Rumble Strike

Tarn and Knifk headed back into the Arena after their hard-fought contest. Tarn went to the bar and brought two huge flagons of mead back to where the Orc Knight had sat. "To a fine warrior, and a good contest!", Tarn clashed his flagon against Knifk's in a hearty toast.

Tescos in Cirencester were clearancing several items for over 50% off: Harry Potter Hagrid Huts was £20 (but with a really beaten up box) Harry Potter Quiddich Match was £9 7634 City Tractor was £4 7635 City 4WD and Horse Trailer was £7 7978 Atlantis Angler Attack was £4.50 As I have the first two already I bought 7634, 7635 and 7978 for £15.50. Then used £15 of Clubcard vouchers

I think the Arena has been a very cool addition, well done to the 4 Arena GMs!

I think I just tune out the smileys now, sorry I missed that. Carry on!

Tarn grinned as he helped the big Orc Knight up from the Arena floor. "A grand battle, friend. Come, let us share a drink back at the Hall and toast as many Gods of War as we see fit!"

Pie, your Sapper dagger was originally a Quest item, much like the Lifestealer. Just cos you chose to spend a lot on yours doesn't mean it's unfair that a similar item was given out to a player in a quest as a reward.

Tarn felt the familiar rush of adrenaline as he landed a mighty blow across Knifk's shield, hard enough to jar the big Knight. This unfortunately left him open to a counter which the Orc took advantage of, and he winced in pain as the Tfel Blade sliced into his unprotected shoulder. He shook his head, readying himself for the Knight's incoming attack. He will counter, swinging Kyrferath from the front row.

With a bellow totally unlike his milder speaking voice, Tarn hefts his water-elemental battle axe and charges at Knifk, attacking from the front row.

Tarn strides back in to the Arena, and going to the board, boldly pronounces in measured handwriting the matchup that had been agreed in the Hall: I, Tarn Valco (Rumble Strike), would like to challenge Knifk (bioniclover), to a duel! His request written out, he began a practice routine to warm up, waiting for his opponent to enter. Although he knew he had a very powerful axe, and years of strength behind it, he was concerned about the Orc Knight's shield and abilty to block his attacks. OOC: In all attacks Tarn will attack with Kyrferath from the front row, if that makes running the matchup easier.

Tarn smiled at the Orc Knight who had accepted his challenge and offered his hand. "Well met, Sir Knight. I shall meet you at the Arena. Good luck to you, may the best warrior win!". The two shook hands, and Tarn then headed for the Arena, giving Kyrferath a few practice swings on the way.

Tarn came back from watching the first arena fight. His Barbarian blood sung at even this mock battle, and he felt that he had been out of battle practice for a while. He really should try to get a match in before possibly going on a Quest again soon. He owed it to everyone. Tarn spoke loudly to the others in the Hall: Who wishes to face me in the Arena?

Tarn gets about, doesn't he? Thanks for including him in the Arena pic!

The pics of the valley are wonderful, and the character names are tres amusant! This'll be very fun to watch

I am sure any of the heroic Undercover Agents will dish out as much as they can! A great bunch of peeps to play Mafia with. I am also away for a week in mid-January which is another reason for me not signing up for this one. I'm sure my fragile ego will have recovered sufficiently by the time the next one rolls around!

Not really sure Mafia's are my thing, so I'll be more than happy to observe this one, the premise looks fantastic. Good luck to all who play

Very sorry to hear that. My thoughts are with you and Kadabra. I see in Heroica Hall that Knifk thinks that the Quest end was confusing, hopefully that is just roleplaying, but if you need anything clarified please let me know either here or via PM.

Quest#13: The Darkstar: Epilogue Without the corrupting influence of the Darkstar tainting its very soul, the town of Ve'er slowly got back to normal. Jurn, the Orcish potion seller, goes to see his good friend Vres and his fully-recovered wife, Jui: "Me Jurn happy that friend Vres and friend Vres's wife Jui are OK!" Haroka was true to his word. He took Sorona and Guts and travelled Southwards across the sea to a tourist resort just outside of Miranda. After so long trapped in a state of perpetual darkness, Haroka took this opportunity to sun himself. Guts watched impatiently as he caught the rays close to the lapping waters of the beach. "I thought we'd be doing cool stuff, not going on holiday! I didn't leave Nerwen and the others to rub oil on a big fat man!" Sorrow regarded the Rogue cooly. She was just happy to be with Haroka again, but she could see that this wasn't what Guts had in mind. "You know your infuriating trait of digging wherever you could in the mine? Try it over there," she said, indicating an area to her right. "Take what you find, and leave us. We will call on you again, in time. That is, if you don't take to the hero business," she added slyly. Not needing any encouragement to break out his shovel, Guts decides to take the dark mystic's advice, and digs in the spot indicated. Guts pulls out a special blade that was buried. It is a magical blade, Guts will have to temper his mistrust of the dark arts. Lifestealer - WP:5, successful attacks restore 3 health to the wielder, suitable for rogues Taking the blade, he nodded to Sorona and took his leave of the Dark General and the Mystic, making his way back to Eubric, and Heroica Hall...

Thanks for your kind words, Zepher. I had this basic idea for a Quest when I was running Transformers RPGs several years ago, and then the players were working with Sorrow on behalf of Unicron to recapture the Dark Matrix. I pitched it to Sandy that Zoot would be involved (basically Heroica's version of Unicron), but Sandy does not like physical embodiment of Gods, so I moved away from that idea. It's obviously still a very powerful magical item, very much like the Ring of Power from LOTR. Vres and Jui Halpo will be in an epilogue I will write tonight just to finish off everyone's stories. As Chromeknight said below, the clue to the puzzle door was "Three is the magic number", in this case it was to be taken literally and the gems formed the shape of the number 3. To his credit, Scubacarrot basically got it straight away and PMed me the answer, but waited to see if anyone else would get it. Guts will appear in the epilogue, as I can't kidnap his character and not allow him on any other quests! I thought his interaction with Sorrow was top notch and just threw it out there that he could join the bad guys. I told him the interesting part would have been if he joined Haroka and Sorona and then had to fight his questmates. That would have been something! Generally the dice were very kind to you, yes. It was a little frustrating as I tried to ramp up the enemies power and you'd finish them off in one or two goes! Although I really liked his character, Jorgevorg made the right call in stepping down, as these Quests are time consuming, and it allowed Lordofdragonss to take his place. I am glad you found the quest allowed you to develop your character, and I think you definitely did well as Party Leader and kept up the momentum when it was needed. Thank you for that. Harka's and Sorona's stats will of course remain secret. I may show if the weapon I had created for him though if you want to see it - I was so proud of it! I think the other QMs will agree with me that balancing the battles is really hard. For the Crocodile I didn't want to give it a damage special as well as the other two, but in hindsight none of you were really in any danger from it so that may have been a mistake. Still, it was a good boss battle I think. There may well be a sequel in the future. I think it's safe to say that Olegaia hasn't seen the last of the Dark General and his Mystic. I am glad you liked the photos! Building was the hardest part, to have ideas and to realise them with the bricks I had was difficult. Thank you for all the feedback so far, I really appreciate it

Thanks Jim, I appreciate your comments. I think the choice aspect was one of the things that really stood out to me in some of the early quests. It blew my mind that the Donny Dozenhands quest ended with the heroes covering up for the Wolfpack. That wasn't how it was supposed to be! Yet Sandy as QM allowed it. Flexibility is key. And I wanted to bring large elements of that into my quest. Even the early stuff, whilst not being traditional "puzzles", was choice based on how best to get information or deal with the inhabitants of Ve'er, whilst still keeping the story moving. It was asteep learning curve in terms of following all th erules for combat etc, but I think I got better at that as the quest went on. You can aklso tell how different my early builds were to my later stuff, and how much more confident I became as doing MOCs for the Quest. It's the first time I've made my own stuff for many, many years, and it showed, but I think I got better as it went on, with the mine entrance and puzzle door my favourites.

A big thanks to all those who took part in Quest#13. I thought theroleplaying and characterisation of your heroes was top-notch. I hope you all enjoyed it and have even more ideas for your characters now.

"So Sorrow left with this General Haroka and the Darkstar gem? You're telling me you lost your guide, a member of your party and did not recover the Darkstar? Indeed, you have failed the Quest. However, the Ziegfrieds did have their suspicions when Sorrow came forward, saying she could find us the Darkstar. One does not simply bring back the Darkstar with no questions asked. So perhaps you were in a difficult situation to begin with. I'm sure on most Heroica Quests you can always trust your guide completely. I apologise on behalf of the Ziegfried family for that, and as a consequence you will not lose any reputation with the House. Now, I must inform them of what happened. Thank you for your hard work on the Quest, heroes, you may now return to Heroica Hall. We must all now be diligent and vigilent. Keep an eye out for this General and his mystic, if he has the Darkstar I am sure we will see him again, and it won't be good." QM Note - That's it guys, thanks for playing! If you want to give me any feedback, you can do so via PM or on the Heroica discussion/Quest Masters Lounge threads - let me know what you liked, what you didn't, that kind of thing. I felt you all had pretty strong characters in mind when you started out and it has been great to see them grow as the story progressed. THanks again and have a happy Christmas!

Thanks Khorne, I'm sure I will get more feedback once it finished properly but it's good to know that people enjoyed reading the Quest as it progressed. I wasn't sure if the Kill Bill music was thematically appropriate but it's what I thought of when taking the pic of the bad guys walking out.

QM Note - Party updated after loot distribution, please make sure all the stats are OK as it is the last one: Party: Sarick Lanse (played by Xarrzan) Level 7 Mage Power: 12 Health: 8/11 Ether: 8/11 Gold: 145 Inventory: Healing Staff (WP:5, healing effect) equipped, Mockthril Staff (WP: 4), Shark Fang Dagger (WP: 3), Opal Gem (Ice), Topaz Gem (Lightning), Potion, Phoenix Essence Dak Shadeaux (played by darthnihilus) Level 7 Rogue Power: 12 Health: 8/13 Gold: 234 Inventory: Thgir Blade (WP:5, equipped), Mockthril Knife (WP:4), Twin Longswords (WP:3), Mockthril Whip (WP:4), 2 Venoms, Potion, Bedroll Nerwen Calmcacil (played by Chromeknight) ** Party Leader ** Level 6 Cleric Power: 10 Health: 14/14 Ether: 5/10 Gold: 220 Inventory: Mockthril Hammer (WP:4), Wooden Staff (WP:3), Potion, Remedy, Fire Bomb, Elixir, Grand Tonic Gorg (played by Lordofdragonss) Level 6 Barbarian Power: 10 Health: 13/13 Gold: 255 Inventory: Mockthril Spear (WP:4), Bone club (WP:3), a bottle of Mead, Potion, Pickaxe, Venom, Giant Crocodile Tongue, Grand Potion Knifk (played by Bioniclover) Level 7 Knight Power: 12 Health: 10/16 Gold: 200 Inventory: Tfel Blade (WP:5, equipped), Mockthril Katana (Greatsword, WP:4), Mockthril Shield (SP: 4), Morning Star (WP:3), Wyrm Shield (SP:2), Potion, Venom ----------------------------------------- "You must be the Questers who were looking for the Darkstar? I'm afraid you can't speak to any of the Ziegfrieds themselves at the moment as they are all busy with urgent family matters, but I will pass on any information you can give to me. Do you have the gem? Where is Sorrow? QM Note - This is the wrap-up. If the party (you can all join in, it doesn't have to be Nerwen as party leader) can give a brief overview of what happened on the Quest, this guy will take it on board and the Ziegfieds will know. It's not a trap or anything, promise!

Haroka nodded at the Elven Cleric's decision. "You are doing the right thing, believe me. This is a new start, with Sorona at my side. I am encouraged that we did not have to come to blows. I expect your party would have taxed my regeneration to its limits. I would have hated to have killed so many people straight away..." he added devilishly, before handing Nerwen the 3 Crowns and 1 Golden Chalice he had fished out from his tomb earlier. QM Note - For Quest purposes Nerwen can either hand these out to people or just split their worth, which Scubacarrot correctly identified as 1000 gold, which between the 5 of you is 200 each (what you each would have got from the Quest reward money). I will give Guts something else later. He goes across to the gem-encrusted door that protected his tomb and removes one. Dak looks on, realising that the gems must've been magically sealed into the door by Haroka himself. Haroka also goes to each statue and pulls out the sabres from each statue, again seemingly with no effort. Tfel Blade - WP:5, suitable for knights and rogues Thgir Blade - WP:5, suitable for knights and rogues Topaz (Lightning Elemental) Party Leader, please distribute (but not to Guts, as mentioned above, I will get him something else). I would like Sarick to have the gem for his hard work on the Quest. ----------------------------------- "Now for your power boost. Come here Sorona, merge your beautiful power with mine." Haroka and Sorona joined hands and the tomb echoed with a low thrum of power. A swirling cascade of energy shot from the Dark General and his lover, enveloping the heroes. All 6 heroes gain a level of experience: Party: Guts Holla (played by Scubacarrot) Level 7 Rogue Power: 11 Health: 8/13 Gold: 80 Inventory: Mockthril Cutlass (WP:4) equipped, Rusty Shortsword (WP:3) Poisoned, Potion, Bedroll, Gold Ore, Shovel Sarick Lanse (played by Xarrzan) Level 7 Mage Power: 12 Health: 8/11 Ether: 8/11 Gold: 10 Inventory: Healing Staff (WP:5, healing effect) equipped, Mockthril Staff (WP: 4), Shark Fang Dagger (WP: 3), Opal Gem (Ice), Potion, Phoenix Essence Dak Shadeaux (played by darthnihilus) Level 7 Rogue Power: 11 Health: 8/13 Gold: 34 Inventory: Mockthril Knife (Equipped)(WP:4), Twin Longswords (WP:3), Mockthril Whip (WP:4), 2 Venoms, Potion, Bedroll Nerwen Calmcacil (played by Chromeknight) ** Party Leader ** Level 6 Cleric Power: 10 Health: 14/14 Ether: 5/10 Gold: 0 Inventory: Mockthril Hammer (WP:4), Wooden Staff (WP:3), Potion, Remedy, Fire Bomb, Note (Quest Item), Elixir, Grand Tonic Gorg (played by Lordofdragonss) Level 6 Barbarian Power: 10 Health: 13/13 Gold: 5 Inventory: Mockthril Spear (WP:4), Bone club (WP:3), a bottle of Mead, Potion, Pickaxe, Venom, Giant Crocodile Tongue, Grand Potion Knifk (played by Bioniclover) Level 7 Knight Power: 11 Health: 10/16 Gold: 5 Inventory: Mockthril Katana (Greatsword, WP:4) Equipped, Mockthril Shield (SP: 4), Morning Star (WP:3), Wyrm Shield (SP:2), Potion, Venom As the last remnants of the vortex of power fades, Haroka takes Sorrow's small hand in his, and leads her out of his crypt. With one last look at his fellow heroes, Guts goes with them, head held high. (This is the music in my head as they walk off together...) The rest of the party watch him go, not quite understanding why he has chosen to go with the Dark General. Only Nerwen, who saw the "Watch" hand-signal, perhaps has an idea why, but even then, she cannot be sure about the gruff Rogue or his motivations. With their enemies gone, they spend some time searching the tomb, but do not find anything of value, except another torch. They head back, making their way slowly past the carcass of the giant crocodile, through the rubble of the cave-in, until they reach the mine entrance, and proper daylight. It feels good on their faces after so long underground. There is no sign of Haroka, Sorona or Guts. Nerwen sighes once more, a regretful noise in the silent air. Somewhat dispirited, they leave Ve'er, heading back to Eubric. Their journey is uneventful. Without their patron, they decide to head to the outskirts of Ziegfried Manor rather than go back to the Hall, knowing that the Ziegrieds were their sponsors for the Quest. Before the Manor there is a gatehouse. A fiery-looking chap in wizards's robes comes out to greet them. "Hail, weary travellers! Please state your business!"

Tesco in Cirencester had the Star Wars Geonosian Fighter at £14.97 - half price. They also had a couple of 2012 Ninjago sets, the bike and the jet.