THE CRYPT OF PERPETUAL DARKNESS discussion

[therealshrek]

straight from Wizards of Morcar, Crypt of the Necromancer.

This room is filled with a magical darkness. Any figure in the room other than skeletons, zombies, or mummies will attack and defend with 2 less dice than normal. No ranged attacks may be used at all.

Add this to the fact that in this quest the undead are all Elite with +1 att and +1 def dice, and it makes the room of Darkness a very deadly place.

[Kurgan]

Then again, how the darkness precisely works varies. After all, it's different from how darkness works (albeit with some vagueness) in the Forsaken Tunnels online quest.

[HispaZargon]

So interesting to see that exists similarities between WoM and TCOPD rules for magical darkness... anyway, about the found differences, we could assume that there are different types of magical darkness, so it is fine for me. At the same time, could also exit different grades of non-magical darkness too, depending if there is any minor light source in the room or it is fully dark.

Nevertheless, in my opinion the problem with TCOPD questbook text is that magical darkness rules seem to be quite vague, as previously mentioned.

[Daedalus]

Does it say figures inside a Pit of Darkness can't be seen though? I thought a figure on an adjacent square could still attack them...

Edit: Although the "Pit of Darkness" icons (introduced and described in Against the Ogre Horde) appear in Wizards of Morcar's quests, they aren't elaborated on. In ATOH these traps function like normal pits except that the damage taken by those who fall in varies with the type of Armor (or lack thereof) they are wearing, nothing more.

Quest 2 of WOM does mention magical darkness in a single room which affects monsters as well as heroes (but does NOT affect the undead figures)... they attack and defend with 2 less AND no ranged attacks are allowed in the darkness. I'm relying on Phoenix's versions here, but if I'm wrong based on the originals, please let me know.

The Pit of Darkness trap is from AtOH--that's right.

I wouldn't say a Hero at the bottom of a 30-foot deep pit is adjacent to a monster at the top edge; that discounts the vertical characteristic. The opening and closing wording has contradictions: works like a standard Pit trap except . . . then it goes on to list climbing out and jumping, which work the same as a pit trap. That's enough for me to think the except is actually weakened and the adjacent issue is open to interpretation, though others may disagree.

So my interpretation is cannot be seen, more from LoS. However, it is called a Pit of Darkness, not a Deep Pit. As a match for darkness, at least this trap has the name and blackened tile for it.

Quest 2 of WoM is another great example for comparison. My opinion is Quest 10 of CoPD wouldn't also hold to no visibility as its penalties are only temporary. We'll, if anything, only the first round would cause no visibility.

[Eudoxio]

Ive worked on some cards to compliment the Crypt quests, the 7 quest "bosses", 1 dread spell for Venim, 1 for the mouse (it appears 2 times on the quests), 1 for the finger with spell ring and 1 oil of acid immunity, also 1 for the Lightning bolt scroll.

https://imgur.com/a/4TsJ8Ge

Hope you like it

[Kurgan]

Thanks for that... and you're almost to Champion!

[Fullork345]

It could be but to me when you're dealing with a magical creature, all bets are off. It's a minotaur (strong) but it's undead (slow) but it's a skeleton (fast) but it's a giant (slow). It has a battle axe (strong) but the thing wielding it is weaker than a regular minotaur (unknown).*


*Unless the Lost Quest Packs have any data (as close to "official" as we may get!).

Lost quest packs as in dwarf and wizard?

[Kurgan]

Yes, sorry to be cryptic. But for awhile now, it's been known that one of the planned creatures in those packs was a Minotaur (pictures of a sketch and early sculpt have been shared on the forums). I haven't yet seen any stats for him...

[Fullork345]

Ah, so the guy in the other thread only got the quest pack booklet drafts?

[HispaZargon]

Hi. I think it is quite interesting how this questpack ends. If you read the Epilogue (spoilers ahead...) it talks about an evil obsidian tower in the distance... shown in dreams, which is linked in some way with the Crown of Shadows artifact. It is suggested such power should be destroyed... ok, what do you think about this finale? Attending to how the story of this questpack is told, probably such dark tower has not any relationship with any other known topic told in any remake's sold products but who knows, maybe somebody thought about creating in the future some extra quests continuing the story told in this questpack, like a second act. Moreover, what if such tower was the Zargon's himself one, probably named as Kaltrac according to classic HeroQuest lore??? Just speculating of course but this opened end activates the imagination