HeroQuest postmortemQuest 14: Return to Barak TorWell, this is it, folks. The final chapter in the quest of our brave Heroes, the Barbarian, Dwarf, Elf, and Wizard, against the forces of the evil wizard Zargon and his army of Chaos.
The good news is that we didn't need to do any musical chairs with players playing Heroes, as the same group as last week showed up. So we had that going for us, which is nice. (And yes, that meant the Barbarian was being played by committee again.)
The bad news, however, is that despite Zargon's best efforts, all four Heroes came out of it at the end with no deaths. The dice simply weren't rolling in my favor for the majority of the game. On the other hand, never have I seen so many 2d6 rolls of 11s and 12s back to back.
For the most part, this dungeon wasn't as difficult as it otherwise would have been if not for the poor luck of dice rolls on my part and the quick dispatching of the handful of Mummies. And because the quest description calls for Wandering Monsters to be Mummies as well, I downplayed the lethality by swapping Mummies for 2 Skellies. In hindsight, this was a poor judgment, since the group has proven to be very stingy in treasure searches.
The majority of the level was pretty straightforward and not very dangerous. Only once was the group in danger of being put out of play (from a mummy attack), but again, the dice were in the group's favor.
The real excitement came from two places of any value worth mentioning. The first was the central room, where the Heroes found a Gargoyle standing between two pools of water. Despite the Gargoyle not having activated on its turn (hint hint), they decided to attack it anyway - using up a potion of strength and a spell in the process! - only to find out it was a waste. It was stone and unactivated.
Suspecting
correctly that the trigger to bring the Gargoyle to life would be opening the northern door, they avoided the door and bypassed one encounter there. They also missed an opportunity to find out what would have happened if they searched the two pools.
The second noteworthy encounter came at the very end with the Witch Lord himself - I've devoted numerous screenshots just to that fight. Aside from being statted like a real beast, he also had access to half a dozen spells.
The encounter took many rounds, which was enough time for me to use every single spell in the Witch Lord's arsenal, in addition to making physical attacks, too. In the meantime, I was doing my best to bring down the Heroes as I could, but the dice were simply not rolling in my favor as often as it was doing so in theirs.
If you recall, the Witch Lord can only be damaged by the magical artifact called the Spirit Blade. Originally, the Dwarf had hold of this sword, but a quick Fear spell on him dropped his attack capabilities considerably, plus that he fell in a pit (not that it mattered - White Shields galore). That was when Barbarian grabbed the blade and tried attacking. He got hit with another Fear, so the Elf tried it.
In the end, after two rounds of hits where they thought he should have dropped, the group managed to finally kill the Witch Lord, at which point he poofed away in a cloud of smoke, dropping behind another artifact...which was inconsequential at that point since we wouldn't be playing any further.
However, I realized after everyone left the Hangout that there was this whole long-winded wrap-up text from Mentor that I had to read which I completely neglected to do. It was pretty late anyhow, so I presume that was forgivable.
All in all, it was a very exciting campaign to run. I would like to thank every player that came through my way. The Curse of the Last Five Quests is finally broken.
Huzzah!The next time I run a HeroQuest campaign will be after I've completed working on all the assets for HeroQuest Prime, my set of houserules/complete game overhaul.
'Til then, stay thirsty my friends.
Pictures, activate!With a Skeleton right outside the first door, it set the proper mood for the rest of the game.
After opening the central room, the group found two fountains (which they later neglected to search) and a stone Gargoyle (which they managed not to trigger awake).
This level is surprisingly sparse on traps and secret doors. Meanwhile, the Barbarian is about to get pounded on by a MP-eating Mummy.
Cleaning out the dungeon is hard work.
The Spirit Blade-wielding Dwarf enters the Witch Lord's room and falls in a pit!
Witch Lord summons undead but rolls only the minimal 4 Skeletons. Boo!
Both Barbarian and Dwarf are under the effects of Fear!
After casting every available spell, the Witch Lord misses a golden opportunity to kill the Wizard in one swift blow and instead attacks another Hero.
After numerous rounds with the Spirit Blade being swapped between the Barbarian, Dwarf, and Elf, they finally manage to drop the Witch Lord!
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What day works for you? I'm happy to arrange something around that.
