This is one massive Easter-time update that will fill your wicker basket full of eggs containing little surprises. Spare some time to munch on each one, and don’t forget to send positive and constructive feedback to the budding modification authors.

Dwarves in plain clothing
Paralyse your enemies by picking up Erephine’s next One Pixel Productions animation replacement, Female Dwarves. This cute little pack continues a graphics revolution that will bring a refreshing tear to your eye. And if that isn’t enough, add the in-progress Paperdolls modification, newly featuring the female dwarves’ tough partners in all their flashy apparel. Grab the action figurines here and the dolls here.

One Ring to rule them all
Lord of the Rings fame has made its away into the Forgotten Realms, and what better to introduce the most powerful yet dangerous of all items, The One Ring. But be cautious, you may be blinded with the lust for power that you may become a pawn in Sauron’s quest for domination. Or maybe not, there’s nothing in the readme that suggests it. Still, give it a try here, because it won’t burn if you throw it into the fireplace.

But if the One Ring isn’t enough to transform your world, the Shed offers you a bonus Lord of the Rings Item Pack. This older modification has been updated to version 1.03 with a bug fix and an Italian translation. Still, I’ll market it as a bonus. You can get it here.

Mods in a Shed
One may posit that there are enough modifications to fit into a backyard shed. Well, here are a few that come from the Shed itself. Dubbed ‘micro-mods’, Shed’s Mods features katanas, a lockbox, some funky spells, and novel items. Well, it might even classify as Pandora’s Shed. Discover the hiddden treasures here.

Sniffer dogs to catch those illegal drugs
Hmm, never thought that the Forgotten Realms ever needed customs, although I’m sure that weapons of mass destruction do exist and would propagate more freely than in this world. Nevertheless, Jarno Mikkola offers you Cerberus v0.99, featuring dog servants of the underworld available for hire to suit all your trap detection needs. Leave them a message here and they will reply shortly with a quote.

Old mods go new
The little modifications really are teetering around fanatically this fortnight. We have updates to Adventures in Papperland, Tortured Soul Quest, Blood of the Martyr, Jandor, Ghost, Bag Bonus, Jan’s Alchemy, Demon Summon Ritual, Domains of Dread, Heart of the Wood, Familiar Pack, and Fairy Dragon. Whoa, ain’t that a massive set of updates. These little gems you can find out more about here.

Worship Sune and embrace the fire of love...
with Adul’s implementation of the Heartwarder of Sune Cleric Kit modification. The kit is based upon the 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons prestige class, and certainly won’t disappoint you romantics! Read moe about it and download it from here.

Just a quick update on the spam situation on the forums--

As of now, any new members must make 5 posts before they are able to send or recieve PMs. This change only applies to members registered after the time of posting. Old and current members are not affected by this change.

I want to stress that SHS is no less secure than other websites and forums. Invision Power Board forums all over the web have had to deal with these bots.

Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

To find out more, check the topic here.

Sincerely,
SHS Administration

This is a spam account, and directs you to a singles website.

Thanks to everyone who sent me a PM about the problem; I’ve disabled the bot’s account. The best thing you can do is follow Bluenose’s good advice--just delete any messages from “mignulikz”, and if you clicked the link itself I’d recommend running a virus/spyware scan just to ensure you didn’t pick up any nasties.

I’ll inform our technical guru (SConrad) of the issue ASAP, and with any luck he’ll be able to do something more permanent about deleting the messages.

If anyone ever gets strange messages, please do let me know immediately, and I’ll suspend the account of the spammer. Once again, thank you to everyone who informed me about the problem!

A whisker before the beginning of the grand month of April, this superfluous introduction will promptly introduce you to a eclectic collection of budding modifications created enthusiastically by intriguing members of this antique modding community. Yes, ahem, that didn’t sound as good as I had hoped.

If relationships were numbers...
...then macholy’s Relationship modification version 1.5 will give you such a number. This neat little modification quantifies the relationship between the protagonist and any NPC. Simple, and simple. If only real life relationships could be summarised in just one number, numbers would be the talk of the world (as long as it is not about the Global Financial Crisis)! But until then, check the modification out here.

You know you want a Hackmaster +12
Interpret it any way you want, because that doesn’t stop Konalan’s Tweaks from including the new, mint-condition, straight-out-of-the-factory Hackmaster +12 © 2009 Konalan. Go here to place your order. Who knows, if you PM him, he might offer you a free set of steak knives… for chopping steak, of course.

...and my arxe!
See dwarves with a new sartorial eye with Erephine’s Dwarven female avatars. This One Pixel Productions addition proves just how a set of sexy paperdolls can shed light into the mysteries of the short folk. Check out this cool modification here, and no, the paperdolls are not obstructed by the crenellations at Helm’s Deep.

Lost and found
Yes, it seems that I neglected to announce a very subtly released modification last fortnight. This modification is BGSpawn, a spawn system modification for Baldur’s Gate Trilogy-WeiDU that presents a unique take on randomly spawning creatures in the Sword Coast. If you are looking for some surprises, this modification may well fill you plate. Get it here.

Like a bear awakening from hibernation, Shed returned to the modding scene and yawned! Then, after a cup of tea, he stuck around just long enough to release updates for The Jerry Zinger Show and Yikari!

The Jerry Zinger show allows the PC and his companions to view (and take part in) the live talk show of Jerry Zinger, well known Amnish celebrity! Shows are daily, and executed largely by cutscenes. The mod also features unique technology of adding a movie to the game! The Jerry Zinger Show features a brand new area, the studio, which can be accessed from the Den of Seven Vales. Jerry Zinger is voiced, and great care has gone into writing the juicy material!

The changes are as follows:

2009 - Version 2
* Added German Translation
* Updated Readme
* Moved position of hawker
* Some misspellings fixed
* Fixed a bug with Viconia’s dialogue in Episode 8

Yikari is a Lawful Neutral monk NPC for BGII. In Shadows of Amn, he can be found in the Temple District in Athkatla and may be be summoned by the Throne of Bhaal Fate Spirit. This mod provides good characters a roleplaying reason to get Celestial Fury. Yikari’s quest is to retrieve the sword, and return it to its rightful owner and location. Whether or not the player already has the sword at their first meeting affects Yikari’s equipment, biography, and dialogue, for Yikari has taken a vow of silence until he found has the sword.

Version 1.3 is the latest version, but is only available in English. But if you speak French, Italian or Russian, Version 1.2 is also available. The only change between Version 1.1 and Version 1.2 is the addition of the Italian and Russian languages.

The changes are as follows:

2009 - Version 1.3
* ToB compatible (Fate Spirit, Epilogue)
* Interjects in SoA
* Interjects with Kuroisan, the Acid Kensai (requires Tactics Mod)
* Yikari-only version of Celestial Fury upgradable with Item Upgrade Mod
* Two of Imoen’s banters moved to ToB
* SoA Yikari spawns at level 12 or 14; ToB Yikari is level 14
* Portraits, creature colours changed
* Wisdom reduced to 18
* Anomen’s banters removed
* SoA Yikari spawns at level 12 or 14; ToB Yikari is level 14
* French, Italian and Russian translations removed

2009 - Version 1.2
* Italian Translation Added
* Russian Translation Added

Related links:

• Download Yikari
• Yikari forum
• Yikari readme
• Download Jerry Zinger
• Jerry Zinger forum
• Yikari readme