The Tyrant's Tomb - a solo quest pack

[wallydubbs]

So I restarted this from the beginning so the heroes could go through the Ice and river again. The zombies of Grinch and Grivois did no damage, however and kept getting crappy rolls and it took them a while to get through the winding steps and all the ice.
The made it over all the ice spots no problem, but surprisingly both the and fell twice. only slipped once.

Although all the heroes searched for traps and secret doors the stalagtite were unnoticed and took the first hit.
managed to roll to cover most of the Icey river, but the was still lagging, prompting the to cast Swift Wind on him, so he could run through the river without taking too much damage.
As the double space corridor grew crowded with 3 heroes was neay hit by the 2nd stalagtite trap trying to move around them, but rolled .
rolled (-1) , taking damage from the Icey river but not getting through it fast enough.
was hit by the 1st stalagtite trap upon going down the stairs.
only passed him by 1 space, allowing the to take the damage on his next turn, but he rolled and it missed him.
makes it out of the Icey river
takes a step into the 4x4 room and irrelevantly searches for traps.
rolled and couldn't get in the room.

steps into stalagtite trap, but again is spared.
rolls (-1) oh, my Goddess this is taking forever!
hits the other stalagtite trap, losing 1BP.
makes it to the next door but decides to search for secret doors instead of facing what lurks beyond.

is the first to enter, noticing 4 additional doors in the room. He goes to the adjacent 4x4 room, attacks a with 1 , but the rolled a .
rolled (-1), still trying to catch up.
manages to make it in and assists the , taking out a .
also makes it in, rolled on attack.
defended with and died, leaving only 1 to attack the ... but does nothing for an attack.
finishes it off.
rolls (-1), but choosescto pass the door to check around the other corner.
finds no secret doors so he and go back to check out the other doors.
makes it to the 3x5 room, opens the door but doesn't have enough movement to enter, so he throws the hammer at the first for , which must've crushed its skull.
went to search around the corner but was hit by the stalagtite trap.
went through the southern most door with the 2 s, killing one. backed him up by casting Rock Skin on him.
Although the attacked for
rolled on defence, losing Rock Skin and 1 BP.
The other attacked and rolled .
killed his opposing , while the flopped on his attack; he and the backed away for more then 5 spaces so this wouldn't be able to attack anyone. Meanwhile was heading back to them (-1). I swear that's the 20th he rolled that this game.

killed the last with a hammer throw, saving his movement to check out the final door, coming face-to-face with the stone doorway. He couldn't budge it and the hadn't made it back yet.

The cast Genie to open it... however it's only temporarily open, you didn't specify how long, so I'll let it last until all heroes make it through.
rolled so he took his movement to the far end of the room, Path of Tenebrosity.
made it to the 5 door room.
and both rolled and just barely made it into the central room.

opened the path of Tenebrosity but found no doors so he searched for a secret door.
made it in and headed towards the Path of Confrication.
took the path of Sciomachy.
decided to tag along with the .

searched for another secret door, gaining access to the 2nd 2x3 room.
rolled (-1), making it into Room I and killing the first .
enters Room J, the portcullis shuts behind him and his dark shadow appears, aiming his short bow at him. casts Twist Wood against his dark self.
follows the into the Path of Confrication but didn't have enough movement to attack the , she he cast Fire of Wrath, but the rolled .

Before moving on I'd like to express my great displeasure in the Path of Confrication. No problem with the Wall of Death, that was very clever, my issue is in the Secret Door here. It would cost at least 3 actions to get through this path, which is not enough time for 1 hero.
The idea popped into my head that the Wizard could really used Veil of Mist as a benefit here, running through the 2 zombies and out the door, leaving them to get crushed... but since it's a secret door, this cannot be...

Anyhow the flopped on its attack against the and the dark cast Twist Wood on his alter ego, ruining his short bow too.

searched for the next secret door, went into Stepping Stone Room, lit his lantern and jumped the first step .
killed the , but he had to leave the room the way he came, he would be dead on his next turn, since the secret door hasn't been found. But the still had the opportunity to leave this way, he searched for secret doors as his action and rolled plenty of movement to make it.
Meanwhile the used Woa to attack his dark self, rolling , which was defended with .
The dark attacked with his dagger but only rolled .

successfully hopped across 2 stones on his next turn.
made it to the first small room
landed against his dark counterpart.
walked over to the Tenebrosity exit and opened the door to see the making his way through.

Dark rolled on his attack.

made the jump to the last space.
made it into the stepping stone room but didn't have enough movement for the first jump.
's attack was blocked.
ran down to the end of the hallway with the 2 s, so using his Wand of Recall he cast Heal Body on himself (so the s won't kill him) and Pass Through Rock on the , he only needed 5 spaces.

The rolled to attack the , who defended with , taking 2 damage.
Evil failed his attack.

couldn't get to a since was adjacent to it.
rolled (-1), which was just enough to come out on the other size of the Zombies.
flopped on his attack
managed a , which killed the .

blocked the dark 's attack.

attacked the last in the hall, but his 1 was blocked. However the managed to finish him off.
managed 1 , but it was blocked.
made it to hallway K and met with Matholem just as he died.

For the next few turns made it down the stairs to Door L, during this time the continued fighting his darker self.
entered first and flopped on his first attack.
followed him in but his attack was blocked.
was next, casting Sleep on one and Courage on himself.

Ghashlug cast Ball of Flame against the , who still had a Potion of Magic Resistance, using that to cancel the effects.

The battle ensued for some time, but managed above adequate defense, with 4 defense dice the s weren't quite able to stop him. However the and took much of the damage, both being brought down to 1BP. used Tempest to protect the from one attack while casting Water of Healing on himself. But then Ghushlag cast Tempest against the .
and continued to be quite offensive, but at one point Ghushlag did cast Strands of Binding on the , who managed to break them on his next turn, but also used Heroic Brew to gain an attack on an .
Ghushlag's next turn was to cast Orc Berserker, but even then rolled formidable defense.
The heroes haven't been able to get an attack on Ghushlag, as all the other orcs took attack positions.

Eventually the managed to kill his dark counterpart, only losing 1BP during the fight. He was able to make it to the door but didn't have enough movement to get inside, so he cast his Healing spell to save the .

By the time he was able to make it into the room the , and managed to drop the s to Ghusshlag and 4 others. So on the 's next turn he cast Hypnotic Blaze, which took hold on everyone but Ghushlag, the and one other with a bow. Even the and succumbed to it. Although it prevented 3 s from attacking, it left the and vulnerable to that archer.
then cast Ball of Flame against Ghushlag (actually hitting her for 2BP) and Veil of Mist on the , who would run through Ghushlag to get to the archer.
Killing the archer didn't matter as Ghushlag would just raise him, leaving the to kill him again, while the courageous finished off 2 hypnotized s, Ghushlag took advantage of a hypnotized , rolling
Ghushlag was brought down to 2 BP after the and woke up.
cast Deep Sleep on the last soldier, whom the would have killed, but he only rolled and couldn't reach.
No matter as Ghushlag cast Fire Storm, which brought the down to 1BP, the and were killed... however the had a Potion of Healing (the did not). survived with 2BP.

[Pancho]

Thanks Wallydubs.
So 3 out of 4 Heroes made it through into the Journey bag? Interesting.

I had been thinking about changing the secret door in the wall of death room to a normal door prior to your play through, then decided to keep it, just to see how you get on. In the end, it did actually have the effect I wanted, letting one Hero through but forcing the others to go another way.
However, it is probably asking a lot even to get one Hero through. How would you like it if we keep the secret door but removed one of the zombies there? Edit - or maybe just keep both zombies and use a normal door, allowing use of Veil of Mist.

Reminder to self, add a comment that the stone plug will stay open until the last Hero passes through, and also add one zombie to the short corridor leading up to it

[Pancho]

Can I ask as well, how many orcs were there in the final fight?

[wallydubbs]

The Dwarf's initial encounter with Ghushlag he only killed the Rime Wolves, no orcs. So I think there were 11 or 12 Orcs.
I didn't meantion in the review, but since I wasn't sure how to handle the Dwarf dying in the Avalanche from Quest 8 I let him keep the helmet and took away his pack axe and SkullCleaver. But since the Barbarian was using his hammer, he gave the Dwarf his Broadsword.
For the first initial attacks the Barbarian, Dwarf and Wizard stood side-to-side preventing multiple attacks.

I'd prefer the regular door for the Path of Confrication. Although I totally understand what you were going for, but Veil of Mist rarely gets a chance to shine and this would've been an ideal situation.

[wallydubbs]

So this quest was quite perilous... I actually experienced a TPK here. I attribute this to my decision of splitting up the heroes.

They started out in the inn. They didn't have much gold as the and both died in previous quests. So between the and they only had 65 gold. But the got a treasure search in the inn and found 30 gold... but he lost track of time and lost his next turn, prompting the other heroes to leave without him.
The was getting unusually high rolls and made it to the skeleton on his 2nd turn. So he scouted ahead, looking for traps.

The waited with the Pedlar until the could catch up and they could buy things.
Intrigued by the Mongoose Statue, the pressed to buy that. They also bought a rope a d wooden stake being that the had lost all his supplies and the already used his other rope.

lagged behind as the and attempted to catch up to the .
When the got to the central halls he pressed south, going to the 2 stone doorways. decided to follow him while casting Swift Wind on the , so he could catch up to the and go into the 4x4 room of the northeast quadrant. In this room was attacked by a Wandering monster, but managed to avoid a y significant damage. immediately took out the Wandering monster with his bow.

The successfully opened one stone doorway, revealing 2 Barrow dwellers. would cast Rock Skin on him, which held for the next 2 attacks. managed to kill 1 before taking damage from the other. couldn't do much due to the tightness of the hall, so he used Fire of Wrath, but the rolled . It took the a other 2 or 3 turns to kill it.
The 2BP of the Barrow Dwellers made them highly formidable, plus they were getting a lot of s on defense.

When and got to the room with the 3 undead headless wolves, that's when the trouble started. charged in and flopped on his first attack. stood by in the doorway, using an arrow to take out 1.
managed good defense, having 4 defense dice. But the other undead Wolf charged the , rolling in an attack. Since the previous died this one only had 2 defense dice but failed to roll any s, taking 4 damage. and would hold it together and take out these undead beasts.
When the searched for treasure he found a Potion of Healing.
The 2 then ventured out the door and through the stone doorway. Since the had no way to get around the he headed back to the 3x5 room, searching for traps and treasure while the killed the barrow dwellers. However, while searching a Wandering monster attacked, dealing 2 damage to the , dropping him to 0BP, so he had to drink his newly acquired Potion of Healing, rolling . However noone was around to assist the so the got a 2nd attack with2 s, managed 1 this time.
was managing to hold his own with 4 defense dice against the other 2 s and headed back to help the .
The appeared in the doorway and threw his hammer at the , but the rolled 1 only losing 1 BP.
danced away from the and used his bow, expecting to finish it off. Although he had nature spells he didn't want to waste his action on healing, which proved to be very costing. He rolled in his attack, so on the 's turn failing to block was enough to kill the .
It would take the 2 more turns to finish off the .

Meanwhile it took the 3 turns to get the other stone doorway open while the could only sit by idolly and watch. They headed down the barrows unable to pass eachother. Luckily the took the lead. He would fight the 2 s with the aiding using a Tempest spell. But then he ended up getting in the way. The hit and run tactic failed as the needed line of sight to cast spells, the couldn't pass the to get 5 spaces away from the .
Eventually the did defeat them. Neither the or searched for secret doors before venturing into the 4x4 room. As a matter of fact I forgot to the secret Tomb room was even there.
The entered the room finding 2 more barrow dwellers. He ran in, attacking one, but his attack was blocked completely. The then followed suit and attacked the same one, , stabbing it with his dagger. When the dwellers attacked the lost 1 BP and the lost 2. They attacked (both missed) and then backtracked into the barrow, using the narrow corridor to their advantage, each taking a side of the door.
The first was killed by the , used Ball of Flame against the other, rolling & , only doing 1 damage. This blocked the 's next attack and failed to roll a . The then attack the with 2 s, but the blocked 1, dropping to 1BP.
killed the on his next turn and the cast Heal Body on himself.
Going back into the room they found no traps, but a treasure search revealed 25 .
Next turn they went for Room J. rolled (-1) for movement, so he wasn't even able to make it into the room. The did, however a d came across the two battling ghosts. With his infinite wisdom he rolled and explained to the 2 ghosts that they were already dead and had no need to fight.
Once the 2 ghosts departed the made a trap search, finding none. searched for treasure finding a Potion of Warmth.
searched for secret doors and found the entrance to Room K. Although the found the Plate Mail he couldn't wear it and gave it to the . The 2 s in the 3x5 room couldn't get a hit in. The 2 additional defense dice really helped. After he finished them off he and the searched, only finding a Potion of Defense, which the kept.
Next they headed up through the small room and the drew "Nothing" from the treasure deck there. The however was heavily slowed down by the plate mail and having lost 1 year of his life. So at this point the was doing all the searches. But the finally rolled for movement and he went for Room L. He rolled and managed to jump the first step.
rolled for movement and wasn't a le to follow the in. hopped to the next stone with a .
made it in and attempted a jump , he fell and held onto the ledge. The , however, had to jump back a space to help the up, by he too rolled and fell. The was dead and much too far away to help them... eventually their BP was drained and they fell.

After the avenged the , he went back to get the treasure in chest H. The had also discovered the secret door in the 3x5 room, so the did go back and take this path. He handled the 2 barrow dwellers very well. Since the hammer returns to him each throw, he just kyted them, keeping them in line of sight with at least 5 spaces between them, taking them out slowly but effectively.
After that he opened the Stone doorway into the barrow and used the same tactic on those s.
Unfortunately it was the Spriggan that brought the down. On his turn rolled , 0 skulls, where he moved into the quick sand and died... noone was around to save him.

[lestodante]

So this quest was quite perilous... I actually experienced a TPK here. I attribute this to my decision of splitting up the heroes.

As Pancho sayd before this is a questpack intended for expert players, so the Heroes should co-operate together to progress in the quest, avoiding mistakes and to rush headlong into rooms they didn't explored with accuracy.
Splitting the Heroes here was surely a penalty.

[Pancho]

So this quest was quite perilous... I actually experienced a TPK here. I attribute this to my decision of splitting up the heroes.

As Pancho sayd before this is a questpack intended for expert players, so the Heroes should co-operate together to progress in the quest, avoiding mistakes and to rush headlong into rooms they didn't explored with accuracy.
Splitting the Heroes here was surely a penalty.

To be fair this quest forces the Heroes to split up into pairs early on due to the fog rule. I think the key factor for the TPK was probably that the Hero group was not as powerful as it it could be at this stage of the pack. That, and the bad luck with the Wandering Monsters.

I’m guessing Wallydubs will not like the fact that quest 10 gets played without spell and health recovery from quest 11

[wallydubbs]

I'm thinking it's a little too difficult by giving the barrow dwellers 2BP. Had the Elf not been killed he would have helped the Barbarian greatly with the spriggen.

Why wouldn't the lantern work with the step skipping room like in the previous quest? That would have aided the Wizard and Dwarf.

[Pancho]

I'm thinking it's a little too difficult by giving the barrow dwellers 2BP. Had the Elf not been killed he would have helped the Barbarian greatly with the spriggen.

Why wouldn't the lantern work with the step skipping room like in the previous quest? That would have aided the Wizard and Dwarf.

I’m thinking about reducing the Barrow dwellers to 1BP. But I want them to be enhanced due the malevolent magic of Samhain Eve. If I reduce them to 1BP they’re just regular zombies with an extra attack die. That’s fine against weaker Heroes, but what happens if the Heroes are buffed to how they would most likely would be at this stage of the quest pack? They’re aren’t really that many foes to fight in this Quest and the next, partly due to the nature of the source material. I’m worried that veteran Heroes would blitz through 1BP baddies too easily.
I agree about the Elf. Two Heroes probably wouldn’t have so much trouble with the Spriggan, meaning that all four would have made it to the bridge, and gone on to enter the manse.
Hmmm, it’s quite finely balanced this one, and providing a bit of food for thought.

The lantern worked in Mt Anger because it was pitch black. The room here has a different vibe; in the story the danger from the hovering tiles comes from the fact that they are slippery and uneven, rather than the darkness. So the rope is more useful than the lantern. I should add another line to make this clearer in the notes.

[lestodante]

I think the key factor for the TPK was probably that the Hero group was not as powerful as it it could be at this stage of the pack...

So maybe they were missing these artifact cards to power up properly!!!
(artworks painted by Luis Octavio)