Another Saturday night session!
After last week's session, the Heroes were itching to go, and after a bit of pizza, they dove in. This week's first quest:
Return to Grak's Fortress. Because they didn't kill Grak and the Wizard didn't get the Wizard's cloak, this needed to happen, and when they heard this was a homebrew quest, I heard them cringe. What horrors would they encounter?

Here you can see them investigating the hallway, searching for traps. Barbara the Barbarian already forged ahead, heading toward the center of the board.

Here they are turning a corner, after disarming a couple traps and heading towards the heart of the board. The great thing this week was that Oankh (W) and Carrie (E) took a lot more initiative with their lower hit points and went after a number of powerful monsters, like some fimir and Chaos Warriors. As you can see, Oankh (W) is leading the way, armed with her new Wand of Magic. Good for her!

In this photo, the meatshields pushed past the magic-wielding women and KSteel (D) has already dropped an Orc. Here, they prepare to storm into the room and take on the Orc and Fimir in lethal combat.

They took out the Orc, and all ganged up on the Fimir. If you compare the quest PDF I linked to in the beginning and compare it to the photo, you can see KSteel (D) standing where a trap was. I got so caught up in the fight, that I forgot about it. Whoops.

Here we see Oankh's player with the team's mascot, Boston, who really wanted to get in on the fight.
The Heroes slaughtered the Fimir, and then turned around to head to the center room where a few Orcs and a Fimir were plotting their next trade route attack. The Heroes took a number of rounds to kill the monsters, then continued past their old holding cell, into the room where their stolen equipment was once placed. They quickly dispatched the sleeping orc.

Here, however, they encountered a wandering Fimir, which they ended up doing several times in this quest. It really made them re-think searching for treasure, which was fun for me to see. Oankh (W) was quite masterful with her staff, taking down a monster each time she was able to connect.
After exploring the whole board, they couldn't find Grak. It became a room by room sweep, searching for secret doors, and eventually, they found themselves back in the rack room.

Here, they found the secret door, and Barbara quickly dispatched the hatchet-carrying Goblin, and the Heroes pressed on.

Here (a bit blurry, sorry), The Heroes found Grak and his guardians. Barbara stepped in and began to take out Orcs, eaving Grak for the others to dispatch. KSteel (D) charged in, going toe to toe wiht Grak, while Oankh (W) hit Grak with Tempest and Ball of Flame (for one point of damage). Carrie (E) fired her crossbow as well, taking Grak down lower in health. Soon, they had toppled their one-time captor and were able to leave with a Wizard's Cloak in hand.
The Heroes wanted to keep going (despite the Red Wings game now coming on TV), and they continued to Quest 9: Race Against Time.

The Heroes systematically went to each room to take out the monsters, then cambe back to this first room to find the secret door.

The Heroes dispatched the two goblins they encountered, but had quite the tussle with the Chaos Warrior, but soon he fell. They pressed on cautiously, encountering yet another Fimir from a bad Treasure search.

See?

The Heroes continued on, finding 200 gold, and then the secret door. They worked hard in cramped spaces to fight and kill the Chaos Warrior who was protecting the Elixir of Life. They grabbed that, backtracked, and ran right to the starway.
We're taking a week off, but soon enough, the Heroes will be back to fight against the Chaos forces once again.
Now, if you're wondering why the piece for Barbara changes, it's because Barbara's player has decided that Barbara is like the SNL character, Pat. You don't know their actual sex, so he changes the piece each quest.
