Ye Olde Inn

by **torilen** » February 18th, 2021, 9:59 am

Summary: Balur, the Fire Mage (quest 8 of the original questbook) is part of a Brotherhood of Elementarium Magi.
There are mage dealing in the arts of the other three elements - earth, air, and water. Mentor has charged the
heroes to find and defeat these other magi before they can cause harm to the Empire.

brotherhood of elementarium magi.pdf

----EDIT NOTE, evening of 2-18-2021: If you downloaded this earlier in the day...The Spell Skin of Stone states "1d6" - this is "one combat die". Sorry!

Here are the "Mentor" entries from each quest:
QUEST 1: LAIR OF THE EARTH MAGE
Through much study, I have discovered that Balur, the Fire Mage, was actually part of a brotherhood of wizards devoted to turning elemental magic against the good people of the lands, in the name and service of Chaos. Luckily, Balur’s brothers have not yet been enlisted as agents of Chaos to actively fight against the Empire. I can only assume that the Emperor’s Wizards will be unable to thwart these magi, and so I ask you to hunt them down and destroy them before they can wreak the havoc we saw from Balulr. The first you will battle is Rusarin, The Earth Mage. You will find him within his underground lair.

QUEST 2: TOWER OF THE AIR MAGE
We are fortunate indeed, my friends! The parchment you found in Rasurin’s lair tells us that the Brotherhood of Elemental Magi has been planning attacks against the Empire and its people. It seems that Balur’s attacks were just the beginning. We must move quickly, now, before the other Magi discover that were are after them. Travel fast to the Tower of Bechahn, the Air Mage, and pray she has not already heard of her brother’s demise.

QUEST 3: KEEP OF THE WATER MAGE
I am afraid, brave heroes, that we did not move quickly enough. Fionel, the Water Mage, has been given news of the destruction of her brethren. She will most assuredly have her keep and her minions ready for your arrival. I am sorry! I offer this advice as a consolation: Be extremely careful of pit traps within her swampy domain. They will be narrow, and you will not be able to swim, should you fall into one.

I have designed each of these quests to be basically the same as far as power level and combat goes. I paid special attention to the monsters
used and how they were grouped, along with the traps. There are some variations, but heroes who can get through the original Quest 8
should be able to fair the same in these three.

If you wish to run these after other quests, simply add in some more monsters, and perhaps play them a bit differently - giving them some better
than normal strategy.

I included eight new treasure cards - these are new treasures found by the heroes. I also included information for new or reworded/reworked
spells. The treasures, as I said, are on cards. The spells are simply written out and take up two pages. Sorry - I am horrible at designing
and/or rewriting spells to fit onto a card. It is a big flaw of mine when it comes to homebrew heroquest.

I also have included the overlay tiles needed for the wizard's tower in quest two.

Let me know what you think, and keep your eyes out for some more coming, hopefully soon. I've got some creative juices flowing right now,
and I hope to have another quest pack or two ready within the week.

Interesting, although I'd consider a little repositioning in the Tower of the Air Mage, so as to force the party to travel through the second floor of the Tower before being able to get to the top floor.

That said, TWO stairway tiles will often be hard to find for those with only a single HQ set, so maybe there's another reason for the party to explore the second floor before just hotfooting it further up the stairs to the top floor. Finding an artefact to get through a lightning barrier defending the top floor of the power might work just as well...

by **torilen** » February 18th, 2021, 7:02 pm

Davane - I thought about that, and originally I was going to have the stairs up to the third floor in a different room.
But then, that would require two stairs tiles. As it is, you only need one set. Unless the heroes are splitting up and
they will be on multiple floors at once, only one tile is needed, since the tower takes up almost half of the board
anyhow. You would need to reset the board for each level.

I know this is kind of a pain, and I've tried to think of other ways to make that work. The only way I could think of
was to not have an actual tower shape, and simply split the board in two. One half would be one floor, the other
half would be one floor, and there would be a door with an arrow to show where the players come in and out. This
would indicate stairs, without having to have the stairs tile at all. This would still require a reset of the board, though,
for the third floor.

I suppose, if the heroes split up, you could have those not currently involved keeping track of the number of turns it
takes for each floor, so you know when the heroes from a lower floor could show back up on a higher-level floor.

by **lestodante** » February 18th, 2021, 7:09 pm

I found this interesting, I like the plot behind the quests and yes, if there was a Fire Mage, why not a Water, Earth or Air Mage?
Still have some doubts about the last 3 pages of the pdf, is all that stuff listed at the end required or not to play this questpack...? I really hope the answer is NO.
I didn't understand if the spells listed are Hero Spells or Chaos spells?
Also I was very confused about how your SKIN OF STONE spell works and how the 1d6 is used in defense. Are you applyng some new mechanic for the combat?

This spell will offer greater defense to any single target within sight on its defense rolls. That target may roll an extra 1d6 for defense until he suffers at least 1 Body Point of damage. Typically, this spell requires that the caster touch its target.

by **torilen** » February 18th, 2021, 7:15 pm

No...all of those links are just the other stuff I have posted here. I always put that in my quest packs, just in case
anyone wants to go find my other additions.

And, sorry about the "1d6". I thought I had caught all of the changes needed. I copied and pasted all of the spell
descriptions, and I missed changing that one back to an extra combat die. You'll notice the "Skin of Stone" is only
the original game system Earth Spell, Stone Skin. I felt it would just be simpler to include the Element-related
spells for the bad guys as I did, instead of requiring the Evil Wizard to need a peek at the hero spells when
they wanted to use that spell.

by **lestodante** » February 18th, 2021, 7:19 pm

also found a typo in the title at page 7, it should be SECOND floor but it says First Floor again.

by **torilen** » February 18th, 2021, 7:33 pm

Dang it lestodante...stop reading it! :lol:

Thanks. I fixed it and the new version is uploaded, along with the change for the "1d6".

That's what I get trying to edit something at the end of my day. Should've just waited until
tonight when I got up, but I wanted to get it out there for everbody.

by **The Admiral** » May 12th, 2021, 6:06 am

Thanks for this. It is a little too easy for our now very powerful parties, but as the Main Wizard's group recently defeated Balur in my personal remake of WoM, I'm going to send him on this as a solo quest accompanied by the special henchman Carn (Rogue) to give him some trap and range help.

The Wizards remaining party (Barbarian, Elf and Dwarf) will be joined by Bronya, an Ice Maiden special henchman. They will be playing 'Into the Goblin Ranks'. I have set this quest in the northern World Edge Mountains bordering Kislev so that I can give it a Kislev slant with the Ice Maiden, obviously, along with Kislev henchmen: Kislev Ranger, Druzhina, Kossars and Gospodar Militia.

My Brother comes here Monday, so we hope to play the solo quest then. Goblin Ranks will have to wait for the summer.