Knights of the Daystorm - Release and FAQ thread

[Velenne]

________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION

Welcome! This is the final, completed version of the Knights of the Daystorm campaign. This campaign includes:

• 5 complete scenarios
• 15 new Treasure Glyphs
• 4 new Ancient Artifact cards
• Player's Campaign Status Tracker
• Rules for both the DM and player(s).

In “Knights of the Daystorm”, one side plays the role of the Knights of the Daystorm, a group of heroes who begin on Earth but eventually hail from various worlds. The other side will play the role of the Dungeon Master, and it’s your job to stop the Knights using the plethora of creatures, traps, and puzzles at your disposal.

There are four element-themed dungeons and one final dungeon called “Sanctuary”. The Knights choose the order in which to complete the elemental dungeons, striving to acquire the Elemental Artifact Key protected by each dungeon’s final Guardian. If the Knights do so, they travel to Icaria for the final dungeon and final victory: the very source of the wellsprings!

Make sure you understand the drafting rules for the Knights, take a look over the scenarios (taking care not to read Runa’s Riddles!) and determine which dungeon the Knights delve into first.

________________________________________________
REQUIREMENTS


The main rulebook contains everything you need to create the experience using your Heroscape collection. In order to play the entire campaign as written you will need the following sets, sorted by scenario:

• Earth Dungeon: 1 RotV, 1 SotM, 2 BftU
• Fire Dungeon: 2 RotV, 1 SotM, 2 VW
• Water Dungeon: 2 RotV, 1 SotM, 1 TT
• Air Dungeon: 1 RotV, 2 FotA, 1 Marvel, 2 RttFF
• Sanctuary: 2 RotV, 1 SotM, 2 BftU, 1 Marvel, 1 TT, 2 VW, 2 FotA, 1 RttFF

And you will also needs the following figures, again sorted by scenario:

• Earth: 2 BftU sets.
• Fire Dungeon: 2-3 VW sets, 2 squads of Minions, Taelord, 2-3 Granite Guardians (who can proxy for Obsidian Guards), Runa, Sujoah, 1-2 squads of Fyorlag Spiders
• Water Dungeon: All the Esenweins and Retchets, Brunak, 2-3 Zombies of Morindan, Jotun, Gurei-Oni.
• Air Dungeon: 2-3 Deathstalkers, 2-3 Blastatrons, 2 Gladiators, DW9k, Zettian Guards, 2-3 Deathreavers, 2-3 Omnicron Snipers, Major Q10, 2 Omnicron Repulsors
• Sanctuary: Zelrig, Braxas, Nilfheim, Mimring, and Charos.

So, all told, that's:

• 2 RotV,
• 1 SotM
• 2 BftU
• 2 (3 without figure proxies) VW
• 1 TT
• 2 RttFF
• 2 FotA
• 1 Marvel
• 2x TJ
• 3x Malliddon's Prophecy: Snipers and Vipers
• Malliddon's Prophecy: Heroes of Bleakwoode
• 2x Utgar's Rage: Drones and Minions
• Orm's Return
• 2x Zanafor's Discovery: Soulborgs and Elves
• Raknar's Vision: Heroes of Lindesfarme
• Thora's Vengeance: Soulborgs
• Thora's Vengeance: Warriors and Soulborgs
• 1-2x Dawn of Darkness: Zombies
• Dawn of Darkness: Heroes of Durgeth
• Fields of Valor: Fiends and Vampires
• Fields of Valor: Heroes of Elswin
• Aquilla's Alliance: Heroes of the Quagmire
• 2x Blackmoon's Siege: Dwarves and Repulsors
• 3x Valkrill's Gambit: Warriors of Feldspar

Of course, if you don't have all of these sets, don't worry. That's what proxies are for!

________________________________________________
LINKS

The complete, 38-page game guide can be downloaded HERE!

Links to individual files:

• Player's Campaign Status Tracker
• Rulebook (includes glyphs and artifact cards)
  

• Air Dungeon

• Earth Dungeon

• Fire Dungeon

• Water Dungeon

• Sanctuary

________________________________________________
FAQ

When do you get to add new knights to the adventuring party from the pool? After every room cleared or after every dungeon cleared?
-- Draft new Knights to take the place of fallen ones between Dungeons, not rooms. You can never drop a Knight; they have to die in battle!

In the Earth Dungeon, is Othkurik allowed to use the Earth Key's powers?
-- Yes! This is the exception to the rule listed in the Game Guide which states the DM's heroes can never pick up Elemental Artifact Keys. That said, they can pick up the normal treasure glyphs or camp on top of them to prevent the Knights from picking them up unless the scenario text specifically states otherwise.

In the Water Dungeon, what happens if my Knight dies and drops a Key in Room 3, but then that room is subsequently flooded?
-- ERRATA: The Keys find their way to the Knight's starting zone in Room 4. Place the Keys before deploying the Knights.

[Skeletor]

WoW!!!!!!

That's is allot of work my friend. I know I tried to do something similar but lost steam on it. I would love to sit down and give this a shot some day. I'm going to print this stuff out at work so I can have it handy.

I made a hero dungeon crawl campaign but never got past making the second map

[Velenne]

This was a craptastic TON of work! There's about 30 downloads thus far, though, so I hope people get a chance to enjoy it.

Maybe after D2 is released this summer with the Elemental controller guy, maybe some arachnids for Estivara, who knows what else, I'll get to work on a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign.

Then after that, Ruins of Undermountain!

[ZBeeblebrox]

Originally Posted by Velenne

This was a craptastic TON of work! There's about 30 downloads thus far, though, so I hope people get a chance to enjoy it.

Maybe after D2 is released this summer with the Elemental controller guy, maybe some arachnids for Estivara, who knows what else, I'll get to work on a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign.

Then after that, Ruins of Undermountain!

You're making me drool Velenne...sign me up for playtesting

[delphic]

Great Work!

I think I'll try it this weekend.

[Velenne]

Please let me know how it goes!

[Pilgrim]

First question for your FAQ - When do you get to add new knights to the adventuring party from the pool? After every room cleared or after every dungeon cleared? And I assume that if a knight goes down and drops his treasure glyphs, the other knights can pick them up at the end of the battle and then redistribute before going to th enext room.

We built the air dungeon tonight and hope to stat playing tomorrow night. On the air dungeon - the turbo lift rule wasn't clear to me. Could you explain again how that works?

Finally, I take it that you put the final dungeon together and the knights battle all the dragons at once (not one dragon at a time in a room at a time).

Looking forward to the campaign. Thanks for all the hard work.

[Velenne]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

First question for your FAQ - When do you get to add new knights to the adventuring party from the pool? After every room cleared or after every dungeon cleared?

Draft new Knights to take the place of fallen ones between Dungeons, not rooms. You can never drop a Knight; they have to die in battle!

And I assume that if a knight goes down and drops his treasure glyphs, the other knights can pick them up at the end of the battle and then redistribute before going to th enext room.

Per the rules for Treasure Glyphs from BftU, if you're carrying more than one and you die, you have to pick one to drop in destroyed figure's space. If you're carrying a Key (or more than one), it has to be that Key(s).

We built the air dungeon tonight and hope to stat playing tomorrow night. On the air dungeon - the turbo lift rule wasn't clear to me. Could you explain again how that works?

It works just like the bonus Movement for walking on road tiles, but instead it gives you the Flying ability during your movement.

Finally, I take it that you put the final dungeon together and the knights battle all the dragons at once (not one dragon at a time in a room at a time).

Yup, all at once! It's a tough battle but you should be bringing a pile of treasure along with you. The Elemental Energy Bursts are also there to breathe new life into the Knights.

Looking forward to the campaign. Thanks for all the hard work.

You're quite welcome. I hope you enjoy it and I'm more than happy to answer your questions.

[Pilgrim]

Well, my son and I have played halfway through the campaign so far and he's loving it. Battle report for you:

He picked earth first and drafted KA, Agent Skahen, Carr, Shiori, Isamu and Crixis. I bested him in the first room duels 3-1. Fought the trolls and lost Skahen and Shiori, but got the vorpal sword, and KA mopped up the trolls in short order. The third room went heavily for the drow. They wiped out everyone but KA, who finally downed a Pelloth with +2A. KA had little trouble with the final boss. Of these rooms, definitely the drow seemed the most difficult, with the troll second. Question - was the black dragon allowed to use the earth key's powers?

After that he shifted to the fire dungeon, and brought on some new recruits: Drake, Thorgrim, Elgrim, Guilty and Retiarus. That first room with the Obsidians proved to be a bear. He wiped the first try, so I let him play it again and again. He wiped two more times (I somehow rolled a host of 5 skull Obsidian attacks with height), and he didn't win til the fourth time. By then he was rolling better, and his KA's counterstrike with Thorgrim and the earth key buffing was unstoppable. But even by then only Drake and KA survived the first room.

KA went on a tear in the second room and mowed down the minions with the quick release + counterstrike. But without a third piece he couldn't work the bridge and get the helmet. The granite guardians in room 3 took out Drake. But eventually KA got height which wiped out their specials, and again his double shot + counterstrike dropped them all easily. He couldn't figure out Runa's first riddle, and instead decided to start firing. She went down in one round. Sujoah and the spiders dropped like flies as well (no pun intended). This dungeon seemed the hardest of all we played, and that first room seemed very challenging given three obsidians that close, with height and lava from the get-go. I'd probably make at least one of the obsidians start furhter back (kind of like you did with granite guardians).

We started water dungeon and only finished first room. KA this time drafted the newly unlocked kyrie from fire dungeon: Concan, Raelin, Kelda, and another (I forget) used the fire key to evaporate half the zombies (even with an extra set for advanced mode) and KA wiped out the rest. The zombies swarmed him but even with their 6A they couldn't touch his def+earth key+thorgrim+height+Raelin. Thank goodness Marcus' +2 def ring doesn't stack. Again - I used the ring with Marcus to give him +2 def. Was that correct?

Hopefully we'll finish the campaign tomorrow!

[Velenne]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Well, my son and I have played halfway through the campaign so far and he's loving it. Battle report for you:

He picked earth first and drafted KA, Agent Skahen, Carr, Shiori, Isamu and Crixis. I bested him in the first room duels 3-1. Fought the trolls and lost Skahen and Shiori, but got the vorpal sword, and KA mopped up the trolls in short order. The third room went heavily for the drow. They wiped out everyone but KA, who finally downed a Pelloth with +2A. KA had little trouble with the final boss. Of these rooms, definitely the drow seemed the most difficult, with the troll second. Question - was the black dragon allowed to use the earth key's powers?

Yes, this is the exception to the rule mentioned in the Guidebook. Too bad he didn't successfully complete the first room. Having any of the Toril adventurers on your team can be a big HUGE help later.

After that he shifted to the fire dungeon, and brought on some new recruits: Drake, Thorgrim, Elgrim, Guilty and Retiarus. That first room with the Obsidians proved to be a bear. He wiped the first try, so I let him play it again and again. He wiped two more times (I somehow rolled a host of 5 skull Obsidian attacks with height), and he didn't win til the fourth time. By then he was rolling better, and his KA's counterstrike with Thorgrim and the earth key buffing was unstoppable. But even by then only Drake and KA survived the first room.

Ouch! In all of my tests the room was a cakewalk. I guess we were never lucky enough to really get set up with the obsidians; the Knights were always very aggressive coming out of the gate.

KA went on a tear in the second room and mowed down the minions with the quick release + counterstrike. But without a third piece he couldn't work the bridge and get the helmet. The granite guardians in room 3 took out Drake. But eventually KA got height which wiped out their specials, and again his double shot + counterstrike dropped them all easily. He couldn't figure out Runa's first riddle, and instead decided to start firing. She went down in one round. Sujoah and the spiders dropped like flies as well (no pun intended). This dungeon seemed the hardest of all we played, and that first room seemed very challenging given three obsidians that close, with height and lava from the get-go. I'd probably make at least one of the obsidians start furhter back (kind of like you did with granite guardians).

Kaemon is such a beast. In all of my games, he was an auto-draft. The way D&D-Scape dungeons play out, sometimes the DM gets a good stand and sometimes the players just can't go wrong. And yes this is probably the most challenging dungeon.

We started water dungeon and only finished first room. KA this time drafted the newly unlocked kyrie from fire dungeon: Concan, Raelin, Kelda, and another (I forget) used the fire key to evaporate half the zombies (even with an extra set for advanced mode) and KA wiped out the rest. The zombies swarmed him but even with their 6A they couldn't touch his def+earth key+thorgrim+height+Raelin. Thank goodness Marcus' +2 def ring doesn't stack. Again - I used the ring with Marcus to give him +2 def. Was that correct?

Yes, you did it right. That Fire Key comes in handy sometimes!

Hopefully we'll finish the campaign tomorrow!

Can't wait to hear more!

[Pilgrim]

Hmmm. Not sure what to make of first fire dungeon room. As DM, if I won init, I would move up one OG, and then hurl lava down at whomever rolling 5A dice with the other two who are right next to the start zone standing on lava. And even if I lost init, he would bring up one hero, and then I would get another 2-3 attacks with OG's, rolling at least 4A dice, or even taking a swipe at the remaining knights on the start zone, again at 5A dice. Add some nice rolling to that, and you got multiple hero wipes, or at best a hero victory with some heavy casualities. That was our experience anyway.

That's why I suggested maybe starting one of the closest three OG's back about mid-map, just to give the heros a chance to get some equal height.

Anyway, I don't want to carp on this, because it's a minor hiccup in the whole experience. So far it's been fantastic!

[ZBeeblebrox]

That first Fire Dungeon is a definate pain in the neck. The Obsidians are more powerful than I thought. Check out my battle reports in the testing thread...I lost a few heros in that room.