Count Mohawk wrote:Daedalus wrote:In Quest 4, The Chapel in Shadow, a blocked square tile is needed at the outer end of the middle-right corridor, under the two Paladins. May the Underworld Trident be recovered if thrown by a Hero, or is it lost?
Fixed the missing block.
The Underworld Trident, as written / as intended, is currently not lost when thrown and can be retrieved after the figure hit with it dies. But I am starting to wonder, is the ability too strong? Given enough turns, the Trident will eventually kill off any monster, potentially trivializing combat.
That's a good point about guaranteeing a monster death--just throw and run after an undefended hit. Also, the Artifact Card and entry in the artifact table at the Quest have two inconsistencies. First, the table states that when the trident is thrown and hits a monster, it will suffer the ongoing damage. As a hit may be immediately defended, a monster may successfully defend the thrown attack and yet later be killed by it. I prefer how the Artifact Card handles things, where the monster will suffer the ongoing damage only if the thrown trident reduces a monster's Body Points. Second, the table has a named monster exception as a power cap while the card doesn't.
Here's my attempt at squeezing it all in the card text, if you're still interested. It dropped a bit of the color description, but gains the same font size and border margins as the Chaos spell Ice Wall from the BQP for better readability:
- This cursed weapon can drain the life of a
victim. When using it, you roll three combat
dice and may attack diagonally. You may also
throw this trident at any monster in line-of-
sight and retrieve it if no monsters are
visible. A monster loses 1 Body Point at the
start of its future turns if you reduce its Body
Points when throwing the trident. Does not
affect named monsters. May not be used
with a shield. May not be used by the Wizard.
The next version would print out with the same font size as other artifacts at the cost of a bit more abbreviation. In particular, I less specifically went with "on future turns", much like Cloud of Chaos and some expansion spells. The assumption is "on future turns" = on the throwing Hero's future turns as the monster may not defend.
- This cursed weapon can drain the life of
a victim. When using it, you roll 3 combat
dice and may attack diagonally. You may
also throw this trident at any monster in
line-of-sight and retrieve it after combat.
A monster loses 1 Body Point on future
turns if you reduce its Body Points when
throwing the trident. Does not affect
named monsters. May not be used with
a shield. May not be used by the Wizard.
I'm even inspired to rehaul the weapon as a spear and cap the power in two different ways. (Excuse my enthusiasm.)
- Impaler
When using this barbed spear, you roll 2
combat dice and may attack diagonally.
You may also throw this weapon at any
monster you can "see" and retrieve it after
combat. If you throw and reduce the Body
Points of a monster, it must roll a combat
die on its future turns. It will lose 1 Body
Point if a skull is rolled, but a black shield
will end the effect. May not be used with a
shield. May not be used by the Wizard.
____________________________________
When using this barbed spear, you roll 2
combat dice and may attack diagonally.
You may also throw this weapon at any
monster you can "see" and retrieve it after
combat. If you throw this spear and reduce
a monster's Body Points, the monster will
lose 1 Body Point on future turns. This
ends the turn after it uses an action to
remove the spear. May not be used with a
shield. May not be used by the Wizard.
Count Mohawk wrote:...Secondly, Bane's lichness is not on the same level as the Witch Lord's: while the Witch Lord can apparently reanimate any number of times, given a few hundred years between his various defeats, Bane will be rendered properly dead the instant the Heroes break his soul jar. If this explanation is inconsistent with the establish Hero Quest lore, please let me know so I can adjust the storyline.
In Quest 14, Return to Barak Tor, the Witch Lord merely needs to be defeated to stop his army from marching on the Emperor's forces. When defeated, he vanishes in a puff of foul smoke. However, in A Message from Mentor preceding the Return of the Witch Lord Quests, it is up to the Heroes "...to destroy the Witch Lord once and for all." In Quest 10, The Court of the Witch Lord, the Witch Lord must be killed before reading the conclusion of the Quest Booklet. Finally, in the opening text of AtOH, Morcar ponders the slaying of the Witch Lord.
I had figured that meant no more returns for the Witch Lord, but you have an interesting angle. Seems to me your reanimation scenario for the Witch Lord works fine, as "once and for all" could apply to just the time of the Heroes. I could definitely see the powerful magic or spirit of the Witch Lord ultimately overcoming death once again.
