Ye Olde Inn

Going to my Bros Tues night for a curry, and then a day and a half gaming to finish the 'Against the Ogre Horde' questpack. It has been changed slightly to a Chaos Dwarf themed quest 'The Tower of Gorgoth'. = Chaos Dwarf, = Hobgoblin Sneeky Git, and the Big Boss is now Bezehdrin the Chaos Dwarf Lord. Bezehdrin's legions have launched an invasion of the Empire, but it has become mired in a Black Mountain Seige of the Dwarf's home city, Karak Gantuk. The Dwarf and his team must launch a commando raid against Bezehdrin in the Tower of Gorgoth to kill their leader and the sorcerer behind his endeavour, before Karak Gantuk falls and the evil minions flood into the empire.

Things are on a tight schedule with the last two quests to play. The following shows the condition of the battered party + their henchmen:
Lucky (Main Dwarf) - 6BP's + Slayer - 3BP's (2 Slayers dead)
Gotrek (Dwarf Slayer Special Henchman) - 4BP's
Vistra (Dwarf Princess of Karak Gantuk) - Dead + Dwarf Warrior - 2BP's, Dwarf Thunder - 2BP's (1 Dwarf Warrior dead)
Dune (Barbarian) - 5BP's + Halberdier - 2BP's, Crossbowman - 1BP, Man at Arms - 1BP
Friend (Elf) no spells - 2BP's + Elf Archer - 2BP's (2 Elf Archers dead)
Halkazar (Wizard) Courage, Genie & Veil of Mist - 3BP's + Crossbowman - 2BP, Man at Arms - 2BP (1 Halberdier dead)

There is only 1 Healing Potion in the whole party and no other healing spells or items left. There is no BP or spell recovery between quests. Lucky is already onto a loser as he was sworn by the King of Gantuk not to return without his daughter. If he survives I will turn him into a Slayer to atone for his shame.

Well the quest is complete, and my brother's Dwarf lives! Just.

With outrageous doses of luck, and liberal use of all those things you gather for use in just such desperate occasions, such as Mind Freeze and Blast Scrolls, Potions of Invisibility, Giants etc. Lucky survived with 1BP and a healing potion. Friend was down to 1BP, and Gotrek 3BP's.

The highlight was the assault on Bezehdrin and his Ogre Horde, supplemented by a Chaos Dwarf and Hobgoblin Sneaky Git via the Evil Wizard cards. The entire room was taken out in one turn. Lucky, imbued with a Courage spell, Heroic Brew and a Potion of Strength was able to make 2 nine dice attacks and rolled 15 skulls! killing an Ogre and taking poor Bezehdrin down to 1BP. The only monster to survive was the Ogre Chieftain made elite (+1 Attack) with a card, but the final act of the attack saw Halkazar run in and Mind Freeze the poor fellow.

In the final escape quest, Dune, on 2BP's, was caught by the falling block door trap and his luck ran out with 3 skulls. Halkazar, feeling safe in the rear, was ambushed by the first batch of orcs, and he was surrounded and hacked down. Henchmen were used for the rearguard and 4 died in the fighting, leaving 5 of them to escape, out of an original complement of 15 at the very start of the questpack.

And so the planning for his next quest begins, as a Slayer! Here is my draft intro for using the newly translated Brazilian Quest 'The Rescue':
As the remnants of your party sprinted away from the foreboding Tower of Gorgoth, you paused briefly to look back and remember your fallen friends. They at least had died with honour. With the death of the young Princess Vistra, the only daughter of King Durgin, and whom you were sworn to protect or never return to Karak Gantuk, you were now forever shamed in the eyes of your King and people. Your only possible atonement could come through your own death in battle. And so at that moment you resolved to forsake your old life and take the oath of a Slayer…….

Several weeks later you received a message from an old friend in Karak Gantuk. During the battle for the city, your old master and trainer, General Kerg, had been captured whilst leading a sortie against the besieging Chaos Horde. With the eventual collapse of the siege following your slaying of Fenrix and Bezehdrin, the Chaos field commander, Chups, took all the Dwarf prisoners back to his castle in the World Edge Mountains. King Durgin’s forces are too enfeebled to mount an offensive against Chups, but maybe you, with your experience in infiltrating strongholds, could maybe help.

You set off for Chup’s castle immediately. Here was your first opportunity to seek your death, and if you failed and lived, then your old master would be saved. It was a win/win scenario!

Next up it's my brother's Barbarian and his party as they set off into the Northern Chaos Wastes, as we'll be playing 'Out of the Wastes' this Easter. Well some of it.

Sounds like a great battle, thanks for posting.

No spell recovery between Quests?!!!!?!! I'm surprised your Elf and Wizard lasted so long.

Looking forward to your report on 'The Rescue' quests. Will you be running the Sleep-Sorcerer and Slumbering Monster too?

I think no spell recovery is really really counter-productive.
Few people wanna play the Wizard as is...
But playing with two people, one of them playing all heroes, this might be fine and all in good fun.

That said, one person playing all heroes does have its merits, and not just a few...
Nobody has to serve wine and pizza after death and be bored. Tactical and startegic play has a few more layers, too.

Pancho wrote:Sounds like a great battle, thanks for posting.

No spell recovery between Quests?!!!!?!! I'm surprised your Elf and Wizard lasted so long.

Looking forward to your report on 'The Rescue' quests. Will you be running the Sleep-Sorcerer and Slumbering Monster too?

I just play with my brother and he's not really interested in spells, so I also double up as the good wizard. It means I am also involved on the 'good side'. The Wizard tends to just hang back and only get involved in the tight spots while mopping up secret door searches. We give him all the scrolls, magic wands etc. so that he usually has something. For example, the Wizard went into those last two quests with 3 spells left (Genie, Courage, Veil of Mist), 2 Mind Freeze scrolls, Blast Scroll, Genie Scroll, Lamp of the Genie (one use per quest and not yet used), a Blessed Dagger and 2 Vials of Holy Water. He also chipped in with his Wizard's Staff.

The Rescue will fit in nicely with the Dwarf needing to rebuild his party. He will rescue Kerg, who will join him, and there is also a Dwarf Cleric on the rack in the first quest. Rather than buggering off, after calling in the wandering monster! he will join Lucky. I will use the Dwarf Cleric Figure Dothal from one of the base D&D sets which I aquired to get the boards for the Out of the Waste quest which is up next.

The other two will definitely get played at some stage, it is just a case of working them into my brother's Heroes ongoing stories. It sort of writes itself as we go along. For example my brother loves Slayers obviously, so I thought this was a great opportunity to turn his main Dwarf into one.

I have to play my Wizard 'honest'. When he died, I knew the Orcs were coming up the stairs next turn, and if I could roll a 5+ I was safe. I rolled a 4. I could have stayed at the door behind me, but I had to play it that I didn't know.

knightkrawler wrote:I think no spell recovery is really really counter-productive.
Few people wanna play the Wizard as is...
But playing with two people, one of them playing all heroes, this might be fine and all in good fun.

That said, one person playing all heroes does have its merits, and not just a few...
Nobody has to serve wine and pizza after death and be bored. Tactical and startegic play has a few more layers, too.

Yep, just the two of us, so the Wizard, which is me (see post above) is happy to take a back seat, which gives me as the Evil Wizard plenty of time to plan my brother's doom!

Trollslayers are cool Heroes. Have fun with that. What rules/Hero Card will you use? Or do you plan to use Trollslayer as a narrative reskin?

Daedalus wrote:Trollslayers are cool Heroes. Have fun with that. What rules/Hero Card will you use? Or do you plan to use Trollslayer as a narrative reskin?

A Trollslayer Hero in our games has +1 Att, -1 Def and +1 Bdy, and so I will immediately transfer those to the Dwarf. Our Slayers also have the following rules so he will have to sell any items that contradict this:

Special Slayer Rules:

Berserk - When attacking in hand to hand combat you must re-roll all black shields and except the new result. If any of those new rolls are a black shield you become berserk. While berserk you roll 1 extra combat die in attack and 1 less combat die in defence. You will always attempt to attack a monster. You will choose the monster with the most starting Body Points. Determine a tie randomly. If a monster cannot be reached, you will move as close as possible to the nearest one. You remain berserk until there are no monsters visible, or in the same room or corridor as you, at the start of your turn.

Equipment - A Slayer has the following equipment restrictions and additions:
A Slayer will not wear Platemail - It cramps their extravagant battle style.
A Slayer will not use a Bow or a Crossbow - Weapons for cowardly peasants.
A Slayer will not use Daggers or a Staff – Weapons for Girls and Wizards.
A Slayer will not use Swords – Weapons for Manlings.
A Slayer will not use a Shield – Hands are for holding weapons!
A Slayer will not wear a Helmet – The hair, the hair!

A Slayer has access to some different items from the armoury:
Warhammer - 250 gold coins. It gives you 3 combat dice in attack. You may throw it at any monster in your line of sight for 6 combat dice, but if you do you will lose it.
Stonebread – 100 gold coins. No one in their right mind would contemplate eating this almost indigestible, jaw breaking substance, except perhaps a Slayer! You may consume a piece of Stonebread as you would a potion. It restores 2 lost Body points, but may not save you from death as it just takes too much time and energy to chew. Stonebread is very heavy; you may not carry more than 5 pieces at any time.

Between quests a Slayer may visit a Dwarven Runesmith who can engrave magical runes on any axe or warhammer they possess. They must be equipped with the inscribed weapon in order to derive the benefits from its rune(s). Each Rune costs 500 gold coins:
Rune of Power - If any damage is inflicted on a monster in hand to hand combat, after defence dice are rolled, then that monster suffers one extra Body Point of damage.
Rune of Accuracy - When attacking in hand to hand combat roll 1d6; if a 6 is rolled, all skulls rolled in that attack are doubled.
Rune of Luck – Once per quest, any one dice roll made by the Slayer may be re-rolled.

One problem I do have is that Dwarves and Slayers have different training paths. The Dwarf has already done some training, so it would be unfair to now let him have access to all the Slayer training as well.

The Admiral wrote:A Slayer will not use Daggers or a Staff – Weapons for Girls and Wizards.

Don't forget those pesky girl wizards!

knightkrawler wrote:

The Admiral wrote:A Slayer will not use Daggers or a Staff – Weapons for Girls and Wizards.

Don't forget those pesky girl wizards!

Do they even exist in ye olde days? No 50/50 back then.

In a Slayer's mind they are probably the same anyway.