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!

Quest 1 - The Maze

"This will be your final test before you set forth. Be sure to use all the skills that you have been taught. You must attempt to find your way out. Several monsters have been placed in the Maze. They will try to stop you, so take care. Whoever finds his way out first will be rewarded with100 gold coins. This may be used to buy equipment for the adventures to come".
                                                                                                                               Mentor




The very first quest will be 'The Maze'. A lot of players find this quest to be very boring as there are not many monsters. When the US edition of the rules came out the substituted this quest out for 'The Trial', which unfortunately had the opposite problem of too many monsters - like ALL of them. This was overkill for the first quest. I much prefer the simple easing-in nature of the Maze. Its not very challenging, but its charm lies in the idea that at the start of their careers as adventurers the Heroes are actually competing against each other. They are racing each other to see who can find the way out first. The Evil Wizard player (who doubles up as a games master) really needs to play on the rivalry between the players if this quest is to work well. Fostering division should always be Morcar's objective anyway.
I think if I run this quest again I'll use the much improved version created by Mortimer here http://oldscratch.smackwell.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1208476040
but for now let's get on with the original quest.
Here's the board with the unusual set up of the heroes starting in all four corners of the board.

Starting in the top right corner we have Humuncules the Barbarian. He hails from the bitter cold northlands of Norsca, and these southern dungeons feel positively tropical to him, hence his lack of clothing. He rolls a lowly 4 for his first movement roll and heads down towards the closed door.

Here's Bretal the Elf. He rolls only slightly better with a 5, and heads towards the dwarf hero. Bretal has the Water spells.

Enter Grimgold the Dwarf. He is the first hero to remember to search for traps. Finding none, he then roles 8 for movement. Moving away from the Elf, he enters the first room and comes up against an orc. Having searched for traps already this turn, he can't attack at this time.
(it was at this point I realised I didn't have enough of the closed doors, the Maze quest makes uses of tons of them! so I had to use a door from the expansions).

This finely dressed fellow is the Wizard, Merkai. He has chosen the elemental spells of Fire, Air & Earth. Copying the Dwarf, he first searches for traps then rolls a 10 taking him up to a closed door. Learning from the Dwarf again, or at least his mistakes, he decides not to open the door until his next turn when he will be able to attack or carry out another action.

On Morcar's turn the orc rolls three combat dice to attack Grimgold the Dwarf and gets 3 skulls. Ouch! What a way to throw the first attack of the campaign. Grimgold rolls one white shield in defence, and so loses 2 body points. He has 5 left, down from 7.
Humuncules then enters a yellow coloured room. Searching for treasure he takes a card from the deck and finds a gem worth 50 gold coins. Nice! Maybe he can buy some bigger clothes with it....
Bretal the Elf enters another room, searches for treasure and pockets a potion of healing for later. The heroes are starting to enjoy the treasure searches and are now thinking its all good stuff in the deck. Naïve fools!
Grimgold fluffs his attack on the orc and stays put.

Merkai the wizard opens the door and sees an orc. Wisely deciding to use a spell rather than physical brawn, he casts the fire spell 'Ball of Flame', and the orc dies screaming.






The orc facing Grimgold rolls only one skull in his next attack, which the dwarf defends.

The Barbarian searches for secret doors, finds nothing but a dead end, and has to head back to where he started the quest. Thankfully he rolls a 10 and gains some ground.
Bretal also searches for secret doors but has more luck. He moves through it, getting very lucky indeed as the blue room with the other closed door that he rejected had a orc in it, as well as being a dead end.

Bretal also searches for secret doors but has more luck. He moves through it, getting very lucky indeed as the blue room with the other closed door that he rejected had a orc in it, as well as being a dead end.

Grimgold rolls 2 skulls and kills his orc foe. He moves into the next room but has wasted quite a bit of time.
Merkai moves up a bit, and finds 25 gold in treasure search. Morcar has nothing to do as there are currently no monsters on the board.

Humuncules finds a treasure hoard worth 100 gold! He now has 150gc. If he can get out of the maze first and claim the prize the Barbarian will have a hefty amount of loot.
Bretal finds another secret door. There are not actually any monsters yet on this side of the board!






The dwarf finds 50 gold inside a small leather pouch that was wrapped in an old rag. Morcar is starting to think that he didn't shuffle the treasure deck properly!

 Despite a thorough search Merkai the wizard finds no treasure in the blue room with the odd kink in the corner. There is a secret door right next to where Merkai is stood in the photo, it opens out into the corridor and is the only way out of the dungeon maze from the side of the board that the wizard and dwarf are on. Who will find it first?

Humuncules moves through both doors of the small room, finds an orc in the second small room, and smashes him down with his broadsword.

 Bretal moves through the secret door and sees an orc guarding the large centre room. The elf suspects this is the way out. He doesn't however have enough movement to get to the orc.

 Grimgold moves across the corridor and into the same room as the wizard, searching for secret doors he gives Merkai the opportunity to then skip through it into the corridor. He then kills an orc guarding the other door into the centre room with a Genie spell!

The orc on the other side charges Bretal and takes one body point from him.
The barbarian can't find a way out so heads back to the first small room ready to search for secret doors next turn. Its a frustrating time for him; he can hear the battle raging in the corridor through the wall but can't join in!

The elf recalls how long it took the dwarf to despatch the other orc earlier and hatches a plan to get past this one. He casts the water spell 'Veil of Mist' and simply steps through the space that the orc is in! Rolling a 7 for movement, he enters the centre room but is agonisingly just one space away from the staircase that leads up out of the maze....

The dwarf must ask the wizards permission to pass through the square that he is in. Wanting to be the first out of the maze himself, Merkai flat out refuses. Grimgold, growing angry, asks Morcar if it is possible to attack other heroes. With an evil grin Morcar nods. Grimgold then threatens to attack Merkai if he doesn't let him through. After a few more threats and bargaining, the wizard suggests that the dward saerches for treasure instead. Finally Merkai decides to call the dwarfs bluff, hoping that he won't actually attack.Grimgold holds off and searches for treasure instead. Hilariously, he draws a wandering monster card, gets attacked and loses 2 more body points (now down to 3!). Really pissed off now, Grimgold asks Merkai to heal him with one of his spells, but the wizard makes no promises. The rest of the players, including Morcar, are enjoying this immensely.


On the wizards turn, he decides not to heal the dwarf and instead casts the air spell 'Swift wind' on himself. Doubling his movement, he breezes into the centre room and escapes out of the Maze, winning the quest.


On Morcar's turn, the orc attacks Grimgold. The orc can potentially kill the dwarf if he gets 3 skulls. The players hold their breath....the orc rolls 2 skullls, both of which are defended, and Grimgold lives on.
the other orc chases Bretal back into the centre room hoping to prevent the elf's escape, but causes no damage.

Humuncules finds a secret door and heads into the corridor, his way out still blocked by the orc fighting Bretal. Instead of helping slay this orc, Bretal skips up the stairway to safety. There has not been much charity between the players this game!
On their turns both Grimgold and Humuncules slay the orcs they are facing and then leave the dungeon, the barbarian first stopping to search the centre room for treasure, finding only a potion of speed that would have been very useful earlier but totally useless now.


Although the Barbarian finished the quest last, he actually had the best haul of plunder (150 gold coins). Merkai collected 125 including his prize for getting out first, Grimgold cam away with 50 and the Elf with absolutely nothing (having neglected treasure searches over his effort to get out fastest).


All in all a good quest to start with, although I'll definitely run the more interesting version linked to above if I do this quest again.

A Gathering Storm......

The fire burns warmly, but casts little light into Mentor's study. The flickering shadows only hint at the vast number of books and scrolls on the shelves. Slowly Mentor walks over to the fire.


"Heed well the words of  Mentor, Guardian of Loretome, and I will tell you of  times past, of darker days when the Empire was saved against all hope from Morcar, lord of Chaos. For I fear the darkness is about to return....


"The book I carry - Loretome - was written when time began, all that ever was and all that ever will be is recorded in its countless pages. Through Loretome I may guide you, but I may not intervene directly, lest a greater evil befall the World, and Chaos triumph forever.


"Many centuries ago, Morcar was my apprentice. He worked hard and learned quickly. But impatience devoured him, and he wanted to learn more powerful magic. I told him of the dangers and that he should be patient, for in time he would become a great wizard. But Morcar could not wait: each night he broke into my study and read my spell books. The secrets that were held within them were great indeed. Once he had learned these secrets, Morcar fled.


"When I had caught up with him, I found him greatly changed. He had pledged his allegiance to the Great Powers of Chaos. Fool! He saw magic only as a short-cut to power and paid no heed to the terrible price he would have to pay. I tried to reason with him, reminding him that the Great Powers would only serve him while it suited their own dark purposes, yet in time destroy him. But to no avail; he laughed in my face and then unleashed a terrible spell which I was hard-pressed to counter. For many days we battled, but Morcar had allies stronger even than I, and I could not defeat him. In the end, as we both weakened, he fled and sought refuge in the Northern Chaos Wastes. There he licked his wounds and honed his skills, conjuring ancient powers with which to overthrow the Empire. Then Morcar's fell Legions poured out of the Chaos Wastes and swept all before them. At the sight of the Black Banner and the massed hordes of Chaos, even the bravest warriors of the Empire had turned tail and fled, the land was laid waste and all men despaired.
"But then there came a mighty warrior Prince from the Borderlands - Rogar they called him. He wore a glittering diamond on his brow - the Star of the West - as worn by the ancient kings of legend. Hope returned and men flocked to his standard, leaving their hiding places in the hills and forests. Other great heroes joined him: Durgin, the fearless dwarven warrior  from the World Edge Mountains,  Ladril the elven fighter mage from distant Athelorn and Telor the wizard whose sorcery was to save Rogar on many occasions.

"For many years Rogar trained his army, always careful to avoid open battle with Morcar's general until all was ready: but ever harried their supply lines, wiping out countless Orcs and Goblins.
Then came the day for which Rogar had waited. His army had grown strong and was well practiced. Camping in the high passes Ladril saw the Black Hosts from afar and bade Durgin blow the call to arms on his mighty horn. Rogar's army poured down upon the enemy from two sides and battle was joined. Many foul creatures and good men perished that day. Yet, as the light faded, it was Darkness that fled the field. But the victory was not absolute. Morcar and his general escaped beyond the Sea of Claws, and even now they plot their revenge.






"I must watch Morcar and measure the strength of his magic. This I will do with the help of Loretome. The powers Morcar has called upon will destroy us all if I relax from this vigil. Morcar's armies are on the march once again: already they have assailed the Borderlands. The Empire must look again for Heroes and to this end I have trained you. Soon Morcar's plots will be ready and the Empire will have need of a new Rogar. But where are the heroes to equal him?


"Your training is complete, but you still have much to learn if you are to become as great as Rogar and his companions. You are not yet Heroes, you have yet to prove yourselves, but I will help you all that I can. Each of you must complete seven tasks. If you do this you will be acclaimed as Champions of the Realm and dubbed Imperial Knights. Then you will truly be on the road to becoming a Hero. I shall speak with you on your return - if you return......."




                                                                                                                                              Mentor

Heroquest world map

This is a quick map that I knocked up showing many of the most important locations in the Heroquest world, including many of the official expansions, semi-official published quests and fan-made adventures created for this game.
Locating many of these places was not easy. I used the Warhammer fantasy world as the basis for the map, as Heroquest was loosely based in that universe, then added info from various canonical and semi-canonical texts, as well as reasonable deductions made by folks over at Ye Olde Inn (the main Heroquest fan site on the English-speaking internet).


The result is shown below. Rivers and bodies of water are shown in blue, marshes in light green, forests in dark green, mountains in grey pencil. My HQ campaign will use many of the locations depicted.
Feel free to use/adapt as you wish.

A Message from Mentor

Welcome to the world of Heroquest, the greatest boardgame ever created. Sadly now out of production (a situation bordering on the criminal) but still played by a community of feverish fans who loved this game when it first came out in 1989, this blog will serve as a meeting place for all of my Heroquest related thoughts. This will include notes on playing this fantastic game, such as quest design, model collecting and painting.
It will also chart the course of an ambitious campaign of Heroquest games spanning literally scores of quests with many different monsters, Villains allies and Heroes, both old and new. This will include the core game, all the expansions and published quests, and a great many fan-created adventures, all with my own little twist on events. A saga of epic proportions, a veritable feast of Heroquest stories that will sate the appetite of even the most veteran of dungeon crawlers.




Dare you enter the dark dungeons beneath this world and accept the Hero's Quest?


                                                                                                                                          Mentor