Grak finally caught up to the heroes that killed his father, Ulag, and we played Legacy of the Orc Warlord last night. Well, most of the heroes that killed his father; Blizzard the Wizard was lost in a previous quest, so his brother Gizzard (same player, new
) was captured along with Tangerine the Barbarian, Miranda the Elf, and Lady Darwin the Dwarf.
This was the first time I've played this quest and seen the heroes go to the center room first. I remember playing this quest as a teen and the heroes somehow instinctively knew to check out the side rooms first back then. Not this time around. "Lets check out the center room!" was the rallying cry and the heroes soon found themselves facing several Orcs and a Fimir while unarmed.
They cleverly used the hallway to their advantage, funneling the monsters out one at time to whittle them down. After the battle, Miranda
searched for treasure and pulled a Heroic Brew, then the team moved forward to the eastern side of the board, even farther from their equipment.
Understandably, Tangerine
and Lady Darwin
led the way in the beginning, with their higher BP. But following the center room battle, all the heroes were down to 3 BP or less, except Gizzard
who was still at his full 4 BP. So Gizzard takes the lead and takes out the goblins. What fun to see the Wizard charging into combat! And doing well at that!
After taking out the monsters in the room with the torture rack, at least two heroes were down to 1 BP. I did not think they would survive another encounter without their equipment, so I made a GM choice that I'm sure some of y'all may not agree with: When Tangerine searched this room for treasure, the Fimir had part of a crudely drawn map which indicated an armory to the northwest. Yeah, yeah, I basically told them where to go, but it moved the game forward and kept things fun.
With their path a bit clearer now, the Heroes headed back and found the room containing the weapons rack. I included the red Orc and secret door that Anderas added to his variable questbook (
viewtopic.php?f=149&t=3070) and this was a super fun mechanic that I would definitely recommend! The Orc grabbed the gold and attempted his escape, but the heroes did not delay! Miranda took out the goblin that was in front of her, chugged her Heroic Brew, rolled enough movement to catch up to the red Orc and attacked again, taking him out and securing the team's gold! High fives around the table.
With their equipment found and almost half the map revealed already, the rest of the game played out as one might expect: Healing spells and potions were distributed to recharge the heroes and they eventually made their way to Grak's room. Gizzard cast Sleep on Grak, so when Grak woke up, he cast Sleep on Gizzard, but the Wizard broke the spell immediately. The heroes took out Grak and his minions, Gizzard got the Wizard's Cloak, and they made their safe escape through the stairway.