Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part V – Ogres, Wizards and some other bits?
Festral – Oh dear, Morcar had lost at Karak Varn and his Witch Lord had been slain, So he needed new allies. So he sent his Chaos Sorcerer, Festral, to subtly take control of the Dirgrusht Ogre clan, in their underground fortress. And he had done his job well, as the Ogres were now on Morcar’s side.
We get to met Festral in person when, in the Pit Of Chaos, deep in the Ogre’s fortress, he has been creating his Ring of Power, something which would increase his own Chaotic powers. He has a strong character profile and the Ogre horde pretty much introduced Multi-hit points to the original Hero Quest villains in an official campaign book. He has 3 of them and 3 Chaos Sorcerer spells. This was another new feature of the Ogre Horde campaign.
The spells, by the way, attacked the Hero’s Mind, and were Mind Lock (rolls casters mind points in combat dice vs victims mind points, the Defender is frozen for the number of turns as has skulls, with 1 less turn for each skull he rolled in defence (to tell the truth, the wording is a bit iffy for this spell). Dominate (Same rolling rules, if the Chaos Sorcerer rolls atleast 2 skulls, he takes control of the player during the Chaos Sorcerer’s own turn) and Mind Blast (which is an attack which does Mind point damage, much like normal attack damage.)
Festral has his own Chaos Warrior guard, an Assitance, Xenloth and possibly an apprentice, Nexrael
While there is no ending story in Against the Ogre Horde, the start of the next book, Wizards of Morcar, has Festral having survived and now returned to Morcar to give him the bad news. Morcar is not impressed and had already heard. He shows his new Wizard Lieutenants who then quickly kill Festral and his followers.
Nexrael – As stated, Nexrael may or may not be Festral’s Apprentice. While Festral was in the Ogre headquarters, Nexrael, who was described as an Apprentice Chaos Sorcerer was also there and was able to cast Mind Blast. He wasn’t anywhere near as Strong as Festral, of course, but still could be a pain.
Tograk – Tograk was the Commander of the Ogre Forces and an Ogre Chieftain (one of the 4 types of Ogre in Ogre Hoard). He was found on the same level with Nexrael.
Xenloth – A more major character than Nexrael, Xenloth is the last Chaos Sorcerer you face. The Chaos Mage was also in the Ogre’s Fortress, putting him as a ‘mini boss’ of sorts with the Ogre Lord. He was clearly stated as the assistant of Festral He was far weaker then Festral, and debatably weaker then Nexrael, but had both Mind Lock and Mind Blast spells.
Unnamed Ogre Lord – Oh come on now.. we have the commander given a name but when it comes to the fight with THE Ogre Lord, he has no name. He is found in the Great Hall of the Ogre’s with his Chieftain and he wears a Jewel-encrusted Crown. As he is the lord of the Dirgrusht Ogre clan, it’s possible he is Dirgrusht, though the clan name might not be because of the lord.
Zanrath – High Mage of Sarako, Zanrath was an ancient bearded man wearing a pointed hat and staff, which featured a crescent moon on it’s top. He lived in a magic towner high up in the Tarak Mountains (which I don’t believed where ever given a location). He had Chaos warriors around him and had his own ‘High Mage’ Spell set. After he was defeated, unknown to everyone else, Morcar was able to save him, along with the other 3 Wizards, for a final battle. He was defeated.
Fanrax – The Malicious evil looking Necromancer. As such, his outfit was covered in skulls and he had a sharp dagger. He was based on what fantasy often shows a Necromancer to be, in that he can control and raise the dead, unlike what the name means and a ‘real’ Necromancer was, someone who claimed to be able to talk with the dead.
He was first fought in his crypt, in a nameless graveyard beyond the Shuddering forests, another unlocated place. He had his 6 Necromancer spells. He also had an interesting Magical statue who could fire a ‘death ray’ against the Heroes. Like the others, He was saved by Morcar and had a final battle, where he was defeated.
Boroush – Boroush the Storm Master was a ragged and bearded looking old mad with an oaken staff. He had a Eyrie high up on the highest peak of the dark mountains, which aren’t even really a place name. He had his 6 Storm Master Spells and had no real theming with his troops. Again, he was saved and put in the final battle where he was defeated.
Grawshak – The Orc Shaman of the Northern Tribes, wearing skins, feathers and skulls, with a large Totem wand. His base was just some cave in a hillside.. They are really putting less and less effort into story at this point. Being an Orc, he had plenty of Green skin troops as well as 6 Orc Shaman spells. Like the others, he was saved from death to be put into the final battle, where he lost.
Well.. this ending the official releases of the Original Hero Quest. I haven’t included the US exclusive characters and missions (the game was tweaked for its US release and it’s focus and play style was changed), which had 2 exclusive quest books, but didn’t include the Ogre Horde or Wizards… But there are still a couple more official stuff to go over.
Deathmaster – while slightly hard to make out, the Back of the Adventure Design kit showed a mission which was not released elsewhere. This mission was ‘The Plague of Zombies’ and featured a Chaos Sorcerer known as the Deathmaster. He was a necromancer who very skilled with the undead and any living Creature killed in the dungeon, would be replaced with a Zombie or Skeleton as he rose them from the dead.
He had been leading some undead attacks against farms around the edge of the empire, leading to a shortage of food for the Emperor’s armies, which is pretty much the same plot for the Ogre Horde.
Kili Thekkrsson – White Dwarf was Games Workshops Official miniature wargaming magazine and it featured a couple of Hero quest campaigns. In ‘The Halls of Durrag-Dol’ (White Dwarf #134) You could replace the Dwarf player with Kili Thekkrsson, the Dwarf Trollslayer. He was a slightly stronger Dwarf character. Not alot of special information is gone on with his, but he also appears in the Advanced Hero Quest version of the campaign, where he was given a bit more information.
Kili was a trollslayer who took an oath to return Clan Durrag’s ancestral heirloom, the Warhammer Sognirstane, to the Temple of the Living Ancestor in Durrag-Dol. However, Durrag-dol was now in ruins and occupied by the Skaven. He joined with a group of Heroes to find the hammer and place it on the altar which would help in the fight against Chaos.
While he was optional in Hero Quest, he was always with the players in Advanced Hero Quest.
Dimrond-a-Durrag – Dimrond was the Earl-king of the Clan Durrag who was a strong warrior until he died in battle against Morcar and his city of Durrag-Dol was laid to waste, with some of the surviving members of the clan sworn to take back their home.
However, he wasn’t too impressed if anyone tried to steal any of his treasure and would put down the curse of the dwarven Ancestors. A likeness of Dimond was carved in stone in his tomb in Durrag-Dol, which appeared a bit odd as his death lead to the city falling.. they had time to make his tomb? either way, if the tomb was openned, a skeleton would appear to attack the Heroes.
Tzekkaz – Unnamed in the Hero Question version, but named in the AHQ version, Tzekkaz was a Skaven White Seer in charge of the Skaven in Durrag-Dol. He had access to spells which the Wizard or Elf had when in line of sight and would randomly steal one for his own use. He was also immune to poison gas, which may have been warpstone gas. Unlike other monsters in the mission, he has 4 body points. He was a bit stronger in AHQ with extra gear which fitted the game. He was also given a few friends in the minor Skaven Warlord Shaffat, and Assassin Kheewyzz who aren’t in the HQ version so out of the current scope.
Pierre Chancier – In WD 145’s Campaign ‘The Eyes of Chaos’, a group of mourners was at the Tombs of the Phalanx, where a memorial service was held each year for those who died. However, this year a force of Ogre’s attacked and killed all but one of the mourners, Pierre Chancier. He then begged some local Heroes to rid the tombs of the Ogres and avenge his friends.
Pierre was basically a Man-at-Arms but was free to use and had a stronger state line. He would only serve the Barbarian or Dwarf but was otherwise optional.
Unnamed Chaos Sorcerer – The main villain, as stated (cause the Ogre’s were too dumb to plan this) was an unnamed Chaos Sorcerer on the lowest level. He was behind the creation of the ‘Eyes of Chaos’, powerful skulls would could steal spells from the Wizard or Elf, or may have some other nasty effects.
The Sorcerer himself was found in the lower level of the 2 mission quest and was able to take a chance at deflecting any spell used against him. He also had not only 3 body points but carried a potion which allowed him to restore these. As soon as he was killed, however, more smaller eyes of Chaos appeared as the tomb started to collapses around them.
And this ends all the Official Original Hero Quest run. Though as stated, I haven’t included the US exclusive content. There are also…. possible unreleased Hero Quest missions which were in stages of work. There were 2 US exclusive campaigns which were unreleased which is outside my current scope, There is also the matter of Skulmar… who was built up for a return. It would have made sense to have Festral be the same character but for whatever reason, he wasn’t.
Advanced Hero Quest didn’t have too much done for it though it functioned as a next stage to move to after Hero Quest, and when this was cancelled after one lacklustre expansion, it was replaced with Warhammer Quest, which likewise kinda failed with many unreleased content.
There has also been a few unofficial missions published in some magazines but this is going into the realm of ‘fan content’ which I don’t want to do for this series.
So.. will there be a chapter VI? Not sure.. So lets finish with a interesting note
6th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle gave some more information on the lesser developed Hobgoblins of the Steppes, bases loosely on the Hun. As such, there were led by ‘Khan’s. One of these was the one who founded the hobgoblin empire of the eastern Steeps, Morcar Khan. While clearly not THE Morcar, it was probably put in as a reference back to Hero Quest as it doesn’t quite make sense to be a reference to the Earl of Northumbria during the battle of 1066.