56 replies to this topic

[Big Poppa]

Does anyone have any more detailed info on the area other than what appears in the wiki?

The Friendly Arm Inn is a stone keep which houses the titular inn and is surrounded by an outer wall, which also protects the Temple of Wisdom (a shrine dedicated to Garl Glittergold), a handful of houses, and stables. With its location on the trade way between Baldur's Gate and the town of Beregost, the Friendly Arm is a safe haven for travellers.

The keep was once the stronghold to worshippers of Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, but the gnome Bentley Mirrorshade, his gnome wife Gellana and their adventuring party cleaned out the keep and Bentley is now the current proprietor of the inn, while Gellena is the head priestess in the temple of Garl Glittergold. At the Friendly Arm peace is secured by both the guards, who insist an leaving all weapons at the door and that wizards and priests tie one thumb to their belt, a practice which has spilled over to fighting Monks as well. The barmaids of the inn, who are said to be iron golems camouflaged as women by illusionary means, Also take care of the peace.

In times of war, Baldur's Gate can use the Arm as a staging ground for regiments of Flaming Fist mercenaries.

In the Baldur's Gate novelization the Inn is consistently and incorrectly referred to as the "Friendly Arms Inn".



I make the areas pretty much as I like but as with candlekeep, I like to include as much as I can to an area from it's description and then add my own touches.

Rich.

[Yovaneth]

I think this is about it for the canon description...

'The Friendly Arm

This walled hamlet located on the Coast Way several days north of Beregost consists of a stone keep (the inn) with stables, gardens, a horse pond, and caravan wagon sheds. It also features a few houses, a large meeting hall with a grand many-pillared entrance, and a temple to Garl Glittergold, chief god of the gnomes. The Friendly Arm was once the hold of an evil priest of Bhaal who was destroyed in undead form by a band of adventurers led by the gnome thief and illusionist Bentley Mirrorshade. Bentley set his comrades-atarms to work renovating the keep, and it soon opened as a fortified waystop on the Coast Way in territory often endangered by brigands and raiding bands of orcs, kobolds, bugbears, and even trolls. Though these perils have lessened somewhat since the Arm was founded, the safe, clean inn is still a favorite stop.

Places of Interest in the Friendly Arm:

Temples

The Temple of Wisdom

This low building has interior walls studded with gems and gold nuggets. Guarded by many illusions, it is a temple to Garl Glittergold, primary deity of the gnomes. Human worshipers, some of whom have dubbed the place the Shrine of the Short, are welcomed here.

Inns

The Friendly Arm

Inside the walls of the Friendly Arm, peace is maintained by a common agreement among guests that this be one of the rare neutral havens in the Realms, by the magic and adventuring help might Bentley can call on and by a rumor that some of the fetching human barmaids are really iron golems concealed by powerful illusions! I was unable to test this belief beyond learning at least one serving wench at the Arm has a grip like iron?before she threw me back out of the bedroom she was tidying! (Perhaps the inn was named after her. She did help me up out of the ruins of the hall table afterward.) The energetic, wise, and affable hosts of the Arm are Bentley and his wife Gellana, who presides over the temple. She wears a circlet of gems to signify her devotion to Garl Glittergold. The pair of them are kind, very perceptive, and could probably deal an Amnian merchant out of his last copper piece. The house they keep has large, airy rooms, and good, simple food. Everything is clean, cheerful, and uncrowded, unless there?s a meeting going on?for the Arm has become a favorite spot for business gatherings and neutral ground negotiations alike.'

Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast (c. WotC)

It looks like Bioware did a good job on this area externally, but IMHO the Bioware rooms (including the temple) do not really match the canon description. I guess your imagination is it again

-Y-

Edited by Yovaneth, 25 September 2008 - 02:51 AM.

[Big Poppa]

Cheers dude. Good info

[Big Poppa]

Early workings

[Sammi Somara]

Hm. It's a good start

[Kaeloree]

Big Poppa, you should detail the process you go through sometime in a tutorial That'd be really very useful--I might even bring out the guns... I used to do 3d modelling, I could always pick it up again.

[Big Poppa]

That sounds like a good idea. I couldn't give a tutorial on every step as I would be there forever. But I could give a step by step to at least give an idea of how to get it done without killing your comps memory.

Here's just a small part of the main drawbridge. Overkill as usual with my aging process and moss hehe. Really like doing that.

Edited by Big Poppa, 26 September 2008 - 05:46 AM.

[Big Poppa]

progression

[leahnkain]

The moss is a really nice touch.

[Big Poppa]

Yeah, I like it.
Since I'm typing here. Does anyone know if there is a web page or some kind of document listing all official dungeons or places of interest along the sword coast. As far as I can tell, places like durlag?s tower, or firewine bridge were created as some kinda module which described them and were added by the game makers. I can only find cities and towns etc marked on maps. If it wasn't for bg1, I wouldn't know about places like durlags, firewine, ulgoth's, peldvale and so on and so fourth because I have never really played pen and paper dnd.
Thx for any help
Rich.

[Big Poppa]

Added lots of stumps. Will add loose logs and fallen timber. Thoughts being that A, they used the wood to help construct the buildings and wall supports and B, It removed cover for potential attackers.

[Big Poppa]

Evidence that unfriendly beings are not welcome here.

[leahnkain]

Yeah, I like it.
Since I'm typing here. Does anyone know if there is a web page or some kind of document listing all official dungeons or places of interest along the sword coast. As far as I can tell, places like durlag?s tower, or firewine bridge were created as some kinda module which described them and were added by the game makers. I can only find cities and towns etc marked on maps. If it wasn't for bg1, I wouldn't know about places like durlags, firewine, ulgoth's, peldvale and so on and so fourth because I have never really played pen and paper dnd.
Thx for any help
Rich.

There is no real arae listing for the PnP modules. The older ones were randomly made and there is very little themes. If you are looking for anything, I can send you some old books to get you started.

[Big Poppa]

I have Volo's guide to the sword coast and the lands of intrigue name alot of places and give discriptions etc. Do you know of many more.
Cheers

[Kaeloree]

A few questions:

• How do you do the grass?
  
• You use 3DS and Photoshop, right? Any PS brushes you'd recommend?
  
• How do you make your textures? Any resources you'd recommend?

Cheers

[Big Poppa]

As you can see from the early shots. I use a basic grass bitmap. I later add additional grass to give it life. I do this as follows. I open up my area bitmap in Photoshop and then immediately clone it. On the clone, I use the fur pluggin on eyecandy 4000. I use a grass colour and a short length but high density coverage and apply this twice with 2 different seeds. Then I apply it a third time with with a low density coverage but a longer length. Those 3 applications cover the area real good. Then using the clone stamp tool on the cloned bitmap and clone the areas I want on to the original. doing this manually, I can go over the bottom edges of rocks, walls and anything else to give the height effect of grass.

I hope that made any sense to you.


When cloning, just use a soft round brush, about 40 to 60 in size. If you understood that but want me to go in to more dtail, just ask bro.

As for textures. There are millions of free resources out there but you can't beat the high quality packages from marlin, 3d total textures and dosch. Also, simbiont max from darktree is the very best texture tool and is invaluable. That tool is how IWD made those awsome snow covered rock textures and how I do the same but with grass, not snow.

www.3dlinks.com have links to free textures

Edited by Big Poppa, 28 September 2008 - 02:25 AM.

[Big Poppa]

[Jazhara7]

Yeah, I like it.
Since I'm typing here. Does anyone know if there is a web page or some kind of document listing all official dungeons or places of interest along the sword coast. As far as I can tell, places like durlag’s tower, or firewine bridge were created as some kinda module which described them and were added by the game makers. I can only find cities and towns etc marked on maps. If it wasn't for bg1, I wouldn't know about places like durlags, firewine, ulgoth's, peldvale and so on and so fourth because I have never really played pen and paper dnd.
Thx for any help
Rich.

There is no real arae listing for the PnP modules. The older ones were randomly made and there is very little themes. If you are looking for anything, I can send you some old books to get you started.

I have Volo's guide to the sword coast and the lands of intrigue name alot of places and give discriptions etc. Do you know of many more.
Cheers

I have Volo's guide to the sword coast and the lands of intrigue name alot of places and give discriptions etc. Do you know of many more.
Cheers

Well, there's Candlekeep, which has a lot of stuff. I think what might be of interest for you might be the Maps of Abeir Toril.

There's also the Map of Faerun that came in Dragon Magazine at one time. You can buy PDF back issues of that from Paizo.com, but I can tell you, the only thing on it for the area of BG 1 is Candlekeep, Nashkel, Baldur's Gate, Beregost, and Durlag's Tower (so it was probably official, and not just added by Bioware.). And Cloakwood, as well as the Wood of Sharp Teeth. It's a map showing a very large area of land, so that's really not a surprise, though.

Also, you might want to try and see what the Map-a-Week archive from the 3.5 Edition archives over at Wizards has to offer. Though I think these are not for specific areas, but rather as random maps for dungeons, and non-specific cities.

-

[Big Poppa]

Thx for the links

More progress. A little bit each day.

[Kaeloree]

Thanks, BP Will keep the tips in mind and see what I can do myself when I have a chance!

One other thing--how do you do the paths? In Photoshop, or...?