Ye Olde Inn

by **torilen** » Saturday February 13th, 2021 9:22pm

My son and two daughters - 11yo, 9yo, and 6yo - asked to play heroquest. Who am I to deny them?

We had already done the Trial, so it was on to Rescue of Sir Ragnar.
Started out a little slow. 9yo playing the elf wanted to do "some searching" in the room
with the stairs, letting everyone else get into the danger. 6yo, playing the barbarian,
ran off to the single room to the left of the board, with the trapped chest. Me, playing
the wizard, and 11yo, playing the dwarf, took on the goblins in the hallway around the
middle room, and the goblin to the far right of the board.

We all took on the orcs in the group of rooms. At one point, the barbarian rushes into
the room and tries to jump up on the table to attack the orc. She clipped the table
with her toes and fell flat on her face. The orc attack, swinging its morning star.
It slammed right next to her head, busting the table. We finish off the remaining
monsters while the dwarf heads into the next room, with the three monsters and the
other treasure chest.

As he busts the door open, the orc yells to his goblin minions "Git 'im, boys!". The dwarf
rushes in, however, and kills the orc, breaking him own right between the goblins. They look
from the dead orc to the dwarf.

The barbarian, as this is going on, has clambared back up to her feet on the table and does
a spinning down swing to the last orc in that room. Smashes through his head and crumples
it to the floor.

Back in the other room, the wizard rushes in to help friend dwarf and kills the goblin
further from the cabinet. Meanwhile, the other goblin is trying to pull the locked cabinet
open, to climb in and hide. The wizard kills him quickly enough.

All while this is happening, the elf had gone down the right hallway and busted in on
two orcs on her own. The wizard hears the elf shout for help and tells the dwarf to go
help her - this is when the wizard kills the goblin trying to get into the cabinet.

We all start searching for treasure, and while in the room with the table again, I have all
four of us pull our treasure cards together and THEN look. Three wandering monsters, and
the barbarian is hit with a trap arrow. What are the odds.

One orc runs up through the rooms, the other two take the hallway to the right. The wizard rushes off
to handle things and, as he passes through the doorway, his companions see ashes fall down over him
and swirl around, and his form shift into that of an orc. The barbarian smashes down the lone orc while
the wizard is in the other room.

**NOTE - Yes, I use a lot of homebrew spells and other things. This is one of my homebrew spells...Disguise
from the Ash spell group. It only lasts for six turns (the current Mind Points of the wizard).

"Come on, we've gotta take these intruders to the prison!" the wizard commands. "Okay" the two grunt.
The wizard winks at his friends, and grabs the dwarf. "We have to hurry, this won't last long." he whispers
into the dwarf's ear.

They make it to the first door to the prison area. The lead orc, with the elf in tow, tells the goblin
to unlock the door. The Wizard shouts "DO IT NOW!" and they all attack. The orcs are killed quickly and
the goblin huddles back in the corner. The elf asks if there is anything in the next room.
"Yesses. More of thems" it points to the dead orc on the floor. The elf kicks in the door and rushes the orc
catching it by surprise, but it was still ready (nice attack roll, but the orc still blocked).

The wizard, still as an orc (it had been four turns at this point, two left to go) snatches the goblin as he rushes into
the room. The elf asks "And in this next room?" The goblin nods, "more orcses". All companions nod to each other,
ready to go. The barbarian, smiling down at the goblin, offers a tuna sandwich. The goblin eats greedily and grunts,
"You feed, me with you." He rushes into the next room to fight with the barbarian. (The 6yo is loving this, of course)

The elf finds the secret door and rushes in, caught off guard by the firmir in the room. She quickly casts courage on
herself. The wizard catches sight of big ugly past the elf, reaches his staff in and taps her on the shoulder, blessing
her with a cloak of protection spell. Ashes rain down over the elf, swirl around, then sink into her skin.
(The elf now has +2 attack AND defense until no more monsters are in sight)

The elf, of course, handily dispatches the firmir and orc now. They open the door, shedding light into the pitch
black prison room. They find Ragnar's skeletal body hanging from chains on the wall. He lifts his head and manages
a creepy smile. "Thank the gods, I am saved" he says in a raspy voice.

Ah the follies of goofy kids playing goofily.

Yesterday, we ran through Quest Three...Lair of the Orc Warlord. Son is the dwarf, middle daughter is the elf, youngest daughter (six years old)
is the barbarian, and I am the wizard and Morcar. Near the beginning, a wandering monster was found while the elf and wizard were in a room.
It asked what happened...with all the dead bodies lying around...and they managed to shoo it off a bit for that. But then it saw a goblin dead,
and the goblin owed it money. Elf pointed out the wizard as the killer - which he was not - and then she stood by for a few turns while the
wizard fended the orc off. GOOD TIMES!

Later, the wizard used a sleep spell on another orc. Again, it was the elf and wizard left in the room together (the 6yo with the barbarian was
a little crazy and liked to just run into rooms without anyone else). The elf decides to drag the orc into the other room while it is asleep, and
plans to shut it in. The wizard tells her it is not a good idea. Says he wouldn't do that. She does it any way. As she gets the orc halfway through
the doorway, it breaks the spell and wakes up. It grabs her ankle, knocks her down, and starts dragging her back. It climbs on top and tries to
eat her face (it rolled a skull for the "eat" attack, but the elf fended it off). The wizard just stood and shook his head for a couple of turns.
Then he finally smacks the orc on the back of the head and kills it.

Aside from the dwarf running off like a yellow-bellied chicken at one point, that was the major highlight of the game.

Oh, and numerous heroes ended up in holes, for some reason. A few hazards and the pit trap at the end, near the chest.

We're looking at quest 4 today - Prince Magnus' Gold - or at least tomorrow if we don't get to it today. We'll see how that goes... ... ...

by **Thantos** » Tuesday June 8th, 2021 10:08am

Loving the creative RPing your kids are already mastering

Sounds like your gang are a bunch of little characters!
Good luck with Magnus' gold! I wonder if they will keep it for themselves...

by **torilen** » Tuesday June 8th, 2021 3:13pm

I will have figure out what to do with them if they do. There's been talk here about that - I like the idea of them
becoming outlaws if they try to keep it...but that sort of kills the rest of the quests in the name of the Empire.
I only have a couple of homemade sides quests that they could do at that point.

Maybe make up a special quest they would have to do to get back into the Prince's good graces, a "we're sorry
we stole your money...this is our penence" quest. :lol: