Level of Difficulty of Quest 8: The forbidden Caverns

I just played Quest 8 The Forbidden Caverns today with two of my friends for the first time! We started this quest at 11:00 AM and we learned that it is a very unique and difficult quest for the Heroes. The Quest took so long that we took 2 extended breaks, one for lunch, and one break to hit the batting cages to practice for my friends softball league. We ended up actually finishing the quest in the evening. I would give a rough estimate that we actually played the quest for at least 4 hours. Probaably the longest quest we have ever played.
If you have played this quest before I am sure you know why it takes so long and is very difficult for the heroes to pass. If you havent played this quest yet I am giving you the heads up to schedule plenty of time to play this quest if you expect to get the whole thing in. If you take a look at the Quest map you will notice that there are four X's on the Quest map. On each of Zargon's/Morcar's turn he may place any two skeletons, mummies, or zombies and place them on any two of the spaces marked with an X. This makes for an unlimited amount of monsters the heroe's must destroy to succesfully pass the quest. I am guessing that my friends had to destroy at least 60 undead monsters in this quest. This quest is extremely difficult for the heroes no matter how many items or weapons they have built up.
The way I played the quest today was that even at the beggining of the quest when it was my(zargon's) turn i placed two undead monsters on the spaces marked with an X. It didnt take long before the hallways were field with the undead. The heroes had to inch there way throught the quest one space at a time because there was a line full of monsters in almost every hallway. My friends became very frustrated and were defintely upset about how difficult this quest was.
Has anyone else encoutered the same problem when playing this quest.
Here is a list of a few rules you can use to either shorten the quest and or make it less diffucult.
A. Less difficult and shorter ideas for this quest.
1. Only allow monsters to appear on X's that have been revealed in the heroe's line of sight! (example: zargon can not put monsters on the space's marked with an X unless they have already revealed that portion of the gameboard.
2. Set a limit to how many undead monsters can be place on the quest during the quest. I would say anywhere between 10-16 would be a good idea.
B. If the heroes have stock piled potion of healing here is some rules and guidlines to follow if you want to knock some of the potions out of their stock to keep the quest very difficult and challenging. If you use any of these guidlines the quest will take several hours to play.
1. If heroes have more then 10 healing potions before the quest starts, Zargon can place infinite amount of undead monsters on the square's marked with an X. However if three squares marked with an X are occupied by a hero Zargon is not allowed to place new monsters onto the board because there isn't 2 spaces available marked with an X
2. If the heroes have between 5- 10 healing potions beofre the quest starts only 2 spaces marked with an X need to be occupied by heroes to nopt allow Zargon to place new monsters on the board
3. If the heroes have less then 5 healing potions between them before the quest starts only one square marked with an X must be occupied by a hero to not allow Zargon to place new monsters on the board on his turn.
Of course the heroes would have to figure this out on there own about occupying the X spaces on the gameboard.
C: The rulebook does say that Zargon may place two monsters on squares marked with an X on each of his turn. "May" doesn't mean you have to and there is always the aspect of the game that Zargon can ease up on the heroes so they have the chance of succesfully passing the quest.
Any of the rules or guidleines can be followed or combined when playing this quest. I used rule B1 abd C today when We played this quest. I am glad I finally cut into the heroes stock piled supply of healing potions!
If you have played this quest before I am sure you know why it takes so long and is very difficult for the heroes to pass. If you havent played this quest yet I am giving you the heads up to schedule plenty of time to play this quest if you expect to get the whole thing in. If you take a look at the Quest map you will notice that there are four X's on the Quest map. On each of Zargon's/Morcar's turn he may place any two skeletons, mummies, or zombies and place them on any two of the spaces marked with an X. This makes for an unlimited amount of monsters the heroe's must destroy to succesfully pass the quest. I am guessing that my friends had to destroy at least 60 undead monsters in this quest. This quest is extremely difficult for the heroes no matter how many items or weapons they have built up.
The way I played the quest today was that even at the beggining of the quest when it was my(zargon's) turn i placed two undead monsters on the spaces marked with an X. It didnt take long before the hallways were field with the undead. The heroes had to inch there way throught the quest one space at a time because there was a line full of monsters in almost every hallway. My friends became very frustrated and were defintely upset about how difficult this quest was.
Has anyone else encoutered the same problem when playing this quest.
Here is a list of a few rules you can use to either shorten the quest and or make it less diffucult.
A. Less difficult and shorter ideas for this quest.
1. Only allow monsters to appear on X's that have been revealed in the heroe's line of sight! (example: zargon can not put monsters on the space's marked with an X unless they have already revealed that portion of the gameboard.
2. Set a limit to how many undead monsters can be place on the quest during the quest. I would say anywhere between 10-16 would be a good idea.
B. If the heroes have stock piled potion of healing here is some rules and guidlines to follow if you want to knock some of the potions out of their stock to keep the quest very difficult and challenging. If you use any of these guidlines the quest will take several hours to play.
1. If heroes have more then 10 healing potions before the quest starts, Zargon can place infinite amount of undead monsters on the square's marked with an X. However if three squares marked with an X are occupied by a hero Zargon is not allowed to place new monsters onto the board because there isn't 2 spaces available marked with an X
2. If the heroes have between 5- 10 healing potions beofre the quest starts only 2 spaces marked with an X need to be occupied by heroes to nopt allow Zargon to place new monsters on the board
3. If the heroes have less then 5 healing potions between them before the quest starts only one square marked with an X must be occupied by a hero to not allow Zargon to place new monsters on the board on his turn.
Of course the heroes would have to figure this out on there own about occupying the X spaces on the gameboard.
C: The rulebook does say that Zargon may place two monsters on squares marked with an X on each of his turn. "May" doesn't mean you have to and there is always the aspect of the game that Zargon can ease up on the heroes so they have the chance of succesfully passing the quest.
Any of the rules or guidleines can be followed or combined when playing this quest. I used rule B1 abd C today when We played this quest. I am glad I finally cut into the heroes stock piled supply of healing potions!