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.
