Ye Olde Inn

by **sadkitchen** » April 12th, 2011, 6:47 am

Hi all

I was playing Q14 the other night with my nephew (me=heroes, him=Zargon). When I encountered the Witch Lord my Elf had the Spirt Blade and could cast Earth spells. On his first turn the Witch Lord cas Command on my Elf, laughed when I rolled all ones and twos for the mind point check to resist it, and followed that up with having the Elf cast Pass Through Rock on himself and moving into solid rock. I sat there dumbfounded, one turn and I couldn't win, ever. I was just wondering if this (or anything like it) has happened to anyone else? (Or is it just me and I need to talk to my nephew about playing nice and not making his uncle cry?)

-SadKitchen

Well.

It's a story. This time the bad guy won it, and that's all there is to it. As a DM, I simply wouldn't kill off the heroes that way. It's too much of a killjoy unless your group gets a laugh out of that kind of thing.
You could make the heroes retreat and leave the maze running while the witch lord laughs his ass off - they run to town and recruit ANOTHER elf who will have to go in the wall to retrieve the sword, or else make the wizard use swift wind AND pass thru rock in the next quest to get it... or you have the heroes arrive with an army and demolition team to break down the wall. Or they must quest for some other artifact with the same properties as the spirit blade. The possibilities, with a little imagination, are endless...
Otherwise it's start the story again from some point or other...

by **Tott** » April 12th, 2011, 9:06 am

on the rare occasions i managed to kill a hero, i just reset them back to the start of that quest - any items, gold etc they had won or lost were restored.

by **ken** » April 12th, 2011, 10:38 am

That Pass Through Rock spell is pretty much a waste of time. Does the DM warn the user if he is going to finish up in a place he cannot escape from? Given that the rules say a hero cannot retrace his steps, this could happen quite often. I warned Puck of this problem early on in his schooling in the game, and we use it very spareingly. Sorry to go off topic a bit there Admin. :mrgreen:

by **Tott** » April 12th, 2011, 10:48 am

i used to design dungeons with specially sealed rooms. no way in or out - just as a trap for pass through rock users. sometimes put a skeleton or a goblin in there just as bait.

you should have seen my brothers face when i caught him in it once.

by **sadkitchen** » April 12th, 2011, 1:19 pm

It was a good time. The idea had never even crossed my mind. I was hoping that other people had fun/entertaining stories of random/lucky Zargon/Morcar wins.

-SadKitchen

by **ken** » April 12th, 2011, 3:09 pm

sadkitchen wrote:It was a good time. The idea had never even crossed my mind. I was hoping that other people had fun/entertaining stories of random/lucky Zargon/Morcar wins.

-SadKitchen

Ckeck out my Saturday Day Dungeon thread, about Sir Ragnar for a Morcar Victory :!:

by **Ethica** » April 12th, 2011, 4:53 pm

In my quest book (UK version) the witch lord never had the command ability. I do like the strategy your nephew employed, I can imagine the witch lord laughing as he makes the elf walk into the rock.

by **drathe** » April 12th, 2011, 5:17 pm

This would be a matter of the evil wizard's interpretation of the command spell. As the card says zargon may move the hero as a monster and attack other heroes. It doesn't mention the ability to cast spells, drink potions, drop weapons, etc. Just move and attack. But to each their own. I applaud the clever and devious tactics! :twisted: