[WIP] Serving the Empire [9 quests]

[wallydubbs]

So this was a good one.

The initial plan was for to charge the as soon as he left the cell, but due to poor movement roll he couldn't make it.
So went next and took out the with Fire of Wrath. left the cell next and decided to peek around the corner but fell into the pit trap.
was last out and searched the hall for traps, spotting the spear trap.

Since he already fell victim to the pit trap scouted the Western Corridor, finding that the connected pathway led to a dead end. , and followed the right pathway. even cast Swift Wind on the so he could catch up.
The had the higher die rolls and was the first to encounter the . cast Rock Skin for the assist and the unarmed rolled and killed the on his first try.
The natural assumption was that the big boss would be in the central room so the heroes took the first door.
It took a few turns for , and to kill , , so the used Pass Through Rock to check out the Central Roon and saw the weapons rack. So was the next stop for the heroes.

The rest of the quest went pretty normal. They discovered the secret door and used "Clairvoyance" to see Draakgur and his army waiting for them, so they picked the other door first. As soon ran into Rugfus' room he was hit by sleep, but fought it off, rolling but as soon as the heroes got to him he was dead. They found their stuff, went back to deal with Draakgur. opened the door but rolled too short to enter the room, cast Courage on the . stepped in first, sniped an with his crossbow, ran in next and took out 2 s with Orc's Bane and Courage. Despite Draakgur rolling in his attack against , was his defence (originally the Dwarf would be wearing Borin's Armor but Draakgur had it). When summoned a Genie to attack Draakgur he rolled . But to my surprise, Draakgur defended with . Wow! Borin's Armor was super effective. The heroes had to clear out all the s and hack away at the to get defeat him. It took a while. This quest came close to killing the . Not bad.

1.) So, question on your Clairvoyance spell: when played on the room, does it reveal traps and Treasure as well?
2.) For room B with Rugfus, does the Hero's turn as soon. As he enters the room, or if he successfully beats the Sleep spell can he continue his turn?

[lestodante]

1.) So, question on your Clairvoyance spell: when played on the room, does it reveal traps and Treasure as well?
2.) For room B with Rugfus, does the Hero's turn as soon. As he enters the room, or if he successfully beats the Sleep spell can he continue his turn?

1. It is supposed to be the same spell from the Wizards of Morcar pack. But I think it should not reveal traps, it is like you're entering in a room to see what's inside, so you can't detect hidden things or what is inside a treasure chest.
2. Yes, I specified "his turn ends anyway" because it is some kind of ambush, so he have to stop moving and defend.
Thanks again for the interesting report! Nice to see the Wizard using Pass Through Rock to peek into the central room. I also liked that your Heroes was supposing the boss to be into the central room

[wallydubbs]

1. It is supposed to be the same spell from the Wizards of Morcar pack. But I think it should not reveal traps, it is like you're entering in a room to see what's inside, so you can't detect hidden things or what is inside a treasure chest.

Yes, but Wizards of Morcar spells aren't specific on the matter either. Since the Detection Spells are not up to par with the rest of the spell set I like to give Clairvoyance the benefit of the doubt to bring up the value.

Oh, right, another question:
Since the heroes escaped this dungeon, do they get to collect the 150 gold for killing the Gargoyle in the previous quest?

[lestodante]

Yes, but Wizards of Morcar spells aren't specific on the matter either. Since the Detection Spells are not up to par with the rest of the spell set I like to give Clairvoyance the benefit of the doubt to bring up the value.

Homerules are always welcome! Detection spells are a bit weak so yes we can consider to implement trap detections skill with Clairvoyance as well.

Since the heroes escaped this dungeon, do they get to collect the 150 gold for killing the Gargoyle in the previous quest?

Sure they do! They just came back later to claim their reward because they had to deal with the Fimirs first. Anyway they can't buy any equipment beetween quest 2 and 3 (same situation will happen beetween quest 8 and 9).

[wallydubbs]

Now this quest was a breeze despite having 5 Chaos Warriors, the was hitting some massive damage with his Battle Axe. I don't think any of the s got more then 1 attack in.

It started off all well and good with the heroes clearing out the first room of undead, however lost Rock Skin early on due to the pit trap. In the next Room A wasn't able to help, he couldn't get a clear shot with his Crossbow. But , and did most of the fighting, Ball of Flame helped take out a . Once they cleared out the monsters casual searches were made. Not expecting to find a secret door and left after searching for Traps and Treasure, but the found the Secret Door. The discovered the falling block trap and would successfully disarm it on his Next Turn.
Meanwhile and took the long way around. 2 attacks and a Tempest would quell the . had no trouble with the in the Fireplace room; he rolled and had no s.

and finished off the 2 s and made careful searches before a around the corner, but a head shot from a crossbow did him in. The next had its arm chopped off from the 's axe, but it kept coming. A 2nd attack was necessary to kill it. The had Borin's Armor and Rock Skin ( stored that in his spell ring for this quest), and it really came in handy. 3 times this quest I a monster would've landed a blow if not for that extra dice (after rolling the initial 5 for defense I needed to roll another one and it came out to be a needed white shield).

and killed one in the corridor but then saw the undead in the alcove and decided to run past them as they are rather slow... but the kept tipping over his Cape (poor movement roll). It took 3 attacks to kill the leading .

Once clearing out all the s around the central room the opened the door, and fired a crossbow at one of the s, which was blocked. The rolled short and wasn't even able to enter the room, so attacked the through the door, only dealing 1 damage. On s next turn he backed away and fired a shot dealing 1 damage. steps up to the door and swings his mighty battle Axe taking off the 's head.

When the made it around to the central hallway he told the to help out , crossbows work better on the slow undead. When caught up he cast Courage on the to help take out the last in the central room. picked off the undead as the slowly stumbled up the hallway.
found the inscription on the tomb, but also drew a Wandering Monster card, which the killed before he could attack again.

This was a very easy quest... or maybe the heroes just got really lucky, they didn't even have to use Water of Healing or Heal Body. I think a couple of traps in the corridors would help spruce up potential body point loss... maybe change the Wandering monster from a skeleton to a Zombie.

, haven't the key necklace was one space shy from the door, so he passed the key to the who went in and found the Lord Lane's Quiver.

Question about the Quiver, though:
I know it goes through one monster and into the other in a straight line, so potentially it can take out more then one monster. Does 1 attack roll count for all monsters or does each monster get a different attack?

If it goes through one monster, is blocked by the 2nd one, does it still go to the 3rd?

[lestodante]

1 single dice roll. All monsters defend against the same attack.
It stops when hitting a wall or a door.
I was thinking to make it stop when a monster fully parry the blow too, but it requires too much text to fit into a card. Anyway they are only nine!
How was the riddle anyway? Easy to solve?

[Anderas]

I am all for keeping the long passages open. Not only can they split a group, they can also be a Gobin archer runway.
You have to equip one or two goblins with bows then, of course.

That first quest seems to be perfect (and a little challenging) for a group with 3AT and 4 or 5 DE dice.
A group with 4 AT and 4 DE would be a perfect fit.
This is assuming that the two Fimirs are taken by a single Hero or a two-hero-split off the main group.
Reading Wallydubbs playtest seem to confirm this; thanks for the test I was having a good time reading it, Wallydubbs!

I love those european style falling block traps. Sadly, I can never remember which one was the trigger and which square is a blocked square afterwards, because the symbols are so mixed. In the EU rules, the falling Block Trap comes down on the arrow. The square with the block symbol is just the trigger.



I propose to use, US-friendly, a quest remark, like
E: Don't trigger the falling block trap at the door until a hero steps on the square marked with "E", which will immediately trigger the trap.

It's a huge difference; it means the heroes who are still inside the room are trapped in that section of the board and the secret door is totally necessary. It also means that those two Fimirs likely need to be taken by a single hero or by two heroes, ramping the quest difficulty a little bit.

[Pancho]

Agree with Anderas.

The highlight of quest 1 for me is that the falling block trap falls right right outside the door, trapping some heroes in the room. A solo expedition then has to be launched to get them out. Let’s hope that Hero has his Fimir-fighting hat on that day.

[wallydubbs]

Agree with Anderas.

The highlight of quest 1 for me is that the falling block trap falls right right outside the door, trapping some heroes in the room. A solo expedition then has to be launched to get them out. Let’s hope that Hero has his Fimir-fighting hat on that day.

Oh yeah, I completely missed that one. I thought the falling block trap fell the other way. Just the same, I played the US rules. But now I totally see the point for the secret door.

[wallydubbs]

How was the riddle anyway? Easy to solve?

Not really. The natural assumption isn't to put all heroes in the corner, maybe do a secret door search in the corner or attack the wall. Standing in one corner with a "click" wasn't a dead giveaway either. If not all heroes were there one might assume to walk around the room touching all 4 corners. I was thinking to maybe mark each with a skull tile for an easier give away.