[WIP] Serving the Empire [9 quests]

[lestodante]

Quest 1 - I now agree with Drew that Potion of Counterattack is a better name. I Have no problem with it being moved to quest one and I think the rule tweak makes the power level just right.
Quest 4 - Of the riddle versions you posted I prefer "Only fools stand in the centre of the battle. The smartest stay in a corner to find their path".
The current riddle ("Being egocentric doesn't pay. When you'll see you in a corner you'll find your path"), has potential to be the better option but the second sentence doesn't make sense grammatically. It could be "When you're in a corner you'll find your path", or "When backed into a corner you'll find your path".
I'd actually prefer a combination of the two options - "Only fools stand in the centre of the battle. When backed into a corner you'll find your path".
Quest 7 - I like how you've changed the key-holders to any orc, rather than just a wandering monster orc. The problem is that there is only one orc in the quest!
Edit - I just noticed that a genie can be used to open a locked door. I think the balance is about right now.
Quest 8 - I like that there are so many monsters! Is there a specific reason why the Spirit Blade was lost to the Hero's? I might have missed it in the text. I think there needs to be a reason linked to previous events.
Quest 9 - Very interesting quest. I share your concern that the damage to mind as well might make it too difficult. We need a playtester or two...
Quest 10 - Is there going to be a tenth?

Quest 4: I'll update the riddle with "Only fools stand in the centre of the battle. When backed into a corner you'll find your path".
Quest 7: I forgot to update the map, I added 3 more orcs wandering along the corridors to increase the chances to find all the 3 keys (key 1 is unuseful anyway).
Quest 8: The Spirit Blade was lost in Quest 3, I had to update the intro specifying that "the Fimir are hunters of magical items which they often gift to powerful sorcerers to earn their goodwill". So it is supposed that after stealing the Heroes' equipment they forwarded the Spirit Blade to someone else and it ends into Gegel's hands.
Quest 9: I added "Mind Recovery" scroll in quest 3 with the purpose to come in help in then last quest. I know mitchiemasha and wallydubbs are good playtesters... Also Anderas is an expert in calculating % of success in a quest. He was present once into this topic, maybe he will do once more I hope.
Quest 10? No, I think I will not make a Quest 10. It is supposed the Heroes killed Gegel already when they found the Spirit Blade in Quest 8. Quest 9 is just a continuation of the previous one. It is like the sword itself is asking help to the Heroes to recover its power by teleporting them in another dimension where they are able to interfere with the Chaos power.
Also I prefer to dedicate some time to a new project; I had "The Amulet of the Underworld" questpack in development which I never finished (6 quests already exist) and the Wizard's Staffs which are a basic idea for some kind of Wizard solo adventure.

[Pancho]

Ah, it’s good that you added more orcs to quest 7 and used my suggestion for the riddle in quest 4 .
I missed the spirit Blade being taken in quest 3. That will make a nice tie in with the end of the pack, and the Heroes will definitely need it to get it back before they go to Kalos and face the WL.
Quest 9, there’s a chance that the Barbarian will have the Takisman of Lore which would make him less vulnerable. You could include a note to say that a Hero goes into shock when he loses all his mind points, as described in the US expansions? Thereby making it less deadly. Hopefully those guys you mentioned can do some playtesting. Don’t forget to ask Admiral too, he’s the play-test king!!
I didn’t think you needed a 10th quest, I just thought I remembered you saying there was going to be 10 but I’m probably wrong. Anyway, 9 is more than enough for a quest pack I feel.

[lestodante]

It is possible I confused mitchiemasha with The Admiral.
Yes, I previously mentioned a Quest 10 I was working on and it was this last one (Into Your Mind). I put this in and removed the original quest 9, since there was just the map (a nice one for my tastes) and only trapped treasure chests in the notes but no title or story at all.
The problem here was to link all the quests together as they were all standalone quests and I had no references at all for the 9th. The only idea I got was to connect room E of quest 8 with Quest 9 (quest 9 could be a second floor of quest 8). Or to remove Gegel from quest 8 (and putting his apprentice instead) and then after the heroes recovered the Spirit Blade they go hunting for Gegel in quest 10.
This was the previous map (with some changes I applied):

http://www.lestodante.com/hq/quests/unknownQP/maps/quest%209_old.png

I also did another scroll which I think is funny because it brings into play the memory of the player who uses it but I was not sure to feature it on this questpack or not because it is similar to Clairvoyance although they work very different; it is called VISIONS:

[Pancho]

That Visions scroll is such an awesome idea! I love it.
It’s different enough from Clairvoyance for you to include it I think. Or you could save it for a future project. Either way, you have to make use of it at some point, and I plan to steal it regardless

The map you just linked to is nice, but without the notes it’s not worth including in my opinion.

[wallydubbs]

I was a little confused by this one at first, the Falling Blocks were laid on the map European style, but the 4 heroes went in under US rules. I also wasn't sure why the corridors were open around the board, at first glance i found it redundant, but once the heroes made it out of the first series of rooms and the triggered the Falling Block Trap, I realized this was a good way to split up the heroes.

The and went North while the and went South.
The had his Crossbow drawn when he moved up to that hall and immediately fired at the but missed. knew he couldn't reach the Elf from that distance, so he turned tail and ran his 10 spaces to the Western corridor.
The Dwarf, however, was constantly having issues with his movement this quest, he rolled a 3 five different times. Of course spotted the Falling block trap in the North end, but when the tried to disarm it he rolled a black shield but only took one damage.

and , of course, found nothing on the Southern side, but caught up with the Goblin from the North on the west side of the board.

In the very early game, I must say, the monsters rolled very poorly.

When circled around the central room it was to first encounter the two . He used Ball of Flame, but the rolled .

Nobody saw the secret door. When they entered the central Chamber immediately cast Genie from his Spell Ring on a but only got two but blocked both of them. stumbled into the pit trap from the other door, and since he was the last hero before Zargon's turn he was swarmed by greenskins.
was taken down to 1BP, but cast Courage on and Heal Body on himself. However now that had Courage, he wasn't going to waste his turn casting spells, so none of the Water spells were used. helped clear out his greenskins with diagonal long sword attacks. The central battle was splendid indeed. I was surprised the rolled against , who despite have Rock Skin only rolled 1 . cast his other Genie on the other landing 2 damage. and managed to finish off the 2 . took out the last and searched for tra
ps. He had a tool kit so he and disarmed the traps and collected to the contents, the Dwarf has the Counter-attack potion.
and had very low body points towards the end. took no damage the entire quest.

It was a fairly easy one to start off the quest pack. Tempest, Pass Through Rock and the Water spells weren't used in this quest. Nobody found the secret door so it wasn't really necessary, unless a hero chooses to go forward once triggering the Falling block trap, taking out the two and searching for secret doors. But by that point I'm sure the other heroes would move on and find another route.
At first I didn't see a point for opening up all the corridors, but confident heroes might split up to cover more ground.

[The Admiral]

After very quick perusal I spotted the following:
Quest 1 needs orange shading for the 2 chests in room D.
Quest 5 needs the same for the chest in room C. It's nice to see you actually have Sir Senet (Cane) in your quest!
Quest 6 The D should be moved to the clear space next to the door as it obscures one of the chests.
Quest 8 needs a note for the chest in the room with the rack.

[lestodante]

After very quick perusal I spotted the following:
Quest 1 needs orange shading for the 2 chests in room D.
Quest 5 needs the same for the chest in room C. It's nice to see you actually have Sir Senet (Cane) in your quest!
Quest 6 The D should be moved to the clear space next to the door as it obscures one of the chests.
Quest 8 needs a note for the chest in the room with the rack.

Thanks Admiral, I usually go with the European black&white layout so I didn't give much importance to the trapped chests. I updated the maps now.
And about Sir Senet... he was Sir Cane at the beginning but since in Italian Cane=DOG I preferred to change the name.

I was a little confused by this one at first, the Falling Blocks were laid on the map European style, but the 4 heroes went in under US rules. I also wasn't sure why the corridors were open around the board, at first glance i found it redundant, but once the heroes made it out of the first series of rooms and the triggered the Falling Block Trap, I realized this was a good way to split up the heroes.

I am also not a big fan of long and empty corridors... this was the original map and I almost took the same. I just updated the map and now the south corridors are closed (but I can still re-open them, what do you think?).
And thank you for the detailed report of Quest 1.

[wallydubbs]

I am also not a big fan of long and empty corridors... this was the original map and I almost took the same. I just updated the map and now the south corridors are closed (but I can still re-open them, what do you think?).
And thank you for the detailed report of Quest 1.

Yes, I do think the Southern Corridor should be closed off. Although this does give the heroes an opportunity to potentially split up, careful heroes will stick together. Even if they do split up, once a hero turns that last corner and sees a hallway leading all the way to the end of the board with no traps or secret doors it's rather disheartening. Who wants to waste their next 5 turns by simply roaming?

Another thing I didn't quite get behind was the reason for the quest. Chaos Warriors who threaten the Emperor? It's a time of war, I'm sure there's multiple orc tribes that curse his name every day. A failed Assassination attempt however, is a step further and warrants retaliation.

[wallydubbs]

So this one was streamlined and flowed with only minor set backs and questions in regards to note D.
The heroes had a natural progression up to this point. While and cleared out the orcs in the 2 previous rooms, the ran down the middle corridor to peak around the corner. They were just , but after the failed to roll a left the others to help him.
The tried for 5 turns trying to open that damn door while the sat by idolly waiting for some action. Meanwhile and cleared out room C.
didn't even get to open the secret doors, he even lost his Rock Skin trying. The got impatient and "F-it, we'll do it later!" Well later never happened because they were all captured at the end.
My questions about this Secret Door:
1.) Does it cost an action for the Barbarian attempting to open it?
2.) The door is partially open and the skeleton can attack him, but can he attack back with a Long Sword?

The Treasure deck was very generous to the heroes, all they drew was gold and Healing potions. No Wandering monsters or Hazards, oddly enough.
In Room A the found the helmet and the dagger. Though I don't see the point of the Helmet, all the heroes are maxed out at this point.

After the fight in the Center Room, noticing how many Orcs were in this quest, the decided to switch out his battle Axe for Orc's Bane. Ironically, the next he attacked would block both.

The fell through the floor when he went after the sleeping , which woke him up. He was armed with the Spirit Blade as opposed to his Crossbow. After that the tried to throw his newly found Dagger at the but missed. helped out with Tempest so the wouldn't be attacked in the pit.

While and went off to the next room decided to stay in the small room searching for secret doors and Treasure. The cast Pass Through Rock on the so he can catch up to the heroes and not try to risk jumping the put trap again... wouldn't you know it, rolls and was blocked from helping the other heroes in the next room.

An interesting combo was played in the 2nd to last room with the 3 s: ran in and flopped on his attack, rolled and wasn't even able to make it into the room, casts Veil of Mist on the , who passes the and the he's fighting and appears between the two rear s. Using Orc's Bane he kills them both.

The last battle was fair and decent, fell short on his movement roll and only got to attack the , who blocked. casts Courage on and casts Sleep on , which actually took old. Unfortunately only had Orc's Bane drawn rather then his Battle Axe, so he was only allowed 4 combat dice. He did, however, land 2 on the sleeping . comes to at his turn and gets on his attack against , who only rolled in defense. casts Ball of Flame against , who blocks with . finishes the he's fighting, casts Genie on the , rolling 3 s, 1 was blocked. switches to his Crossbow, kills , casts his other Ball of Flame, this time on , who rolls , dropping him to 1BP. lands another hit against , finishes him off with is own Ball of Flame. As reduces to ash everyone blacks out.

I like the fact that the heroes are teased with a reward, even though they're not walking out of this one. There's even a chest in the last room E to stamp it in further. It makes the foggy sleep spell much more unexpected.

[lestodante]

My questions about this Secret Door:
1.) Does it cost an action for the Barbarian attempting to open it?
2.) The door is partially open and the skeleton can attack him, but can he attack back with a Long Sword?

1. No, it will not cost an action to pen it... (but maybe will cost a BP!)
2. You have to push the stone door with your whole body to open it (check Jill's photo below). So while you are "laying" your body on the door a scythe blade can pass through the chink and wounds you. If you put a sword in the chink you don't now what you are doing and skeletons can back away when they see your blade.
Maybe I could change the skeletons with zombies. Imagine to put a hand into a hole and being zombies on the other side? Will you do?

I was also thinking to put a reward inside the room but no.. it is just a stupid door that is blocked since ages. But you can draw a standard treasure card once you're in (and hope is not a wandering monster).