[Quest Pack] [12 Quests] - Heralds of Chaos

[Count Mohawk]

Thanks again.

Should there be anything in the chest in room F of Quest 5?

Probably, but I can't think of what to put there at the moment. 200 gold coins, I suppose? I'll edit the file later when it's finalized.

[The Admiral]

Sorry for another question, but in Room 'C' of quest 6, which is the trigger hex for the swinging blade trap please?

[Count Mohawk]

The trigger point for the swinging blade trap is the door, as noted in Quest Note C. If the Heroes open the door without searching for traps, they will get an axe to the face. However, once found, the door trap can be disarmed like any other trap by a Hero standing adjacent to the door. (Using the Genie to open the door will also work, as long as the Heroes stand out of the way.)

[The Admiral]

Aah, I should have read the text! Thanks again for the quick reply.

[The Admiral]

At the end of Quest 6, when a Hero steps into the main corridor and can see the big room and Baal R'oth, do you also place the other four monsters, or are they not revealed until they can actually be seen, or should there be a door to the central room?

[Count Mohawk]

I would say that the answer depends on whether or not you treat Baal'roth's altar tile as a room or a corridor. If it's a room, then you lay out the entire contents of the room when a Hero first gains line of sight into them, whereas if it's a corridor, you would wait to place the minions in the corners until the Heroes can see them specifically. It is highly unusual for a room tile to be used on the board without a door leading into it, which would normally point towards a mistake on the Quest map. However, this is the Realm of Chaos, so I will be adding a note to his room indicating that the entire area should be set up as soon as Baal'roth is within sight.

Incidentally, if you're not sure what to use for the portals in Quest 6, I would just use a basic door piece without the cardboard cutout that normally slots into it. Double-doors are a little trickier, but for those I would probably put the door halfway between the two squares.

[The Admiral]

I'm just using normal open doors. They are all, except one, in the middle of rooms, and so shouldn't get confused with normal doors. As for double portals I am using a doorway from Warhammer Quest.

I've just finished my solitaire playtest of quests 4-6 with my own heroes in preparation of play with my brother at half term. very exciting finish. I allow Braska the Wizard to use Baal'roth's Flamberge, and he was down to 3 mind points by this stage. Baal'roth cast the Command spell on him and so I immediately took one of his 2BP/2MP potions. Very convenient as he was also down 2BP's. I thought 5MP's would be enough. It wasn't and he failed to roll a 6. He then slew one of my Crossbowmen with the Flamberge rolling 3 skulls and 3 black shields, so now he's down to 2MP's and will be even harder to get back under my control. He then legs it off into the room exposing my remaining crossbowman who is taken out by a Paladin, aagghh! Two Chaos Priests (spawned with cards) then blocked the corridor. The Barbarian with a Psychic recovery scroll, handed it to Shayla the Female Barbarian, and then failed to take out a priest with his Titan Sword. His Sergeant completed the deal, leaving Shayla needing a five. She rolled 7, ran into the room and cast the scroll on Braska, who, back to 7MP's broke the spell and cast Still air. That should have been the end to it as a defenceless Baal'roth was taken down to 1BP leaving Braska to finish him off with an enchanted dagger. 4 dice for 1 skull and I missed. Baal'roth, now unfrozen, cast restore chaos and we were off again, but his subsequent Cloud of chaos was a total failure with everyone except a couple of henchmen passing. With his minions gone Baal'roth attempted to take out Shayla on 5BP's. He rolled 6 skulls! but she defended 2 and survived on 1BP, as did Lidda. Talgarth and Braska, both with plenty of healing stuff remained relatively unscathed. 3 out of the 12 henchemen survived (Halberdier, Scout and Halfling archer).

Great fun!

[The Admiral]

My wife had flu all last week, when I was meant to go to my brother's, doh! So he came over to me, but we only got to play Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday. Played late into the night both days even after beer and curry Sat night! So no Memoir 44, but we got to play most of the HQ I wanted (The High Mage and Heralds of Chaos quests 4-6), finally finishing quest 6 at 12.15 Sunday morning. I am playing each three quest section as one quest, there is no recovery of MP/BP's or spells during these quests. I also use my home brewed version of the Evil Wizard cards. They are not as difficult as they are written, but are still a major headache for the Heroes. The party started as follows:

Saracen - Barbarian. Att 5/4d, Def 6, Bdy 11, Mnd 3. Greatsword, Longsword, Shield, Helmet, Borin's Armour, 2 x Healing potion (4), Magic Resistance potion, Potion of Defence, Amulet of the North.
Skills = Weapon Skill (+1 att hand to hand) and Strength (may hold two handed weapon in one hand).
Henchmen = Sergeant, Swordsman, Crossbowman, Halberdier.

Eldred - Elf. Att 4(3), Def 3+1, Bdy 6, Mnd 4. Crossbow, Broadsword, Leather, Helmet, Healing potion (1D6), 3 x Earth Spells.
Skill = Bow skill (+1 att with any bow).
Henchmen = 2 x Elf Archers, 2 x Elf Swordsmen.

Lidda - Halfling Rogue - Att 2(2), Def 1+1, Bdy 5, Mnd 5. Shortsword, Shortbow, Leather, Tool Kit, Healing Potion (4), Potion of Defence.
Henchmen = 4 x Halfling Archers.

Braska the Bright - Wizard - Att 6d/2d, Def 3, Bdt 5, Mnd 7. Baal'roth's Flamberge, Wizard's Staff, Wizard's Cloak, 12 x Bright Spells.

The party was pretty beat up towards the end of quest 5, so I put an Elixir of Life into the chest in room F instead of the 200 gc's suggested. Baal'roth's Flamberge worked very well, particularly at the start where the Wizard (the one character controlled by me) rolled masses of skulls and only 1 black shield, although by the end Braska was down to 4MP's, even after taking a 2MP recovery potion, and I had to cut back on it's use.

The Finale against the lesser chaos deity Baal'roth was a real nail-biter, but some great attack and defence rolling by the Heroes and an almost total lack of black shields from my monsters, probably just saved the day. The highlight was the swordsman only dying after four attacks (2 x 6 and 2 x 4), and thus saving the monsters getting to any of the almost dead Heroes. The battered party crossed back through the portal as follows:

Saracen - 11 BP's, Eldred 2BP's, Lidda 1 BP, Braska 2 BP's. There were no healing spells or potions left except for a 2BP/2MP potion with Braska. Saracen had been forced to take his all BP& MP potion with the last attack from the last Chaos Fury. The surviving henchmen were the Sergeant 1BP, Halberdier 2BP and the Crossbowman 2 BP.

We thought Lidda had died, until I remembered that monsters roll one less die against her. A random removal of a die was a skull! and she survived on 1BP.

Again, this was massive fun. If everyone is well, it will be quests 7-9 at Easter.

[Count Mohawk]

Always good to get feedback on custom Quest stuff. I am glad to see that the Heroes have to work to get through the armies of Chaos, and tread lightly indeed in the Chaos Realm!

Reaction-wise, I'm most curious about what your Heroes think of Bane so far, since they've run into him twice so far. Running into Baal'roth himself after finding (a replica of) his sword hopefully also incited some table-talk.

As for quests 7-9... well, I held back on the difficulty in quests 7 and 8 a little, and there are a couple of places in which the Heroes can find some healing potions. But The Tower is another thing entirely! I should probably have moved some of the Chaos Priests into quest 8 so #9 wouldn't be so top-heavy on the difficulty slider, but it's a double-decker Quest, so what can you do? If they're struggling by that point, maybe add one or two more Potions to the chest at point F on the first floor of The Tower.

[The Admiral]

Sorry I missed this.

I take a great interest in the storylines and try and convey this to my brother, but he is just a hack and slash sort of fellow, who sees the quest intro as delaying the game! It doesn't help that we have weeks or months between sessions. When I explained he had encountered Bane before, he just said "have I?" I do despair, but at least it is someone to play HQ with.

E.g. If the quest is a little different, like a rescue mission, he'll clear the central room and then say 'is that the end then? I'll then explain that if he remembers the intro he has to rescue whoever. He'll just shrug and say 'oh, I wasn't really listening'.

As his main character is the I suppose it is fairly appropriate role playing!