Ye Olde Inn

Before returning to Barak Tor, the players decide to take on that Fire Mage still wanted by the Empire. Orcs supported with fire magic are not a good idea when the Emperor is about to march into battle against the Chaos in the East (plus his head is worth a whopping 150 gold pieces per hero!), so a few men-at-arms are hired at the inn and under the cover of night our heroes head towards the Black Fire Mountains, more specifically the keep of...



Quest 11: The Fire Mage

While Ahnuld and his halberdier take a look into the hallway, Marcel the Elf searches for trasure and is ambushed by a foul fimir that was hiding under the stairs! Will he ever learn? With the help of Jaques the Dwarf, the monster is eventually slain and the party continues down the hallway. After Jaques disables a trap (and takes some damage from it), a zombie sentinel surprises the halberdier and holds up the entire party.



Another long hallway follows, with a new zombie at the end and when Ahnuld opens the door at the far end, he is surprised by Balur the Fire Mage himself, shielded by a row of vile skeleton bodyguards!



Balur casts a Tempest on Jaques, blocking the door, but that doesn't stop the others from destroying a few skeletons and Ahnuld from charging Balur, slightly wounding him with his axe. Balur has enough and vanishes!
Eventually the central part of the keep is reached and the heroes have three options: the left wing, the right wing or the central chamber. As these evil stongholds always follow the same clichés, Ahnuld opens the central room to discover... Balur's Sanctuary! The Fire Mage stands in front of his spellbook, surrounded by undead bodyguards.



A well placed arrow from the archer destroys the middle skeleton and yet again Ahnuld charges the Fire Mage, who is not too happy about it. The others join the fight and some skeletons and zombies are destroyed. Balur, already wounded, brings out his big cannons and casts Inferno on the entire chamber. But the heroes save pretty well against his magic and are only slightly burnt by the flames. One mummy survives the outburst, the halberdier doesn't.
As a final act of desperation Balur summons some orcs to his defense, but Ahnuld chops the mages head clean off (5 attack vs 0 defense) in one epic blow.



The orcs pose a minor threat and manage to wound the Elf and Dwarf and even kill the archer waiting outside the door. After slaying the annoying greenskins, the heroes decide it has been enough and with low health and NO healing left they return to the surface, leaving two wings of the keep unchecked. Taking Balur's spellbook the Elf is also hit by a posion arrow when searching for more treasure. As they reach the exit, the castle starts toppling in on itself, burying its remaining secrets within (a magic staff to cast double spells in one action that is now lost to the Elf or Wizard).

A feast is held in the city to celebrate the demise of Balur and the loss of his fire magic to the foul orc clans! Each hero receives the promised 150 gold pieces, although mentor worries about the returned Witch Lord. Surely by now he must have grown in strength, as the surrounding lands are already starting to change and grow darker. Tales of vampires, zombies, werewolves and worse are told in the local inns.
Men-at-arms are hired, and the next morning the heroes decide to return to Barak Tor to take on the undead threat once and for all!

Quest 12: Return to Barak Tor

Marcel the Elf notices that things have changed since their last visit, as if someone has been busy reorganizing and redecorating the old tomb. When Jaques takes a step outside the first room he ends up in front of an armored skeletal warrior that takes quite a beating to take down. Luckily, the Dwarf is armed with the Spirit Blade, giving him an advantage against undead adversaries.



Some of the skeletons have been transformed into skeletal chaos warriors, using the stats of the latter but with only 1 body point and one slight change: the Dark Brotherhood rule that 1 black shield negates all damage. Combined with my mad dice rolling skills they still went down rather quickly.
Also, the players are playing very cautiously, using movement and placement very tactical this time, which I applaud. On the other hand, sometimes they skip their turns just to get the Barbarian, who is first in turn, to go first when opening a new door. To counter, I use the “Evil Wizard” cards mentioned earlier to “punish” stalling.



A few more skeletal guardians follow, and after arriving at the central part of the dungeon, Marcel decides to head north. After some more skeletons and zombies (and crazy treasure seeking, the first 5-6 cards turned out potions or gold) they arrive at the central chamber.



Inside, a warrior in blood red armor awaits, surrounded by more skeletons and zombies. He turns out a skilled fighter (Warrior of Chaos stats) who heals himself when tasting the blood of his victims... a vampire! To make matters worse he also gets 2 attacks the first time he charges an enemy (extra skill for Morcar as punishment for players stalling). After healing himself 2 times this way, the heroes and soldiers gang up on him and manage to overpower and defeat him.
But then the tables turn: by dark magic (players stalling some more) the vampire returns in the corridor and slays the poor halberdier. Ahnuld charges him, followed by the others and after a short but fierce battle the undead foe is no more! No one gets bitten this time, and the group continues deeper into the crypt, searching for the tomb of the Witch Lord. Alas, the tomb turns out to be empty and the former library closed off by a brick wall. The Dwarf utters curses in his beard.



Then Marcel remembers the false doors from last time and decides to head further north... Ahnuld takes the lead and ends up in front of a huge Dire Wolf (stats from Giant Wolf) around the corner. The Barbarian takes a painful hit from its claws and flees, after which Jaques takes the front. Healing is needed after this battle, and one Dire Wolf and some more skeletons and traps later, the upper chambers are found and the left one chosen to explore.



After some more skeletons and a zombie, the heroes take formation behind the door and Ahnuld kicks it in, to discover the throne room of the Witch Lord, who was waiting for them!



The undead sorcerer is surrounded by bodyguards that guard their master faithfully. Jaques charges into the room and drops a vial of holy water, desintegrating all undead foes but the Witch Lord himself! But he is more than prepared for foul trickery and summons more undead guards in front of him! Jaques flees the room and takes a stand with the rest of his comrades. Ahnuld becomes the victim of a Dominate spell and attacks the Dwarf, but does only minor damage.
The Elf casts a spell so the Dwarf can walk through stone and gives a potion of defense, after which Jaques runs through the wall and surprises the Witch Lord with the Spirit Blade!



But the Witch Lord has more tricks up his sleeve, resulting in a tense and fierce battle! After throwing a Fireball on the Dwarf, he casts Fear, weakening him even more. Meanwhile, Ahnuld takes on the undead guardians, aided by the archer from outside the door. The Elf runs into the room and falls into a pit. Each his specialty!



Ahnuld and Jaques manage to trap the Witch Lord in a corner and with one final mighty stab from the Spirit Blade (again a crazy 5 attack vs 0 defense) their undead foe is slain: from within, his undead body starts to combust, leaving only a floating skull with burning eyes that is consumed in unnatural green flames. A hollow laughter is heard, echoing in the empty halls of Barak Tor.
The Elf finds a magic ring in the remains (cast one spell double per adventure) and is quite happy with it.

Then, the booming metavoice of Mentor echoes through the chamber, leading into the epilogue!

The Emperor has begun the War against Chaos with his combined armies, the Star of the West on his personal banner! The Empire's troops seemed unstoppable, until the Doomguard, Morcar's elite regiment, surprised them and managed to cut off the Emperor and his personal guard. Overwhelmed, the Emperor fled towards Karak Varn, an old and abandoned dwarven citadel where they made a stand against the hordes of Chaos. Time is running out and soon the troops will be overtaken by the Chaos hordes!
To make matters worse, the Witch Lord is NOT dead! He managed to trick all and flee to his personal sanctuary somewhere in the Black Mountains. It will only be a matter of time before has recovered from this defeat and his influence over the Empire will be felt again.

On their way to Karak Varn, the heroes decide to stop in Durrag-Dol to reclaim that lost heirloom for Jaques. And after that, expansion “Kellar's Keep” will begin (this will be the very first time I actually play this)!

I finally found what we did wrong with the Holy Water all those years. In the dutch version, the card mentions: destroy every undead creature, mummy, skeleton or zombie.
We have always (some 30 years now) played that it would destroy every undead creature in 1 room, but the "or" in the last part probably means the player picks 1 creature in sight which is destroyed. Which is the way we'll use the Holy Water from now on, otherwise it's just too overpowered.
Linguistics!

Mistral wrote:I finally found what we did wrong with the Holy Water all those years. In the dutch version, the card mentions: destroy every undead creature, mummy, skeleton or zombie.
We have always (some 30 years now) played that it would destroy every undead creature in 1 room, but the "or" in the last part probably means the player picks 1 creature in sight which is destroyed. Which is the way we'll use the Holy Water from now on, otherwise it's just too overpowered.
Linguistics!

I know the problem, dude.

Great story/quest so far.
Quite the fun read.
Can't wait to see/read/hear more!