Frosthaven #104: Ruins of the Solstice and HeroQuest First Light: Sound the Hearthkin Horn

Wow, two game nights, but during the Steam Next Fest, I was so busy trying to play demos and write about them, that I didn’t really have a chance to write about the most important kind of game — the ones you play with your family.

There’s nothing more important than that, right?

These are swapped around in chronological order; we played HeroQuest Saturday night, and Frosthaven just last night. But since I started the post with a picture from Frosthaven, I’ll cover that first.

We picked up the key to this scenario from a treasure chest in the last scenario we did. The treasure chest said “pick a card from this random scenario deck and add it to your unlocked scenario map”. We didn’t know exactly which scenario it would be; I don’t remember why we chose this one specifically, but we had just come off a scenario that ended in a dead end — a door covered with mysterious symbols that, we were informed, would require some further information somewhere down the line. Maybe this scenario — and the one that follows — would provide some of those necessary clues? Maybe!

We made our way to a really weird door-shape scratched in a rock face. As we neared, we could see symbols on the door — one glowing green, in the shape of a leaf, and one glowing blue, in the shape of a snowflake. Our key was glowing the same, and as we got closer, a keyhole revealed itself, and opened to a small cavern. The left side was warm and summerlike. The right side was cold and wintry. As the magical door closed behind us, elemental monsters stepped out of the shadows…

Those monsters were earth elementals from the spring side, and frost demons from the winter side. Earth elementals can hit HARD. Frost Demons can freeze you in place. The combination can be a little deadly. Our game plan: Run to the exit.

Scenario #104 isn’t one where you have to kill everything. In fact, you don’t have to kill anything. All you really need to do is make it to the far side of the final room, where two chests waited. One could only be opened if someone else was also at the other one. Our plan was for the Blink Blade to zip up as fast as possible, and the Deathwalker would use her shadows to position herself for a teleport right to the end. Meanwhile, the Boneshaper would make his way up, tanking with his ghoul and skelly boys while I just… stayed behind and tried to keep mobs interested in me as opposed to what was happening all… there. (makes waving motions toward the third room). We were helped somewhat by the special rules of the place: summer enemies would take damage if they ended their turn on the winter side, and vice versa. Additionally, leaf was always in the air on the summer side, and ice was always in the air on the winter side. Unfortunately, none of our characters used those elements. We might have decided to fight if we had, but we ran, and made it to the end.

And then we unlocked the followup scenario. Maybe that one will finally have the answers we’re looking for?

HeroQuest First Light: Sound the Hearthkin Horn

We’re one quest away from finishing the First Light campaign, and things are getting a little tense. We have a traitor in the camp, a witch queen fighting with a dragon lord over who gets to pick our bones clean. It’s a whole thing, and we’re there for it.

Here’s what Mentor has to say about it:

“Heroes, I speak mind to mind with you once again. The final battle draws near. Qwindrak’s general is a Dread Warrior called by the name of Abraxas. His forces wait in Hallburg, once the Fire King’s private quarters. Between you and the Hallburg will be five Halls of Trial that you must fight your way through. Look to your map where you will see dwarven runes that highlight the secret paths you may use to drop in on your enemy undiscovered. Use them to f;ank the dread forces and dispatch Abraxas once and for all. And don’t forget about the — special tool in your possession. Use it wisely.”

The “special tool” is the Hearthkin Horn that summons help in our most desperate hour. We got it in our last adventure.

The five trials were… well, let’s just call it the one trial, because the others were just mixes of orcs and goblins — no trouble at all for us, especially once equipped from plundering the Fire King’s tomb in the last adventure.

Mentor had kindly revealed all the hidden doors on the map so that we could sneak around unseen. We even could skip a couple of the trials, but in the end, we cleared them all, and only used the secret doors in order to attack from a couple different directions at once.

The final room, though — Abraxas’ room — was a little more interesting. There he stood, at the end of a massive hall, filled to the brim with orcs, goblins, and the slimy Abominations that had caused us so much trouble earlier in our adventures. Mentor’s words echoes in all our minds — “Remember what you carry! Use the Horn!”

And so we did.

Scattered bones and discarded armor gathered themselves together and formed into skeleton warriors at our command. Only one thought was held in their empty skulls — Kill Abraxas. As such, they had double defense and attack dice so long as they were in that final trial.

So we sent them in, and they proved their worth. Abraxas fell dead with a half dozen crossbow bolts pierced through his armor. The Abominations fell to the skeletons. The rogue was free with his Orcband longsword. The barbarian and dwarf made the greenskins sorry they’d ever drawn breath.

And that was it, that was the adventure. We got some potions and a bit of gold along our way, but with nothing really left to buy, we left Hallburg, ready to finish Qwindrak and free the lands from his sorcerous rule.