For this week’s post, we’d like to draw attention to several pieces of artwork by our wonderful painter, Bence, or Benmonor. Bence is always ready to create multiple iterations of environmental paintings, filling Xeryn with awe-inspiring art. Here we have included a few of his works that quietly made it into the game’s main campaign.

Having deployed Old Acquaintances’ first hotfix, the team at Lost Pilgrims Studio has moved on to our next project: the regional DLC. The beginning of this process is iterative and requires intense coordination; it begins with the design phase, planning locations, and an overarching narrative. We need to understand what unique gameplay elements the DLC will bring to the table, which narrative beats we want to focus on, and finally, which characters or NPCs will drive that narrative.

The time is finally nigh: we have a release date for Old Acquaintances and a fresh release trailer to boot!

The DLC will drop on the 12th of June, 2024, and those of you who have already played the ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ scenario will surely recall the identities of the two returning companions. For those who do not, the man by the campfire is Javek, a remarkable telepath and sorcerer with unique abilities, while the bony hand that pushes through the black sands of Arenas Negras belongs to Sedarias, a Knight of the Black Sun and defender of the Empire.

Hey everyone,

We haven’t released a new build since way back in February, so we have got a slew of changes to discuss. While the changes are wide-ranging and significant, we’ve broken down each batch into easily digestible sections, the first of which is the Outpost and its coming update. For those of you looking for an abridged breakdown of what we’ve been working on you may simply scroll down to the patch notes.

Today we are sharing some of our newest art related to the upcoming DLC: Old Acquaintances. We’ll not tarry here with wasteful words, dear reader, take a look for yourself.

The Outpost feature has been on our minds for a long time but with all the other pressing matters – namely, our new DLC and the related coding –, it kept getting pushed down our priority list. In the end, however, we were able to dedicate a week to making improvements, focusing on adding clarity and showing more information to players. Please note that these changes are actively being worked on and will first come to the Steam Public Beta branch. Later, after being thoroughly playtested, they will go live on the default branches on all platforms.

This week we’re getting down to brass tacks: our first upcoming DLC this year and the Companions therein. Development is coming along smoothly, and we thought we’d share the highlights by delving into some details – without giving much away this early.

On the tip of the Molten Tongue lies the Imperial city of Avernum behind its ash- and soot-covered walls of bone and dark stone. The many forges and furnaces here toil relentlessly, belching foul smoke day and night under the watchful gaze of the Prefectus, who commands his black-hearted Avernus Legion from the imposing Slagfort. Many comitati, merchants, and grifters flock to Avernum in the hopes of finding trade, rest or work; often, only cruelty and dark deals await them in this corrupt city under burning skies.

Following on from last week’s post about music, this week we’d like to take a look at a place that is often no stranger to both ambiance and music: a tavern. We commissioned the new tavern art last year to diversify the many inns and watering holes of the game world. A combination of complementary hues, subtle lights, and peculiar ornaments make up this painting by Péter Kovács, which is used in a variety of locations in Vagrus’s major expansion, Sunfire and Moonshadow.

The Noxious Lakes are sizable bodies of green, phosphorescent fluid near Kadaath that emit poisonous gasses. When one allows their gaze to scan the landscape, large objects are visible farther away, jutting out of the surface of the lakes. What could they be? Piles of scrap metal? Remnants of ancient buildings? Perhaps a wreckage of sorts? And more importantly; what treasures could they hold? Is it worth risking one's hide to find out? Definitely hard to tell at first glance. Either way, venturing into the suffocating fumes and acidic ponds without adequate means to survive would be ill-advised and foolhardy at the very least, suicidal even.