by After barely making it out alive, they thought they had put the mess behind them and had gone their separate ways. Little did they know that Grak, son of the slain Orc Warlord Ulag, had been following all three of them (with a little help from a shadowy figure) seeking revenge.
Our Quest began with an extended introduction for the Heroes:
It’s been a few weeks since your encounter with Prince Magnus in the throne room where Vinny hastily made his escape with a handful of magical powder leaving Greg and Larry to suffer the consequences. In an attempt to stave off jail, or worse, Greg gave up what little gold he had and the Prince ordered them to leave his sight and never return. In that time you have all laid low. Vinny left for a neighboring city, hoping to blend in and disappear. Larry tried to drink away the unpleasantness of the event. And Greg, being Greg, figured that the best way to forget about the event was to find a new group of suckers to accompany him into the Maze of a long-lost wizard after a tip from Mentor.
All seemed quiet with no sign of any further trouble from Prince Magnus or the guards and you had moved on when one day, unexpectedly, you find yourself alone in a dark alley, walking into an ambush. A group of menacing orcs block your way brandishing some nasty looking weapons. A strangely clothed orc in the back with a cloak and a staff steps forward, and with a cracking voice squeals, “So this is one of the mighty heroes who killed my father, the great Ulag. Who would have thought that such a miserable excuse for a man could take down a great warlord like him? No matter. Now you are mine and you will suffer a slow, painful death. Take him! So commands Grak the Grand Wizard!” The orcs close in on you. As you ready your weapon to defend yourself or fight them off, you feel a sharp pain in the back of your head and all goes black.
You wake up to the sound of screams, scrapes, and shuffles. As you groggily shake off the fog in your head you recognize the screams as those of Prince Magnus. It sounds like he’s being dragged away down a hall outside. The sounds begin to echo and fade as he turns a corner but can make out the Prince proclaiming, “Once Sir Ragnar finds out what you’ve done, he’ll come for me! You’ll rue the day that you chose to attack the Empire like this. We’ll wipe out every single greenskin in the land!”
Once the shock of this wears off, you take stock of your surroundings and find yourself in a dark, dank prison cell. The cold stone floor is scattered with straw and bones and stained with dark splotches you’d rather not think about. In the cell with you are your former teammates who you thought long gone. They are battered and bruised and without their normal weapons, armor, and equipment. You look down to find that you, too, are missing your items. The door to the cell is locked and only minimal light shines in from a small barred window near the top. You feel both fear and anger rising as you realize the full weight of your situation and memories of the throne room incident and your companions’ parts in it flood over you.
From there the three began to argue. While Greg had given up his gold to the Prince, Larry had played dumb (which, let’s be honest, he was) and told them he had no gold when he had just as much as Greg. Larry, confused from his hangover didn’t really know what to say in his defense, and decided to turn on Vinny instead. The Elf gave a half-hearted excuse of having fallen under the spell of enchanted gold. They soon realized, though, that they would have to work together to get out and if they were able to rescue the Prince, all bounties would be dropped and they might even be able to get some gold out of it. But first, they had to get out and get their things. And if they got out of the cell, Greg declared, they’d make sure to keep any potentially “enchanted” gold away from Vinny.
Greg was able to find a rat bone on the floor and use it to unlock the cell door. Luckily there was no guard posted and our Heroes snuck out and began searching the dungeon. After several nerve-wracking minutes, praying that they didn’t stumble into any monsters, Larry opened a door in the northwestern corner and found a small goblin standing in front of a weapons rack and a half-closed cupboard containing their missing equipment. With a terrifying fire gleaming in his eye at the sight of his treasured sword, Jacqueline, he calmly explained to the goblin the world of hurt that would come to him if he stood in the way of the mighty barbarian reclaiming his love. The goblin took one look at the fearsome warrior and promptly ran away down the hall into the darkness.
Finally fully equipped and ready to find the Prince and the wretched Grak, Larry led the way as the Heroes made their way into the heart of the dungeon. Larry found the center room, opened the door, and was shocked to discover 6 monsters all gathered around a table feasting on the remains of an unlucky adventurer. Lucky the monsters were so loudly engrossed in their meal that none heard the door open or took any notice of the barbarian. There were few things Larry loved more in the world than driving Jacqueline’s blade into soft monster flesh, but this was a lot of monsters. He looked behind him and found that he had gotten too far ahead and it would take him companions some time to catch up to him.
Larry decided to slowly back away and see if he could find his way to the back entrance of the room. He went down the hall, turned the corner and nearly tripped over a Fimir. The creature let out a loud bellow and the banquet hall went silent for a moment before erupting in a cacophony of shouts and metal clanging as the monsters began to swarm out, wondering what happened and prepared for battle. Larry found himself trapped in a corner with a Fimir on one side, a swarm of creatures on his other, and his friends nowhere in sight. He hoped he’d be able to make it out of this battle, but if not, at least he’d die with Jacqueline in his hands, doing what he loved best.
The battle was hard and Larry took some serious damage, but they managed to destroy all the monsters and clear out the hallway and center room. After some rest (and a quick search of the body on the table for spare gold and trinkets, the Heroes continued on and eventually found themselves in a room with a few monsters and a large iron maiden against the far wall. The room seemed to be filled with the muffled sound of screams. After battling through the monsters, the group prepared to open the device and face the Prince, unsure whether he would be grateful to see them or still bitter at their past betrayal. They opened the doors and were surprised to find the maiden empty.
The muffled screams continued.
Confusedly, they searched for secret doors but found nothing. ‘He must be in another room,’ they thought. As they prepared to turn and leave, Vinny decided on a whim to search for traps, just in case, and found a small hidden switch high up on the side of the iron maiden. He pressed it and the back wall of the device swung open to reveal a hidden room. Peering in, they saw Prince Magnus laid out on a torture rack, with the wizard Grak standing to the side. As if on instinct, Greg shot out a Tempest spell and Grak was enveloped in a small whirlwind, unable to move.
Larry charged in and swung his blade at the orc, catching him across the chest. Grak seemed shocked by the ferocity of the unexpected attack and, with a quick wave of his hand, disappeared from the room. Vinny moved to cut Magnus free and help him up from the rack while Greg suspiciously eyed the Prince. The way Grak had disappeared and the way Grak had managed to find them all in the first place left the wizard with many questions. Magnus was grateful to the Heroes and was happy to rescind all bounties put on them and let them go on their ways with no fear of retribution.
Greg waved this aside, though, and peppered the Prince with questions to make sure that he was truly himself and not some magical illusion of Grak. When he was satisfied that the Prince was who he said he was, Greg turned his questioning to how the Prince had been kidnapped. Magnus defiantly told them that he was in the royal palace when the kidnapping took place. Greg and Vinny both found that unlikely and wondered how a band of orcs was able to get past the palace guards. After some additional questions and threats of leaving the injured Prince behind, he desperately told them the truth. He had been caught in a local brothel, and on the toilet, no less. It was an embarrassing admission and he begged them to keep his secret. After some bargaining and desperate pleading, they agreed to a stipend of 300 gold crowns each. Quarterly. The heroes agreed that for that sum, they should be able to remain conveniently forgetful and quiet about the details of the kidnapping.
They pressed on but the battles had been rough. Larry especially continued to be attacked by Fimirs who seemed to pop out of the shadows, and the barrage had left him in bad shape. They tried to rest but found little comfort in the barren halls and determined to fight on, hoping that caution would help get them through. Eventually they found a room with a warm fireplace, and settled by it in hopes of regaining some strength. Instead, they found a half-burned letter that brought even more unrest. Though the fire had taken much of it, they could make out that the skilled handwriting on the fine parchment seemed to detail their locations prior to their capture. All that remained of the signature on the bottom was the letter “R”.
Greg scowled. He could only think of one person who would know about the particular location of the Prince on that day. He showed the letter to the Prince and asked him if the writing seemed at all familiar. “Is it, perhaps, your trusted Sir Ragnar?” The Prince squinted at the parchment and his face darkened. “That traitor,” he muttered. “We need to get out of here. Help me and there might be some openings in the royal guard if you’re interested.”
After an encounter with a hobgoblin left them even more battered, Mentor sensed the direness of their situation and decided to intervene by magically contacting Greg. He let him know that, if Greg could get there, he had seen a spell scroll hidden under a table that would be able to get them through if they acted wisely. Greg searched the table and found a Water of Healing Scroll. With a renewed sense of hope, knowing that all would not be lost and that they had backup and a powerful figure watching over them, Greg began to formulate a plan.
Vinny still had memorized a spell to let him pass through stone. If they were able to make it only a little further down the hallway and Vinny focused hard enough, he should be able to pass through walls and scope out anything on the other side of doors at the end of the hallway, and make it back out without any harm. With that foresight, they would be able to figure out the best combination of spells to ensure a quick retreat to the exit, if it was there. If they had to fight, well so be it. The Prince was determined that they should kill Grak, but he was in no position to demand anything.
They made it down the hall and with extreme concentration, Vinny managed to make it through what turned out to be three separate rooms, one of which contained Grak and stairs to escape this foul dungeon. If they could just make it to the stairs they would be free.
And then they decided to scrap it and be proper Heroes. This was a strange feeling for Greg, but he’d been feeling it more and more since Mentor first recruited him. They would fight through these monsters and stop Grak. And if one of them died and couldn’t be brought back, well at least they went down in glorious battle. By Sigmar, they would get that Prince to safety.
And so Larry took the first door, ready to take down the sole orc and charge in at Grak from the side, while Vinny and Greg positioned themselves at the southern entrance to the stairwell room. And when they were ready, they charged in. Larry first into the east room where he took on the single orc with no trouble. Then he burst into the Grak's room plowing into and swiftly cutting down a second orc. Meanwhile Vinny and Larry threw open the southern door and together defeated the goblin leaving only Grak. The Grand Orc Wizard lunged forward with his staff and missed the Heroes. Larry retaliated and cut Grak down before he set off any of his Chaos spells.
Biding the Prince to join them, they basked in the glow of triumph and together left the dungeon, returning Prince Magnus to the palace (and taking the first installment of their reward hush money). From there it was off to the market and then to the tavern to drink, tell tales of victory, and rest up for their next adventure.
