The Plague of Zombies

[HispaZargon]

I would like to inform to the Community about the following:

Yesterday, the Italian Forum members Legolas777 & Noru90 shared in media (you may find it in Italian Forum here and in Telegram/Facebook usual fandom groups translated to other languages) a new fan version of The Plague of Zombies quest in HQ21 format, but this time ensuring that they had used notes from Stephen Baker to complete the quest, which are really good news for all the fans, of course.

However, according to what they posted in the Italian Forum, I would like to clarify some points to avoid any confusion about this work:

As far as I know, the creators have not used old drafts from Stephen Baker's personal archive nor something similar relative to this quest. They just said that Stephen Baker recently answered them a message, suggesting ideas to fill some of the gaps in the Quest Notes (but unfortunatelly not for all, see at the end of this post).

The answer message sent by Stephen Baker was the following, according to this post from Legolas777:

================================

Hi ........,

Sorry for not replying sooner. The past couple of weeks have been busy, and I am trying to finish a couple of projects before the holidays.

I don’t have any records on the Chaos Sorcerer for ‘The Plague of Zombies’. That was over thirty years ago.

I would suggest the following (using new HQ rules):

Mind - 6
Body - 4
Move - 8
Attack – 4* Always add one automatic hit.
Defend – 3* If one shield is rolled, it blocks all hits.

He knows the following spells: Summon Undead, Fear, and Ball of Flame.

When defeated, the Sorcerer is replaced with the strongest undead miniature available.

I would make the Wandering Monster an Orc.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

My kindest regards

Stephen

================================

Great news, but as said, there are still some gaps not 'officially' solved about this quest like the Note C missing explanation topic, the tomb tiles missing rules, the missing explanation of the lower door with arrow at the board edge and maybe others. Until now, any solution given to those topics must be considered a fan interpretation.

Nevertheless, all credit to the authors about these cool news, and thanks for sharing them.

[Kurgan]

That is great stuff!

[HispaZargon]

Recent news about this topic reminded me that there were more pictures of the original Plague of the Zombies in other languages.

For example, Spanish box of Adventure Design Kit also showed this quest at the back but in Spanish, there can be seen that Wandering Monster were 2 Zombies, instead of an Orc, which I guess fits much better with the quest background. Moreover "Zombies" is incorrectly translated to Spanish, it should have said "Zombis", so I would bet the text "2 Zombies" came from an original English text:

ADK_Spanish_Plague_of_Zombies.JPG

Dutch version of Adventure Design Kit box also shows the same WM as the Spanish one (2 Zombies):

ADK_Dutch_Plague_of_Zombies.JPG

However, the WM line in the French version of the Kit box looks to be missing, like in English version:

ADK_French_Plague_of_Zombies.JPG

Rest of mistakes of the original English quest I think also exist in all these versions, including the missing Note C. HOWEVER the Dutch, French and Spanish boxes show a mark D in the central room of the map next to the square "CS" from English and French versions. This means that French map shows both, the "CS" and the mark D next to it (Dutch and Spanish do not shown the "CS" but the mark D yes). This fits with the English and French leaflets where another version of Plague of Zombis is shown, where a Note C explicit explanation appear, suggesting there is a special monster in room C, additionally they show much extra text to the right with stats of other special character (I would bet they are the stats of the Deathmaster and more rules, which would be described for Note D).

I have not included any picture of the Italian nor German boxes because as far as I know Adventure Design Kit was never released in Italy nor Germany in the 90's, surprisingly.

[ClaytonGardner]

This proves to be quite useful! The scan you shared is of higher quality compared to what I had seen before. (There's a plethora of information tucked away in the forum's archives!)

[JackieX]

For example, Spanish box of Adventure Design Kit also showed this quest at the back but in Spanish, there can be seen that Wandering Monster were 2 Zombies, instead of an Orc, which I guess fits much better with the quest background. Moreover.

Personally, I think the orc is better than 2 zombies! With the effect of this mission, that killed non-undead creatures rise again as undead, an orc is a double challenge!

[Kurgan]

Awesome stuff... we're playing this on the stream next Friday (started last weekend).

For those who don't have access to the forum...

[Kurgan]

A fun challenge. Only one hero survived...

[Kurgan]

Found some more pictures (and a small rumored mystery solved) about the ADK, specifically whether there is anything more hidden in that box (at least of the English version): here.

So who is getting to work on German and Italian translations of ADK/Plague of Zombies?

Another thing to do would be just to release it "as is" with the mistakes and blank parts left in... and let people fill it in themselves, like a mad libs or coloring book sheet. I mean a regular quest map page with the notes intact (rather than having to read it sideways in that small picture on the back of the box).

[legolas777]

Hi everyone, I am legolas777 (ex legolas77) that about 20 years ago had the idea to report this incredible official quest.

It is necessary to specify that the notes that I have used are ONLY the official ones by Steve Baker. The note B had an evident print mistake, because reminded to the room with letter A, but this is impossible because the letter A has already his note, so the note B refers to letter C.

The update of the quest with new official notes by Steve Baker in English is on Italian forum of Hero Quest.

[lestodante]

Legolas, please don't claim it as "official" because it's not; there is already a lot of confusion around HeroQuest world and I remember you didn't even considered official The Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror packs because they weren't written directly by Stephen Baker.
But anyway, thanks a lot for the job you did years ago, being the very first person to transcribe this quest from the rear of the box to pdf and for the recent effort in contacting Stephen Baker and asking his opinion to complete the original demo quest.