Rhenaya's Drow mod, updated for 47.05, also changed up quite a bit
"Oh, welcome, detective. I've been expecting you." the grand matriarch's daughter said, looking down at her guest from the gazebo in the royal garden. "I trust that my servant explained why I called you here?"
The detective attempted to get closer to the princess, ideally sit in the gazebo with her, but a huge bear-like quaggoth blocked her way. It had always been obvious that this wouldn't be a meeting between equals, but this was an exceptionally bad start to a conversation. The detective was not deterred by this, however. "Yes, I was told that you had an offer for me," she said, after which she added "with good pay up front, and a mountain of gold as a bonus for finishing the job."
"First of all, a mountain of gold is an overstatement, an exaggeration; I said piles, not mountain, and my servant must have got carried away. Don't worry, I'll have his tongue cut off for warping my words. But that is true, I do need assistance with a certain problem. You see, I have a reason to believe that someone in the mining district is harboring a monster."
"A monster? Fighting monsters is not my speciality, but I can find the accomplice."
The noblewoman nodded with a smile of satisfaction of her face. "That's all I ask for. My mother would not be happy if I borrowed her personal guard and had them shake up the homes of every single pleb in that district. Imagine if they hadn't found the monster, what would they think of me then?"
"Forgive my boldness, but you seem to be awfuly concerned with how people perceive you."
"And you sure are perceptive, detective." The princess' tone was playfully mischievous, but anyone with some experience with drow nobility would only be more concerned by that. "I'll be honest with you here - I need your services exactly for this reason. I have three sisters, and my mother is going to have an unfortunate accident with deadly outcome in the nearest future. I'm well liked enough, although there's always room for improvements, like saving filthy peasants from monsters. When you can't force them to support you through force, just make them love you enough for them to crawl into your web. Spill the beans and you're dead, by the way. About the monster, It's been reported to be a monstrous chimaera of a drow and a..."
"Oh, I know this one! A drow and a..."
"That's right, a drow and a scorpion."
"Say what?"
-1 new playable entity - the drow, of course! Dark elves hailing from underground cities, driven to evil by their spiteful nature!
-3 whole underground entities - drow outcasts; driders, the monstrous spider-drow; scorrow, the terrifying half-scorpions!
-Pets galore! Hairy spiders, monstrous spiders, sword spiders, deep rothe, cavvekans, riding lizards, pack lizards, spitting crawlers!
-Quaggoths - giant crackhead ewoks ready to die for their masters!
-Wild beasts! Rothe of surface and ghost variety, just so the deep rothe don't feel lonely!
-Crops! Fire lichen (wine and spice), blue lichen (wine and dye), stringy lichen (cloth), cave barley (cheap beer, flour), cave sugar beet (rum, sugar, syrup), cave strawberry (wine, syrup), poison cup (dye, deadly extract), deep juniper (valuable gin)!
-Drow equipment! Mail coif, mail gloves, bandana, tiara, circlet, war skirt, panties, parrying swords, rapier, quarterstaff, lance hand crossbow, and two famous magical items - the piwafwi cloak, and the dreaded scourge of fangs!
-metals and alloys! Mithril and mithril steel (mithril + lead), darklight iron (lead + pitchblende +flux), and titanium, nickel titanium (titanium + nickel) and titanalloy (titanium + aluminium)!
Dwarves should be wary of the drow - the dark elves may not be larger than an average goblin, but their weapons and armor are made of materials that surpass iron in many ways. Additionally, they have the ability to cast faerie fire that makes the enemy easier to hit (though the effect isn't as great as in the original mod).
Driders and scorrow use metal armor and weapons when encountered as a tribal group, otherwise they are naked. Even an unarmed and unarmored drider or scorrow can take many lives before (and after) it's struck down - other than natural skills on par with werebeasts, both monsters possess deadly venom and, in the case of the scorrow, massive pincers. One of the greatest dangers posed by driders is the way they come into existence...
Also some fixes to some issues that Mediterraneo never addressed or noticed.
Rhenaya's Drow mod has been one of my favorites since the time when I was compiling a modpack that ended with a big fort that I shared on this here forum, and it was all fine and dandy, BUT... Playing as the drow, I've noticed certain little things that bothered me, like the faerie fire being too strong, too little variation in names, unnecessary items, etc.
What has actually been changed?
General:
-Changed file naming scheme;
-Changed many tokens so they end with authors' signatures instead of beginning with them;
Mammals:
-Consolidated rothe and cavvekans into a single file;
-Tweaked the sizes of various rothe species;
-Gave rothe trade capacity;
-Gave rothe cheeses distinct names;
-Gave cavvekans some natural combat skills;
Reptiles:
-Remade pack lizards almost completely - they are now lazy, sluggish creatures useful for carrying large amounts of trade goods and pulling wagons. Also made them capable of whipping with their tails;
-Lowered riding lizards' size, but greatly increased speed;
-Nerfed spitting crawlers' acid. Only pain is guaranteed now, and necrosis happens rarely;
-Changed descriptions somewhat so they're less awkward;
Fungi
-Removed shrieker altogether;
Spiders:
-Made sword spider trainable and rideable;
-Renamed sword spider attacks;
-Gave all spiders eight eyes;
-Made sword spider talons tougher and sharper (I think);
-Changed hairy spider venom somewhat;
-Changed the colors of both kinds of drowspiders;
-Made monstrous spiders unrideable;
-Made monstrous spider way smaller, yet much more expensive;
-Added a curse to all spider materials;
Drow themselves:
-Changed body sizes and baby/child ages to those of regular elves;
-Made drow immortal again;
-Removed natural skills in favor of skill learn rates;
-Added petting interaction;
-Nerfed faerie fire SEVERELY, and I mean BIG TIME;
Quaggoths:
-Cleaned up the file;
-Added some more fur colors;
-Made quaggoths a bit more violent;
-Added petting interaction;
Driders:
-Lowered frequency and cluster size;
-Added albino castes;
-Changed the curse so that genders match up, or at least I hope so;
-Added the petting interaction;
Scorrow (NEW!):
-Added scorrow and an associated curse;
Metals:
-Renamed mithralsteel to mithril steel;
-Renamed nitinol to nickel titanium;
Plants:
-Renamed white lichen to stringy lichen for clarity;
-Added deep juniper and drow gin;
Items:
-Removed or renamed "drow X" items;
-Added a special piece of clothing that has always been missing;
-Made the rapier stab deeper;
-Changed the "pair of katars" into a single "katar";
-Rebalanced the scourge of fangs;
Entity:
-Removed High Matriarch;
-Brought back the Dungeon Mistress complete with the espionage role;
-Ungendered some gendered positions;
-Made drow style their hair;
-Reduced the number of land holder positions from 5 to 3, because it can't be more than 3;
What happens next?
Hell if I know. So far my own additions were minimal, and I pretty much did everything I wanted to see done. I could just keep fixing bugs that people report and update once the new DF is out, or I could keep adding monsters from Underdark. Maybe bonus modules for duergars and svirfneblins? I'll think about it.
Where's the graphics?
I don't deal in graphics, have no understanding of it whatsoever, and even if I understood it all, I'm artistically impaired. No idea if whatever was packed in Mediterraneo's version was up to date either, but probably not. If the mod is to get some tiles done, someone would have to do everything for me, and I can't just ask someone to do it for me. That means no graphics anytime soon.
The mod was originally made by Rhenaya, later picked up by Mediterraneo who kept it up to date.
If you ever offered your help or feedback to either of them, you have my deepest thanks too.
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Topic: [47.05] Rhenaya's Drow - unofficial branch (Read 4547 times)