Going to play HQ this weekend.

[cynthialee]

It has been awhile since we had a chance to play HQ but it is on this weekend.
I will run them through an off the cuff run to search for three things. I will try and use most of the board.
All bad guys will be Champion level, which in my games translates to Defends on White Shields. The place will be crawling with green skins and the occasional Mercenary. The end boss will be well armed and ready to rumble with a few chaos spells to back his play. As the bad guys are also exploring the dungeon and do not control it, they can open doors. Wandering monsters will be a patrol of 3 orks.

1) The Scepter of the Kings of Drui is reported to have been potentially found in a nearby dungeon. The enemies of the Empire have gotten wind of the Relic and have entered the dungeon to find the scepter.
2) The leader of the enemy cohort is the notorious bandit Kelgarth of Helmsmar, who is reputed to be in possession of the Artifact known as the Spirit Blade. Slay him.
3) Recover the Spirit Blade. {Next mission of course is to slay Undead...use this sword as the lead in for a continuance of the story.}

Scepter of the Kings of Drui
This heavy scepter is crafted of solid silver and embellished with gold and gems. It may be used as an impromptu Mace that provides 2 dice.
The scepter has a Healing spell, usable 3 times per dungeon. When invoked the wielder may heal themselves or another hero 1D6 Body Points and 1D6 Mind points.
The value of the scepter is immeasurable. It is a relic from a long gone kingdom. The scions of the kings of Drui eventually became the Emperors of the Empire, so the scepter has allot of sentimental value for the Imperial family. Now if one was to melt it down for its silver weight and extract the gems for sale on the black market it would fetch about 1000 gold coins.

The Scepter will be found in the tomb of King Harold the 35th, the last of the kings of Drui. After his death and internment in his tomb, the chief sorcerer of the Kingdom tuned the kings corpse into a powerful mummy. This mummy conforms to the stats for a standard mummy except for in movement and defending. King Harold has a move of 8! King Harold defends on all shields. Of course they won't find the tomb until they have explored the entire map and double check for secret doors.

The heroes will be rewarded 200 Gold coins for each surviving Hero on the return of the scepter.
The return of the Spirit Blade will net the Hero turning it over to the Emperors armorer 200 gold.
The hero who slays Kelgarth will receive 100 gold coins.
If the heroes complete all three tasks they will be gifted a bonus of 50 gold coins each.
All other treasures found in the dungeon are the property of the heroes who discover it.

Kelgarth will have the same stats as a Merc. He will have with him the Spirit Blade, but it is not his weapon of choice. His primary weapons will be Battle Axe and cross bow. The Spirit Blade is just a status symbol to him. He will also have a handful of Chaos spells gifted to him by the Evil One.
With him will be 2 Fimir. One of the Fimir will also be a chaos caster with a rust spell X2.

The game will be tough so they will have extra gear issued to meet the challenge.
To make it a little more fun they will each have a choice of pulling one card from the Powerful Artifact deck, or three pulls from the low power artifact deck. I have of course put together a large deck of Artifacts from the entire game system. Some I had on hand, a bunch I printed off on business cards. Anyways the big deck has all the powerful stuff (minus the Spirit Blade of course) and the lessor deck is loaded with allot of scroll spells, a couple pairs of rabbit boots, an armband of healing, and a few anti venom quills. I will have only three heroes and they will be in deep doo-doo, they are going to need all the help they can get.
For the treasure deck I have added a number of weapons and armor with treasure deck back grounds. I figure that these items represent the weapons that the bad guys have with them. Also with a Fimir with 2 rust spells in the dungeon they will need extra weapons on hand.

There will not be many traps as I plan on keeping them tied up in combat. I figure that the tomb should be trapped.

Anyways...that's what I am cooking up in my head right now. I hope to throw this storyline down soon!

[Anderas]

Sounds like a great plan! I am interested in hearing the outcome, a small battle rep if you like.
Do you plan to make the quest actually loseable? So the Mercenary group possibly takes the scepter and runs away?

[cynthialee]

Yay we played!
They won, but it cost the Battle Mage his life.
They entered play with a Dark Elf, a Battle Mage, a Ranger and the Wizard as a henchman. They almost didn't survive due to not taking a strong warrior but they had enough magic and minor artifacts to make up for their troubles. The Battle Mage was killed by Kelgarth when he found him. It was the Battle mages fault for getting separated from the pack and not playing smart. The Wizard spent allot of time at the bottom of pit traps. LOL good stuff. Couldn't jump a pit to save his life.
They didn't find Kelgarth until after they slayed King Harold, so they didn't have the spirit blade to make the mummy fight a tad easier.

Good times. We had lots of laughs. Except my wife who was playing the Battle Mage. OK she had some good laughs. And after her Battle Mage died she just took over the Wizard.

[cynthialee]

I placed the entrance at the bottom right hand corner of the board. When they started play they could go north or west. Well the first hero in rolls crap and goes west, the second player rolls good and goes north. So they split the party into 2 groups of 2. Once they encountered my Champion level bad guys they realize what a bad plan that it is and eventually they regrouped. But it was too late for the Battle Mage...he never did make it back to the group.

The only way the could lose was to die and not get out. The bandits never found the tomb, they were not meant to. They were there just to have an excuse as to why a bunch of Chaos agents are in a dusty old tomb.

[QorDaq]

Sounds like a fun game... And the foreshadowing of the undead battles to come was not lost on me... I foresee some grueling mass Zombie mob encounters in the party's near future...*EFG*...

maj!

[cynthialee]

If they play again they will have to face a lich and his enclave of undead minions....
I am pretty sure they will take the barbarian and amazon next time. {Amazon card is in the forums player created content forum. She has move hit move as an ability so long as she isn't wearing a body armor.}
Not having any real combat heavies really impeded their game.

[cynthialee]

4 entered...one survived.
Funny story...We go through hours of dungeon and it is a complete snail crawl. Every monster they encounter is just rolling awesome, they are rolling crap, burning through all the heals they entered with and are living on lucky heal potion and scroll finds in the dungeon. Finally they make it to the final monster, the Lich Thandiss. I wake from my slumber and immediately cast a sleep spell on the Wizard. And that was the last thing I did. First hit comes from the Ranger using his cross bow, nails me for 3 of my 4 Body points. I roll 4 dice defend and I defend on all shields...I got this no problems. Yeah not so much, I rolled not a single shield.
Next up the Dwarf nails me with a Battle axe and rolls all skulls, I once again roll zero shields. I have 4 damn dice in my hand and each dice has a 50% chance to net a shield. You'd think I could roll some shields...not so much. Big Bad guy is dead in no time flat. So the heroes are informed they have 3 turns of movement to escape the dungeon before it all comes crumbling down on them. Both the barbarian and the wizard roll double 1's on the first movement roll. The Ranger rolls a 3! Dwarf nails it with a 12 on the first escape roll. They are running from the place and the dwarf makes it out on his last dice roll by one point. The Wizard ends one square away from the exit and the barbarian is 2 steps from the exist when it comes crashing down around them. The Ranger was way in the back dead meat and knowing it long ago.

I haven't had such a good time in years. We laughed and I giggled so hard at one point that I ended up in tears. Well they couldn't fight a Zombie to save their butts, and there was a moment when a Goblin was ruling the combat with base dice and it was too funny.

[cynthialee]

The Hive of Thandiss the Lich
For this quest the heroes must do a full frontal assault on the stronghold of the Lich Thandiss. Thandis is a powerful undead sorcerer who is in liege with the Evil One. The undead in this dungeon are very powerful and not as easily defeated as the typical types of undead. To assist you in your quest the Emperor will provide the heroes with a number of artifacts including the weapon known as the Spirit Blade. The entire mission will be to destroy Thandiss and as many of his minions as possible. However be aware that the hive has been magically rigged to fall into itself if Thandiss is killed, so the heroes will have a very short amount of time to evacuate the hive after the Lich is slain.
Randomly give the players one powerful artifact or three lesser artifacts per hero as per the players choice, and any henchmen will be provided with one lesser artifact. The Spirit Blade will be given to the party in addition to their artifacts.
All undead in this quest are superior versions of their normal types. All undead in this dungeon are at +2 to their movement so long as Thandiss is alive. Undead in this dungeon are considered “Champion” level and they all defend on White shields. All undead in this dungeon are Type 3, 4 and 5**, thus they have some amount of intelligence and will not act as mindless undead. All undead in this dungeon have +1 Body points. All Zombies in this dungeon attack with +1 dice. Once Thandiss is destroyed the undead will lose these bonuses.

Thandiss is a Necromancer and a Chaos sorcerer. He will have 12 total spells chosen from the Necromancy and Chaos decks. (Necromancy deck found on the Inn.)
Body: 4
Mind: 6
Attack: 4 If he succeeds in landing 4 Body points in a single attack the victim must roll Mind Points looking for a Black Shield or they become a Zombie.
Defend: 4 Defends on all Shields. Elite Level
Move: 7
The Guardians {The body guards of Thandiss}
Body: 3
Mind: 2 (Still immune to any form of mind attack. May be enslaved by more powerful undead with a contest of will initiated by the more advanced undead. Both parties roll their Mind in combat dice and the undead that rolls more Skulls wins. If it is the greater undead that wins the contest the lesser undead becomes a minion.)
Move: 8
Attack: 3
Defend: 2 Elite {Defends on all shields.}
Each Guardian will have a gemmed necklace on them that is worth 200 gold coins. However anyone who dons the necklace will become a type 4 zombie.
Wandering Monsters are a pair of Orc Champions who are inspecting the dungeon and Thandiss’s preparations. These champions will be wearing helmets (+1 defend) and be under the effects of a Strength Spell for the duration of the quest which translates to +1 Attack. This wandering monster encounter can only happen one time. After this encounter any subsequent wandering monsters will be a mummy.
There are few traps in this dungeon; most will be pit traps that are obvious and thus placed on the map when rooms and corridors are ‘discovered’. A few arrow traps will be discovered when they near the final sepulcher where the Lich resides.

Post Game Report:
The all monsters are champions rule for this dungeon was brutal. The heroes did survive the monsters by the skin of their teeth but it cost them every heal and scroll they had to get to Thandiss. By the time they met Thandiss I had decided to lower the danger of the final challenge and removed his body gaurds from the room. Turns out it was a bad choice. The entire game session the heroes who were loaded with artifacts and gear, they struggled to make it through. They had some serious advantages but the monsters ground them to a pulp. The smart thing for them to have done was to leave the room with all the small crypts once they made their first big score. It was obvious the Lich was not there. Now allot of this was the heroes doing…they did not have to open every coffin they found in the tomb, but Amber was playing the Dwarf and she played him like he had a bad case of gold fever. Every coffin had a nice treasure or two and a couple had downright troves of scrolls, gold and potions, but they would use up the mystic resources in the next couple of fights against mummies and zombies. The exit was perfectly placed in regards to the final challenge. Although only 1 hero made it out in time, there was sufficient amount of time to get to the exit provided the heroes got average movement rolls. The fact that 3 of the heroes rolled bum rolls for movement two times in a row is not my fault. The fact Ambers Dwarf made it out of the dungeon with an awesome roll, one bum roll and an average roll demonstrates the challenge was fair. If the heroes would have had an average roll of 5-7 points per roll they would have made it out alive.

The system I am using perhaps needs to have Luck incorporated. The bad movement rolls, combined with the Genie rolling zero skulls twice in the night demonstrate the need for such a mechanic.
I figure if incorporated then the following rules should keep it balanced:
All Heroes enter play with 1 Luck re-roll per game session.
If a Hero rolls a critical with 4 or more dice they gain a Luck point.
Luck Points may not exceed 3 points.
Cleric style heroes enter play with 2 Base Luck Points.
Dark Heroes, such as Dark Elves, Anti Paladins and Thieves have no luck points at game start, but may gain up to 2 Luck points.
Luck resets to base between games so that heroes always enter the Dungeon with their Base Luck score.
Magic Items that are ‘lucky’ should not exceed 1 Luck Point per item regardless of power level.
The EWP may award an additional Luck Point to the Heroes before the start of a game if the EWP has deemed the Quest will be so hard that it will require it. To make the mechanic work in storyline, inform the players that their Heroes have been blessed by the local Clergy prior to their departure.


Rules modifications in use for this game other than a serious equipment and artifact upgrade for the dungeon:
Traps are only discovered on a Mind Check rolling for a Black Shield to find them. The Dwarf rolls Mind +4 when searching for traps and secret doors.
Traps are jumped on a Body Check {Max, not current.} also looking for a Black Shield. This does hamstring the Mage, but the traps were all pit traps and I had a rule in effect that one could crawl into the pit and end their turn to avoid falling in, then they would spend their action next turn getting out of the pit. It did slow the mage down, but it wasn’t the end of things as the other heroes never left him too far behind.
When coffins were looted I rolled a D-6 number of treasure cards, ignoring all hazards and wandering monsters, as there was a guaranteed buffed undead dude in each coffin. The 2 ‘special’ coffins had powerful mummies in them and a nice collection of scrolls, potions and gold. Loot was given in a pile of cards they were not allowed to look at until the room was clear of monsters.
Each turn it came around to the EWP if there were no monsters on board I would roll one combat dice. If it came up a Black Shield I placed a random monster anywhere on the board that had been discovered. If I did not roll a Black Shield I would pull a random scroll spell that I could play on any future monsters I might have in play. You would think I would have a nice little pile of scroll spells to harass the heroes with, but I rolled so many Black Shields….I almost always had a monster in lay somewhere.
The Mercenary cards were printed off with monster card backs and were in the mix when I would pull for a random monster. If I pulled the Scout which I did twice, I would place him in a place where he had eyes on the heroes but as far as possible from them, then I would run him away from the heroes to the staircase. Once he got to the stairs he alerted compatriots and returned with reinforcements in two turns. The first time he came back with a Fimir with a Tempest Spell, the second time the scout returned with a pair of Orc Champions.


**Undead types refer to this post:
viewtopic.php?f=149&t=2998#p56035

[Anderas]

Would you mind posting the quest map?

[cynthialee]

Sorry, I should have taken a picture. For the Thandiss dungeon I used D&D Dungeon Tiles.
The main features of the dungeon were a pair of crypts with 8 coffins in them each. A sepulture where the Lich resides. A large room with a lightning elemental that needed to be dealt with was also one of their challenges. They did not find a full third of the dungeon I had mapped so those features and challenges are meaningless.

I will try and remember to take a picture of the end result map of tonight's game.

Here is what I have cooked up so far this morning for the game tonight:

The Return of Thandiss
Somehow Thandiss escaped his doom. The Emperors wisest advisors have considered the issue with great consternation and have determined that he survived due to trickery and deception. The undead you killed and thought was Thandiss was actually a powerful mummy that had been cosmetically altered with glamour magics to appear as Thandiss.
The Emperors spies have found the true lair of Thandiss due to a particularly gossipy dragon. Thandiss can be found in the ruins of the city Miltonberg, not far into enemy territory.
Beware, the Evil One has invested allot of effort and time into cultivating Thandiss so he has provided the Lich with a large number of Orcs. Their leader is a powerful Shaman and strong warrior.
Mentor gives each hero a small dagger. “The final blow landed on Thandiss must be with one of these daggers, or by fire magic. These weapons are enchanted in such a way that they will prove permanently fatal for those such as Thandiss.” {These daggers may roll two dice (one purple if you have them) against any Lich, Necromancer, Demon or other diabolical entity**. Against other targets these daggers are normal weapons. If the dagger inflicts a mortal blow on a diabolical entity/person then that entity/person may not be resurrected in any fashion.} He then looks to the spell casters and says “Dread the lure of the Evil One. He may tempt you with great power, it is a trap. Accept his powers at your peril, his price is your soul”. …
”Beware of Thandiss he has the protection of the Orc clans. This will not be an easy task. Go forth and complete this task for me, for the Emperor and for all those who would live free from the tyranny of the dead.”

The Lich will conform to all the stats of the original character of Thandiss in the story The Hive of the Lich Thandiss, excepting that he can only loose his last Body point if the blow comes from one of the Daggers provided by Mentor or by Fire Magic.
The stronghold will be manned by Orks, Fimir and Chaos Warriors. There will also be a number of non combatant NPC orc shaman apprentices who will flee and seek to report the Heroes to the local authorities. When this happens a pair of orcs will show up from the stairwell in 2 turns.
All enemies in this dungeon will have Champion status. {Defends on White Shields.}
All Fimir will be granted a single random Chaos spell.
All Chaos Warriors will be at +2 movement due to the lightweight nature of their Mythril Armor. This armor may be looted and returned for 500 gold coins per suit looted. The armor will not fit any heroes.


**Note: Any NPC that has any of the Chaos spells or necromancy spells is considered a Diabolical entity.