Quest One: The Trial – HQ Remix

Quest 1: The Trial

The Heroes have been training for the last few years under the retired general Sir Ragnar. When word began to spread that the Orcs of the Black Mountain had sworn allegiance to the forces of chaos and begun raising an army to destroy the lands of the Empire, you few were selected to be the Empire’s secret weapon in the war efforts.  In the solitude of his private study, you share a rare moment of respite from your arduous training schedule.  The room is simple and Spartan, but the chairs are comfortable and a warm fire burns in the hearth. Sir Ragnar seems restless, his old eyes, hard grey steel, stare intently into the fire. You wait patiently as he gathers his words sensing that whatever he is about to say is of great importance. He runs his hand down the length of the massive scar that lines his face, strokes his well-trimmed beard, and replaces his hand on the arm of his chair. 

In a gravelly voice, but one not in any way weakened by age he begins to speak, “The Empress believes that you are finally ready, that, or the war efforts have become desperate enough to send you out into the field.” He clears his throat, “Let’s hope that you are.  The demon Verag has managed to lead a small contingent of Greenskins past our border patrols and has been staging midnight raids against the borderland communities. Several have already been destroyed.  The Empire’s rangers have tracked the demon back to its makeshift lair, an old catacomb known as Felmar’s Tomb, though they dare not go inside. This is a task for more cunning and powerful heroes,” He pauses, looking at each of you in turn, “You, in other words. Make your way into the Tomb of Felmar, find the demon Verag and end his vile existence. This is no easy task; in fact, this may well be the end for you. This will serve as your final Trial, when this task is complete, your training will be at its end.”

 

Upon Placing Verag he addresses the party:

In a deep voice, a voice that sounds like a boiling roar coming from the depth of some dark abandoned well Verag calmly begins speaking to the party, his words, delivered with a soothing intent, cannot mask the hunger and contempt laying just beneath the surface. “Ah yes… Ragnar’s pets. When I first heard of you, I will admit, I was unimpressed…” He pauses here, cocking his head thoughtfully. Smiling, his mouth rows and rows of dagger sharp fangs and tusks he continues, “But look at you now… off on your own, to bravely vanquish the big bad monster. But I see this story playing out a little differently… I see a few underfed ducklings wandering right onto my plate.”

 

Upon Verag’s Defeat:

Verag begins to burn away from the inside, his mortal form tearing away to ash. As he burns and crumbles before you he whispers in a haunting echo, “No matter, time is a wheel, and it is always turning, the black will overcome the white again as it did in the days of old. Even now the darkness rattles the weakening bars of hell… We will meet again Heroes, have no doubts….”

 

Quest 1 Set Up:

Victory: the defeat of Verag the demon.

Set aside: Mummy card, Healing Potion, Ertu villain card, spider Glyph Tile, Broken Door tile, Throne Room tile.

Shuffle the spider glyph into the first 6 tiles of the tile deck, add 2 more tiles, then shuffle broken door into the next 4 tiles of the tile deck.

Villain: We used Ertu the balor as the villain for this adventure, though I scaled his health down to 8. (Which ended up being a mistake, he got owned in less than 3 rounds.)

When the Spider Glyph is drawn, place a monster as normal, but also place the mummy card. Defeating this Mummy will reward that hero with the Healing Potion item card, in addition to the standard treasure roll.

When the Broken door is revealed, place the Throne Room tile, cap all unexplored edges with chamber tiles, draw three monsters and place them in the Throne Room and Broken Door tile. Place Verag on the throne. Defeating Verag awards a random treasure item.

Monster Deck:

This monster deck contains a sampling on both orc and goblin based foes and minor undead. Most of the monsters are 2xp or less in power with some 3xp monsters tossed in for good measure, but the variety of monsters and abundance of ranged attackers should provide some challenge.

Quest 1 Gameplay:

The party spanked this adventure pretty hard.  Outstanding rolls for the players, bad rolls for monsters, and a strong party roster definitely helped things out. Plenty of 20’s for the heroes resulted in 3 out of 5 characters leveling up by the end of the adventure. The party did break a sweat when the mummy appeared due to its ability to permanently remove hp, but poor rolls and strong offense won the day. The boss, despite having 3 allies and the Magma Walls environment card (hero ending turn next to wall takes 1 damage) working in his favor still failed to deliver any real threat. The party was too beefed up from the lucky leveling, and rolls too good for him to be a threat. Despite the lack of challenge, it was still a great first session.

If I could do it again I would have beefed Verak’s hp up to the normal 12, and added some xp 4 monsters to the deck.

HeroQuest Remix

HeroQuest Remix, a D&D Adventure System Game

Many, many years ago a ten year-old boy wound his way through the labyrinth of Toys’R’Us. Clutched in his hand were the wadded up bills from a recent and very lucrative yard sale: thirty whole dollars!  The money felt hot in his hands, burning with an intense desire to be spent on something, anything. After about 5 laps through the store something caught the boy’s attention, something huge. There on the shelf was a box, a board game box, but this was not monopoly, or clue, no this was different.

The artwork alone on the front of this board game was blowing the boy’s mind. It depicted Conan, decked out in his fur underpants, fighting alongside some magic wielding friends against horrific monsters. The Title read “HeroQuest.” Nervously the boy hefted the massive box from the shelf and flipped it over. What he saw on the back of that box changed his life forever. Tiny plastic army men, made to look like the very heroes and monsters depicted on the box were included inside, along with a dungeon, doors, furniture, and all manner of cards and strange dice. The boy’s heart began to sink, there was no way he could afford such an incredible game, but as he raised his eyes to the shelving he clearly read “$24.95” and a great excited breath was released.

The rest, as they say, is history.  14 quests, 2 expansion packs, and a boatload of custom adventures later the boy grew up to become a dungeon master of fairly adequate renown.  He spent the next 2 decades playing games and building games of all types.  When he had a boy of his own, he dusted off his old copy of HeroQuest and shared the excitement and adventure with the next generation, and it was good.

On a whim I picked up a copy of Legend of Drizzt, and was very quickly blown away by the fast game play, and the complete lack of a dungeon master.  It didn’t take long for my son, now a teenager, and me to start converting the first 14 quests of HeroQuest over to the D&D adventure system.  It wasn’t something we thought about doing, it was something that had to be done.

Inspired heavily by http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/solomani ‘s Firestorm Peak campaign, I started my own campaign in a revised and slightly remixed HeroQuest.  I’m looking forward to sharing the process and the campaign.

First off, many of the monsters I will be using are snatched right from these forums, a big thank you again to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/solomani and to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/chromaticdragon as well as anyone else I forget to credit.  I plan to create several monsters myself as well, and in order to scale difficulty with level gain I will create enhanced versions of the lower level monsters to keep pace with the party. I don’t want to speed of play to diminish with level ups as a result of too many monsters on the board at once, preferring smaller groups of more powerful/interesting foes.  It is also a design goal to create unique game play effects for a few of the 14 quests.

The Heroes:

Originally HeroQuest only had 4 heroes: Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf, and Wizard.  But we formed a group of five heroes and selected characters from all three board games and from the forums.  My son loves Aegis, Warforged Paladin, created by Brian Grell http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/813142/dungeons-dragons-castle-ravenloft-board-game . In fact we all love this character because of his insta-tank skill.

Our final party roster looks like this, with some RP conversion notes for HeroQuest (AKA warhammer setting):

Dragonborn Wizard (Heksan), an intelligent Saurus, working for the Empire.

http://warhammeronline.wikia.com/wiki/Saurus

Warforged Paladin (Aegis), the spirit of a dead knight trapped in the body of a dwarven war golem.

Dwarven Fighter (Vistra), female dwarves are discouraged from being warriors or adventurers, she left the dwarven kingdom to serve the Empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_(Warhammer)

Human Archer (Catti Brie), reformed thief, turned Imperial Scout, selected for special reconnaissance training

Drow Ranger (Drizzt), an exiled Druchii Ranger, his high ideals and moral code forced him from his homeland, through persistent heroic deeds he hopes to earn the trust and acceptance of the Empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Elves_(Warhammer)

Made Some “Blank” character sheets for everyone, that way we can just level them up as we go.

House Rules:

1. Players choose 1 character and use it the entire course of the campaign. Only in death can they pick another character.

2. New characters start at level 1 with no treasure items.

3. When a monster is defeated the character draws 1 “blessing” card from a deck containing the blessings and fortunes, and rolls once for treasure. Only done once per character per turn regardless of how many monsters were defeated.

4. Characters start with 2 Healing Surges per adventure. If they use 2 surges and are still defeated they retreat back to town and permanently lose 1 healing surge for the remainder of the campaign. Loss of the last surge means they have failed in their mission to defeat the forces of chaos.

5. Permanent death occurs when both surges are used and no healing is applied to a downed character.

6. Three items are drawn from the deck in between quests these items can be purchased with party gold in between adventures.

7. Two event cards are drawn in-between adventures to represent inter-adventure activities and events. http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/64402/ninjadorgs-dd-advent…

8. Small creatures, oozes, and serpentine shaped creatures are not affected by cramped passageways and tiles.

9. When disengaging from a monster or villain if the character ends their move not adjacent to the monster, the monster gets a free attack. Engaged means the character is adjacent to any monster on the board.

10. If more than one character is engaging a monster both characters get a +1 flanking bonus to hit. This bonus applies to monsters as well.

11. Using standard level up benefits: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0swR_EZ3AV8/TsEqdNIqWKI/AAAAAAAAA5…

12. Monsters should be played as intelligently and logically as possible. For example fire elementals are not affected by fire attacks but take +1 damage from water attacks. Water elementals ignore environmental effects due to size (like the narrow passageway) etc.

13. Line of Sight is enforced.

14. Each player rolls for their own character whenever a trap, hazard or other event is drawn that affects them. This represents the idea of reflex save and such (which is abstracted in AC).

15. Area of Effect attacks vs. monsters are rolled individually – so one attack role per monster.

16. Trap related abilities work on locked doors and chests.

Let’s see how it goes.

Show goes on…

Whew…. Ok so no updates for a while.  Got busy with finals for my programming class, under staffing at work, and an earthquake hurricane super combo.  What’s the current situation?  Horns of War Monday game has been put on ice. The DM started school again and needs to get into the groove first before making a commitment to a weekly game.  Thursday Night Fights continues to heat up with the town of Falcon’s Hollow simmering on the brink of civil war.  A possibility exists later this year of running an online World’s Largest Dungeon game using 4e essentials rules and monsters.  I’ll let you know how that developes.  Additionally a little side game of hero quest has started up in my neighborhood and it is just as fun as ever.

On the video gaming front, some of us are dipping our toes in the conan ftp mmo, and my buddy an I are both enjoying some Etrian Odyssey 3.

More gaming blog as time permits.

Settings added

Information about the Crash Gem setting has been added, as well as more information about the Darkwood setting.  More to come as time permits.

MNF Session 17: of ninja tides

Thunderspire was a bust.  Hearing rumors of a lost, tropical continent in the southern seas, Horns of War booked passage on a southbound sailing vessel. After some bribery and subtle coercion we had convinced the captain that an exploratory voyage to this mysterious jungle land would be an excellent idea. Pack your bags gentle readers we are going on a cruise.  Drinks with little umbrellas in them, half naked island folk, coconut bikini tops, this would be the best trip ever.

Sadly, adventurers cannot ride on boats without something awful happening to them and this trip would be no different. As an aside, why on earth would any non-suicidal captain even allow adventurers aboard any ship, ever?

Regardless, several weeks, yes, weeks… it takes forever to get anywhere with a stupid boat, teleportation WHERE ART THOU!?!?! Where was I? Yes, several weeks into the journey, the occasional storm, and a dragon turtle sighting later we hit an aqua speed bump. Another ship came into view, under a veil of ocean mist, under the flag of piracy! Aboard this rival vessel was a crew of ninja pirates. (I am not making this up, though they could have been pirate ninjas for all I know). They began a siege against our small, but sturdy ship; ninjas flying through the air, fire, death, bedlam. Just for flavor, a storm rolled in, lightening splitting the sky, illuminating the epic sea battle. Thunder began rolling across waves to shake the burning timbers of the ships. But wait, it gets even better.

A whirlpool began to form at least a dozen ships wide, funneling down, down, down into the inky darkness of the endless sea bottom. Both vessels, heroic and ninja, were now caught in this behemoth spiral! You might want to sit down, because there is more. One after another pillars of sinuous pink flesh each four times as thick as the main mast burst forth from the water surrounding the two ships. Someone yelled (probably Captain Obvious himself), “KRACKEN!”  The kracken began savaging the ships, and at that the fight between ninja pirates and Horns of War was a moot point.  I found the most authorative looking ninja and told him, “Look, Yoshi Blackbeard, or whatever your name happens to be, we have to work together or we are all squid snacks.”

Nodding his accent we lashed our two ships together, combined sails and skill, dropped all available cargo, including the gun powder barrels (which we blew up in the kracken’s face), and crested the edge of the whirlpool. Daring escape? You know it.  But now the chase was on, a chase we were sure to lose, with the kracken jetting after us, there was little hope for our survival.  Or was there?

It turned out the ninja pirates lived on a floating island, probably a turtle, I never confirmed this, but on this island was a powerful sea dragon. Well, he was a territorial fellow apparently, because as soon as the Kracken jetted too close the fight was on.  Popcorn, peanuts, it was a Godzilla-esque super battle like I had never seen, in fact the two titans fought for HOURS, 7 to be precise, and again I swear to you I am not making this up.

Eventually our deadly towering monster of death was the victor, tired from the battle and its wounds it returned to its lair to rest.  Horns of War then paid tribute the beast by donating all their available coinage and gems… and residium… *sigh* Look, it was that or be fed to the dragon.  So we celebrated, huge party, 7 days long. Restocked our supplies (hey look at that we are totally broke) checked our heading, mapped the charts, scurvied the dog, shivered a timber, insert more nautical terms here, and two weeks later made landfall on the beaches of the southern continent, who as it turns out was having some trouble with snakes…

TNF Backstory: Kivelis

By Arthur Ogilvie

I guess I can start when I can remember since the beginning is too far away for me to recall. When I was 10 I learned to pick up a sword.

My mom would yell at me but my father would say to her:

“I am making him a man. He needs to learn to protect himself and the village. This is where I started. THIS is where he will start.” and continue to help me clasp the hilt. I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t even know what a sword was for that was until that night. The night where my mother and father went missing. Till this day I don’t really know what happened. I ran around the small house and checked the forge and barn around it but they weren’t there. I started to panic and ran to my room and sat scared in the corner thinking of what I would do if they were gone. Then I thought maybe, maybe they just left to get food or supplies. Maybe they left to get clothes…I’m sorry I’m not really good at talking about this not that it really matters anymore.

Anyway, I was on my way to the market when my neighbor stopped me and grabbed my arm I protested as he tried to drag me away but he snapped at me. My body went ridged and the hairs on my neck stood up. I remember this part of my life well as the neighbor dragged me to the outskirts of town where all the other villagers waited and gossiped about what was going on in the village. I couldn’t make out the murmurs and not long after I arrived I didn’t need to. I watched as a large man clad in the fur of a white bear walked purposely toward the villagers. He carried the bodies of two of guardsmen, I had seen my father talk with, over his back. After he reached us he flung the bodies down at our feet and his face was fuming as he did so.

“I was told this village had great fighters…I was told they would stop at NOTHING to protect their village.” his voice was loud and boomed with confidence I can see it now but he wasn’t ready for the root of the rumors. For in every great rumor there lies a grain of truth.

“That’s me I am the one they speak of.” A man stepped from the crowd clad in plate, a large metal shield in one hand and his helmet under his other arm, his blade still sheathed and ready. The armor shinned but even so, looking at him the townsfolk still appeared worried. The man was 5 feet and close to 6, but the giant of a foe still towered over him the giant’s smirk revealed that he noticed the difference as well.

“I have been to the deepest part of the Darkwood forest and back. You DARE mock me with this ‘challenge’?”

The man secured the helm and spoke to the giant before the visor went down. “While I applaud your achievement, as I have heard the Darkwood is a dark and evil place, I do not challenge you…”

The crowd gasped and I briefly felt hope slip away then the man continued and I felt at ease”…I simply cannot move as this is my home and I will continue to make it my home.”

With that the visor went down and the giant readied his large club. I pushed forward to the front of the crowds that were too terrified to cheer the man on. I saw him and pushed forward to greet him…till this day I do not know why. He looked down at me and smiled, “You’re a brave one I hope what you see today shows you how important a home is. Now please stay back *laugh* I think this man is serious.”

I walked slowly backward and took my place at the front of the crowd. The giant swung his massive club and struck the man’s shield a loud sound pulsed through me but the man stood his ground his sword still in his sheath. The crowd pelted him with fighting critiques and scorn. He was focused as the giant wailed on his shield. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but I knew he was asking the giant to stop fighting, then the man’s words ceased.

He was there and then he wasn’t, a blur that appeared to the back of the giant. I traced the battlefield with my eyes trying to make sense of what had happened. Then I saw the man’s sword dripping with blood as the giant fell lifelessly behind him.

Gerald Firesworn was a captain of some army whose name I have forgotten. He was just passing through and it was lucky that he did, for in this man I found my purpose and I found reason. Though I never found my parents and one day I wondered out of town I hung on to Gerald’s words: ” I hope what you see today shows you how important a home is.” .

I found out later that the man didn’t even live in the town but he had stopped by frequently enough to consider it so, or did he call everywhere he went his home, yeah I’d like to think that, as he would believe what I believe now.

before the armor of Glintaxe... there was scalemail

MNF session 16: Letting the Blood Klowns

Well, I have to admit, Horns of War was a little pissed off.  Here they are, rolling up into the remote mountains, delving into the earth to bring some aid and succor to a community in need, and what do they get? A xenophobic, paranoid, power-hungry, fear mongering, barrel of fuckery. Pardon my Elven.  So the second in command of the local government is secretly supporting the Blood Klown Klan? Not hard to imagine how this played out.  You secretly raise a little rabble, something to scare the common folk, put that fear back in them so they hide under the skirts of local government. Use this propaganda to discredit your rivals, while playing up your strengths. Until, like that baby basilisk you bought at the fair, it grows into a bigger beast than you can handle.

So now the Blood Klowns are operating independently of Anklyar, using the resources he gave them in a campaign to take over all of Thunderspire labyrinth.  Good show boys, good show.  Sadly for you, there has been a hefty price laid on your heads, and a certain Horns of War reputation dragged through the muck.  Killing your leader will not only bag some coin, but more importantly clear our names.

And that, gentle readers is what we did.

Hell have no fury like The Horns of War venting some stress after being betrayed, falsely accused, tried, and nearly imprisoned.

We left a trail of carnage, brains, gore, shattered skulls, frozen flesh, ash, melty bits, and urine stains throughout the Blood Klown Klan’s secret stronghold. Hobgoblin guts mingled freely, with shattered rogue minotaur horns, exploded duergar, and the odd burninated human. If anything, it was racial harmony on a unparralleled scale. When we finally cornered their leader, there was no parley, there was no “talk it out.”  We killed his guards, captured him, forced a confession, implemented Anklyar, cleared our names, and clocked out for the day.

I know Horns of War is pretty incredible, but in this particular instance, we handed these guys their hats.

The city of Thunderspire then proceeded to fail, in both their level of sorrow at mistaking us for villains, and in the rewarding of bountiful loots and prizes.  In fact, they had the nerve to mention needing even more help against a cabal of demon worshipping gnolls, and a tribe of evil minotaurs claiming rights to the city and all lands in the labyrinth.  Well, gentle reader, what can I say? Hearing of this further blight upon the fair denizens of Thunderspire, I was moved to action.  I turned my beautiful face towards the city leader, highest wizardess of the tower council, locking eyes with her I heroically said,

“Tough Titties.”

And the Horns of War left Thunderspire never to return again.

-Cham

remember to tip your service folks

MNF session 15: leaving Thunderspire

Escape under guard from the mage tower

Daring chase scenes across subterranean city rooftops

Liberation of confined lizard mounts

Defeat of ogre militia leader and associates

Deft evasion of pursing city guard, local militia, and mage guild

Tactical retreat from city into the bowls of the Labyrinth

This has been the abridged play-by-play of our escape from Thunderspire City.  Thank you and good night

-Cham (sorry kids this happened over a year ago and my beautiful brain is too tired to remember the details… unless i made them up… but what kind of bard does that?)

MNF: Psyche

Just a doodle on a whiteboard, but I liked the sharp contrasts. And it looks happy (for a robot?)

TNF: Hot Links

Herd of Cats was both quick and wise to parley with the Sage of Wind, one of the 4 great spiritual elders to the Gersen Kobold Klan.  After betraying his own people to the heroes, and expositioning a fair dump truck of plot, Kertlekrep, once called great one, was allowed to leave the dungeon, his loyalist in tow.

But now what? According to Gwendolyn the gnome the five children managed to escape, but have become lost in the dungeon, and one them, Jurin Threed no less, is held captive by a shadowy beast of evil and flame! And the remaining childrem, as well as Gwen’s surviving friend, are to be put to death, in a grisly sacrifice to empower the kobold king!

Tense.

So the Herd of cats traveled northward eventually defeating the locked door in their pass, they encountered a chamber containing a large metal cauldron, suspended over a dark pit by chains and pulleys. Standing guard over this makeshift elevator was a retinue of kobolds, slingers and skirmishers, led by a Black Scale Hunter.  Essentially the ninjas of kobold culture.

i know you scared

The fight had the potential for greatness, but a fat monk getting stuck the cauldron, a poisonous snake in someone’s armor and an extremely modest de-loinclothed kobold slinger contributed to the most embarrassing kobold fight I have ever seen (and that says A LOT). Routed, the Kobold ninja, and accomplices, fled down the elevator shaft to warn their people of encroaching adventurers.

Heading northeast, they encountered a series of narrow tunnels choked with a black ash that made both visibility and movement extremely difficult. So difficult in fact that an overweight dwarf had to make several acrobatics skill checks to squeeze through.  There they found a chamber containing this ghastly sight:

"Hi HO Hi HO, into my chain you go!"

the entrance to the room was also guarded by this beauty:

did someone say scooby snacks?

This fight had a little 4e spice thrown into it, and man was it good.  The party avoided a complete napalm disaster when Fizzleslicky summoned a celestial badger to distract the hell hound, who was about to fill the narrow, hero packed tunnels, with lava breath.  Snickersnack the badger was dead, and the hell hound hiked a leg on the smoldering blue ashes, melting the floor a little.

All the while the chain wrapped, undead dwarf continued to hammer away at a glowing metal link, a link possibly sealing the soul of young Jurin Threed, into the beast’s chain forever.  Kevalis clanked forth to taunt and do battle with the hell hound, while Zazzamook shifted around for the flank.  F’hal set loose a burst of holy energy, healing the party and damaging the Dead Smith.  His hammering abated, the undead began to survey the room with its dead eyes. Sophie, concealed in darkness took her shot burying an arrow into the creature’s writhing chains, and drawing its ire.

The hell hound then loosed its fiery plasma breath on more than half of the party, all of whom avoided the full force of the blast.  The Dark Smith moved towards Sophie, leisurely tossing its hammer and catching it, slowly, until it was upon her.  With a resonating crunch the hammer blow came and Sophie’s left knee was shattered.  Bone splintered and blood spouted as Sophie lay prone at the creature’s chain wrapped feet. It raised its hammer for the killing blow…

Fizzleslicky summoned a fiendish hawk which flew into the face of the Dark Smith, while Kevalis strode forward to engage both the Smith and his Hound at once. Seizing the opportunity, Zazzamook, shifted over to the anvil and grabbed the burning chain with both hands, ignoring the scalding burns from the chain and summoning every once of strength available (and I mean every once) the monk broke the half-forged link in twain. A dull pulse was emitted from the sundered link, which stunned the Dark Smith where he stood, dropping him to his knees.   

The hell hound turned on Zazzamook delivering two deadly bites and dropping the nearly dead monk to the cavern floor. Kevalis began bashing and stabbing into the beast taking advantage of its weakened state.  Sophie stood shakily on her broken leg took careful aim and fired over and over again into the Dark Smith’s stunned face.  With a shudder his head collapsed in like a rotten pumpkin and his physical form melted away.  All that remained were his hammer and his chain.  The hell hound, its master slain, returned to its plane of origin.

images © wizards of the coast, paizo, and blizzard. tnx.