Rescue of Sir Ragnar: The anti-climax ??

[Kurgan]

I think it's amazing that he is the only good npc in the Game System. Looking back, I had forgotten that these many such characters appear only in the later expansions and published quests. The GS was so cool in that, as others have pointed out, pretty much every quest introduced some new gimmick, helping to get the creative juices going (for your own homebrew quests) and preventing it from getting repetitive as you fight your way to the showdown with the Witch Lord.

[wallydubbs]

I've only played this quest with 3 different groups and found that only once did the heroes end up setting off the alarm.

Because I don't want my heroes dying, I assess their body points before adding any additional monsters.

If it looks like they're close to death and the Wizard had already used his Healing spells, I'll end it right there. But if the heroes don't seem battle hardened, I'll add a secret door to one of the rooms in the Northwest quadrant with an additional group of monsters.

[The Admiral]

Meh! That's just the way it can fall. The alarm sounds, but there is no one left alive to react.

[Kurgan]

If all the monsters are dead, you could announce "reinforcements will be on the way in... (rolls a red die)... 4 of my turns..." then start sending in a group of Orcs, let's say, through a trapdoor, Iron door, or secret door from some previously empty or shaded area.


And keep the bonus dice for these bad guys (blue/black) AND keep the Evil Wizard cards going (maybe give them a reprieve on these until the turns are up), that ought to give them something to do.

[DullandRusty]

I did three things to make this quest more fun (in my opinion)

1. Add a red herring. I placed another prisoner that somewhat resembles the description I gave of Ragnar in the room before the secret room. If they didn't ask his name (which my group didn't), they start to get distracted by him instead of the muffled sounds of screams from Ragnar being tortured. My group led the herring out only to learn at the end that he wasn't Ragnar based upon him really not wanting to go back to the empire ( he was a wanted criminal). They then had to go back and grab Ragnar.

2. Ragnar is on a death timer...healing buys time, but he is still bleeding out. So them taking longer to clear the whole dungeon resulted in a mad dash to get him out as he is only alive for so many rounds from when the quest starts.

3. I also add a second exit...one that is clear of monsters (the herring tipped them to the presence of a second exit). This exit is of course trapped with enough arrows to ensure that if Ragnar is in the room he will take the point of damage needed to kill him (and damage the heroes). They then have to take his corpse so it isn't defiled by the orcs.

If he dies, that leads into the unofficial quest in a town where the heroes are recovering... The town is somber seeing Ragnar's corpse come in...then at night cultists steal his body and take it to the woods to perform a revive ritual to revive him tainted with chaos.... The heroes can stop it if they get there soon enough. I tend to have him revived but not tainted if they get there soon enough and defeat the cultists.
However, while at first he seems normal, he soon starts displaying erratic behavior. He will go with them on the orc warlord quest...wanting revenge, he will brutally behead the orc warlord. This starts his journey towards darkness and eventual betrayal.

[Kurgan]

Interesting stuff... I like the creative ideas!

[Daedalus]

About healing Ragnar, someone brought up in another thread that the text of Healing spells only applies to a player/Hero. A Potion of Healing is a bit more ambiguous, as "you" drink it, but I'd still say that means player/Hero. However, Room B has a Potion of Healing that could work since the notes don't specify who drinks it.

[iKarith]

I need to point out that Kurgan not only used a map that made the return if I recall correctly a good distance away and not merely a secret door, every single turn he spawned two orcs at the entrance. AND he had evil wizard cards he'd been building up until that point. By the time I found Ragnar, yeah, every monster was dead, so you could've called it over at that point because we'd seen all there was to see. But there were 8 orcs between us and the exit before we got out into the hallway leading to the exit!

Of course this wasn't our first quest after the Trial… It wound up being our third or fourth overall, and we'd managed to pull a fair amount of gold out that we'd put into a crossbow for the dwarf and armor for everyone else. The barbarian had Borin's Armor because that was the my introductory quest … so we were a bit OP.

It was NOT easy, and not intended to be. It was an absolute massacre! It made the next couple of quests absolutely easy after that because we'd amassed so much gold, had absolutely concluded that armor was more useful than weapons were, and these heroes the value of the crossbow.

Had we played it straight from the start, the heroes would not have survived. Ragnar would be dead, and so would they. But … because we came in with gear, we just butchered every greenskin we could get our hands on.

[Kurgan]

A better way than respawning Orcs, is to have Zargon designate (secretly, beforehand) some previous unused rooms with non-detectable secret doors, and fill them with Orcs (and Goblins if you run out of Orcs). These rooms will only be activated AFTER the alarm sounds IF (and when) there are no more monsters on the board. They should be placed some distance away from the stairs so that they don't instantly mob the heroes, but will move to intercept their escape with Sir Ragnar.

In between you can allow the heroes to move their full movement (12 for heroes, 6 for Sir Ragnar) when there are no monsters visible, but go back to rolling when the monsters arrive. Depending upon how far away they are, a single round respite might be merciful. If they happen to wipe out the reinforcements, activate another room or two (what, you didn't designate those beforehand? shame on you).

Whether you decide to make them ELITE orcs (attack with black dice and defend with blue dice) and whether they will target Sir Ragnar, is up to you (insert thunder and evil laughter here).

That should spice up the quest and get the good guys to flee rather than risk them complaining how boring it is to slog to the stairs or just suffer the health chipping from the Evil Wizard Deck along the way...

And those nasty Orcs that were left behind can always show up in later quests just to keep them jumpy. The notion of undetectable hidden rooms of monsters can also come in handy in a few of the other "anticlimactic" quests like Prince Magnus' gold.

PS: I just imagined a crazy scenario where there are four "reinforcement" rooms and all four heroes are blocking the doors while the wounded knight makes his escape. Still, making the heroes work for something like that is worth it in the end. "I've not seen such bravery!"

[Kurgan]

So the official digital companion app actually ENDS the quest the instant Sir Ragnar hits the stairs. Nothing more can be done except exit the quest... so if you're using that do all your treasure hunting, etc.

I still like the idea of an unstoppable horde chasing you back to the stairs!