Redrawing the Dark Company

[lestodante]

Ohhh I've seen Anderas anticipated me with the maps!!! God Job anyway! And great skill to Pancho for hand-drawing his maps with so many details.
Pancho, what can you tell us about the difficulty level, is it the same of the original (very hard) or did you manage to make it a little easier? I remember all the monsters return when you enter again in an already visited section.

[Pancho]

Thanks Anderas, it’s really great to see the maps like that.

Dante, it’s difficult to say for sure but I think it might be a bit easier. With this system there’s no need to go back to a previous level, so the board won’t get reset with monsters.
It’s probably psychologically easier on the players too; now they know that there are four maps to explore one after another (like a traditional 4 quest pack) rather than confusingly all jumbled up. They shouldn’t feel as hopelessly lost.

It’s still brutal though, with the no health and spells recovery.
Thinking about it, it might even be harder than the original; on two or three occasions I combined the monsters from multiple rooms into just one room due to space constraints. I always feel that a room with lots of foes is harder than two rooms with the same number split between them, because they are more likely to survive the Heroes attack and be alive to fight back.
Also, if you look closely at the original pack, there is a decent chance that the players will choose a route through to Hinsgrim going through only 8 out of the 13 stages, completely missing out some of the hardest (and most interesting) stuff. The maps I drew make it slightly more likely that the Heroes will take a more circuitous route.

[Pancho]

Dungeon Level 4

A - The Heroes start here if they exited the previous level through the west gate.
B - The Heroes start here if they exited the previous level through the east gate.
C - This treasure chest is empty.
D - This treasure chest contains one magic crossbow quarrel. When fired at a monster it automatically inflicts one body point of damage. There is also a further unlimited supply of normal crossbow quarrels in the chest.
E - This treasure chest is a trap. If a Hero opens the chest it will explode and cause the player to lose two body points.
F - This treasure chest contains 100 gold coins and a potion of healing which will restore up to four lost body points.
G - If a Hero searches for treasure in this room he will find a potion of healing which will restore up to four lost body points.
H - This treasure chest contains a trap. If the chest is opened, three darts shoot from the lid. Roll three combat dice and for each skull rolled, the Hero who opened the chest loses one body point.
I - This is Hinsgrim, the Chaos Warrior. He rolls the same number of dice as a Doomguard Warrior but has five body points.
The X marks the position of Delzarron, a Chaos Sorcerer. He rolls the same number of dice as a normal Chaos Warrior in combat but has three body points. Delzarron may also cast a spell, once per turn. This spell will summon one undead creature (zombie, skeleton or mummy) which may be placed anywhere in the room and attack and move immediately.
Once Hinsgrim and the other monsters in this room have been defeated, read the following to the players: 'There is a whirl of blue light in the corner and Mentor appears to you. "You have done well my champions. Each of you shall be rewarded with a Ring of Brilliance. Come now! I shall return you to the Emperor!" There is a blinding flash as you are thrown through a gate of teleportation. The Emperor awards each of you with a Ring of Brilliance.

The top two dungeon quarters, and the bottom right one, are almost unchanged from the official quest. I changed the layout to fit in the pink stage (bottom left quarter), and the final blue stage (centre room) has had the approach corridor changed. I had to leave out the two secret doors that also give access to Hinsgrims lair, as I ran out of secret doors to use. I don't know what you guys think about this, as these doors could be important (I think the intention of the designers was to allow the Heroes to attack Hinsgrim from multiple points if they wished). I wanted to use a double door for this room instead, but I've also used up the full complement of doors

[Anderas]

Level 3 Heroscribe

Level 3 US.png

Level 3.png

[Anderas]

aand, Level 4

Level 4.png

Level 4 US.png

Here the xml files if someone wants to continue editing them.

Panchos Rewrite.zip

[lestodante]

Dungeon Level 4
The top two dungeon quarters, and the bottom right one, are almost unchanged from the official quest. I changed the layout to fit in the pink stage (bottom left quarter), and the final blue stage (centre room) has had the approach corridor changed. I had to leave out the two secret doors that also give access to Hinsgrims lair, as I ran out of secret doors to use. I don't know what you guys think about this, as these doors could be important (I think the intention of the designers was to allow the Heroes to attack Hinsgrim from multiple points if they wished). I wanted to use a double door for this room instead, but I've also used up the full complement of doors

I think it is better to insert the 2 missing doors. You have already used a lot of secret passages, there are only 4 in the main box set (european version) so it will be necessary to prepare a sheet with additional secret door tiles to make this playable properly.
Also... Can I translate this in Italian and share?
PS: thanks again Anderas for the xml files!

[Pancho]

Lestodante, yes of course feel free to do an Italian version. The quest notes are almost entirely the same as the original anyway.
As well as some extra secret doors a player will also need a second stair tile too. The two extra secret doors should be added to Hinsgrims central room; one behind each of the dark warriors stood in the corridor outside.

Would it be ok for you to add these to the map Anderas? Thanks. Your Heroscribe maps are a thing of beauty!

[Anderas]

They're there now

[Pancho]

Sorry Anderas, Level three is also missing the door into the centre room. Thanks for doing these.

[Pancho]

I added colour to my hand-drawn maps, purely to aid comparisons between the redrawn quest and the layout of the 13 stages in the official adventure.