I made this Horn for the Armory - Now what should it do?

[gootchute]

I was thinking of something similar to Deadalus in terms of attracting monsters, but took a page from The Rescue of Sir Ragnar.

War Horn
??? gold coins

This war horn may be blown at any time. All heroes in the same room/corridor or line of sight to the blower gain +1 attack and defend dice until the end of the game round. Zargom/Morcar may immediately reveal and open as many doors as he likes and place the contents of those rooms. May only be used once per Quest.

Powerful temporary boost in combat with potentially disastrous alerting of the entire dungeon, b/c ya know, horns have no place underground

[Sjeng]

Surely the call of a horn would alert the local monsters:

Horn
250 gold coins
Search For Treasure

Blowing this horn attracts a Wandering
Monster. After it is killed, you may search
its corpse. Draw one Treasure Card. May
only be used once per room.

EU version: "May only be used once per room or corridor."

I'd never pay for an artefact that attracts wandering monsters, and then risk another one with the treasure deck...

[knightkrawler]

That's a huge bug, yeah.

[Patroclus]

Very good image GimmeYerGold, and I’ve found some very good ideas in this thread… The horns or drums, or else the musicians in WH world are giving bonus to win a combat or hold a fleeing unit. And many of us may have some musician figures, so it’s better to considering this to make a generic rule for heroes and monsters alike.

I like the idea of gootchute, for triggering special events to open doors of other rooms. For a monster musician this could be a very good reason to act as the king in a chess game. If in a room were a wizard and a musician who could open other doors to bring reinforcements, as a player I wouldn’t know who to choose for my first target, and this is good. But opening as many doors as he liked in his first round could cause a big mess. I thing a rolling of 6 in a 6-sided dice could work better. So, for every round he could try to open doors, and every turn he could open only one door, so as long as he is staying alive it’s the worst for the players.

This rule can work for Heroes too, so the Heroes must have a good reason to use a musical instrument in a dungeon. I believe the basic ability for the musical instruments is to take effect in a whole room or corridor, but this should not be a rule. Sometimes a bard could play a tune for a specific Hero when he has to do a task, as the barbarian trying to make a critical hit to an Ork boss, or a Hero to jump a pitfall… So, each time a horn is played, the tune generates 1d3 of re-rolls that lasts for a full round, to use it for the attack or keep it for the defense in Zargon’s turn. This could make dialogs like this “I think I could make it! Spend your turn to blow the horn”. Of course, there could be more types of horns, as a horn of group healing, or a horn of war, etc, but this could work better as artifacts and not items you can find in common shops.

Also, it is a good opportunity to add the bard class in HQ. I think a good reason to choose a bard is to remove the effect of letting Zargon to open doors. Because a bard could handle the instrument very well, and can play fine tunes slowly without raising any alarm.

I have to mention, that as in WH, the musicians have also a weapon and can fight normally as all the others. The horn can be hanged from the neck or on the belt, and they hold it only when they want to use it.

[Daedalus]

Surely the call of a horn would alert the local monsters:

Horn
250 gold coins

Search For Treasure

Blowing this horn attracts a Wandering
Monster. After it is killed, you may search
its corpse. Draw one Treasure Card. May
only be used once per room.

EU version: "May only be used once per room or corridor"

I'd never pay for an artefact that attracts wandering monsters, and then risk another one with the treasure deck...

I wouldn't use the horn until after achieving the Quest objective to lessen the cost of dying. Used this way, the horn only costs surplus Body Points as Wandering Monsters score attacks. Those Body Points are converted into more treasure deck pulls, with less need of exploring more rooms containing more monsters. I figure unexplored rooms often contain a greater threat than a single Wandering Monster, so its a safer bet using the horn to get those same treasure deck pulls. If used tactically, the horn can be blown from a corner while surrounded by other Heroes. That's three attacks to kill the Wandering Monster before it can attack back. This provides much better odds than most fights in a room.

The drawback as I see it is it encourages lengthening the game after the climax. I think it would be more balanced with a once per Quest restriction:

Horn
250 gold coins

Search For Treasure

Blowing this horn attracts a Wandering
Monster. After it is killed, you may search
its corpse. Draw one Treasure Card. May
only be used once per Quest.

[JasonMCM]

Slightly off topic, but I have always played that if the Hero searching for treasure draws a Wandering Monster and is 'safe' from wandering monster attack, then Zargon could place the monster next to an adjacent hero and got a free attack against that hero instead.

[Sjeng]

never happened, but makes sense to me. Although I'd probably move another hero aside to place the monster next to the one searching, and attack the searcher.

[knightkrawler]

My redaction of the card text:

Wandering Monster
Your turn is ended immediately. Morcar activates one figure of the type of monster presented in the quest notes as the Wandering Monster for this Quest as close as possible to the square you are occupying and attacks you if possible. If not, it is activated adjacent or as close as possible to any one Hero or Companion and attacks wherever applicable. Its turn is then ended.

[Daedalus]

The NA rules only allow a Wandering Monster an immediate attack against the Hero that drew the card. From page16 of the Instruction Booklet:

Note: If the surrounding squares are
occupied, and it is not possible to place
a monster next to the searcher, put the
monster in the room as close to the
searcher as possible. Then, on your next
turn, the monster can move and attack
like other monsters.

The EU rule book says pretty much the same on page 14:

If there is no vacant space adjacent to the character who drew the card, the evil
wizard player may place the wandering monster in any vacant square in the same
room or passage. In this case he may not, however, attack another character.

[Daedalus]

That's an amazing idea!

Price: 200 gold
Use: "The horn may be used once per quest to call for aid. Place one mercenary of your choice at the start of the quest, either the spiral stairs or entrance door (if the quest started in another location the horn may not be used). The mercenary is treated as any other except that it will demand payment immediately after the game. If the hero can not pay they take the horn instead."

In this way it would cost too much to use foolishly but could get you out of a jam.Special horns could be given as Artifacts instead. If the heroes rescue a lost knight he might reward them with a one-time use horn which summon 4 mercenaries form his private guard.

I love everything about this! In fact, 200 gold coins was what I was going to price it. ...however, I can see my players exploiting the mercenary and having him (oopsy!) suffer a little accident before payment is due

Rereading this post, I think there's a foolproof fix:

"The horn may be used once per Quest to call for aid, but at a price. Place one Mercenary of your choice at the start of the Quest, either the spiral stairs or entrance door (if another location, the horn may not be used). The Mercenary's gold coin cost is magically removed from the Hero as if he had paid in advance. If this can't be paid, the horn doesn't function.