Ye Olde Inn

by **bastianbux** » Friday May 24th, 2013 11:12pm

Unfortunately I totally forgot to take pics again.

This quest was Quest 12, Barrow of the Witch Lord. Right before we started, I realized I'd been allowing them to use daggers incorrectly. They were throwing them causing 1 BP of damage without having to roll and without the monster getting to defend. I'm still not 100% clear, but I think they at least have to roll. But I don't make the monster defend.

I had ordered the Female Barbarian from billdask and it was fun to see it in play!

They got to the Witch Lord and the Cleric threw a dagger at him, but it caused no damage. They weren't paying attention during the quest intro, so they didn't undestand that they couldn't hurt him. The Witch Lord summoned undead and completely filled the room up with monsters. On his next turn he tried to cast Command on the Barbarian, but she broke the spell instantly.

He cast Ball of Fire at the Elf--who has Borin's Armor and a shield and a helmet, so he's usually practically invincible, so this was finally a chance to cause him damage... and he rolled a five and three, blocking one of those possible damage points.

In fact, no died in this quest. Only once did the barbarian come sort of close, but the cleric was able to heal her and himself with ease. :/ I suppose I need to beef up the enemies in the next quest.

Anyway, they eventually remembered that there was "a magic knife" that could kill the Witch Lord and went searching through the rest of the dungeon for it, only then discovering the three doors which cannot be opened. Eventually they decided to just make their way back to the stairs. All the while the Witch Lord stumbled one square at a time trying to reach them, to no avail.

They kept taking about how frustrating it was that they couldn't kill him and that they wish they could. If only they knew that in two weeks they'll get their wish!

Ah, yeah, after writing that post I worried about the situation and wrote another post in the "Official Rules" section and got that clarification. Well, the Cleric already understands that he now must roll a Skull for the dagger to hit the target, now I just need to get him on board and understanding that the monster gets a chance to deflect the dagger with its weapon or some such. I feel like the monster should only get to roll one combat die though since the chances of deflecting a dagger are pretty slim. It's not like the monster in engaged in 1-to-1 sword fight where he is concentrated on blocking the sword or whatever, but rather whether or not he even sees the dagger being flung at him from across the room while he is otherwise engaged in combat with another Hero. What do you guys think?

by **Sjeng** » Sunday May 26th, 2013 2:46am

If a monster has a shield, a dagger is easily blocked. If thrown, a monster can simply dodge. I stick with the rules on this one.

by **bastianbux** » Monday May 27th, 2013 8:03pm

Yeah, I suppose I will stick to the rules, but it's going to irk the Cleric to no end, haha. He's been enjoying the instant kills, haha.

Also... I just discovered something unfortunate: I GMed the last Quest completely wrong. Somehow I didn't notice two major notes in the Quest Book: I allowed the Cleric to use the Took Kit to deactivate a special falling rock trap... which the quest book makes clear is different from the usual falling block traps and only activates after the last Hero passes beyond it, thereby blocking them from that return. So instead they never had to seek out that secret passage to get back to the stairs. Also, I forgot to read them the text about the Witch Lord's awakening. Darn it. One of the best quests and I totally goofed it up by not reading ahead of time.

As a result, I made a point to read through the next two quests, and will also do so once again before we play on Tuesday.

by **bastianbux** » Friday May 31st, 2013 7:02pm

Well, we played Quest 13 last night (Quest for the Spirit Blade) and it was an interesting one. First of all we had a new player--a friend of the Cleric's--who played the Dwarf (as a female named Phyllis VanderSnatch) and I had the unfortunate task of telling the Cleric that monsters got to defend against daggers. :/ He was NOT amused. Then I had to explain to the Elf that there is a debate about Borin's Armor and whether or not it is stack-able, and so my compromise is that rather than dropping him down to four defense dice from the six he's used to, we're just dropping him down to five. The Barbarian (his girlfriend) fought hard for his six dice... but he agreed to the five.

The new Dwarf was fantastic! He caught on very quickly and made the most of his character.

By complete chance they headed directly for where the Spirit Blade was located and found it almost immediately. They spent the rest of the Quest wandering around exploring the rest of the rooms. To let the Dwarf enjoy his role fully, I allowed him the chance to disarm the extra special falling rock traps (I'm not sure they are disarm-able according to the notes?) and in fact only once did that trap hurt any of the Heroes (the Cleric) because the others had helmets.

We WERE going to do our first back-to-back quest sessions and finish off the base game... but the Barbarian decided she was tired, so the Witch Lord will have to wait for his defeat next week.

by **Sjeng** » Saturday June 1st, 2013 2:42am

Yeah, falling block traps are strange. We houserule like this:
If searched for traps, Morcar points out where the ceiling looks unstable. Places the block tile upside down. A hero with toolkit or the dwarf may then attempt to disarm it, standing next to it. If successfull, it is removed (basically, the heroes are aware of it and take caution passing under it), if not, I place the block tile on the board, blocking off the passage or tile it is on. No damage. (as opposed to the trap doing 1 damage, but being removed. It seems to me the falling block has a different mechanic, and should block the way if not disarmed correctly).

If not searched for traps, any hero stepping on the sqaure the falling block trap is on, gets hit for damage, and may choose to step 1 sqaure forward or back.

I never quite understood the arrow next to the block mechanic, unless that's only used in some quests to block off the way before you are actually underneath it. (you step on the arrow, and a block falls in front of you, blocking thw way) Because if the arrow is always there, then a hero always sets it off on a tile next to him, and never gets hit... Seems strange.

by **knightkrawler** » Saturday June 1st, 2013 3:48am

It's different from other traps, cause the Falling Block trap doesn't endanger the uncautious Hero himself, but other heroes.

Situation: Wizard has already entered the room. There's a Fimir in it, so he stops to cast a spell from some distance. If need be, the other heroes soon bound to be entering the room can deal with the Fimir. What the Wizard doesn't know: he's standing on the arrow.
He doesn't manage to destroy the Fimir, so the Barbarian walks in and past the Wizard to attack the Fimir, strolling over the Falling Block square.

BANG! - Wizard badly hit...

That's the European version, anyway.
The American version doesn't have the arrow, but rather the falling block hits the square with the icon.
Thus, it's another trap endangering only the uncautious hero himself.