Redemption

BG2 Mod

Add-on to

ASCENSION

REDEMPTION v1.2

or get the

REDEMPTION v1.2 zip

if you don't like self-extaractable archives

v. 1.2

latest release

05/09, 2004

IF YOU LIKED THE REDEMPTION MOD PLEASE VISIT THE LONGER ROAD MOD WEBSITE AND DOWNLOAD THE MOD THAT ALLOWS YOU TO PLAY WITH JON IRENICUS AS A FULL TIME NPC FOR THE ENTIRE THRONE OF BHAAL EXPANSION - GET TO REDEEM OR FURTHER CORRUPT IRENICUS THROUGH A SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS AND EXCITING NEW QUEST, NEW NPC BANTERS, PORTRAITS AND ITEMS !

You have just been born with your gift same way as *she* was ... You did not earn it through a life of self-restraint and sacrifice. You did not spend decades in tedious research, striving to break the secrets of the nature of the universe. Some part of me hoped that we would fail to stop this Melissan, revolting though she was ... But no! I could not stand that pathetic nobody winning, after she dared threaten *me*!

Joneleth once was one of their favorite, most beloved children. Perhaps the greatest mage born to the Tel’Quessir since the fall of Myth Drannor. It upset the Gods greatly to see him reduced to a mindless instrument of pain, deteriorating slowly into a minor demon of the Abyss.

Below is the link to my new online novel about Joneleth Irenicus, that takes place after the end of this mod story. Basically it is Jon's extended epilogue. I suggest you read it after you have played the mod as it has some spoilers.

The Redemption mod changes the ending of the SoA - ToB once more, since it gives you the possibility to redeem your archnemesis - Jon Irenicus a fallen elven mage who once was one of the most talented and respected individuals among his people.

This mod was written and coded by me, Janetta A. Bogatchenko. So I guess all the blame is mine, both for the
content and the bugs that I was not able to find yet.

The Redemption mod is an addition to Ascension mod by Dave Gaidar and Co. I did not meddle much
with their excellent storyline, but added material that includes possible recruitment to PC's case and redemption of Jon Irenicus - the evil genius of the SoA. This gives your character an opportunity to revisit SoA plot, that on my opinion (and many others) was left incomplete. See the Spoilers section for more
details.

The mod itself took about a month to write (and a year to think about prior to it) and three months to code, as I was not very proficient with WEIDU, although I do have a strong programming background. As for my writing background - I have none save for 2 years of writing SoA based fanfictions. You can find some on my web page, if you are interested.

The whole storyline of this mod is summarized in its name, since it is all about Redemption of Jon Irenicus, the elven mage who wanted to become a God and doomed himself to eternity by committing a string of unforgivable crimes against both elven society and later many innocent people (your main character included).
Still, there were many discussions on the net about Jon, and the possibility of his redemption. I never liked him much, but one day Dave Gaidar suggested a topic in the Attic (if you are not familiar with the Attic - it is a messageboard for BG fans who write fanfiction that can be found at http://www.gamejag.com/Attic) that captured my imagination. The topic was as you can imagine - Irenicus and the history of his downfall. Sufficient to say that I wrote a lot of fiction about Jon before I came up with the idea for the mod. The text of Redemption was published in the Attic and amazingly - received many warm responses. I ended with ditching all my other responsibilities for three months and coding it into playable mod.

The mod gives you a chance upon entering the Throne of Blood to talk Irenicus into siding with you, playing on his sense of wounded pride by reminding him that Melissan goaded him into cooperation. After you defeat all possible and impossible enemies (including some appearances by your old foes) and right before you are to make a final choice about your Bhaal essence Jon will speak to you and request that you keep your word and petition the Seldarine for another trial for him. The result is rather unexpected, and very different from what he hoped for. But I am not going to disclose it here!

Another face (or rather two) to show suddenly in this addition is our old friend - the Prince of Demons. Demogorgon gives his little performance and asks you some to solve some logical riddles for him before engaging in yet another battle. It is possible to humiliate him without actual combat. The puzzles used in this part are shamelessly taken from the books by Raymond Smullyan (Satan, Cantor, and Infinity and The Riddle of Scheherazade), the Demogorgon dual personality is described in the latest Wizards edition of Book of Vile Darkness.

The Redemption is not playable without Ascension and I want to praise all the people who spent so much time and energy in creating it! It is a remarkable product, that enhanced my experience with SoA-ToB, to which this mod is but a humble addition.

Redemption mod should install properly over any other mods if you have both ToB and Ascension/WEIDU installed
prior to installing it. It will work fine with all common WEIDU mods (e.g., the Solaufein
Romance, the Kelsey Romance, the Tashia Romance, the Thief Stronghold, Items Upgrade etc.).

To INSTALL the mod extract the archived files from Redemption download into your
main BG II-SoA directory keeping the pathnames for all the files.

After you done this you shall have a new folder called ‘redemption’ in you BG
II-SoA main directory and the files called :

Run ‘Setup-Redemption.exe’ executable from your BGII-SoA folder and follow the
instructions in the DOS window.

To UNINSTALL the mod simply run the ‘Setup-Redemption.exe’ executable again and
select the ‘UNINSTALL’ option. You should be all set.

If you want to make sure you removed all traces of the mod from your system ,
delete all the contents of your ‘override’ folder and your dialog.tlk and
extract the archived versions of your files.

You can start the new ToB game with Ascension and Redemption installed or
continue from the save game ‘before’ you have entered the Throne of Bhaal

The 1.0.1 version fixes the game lock if Anomen is in the party without romance option.

The 1.0.2 version fixes the minor problem in the script file that caused the glitches with music in ToB. The Demogorgon dialog has Amelyssan's name spelled correctly now.

The Spanish translation is now available for Redemption mod and is included in v 1.1.0. Thanks to Clan DLAN and Immortality.

Other changes include spelling corrections of Amelyssan name and another small portion of Demogorgon dialog. See the README file for the details, and my thanks to the posters to the Redemption forum for pointing me these.

I would appreciate any input on the new version. If you encounter any new bugs - please let me know.

The 1.1.1 version fixes a major bug. I have to apologize to the player for having to download such a big file as Redemption zip and never actually hear the music that is responsible for 90% of the size.

I finally realized what ADD_MUSIC command in WEIDU does and what it does not. Now you should be able to hear the music in the Joneleth punishment scene.

It is the Rex Tremendae part of Mozart's Requiem by the way. I am really sorry it was not there before.

I strongly encourage everybody to get the latest version since 1.1.1 and above implemented a major bug fix.

The 1.1.2 version includes the French translation option, thanks to Jean Trouveroy 'the Cursed' and Nickolas Bard the 'Cocobard'.

Also it has a new feature - Jon's optonal new portrait for the Redemption part only! It is extracted from the Introduction movie for SoA. I think it looks better than the 'traditional' one. He is scarier on this new one.

The 1.1.3 version includes the German translation option, thanks to Maus and Dyara.

On July 25 I uploaded a new version of the 1.1.3 - it has no new features , just a minor bug fix in the tp2 file. This bug was a problem however for the german language installation.

The new download is fixed, however if you have the older one and don't want to re-download here is the quick fix:

0. Go to your main BG II SoA directory
1. Find and open the 'Setup-Redemption.tp2' file with any text editor.
The file is not in the 'redemption' folder - it is in your main dir.
2. Find the lines:

LANGUAGE ~Deutsche Sprache (sbersetzung durch Maus & Dyara)~
~german~
~ascension/german/redemption.tra~

LANGUAGE ~Deutsche Sprache (sbersetzung durch Maus & Dyara)~
~german~
~redemption/german/redemption.tra~