Tuesday Night HeroQuest!

[Anderas]

Thanks for that report. Maybe it should be mentioned that it is hot in here right when the heroes enter the room?

For the Dwarven Kings,
As far as I remember the speciality of this quest was that there were monsters entering and hunting the heroes.
How did that play out?

[lucasdp]

The Hall of the Dwarven Kings went pretty well. Not my favorite quest, but I think the heroes enjoyed it.

I made one "mistake" that kind of threw me off as game-master... I usually use downloads of Phoenix's questbooks to plan the quest beforehand on my laptop, but I'm using the real Kellar's Keep questbook when we play. Well, there's a difference in the text between the two...
In Phoenix's version: "When the last Hero passes the square marked 'A'..."
In the original: "When the first Hero passes the square marked 'A'..."

Two heroes had already passed the A square before I noticed the difference, so at that point, I felt I had to stick with waiting until the last hero passed it. And having played it that way, I'm going to have to recommend playing it the original way it is written. I'm sure Phoenix had some reason for changing it (a hero with shitty dice rolls could get stuck last in that hallway and be in trouble, I suppose), but I felt like the heroes had way too much time to put distance between themselves and the war party. They were basically already in the center room before the war party was any real threat.

Next, I found the Skeletons of the Dwarven Kings to be a little anti-climactic, but I think that was my own fault. I had let myself get excited about having four boss monsters, only later to realize that they're not even as strong as Mummies. Anyway, while Lady Darwin the Dwarf guarded the door against the war party, the other heroes dispatched the undead dwarves. When Lady Darwin's health got low, Miranda the Elf took over guard duties, while the heroes searched the tombs and found the secret door. Lady Darwin took care of those little goblins and Miranda searched for the next piece of Grin's Stone Map. Vrag the Barbarian took out one or two more from the war party, then the heroes made a run for the exit.

Looking at The Great Citadel for this evening, I'm considering moving the piece of the stone map, as per this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=871. I must agree with Aeryn B that the possibility of the heroes getting through this quest without facing Gragor at all sounds like a total bummer for Zargon. I guess there's not much time for input before we play, but please let me know if anyone has any thoughts on such a rearrangement.

[lucasdp]

Holy cow, The Great Citadel is a good quest! As mentioned in my previous post, I did make the change of moving the piece of Grin's stone map to a new treasure chest in the room with Gragor, the evil magician, but this would have been a difficult quest for the heroes regardless.
First, I want to note that I probably wouldn't have gotten to use Gragor at all if I hadn't moved the piece of the stone map. The multiple doors at the start of the quest led to the heroes splitting up to explore. Vrag the Barbarian took the southeast rooms (where the map piece would have been originally) while the others checked the dead end rooms to the left and then the center room. After dispatching the monsters in the center room Gizzard the Wizard and Lady Darwin the Dwarf continued north to the "undead corner" while Miranda the Elf headed west and found the corridor full of greenskins. While Miranda, Gizzard, and Lady Darwin were taking care of the foes they discovered, Vrag was still dealing with the few goblins and orc and trying to search the lower rooms.
I should note that the dice were really in Zargon's favor that night. I was rolling really well the whole time, while most of the heroes, Vrag especially, were getting screwed by the dice.
Anyway, about one or two turns after Vrag was able to search the chest where the map piece would have been as written, Gizzard and Lady Darwin were trying to lure their undead foes into the hallway, when Gizzard stumbled upon the hallway to the exit, which is of course filled with greenskins! This forced a quick strategy change, as they flanked the hallway to face the monsters one-at-a-time.
So, you can see, if kept as written, at this point the heroes would have found the map piece and the exit, without even opening up Gragor's room.
Lady Darwin and Gizzard did their best to hold back the horde while Miranda and Vrag tried to come to their aid. Gizzard fell in battle, but was restored by the Rings of Devotion. Eventually, the heroes defeated all the monsters here and continued their search.
When they found Gragor, I got to have a little fun with the Chaos spells. The heroes tried to lure Gragor out into the hallway, but he cast Summon Orcs for more reinforcments and protection. With the orcs as guards, Gragor followed out into the hallway and cast Rust on Miranda's Battle Axe. Lady Darwin was cutting down the orcs quickly, making her way to Gragor, when he cast Lightning Bolt!, hitting her and Vrag. This was the end of Vrag, as the lightning cut through him, taking his last two body points.
After this, Gragor was still outnumbered and retreated back into the room. Miranda, having lost her Ax, equipped her crossbow and shot at Gragor. The shot was true and Gragor fell. Lady Darwin searched and found the map piece as well as the spell scrolls on the table. Miranda used her Elixir of Life to revive Vrag, and they made their exit safely, having defeated all monsters in the quest.
This was a good, tough quest that Zargon can have a lot of fun with, even without the evil magician. Like I said, the greenskin horde at the exit was able to kill the Wizard and even if the heroes had been able to leave after defeating that group, it would still have been a good quest. But, on the other hand, it would have been such a waste to not get to use that magician. Choas spells are great, and Zargon doesn't get them in every quest. I think moving the location of the map piece definitely made this quest harder and longer, but it was worth it to get to use the Chaos spells. Furthermore, this is the first time in a long time that I have been able to kill one of the heroes, besides the low-body-points Wizard. It was nice to feel like I won this quest, and nothing wrong with making them use that Elixir of Life they've been holding onto for so long. Especially when there's a chance to pick up another in the next quest...

[Anderas]

That was good read, thanks!

This is one of the quests that made me thinking if it would not be better to change a little bit or to add a twist here and there. But it turned out that for your hero group, it was just perfect. I will copy that idea without asking, and move Grak's stone map piece to Gragor's room.

Did you already develop a good idea what to do with the completed map? I think it is quite underwhelming that you can see the basic quest layout and the crack. I would rather so something else but as always, when i need an idea, there is none.

[lucasdp]

Did you already develop a good idea what to do with the completed map? I think it is quite underwhelming that you can see the basic quest layout and the crack. I would rather so something else but as always, when i need an idea, there is none.

I hadn't put much thought into it, frankly. With this being my first time playing through Kellar's Keep, part of me is curious to see how that bit works out "as written." Looking at the "stone map" now compared to the actual quest map, I think the only thing the heroes could gather from it is that they don't *need* to go into most of the rooms. But, even if they figure this out, I bet they'll check them anyway, out of exploratory curiosity.

My heroes haven't really been asking about the map, so I don't know that they're going to put a whole lot of stock into it, anyway. Of course, we'll see if that changes when they find the fourth piece during tonight's quest!

[lucasdp]

Last Tuesday night, we played KK Q7: The Eastern Passage. This was kind of a rough one. When folks talk about Kellar's Keep being not-the-most-exciting quest pack, this is definitely one of the quests they are referring to.

First, the heroes found the chest with the last piece of the map very quickly, but that seems to be the design of this quest: You find what you're looking for, but then getting out is a pain in the ass.
Then, they faced Ograk and his minions. This was a pretty good battle. I liked having the secret door for back up, and I came pretty close to taking out both the Wizard and the Barbarian here (Poor Vrag the Barbarian! The dice gods have not been kind to him over the last few quests!).
Once the heroes had vanquished Ograk's forces, they split up; Vrag and Gizzard the Wizard heading to the northwest rooms, Lady Darwin the Dwarf and Miranda the Elf checking out the south rooms. Well, Miranda found the false door first, and all the heroes started heading that way to deal with the corridor of traps. But Vrag was SO CLOSE to opening a door which would have revealed the actual exit. I really wanted that to happen; for the heroes to have to make a decision which exit to attempt.
But alas, they all headed towards the false exit and took an excruciatingly long time disarming all the traps before realizing that "the door just won't budge." That's all I said, and there was speculation that they needed to find a key or something and someone, I think Miranda, reminded the group that there were still two unopened doors and an unexplored hallway.

So they went to searching again, finding the Elixir of Life under the table and then the stone Gargoyle.
This setup was pretty good. At least two heroes, Vrag and Miranda, I believe, were hit by spear traps, and Gizzard wasted a Ball of Flame on the Gargoyle.
Once they realized the Gargoyle was a statue and not going to harm them, Miranda said, "Lots of traps means this probably isn't the way to go," and she and Vrag headed to check out the other unexplored room while Lady Darwin and Gizzard disarmed the remaining traps (Gizzard actually sprung one here, and found himself in a pit trap for a turn).
Eventually, all heroes found their way to the north hallway and the exit, after taking out that last Chaos Warrior.

I could tell this wasn't anyone's favorite quest, and I don't know if I could think of how to rewrite to make it better. The problem, in my opinion, is that the heroes have never really seen a false exit (or two exits) before like this and so, if they find the false exit first (like my heroes did), they will almost certainly head that way. A corridor full of traps gets boring after the third or fourth one, in my opinion, and then once you get through all that, it's not over...
Of course, on the other hand, if the heroes find the real exit first, they will likely head that way without exploring more, and then this becomes a typical "find the treasure, kill the monsters, get out" quest.
Ideally, you would want the heroes to become aware of both exits at the same time to see their decision, but I'm not sure how Zargon could force this to happen.
Anyway, we got through it, and Belorn's Mine is next. All the falling ceiling tiles look like fun, but I do have one question. Note B, "This group of monsters is looking for the gold." What am I supposed to do with this information? I could have just one or two of the monsters attack and the rest scatter because they were looking for gold, not a fight! That could be interesting, maybe. Anyone else have any thoughts?

[GimmeYerGold]

Anyway, we got through it, and Belorn's Mine is next. All the falling ceiling tiles look like fun, but I do have one question. Note B, "This group of monsters is looking for the gold." What am I supposed to do with this information? I could have just one or two of the monsters attack and the rest scatter because they were looking for gold, not a fight! That could be interesting, maybe. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Maybe the monsters could use their action to take the next card from the treasure deck showing gold, gems, or jewels, and run away with it. The treasure can be reclaimed if the monster is killed.

[Saiyaforthelight]

My rewrite of this quest makes both exits a clear choice and the splitting of the party with the Priest and Paladin from an earlier quest a choice made by the players. Don't know if this helps, but it might offer an alternative route?

-Saiya-

[knightkrawler]

Saiya, this is great quest writing right there, with the double door to C lending a certain probability to several heroes being chased down towards exit 1.
That's what these features are for. I like that quest, especially for players that like to mix it up a little, playing different heroes in successive quests.

Lucas, thanks again for the batreps. Again, simply invaluable.
I decided to make Kellar's Keep the basis for some new monsters. The Orcs had their trilogy (Blackblood), and will have another questpack centered around them,
but the theme and storyline of KK lends itself to "Skaven" and "Chaosdwarfs".

[Saiyaforthelight]

Lucas, thanks again for the batreps. Again, simply invaluable.

Can't agree more - love reading the post Lucas.

I was having similar thoughts with Kellar's Keep. Lends itself to Chaos Dwarves nicely. Pondering how to insert them into the storyline. As for Skaven, I think that rat-folk in Belorn's mine could work really well. They might then pursue our intrepid heroes through the rest of the campaign. A giant spider boss lurking in the shadows would be cool too. Can't wait to see what you put together Knighkrawler!