Ye Olde Inn

by **Anderas** » Wednesday April 10th, 2019 12:19am

I want to present the quests that we use, "as played" in our Play by Post game. They will also contain a comment about the real life experience we made with this quest.
We changed the number of players participating during the campaign, so the quests shall not be understood as "the wisdom for balancing" or anything - it's just what we used.

I start right away, with the first quest; The Frozen Horror Quest 1, Xanon Pass

Layout (same as original py phoenix)

Quest 1 - A quest for one beginner Barbarian and four Mercenaries

Xanon Pass
Good luck, Barbarian, on this, your first of three trials! Servants of the Frozen Horror have overrun the fortress that guards Xanon Pass. This is the only pass over the Cyberian Range, which you must cross to reach Ice Mountain. An iron door is your entry into the fortress. You must find the wooden exit door that leads out to the far side of the pass

Notes:

Four mercenaries offer their help to the Barbarian; one of each kind. Place them next to the Barbarian, right before she opens the iron quest entry door.

A: If the Barbarian searches for treasure in this room, 75 Gold Coins are found in the chest.

B: The evil Crossbowman does not move but fires his crossbow at the Barbarian once during each of Zargon's turns until the Barbarian reaches him. If the Barbarian moves next to the Crossbowman and attacks, the Crossbowman surrenders immediately, offering his crossbow in exchange for his life. The Crossbowman then runs away. The Barbarian should take the equipment card.

C: If the Barbarian searches for treasure in the room, a shield is found in the tomb. Take the matching equipment card.

D: If the Barbarian searches for treasure in this room, a longsword is found in the weapons rack. Take the matching equipment card.

Wandering Monster: two Skeletons

In total, the mercenaries and the Barbarian together lost 14 Body Points; and that's with the additional attacks that come from the mercenaries. How a single Barbarian is supposed to survive, I don't know.

During the game, clmckay and kitch discussed that the northeast sector likely doesn't contain the exit as it is surrounded by a hallway; so that part is avoidable damage.

Maybe that's the solution, just don't go everywhere. On the other hand, if you take the minimum path, you won't have enough gold to buy mercenaries and survive part II.

Quest 2 - A Quest for three beginner heroes and four mercenaries.
Trial by Ice
Xanon Pass leads to an underground outpost on the slopes of the Cyberian Range. This outpost is a base of operations for minions of the Frozen Horror.It threatens several nearby villages. You must enter the outpost and slay one of the Frozen Horrors lieutenants, a Chaos Warrior named Krag. The only way in or out is through the Ice Cave entrance. Your Quest begins and ends there."

Notes:

This quest is adapted for a beginners Dwarf and Wizard; a Barbarian that played the first quest and four mercenaries.

A: This ice tunnel is connected to the ice tunnel in the other room "A". Any hero or monster landing on one of these squares immediately moves to the other ice tunnel square

B: This treasure chest contains the Armband of Ice (see corresponding artifact card)

C: If a hero searches for treasure in this room, a Potion of Warmth is discovered atop the sorcerer's table. (See the matching treasure card in this Quest Pack.)

D:If a hero searches for treasure in this room, 120 Gold Coins are found in the chest.

E:The Chaos Warrior Krag is in this room. His stats are as follows:
Movement: 7, Attack: 5, Defend: 5, Body: 4, Mind: 3

Wandering Monster: two Goblins

This quest was WAY to close for my taste. All mercenaries died, and the hereos had four body points left among them.

I added some of the small monsters to accommodate Dwarf and Wizard in the quest - However I underestimated just how much damage those two wandering goblins would deal.
I normally calculate three wandering monsters per quest, our hero group found six or seven.
Then our heroes had the wandering monsters in exceptionally bad circumstances, like, being completely alone, draw two treasure cards with a special item, get 1d6 gold and miss the next turn, plus a wandering monster. Woah! three attacks for free for the two goblins! Suddenly even Goblins get really really dangerous.

Here, an overview about what I thought I changed. (what? :-D

)

TheFrozenHorror-02-TrialbyIce_US_adapted_2019_show_difference.png

Why "what I thought"? After the quest was over, I double checked and found out that in the original is a Yeti together with Krag in the boss room (top left sector, the third room).
I did not have that one, an I don't know where and when I lost it. I did not remove it consciously. But I can tell you, if the Yeti had been there, the game would have ended with a total party kill.

TheFrozenHorror-02-TrialbyIce_US_adapted_2019.png

by **Anderas** » Monday May 20th, 2019 12:14am

Made the first monster card

Sadly the yeti image was taken apparently from a misprint.

by **Anderas** » Wednesday June 12th, 2019 11:32am

Quest 3 - A quest adapted for a beginner Elf and Dwarf and Wizard and the Barbarian from Quest 2
The Rescue
The minions of the Frozen Horror have captured Gothar, the Barbarian tribe's Great Elder. He has been taken to an evil Chaos stronghold near Ice Mountain. Gothar has great wisdom, but he is old and frail. He cannot survive long in the cruel hands of the creatures of Chaos. Your final test is to enter the stronghold, find Gothar, and bring him out safely. Begin on the spiral stairway and return to it to end your Quest.

Notes:

A: If a hero searches for treasure in this room, the weapons rack holds a Battle Axe. They can take the corresponding equipment card.

B:If a hero searches for treasure in this room, 70 Gold Coins are found in the chest.

C: If a hero searches for treasure in this room, a Helmet is found in the chest. They can take the corresponding equipment card.

D:This chest has a poison needle trap on it. If a hero searches for treasure before the trap is disarmed, they lose 1 Body Point. One hundred and fifty Gold Coins are found in the chest.

E:As the heroes enters this room, the two Chaos Warriors have just tied Gothar down on the rack. They ignore Gothar and concentrate on attacking the heroes. If the heroes kills the Chaos Warriors, Gothar is freed. Use any available Hero figure for Gothar; place him next to the heroes. Gothar is under the Barbarian's control and moves after him. Gothar's stats are as follows:

Movement: 6 Attack: 1 Defend: 2 Body: 2 Mind: 2

The Barbarian must bring Gothar to the spiral stairway to fulfill this final test. Any monsters encountered attack only the Barbarian, as they are under orders to capture Gothar alive. If the Barbarian dies, Gothar is automatically captured.

Wandering Monster: 2 Orcs

I've got the feeling that the motivation was running out after the heroes cleared the top part of the quest and saved Gothar.
Also, saving Gothar was somehow strange - as the monsters have the clear order not to hurt Gothar, only to attack the Barbarian (or in this case, the others from the group); Gothar could march totally unhindered to the quest entry and stand there while the heroes were off to find some treasure in the southern part.

There was no alarm.
There was no danger for Gothar.

I had a new Elf, the Wizard who bought one additional spell and the Dwarf from last time (swinging the Battle Axe from A and wearing the Helmet from C in the end :-)

). I adapted it to the dwarf as he was in the beginning (AT 2, DE 2) so I removed some few monsters, no big changes actually. For a Barbarian alone it would have been much too difficult, for the entire group it was not without challenge, but I'd say quite exactly good.
Here the changes that I made to the quest compared to the original. Only the three blue marked monsters were removed. I added a hint for a side quest in the Altar Table: Quite differently from the original, there is no fully equipped hero in the group that will attempt Quest 4. Also all the artifacts from the base game are missing, so where to get them?

If I were to propose some additional changes to the original as solo quest for the barbarian, I wouldn't know where to begin. I guess the easiest change is to make it a group quest and then it's good.
As group quest, the two Chaos Warriors should not kill Gothar, but then all the rest of the map should try.

I made three more monster cards in the meanwhile.

Finally, just to annoy the heroes a little bit: Here's the treasure deck of this game. Yes, I draw everything in advance to make it faster, then I just cross of the cards that were taken.

by **Anderas** » Saturday October 19th, 2019 12:41am

Ok, the heroes decided to go with one of the HQ25 quests as the group is not yet full on equipment; and without full equipment the frozen horror may be a little bit too much.

It was the quest inspired by donkey kong, though with a little bit changed quest text.

A Quest for Heroes with at least 3 dice
The Stone Magician
You have found Map and scribble in an ancient dialect, describing a place where apparently a foul magician is hiding in an abandoned mine deep in the mountains.

It might be worth investigating as people say this magician has a wand of magic, an artifact of immense powers for the bearer.

Notes:

Run: In this quest, the heroes may give up their action to move three squares more.

A&B: This is the King of Dawn, an evil Gargoyle who conjurs mighty earth magic. Place him on the board right at the beginning of this quest. He conjures rolling stones that start their journey on the square marked "A". He is then exhausted: He conjures the next rolling bolder when the last one has passed the letter "B". During the set up, place rolling stones also in the lower left and lower right corner. On the squares marked with arrows, they change the direction and continue rolling. The stones move right at the beginning of Morcar's turn. They move with 2d6 movement, with results lower than 5 counting as 5. Start with the one the furthest away from the King of Dawn.
When they hit the blocked square marker at the end of the long corridor, replace them by a rubble marker. Once the Heroes have understood that the way back is blocked, just take the freedom and remove rolling stones that have passed out of the heroes LOS. When you're out of Rolling Stones, use skull markers instead. If a Hero is hit by a rolling stone, roll 4 white dice for damage. They can defend as normal.
A hero inside a pit trap is save from rolling boulders passing overhead.

C: Strong earth magic seems to fill this room, filling the air with vile chaos smell. The Heroes can interrupt the ritual by closing the sorcerer's book. The recoil gives everyone headache, and it is impossible for a time to use earth magic. Also the heroes may not use earth magic in this dungeon from now on. The King of Dawn now accepts the times have changed and escapes through the exit door to the next dungeon.

D: The Fimir knows the chaos spells "Mind Control" and "Rust".

Wandering Monster: Orc

Interesting for me was:
* That Beastman right at the beginning is badly positioned, as he will be either rolled over immediately or prevent one hero from getting away
* The Minotaur in the lower left corner is just that bit too much.
* There was intensive searching for secret doors in order to find a way back to the stairwell.
* Around the southeast and northeast corner the heroes were really hesitating before running around the corner
* The stones, while generally well spaced, were still a little bit to close to each other

So I made a redesign of that quest for the next try:
No more Mino, that first Beastman removed, some secret passage to find in the northeast, southeast corner is easier to do now, the "B" which triggers the next stone some squares more to the right.

by **Anderas** » Saturday October 19th, 2019 1:01am

And the quest was not over once the Gargoyle fled!

A Quest for Heroes with at least 3 dice
Flee the Darkness!
After disabling the earth magic, you now hear a deep rumbling. Stones fall from the ceiling everywhere. Your way back is already becoming blocked. Find a way out before it is too late! Flee!

Notes:
Play this Quest directly after the last Quest. Body and Mind Points are fully restored, but Heroes may not visit the Armory.
Squares marked with the letters A, B and C represent where the ceiling caves in. These work like a falling block traps but with a different trigger. Note: A Hero needs to roll only one die for damage if he is hit by falling stones. Don't place the broken walls during setup.

At the beginning of each of your (Zargon's) turns after a room is first entered by a Hero, place a skull tile next to it and roll a red die. Add in the count of the skull tiles and compare this result to the number of the room found on the map. If the die result is greater, the ceiling starts to crumble. Return the skull tiles for the room to the box.

Now place falling block trap tiles on all squares marked "A", using the rules for sprung falling-block traps. The turn after any "A" squares have been triggered, spring falling block trap tiles on all squares marked "B" and place the broken wall tiles for this room. On the next turn, squares marked "C" are also sprung. On the turns following that, any square that begins with a Hero or monster in it springs a falling block trap.

Once all Heroes are out of the room, it collapses and remaining monsters die. Place blocked square tiles within all exits and return any inaccessible tiles to the box.

The Gargoyle represents the King of Dawn. It has the stats of a normal Gargoyle. When he is killed, the Wand of Magic can be found by any treasure search in this room.

Wandering Monster in this Quest: The Hero loses 1 Body Point due to stones falling from the ceiling.

I couldn't urge the heroes enough, in the beginning they just didn't believe there was any urgency at all.

That lasted only until the first treasure search delivered "You see cracks all along the ceiling. In terms of traps, this entire room is a trap". Then they started moving.

Those falling blocks cost only 1 BP on a roll of a skull, there are so many of them it can be deadly anyway. They are placed so that always an escape route stays open; also the walls are crumbling away if you stay behind too long so that you still can get out.

This map actually contains a level hack which I introduced intentionally. Games are more fun if you can discover something and then apply it to your advantage.
When all Heroes run out the next door, they cause the room to collapse and kill the monsters inside. So they won't need to fight all the monsters.
My heroes discovered it, but they didn't use it. :-)

I've made a failure, too. I rolled the room dice and added a new skull marker afterwards. The other way round there would have been a little bit more pressure, as it was the intention. But okay.
Wizard Wardoz nearly died, I guess with "a little bit more" pressure he wouldn't have been saved.
Also I completely forgot to hand out the Wand of Magic, which was the entire reason that the heroes were here in the first place. :oops: