We’re on the eleventh quest of the fourteen base HeroQuest quests. We’ve been through a lot. Deaths, loss, betrayal, laughing ghosts, paltry rewards, and the time I knocked the vase holding my Valentine’s Day roses and a lot of water alllllll over the board, though I guess that was the game itself going through a lot at that point.
It deserved it.
Here’s what the dread wizard Zargon told us about the adventure:
“Lands to the east have been plagued by marauding Orcs and Goblins. The Emperor has ordered that a band of worthy Heroes should be sent forth to destroy them. The Orcs are well-protected in a strong underground fortress known as the Bastion of Chaos. They are led by a small group of Chaos Warriors. You must fight your way in and kill all of the monsters you find. A Hero will be paid a bounty of 10 gold coins for each Goblin killed; 20 gold coins for each Orc killed; 30 gold coins for each Abomination killed; and 50 gold coins for each Dread Warrior killed.”
Yeah. We were going to get paid.
There’s a chance, every time a hero searches for treasure, that a wandering monster pops up instead from… somewhere…. The treasure deck is eventually exhausted of all the actual treasures, leaving only wandering monsters and traps, and so, after awhile, we stop looking for treasure.
Not this time. The wandering monsters for this quest were Abominations. And each one we killed netted us another 30 gold coins. We went all the way through that treasure deck and started through it again. End result was all of us shared all the possible treasure, and we got a lot of bounties.
We paid for the whole game board, and we were going to use the whole game board. Zargon had us in almost every room on the board, looking for more to slay. Only the center room, filled to the brim with monsters, caused us any problem, but even that wasn’t that much of a problem, as it turned out. The monk did one of his trademark “now everything dies” moves.
The dwarf did get a little flustered. He was last to move, this game, and when all the others had found a wandering monster or opened a door to reveal the monsters on the other side, it was the dwarf that had to wade in their with his battle axe and armor and take care of the problem.
Many scorched fingers and singed beards have taught us that we need to search chests for traps. The rogue, bless his heart, actually disarmed this one — and the gargoyle statue behind us didn’t spring to life. Zargon’s groan of disappointment echoed throughout the dungeon.
Final payday was 177 gold pieces for each character; the monk also got an “Orc Bane” short sword, double attack on any orc unlucky enough to be on the wrong side of the blade. This was enough for the elf to get a couple pieces of armor; the rogue got three; and I think the monk got a piece as well.
Here, three quests from the end of the first quest book, we might finally be ready to face Zargon himself.
