Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part III – The Witch Lord and the Residents of Karak Varn
The Witch Lord – After the three part Ragnar/Orc storyline, the other one we have is The Witch Lord and he is a much more major thing.
In ‘Barak Tor – Barrow of the Witch Lord’, Players are sent to Barak Tor, which is located in the Black Mountains, near the bottom south west corner. Years ago, the Witch Lord was killed and this is his resting place. The Witch Lord was also called the King of the Dead, he was a powerful Servant of Morcar and was destroyed by the Spirit Blade, the only weapon which can harm him.
Well.. the blade must have had a fault in it cause the moment you enter the room with his tomb, his imprisonment is broken and he comes to live!.. of sorts… Problem is, No weapon over then the Spirit blade can harm him and you have NOT found it yet, nor is it in this quest. You need to leg it. As he is such a major threat, the next quest is to get the Spirit Blade, a weapon forged by the Dwarfs of the world’s edge mountains and cooled in the elven fountain of Lebin, now left in an Ancient ruined temple.
When you have the blade, you need to return and take out the Witch lord once and for all and he is stronger then before, but atleast you can harm him now.
On completing the quest book (and the quest) you are told that somehow, he was protected from the Spirit blade and, while badly wounded, returned to his ancient retreat in the Black Mountains. This leads to the expansion ‘Return of the Witch Lord’. This shows the Witch Lord on the cover, who looks alot like the Chaos Sorcerer figure from the game. He has fled to the fallen city of Kalos, which was destroyed by Morcar long ago, and given to the Witch Lord. There, on the High throne, with 2 lessor leading thrones, one to be taken by Skulmar, Captain of the Dead, and Kessandria, the Witch Queen. Together, they would be unstoppable.
It takes a while, but you can get down to the Halls of the Dead and met up with the Witch Lord, but he runs away, leading you to follow him. First through his elite Army of the dead, the ‘Forgotten Legion’ and then through into the Witch Lord’s court. The Witch Lord is a bit weaker now as not only can he be harmed by the Spirit blade, but fire magic too and in the end, you finally defeat him once and for all.
The Witch Lord appears directly in 4 quests over the two books, even if once you can’t fight him, and once you can’t touch him. This is pretty much the most major a character gets in game.
In the sticker Album, the Witch Lord is the main story thread as all 4 heroes are sent on quests to gain items to allow them to battle against him in the final story. He uses art directly based on the Return of the Witch Lord cover, which makes him look different from the Chaos Sorcerer figure a bit. All 4 heroes are sent tot Barak Tor, which has a very snake like look. After a big battle, Grugni is able to thrust the Spirit blade into his back and they get the star of the East… cause they have merged the two Barak Tor quests together.
Kellar – As stated at the end of the original quest book, the Emperor lead an army against Morcar but was forced back into Kellar’s Keep, the Inner Bastion of Karak Varn. The Karak’s Dwarf strongholds and feature quite a bit in Warhammer and are pretty much all in the World’s Edge Mountains. Well, say we know he was trapped in Kellar’s Keep but we don’t. the end just says Karak Varn. While the first two expansions were already well into there production, It seams the names weren’t confirmed.
Why have I not mentioned who Kellar was? that’s cause we have no clue. He isn’t mentioned in the book at all. In fact, there are only a couple of mentions of Kellar.. they are all in reference to the Keep. So.. as Karak Varn was the greatest stronghold of the Dwarfs, he was probably a dwarf. However, the Sticker album mentions various dwarfs who are related to Karak Varn (I’ll get to them later) and Kellar isn’t there. In fact, you never visit Kellar’s keep in the game. It’s all about getting there. So.. Kellar is a complete mystery.. bit of a pointless entry really.
Grin – unlike Kellar, Grin is pretty set up as a character, and is a major player in the Kellar’s Keep expansion.. though died many MANY years before hand. Grin was a loner Dwarf who spent most of his life searching for a rich vein of Gold. He never found one but while searching, he found a small narrow footpath running along the edge of an abyss which was a secret entrance to Kellar’s Keep. The area was later named after Grin, and became ‘Grin’s Crag’. He carved a map into a stone tablet so he could find it later, and gave the Map to his Lord, Belorn. However, while only Karak Varn still held as the great Dwarf City, the Halls of Belorn around it fell to the Orc’s and Goblins. The Map was broken into 4 pieces and scattered though out the Halls of Belorn.
That’s pretty much what we know about Grin but it’s quite a bit compared to some.
Belorn – Belorn was a Dwarven lord who set up home in the World’s edge mountains. His area, so to speak, was the Halls of Belorn and he was given Grin’s Map to the secret route to Kellar’s Keep. The area was passage ways were the Halls of Belorn. These were lost in the many battles against the Orcs and Goblins with Morcar leading them. The ancient halls were left in ruins.
In order to honour his ancestors, Belorn built (probably not personally) the Hall of the Dwarven Kings. Despite Grin not finding gold, Belorn had his own mine under this hall and it was said to be one of the richest. It is unknown if Belorn fell during the time his halls were taken but he appears to be long dead by the time the heroes visit them. He is mentioned in passing in the Marvel Special as an example of a great Dwarf of the past.
Holgar and Garin – This two are former Dwarf kings who were enshrined in the Hall of Dwarven Kings. Holgar was the one who led his warriors in the Battle of Keloth’s Hill (or Tor.. depending on if you read the intro to the expansion, or the quest flavour text. Though a Tor is.. kinda a hill.. well.. large free-standing rock formation mostly on hills) while Garin fought and died with his brothers against Morcar when he attacked the Halls of Belorn. As he is buried here, it was probably NOT the battle which lead to the fall of the Halls.
While both are mostly flavour text, they do appear in game.. maybe.. When you open a door in the one room, you come face to face with the skeletons of the Dwarf Kings. They are harmless UNLESS you attack one of the, then they pile on with a stronger attack and defence then the average skeleton. There are 4 Skeletons there (and a Zombie, but he is normal) so Holgar and Garin are probably two of them. They are mentioned in the Marvel Special in passing, like Belorn.
Gragor – Gragor was an evil Magician. One might say a Chaos Sorcerer. He was leading most of the Orc’s in the Halls of Belorn from the Great Citadel, the centre of the halls. While he was pretty strong for a Sorcerer, rolling the same as a Chaos Warrior, he wore magic armour giving him 6 defence dice.
Ograk – Ograk was an Orc Captain who lead many raids into the borders of the Empire. After fighting through the great Citadel, he was found in the eastern passage with a stronger then normal roll for an orc, 4 attack dice and 6 defence.
Petrokk – Petrokk was a Chaos Sorcerer who was guarding the East Gate in the Halls of Belorn. He was of note as being one of the first enemies who used your mind points (a stat very much underused to the point that it was pointless in the base game, yet you even had stuff to help your mind points). When he attacked, he could do a second mental attack which would weaken your mind and could kill the character. Other then that, he was pretty basic.
Unnamed Monster – Another unnamed character.. well, I’m including him cause he is special. In the East Gate, the players met up with what looks like a Fimir, but it is a Shape-changer. Every time he is killed, the monster cards are shuffled and the top one drawn. If it’s NOT the form he is currently in, he comes back to life in that new form. That’s some special ability, yet he is unnamed..
Kenaron – Kenaron was the Captain of the Emperor’s guard and was with him when he tried to attack Morcar and as forced back into Kellar’s Keep. After the passage way via Grin’s Crag was discovered, the remaining troop had to use the narrow passage to escape and one had to stay behind to hold of Morcar’s Doomguard. This was Kenaron (or Kanaron as stated once.. curse you proof readers!). He was able to hold them back and felled many a warrior with his sword. However, in the end, Morcar went from being impressed with this skill, to being fed up with how he was holding his troops back and let out a storm of flame, which killed Kenaron. However, the Emperor and his army has escaped.
Next time, We have to deal with the revenge of the Witch Lord