Ye Olde Inn

Hey I have been reviewing this questbook, and I have some questions . I don't know if I shared it properly, let me know if it can be seen.



So it says that Melar summons the abominations, but I am not sure what abominations they are talking about, is there a certain amount of abominations other than the one in the room? Then it says he summons orcs, so I'm wondering if they mistakenly wrote abominations instead of orcs.

Another thing I noticed is on page 18 in the break between quests, it says the bearer of the talisman knows two Dread spells, but it does not mention when he gained the firestorm spell. Do you all think after killing the with the firestorm spell

Kurgan wrote:If I forgot to say it, welcome to the forums!

Agree to disagree, but by this point in the campaign the hero players have been exposed to both Treasure chests and Treasure chests with traps on them. There's literally no point in putting a trap on an adjacent square like this even to (teach them a lesson somehow). I'd say the same thing about other instances of this issue like in BQP or the other Stephen Baker quest in which it appears.

Looking at the original version shows me the original intention and that the glitch occurred in the translation process from EU to NA format. The original "B" (which is shaped like a big circle resembling a hole) was in the exact spot where they put the pit trap in the new version. The means of damage the trap uses is not identified (usually its explicitly stated, ex: poison gas, needle, etc). So I can image the writer thinking they were going to update it and just goofed up (maybe were working late and planned to come back to it but never did before it was printed). Human error. Even if they just wanted to make it easier by removing the trap, they still should have noted what was in the chest.

Thanks! I would have to look into the EU version to really understand because I am only familiar with the American version since I was a kid.

santiagov94 wrote:Hey I have been reviewing this questbook, and I have some questions . I don't know if I shared it properly, let me know if it can be seen.



So it says that Melar summons the abominations, but I am not sure what abominations they are talking about, is there a certain amount of abominations other than the one in the room? Then it says he summons orcs, so I'm wondering if they mistakenly wrote abominations instead of orcs.

Another thing I noticed is on page 18 in the break between quests, it says the bearer of the talisman knows two Dread spells, but it does not mention when he gained the firestorm spell. Do you all think after killing the with the firestorm spell

I think a misprint. It states it's the room he summons abominations then the text to read to the heroes repeats that, sorry of.

Melor is himself in abomination form and I think the scene is supposed to be the heroes opening the door just as Melor finished summoning the abomination. Melor then cast the summon orcs before fleeing

santiagov94 wrote:

Kurgan wrote:If I forgot to say it, welcome to the forums!

Agree to disagree, but by this point in the campaign the hero players have been exposed to both Treasure chests and Treasure chests with traps on them. There's literally no point in putting a trap on an adjacent square like this even to (teach them a lesson somehow). I'd say the same thing about other instances of this issue like in BQP or the other Stephen Baker quest in which it appears.

Looking at the original version shows me the original intention and that the glitch occurred in the translation process from EU to NA format. The original "B" (which is shaped like a big circle resembling a hole) was in the exact spot where they put the pit trap in the new version. The means of damage the trap uses is not identified (usually its explicitly stated, ex: poison gas, needle, etc). So I can image the writer thinking they were going to update it and just goofed up (maybe were working late and planned to come back to it but never did before it was printed). Human error. Even if they just wanted to make it easier by removing the trap, they still should have noted what was in the chest.

Thanks! I would have to look into the EU version to really understand because I am only familiar with the American version since I was a kid.

It's okay and honestly all the times I played it as a kid I'm sure I was playing as a hero, so I never would have even noticed the oddity. Enter the room, search three times, then leave. Follow the link I posted, it's interesting comparing versions. I was going through the EU edition of the Game System to see and it seems there was no pattern of putting traps adjacent to the chests in that version either... this error seems to have crept into the NA versions somehow. Searching for treasure gives you what's in the chest (and triggers any furniture traps that haven't already been disarmed) but it doesn't trigger any other traps in the room... those are only triggered by stepping on those squares.

santiagov94 wrote:Hey I have been reviewing this questbook, and I have some questions . I don't know if I shared it properly, let me know if it can be seen.



So it says that Melar summons the abominations, but I am not sure what abominations they are talking about, is there a certain amount of abominations other than the one in the room? Then it says he summons orcs, so I'm wondering if they mistakenly wrote abominations instead of orcs.

Well, it is quite confusing, yes... but I have not too clear that this may be a misprint. In the center room there are two abominations, one in the lower left corner and another one in the square marked X, which represents Melar so, in fact, according to the quest map and quest notes there are more than one abomination in the room, so I think the overall quest texts are coherent, Melar is creating an army, probably mainly of orcs by summoning them, but at the same time he is also creating abominations to fill the gaps of such army since he needs many of them to host his spirit somewhere (he is able to host an abomination body only for a limited period of time so he needs several of those creatures). It seems that he can easily summon orcs by means of a standard Summon Orcs spell (it can be deduced from previous quests according to the Talisman effects in the bearer), but in the other hand, creating abominations seems to be more difficult for him since he needs a special place for that, such as a room with a table/rack, an altar, etc. as shown in the center room... but in any case he is able to summon both type of creatures at the same time in that place, so why not?

santiagov94 wrote:Another thing I noticed is on page 18 in the break between quests, it says the bearer of the talisman knows two Dread spells, but it does not mention when he gained the firestorm spell. Do you all think after killing the with the firestorm spell

Well, again I am not sure if we could consider it an error since before that, in the same page it is said that 'Melar's power continues to grow' so it affects to the Talisman bearer and, in fact this could mean that he can now cast more dread spells like the Firestorm. In my opinion it is not an errata but it is true that it should had been explained in more detail like the lightning bolt spell in quest #4 Note D.


Anyway, your two points are good and interesting catchs, I think those questbook texts should had not been so confusing.

Ah so it's just saying STORYWISE "he's summoning abominations" as opposed to saying this is a new spell he has that should include placing new monsters (like Summon Orcs does but for Abominations). I could IMAGINE such a spell... "Summon Abominations" (where you do the same thing but substitute those figures instead of Orcs... after all, you have plenty of the figures if you have Mythic, since you have Kellar's Keep).

Kurgan wrote:Ah so it's just saying STORYWISE "he's summoning abominations" as opposed to saying this is a new spell he has that should include placing new monsters (like Summon Orcs does but for Abominations). I could IMAGINE such a spell... "Summon Abominations" (where you do the same thing but substitute those figures instead of Orcs... after all, you have plenty of the figures if you have Mythic, since you have Kellar's Keep).

Yeah, that's another possible approach but the rules for such 'Summon Abominations' spell are nowhere explained... If the designer intention is assuming the 'Summon Abominations' spell as a 'Summon Orcs' one, Melar would be so overpowered I think... 'Summon Orcs' spell allows the caster to summon up to 6 orcs, if they were abominations instead of orcs you must add the abomination already in the room so you could potentially have there up to 7 abominations... Kellar's Keep + Game System sum up 6 abomination miniatures and the only Mythic questbook that assumes the Evil Wizard have a copy of Kellar's Keep is the COPD one... Remember that POT questpack could be separately sold in the future (not officially confirmed yet but such scene is possible by now)... I see this possibility too complex and too unbalanced to be true but of course, it is another possible approach, who knows...

santiagov94 wrote:Hey I have been reviewing this questbook, and I have some questions . I don't know if I shared it properly, let me know if it can be seen.

. . .

Try the URL tag instead.

SPOILERS:

List of Artifact Locations for this quest book:

Quest 1: Talisman of Lore (repeat from GS, if you don't have it already)
Quest 2: Rod of Telekinesis
Quest 8: Elixir of Life (repeat from GS, doesn't matter if you already have it!)
Quest 8: Spell Scroll: Rock Skin (repeat from KK)
Quest 11: Spell Scroll: Heal Body (repeat from KK/ROTWL, good for 3 uses)
Quest 11: Spell Scroll: Lightning Bolt (exists also in Crypt of Perpetual Darkness, good for 3 uses)
Quest 13: Spell Scroll: Water of Healing (good for 2 uses)
Quest 13: Ring of Fortitude: Reward for each hero for completing the final quest of this book

Note: Spell Scrolls including Tempest (KK), Ball of Flame (KK/ROTWL), Courage (KK/ROTWL), Fire of Wrath (KK/ROTWL), Sleep (KK) and Genie (KK) are mentioned
in the closing "Artifact Reference" but I'm not sure where you would find or use them in the quest. Presumably you'd use the "Dread" spell deck at various times.

SPOILERS

Note, Avalon Hill plans to re-release Prophecy of Telor as a retail product sometime in 2023, it is not yet known what if any changes will be made to it, but we can imagine that at the very least retail Game System owners will finally have an official location for some more of those artifacts (without having to pay scalper prices for the Mythic boxes that are still floating around online).

Prophecy of Telor Artifact Locations
Spirit Queen's Torment Artifact Locations
Crypt of Perpetual Darkness Artifact Locations

I will say that as time goes by (until I actually play it I won't know for sure but this is my feeling now) I become more and more convinced that Baker hit a home run on this one.

He seems to have really tried to pull out all the stops... probably thinking this might be his last chance to do an official quest set for the public. Tons of gimmicks, lots of room for imagination. And he seems to have taken to heart the common criticism of the NA version that the Wizard is "too weak" or "not fun to play" by giving him a pathway to be a really interesting character and leader. The difficulty seems to be there but not overwhelming, the Heroes get a lot of chances to come back from the brink so it won't be overwhelming. Heavy on the story-telling. Seems to have a lot going for it. The real difficulty of this series is making sure you can finish it all with the same gaming group because there's a lot to do in those 13 quests!

The more I look at the three, this really seems to be the brightest star of the trio, and I had my doubts after seeing "Rogar's Hall" (an exercise in frustration as many pointed out). So Kudos to Baker, I'd say he's "still got it." And I'm not just saying that because I pledged. At the time I had no proof that he was going to give us a good quest pack after three decades and for all I knew it was just going to be a celebrity endorsement of a generic or mediocre addition. Glad I was wrong! (errors notwithstanding of course)