Ye Olde Inn

*EDIT - This quest is now part of the DungeonsDark Quest Pack found here: http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=3223&p=75821#p62353 - EDIT*

I have been working on this quest for a while... Unfortunately it needs a lengthy (?) intro. I have re-written it several times but I cannot write to save my life.

Where am I going wrong here? Perhaps this can inspire somebody to do it better?



EDIT:
Quest is for champions of the original 14 quests.
Artifact cards can be found here http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3666

I don't think it's too bad, I just think the mud in the road being soft enough for them to allow them to get deep enough to save them is pretty unrealistic. A road that soft would be useless, not to mention incredibly hard for the heroes to move around in as it would either be the type of mud that is so wet that you can't really get footing or it would hold the heroes too well and keep them from being able to move quickly at all. I would re-write how the wizard attacks them if I were you. Also, I did notice a few typos. First paragraph where it says "dryer air" should be "drier air". Fourth paragraph, where it says "which seems an otherworldly in contrast" remove the word 'an'. Seventh paragraph, where it says "to hot to look upon" should be "too hot to look upon." Just my .

The basic plot itself is pretty good actually. I like it
Some comments:

"You are caught in open ground, there can be no escape from the intense firestorm and it appears the young mage has managed kill you, all of you, aft‰er all."
This part I don't like at all. To me it makes it sound as the heroes dies. But then in the next paragraph we rewind and hear about the puddles and the heroes' reaction.

Will the players be told the info from the "Alekai The Omniscient"-section?
If not, maybe they should get just a little more info either from the intro or during the quest.


The introduction seems overly long for what looks like a rather short quest? Is this a stand alone quest or part of a pack?

Is the portal trap a death trap? I can't figure out how you are supposed to escape without a Pass through Rock Spell.

How exactly does Alekai escape when wounded? Can he just choose any of the options in the room he is in? Regardless of which square he is in?
How would he ever be forced to escape into a hallway?
maybe simplify it by just allowing him to teleport into any of the rooms or something like that?
His escape spell could be used when he was down to his last BP.

StratosVX wrote:I don't think it's too bad, I just think the mud in the road being soft enough for them to allow them to get deep enough to save them is pretty unrealistic. A road that soft would be useless, not to mention incredibly hard for the heroes to move around in as it would either be the type of mud that is so wet that you can't really get footing or it would hold the heroes too well and keep them from being able to move quickly at all. I would re-write how the wizard attacks them if I were you.

Well, we can agree to disagree about the road. It would not be like a modern road, crowned or otherwise maintained. The higher ground can be stable enough and a low spot absolutely nasty. If it's enough to make you call BS on it, then re-writing how the wizard attacks is absolutely a good idea (then again, this puts you in the same company as Alekia... screaming BS on his perfect vision of your death!). I will discuss the essential components in a reply to Goblin-king.

StratosVX wrote:Also, I did notice a few typos. First paragraph where it says "dryer air" should be "drier air". Fourth paragraph, where it says "which seems an otherworldly in contrast" remove the word 'an'. Seventh paragraph, where it says "to hot to look upon" should be "too hot to look upon." Just my .

I'm not too worried about the typos. I'm hoping the whole thing will be re-written

Goblin-King wrote:The basic plot itself is pretty good actually. I like it
Some comments:

"You are caught in open ground, there can be no escape from the intense firestorm and it appears the young mage has managed kill you, all of you, aft‰er all."
This part I don't like at all. To me it makes it sound as the heroes dies. But then in the next paragraph we rewind and hear about the puddles and the heroes' reaction.

Agreed. I don't like much of it either, but I seem to be unable to fix it myself.

Goblin-King wrote:Will the players be told the info from the "Alekai The Omniscient"-section?
If not, maybe they should get just a little more info either from the intro or during the quest.

No. That information is for EWP only. Okay, so more intro.

Goblin-King wrote:The introduction seems overly long for what looks like a rather short quest?

Okay so less intro.

Goblin-King wrote:Is this a stand alone quest or part of a pack?

Well, this will go in a pack of mostly stand-alone quests. This quest is stand-alone. The follow-up quest / encounter happens if the amulet is grabbed by anyone other than the wizard. Eventually anyone with fewer than 7 mind points will lose control to the amulet and become the next Alekai. So there is more quest here.

Goblin-King wrote:Is the portal trap a death trap? I can't figure out how you are supposed to escape without a Pass through Rock Spell

Yes it is 75% a death trap. Honestly, who would be dumb enough to jump into a random magic portal? Escape is do-able with Pass Through Rock OR a Ring of Return. It would be a good idea for EWP to make sure the heroes have one of these before the quest starts.

Goblin-King wrote:How exactly does Alekai escape when wounded? Can he just choose any of the options in the room he is in? Regardless of which square he is in?
How would he ever be forced to escape into a hallway?

The idea was to encourage EWP to extend the combat into other rooms. Tripping more traps, catching heroes one at a time, etc. This can be done without a firm requirement. The idea is the space # and # are linked such that Alekai expends one movement point to go this way. Sometimes the heroes can follow, sometimes they cannot.

Goblin-King wrote:maybe simplify it by just allowing him to teleport into any of the rooms or something like that?

Well, then you lose the portal trap. And any comical spinning of the fireplace / bookcase when a hero/Alekai is standing on the opposite side. The locking door is cool. These oddities and his nimble use of them hopefully lead to a sense of preparedness on the part of Alekai.

Goblin-King wrote:His escape spell could be used when he was down to his last BP.

I had this written, then decided that EWP can figure this out for himself. FYI: The escape location is a GREAT place to wait and use the lightning spell!


The essential story is this:

The amulet is bored with Alekia, so it shows him a vision of his death at the hands of the heroes. Looking to preempt his death, he uses the amulet to guarantee success in his first encounter. The amulet shows him what he needs to see, the heroes being "killed", but only from a certain view point. In fact the heroes survive through efforts invisible to this view point and despite seeing things happen exactly as he expected, the heroes remain alive!! He has now set in motion the events leading to his own death. With advanced knowledge, Alekai has carefully prepared his home for the coming invasion.

Anybody want to re-write the intro?

Basically through the course of the quest we are telling the heroes:
(1) This clown calls himself "the Omniscient"
(2) He cannot be hit in the usual way.
(3) He knows exactly where you are not going to be and can move through your occupied spaces.
(4) His traps are expertly placed.
(5) When he dies you find the Amulet of Foresight (which seems to unlock more power the longer you hold it!)

I can be more explicit about some of these points. What else can we add?

whitebeard wrote:No. That information is for EWP only. Okay, so more intro.

whitebeard wrote:Okay so less intro.

Finally you get it!
My point is that this is a ~1 hour board game without much dialogue. For a plot this complex there's no harm in fleshing it out a little more. Notice how little the players are actually told despite a pretty solid backstory.
Skip some of the filler text and add just a tiny bit more explanation to what's going on. Of course this is subjective...

But you never fully understand why the local gamblers have a grudge for instance.
The mechanic of the traps (they weren't ever there in the first place) is lost on the heroes. Only the EWP will see the effect of this.
Some of his special rules should maybe have a small ingame section to be read out by the EWP - Like the first time he uses his ability to move through a hero: "Alekai slips right through you as if he anticipated your every movement".

whitebeard wrote:The idea was to encourage EWP to extend the combat into other rooms. Tripping more traps, catching heroes one at a time, etc. This can be done without a firm requirement. The idea is the space # and # are linked such that Alekai expends one movement point to go this way. Sometimes the heroes can follow, sometimes they cannot.

Yeah okay, but the thing is that under normal circumstances he doesn't have the ability to make any movement during the heroes' turn. So how he actually triggers the # squares is unclear.
Maybe rewrite the rules to include something like:
Whenever Alekai is wounded he will immediately escape by moving up to 6 squares.

Or do I misunderstand this still? Is he only able to escape during his own turn?

whitebeard wrote:

Goblin-King wrote:maybe simplify it by just allowing him to teleport into any of the rooms or something like that?

Well, then you lose the portal trap. And any comical spinning of the fireplace / bookcase when a hero/Alekai is standing on the opposite side. The locking door is cool. These oddities and his nimble use of them hopefully lead to a sense of preparedness on the part of Alekai.

Fair enough, I kinda agree. With the above addition to the rules I don't really think it needs more fixing anyway.


Oh yeah... and Mentor "destroys" the amulet...

(Also I'm not just trying to rip this apart. I think it's very good, that's why I take my time to comment )

Goblin-King wrote:(Also I'm not just trying to rip this apart. I think it's very good, that's why I take my time to comment )

No problem at all, I get that, and I really appreciate all of the feedback. I asked for help because I felt that what I had was not even close. The implementation is falling way short of what I had in mind when I started. This was a rocking AD&D adventure I ran about 25 years ago. The interaction made it clear (eventually) what was wrong with this guy. He was also able to dodge arrows with his back turned as he fled after his initial fireball trap failed (so you knew you were in trouble!).

I'm re-thinking the introduction. Rather than a story, we can outline what happened in more general terms. And the heroes have figured out that he carries the amulet (but not how bad it really is). Then in the quest, when things happen differently, the players can connect the dots, and understand their dilemma more deeply.

I will give this another try.

More clues from EWP on how Alekai accomplishes his feats is great. A lot of stuff got trimmed to make the quest one page, so we are thinking the same thing. With a shorter intro, we may be able to push his entire "monster" description to the first page and make room for cool clues.

Do you think Alekai should get to move out of turn like that? I was thinking he would stick around until Zargon's turn, attack, then escape.

He is pretty hard to kill. I have no doubt that he will be able to show off his escape methods more than once.
For the traps, how could you possibly make sure that the players understand how these traps are placed?
Maybe add some traps that are not findable and add a line of fluff text when the heroes trigger it?


If you don't have an entire quest pack around the amulet, maybe you could speed up the effect so that it shows in a few turns? That way this quest gets longer and the entire story is contained in a single play evening. Especially for non regularly meeting groups this may be a good option. For this option you could add a twisted passage to rescue the victims of the portal.

My reasoning for thinking he would move out of turn is because of the incredible amount a bunch of 4 heroes is able to inflict after all.
Even with white shields and 3 wounds = 1 wound...
Barbarian rushes in rolling 3 skulls with battle axe. Wizard throwing a Genie. Some courage and a couple of random hits.
If he just stands still until it's his turn I fear he'll take too much damage at once.

But of course I realize he'll have a hard time hitting the heroes back, unless they spread out with one hero in each room.

But I guess you'll just have to playtest this a couple of times to find the balance.

Anderas wrote:He is pretty hard to kill. I have no doubt that he will be able to show off his escape methods more than once.

Agreed, he's effectively got >4 x 3 BP plus another > 2 x 3 BP from the healing potion.

Anderas wrote:For the traps, how could you possibly make sure that the players understand how these traps are placed?
Maybe add some traps that are not findable and add a line of fluff text when the heroes trigger it?

I think commenting on how precisely the trap was placed (resulting in 2 BP damage) will help and how the trap is not capable of harming anybody else afterwards This and the re-factored introduction should go a long way towards setting the atmosphere before you even encounter him.

Anderas wrote:If you don't have an entire quest pack around the amulet, maybe you could speed up the effect so that it shows in a few turns? That way this quest gets longer and the entire story is contained in a single play evening. Especially for non regularly meeting groups this may be a good option. For this option you could add a twisted passage to rescue the victims of the portal.

Well. If the wizard hero carries the amulet, then it is a much needed boost. If anybody else touches it, they are in trouble. And this would be like an Evil Wizard Deck event that can be played at any time. I think carrying a time bomb around like that is kind of cool for everyone.

Goblin-King wrote:My reasoning for thinking he would move out of turn is because of the incredible amount a bunch of 4 heroes is able to inflict after all.

He should not go down SO easy. But I really like this idea and it effectively gives him a move - attack - move capability (when he is outmatched). I think the white shields will make it extremely difficult to do more than one BP of damage (once the heroic brew is gone), especially if the EWP does not allow himself to be surrounded. Perhaps we should suggest the EWP attack and retreat if all the heroes are able to attack on the next turn... before he is even injured?