Advanced Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part II
As said, Advanced HeroQuest had only one expansion, the lack-luster ‘Terror in the Dark’ which was an undead campaign written by Graeme Davis and Carl Sargent. A fair amount of the book was in fact, a collection of some rules which had been featured before in White Dwarf. It added the Second magic collage, Light, and mostly added more Undead Monsters and Henchmen. It came with a new 5 quest campaign ‘The Quest for the Lichemaster’..
Baron Gunther Von Mecklenberg & Council
Gunther was a Baron who was appointed by the Emperor to rule the lands around and including the town of Felspraag, on the northern side of the Grey Mountains. He is the guy that gives you the information and background of the mission along with his wife and a few advisors. With the writers involved, there is a fair bit of background which isn’t totally useful information with a bunch of people.
As well as the Baron and his wife, we have Johann Rienhart, a Bright Wizard, Hans Kohler, a Healer, Marshal Maximillian Steiner, an old man simply called ‘The Seer’ who appears to be very old and blind, Werner the Sage, who wears a simple brown robe and is also fairly old.
Werner tells the hero party of the ‘Legend of the Four’, who we will get to in a bit.
However, I say they are of no real point to these characters but between missions, they each give you some help. For example, Johann will teach the wizard spells a bit cheaper the normal, Hans Kohler will heal, also a at a discount,
The LicheMaster
Five Centuries ago, the Evil Lichemaster (always THE and not A… Maybe it is Kemler) had wrecked destruction across the Empire. Rumours had it that he came from the south, maybe even Bretonnia and made a stand in the Grey Mountains. With his army of Skeletons, Four heroes, whose names are not even known, stood against him. They thought against the Lichemaster and.. well, it is recorded that the Heroes slew him.. but then it is also recorded that he infact escaped and destroyed the Heroes in a powerful explosion.
Either way, the Seer had visions of the Lichemaster and then, 3 days before the Baron gathered you, a Small band of skeletons attacked a small mining village and it is believed the Lichemaster is behind it.
After gathering the magical weapons of the four, he attacks Felspragg wiping out alot of people, and leaving only some badly wounded warriors and a few acolytes of the Temple of Shallya. The rest who survive at readying with the Baron’s army for the big battle. Setting out after them, the heroes find Johann the Wizard who tells them where the Lichemaster has his hidden lair, now revealed. You finally find him, deep in his lair on a throne. There is no more information on him (though a full page picture and stats) and you defeat him. While the picture doesn’t match… there is a bit more to this story behind the scenes which we will get to later.
The Four
The Four were four Heroes from five centuries before, A Warrior from Altdorf who was as tall as a forest bear and armed with a sword that spat fire and inflicted grievous wounds, an Elf from Loren with a highly accuracy bow which could shoot from almost any distance, a Wizard who may have come from Middenheim, which the god Ulric claimed for his own from the great Taal (awww… poor Taal lost his land to Ulric..), who had fire based magic launched from his wand and a magical cloak which was meant to have been made by the same guy who made the wand and could hold all manner of wonders in it’s pockets, and a Dwarf from a citadel which had fallen someplace in the world’s edge Mountains. He has a powerful Hammer which he threw at people… yeah, Dwarves aren’t very smart, also he wore a helm protected by Magic.
Wilhelm Gneisser
Wilhelm Gneisser was a Chaos undead Champion who became trapped in the lower level of small dungeon which was made into his tomb. Well.. I guess if you are dead, that’s kinda being trapped.. more so for the undead. Upon reaching the quest room in the lowest levels, touching the tomb releases him, He is a skeleton in chain mail, holding the Sword of the Flaming Heart, the sword used by the Warrior of legend.
Unnamed Goblinoids
Wilhelm’s tomb has been made into the home of a small renegade(?) group of Goblinoids, lead by an Orc Champion and Orc Warlord, with unknown names, with the gang being called the Bloodied Snout Orcs. For some reason, while shown on the map, the Orc Warlord isn’t listed in the legend. odd. Other then them being kinda notable, they don’t have much information or anything.
Adolphus & Gothard Weiss
Adolphus Weiss was a Chaos Champion who set up home in some dungeons under Dragon Peak. There, he was to be joined by his brother, the Chaos Sorcerer Gothard Weiss. They were guarding the Wand of Conflagration, another of the Legendary magical weapons. While Adolphus was a Chaos Champion, the Map has him as a Chaos Lord and by the look the image (which may or may not show him.. as it shows 2 people and the other guy clearly isn’t the Chaos Thug he is with), he is Khorne aligned. If the Heroes take too long in this dungeon, The Chaos Sorcerer shows up and needs to be defeated, armed with a choke spell, Fireball, and flaming skull of terror spell (ohh, now that is a nice spell name.
Martin Heydrich and Albrecht.
After escaping with the Wand, you get a message from Martin Heydrich, an ostlander wizard with a lizard for a personal sigil, who writes a message in riddle. While not fully explained, it appears the message is the one printed on the page before and says the location of the Elven Bow which was in a dungeon built by his cousin, the wizard Albrecht. Albrecht was a recluse and just died in his chambers without anyone really noticing. Not really too much more of these guys.. Albrecht’s place is near Middenheim though and his place has now been overrun with Skaven.
The Skaven of the Wizard’s Halls
Well, might as well. There are a bunch of skaven in the Wizard’s old place who are in fact.. renegades driven out from their own clans for various crimes. For a species to whom infighting and deception is a way of life, that must have been some nasty crimes. Maybe equal rights for the female Skaven? (yeah… the Female skaven lore is… yeah…. and people said the Fimir had issues.)
Anyway. Atleast some of these have been here for some time as Albrecht sealed some of them up to use as guards for the Elven Bow, the Power Bow of Loren (third of the legendary weapons). Maybe the Skaven were the ones behind Albrecht’s death then? There are alot some nasty guys as a Skaven Alchemist has prepared some warpstone charms which turn them into warpstone Berserkers! Gee, Skaven Zombies, Warpstone Berserkers, AHQ does give some nice Skaven types which never had figures… well, that’s a job for me to do and convert over the rules… which isn’t too hard being as part of AHQ was to be more inline with WFB stats.
Oh.. not really part of them, but there is a powerful Rock Eel you need to fight.. What’s a rock Eel?… erm.. No clue. But you need to fight it or just leg it. And they also have… a DRAGON! Damn it.. why did this set have no Miniatures?
Garshanak and Murglang and friends
For the Final legendary weapon, the World’s Edge Hammer, There is a battle between two forces under Claw Peak.
Garshanak the Bloodthirster (and therefore Khorne align) who has some Chaos Thugs, a Chaos Champion, a pair of Fimir and a human captain forced to serve them. However, there is a magical barrier which prevents the daemons from leaving the throne room, so Garshanak is trapped, unable to lead his forces. Garshanak appears to be slightly twisted toward Slannesh as he keeps the Dæmonette in his throne room and her(?) presence gives him a boost. When Garshanak is defeated, the Dæmonette is sadly freed from her bondage and will start to attack the heroes for ruining her fun.
Garshanak’s Chaos Champion is Erwin Klostermann, with his own force of Chaos Thugs.
Garshanak’s rival, is the Ogre Chieftain Murglang, with his humanoid band of trolls and outcast orcs who only work together due to the Ogre’s bulling. I didn’t think Ogres were that smart.
Finally, the Hammer itself is guarded by a group of skeletons who are a bit stronger then normal.
Orlock & Joachim
The Lichemaster has his own undead servants. The first is the eternal servant Orlock the Vampire. I’m sure, no relation to the bootleg movie which had all copies ordered destroyed.. which is why you can still find it these days (I saw in a small ‘fancy’ cinema with a live band. It was fun.)
Orlock has a crypt in the Lichemaster’s base which contains his own ghoul servants as well as a bunch of bats. When Orlock has been killed, his body crumples into dust.. but it does move to his coffin and he slowly starts to reform (without a blood sacrifice even). The only way to truly kill him is to drive a weapon through his heart while his body is reforming in the coffin. This might be easier or not as easy as it appears since, while he only regains 1 wound per turn in his coffin, he CAN open it and return to the fight at any time once he has 1 wound healed.
Joachim Masreik is a Chaos Lord who has been promised eternal existence for his services to the Lichemaster and is about the only guy with any treasure in this dungeon. He wears a suit of ‘vile Chaos Plate armour’ which shimmers and distorts space around itself… I’m gonna say Khorne cause pretty much every chaos in these things is Khorne. Apart from that, and his band of Chaos Thugs, there isn’t too much to say about him.
There are some undead champions but nothing too special… oh and flying skulls! but they want you to use the monster wound counter for them cause… lack of miniatures?
Unpublished Terror
On Graeme Davis’ blog, he published the draft content of stuff that was removed (or more, not included) in Terror in the Dark. Part of which wasn’t included to make way for the WD stuff for some reason. This is draft quality, of course, but pretty useable and includes a fair bit of content. There are new monsters and stuff (including Liches) but also a bit of story. Like the intro story to the Lichemaster quest, much like the intro story for Hero Quest or the original AHQ book, which wasn’t included. There are also NPCs
There is also ‘The Quest Machine’ which was a method of randomly generation a quest based on a few themes and gives very loose notes on some possible characters
Borla was an ancient Unberogen King, a tribe which was the tribe from which Sigmar himself came. Duke Albrecht claimed to be a descent of King Korla and was gathering nobles to depose the emperor. You need to find his Crown.
Valduric was a great hero who, seven centuries ago, destoried the terrible Ravax Gorespite, the Bloodthirster of Khorne. He was so badly wounded in battle that he died not long later, burried in the royal tombs with his sword. Hoever, a Chaos Sorcerer has been able to bring Gorespite back and only Valduric’s sword can stop him. So you need to find it.
Forris the Strong was another hero who was burried in the Royal tombs. However, his Shield, the famous Dragon Shield, had been stolen and it was your task to return it to the tombs.
Kralyevitch Ivan was the greater of the Brotherhood of Taal the Lord of the Wilds, who fell in the Chaos Wars and was burried with the Fire Banner of the Brotherhood of the Bear and it’s your quest to find this magical banner.
Vlad Bathek was an evil Necromancer who was raising a army to fight against the Tsar of Kislev, using the bodies of the braver warriors buried under the Hill of Heroes.
Radu Vrolyetsin was a infamous Vampire who set up a lair under the hill of Heroes and had to have been defeated, along with his followers.
Then we have some… interesting stuff, In the Remove monastery of La Maisontaal…
Rene De Muscadet was the master of the Monastery a few years back, when a man called Heinrich Kemmler (I’ll use the final spelling of Kemler for the rest of this cause it’s clearly the same guy) arrived, claiming to be a traveller in need. De Muscadet however, recognised him as the notorious Necromancer and used his Staff of Ether to battle him and win. However, Kemler has returned as a powerful Liche serving Chaos and intends to destroy the monastery of La Maisontaal and you need go under the monastery to get the Staff from De Muscadet’s Tomb. He also had the sacred Chaos Treasure, Arca Chaotis, which was brought to the Monastery and he personally studied. However, Skaven were now after it is believed to be hidden in the Catacombes, which you need to enter to find it.
I won’t go into detail on who Kemler is. That will come in a later post. but.. yeah, I’m pretty sure that with the whole Kemler bit, it was intended that HE was the Lichemaster!
Gotthardt Von Wittgenstein was a powerful Necromancer who has heard about some confiscated treasures taken form Necromancers and hidden by the authorities of the Temple of Morr, in Morr’s Town. These were objects which they were unable to destroy and Gotthardt wants them.
Brother Hieronymus was a late priest of the Temple of Morr and his tomb had been broken into, and his Badge of Office stolen. While the Robbers have been found and the Pendant was recovered, it needs to be returned to the tomb, but the Priests angry Spirit is attacking any who go near.
Kili Thekkrsson
In White Dwarf #134, the TrollSlayer’s Oath quest features TrollSlayer Kili Thekrsson. While he will work as a henchman for any hero with the highest bravery score, he specially wants to be the henchman of a Dwarven Hero (or the Dwarven Hero with the highest bravery. Y’know, I never thought about really playing HQ or AHQ with more then one of the same hero instead of each player being a different type.. Though in collage I did run games with 5 Heroes, having a double barbarian). Kili is a Berserker trollslayer who will accompany any hero on the quest to return the magical Hammer of Sognirstane (Roaring stone) to the temple of the living ancestor in Durrag-Dol.
Oh and technically, this article came with two different campaigns with some things in common, in fact, despite printing the AHQ mission first, it appears to be a follow up to the HQ mission (as in, you basically steal Sognirstane, and can take Kili along instead of the normal Dwarf)
Kili met the hero’s in Gunnar‘s Tavern, the Hammer and Horn Inn, on Dwarf Night. The one day a week he’ll allow Dwarf’s into the place. Trollslayers such as Kili has been disgraced or humiliated in some private matter and have sworn an oath to redeem themselves by seeking death in combat. Kili swore an oath to follow you as a faithful companion, but has a quest to partake and wants you to help in returning this hammer, once belonging to the Clan Earl-king Durrag from four-thousand years ago and in a dream told him to return the Hammer to the Clan Altar. Most of the Dungeon is filled with Skaven, but includes some new AHQ types like the Rat Ogre’s and Clan Rictus Slavemasters. Oh, As I have said about other clans, Clan Rictus are basically the one with the most slaves and as slaves are cannon fodder, have no problem lending there aid to other clans.
Kheewyzz
Assassin Kheewyzz of Clan Eshin works as head of security for the Skaven nest of Durrag-Dol. however many locals do not know of it’s existence, so security is pretty lax until you get into the more heart of the nest. Kheewyzz, however, knows this and when under attack, he very much knows his life mostly lays in the safety of the nest, because if the nest falls, he would get the blame, as a result, he will fight pretty hard, but can possibly escape and come back later..
Shaffat
Shaffat is a minor clan Mors war leader (warlord). While he has a magical halberd, pasted down in the clan, the only reason he is in charge of the nest is no-one else wants it as any greater Skaven wants greater things.
Tsekkaz
Tsekkaz is more of a threat. The Albino Grey Seer is the only Skaven in the nest of any real power and while Shaffat is named as the leader, Tsekkaz really rules things and has many powerful enemies among the other Seers, and so a more low key Nest is a good place to avoid careful scrutiny. He has a powerful artefact, the Black Hand of Death, a Black Enchanted Gauntlet with refined warpstone set in the fingers. While specially tuned to only harm Humans, Dwarfs and Elves (why not send some halflings against him them?), it will automatically do 12 dice of damage to anyone in his reach. Yikes.
Minor Dwarfs
If Kili is killed before his quest is done, he swears on some Dwarfs, Alfginnar, Grungi Grommo and The Nine. I have no clue if these names appear elsewhere in dwarf lore, but they don’t ring a bell.
White Dwarf #145 features a mission which has both HeroQuest version and Advanced Heroquest version I have covered the Heroquest versions but there are some tweaks for the AHQ versions I’ll briefly cover.
Pierre Chancier is now a Captain of a Mercenary group who geos along with them and whatever henchmen they take. He is still a Bretonnian survivor of the attack.
The Unnamed Chaos Sorcerer is now Johannes Wiesshofer. Having uncovered a new source of raw Chaos Energy deep in the Catacombs, he murdered his sorcerer master and took possession of a Chaos Cloak which had just been delivered to him for study. It was in fact, a Magical Ogre cloak and allowed him to control the minds of several Ogres to use as servants.
Gregor Wiesshofer. What is it with Chaos Sorcerers and keeping their brothers close? Gregor is Johanne’s younger brother and also a Chaos Sorcerer who wants to kill his older brother to get the chaos flux power for himself, knowing he isn’t smart enough to work out how to use it, he intends to wait till it has been worked out first. He has summoned a Dæmonette to protect him, so he is probably Slannesh aligned.
Greatgut is the Ogre Chieftain, even though he is controlled by Johannes. He mostly commands because he is big and has a habbit of eating anyone who diagress with him. Yep, that’ll do it. Sine Johannese took control, he enchanted Greatgut’s Club making it even more powerful and impressive to the other Ogres.
And.. that was it. AHQ had soo much promised, and soo little delivered. Using the more advanced wizard’s books (so you learnt new spells instead of just had the card decks) they could have expanded to have the full collage, but left with only 2 of them. I think one reason Heroquest had soo many add-ons wasn’t just how popular it was, but it had MB backing it, and it was probably part of the deal to have X amount of expansions with an option. as AHQ was purely GW, no such drive was there. It was later basically ‘rebooted’ when GW tried again with Warhammer Quest, but I have talked about GW and there ‘quest’ for a dungeon crawler before.
