It started small: a reskin of the Polish Lisowczycy. Then I found a hidden animation for a wheellock pistol draw. Then I learned to tweak the particle effects for cannon smoke. Within six months, I had created a sub-mod called "Fire and Sword: The Clockwork Legion."
"Von Teuffel's Last Key has been added to your inventory."
The first comment was: "Crash on startup. Fix your pathfinding, moron." mount and blade with fire and sword mod
I was no different.
So I built one.
The second: "This is the greatest thing since the flintlock. The Iron Priest just oneshot a Tatar warlord."
If the player captured a specific village near Kyiv and had Von Teuffel in their party, the game would trigger a cutscene. The Iron Priest would announce that the Clockwork Legion had "perfected the volatile agent." A small box would appear in the player's inventory: "Von Teuffel's Last Key." It started small: a reskin of the Polish Lisowczycy
The mod was dead. Long live the mod.