Lord Putidus v1.0.5
by Kelandon
Comments, criticisms, help by e-mail: tomwatts@berkeley.edu
Look for updates and other things by me at my home page: http://my.sanbrunocable.com/tomwatts/public_html/home.html
Like this scenario? Dislike it? Like some parts and don't like others? Rate it at the Lyceum's Comprehensive Scenario Rankings: http://p080.ezboard.com/fthelyceumfrm32.showMessage?topicID=28.topic

This is my second scenario for BoA. Have fun!

This scenario will work only with a BoA app that runs Scenario Format Version 2 (Mac v1.1, Windows v1.0, or better). Also, it has custom graphics. If you see a dialog pic in the first set of intro text, the custom graphics are working.

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*** BEFORE YOU PLAY (IMPORTANT) ***

THIS SCENARIO HAS A PRE-FABRICATED PARTY... sort of. I recommend (but certainly do not require) that for your first play-through, you create a new party for this scenario, changing only one thing from the default four characters: make Ssschah a human and change his graphic one forward (to the buff human wearing almost nothing). Feel free to customize the names as desired.

If this is too complicated for you, use the save file that is included. It is named PRE-FAB PARTY and is in this scenario's folder.

On a Mac, this scenario gives the party new graphics. In order for the graphics to work, you have to enter the scenario, save, go back to the main menu, and reload the save file. On Windows, you can accomplish the same thing by replacing the graphics in the BoA Data folder with the supplied bmps numbered higher than 600, but this is not required. Additionally, even on a Mac, I was unable to change the faces. You can do this yourself if you copy graphic 904 in darkness.cmg over to BoA Graphics, replacing graphic 904 in that file.

Be aware that you can use any party you want for this scenario, but it will be transformed significantly upon entry (and the PC graphics will work only if you use the graphics for the default characters, with the Ssschah exception mentioned above). The changes are printed as they occur when you enter the scenario.

I also recommend that, while you play, you listen to whatever music you may find haunting and beautiful. Your tastes may well vary from mine, so I will not make any recommendations, but I will only suggest that you be in a mood to deal with dark tragedy.

If you get stuck, there are hints at the end of this file. I don't anticipate players getting stuck much, though.

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PLOT NOTES

The plot of this scenario is drawn largely from external sources. I "borrowed" liberally from:

Livy's History of Rome for the Lucretia and Mucius Scaevola stories
Shakespeare's Hamlet and Othello (among other plays) and his The Rape of Lucrece
Marlowe's Dr. Faustus
Stoker's Dracula
Elrod's I, Strahd (yes, the Ravenloft book)

To begin to understand the ways that I've been re-working these texts without actually having to read them, I'll explain a bit here. More details are available in the Statement of Intent.

The basic story of The Darkness is a vampire story. My two major sources were the first part of Bram Stoker's Dracula (the Transylvania bit) and P. N. Elrod's I, Strahd. These are traditional vampire stories: a local lord in a remote area lives in a mysterious castle, is quite withdrawn, behaves somewhat strangely, and gets a visitor. Dracula gets a visitor who talks to him; Strahd's visitor reads Strahd's journal. Either way, the visitor gets inside the head of the vampire. The vampire is often heavily sexualized -- something about otherworldly power, I guess.

The two Lucretia stories I was working with were in Livy and in Shakespeare. Livy's Lucretia was the model of womanhood for all of ancient Rome, and Shakespeare's Lucretia very much reflects that. The basic story is that Collatinus makes a bet with several of his friends about whose wife is the most virtuous, and he wins because his wife, Lucretia, is currently at home spinning wool. Then, much later, the local Etruscan king, Tarquin, comes in and rapes Lucretia. When Collatinus finds out, she kills herself so as not to serve as an example to other women so that she might serve as an example to unchaste women.

Shakespeare does a very similar thing with this, where Lucretia is an absolute model of virtue and Tarquin is a monster, but he wrote his poem early in his career; I hear shades of future, more interesting women there, like Ophelia or Desdemona, and I think that if he had written the poem ten or fifteen years later, alongside the great tragedies, it would have been quite different. My handling of Lucretia was an attempt to do what I think Shakespeare would have done with Lucretia if he had written about her a decade later.

Mucius Scaevola also comes from Livy, but he is rather different there. When the Etruscans were attacking Rome, he attempted to assassinate the king, Porsena, and was caught. When he was threatened with execution by burning, he voluntarily thrust his right hand into the fire and burned it, saying as he did so that there were dozens of other assassins who were lined up to come after Porsena if he failed (a lie). He scared the Etruscans so much that they withdrew and let him go, even though he lost his right hand.

The Elizabethan dramas are not as necessary to be familiar with in terms of plot, although the language is very much drawn from there. More information on the relationship of those to the scenario is in the Statement of Intent.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Graphics:
Anything I describe as "adapted" was adapted by me, unless otherwise noted.

The dark walls, blue walls, red walls, and dark evil walls are by Luz. The last wallset is adapted from Nethergate.

The letter floor is by Bigblue. The cave floor is by Luz. The road floor is adapted from BoA's cave floor and road terrain. The other floors (orange tiles, black and whites) are by Luz.

The two Roman soldiers are adapted from Nethergate. The Putidus graphic (titled "Drizzt" by its creator) is by Kobold.

The remaining terrains, the four-post bed and the blue stairs, are by Luz.

The paintings are by ADoS.

The two remaining images, the demon dialogue pic and the sunset splash screen were Googled. (The sunset was lightly modified.) As far as I was able to find out, these images are not copyrighted. If anyone knows the contrary, please let me know, but I did make every effort to ascertain this.

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Other:
Thank you to my beta testers, who were:
Thuryl, who as always did my spellchecking :)
Pascal
Imban, who is the reason the towns have crime levels, you psycho :P
Buttered Toast
Hawk King
Adam "PoD person" Higuera
Wizcozski, who did the final proofing

Script attributions are in the scripts themselves.

Of course, thanks are due to the great writers who provided me with my source material, as I reference above. If you enjoy my scenario at all, you will probably enjoy their writings more.

And, last but not least, thank you to the BoA community, who have provided me with the tools I needed to make this scenario and with the motivation to finish it.

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HINTS (WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS KINDA)

Northern Ateria Outdoors: Don't wander far off the road unless you're ready for a big (BIG) fight. In general for combat, remember your javelin-throwers; pila are quite strong.

Southern Ateria Outdoors: It may be easier to start going towards Putidus first, stop off at the circle of rocks, then double back and do the sidequest in the forest to the west. Also, the mutant lizard can be skipped if you're careful.

Castle L2: Don't go too far out of your way to anger Putidus.

Prison: Sleep in the bed. Then a secret passage will open up.

Under the castle: Conserve your potions and healing equipment, but not too much; there's basically no more combat in this scenario once this dungeon is over. The password on the letter tiles is something that Putidus likes to hear -- read a book to the north to figure it out. Remember also the letters that the Latin alphabet of the 2nd century had.

Tower: Nothing you can say will save Lucretia, but her responses are packed with meaning. See what different things you can cause to happen.

Castle L2: To challenge Putidus effectively, you need Faustulus, or else you're going to get obliterated. To get Faustulus on your side, you need to know if Putidus has it in for him or not. To find out, go to Castle L1 and look into areas that you haven't reached yet. The choice is up to you what to tell him about what you find.

VERSION HISTORY

v1.0, 3/29/05: Initial release.
v1.0.1, 3/30/05: Some continuity: renamed the demons in Putidus's throne room and took out the J's and U's in the alphabet puzzle. Height fix in Castle L2. You can no longer leave the part under the castle without finishing burning the bodies.
v1.0.2, 4/2/05: Lucretia and Putidus now recline on couches in Lucretia's flashback. Submit to SW.
v1.0.3, 4/16/05: Having committed crimes now successfully kills you without doing other stupid things. Nethergate PC graphics added! The scenario restores your skills and spells at the end.
v1.0.4, 4/23/05: Wallset in Umbratium matches wallset in second Umbratium now. Pre-fab party actually included as described. A couple of other small things.
v1.0.5, : Purity check at Castle Putideum no longer bypassable, dammit. Pre-fab party honestly now included. Re-submit to SW.