The Tyrant's Tomb - a solo quest pack

[Pancho]

You’re right about Cacogast being the thing that makes the quest too deadly. I’ll reduce the Trolls movement I think. He’s noted as being fast in the book, but 10 is just too fast. Maybe 6?
An additional aid would be to tell the Hero on his approach to the toll gate that it is owned by Cacogast, a Troll. In the book the Elf does indeed know this beforehand, and counts Cacogast as an old enemy that needs to be avoided. There could even be a hint in the quest notes that without paying the toll, there is only the option of breaking through the wood or magically opening it. This, along with the knowledge that a Troll waits behind, might make the player choose another option.

The Elf should really be using his bow a lot more than the dagger. The layout of most of the quest allows him to dance back and fire against most of the goblins, and even versus the Troll if it’s movement is reduced.

[wallydubbs]

I understand you're trying to maintain a sense of continuity with the books, and I think you did that by preventing spells from effecting Cacogast, but Cacogast's speed is only relative to the Elf's rolls.

The reason I suggested 4 is because I'm taking into account room size, with lucky rolls Cacogast has the potential to deal 8BP in 2 turns. I'm trying to avoid that.
Considering the size of the 4x5 room and two small 2x3 rooms, the Elf would not be able to get far enough away from Cacogast and keep him in line of sight to land a 2nd attack before Cacogast catches up to him.

In my opinion the only reason the Elf survived this encounter in my playtest was because A.) He had a Healing spell he used earlier and B.) he utilized a Heroic Brew.

Looking at where Cacogast starts he can reach the Elf on his first turn regardless of where the Elf stands to make his initial attack (assuming it's with the bow and arrow). If you limit Cacogast to 4 movement the Elf could make it to the opposite end of the room in 7 spaces and Cacogast can't reach him, so this is heavily dependent on the speed of the Elf, if he rolls he can't avoid a 2nd attack. This'll make the Elf's movement paramount to his survival.

I'm assuming the Elf would move as far away as possible,
fire a shot, Cacogast would give chase... If Cacogast's movement exceeds 4 he'll be able to catch up to the Elf on every turn. He'll fall short with 4 spaces, but when the Elf moves again and shoots, if Cacogast is alive, he'll indeed catch the Elf because that 1 space makes a world of difference.

[Pancho]

Cheers Wallydubs, I’ll have a think about it. I get what you’re saying but I think 4 movement is just too feeble for a forest troll in a forest. There’s nothing that moves so slowly in the HQ bestiary. Maybe there are better ways for the Elf to avoid defeat; such as avoiding fighting Cacogast altogether, casting Double Image or Flashback or the Healing spell, retreating all the way up back to the corridor. It might even be better to reduce its attack to 3, rather than its movement to 4.

Also, I just re-read this quest and I had the Trolls movement as 8, not 10. I was surprised at myself that I would ever make it so high as ten, until I checked it and realised it never was!

[wallydubbs]

Oops

[wallydubbs]

Also, I just re-read this quest and I had the Trolls movement as 8, not 10. I was surprised at myself that I would ever make it so high as ten, until I checked it and realised it never was!

My bad, I probably got it mixed up with the Spider.

Anyhow, if I'm lucky I'll get to Quest 2 on Saturday.

[lestodante]

If you are reading this Lestodante, what do you think? Put the spell back to a flat 4BP. Or even 5BP, differentiating it from other healing spells and tailoring it to the 6BP Elf?

Well... I am a fan of random events that can change your fate!!!
I also wanted to make it different from the other 2 healing spells so I suggested the die roll that could heal from 1 to 6 BP. I think the Wizard is magically stronger than an Elf so I don't like the idea tha a Elf can heal more BPs than a Wizard.
So if you are going to set a standard value I'd prefer 4, not 5.
Also consider all the events can be random, even the player can chose another set of spells and have no healing spells or he could find up to two potions of healing in th etreasure deck if he's lucky.
We should not calibrate the spells depending by a single quest but they must be more or less effective depending by each situation and by what else the Hero has in his equipment till that moment.

[lestodante]

Also for the Deep Sleep spell if you wish to change it, I can suggest this version by (if I'm not wrong) Anderas or Stoner:
"Any one monster you choose that has 3 Mind Points or less instantly falls asleep. They may not defend whilst asleep but will wake up if attacked* in any way. The sleep lasts for 1D6 turns if not attacked (ends at the end of the casters turn)."

*I would change "if attacked" with "if wounded" so the monster can't defend the first time he's attacked.

[wallydubbs]

So, this one was really unfortunate, but interesting:
The proceeded with caution doing his 2 searches in the hall and went in to have his first battle with the two . His initial attacked the first one, but the 2nd rolled in attack, which the failed to defend. Losing 2 BP right at the start... he then killed that , did 3 searches and found 25 gold.
Out the door, down the hall, killed the other and was disappointed to find no secret doors.
All the way back he goes into the room with the . had first attack and he killed the . 3 searches for none, none and a Wandering monster. A jumps in and again rolls , but this time managed 1 . Its next attack was for 1 , which was blocked. then killed it and went into the small room: no traps, but he found the secret door and then did another Treasure search, which drew a Wandering monster again. A attacked for , blocked 1 but took 1 damage. 's 2nd attack failed and rolled on his turn.
Into room A the encountered the knight, who demanded tribute. So far the lost 4BP, so found his best bet was to pay off the with his 25 gold... if it were 50 he probably wouldn't have done it. So the stepped aside and let pass.
Into the next room the spotted the pit trap and secret door while a Treasure search drew a Potion of Healing.
Realizing that the secret door was leading further across the board he decided to back track and check the other small room... this is where he encountered the . His initial attack was blocked, so the attacked for 1 but blocked that. attacks again for , but the again deflected the blow. attacked for and only blocked 1, losing a 5th body point. 's next attack was , but the rolled ... at which the point said "to hell with this" and ran ... the gave chase but wasn't able to catch him, as ran through Room A the folled and the knight demanded tribute from the !!!
ran off ahead while the attacked for . This must be an excellent fighter, he blocked that and then attacked the for .
I assumed the defends with s too... he did block 1 but took 1 damage.
ended his previous turn on the secret door tile and then rolled for movement, so he entered the next room but didn't have enough movement to attack the the . The and attacked. Although both rolled 1 only 1 hit got through, dropping to 6BP.
Meanwhile the blocked the 's next attack yet again and delt 1 more damage onto him.
killed the on his next attack.
attacked for , which blocked.
The finally rolled and the 's lucky defense ran out and was killed.
rolled on his next attack, allowing the to take advantage with . rolled the same on defense and was taken to 0BP, forced to use a Potion of Healing, which only gave him . Although he killed the on his next attack a Treasure search resulted in a Hazard, arrow striking him from the wall.
Now that the was dead, desperately needed another Potion of Healing, so he went back to the small room and performed a Treasure Seach, but only found Holy Water.
Unfortunately for the , when he opened the next door expecting a 3x4 room, it was a valley with 2 s and a . He bravely attacked the first , but rolled ... he was then surrounded and murdered....

So this was a bit unfortunate and a little depressing. Although I only got half way through it and will try it again some time, I do have a few questions on the game play:
1.) Does the Elf Knight defend with s or s?
Although the is armed with a spear too, is he allowed to double weild? I didn't quite play it that way... and if so, what are the rules to double weilding?
If I'm not mistaken the Spear allows him to only roll 2 combat dice, so the Broadsword was the better option, but now upon seeing how the fight in the valley went, I suppose opening the door and throwing the spear would've been a better tactic. But it's lost once thrown, yes?

[lestodante]

Also for the Deep Sleep spell if you wish to change it, I can suggest this version by (if I'm not wrong) Anderas or Stoner:
"Any one monster you choose that has 3 Mind Points or less instantly falls asleep. They may not defend whilst asleep but will wake up if attacked* in any way. The sleep lasts for 1D6 turns if not attacked (ends at the end of the casters turn)."

*I would change "if attacked" with "if wounded" so the monster can't defend the first time he's attacked.

I was thinking about the following variation too, it is very close to the original but fixes it: "This spell may be cast on any monster within your line of sight, as long as the monster has from 1 to 3 Mind Points. The monster falls asleep immediately and stays asleep until the end of your next turn. The monster cannot defend against a Hero's attack while it is asleep.".
What do you think?

[Pancho]

Very interesting Wallydubs. The Elf Knight fighting the Fimir was great. To be entirely truthful I didn’t even account for that possibility when drawing up the Quest.
I’m sorry it was a bit unfortunate. I guess the Barbarian was very unlucky with the multiple wandering monsters and not rolling as well as the Elf in Quest one. Hopefully he’ll do better next time.

The Elf Knight can defend on black shields. I’ll add a note to clear that up.
As for the Spear, I didn’t intend double-wielding capability. It’s included in his possessions as a minor boon, for possible diagonal attacks and as a one-off ranged weapon. If the Barbarian does lose this weapon, it’s no problem as he gets to upgrade to a better version of a spear later in the same quest, if he lives that long...