Ye Olde Inn

by **The Admiral** » September 18th, 2018, 4:10 am

Off to my brother's today for a short visit. We intend to play as much of the above quest pack as possible. As a prequel we are also playing 'In the Company of Ogres' from the Chaos Unleashed quests. Vicar will now become Warnoc, who will escape at the end. I Have playtested these and they were great fun. I liked the Heroes as Ogres, but amended the rules slightly for a less random approach. Heroes as Ogres are now all -2 Mv, +1 Hand to hand att, -1 Ranged att, +1 Def, +1 Bdy, -1 Mnd, +1 to trap disarming attempts and may not use a tool kit. The Rogue will also lose his stealth abilities. Their henchmen, rather than running off, will now be turned into goblins. The two Rangers into goblin archers, the two Men-at-Arms into goblin swordsmen and the two Elf Gladeguard into goblin spearmen.

To get an idea of the sort of party we play with, here is our group for these quests. It is a relatively weak party as it is just an offshoot (Eldred) from the main Barbarian's group:
Leader - Eldred the Elf with Longbow, Longsword, Blade of Athelorn, Goblin Cleaver, Helmet, Liffin's Armour and Elven Cloak of Passage (unused). Potions of Healing (4BP), Vision, Instinct, Defence, Air Walk, Restoration, Elixir of Life, Recall x2. 4 Pieces of Lambas Bread. He has trained his bow skill and is +1 die with bows.
+2 Elven Gladeguard henchmen.
Quest completed = Frozen Horror (7), The High Mage, Heralds of Chaos quests 4-6 (3), Flamethrowers, Forged in Fire, Touched by Death, Skraggmar (3).

The Norscan (Barbarian) with Battleaxe, Chainmail and Helmet. Healing Potion (1-6 BP's) and some Silver Liquid (all BP's + heals poison).
+2 Men-at-Arms henchmen.
Quests completed = The Abandoned Lair, Taking Back the Borderlands (5), Forged in Fire, Touched by Death, Skraggmar (3).

Kreed the Rogue with Longbow, Longsword and Leather armour. Healing Potion (4 BP's), Derma Verda and a Tool Kit.
+2 Ranger henchmen.
Quests completed = Same as The Norscan.

Special Henchman Klaus the novice warrior priest with 12 novice blessings from the Holy Book of Sigmar, Club, Shield, Quartz Ring, Command Scroll and Rod of Instinct.
Quests completed = Touched by Death, Skraggmar (3).

I'll be the Evil Wizard and Klaus.

As an aside, I was finally able to get in touch with Cory Tucholski, the designer of the Skraggmar/Warnoc/Ograk trilogy. I wanted to know if he ever finished the sequel quest about the recurring Lanmarr character. He said not, but as I had expressed an interest, even though his notes for this are 20 years old, he will do it!

These were three really interesting quests, that we both really enjoyed. The Ogre/Goblin concept was very different, and my brother really didn't like it at first. Took him a while to get his head round they were still Heroes, but just looked liked Ogres.

The Warnoc quest pack is tough, and my brother made the right decision to push everyone through the revolving room to what would be the quest exit, although he missed out on the 400 gold coins. The 2nd Warnoc quest is great fun with the Greenskins coming in behind the Heroes. My brother thought that just one group would come in, and stayed to fight. When he realised they came every turn he was outraged. "What am I supposed to do? This is impossible!" He cried. "Your supposed to run" I replied.

I scrapped the final quest entirely. It seemed alot of effort for just a final big battle. I just put Warnoc in the central room of Quest 2 and had the door to this room magically appear when the Altar of Death is destroyed and the entry door disappears. My brother was able to use the almost entirely useless 'Goblin Cleaver' to destroy the Altar.

The party pretty much finished the quest where they had started in terms of potions etc. Only the two Ranger henchmen survived. A man-at-arms tried to hold up the hordes of Greenskins, but with 5 defence dice he died on the first attack. An Elf Gladeguard then took over rearguard duty with 4 defence dice and he proved indestructible for a long period, allowing the others to push on unhindered from their rear. I felt quite sorry for him when he finally succumbed, but he'd done his job, as the Heroes were close to the altar by then.

Ograk next! :orc: