Utgar's Quest: A new type of D&D scenario

[TheAverageFan]

This still will take some work, so I'll start with the story intro. Tell me what you think...

The war on Valhalla has waged many years, and the fortunes are turning in Jandar's favor. Many are celebrating the end of Utgar's "evil" grasp. But looks can be decieving. For in truth, Jandar's will is really that of evil and darkness. Knowing that the good guys always win, Jandar summoned the good forces of the world and lied to them in order to gain their trust. After Utgar had been destroyed, it would then only be too easy for Jandar to dispose of the other generals and rule Valhalla with an iron fist. Utgar, framed and insulted, wished to fight Jandar's creulty by also summoning heroes of light to fight for him, but there were none left, so he was forced to summon evil warriors and try to convert them to goodness after he was victorious. However, victory seems far as Jandar sweeps away the few armies Utgar has left. Despite Utgar's quite valliant effort to establish justice, it seems Valhalla may be lost forever.

However, there is still one chance left for goodness to throw Jandar off of his throne of lies. There is a secret cave (conviently next to Jandar's impenetrable fortress) that supposedly contains a treasure of unequaled power. Utgar decides to send in his best heroes to find this treasure. In the meantime, his armies will try to hold off Jandar's mighty force to buy time, but, without reinforcements, they will not make it. Utgar plans to move in, swipe the treasure, and move back to lend support to his exasperated armies. However, word has it that unheard of horrors exist within the cave. Caution must be exercised...

Good luck on your quest, Utgar! Carry out the truth to the world for the sake of goodness and justice!

[TheAverageFan]

Please reply with any good ideas for scenarios, heroes, enemies, etc! Here's some ideas aleady for Utgar's army:
Ne-Gok-Sa: A sturdy and inexpensive defensive hero who can turn your enemies into allies.
Krug: An obvious choice who can hold his own and, at the same time, make sure your enemies don't.
Orthinuk the Black Dragon: A stealthy dragon who can pick of your foes without a long fight.
Sir Hawthone: A dark knight who must be used carefully (much better if you have aquired the Glyph of Lodin).
Tornak: A fast orc who always makes his getaway.
Torin: A powerful ally who specilizes in both attack and defense.
Mimring: A dragon who can wipe out as many as eight foes in a single blast.

Any more ideas will be considered carefully. I have decided to add Torin and Mimring to help make up for the lack of heroes in this scenario.

[TheAverageFan]

One last idea:

Utgar's heroes are strong, but they can always learn more. Whenever a hero successfully destroys all or a majority of the enemies of an army card, add the army card's point value to the hero's "experience points". After a certain amount of points have been added, that hero learns a new power or something. Here's what the powers are:
100 = Concentrated will: useful for if only one hero is left.
200 = +3 to that hero's carrying space (they origionally can only carry 3 items)
300 = Add 1 to that hero's life, attack or defense, or 2 to their move value permenantly.
400 = Tactical Disengagement 7: or Ghost walk for Tornak.
500 = Add 1 to that hero's life, attack, or defense, or 2 to their move value permenatly.
600 = Combat Challenge: a useful power for your defensive figures.
800 = Master ability: A new power that varies from character to character.

This will make your heroes even more awesome with new abilities .

[jwindjackal]

Quite an intersting thought, I love the theme behind this, though I can't say I'm in love with your "learning more" idea. I say it adds to much complication, but all in all, intersting idea!

[TheAverageFan]

The main reason I chose to have the experience idea is that it seemed to spice up gameplay and make the characters more unique and that I've already tried it a few games (works great!). However, I defenately recommend keeping the points recorded on an index card or a piece of paper or something. You don't have to use this system, but you may want to reduce the number of enemies to account for it.

[TheAverageFan]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

800 = Master ability: A new power that varies from character to character.

Here's the different master abilites so far. They differ with each figure, so I have to make up new ones for each characters. If any of you dislike any of these, you can change them to whatever you like, as this is (so far) an untested scenario, but I will fill you in on how my scenario goes.

Ne-gok-sa: Gives him counterstrike ability (charos version).
Orthinuk: Gives his Acid breath Sp. attack the ability to hit up to 4 adjacent figures instead of 2.
Krug: Gives him Cleave ability.
Tornak: Gives him Engagement strike 13 ability.
Sir Hawthorne: Allows him to attack twice in one turn (either sp attack or regular or one of each).
Mimring: Gives him Searing intensity ability.
Torin: Gives him Paralyzing Gaze ability.
As the DM and designer of my scenarios, I never tell the other players what their figure's master abilities are to avoid them powering up the figure with the best master ability... (as there isn't enough points of figures to give every figure their master ability).

[TheAverageFan]

Um... Before I continue, may I ask how to post my Virtualscape maps to show users the rooms of this scenario? I can't seem to find anything...

[TheAverageFan]

Ah, well... I might as well start.

Room 1: The Cave Enterance.

As Utgar's Valiant party of heroes departs from the main force, they notice a small band of enemies guarding the cave enterance. Their insectiod look and their new feel gives away the fact that these are Aquilla's minions. Nonetheless, they must be picked off quickly, for time is short.



The red dots are your starting zones. The oarnge dots are where you need to go to continue into the next room, by completeing the objective.
This room's objective: Destroy all Aquilla figures. The Cyan dots are a warp to a treasure room, which is optional. I'd use a marker of some sort to determine these.

Blue dots are Fylorag spiders. Yellow dots are Sujoah. Purpule dots are an Greater Ice Elemental. Green dots are water elementals.

Spoiler Alert!

The glyph of top is an elixir of speed. The treasure room glyph is a ring of protection. The glyph between the ruins is a Glyph of Astrid (+1 attack for 3 uses). Treasure glyph trap is: Shuriken trap. Roll 2 dice. each skull is an unblockable hit.

In addition, only one figure may enter the treasure room to challenge the Greater Ice Elemental (a one on one battle starting with an initiative roll) at a time.

DM strategy advice: This is the first room Utgar's party is going to go through and defineatly not the last, so injuring enemy party members is your top priority, not destroying them. For more interesting gameplay, try not to tear them apart yet, so much as to toy with them a little (my mentality as the DM isn't to win or lose, but to make it close, either way. Unfortuneately, the dice have other ideas).

Building advice; Note that the entryway is a little unstable, so either use castle walls, or maybe ladder peices to help it. It is 16 spaces up.

Your heroes will heal upon entering the next room.

[TheAverageFan]

Room 2: The Bridge.

An eeire glow meets Utgar's party of heroes' eyes as they enter the cave. Already, a glowing red hot river of lava (conviently 3 volcarrean wasteland sets' worth) blocks the way forward. What's worse, however, is the small army of Jandar's "valiant" knights blocking the only path across; an old unstable stone bridge winding across the deathly gorge. This is not going to be easy.



Again, the red dots are your starting point, and the orange dots are where you need to get to. Objective to proceed: Defeat Sir Denrick and Sir Gilbert. Cyan dots are warp spaces, but which takes you where remains a mystery. The lava tiles do not cause damage like they normally do, but the molten lava still has its deadly effect (95% chance of death.).

Blue dots are knights of weston. Yellow dot is Sir Gilbert. Purple is Sir Denrick. Green is Thorgrim and Pink is Finn. Sir Gilbert must be challenged for a 2-on-2 army card challenge with initiative, so choose your figures wisely.

Falling off the bridge: Whenever a small or medium figure on the bridge takes 1 or more wounds from a normal adjacent attack from an enemy hero, roll to see if they fall off the bridge. Roll the 20d. If a 1 or 2 is rolled, that figure falls off into the lava and is destroyed. Remove one of the battlements next to where that figure was.

Spoiler Alert!

The Glyph on the lava tile treasure room is an automatic trap that inflicts 2 fatal wounds (which cannot be healed normally). And the Glyph in the rock tile treasure room is a potion of healing, which heals three wounds to the user or, if desired, a figure next to the user. Treasure glyph traps are: Alarm: Summons an additional squad in the next room (not the hallway). The cyan teleporter nearest the lava treasure room warps to the rock treasure room and the warp nearest the rock treasure room warps to the lava one.

DM strategy advice: In my D&D experience, the 2nd room is always the worst for the adventurers, and this room should be no different. Don't be afraid to go on the attack with your 8 knights. For epicness, it is advised that Sir Denrick and company remain in the middle of the bridge. Finn and Thorgrim's spirits should go to Sir Gilbert.

[TheAverageFan]

Hallway 1:

Tired but not yet defeated, our brave but a little icky heroes travel on into the next room. There is a hallway, with few enemies. Upon travelling further, they discover a ladder descending into the deep. With a sinking feeling, Utgar's brave soldiers realize that their journey has only just begun. . . . .



As always, start in the red zone. There are no requirements to proceed and you have almost complete control of the room, so move your figures freely after defeating the earth elementals (yellow dots). The pink spot is a rest spot. Should you step on it, all of your figures heal a fatal wound; but only once. The Zettian guard is a traveling merchant (yeah, and there are gorillas with handguns on a distant planet, too) who will trade glyphs to you. When you are ready, you can proceed into the next room.

Spoiler Alert!

The zettian guard's wares are: Glyph of Sturla for a Chest of Brandar (Glyph of Sturla revives one of your dead figs, so it is a must-have), Glyph of Jalguard (3-time use) for a glyph of Astrid (3-time use), and a Heroic Rune for a Talisman of defense. You probably don't have many of these, but remember you can always return to this room (only if you have control of a room can you return to the other rooms before you proceed to the next one).

DM strategy advice: You practically can't do anything in this room, as you have next to no figures in this room. Sucks to be you.

[Pickledpie]

To post a Virtualscape map image you have to export somehow. Off the top of my head, you do something in the top right corner (as if that will help).

Another way is you could do a print screen of everything and paste it into a post.

[Scapemaster]

So as not to clutter this interesting thread:

Spoiler Alert!

To take a virtualscape image, you will need to

1. Open Virtualscape and the file.
2. Open the 3D model and get the view you want.
3. Go to Tools>Take Picture.
4. Save the file in a location wherever you want it.
5. Go to a photo hosting site, like PhotoBucket.com or Flickr.com
6. If you don't already one, create an account.
7. Upload your image file.
8. Copy the image location (generally via right-click menu)
9. Create or edit the post you want to post the image in.
10. Select the image () button, or type [html][IMG] [/IMG][/HTML].
11. Paste your copied URL.
12. Move the image to where you want it.
13. POST