Quest Four, The Mysterious Letter

 New solo HeroQuest game with the Infinite Dungeon deck, continuing the "Goblinization" campaign to stop Skagor the Warlord.

[Links to quest 1, quest 2, and quest 3]

I played this game two weeks ago, but I've only had the chance to post it now.

ABOUT THE CARDS IN THE PICS: For this game I've used the Italian version of the decks, but they are available in English too, of course.

So after the druid guest, the elf is back in the team.

I prepare the dungeon deck and this time I roll a 1, which means the dungeon deck is the smallest it can be, so hopefully this will be easy!

I choose to use the Loke Dungeon Books of Battlemats, a great twin set that offers a lot of combinations.

The main quest is The Mysterious Letter, which is particularly exciting because, until you find the fourth clue, you don't know if the letter, and the quest, will lead the heroes to a trap, an ambush, the dungeon collapsing on their heads, a big pile of treasure, an artifact, or a blessing for the next quest.

The side quest is the cruel champion of chaos: rumors say a mighty dread warrior hides in the dungeon, and if the heroes kill it they'll receive a rich reward. 

So with the dungeon deck ready and the battlemat books on the table, I complete the set-up by putting the cards in the room and selecting the starting room. As I said, the the dungeon deck is only 15 cards, so this is a small dungeon with only seven rooms (including the starting room).

For this game, I also use the Furniture deck and the Dungeon Events deck.

The heroes head to the room in the northern corner. The dwarf finds a pendulum trap, which he aptly disarms, and the first clue.

Moving to the corridor, I place 2 doors, which are unguarded because no monsters have shown up yet.

Exploration continues to the room to the west with three cards. And one is a fire rune trap, which of course the dwarf fails to disarm (as he can't use his regular trap skill against these traps), so both heroes take 1 damage. And there's also an abomination waiting for them!

The elf reacts quickly, jumps into the room and dispatches the monster with a triple skull from her newly-bought long sword.

The dwarf proceeds to examine the weapon rack (card from the Furniture deck) and finds a useable shield! Too bad both heroes have already bought shields. Oh well, it's still treasure.

The heroes return to the corridor to explore the souther room in the twisting corridor, where a death log trap awaits, not to mention a dread warrior and a gargoyle!

Oh hey, that's the dread champion from the side quest card. Good! He's stronger than normal, but I'll get a reward for killing him! 

The dwarf disarms the trap before it activates, but his turn is over. The elf decides to use his friend as a human shield and casts rock skin on him. A few turns later, the monsters are gone, but the dwarf got 3 damage...

As the heroes move through the corridors with no monsters around, the roll for events finally kicks in and I draw a card from the Dungeon Events deck: the dwarf finds an abandoned meal and immediately guzzles it. The die is gentle with him and the food proves delicious, restoring 2 lost BPs.

Thanks to the first clue they found, the heroes already know that the north-west room with two cards has a zombie in it, so I decide to check what else is inside. And I'm lucky, it's another clue.

The zombie is quickly defeated, and the clue allows me to reveal to cards from another room...

So now I know that my best bet is to check the room with the three face-down cards, as I still haven't found the third and fourth clue.

And that's where both clues are, guarded by a simple goblin, no match for my duo of heroes!

As the goblin fails to stop the heroes, there's nothing left but to examine the clues and finally find out why the heroes where urged to explore the dungeon.

I roll a die and the result is that the spirit of an ancient legendary hero appears, blessing the dwarf and the elf. 

Ok, let's remix things up a bit to suit the campaign theme: the spirit that blesses the heroes is not the one of an ancient legendary hero. It is the spirit of a valiant knight that had been transformed into a goblin by Skagor's experiments, that the heroes have just "freed" (i.e. the goblin I've just killed in this very room!).

They both will roll +1 attack die for all the duration of the next quest. Very good, Skagor's plans will soon be foiled!

With both the main quest and side quest completed, I decide to ignore the only unexplored room and head to the starting room. As the heroes move, no further events are triggered, so the game is finished.

Conclusion (?)

This game was quick and quite easy, with just a few rooms, and really only one room with dangerous monsters.

There were quite a few traps, but the dwarf managed to disarm all the mechanical ones... and that's why he's in the 2-hero team, of course.

The dwarf got heavily wounded but the abandoned meal healed him enough to keep the game going without the need to use the elf's healing spell.

 Things could have gone very differently if the final roll to solve the mystery of the mysterious letter had resulted in the dungeon collapse or in an ambush, of course.

But I was lucky, and for the next quest the heroes have the spirit's blessing and will roll one additional combat dice with every attack!

If you've read this far, I think I can assume you've enjoyed the report as much as I have enjoyed the game.

Again and again and again, I forgot to take a pic of the whole board at the end... 

So quest #4 of the campaign is done, 4 more quests to go to stop Skagor's goblinization ritual.

I hope to play quest #5 in a week or so!