The Fastest most epic rescue of sir ragnar. by my 4 year old

[DullandRusty]

Sooo, I was playing with my two boys (ages 6 and 4). Up till now, i just always made up quests for them, so i could make things harder or easier on the fly, make stories with enough action but not to scary for a 4 year old, etc. well tonight we decided to do their first real quest from the quest book.

My oldest requested that he be able to rescue someone, which is a common thing we did in made up quests, where they rescue someone after which they can fight with you to make things a bit easier. So i choose the rescue of sir ragnar (without the homebrew aspect of him helping you that they have been usung lately).

Anyway, the quest took maybe 4-5 rounds TOPS, all because my 4 year old (and one small homebrew twist that went in an unexpected way)

Here is how it went...

Both boys wanted to be wizards. Luckily i have 2 wizard minis. My 4 year old had water and earth spells. His wizard was named "Wizzy", my 6 year old had fire and air and was using a different wizard mini i have thta he named "Old Beard"

I was the barbarian (moving under their direction), as well as morcar

The first round i went first, rolling enough to get out the door. I went down to the first goblin in the corner, killing him. Next came my 2 boys. Each rolled a double digit number and randomly moved in the direction of the room with the trap chest. On their next turn they killed the monster outside it and one went into the trap chest room, killing the goblin in their with a lucky dagger roll. They then directed me towards the bottom of the map where i came across the goblin outside the door on the bottom left quadrant. I killed him on my turn as well. Now here is where it gets interesting...

On their next turn, My 6 year old searched for traps and disarmed the chest trap with his action. My 4 year old then went to open it. Feeling like i have to reward them with something since they thought to search for traps, i fudge the rules a bit let him draw one random card from the artifacts (also since this was a oneshot quest and not planned as an ongoing campaign for them, thus it didnt matter if they were given an artifact now that should be given later as part of the campaign story). He's bound to draw spirit sword or orcs bane or a wizard item right???

Well........

Of course, he draws the Ring of return!!!

Im thinking "no biggie. Infact, that may speed up the quest a tiny bit when they EVENTUALLY do find sir ragnar, so they can warp right out and i may even get them to bed on time"

Well, i am instructed to take my barbarian into the bottom room where i see other monsters but a poor roll leaves me fighting them. On morcars turn, i take 2 damage.

So, back to turn 4 for my boys. Mind you, they each only have 2 spell groups too. My oldest sees no doors and decides, im going to go help daddy fight. He rolls a 12 exiting the room and gets darn close to the starting room. My youngest says "i'm coming to you daddy" then prior to rolling, he looks at his spell cards and asks, "what does this spell do?" pointing to Pass through rock...so maybe you can guess where this is going.
After explanation of the spell, He casts it on himself for his action and of course for his movement roll he chooses to go east from the chest trap room...right into sir ragnar's prison.

So a wizard, all by himself with sir ragnar with the alarm going off and all the doors opening. No way he survives i say. "mwuaahhh" i laugh as morcar.
Just look at all the monsters he has to lead ragnar through. A fimir for crying out loud.

Well, he says, "dad, does sir ragnar count as a hero?"
not realizing what he was asking i said "sure"
He promptly smiles from ear to ear, picks a card up from the table and say "boom!" Laying down ring of return.
And thus both he and sir ragnar warp to the spiral stairs successfully completing the quest while i promptly place my palm to my face.
My oldest then rolls another double digit movement roll and gets out on his next move, while all the monsters converge on me since every stinking door opened. Of course i try to flee and make it to the center hallway, where i promptly roll 2 for my movement roll on 3 consecutive turns and then am overrun by monsters from all sides.

As over 10 greenskins surround me, my youngest looks at me and says, "mwuuuahhh".

And thus, my barbarian is slain in the battle while my two young wizards made it out with sir ragnar, without suffering a scratch, thus concluding their first real quest.

[StratosVX]

Hahaha!! Smart kid you have there to figure out the easiest way out. I like how they both left you high and dry to complete the quest.

[DullandRusty]

Yup, the way they left me high and dry and then laughed about it makes me think i will have more morcars than heroes from my lot.
All in all, it was a blast and a lot of fun to see their little minds work.

[Goblin-King]

[lestodante]

This is really interesting to read for several reasons:
first I was surprised that both of them wanted to use the Wizard! When I played with my nephews and their cousins, none of them wanted to be the Wizard "because he is weak". All of them wanted to be the Barbarian.
Also curious they have only 2 spell sets each because in this way they are even weaker than usually (you used same stats I guess but just with 1 spell set less).
What happened is a case of non playtest! Effectively they should not own the Ring of Return, or things will be too easy as you stated. This should count also for future quests, they should not use ring of return on extra characters, because one of the main part of this quest is that Sir Ragnar need to reach the stairs without facing the death! So the hardest part is to go back on their steps protecting him but you hacked the game in this way.
Interesting also that they didn't care about the Barbarian, saving an unknown guy (Ragnar) but leaving their friend (daddy!!) in trouble while escaping to success.
Teach him he could have been even smarter if he used Fire of Wrath or Veil of Myst to help "daddarian" to escape: it could return useful next time!
Oh and finally, I am curious to see the other wizard miniature you used for the quest.

[Anderas]

I had a good laugh! Thanks for this report. The Rescue of Sir Ragnar is always food for a surprise.

[Rath of Un]

Ha, its funny how smart kids are! Sound like you guys had a good time.

[Kitch1982]

Me and my little lad (5 years old) have just started playing the first quest book and a lot of the stuff you mention rings true! We have the UK version though so no 'Ring of Return' sounds like a nice powered treasure!

[Thor-in]

Bested by your kids, hahaha. Got to love it when your kids outsmart you. My daughter does stuff like that to me all the time.

[wallydubbs]

Well, I was looking for some interesting stories regarding the Ring of Return... I guess this one takes the cake.

Although the ring isn't supposed to make an appearance until Quest 10, Morcar/zargon is allowed to change the rules as he sees fit.

When I played with my son, him controlling all 4 characters, after the Maze and Rescue of Sir Ragnar, he coupled all his gold together and bought a Helmet and Shield for the Barbarian. Then at the beginning of Lair of the Orc Warlord, he used the Wizard to cast Rock Skin on the Barbarian and went at it solo, thinking he was immortal. The Elf would go around, squirming behind him, searching for treasure in each room.
Although the Barbarian cleared out most rooms, the room just before Ulag had 3 orcs and a fimir waiting. Instead of fighting one at a time through the doorway, he charged in, flopping his first attack and was immediately surrounded. Although he managed to kill the Fimir, the orcs killed him.
The Elf wasn't too far behind, managed to kill one orc, but was overrun.
Not learning his lesson he sent the Wizard ahead to face the orc, leaving the Dwarf by the stairwell. The Wizard managed to take out 1 orc with Fire of Wrath, but died shortly after...
The Dwarf was the last one left and killed the orc... but there was still Ulag's room... bravely he went ahead, killed the 2 goblins and the Chaos Warrior... he took heavy damage and it came down to the Dwarf with 2 attack dice, 2 body points and 2 defense dice against Ulag with 4 attack, 5 defend and 2 body points. Though he was able to get one hit on Ulag, I had 3 skulls on my next attack and he only rolled 1 shield...

He's my son, so I was kinda rooting for him, but I couldn't let the stupid decision (going solo with just the Barbarian) go unpunished.