Quest 4 - Escape from Ulag

"You have been rotting in Ulag's Dungeon ever since you were captured at the Outpost at the Mountain's base. You have not seen your fearless leader, Sir Ragnar, since you were captured. Hopefully he is still alive and is being held captive somewhere else. Finally, an opportunity has presented itself; the lone orc guarding your prison cage has fallen asleep just within reach...."
                                                                                                                                        Mentor


This quest was designed by Sjeng http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=158&t=1593, although I have given it a few tweaks.

Sarymoor, Sneeks and Garmin are in a prison cage. They are down to 4 body points each due to neglect, and have been stripped of all their weapons, armour and gold. They defend with 2 dice but attack with only one (basically using their fists).
Sneeks cleverly pickpockets the sleeping orc guard, who stirs but doesn't wake. Sneeks uses a small key to open the cage door, but it swings open noisily and the orc starts to wake. Sneeks now has one attempt to silence the guard before he can sound the alarm. Sneeks closes the distance quickly but unfortunately for him doesn't roll a skull with his single attack die......

The orc bellows a warning and the door to the next room opens, revealing 2 more orcs.

Garmin charges into the new room (which has 4 doors, one on each side) and kills one of the orcs with his bare hands.

The heroes proceed to take out all the guards in both rooms, but not without cost; Sneeks has lost 1BP and Garmin 3 (down to just 1). The Heroes need to find their equipment fast.

Sarymoor opens the south facing door and sees a torture rack, a Fimir, and another portcullis door. Between them, Sneeks and Sarymoor manage to bring down the big beast. Garmin is hanging back as he is seriously wounded.

A larger iron key is found on the rack and this opens the portcullis door, revealing another prisoner. It is a wizard who appears to have been here for some time. He introduces himself as Zaphod Swiftspell. He thanks the heroes for releasing him and offers to join the party. He says "even though I am probably the greatest wizard who ever lived", that he will not be able to cast any spells until he can find his wand. That is presumably stored with the other heroes' equipment somewhere. 

"Greater even than Mentor?" Garmin asks skeptically.

"Never heard of him" Zaphod replies dismissively.

Sarymoor then tries the west room and spies their lost equipment hanging from a rack. There are 2 goblins here as well, one of which is slain by Sarymoor. Sneeks fails to kill the other goblin, but thankfully Zaphod takes it down instead, strangling it with his own beard. "Count that as revenge for keeping me cooped u like a clucking chicken! the wizard cries. The other heroes exchange glances over the odd wizard, wondering how long the strange fellow was held captive here.

As the heroes are busy strapping on their armour and weapons, it is revealed that Zaphod knows 4 "Sorcery" spells. Only 4, but they are very powerful (see last photo for details). There are no healing or attacking spells, but they are important support spells. With 6 mind points, he will also be the keeper of most of the spell scrolls that are found. For this quest Zaphod was played by myself (Morcar). I didn't search for traps or secret doors, allowing the others to do that instead. Zaphod will become a recurring character if he survives this quest, gaining access to more spells and exotic abilities.

Sarymoor finds a treasure horde in the same room, 100 gold coins that will be very useful if they ever escape Ulag's dungeon. 

After limping around the top corridor they head down and open up a room with an orc and a cupboard. Sarymoor shoots the orc plumb in the forehead, then lovingly pats his crossbow as if he has missed it intensely. There are 2 healing potions in the cupboard and Garmin uses one to heal himself back up to his standard 5 BP.

Sneeks disarms two traps out in the corridor as they move down around the centre room. Sarymoor opens the door to a green coloured room that is well stocked with greenskins (I forgot to get a photo of this room). He eyes an orc as the greatest threat and fells it with his crossbow, then calmly draws his dagger ready for the inevitable attack from the goblins. He rolls one white shield but it is not enough to save him from losing 1BP (down to 3).

Zaphod then casts Enchant Weapons and moves to stand next to Sarymoor. This spell gives any adjacent hero 1 extra combat die in attack. It is potentially very powerful as it stays active until a hero is killed.

Sarymoor uses his now enchanted dagger to kill a goblin, then steps aside to let the more powerful Garmin through. Garmin soon clears the room, chopping left and right with his broadsword.

Zaphod finds 50 gold on the table, whilst Sneeks has wandered off on his own to scout out the southern passages. 

Sarymoor opens another door to find an orc and a fimir stoking a hot forge with pokers used to torture prisoners. Sarymoor shoots the Fimir dead, whilst Garmin makes short work of the orc. "These beasts won't be torturing anyone today", he says, wiping his sword clean.

Sarymoor finds a treasure chest protected by 2 traps. He triggers a pit trap and falls in. There appears to be no way to get to the chest without a toolkit, so they holler to Sneeks to come and help. After disarming the other pit trap, Sneeks collects a dagger and a potion of healing from the chest for his troubles.

A close up of Zaphod Swiftspell (the model comes from the Advanced Heroquest game, which is also OOP).

Next the heroes enter a small room with two orcs. They are swiftly dealt with by the Sarymoor/Garmin killer duo.

Sneeks reveals a room with three orcs and a trapdoor in the middle. This intrigues the players no end, as it is something that they haven't seen before.

The orcs charge but the heroes defend well and lose no health. Sneeks then slays one orc with his shortsword, Sarymoor kills another with his dagger (enchanted again as he is stood next to Zaphod), and Garmin finishes the 3rd. They all then enter the trap door...

....which turns out to be a bit of an anticlimax as they emerge into another room using a second trap door, and locate a secret door that just leads to a corridor already explored by Sneeks earlier.

The heroes now have a choice to open the door to the centre room or go south towards the bottom corridor. Sneeks was too wary to open that door earlier when he was on his own, and even as a group they are still too nervous to chance it. They are of the belief (unfounded as it happens) that Ulag is in there with his whole army, and they have still not recovered from their experience with him in the previous quest. I treacherously hint that Sir Ragnar might be in there in need of rescue, but they see through my lie and move down the corridor instead.

Zaphod finds a lone orc in the bottom corridor and casts Psychedelic flash on it, rendering it unable to fight effectively on its next turn. Sarymoor then shoots it dead. 

Sneeks then locates a stairway in the bottom-right room. This is the exit from the quest, a route back up and out of the mountain from where the heroes can reach a safe haven. In truth they were never really in any trouble apart from when Garmin went down to 1BP before they could find their equipment (and the healing potions).

Here's a close up of Zaphod Swiftspells small but effective spell deck. These spells were created by Ethica.

http://english.yeoldeinn.com/cards.php

(I just combined a selection his Sorcery spells and Illusion spells together into one deck and called it Sorcery spells. There are 10 spells altogether in my deck and these will be for maverick wizards who are not taught in the Imperial school with its usual elemental spells.

So the companions live to fight another day. And as for Sir Ragnar? The other heroes; dwarf, elf, wizard and barbarian are currently on route after receiving an urgent message from Mentor concerning the rescue of the Empires greteast knight....

Quest 3 - Outpost at the Mountain Base

"The foot of the Black Mountains north of Blackwater have long been a strategic point for those who desire control of the charcoal peaks. Chaos has decided to gain some footing by constructing an outpost here.
Sir Ragnar, you are to gather your companions and claim this base in the name of your Emperor. Be wary, good knight, for a vicious orc warlord, Ulag, maintains this outpost. His minions will fight tooth and nail to keep it. Be strong, fight with valour, return safe".
                                                                                                                                              Mentor

Enter our new heroes; they have begun the quest through an iron door in the base of the mountain. Sir Ragnar is at the front, followed by Sneeks, Sarymoor and Garmin. Rumours are that this place is packed full of greenskins, so the heroes know how difficult it will be to claim the outpost for the Emperor.

Ragnar rounds the first corner and sees two goblin archers guarding the long corridor. Fearing that there might be traps in between him and the goblins, Ragnar calls for help from his marksman, Sarymoor. The crossbowman duly steps up and skewers the closest goblin with a nice shot.

The second goblin misses his shot and on the next round Sarymoor kills that one too. The other heroes have been waiting sensibly for the corridor to be cleared before advancing.

Sneeks easily disarms two traps in the corridor, allowing Sir Ragnar to enter a room with 2 more goblins and a weapons rack. The knight slays one, Sarymoor shoots the other through the doorway. The heroes are working well together like a team of pro's, moving like a well-greased machine.

Ragnar finds an old battle axe on the rack. It will allow him to attack with 4 combat dice, but unbeknownst to him it is not long long for this world and will only last for 4 attacks before it breaks and becomes useless. In the same room Garmin the swordsman, who has yet to see action in this quest, triggers a trap whilst searching for treasure and loses one body point.

Sarymoor rounds another corner and shoots another goblin archer dead. He's proven his worth already in this quest. 

There then follows a long series of passageways, full of traps which are all disarmed by Sneeks without incident. Only goblins have been encountered so far. "I thought this was supposed to be an Orc stronghold?" Sarymoor says. Ragnar warns his men to stay alert.

Right on cue, a Fimir pops up from its hiding place around the corner, and Ragnar steps right into it. He rolls no skulls with his attack with the battleaxe, as if he was surprised by the monster. The Fimir rolls 2 skulls in attack but both are defended by the knight in his heavy plate armour. Ragnar then makes no mistake and kills the Fimir in his next attack.

The heroes enter the room in the top-right corner of the dungeon, and get their first dose of orcs. A big brawl developes. Sarymoor and Ragnar kill one orc each, but Sneeks fluffs his attack on the goblin. Garmin finishes it off however, his first kill of the quest.

Sneeks pockets 50 gold found on one of the corpses, then they all step out into the top corridor. At the junction they meet two more orcs, one of which rolls two skulls on his attack against Ragnar. The knight rolls 4 white shields in his defence, proving to be quite the warrior!The other orc fares little better, and Ragnar fells them both without the other heroes having to get involved.

The heroes are now running into greater numbers of the enemy, in the corridor above the centre room, and in the rooms off to the sides. They steel themselves for a tough fight. Sarymoor shoots a goblin in the blue-coloured room and Sir Ragnar demolishes the Fimir with one attack. However, his battle axe shatters in the process and has to be discarded. 

On Morcars turn the two orcs in the corridor attack Garmin from each side but he skillfully defends himself. The remaining goblin in the blue room squeals in terror and attacks Sarmoor in the doorway, thinking he will be an easier opponent than the knight. It has no such luck, and it too dies screaming.

Garmin despatches the other two orcs, and then the whole party combine to clear out the room to the right without loss.

Garmin enters another room via a concealed door and searches an old bookcase. He finds two spell scrolls (the fire spells Courage and Ball of flame). To use a spell scroll a hero must roll the same or less than his current mind point total on one die. This counts as an action, so failure has a consequence (although the scroll can be kept for a future turn if the attempt to activate it is failed). I have introduced this rule to give more of a role for mind points, which are woefully underused in Heroquest.

Sir Ragnar disturbs a goblin banquet. The Heroes clear out the goblins but Ragnar is wounded slightly and loses 1 BP.

After a long walk around the bottom-left corner of the dungeon they enter this room. Garmin attempts to use his Ball of flame scroll on the Fimir, hoping to kill it in one go, but he fails his roll to activate it. Sarymoor shoots the goblin by the left wall, Sneeks kills another, and as usual Ragnar goes for the biggest baddy, causing one wound on the Fimir. The monsters fare badly in their own attacks, and are then cut down in short order.

Two orcs were warming themselves by the fire from the cold of the mountains. Ragnar stomps in and kills one, and the other orcs attack clangs off his heavy armour. Sarymoor then fires an arrow into its chest and it falls back into the fire for a painful death. The heroes are starting to believe that they can clear an entire base of greenskins, against the odds. They are indeed rolling very well.

The heroes now march down an odd corridor towards the centre room. Odd in the sense that there is an open doorway in the corridor itself, separating it into two halves. Sneeks takes point position as usual, clearing the area of traps.

Garmin opens the door to the centre room and....holy heck, thats a lot of monster muscle. Ulag's main force is gathered in there - 4 chaos warriors, 4 orcs, 3 goblins and the beastly looking Ulag himself. The heroes confidence from a minute ago starts to evaporate. 

Garmin is unwilling to charge in with so many monsters in there. He attempts to use the Courage scroll on himself and this time he's successful. Its a very useful scroll to have in these circumstances.

Sarymoor, yet to lose a BP in the entire quest so far, confidently strides into the room and fires his crossbow at a chaos warrior. He watches in horror as the bolt simply skips of the warriors chaos armour for no damage. Oh dear.

The heroes call on Ragnar, he begins his charge into the monster-filled room but then something unexpected happens; a portcullis gate clatters down where the open doorway was. The way back is blocked, no retreat is now possible and the heroes will have to defeat the entire horde.

On Morcar's turn the two chaos warriors closest to the door attack Sarymoor. He defends for his life and "only" loses 2BP (down to 3).

Here's a close up of the orc warlord, Ulag. 

Now full of courage, Garmin charges into the room....and falls straight into a pit trap. He is also now down to 3BP. To make matters worse, as he is down in a pit he can no longer "see" a monster and the effect of the courage spell wears off. 

Ragnar roars into the room and destroys a Chaos warrior. There is some hope yet with him around. Another chaos warrior attacks the knight and he is hard pressed to hold him off. A goblin tries to poke Garmin down in the pit, but fails to harm him.

Garmin then climbs out of the pit and....walks straight into a spear trap. Ouch!

Sir Ragnar slays another chaos warrior then stands to the side, giving a field of fire to Sarymoor the crossbowman.

Here's another view of the desperate fight. Ulag seems to be hanging back, letting his minions kill the heroes.

Garmin is now outmaneuvered and pinned by 3 greenskins and quickly loses his last body point from an attack from an orc. Sneeks howls in anguish at the loss of his comrade, and in his mad attack actually succeeds in wounding a chaos warrior.

Ragnar slays an orc, but he is now surrounded and loses 3BP (down to 2). The heroes now think that they should have stayed in the corridor and waited for the horde to attack them one by one. How the fortunes of a quest can quickly change!

The brave knight kills a 3rd chaos warrior and Sneeks slays an orc. However, the last chaos warrior rolls four skulls in his next attack and Sir Ragnar too falls!

The picture below shows the last stand of the heroes, with Ulag giving orders to his remaining monsters to capture them. As Sneeks and Sarymoor lose their last body points, Morcar reveals that none of the heroes are actually dead, just unconscious.

The limp bodies of the heroes are dragged off to unknown locations and the quest is over.

Overall a good solid quest. It is a bit long and most of the board is used which slows it down a lot, considering that all of the good stuff occurs in the final room anyway. If I play it again I'll cut out a corridor or two and also give the goblins in the final room some shortbows; this will force the heroes into the room if they decide to wimp out and not try to go toe-to-toe with Ulag's horde.

We will discover the fate of the captured heroes in the next quests....

The Chronicles of Sir Ragnar

Mighty shadows dance throughout the dark corners of the room. A flame atop a heavily used candle struggles to burn. Whispers of light flicker across ano old oak desk. Parchment clutters the surface and black ink creeps slowly along the edge of a long feathered quill. The pooling ink is from a small black bottle quickly knocked aside to make room for a heavily worn book. Although it appears ragged due to age, the book is free from dust. An old man studies its ancient text deeply and vigorously.
             "Everything that ever was....everything that shall ever be....is recorded in these pages. Kingdoms, great battles, Heroes, Villains....the lives of each and every one of us echoes from page to page. It is the history of our world, from beginning to end. It is Loretome."
             The old man, weathered from time, appears frustrated as flips through numerous pages in clumps. "But does that mean the future is already set in stone?" he asks rhetorically. "Or is destiny of our own choosing? As I study these pages, I am troubled. What is life, if we are unable to shape it to our own will? Are those who fall from grace doomed by prophecy? Are those who are predetermined to be the Lords of men, truly deserving of said honours?
              My friends, we shall soon see for ourselves. As I've studied this great book, I've been drawn to a tale....A tale of a great man, a Hero to many, who falls from grace and is drawn towards the very evil that he fights so valiantly against. Sit by my side, friends, as I tell you the tale of Sir Ragnar...."
 


The Chronicles of Sir Ragnar was a collective project created over at the Ye Olde Inn. Here's the first quest here http://north-american.yeoldeinn.com/downloads/quests/community-chronicles-of-sir-ragnar-prequel.pdf  , the other material can be found at the Adventurers Guild in the Ye Olde Inn forum. The project was never finished but there are a number of quests that will suit my purposes for the story that I want to tell. Chronologically, these quests occur at the same time as the original quest pack for the traditional heroes, which is why I'm going to have a go at running them concurrently with different players.
The Chronicles of Sir Ragnar introduces a new band of Heroes to Heroquest. This band is led by the Emperor's greatest knight, Sir Ragnar. The other characters are Sneeks the scout, Sarymoor the archer and Garmin the swordsman. Approximately speaking these are replacements for the dwarf (Sneeks), the Elf (Sarymoor) and the Barbarian (Garmin). In the second quest of this pack Zaphod Swiftspell makes an appearance, a replacement for the wizard, although he has access to different spell decks.

From left to right; Sarymoor with his crossbow, Garmin the swordsman, Sir Ragnar himself, Sneeks the Scout, and Zaphod the Wizard.

I've made a few variations to the starting stats of these Heroes, from their stats in the pack as written by the Adventurers Guild;

Sir Ragnar: Move 2 dice, Attack 3, Defend 5, Body 6, Mind 4 (Broadsword, Helmet, Plate Mail with no restriction to his movement).

Sarymoor: Attack 1 (adjacent, 3 ranged) Defend 4, Body 5, Mind 3 (Dagger, Crossbow, Helmet, Chainmail).

Garmin: Attack 3, Defend 4, Body 5, Mind 3 (Broadsword, Chainmail, Shield).

Sneeks: Attack 2, Defend 5, Body 4, Mind 4 (Shortsword, Helmet, Chainmail, Shield, Toolkit - Sneeks can disarm traps in the exact same way as the dwarf).

Zaphod: stats to come later when he is introduced.

These characters are quite weak in terms of body points, and they have no spell-caster in the starting group, but on the other hand they come with a lot of weapons and armour. Should be interesting to play.

Quest 2 - Prince Magnus' Gold

"Three Treasure Chests have been stolen whilst being taken to the Emperor. A reward of 200 gold coins has been offered to anyone who can return the chests and ALL the gold. The thieves are known to be a band of orcs hiding in the Black mountains. They are led by Gulthor, a Chaos Warrior".
                                                                                                                                                 Mentor


Prince Magnus' Gold is not the next quest in the official booklet but we won't play The Rescue of Sir Ragnar just yet, for reasons that will become obvious later. I should say as well that I have subtly changed pretty much all the official quests in one way or another. For example in this quest the three treasure chests were originally all located in the same room; I've split them up into different locations, which should make this Quest play better and increase its difficulty. As in the last quest, the heroes at this stage will be competing with each other for the spoils.


Here are our intrepid Heroes ready for their first proper adventure. As they descend the stairway into the dungeon Merkai the Wizard cheerily states that he hopes for more of a challenge after the "easy" Maze that Mentor sent them to last time. The other Heroes are not impressed with his bravado and ego, especially since they lost out on the gold prize on that quest.
They have the same spells as before with Bretal the Elf taking the Earth spells and Merkai taking Fire, Air and Water.

No equipment has been purchased. I've actually increased the cost of most items in the equipment card deck, to slow down Hero development. A shield for example now costs 200 gold coins.

Humuncules the Barbarian opens the door and discovers two goblins in the next room. He kills one, the Elf runs in and fells the other. A pretty good start.

The Wizard lags behind in the first room in order to search for treasure and finds 25 gold coins. the other heroes eye him with annoyance.

Bretal then opens the next door, finding a long corridor with two more goblins at the far end, this time they are armed with short-bows! He decides that discretion is the better part of valour and doesn't venture out into the corridor just yet.

Grimgold the Dwarf bullishly moves out into the corridor but can't hope to cover the distance to the goblins. Merkai follows him out and casts the air spell Tempest on one Goblin, meaning that it will miss its turn. This goes some way towards earning back a bit of respect from Grimgold.

The other Goblin moves past his ensorcelled mate and opens fire on the Wizard, but misses.

The Elf finally ventures out into the corridor after casting the earth spell Rock Skin on himself; that will give him some extra protection from the arrows coming his way on Morcars' turn.

The Barbarian finally catches a pesky goblin archer and kills it. Grimgold takes down the other one but the archers have taken a toll; Bretal and Grimgold both losing 2 body points! The archers were a very nasty addition to the quest, and the heroes are now very wary of what might lie ahead.

Bretal enters a room at the end of the corridor with a table and two orcs in it. He fails to do any damage and the Heroes are cursing the fact that they don't have better weapons.

Merkai uses a water spell and puts one of the orcs to sleep. He's holding back his powerful fire spells for later. The other orc fails to wound Bretal, who slays him with a skilful reposte with his short-sword. Humuncules slays the other orc whilst he sleeps!
Grimgold finds another orc in the next room but fumbles his attack. He doesn't seem to be faring well today. Bretal ignores his call for assistance and decides to stay and search the table in the previous room for treasure, promptly triggering a trap and going down to just 3 BP. Grimgold then loses another BP to the orc, and growls in mounting anger. Humuncules destroys the orc however, rolling 3 skulls and taking its head off with his broadsword. Merkai then finds 50 gold in the room; he seems to have a lucky disposition.

The Heroes move into another corridor, with the dwarf disarming a pit trap. Due to the linear nature of the quest so far the heroes have been working quite well together, but with the choice of two doors presented by the corridor, they split up; Elf & Dwarf moving south through a secret door, Barbarian & wizard moving north. There are a number of traps in this central area, and Humuncules also triggers a wandering monster (another orc). Merkai goes the long way round to take this orc from the rear, but misses and takes one wound from the orc for his efforts. Humuncules then kills the orc and Grimgold disarms another pit trap, but the party is looking quite low on health at the moment. Thankfully Bretal finds a timely healing potion.

Grimgold opens a door and is presented with quite a sight;  A goblin, orc and a larger one-eyed monster known as a Fimir, all guarding a treasure chest. He attacks the orc but misses again. Bretal does manage to slay the goblin however. The ferocious looking Fimir retaliates and takes 2BP from Bretal. As he is on just one body point now he gulps down the restorative liquid of his healing potion.

Merkai detects a secret door. Humuncules pushes it open and finds another of Prince Magnus' treasure chests. Unfortunately it is guarded by four monsters, including another Fimir.
The Barbarian, undaunted, enters and wipes out a goblin. Merkai decides not to enter as his plan is use the Barbarian as a shield and heal him with a spell if he gets low on health.
On Morcar's turn the dwarf loses 2BP from the orcs' attack (he's now down to 2) and the barbarian loses 2BP to the Fimir (he's now down to 4).

With a roar Humuncules smashes down the Fimir in one attack, which is no mean feat considering that Fimirs have 2 body points, unlike anything else they have come up against so far. On his next turn he kills the last goblin. Merkai the wizard tries to then enter the room to take the chest, but the indignant Humuncules refuses to let him past (he did all the fighting after all). The sneaky wizard uses the water spell Veil of mist to sneak past and claim the chest anyway! However, the barbarian still blocks the door and looks murderously at the wizard and the treasure. Merkai offers he heal him with a spell, cheerfully adding that there is still one more chest in the dungeon for Humuncules to discover. The Barbarian grudgingly agrees to this, but can't help feel a bit manipulated. Once again greed is overcoming heroism.....

After a tough fight in the other room the Elf and dwarf mage to take down the other Fimir with combined attacks. Grimgold is however down to 1BP. Bretal picks up the treasure chest then promptly casts Pass through rock on himself and heads back to the stairway using a magical shortcut. Nicely played!
Merkai uses the air spell Swift wind to speed his own escape from the dungeon with the heavy treasure chest. It's good to see the heroes making full use of their spells.

The barbarian, after a long trek around the top right corridors, opens a door to a room with 3 orcs (and no treasure chest). Grimgold treks after him, not sure if he can help much in the mission to find the 3rd chest with only one body point left. To make matters worse he remembers that the elf  had a healing spell that could have beefed him up, which will now get no use as Bretal has already escaped the dungeon. Grimgold's list of grudges grows longer.
Merkai does however help the barbarian from afar, slaying an orc with Fire of wrath. Humuncules slays the other two for no loss to himself. He finds 50 gold in the pockets of the dead orcs, as a reward for his efforts.

Grimgold has used the delay to catch up with Humuncules.
An orc (and a trap) guards the approach to the large central room. The heroes are sure the last chest must be in there. Humucules falls into the pit trap, but successfully defends himself from the orc whilst he is down in the filthy pit. He then kills the orc, thrusting upwards with a sure strike.
Grimgold refuses to jump the pit, or even try to disarm it, considering that if he fails he would lose his last BP.
Meanwhile the wizard has also escaped to the stairwell with his treasure chest.

The centre room is revealed; a hulking chaos warrior named Gulthor, along with three minions. This could be too much even for the barbarian, who will probably be without help from the dwarf or anybody else.
Humuncules attacks an orc first, rolling 3 skulls and killing it quickly. The other 3 monsters close in for the kill however, Gulthor and the Fimir each taking 1BP from Humuncules (who is now down to 3BP). He needs to roll very well to survive, and when he kills the other orc its good progress. In the midst of his battle rage however, he forgets to fall back behind the door where only one monster at a time could attack him. This could be a fatal mistake.
The Fimir misses his attack but Gulthor rolls 3 skulls.....Humuncules could die from this....but rolls 1 shield and clings to life with 1BP. He has no healing potion or spells. The Fimir is killed in a flurry of blows in the barbarians next attack. Humuncules could now retreat but that is not how a barbarian behaves, so he stands his ground.

Gulthor then rolls 4 skulls in his next attack! The brave but foolish Humuncules dies. It's the first hero death of the campaign.
Here's a close up of the mighty Gulthor. I believe its a Battle Masters warrior, a game which was released around the same time as Heroquest. I found it in a hobby store, it had a damaged axe (which I repaired using bits lying around). Gulthor has the same stats as a normal Chaos warrior, which in my rules have 2 body points (which is in between UK and US rules, 1 & 3 BP respectively).

A humourous moment follows when Gulthor then decides that one hero kill isn't enough to satisfy his bloodlust, and he goes for the dwarf. He even jumps the pit trap to get to him. Grimgold flees from the hulking beast, eventually outpacing him and reaching the safety of the stairway, after a few scares and a few laughs.
Gulthor the Great may return in a subsequent quest, meaning the heroes will have to face him again. This kind of thing, a surviving recurring villains, is what makes Heroquest so great.

And so the quest is over. Splitting up the treasure chests worked really well. Prince Magnus will perhaps not be pleased that only two out of 3 chests were recovered.
Mentor will probably also be having words with the Heroes over their continued inability to work well together. He'll also be looking for a new barbarian!