[Quest Pack] [5 Quests, 6 Encounters] - Karak Vlag

[clmckay]

I've been working on this for a bit. It's effectively done. We're playtesting through it now, so I thought I'd throw it up here.

There are cards included that are not referenced in the quest pack. That's intentional. I lacked some creativity while doing up the cards, so I made extras to swap out on the fly if needed, depending on the Heroes. This was also partly a vehicle to let my Heroes travel far and wide.

Hope someone else can get some fun out of it. Alter as needed to meet your groups needs.

[Additional Components Needed: 1 Chaos Champion, 6 Doomguard Warriors, 5 Dwarf Warriors, 2 Ghosts, 6 Giant Bats, 8 Giant Rats, 6 Orc Soldiers, 2 Skeletons w/ shields (optional), 1 Closed Double Door (from Ye Olde Inn), 1 Open Double Door, 2 Barrel Tiles, 5 Cavern Tiles (from 2006 D&D Basic Game Set-optional), 17 Coffin Tiles (from Return of the Witch Lord or MWS), 2 Crates (from Agin's Inn Archive), Dwarven Forge Tile (from Kellar's Keep), 2 long and 2 short Icy River Tiles (from Barbarian Quest Pack), 4 Iron Entrance and 1 Wooden Exit Doors (from KK or RotWL), +3 Open Doors, 1 Stone Door (from Wizards of Morcar), 2 Short and 2 Long Stairway Tiles (from KK), 3 Tombs or 3 Tomb of Gwynt Tiles (from Marvel Winter Special), 2 Trap Door Tiles (from KK)

Heroes should be well equipped, at least completing all the Canon Quests. -edit]

[Count Mohawk]

A few quick thoughts...

• That gold bar in the Introduction quest is worth a lot of gold! Since the Heroes can't cash it in for some time, is the idea that the Heroes get their post-Quest-Pack reward early and then have to avoid dying to keep it? That's an innovative approach if so.
• Encounter 6 leads directly into either Quest 1A or Quest 1B. Since choosing not to play this encounter (according to the rules for choosing which encounters the Heroes face listed on page 3) would leave Zargon with no means for deciding which of these Quests to play, this last Encounter should probably be changed to Quest 1, and bump the numbers on the other Quests forward by one.
• Going through the Chaos Portal, if found, strands the Heroes in the Northern Chaos Wastes?! Wow! I wonder how much the Empire would decay without its Heroes by the time they returned if they chose to walk back to civilization?

I like the idea behind the Encounters - short min-Quests the Heroes can undertake in between longer main storylines for some extra gold or a chance at rare weaponry. More Quest Packs should feature these!

[Anderas]

I like the enchanted Staff. It's useful to fix the Wizard's weakness a little bit.
I had to laugh when I was reading the Gargoyle Potion. I'm a fan of it!

I like your encounters. If the Heroes like the Quest Pack, they can play every last one of it. If they want to go on, they can skip the one or the other.

I assume the Gold Bar is exactly the price you have to pay to buy the portal glyph's to come back home?

[The Road Warrior]

I'm really enjoying these quest packs you're sharing with us clmckay.

You seem to be scratching all of my HQ itches, specifically:

• Encounters - I've played around with adding encounters between quests myself. I want to see what happens to the Heroes between dungeons.
• Length and structure - The original game system quests and expansions, RotWL and KK are all very good but not every QP needs to be 10+ quests in length. Shorter stories suit my needs better as I play HQ with my kids who are 6 & 8.
• In game decisions - One of the things that bugs me about the official quests is that the players only really have to turn up and kill all the monsters to complete the quests. Having the heroes make decisions in game that affect the outcome and progression of a quest is something that really interests me.

Keep these QPs coming clmckay. I love 'em

[knightkrawler]

Same here.
I may rarely comment, but everyone presenting self-made stuff gets a silent shoulder massage, especially when they're as good as these.
Color me inspired.

[clmckay]

Thanks guys! Glad you like it!

A few quick thoughts...

• That gold bar in the Introduction quest is worth a lot of gold! Since the Heroes can't cash it in for some time, is the idea that the Heroes get their post-Quest-Pack reward early and then have to avoid dying to keep it? That's an innovative approach if so.
• Encounter 6 leads directly into either Quest 1A or Quest 1B. Since choosing not to play this encounter (according to the rules for choosing which encounters the Heroes face listed on page 3) would leave Zargon with no means for deciding which of these Quests to play, this last Encounter should probably be changed to Quest 1, and bump the numbers on the other Quests forward by one.
• Going through the Chaos Portal, if found, strands the Heroes in the Northern Chaos Wastes?! Wow! I wonder how much the Empire would decay without its Heroes by the time they returned if they chose to walk back to civilization?

I like the idea behind the Encounters - short min-Quests the Heroes can undertake in between longer main storylines for some extra gold or a chance at rare weaponry. More Quest Packs should feature these!

Yes, the idea was that they'd have the gold bar the whole time, and need to keep it safe, or make sure you recover it if a comrade carrying it dies.

I'd planned to have the heroes go directly to the keep if they didn't complete #6. I'll put a line in there for that, thanks!

I assume the Gold Bar is exactly the price you have to pay to buy the portal glyph's to come back home?

Hmmmm....I really don't know! My group isn't quite to the end yet. At the time I was planning it I figured no matter where they end up they'll need gold to equip and heal with.

Thanks for the nice words! Ill have more to put up as the group moves around....and decides where to go!

[Daedalus]

[*]Encounter 6 leads directly into either Quest 1A or Quest 1B. Since choosing not to play this encounter (according to the rules for choosing which encounters the Heroes face listed on page 3) would leave Zargon with no means for deciding which of these Quests to play, this last Encounter should probably be changed to Quest 1, and bump the numbers on the other Quests forward by one.

...I'd planned to have the heroes go directly to the keep if they didn't complete #6. I'll put a line in there for that, thanks!

I second Count Mohawk's suggestion as the Parchment Text seems to indicate it is necessary for the storyline: first find the outer entrance, then proceed within the mountain.

One small change I'd suggest is to add a note in Quest 4 explaining the Skeletons defend with 3 dice due to the shields they carry rather than relying on icons that may not be familiar to all fans.

OK, another one that is really a request. I know you covered this in Playing Karak Vlag, but consider working up alternate HQ maps for the portal Quests 1-B and 2-B. That would help out anyone looking to play this epic pack. Now that I think about it, I suppose the document of Encounter 3 and portal Quest access in Encounter 6 could simply be cut out if Zargon didn't wish to work up maps of his own.

Since there are no doors on the portal maps, how should Morcar/Zargon handle when monsters attack? Is it goverened by line of sight, when a square subsection is entered (ie. 4A to 2B), or some other means? In Quest 1-B, what is the movement rule for the large and small rubble? In Quest 2-B, what are the movement rules governing the large and small rubble piles and the water?

Again, another set of optional Encounters followed by a small set of need-to-do Quests provides an engaging structure. Looking forward to more. Where do you suggest this epic pack belongs in relation to other published Quests (and your own)?

[clmckay]

Good catch on the Skeletons. I'd noted to add that but obviously forgot when I updated the pack.

I hadn't thought to put instructions for the portal maps. The intention is to use LoS. That said, the next tile isn't placed until the heroes enter it (so they can't see into the next tile until they enter it). Once on it LoS is used to place the monsters.

I had considered making alternate quests just for the pack. The reason I didn't was due to playtesting...or rather just playing. I was hesitatnt to just make up a quest on the fly without knowing that it would actually get played. The next time I update te PDF (with a few other mnor corrections), I will make a point to make a quest on the regular board for these two. My group can take a time out to play them.

We have an open world/overland HQ system. So my group wander around doing things in no particular order. They have pretty much completed the canon quests and a variety of the quests posted here at the inn - including a few of StratosVXs excellent remakes. The heroes are well experinced and equiped. I just come up with a hook based on what I've heard them talk about, their goal, where they want to go visit next. So I get a quest that they can find, make it a sequence (so they don't wander off, unless they want to forfiet it) and plot out a storyline.

[The Admiral]

I really like the look of this quest pack. My epic quest for my brother's Barbarian group just got bigger! The Slayer will now be setting off on this quest after he helps out the Barbarian in the first three quests of Heralds of Chaos. The little connecting info is below:

"The Trollslayers Quest – Karak Vlag

After defeating Farod, Saracen and Lidda must travel west. You will not be joining them as Mentor has given you a different mission:

Play ‘A Golden Mystery’.

The Gold bar bears dwarven markings that you do not understand. Your homeland, Karak Angazhar, is nearby and there is an old dwarf there who is still a friend of yours and who may know their meaning. It is a bitter pill for you to swallow to return, but with your changed appearance no one recognizes you, and Trollslayers are generally shunned anyway, which suits you fine. Bombadril is pleased to see you though, that is until you hand him the gold bar…

Read ‘The Far Side of the Mountains’ and then play the rest of the quest pack with all six encounters.

Bombadril is a standard starting dwarf character. Both he and Thorgrim may each hire three dwarf henchmen; A Thunderer and two Warriors:

Henchman Movement Attack dice Defend dice Body points Mind points Cost (GC)
Thunderer 6 4*(1) 4 2 2 100
Warrior 6 4 3 2 2 75

*The Thunderer may make a ranged attack with four combat dice, but must spend an action to reload before he can fire again. He fights with one combat die in hand to hand combat."

I will want the Trollslayer to rejoin the Barbarian, and so I will make sure he doesn't end up stranded in the Chaos Wastes!

One minor thing I spotted was in note C to Encounter 6. It should say 'incantation' rather than 'spell', so that it ties in with the parchment text and the introduction to quest 1B-The Portal, which both refer to 'incantation'.

[The Admiral]

Karak Vlag completed. Very enjoyable. While my monsters were unusually successful in defence, I couldn't buy a skull on attack. At one stage rolling 1 skull in 27 rolls! and when I did roll 2 or 3, my brother would routinely defend at least 2, even with only 2 or 3 defence dice. It was still fairly close though with all four heroes down to their last healing potion and 10 of the 12 henchmen dead.

This was a sub-plot to the main Barbarians quest (Heralds of Chaos). Following 'The Frozen Horror' the sole surviving dwarf henchman (Rob Roy), his dwarf master and all other dwarf henchmen being dead, returned to Karak Angazhar, but was shunned by his kinsmen and took to the ways of a slayer. He saved the Dwarf Runepriest, Thorgrim, from death on the roadside, and the pair embarked on 'Solace and Redemption'. The two then teamed up with the Barbarian (Saracen) and Lidda and completed quests 1-3 of Heralds of Chaos. With Saracen heading west with Lidda for quests 4-6, Rob and Thorgrim completed 'A Golden Mystery'. They took the Gold Bar to Rob's last friend in Angazhar, Bombadril, who identified it as coming from Karak Vlag. The Trio set off north, and in the Barrow Hills helped the young son of a local Burgomeister (Erik Dorf), rescue his sister. As a debt of gratitude Erik joined the party to complete their quest.

The four now stand on the terrace in front of the main gate to Karak Vlag. They have the incantation to open the stone door leading to the portal, but as none of them can read Black tongue they can't recite it. As a Norscan, Saracen can almost certainly understand the writings, and so Rob and Thorgim will now begin the long journey to meet him. Erik, released from his oath, and Bombadril, will each make their way home.

I played all the encounters except the second.