Ye Olde Inn

Yes, empty treasure chests. We all hate 'em, but sometimes they were put there just to trick/annoy the heroes, right?

Often, going all the way back to the game system, you will find a chest, and it will have a trap, but then nothing else. I don't consider that an error on the part of the game developers. Other times the trap will be there and the contents will be a healing potion or anti-poison item (if it was a poison trap). Those fiends! Part of the dark humor of Zargon's minions, I presume.

But then we all know about the "empty" treasure chests that aren't even marked in later Quest packs. Clearly an error on the part of someone writing up the quest. Who knows what goes there? As Zargon/Morcar you can either choose to leave it empty, or stuff whatever you like in there, even a really good artifact, some needed gold, etc. your chance to "throw them a bone" (before you destroy them, hahahaha).

Here are a list (for convenience) of the "Empty" chests I've found in the official quests (NA Editions):

**Possible spoilers ahead***

Game System (base) :

Quest 3 (unmarked chest near a pit trap)
left side middle room (two left, third down, if I recall correctly)

Against the Ogre Horde:

Quest 5:
right side, third room down

Quest 7:
left side bottom. though, if I interpret it correctly, it's actually impossible to enter the room & search for treasure, unless you Pass through Rock without using the door, meaning you'd have
to have the Elven Cloak of Passage or the Spell Ring, each acquired in other packs, to be able to escape with anything you'd find! Or put one of those things inside it...
*** (thanks wallydubbs for these!) [Edit: I forgot in the EU rules, as these were originally designed for, you can as the Dwarf or with a toolkit "fix" an already sprung falling block trap after the fact, so under those rules you could escape after searching even if the treasure wasn't a PTR spell scroll or elven cloak!]

Wizards of Morcar:

Quest 5:
2 chests, central room
*** (thanks again wallydubbs!)


Barbarian Quest Pack (The Frozen Horror):
Quest 9 (heavily guarded chest with Gargoyle and a bunch of other monsters)
right side, three rooms over, one down


Elf Quest Pack (Mage of the Mirror):
Quest 1 (can't believe I missed this one!). There is an unmarked chest in the room with the fireplace and throne, upper left quadrant.

Quest 2 (under "D" no mention is made of the chest in the room with the Fimir, oops!)
[Edit: I think now the attendants are supposed to have been hiding IN the chest... perhaps it is a large trunk. Or maybe one is in the chest and the other is behind the weapons rack, but either way the lack of any other treasures bugs me.]

Quest 7 (heavily guarded by werewolves and a gargoyle)
right side, second room over


Japanese Game System (to be fair, this is a translation project, in Quest 7, there are three unmarked chests)
in the original version, they are all marked as "empty" in the Quest notes.


Any others I missed?

I don't believe they are an error. It is no different then sometimes a cupboard has a note and sometimes not. It is merely an empty chest. If there is a note and it says empty then the Heroes get nothing. If the chest is not "noted" then the Hero can draw a treasure card.

Yeah, most of the time the Weapons Rack doesn't have a note either. I am going to let them draw an "Equipment" card in those cases (they just aren't likely to draw Plate Mail or a Battle Axe!).
Still, why bother putting "the chest is empty" with a letter for so many other examples, then some of them there's just nothing. The chest is a tease, by at least having put a note saying their intention... (for the player, better to get that, than a hazard or wandering monster!)

I just now realized that in the UK version, some of the Quests are different. For instance Lair of the Orc Warlord doesn't have the error (It's completely different, no treasure chests at all).

You're forgetting about the chest in Bastion of Chaos. There is a note that it will set off the gargoyle if the chest is opened before the trap is disarmed, but there's no note weather it's empty or what have you.

Also there are several quests in Against the Ogre Horde that have chests with no labels (Quest 5 & 7), as well as 2 chests in Final Conflict of Wizards of Morcar.

The chest in Lair of the Orc Warlord is marked in the European quest book, but I think the US version just forgot to put it in.

Ah good point about that one. I did kinda skip over the ones where the Chest triggers a trap but has no treasure inside. It's just a flat out fake.

Also there are several quests in Against the Ogre Horde that have chests with no labels (Quest 5 & 7), as well as 2 chests in Final Conflict of Wizards of Morcar.

The chest in Lair of the Orc Warlord is marked in the European quest book, but I think the US version just forgot to put it in.

Good info, thanks!!!

I'm going to assume those chests in WOM are where they store their bottles of "Potion of Chaotic Defense."

Chests marked as empty are just that. Chests with no note at all are my domain as the EW player, and I will assign something, or not, as I see fit.

More detail... so the unmarked chest in Quest 3 NA version is clearly an error and Phoenix is NOT to blame for this one! Thanks for your help, guys.

Thought from 9/15/21: So if we take the "It's not an error" position and read it as listed, then an unmarked chest just means "Draw a Treasure card."

This actually helps the heroes more than if it is re-marked "The Chest is Empty" because then the first hero gets his search wasted (while the other three get to draw cards).

So if you want to help the heroes, either play it as written, or do what I do and take the opportunity to insert an unused Artifact (or needed item like a toolkit) in there.

Avalon Hill's remake of the EQP ("Mage of the Mirror") introduces a rule clarification in 2022 (released early!) that an unmarked treasure chest contains "Elven Riches" and grants the first hero to search for treasure in that room 200 gold coins. However since they went in an edited the rest of the quests to remove any unmarked or empty chests (instead putting stuff in them) the clarification wasn't really needed in the end (but just in case they did miss one!).

I guess 200 is too much!!! 100 would have been better!
I liked the idea of occasional empty treasure chests anyway.