revelation of her secret will all be factors in how the romance progresses.

I want to create an item in Temmira's inventory once the reveal is done that allows her to switch back between the character Eaess'n and her real self. It will allow for some real dynamics for a fun story, like if you encourage her to be her character more or if you prefer her to be herself and find herself that way which will influencewhich version of her you end up with (or don't) and her link to her strange religion.

I'm not going to make this a black and white religion, either. While the cult is dedicated to Vhaeraun, the Crinti who runs it isn't inherently evil, and nor is his sect, strange and mystical as it is. He's catering to a very specific section of society who craves more out of life and wants to spread it. Temmira's devotion to the cult has actually given her more confidence and want more out of life. So in a world where gods are a dime a dozen and are as human as men, is it necessarily the just thing to tell someone their religious beliefs are wrong just because they're strange?

On the other hand, is it right for someone to feel more alive as a person they're not rather then themselves?

I don't want there to be easy answers to these questions. That's part of the fun of the mod.