HeroQuest: the Silent Passages

 Tonight we played quest three of Return of the Witch Lord: the Silent Passages.
Our four heroes enter the first hallway in this next dungeon. It is dark, and smells foul... Sjengis Khan The Barbarian is in first, as usual, and searches for traps. Satisfied that all is safe ahead, the others enter as well. Suddenly, a green swirling mist oozes around the far corner, slowly drifting towards our heroes. "What magic is this?" Eddy the Wizard asks. None of the others have ever seen anything like this before, so they venture on with caution.

 Elly the Elf takes the lead, and opens the first door she sees. Five skeletons await inside! Elly immediately shoots one of them down with her crossbow. Meanwhile, the green mist creeps closer, and passes the Elf. "I feel sick!" Elly cries, and her knees buckle... She lost one body point! The four remaining skeletons are heading for the door, towards the Elf, and the closest one attacks, but fortunately for Elly, it misses. "Out of my way!" Sjengis the Barbarian shouts, and leaps in front of the mist, heaving his Spirit Blade. The Mist swirls wildly around the blade, appearing to suffocate the Barbarian, but then suddenly vanishes. "Ha!" cries Sjengis victoriously "even foul magic is no match for a mighty barbarian!" "lucky shot" mumbles Eddy the Wizard.

Eddy walks up to the Elf, hoping to aid her with his staff, but he misses the skeleton in the doorway. The Dwarf has nowhere to stand, so he just scurries arounf the others a bit. The Elf remembers she has a vial of holy water, so she throws it at one of the skeletons, and it immediately falls apart in a pile of bones. She steps back to make room for the thers to fall in.
Two skeletons walk out of the room, one attacking Eddy, but missing him by a hair, the other swinging at Sjengis Khan, but he deftly blocks the blow.

The Barbarian hits back, and destroys his assaillant. Eddy manages a hit as well, and the skeleton is taken by surprise, and also falls apart. Now there's just one skeleton left. The Dwarf steps in, rolling enough to reach the last skeleton, and swings his axe, but the skeleton blocks his swing! Meanwhile, the Elf is walking on through the corridor, reaching the corner. She searches for traps and secret doors, spots a pit trap some distance ahead, and positions herself in front of the next door. The last skeleton attacks Eddy again, but misses.
Now Sjengis swings his blade once more, disposing of the last skeleton, saving the Wizard from his undead enemy. Sjengis walks into the room where the skeletons were. Eddy follows, and searches the room for traps, but finds none. The Dwarf can now safely search the room for treasure, and he finds a scroll of psychic recovery. Elly opens the door to the room around the corner, and sees two mummies near a table. She fires her crossbow at the closest one, and it falls to the ground, dead. The other mummy slowly shambles towards her, but cannot reach her yet.
 Meanwhile, Sjengis opens the next door, and sees three rotting zombies in the next room. Not sure if the room is trapped, the others wait, letting the undead come to them instead. Elly reloads her crossbow and quickly shoots the second mummy down. There is a door leading back to the zombie room, but she decides to wait before opening it.



One of the zombies heads to the Barbarian, drool dripping from its decaying jaw. It swings at Sjengis, but he easily dodges it. The Barbarian once again swings his Spirit Blade, and chops the zombie in half. While Eddy and the Dwarf wait for the other zombies to get closer, Elly searches the room with the table for traps and hidden doors. There are none to be found.

A second zombie attacks Sjengis, but misses. He attacks back, and lops off its head. Now the Elf feels confident enough to take on the last zombie, so she opens the door, takes a step back to take aim, and fires a crossbow bolt into the last zombies eye socket. It slumps to the ground, oozing blood and gore on the floor.

After searching the room for traps, the Barbarian and Wizard head towards the Elf's room, but the Dwarf stumbles upon a wandering monster while searching for treasure. So surprised is he, that the skeleton hits for 2 points of damage! Elly fires her crossbow, and kills the skeleton, saving the poor Dwarf. "If you're going to search for treasure, keep your eyes open for danger, short-round!" "Mind yer mouth lassy!" the Dwarf grumbles annoyed.

Sjengis Khan heads on through the corridor to where Elly has spotted the pit trap. The Wizard is close on his heels. As the Dwarf enters the room with the table, he searches for treasure again, feeling lucky this time. Another Wandering monster appears! This one manages to hit the Dwarf for another point of damage. "Blast it!" shouts the Dwarf, and again the Elf is left to take care of the skeleton. "I'm expecting to get some kind of payment for saving your arse so often" she smirks. Sulking, the Dwarf heads out to find the others.

The Barbarian takes out his toolkit, but as he closes the pit trap, his fingers get caught inbetween the moving tile, and he loses a body point. While the Wizard takes up position next to the following door, the Dwarf opens it, but only sees an empty room. He prudently searches the first tile in front of him for traps, and a spear trap goes off harmlessly.

As the Elf catches up with the rest, the Barbarian steps into the empty room, and searches for hidden doors and traps, but there is nothing in this room. Not wanting to risk more wandering monsters, the Wizard just waits, while the Dwarf heads to the next turn in the long hallway, and finds another spear trap, which he immediately disables. The Elf passes him into the hallway.

Another door further along the corridor opens into a room, which has two skeletons standing aside a large tomb, and two more doors in the back of the room. The Dwarf kills one of them, and blocks the other one's attack on him.

Meanwhile, the others also step inside, but the Barbarian is hit by a hidden spear trap, and loses another body point. After the Dwarf has taken care of the second skeleton, the Elf searches for traps, but there are no other traps to be found. "Just my luck", mutters Sjengis Khan.

Both doors in the back open up into small rooms with a tomb in each plus a skeleton and a mummie. The Barbarian takes the left room, and the Elf takes the right. Both manage to swiftly kill the mummies, but now the skeletons step in and attack the Heroes.

Fortunately, both heroes manage to fend off the weak skeletons' attacks, and on their next turn they reduce the undead to dust. Meanwhile, the Wizard searches the main room with the tomb for treasure, and finds a 300 gold hoard!

The Barbarian searches his room, and finds a potion, but it turns out to be poison! Another body point is lost. The Dwarf has more luck this time and finds 25 gold pieces in the second grave.

As our Heroes venture on into the dark corridor, they find a secret door, leading into a room with two mummies guarding another door. The Elf misses a shot, but blocks the door, so the mummies cannot walk out. One of them attacks her, but she just manages to block the attack. Eddy tries to aid her with his staff, but also misses.

Elly steps back, so Sjengis can take over, and after a couple of blows, which both block, the Wizard tries with his staff again, and this time kills the mummie. Sjengis casts an annoyed look at Eddy, but he merely shrugs. "I thought I'd help" he says.

The Dwarf heads in and kills the second mummie, and Elly opens the door into the next room. The room is lit by a cozy fireplace, with two chairs in front of it.

Sweeping the room for traps, they find none, and prepare to open the next door. But of course, the Wizard can't resist the urge to search the previous room for treasure, and wouldn't you know it, another wandering monster steps out of a hidden niche.

Once again, the Elf is the one to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, Sjengis is searching for treasure in the fireplace room, and another skeleton appears from behind the fireplace! "How many wandering monsters are there in this place!?" he shouts, and blocks an attack.

The Wizard tries to aid, but his attack is blocked by the skeleton. The Dwarf is preoccupied with the door to the next room, and as he heads in, he falls into a pit trap right outside the door... "Curses!!!" he yells. "Yes, nice going there..." says the Elf, and shoots the skeleton down. "I always seem to be the one cleaning up after you guys!".

The Barbarian helps the Dwarf, by disabling the pit trap, but now his other hand is caught inbetween the tiles, and he loses a body point. "I really need to take lessons in disabling traps" he grumbles. This time, the Dwarf searches the room before walking any further, and he finds two hidden spear traps, which go off harmlessly. The otherwise empty room opens up into the corridor again, which is blocked by a cave-in behind them, so they move on towards two more doors on their left.

The first door reveals a room filled with skeletons and zombies, and the second merely holds a chest. The Wizard doesn't take any chances. He heals the Barbarian, and passes both rooms, towards a large iron door. He has found the exit. The Dwarf follows him, urging the others to follow and let the undead rot.

But the Elf wants to know what's in the chest, and finds 100 gold coins and a healing potion! Meanwhile, the Barbarian is trying to take on the undead one by one, but they seem reluctant to come to the door.

"Smart undead" he thinks, and waits for the Elf to step in from the other side of the room. The Wizards shoots of a Fire of Wrath spell, just before leaving. With both heroes fighting the undead, the evil monsters soon lay dead on the floor.

There appears to be one more door, leading into another room. "Let's just take a quick peek inside", the Barbarian says, "if it's filled with undead, we run."

 "Sure thing" Elly says, and opens the door. The only thing inside is another chest. She searches the room for traps, and notices the chest is trapped. They find nothing inside, so they head out to the exit, following their friends into yet another new adventure!