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Faction Expansion: Tortoises

This mod aims to considerably expand the tortoises faction by reducing sprite reuse, adding new creatures, new butcherable loot as well as a new location and its bespoke quest line starting in the Six Day Stilt. Installing it, you have a chance to:

• Marvel at gigantic saltback tortoises;
  
• Get sprayed with freezing gas by an angry shaile turtle;
  
• Find the mythical resting place of elder saltbacks;
  
• Get your hand frozen by petting a cute baby shaile;
  
• Fall into an Issachari ambush;
  
• Harvest fruits off the back of a walking garden.

You will find below a non-exhaustive list of the mod's features.

The shaile is a whole new creature featuring a new mutation. A swimming tortoise (a turtle, really), able to generate freezing gas, it makes its home in the rivers and lakes of Qud. Unless you've brought cold resistance, you're in for an uphill battle.
As they reach their old age, great saltbacks, now called walking dunes, leave for a great pilgrimage across the Moghra'yi desert. These colossal, placid giants are also far more mentally resilient than their young peers.
In the deep jungles of Qud, one may come across verdant domes, placid tortoises covered in teeming plantlife ready to be harvested by keen travelers.
Fashioned to resemble a tortoise, this garbage-gathering robot is equipped with a weak pulsed magnet, ensuring it gathers littered scrap for easy disposal.

Ortolo is a tiny shaile hatchling that can fight alongside you. Coming in contact with him (which usually happens by petting him) drastically lowers your temperature, potentially freezing you. He comes with his own recallable story.

• The tortoise shield, butchered from an irritable tortoise, equivalent to a carbide shield;
  
• The saltback pavise, butchered from a great saltback, bridging the gap between carbide and fullerite shields;
  
• The shaile scale cloak, butchered from the new creature shaile, providing significant insulation;
  
• The verdant sallet, butchered from a verdant dome, a resilient helmet that blends perfectly in foliage;
  
• The honorary shell, a resilient back equipment obtained as a potential quest reward from siding with Warden Qoruda;
  
• The saltback culverin, a vibro single-shot rifle obtained as a potential quest reward from siding with Cracks-the-Saltback-Shell;
  
• The saltback magnum, a vibro revolver obtained as a potential quest reward from siding with Cracks-the-Saltback-Shell.

In order to avoid sprite reuse, great saltbacks no longer use a recolored irritable tortoise sprite, and have been given a unique sprite befitting their gigantic nature.

Heading to the Six Day Stilt you may encounter an Issachari "pariah" named Cracks-the-Saltback-Shell. Play your cards right and she will task you with finding the elusive Saltback Graveyard, where the walking dunes, elder saltbacks, come to spend their final days.

In addition to things listed above, the mod makes use of many new conversation parts, allowing display of checkable attributes, skills and mutations as well as dynamic faction reputation modification in dialogue. An ambush system has also been set in place and is easily adaptable by other modders.

For more information about the new creatures and items as well as a detailed quest walkthrough, please refer to the pinned discussions below.