Blog: Random Idiot: Gaming Stuff from some random idiot
Owner: ManicMan
Author: Manic Man
Post: Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part II – From Sir Ragnar to a nameless guy!
Let’s go to the next lot of Hero Quest characters.
Sir Ragnar – The first major character who you really met is Sir Ragnar. He is one of the Empire’s most powerful Knights But was captured by Ulag, the Orc Warlord. He is kept prisoner in a dungeon and you need to find him and rescue him in the second quest of the Original book ‘The Rescue of Sir Ragnar’. Prince Magnus will pay you 200 gold coins if you save him but you get nothing if he is killed whilst escaping.
This mission is a quite nice one as it introduces you to a kinda NPC/Henchman system. When you find Sir Ragnar, you have an extra figure on the board to control, though he cannot attack, he does defence and has limited health, so you need to protect him on the way back home. While the game does give an option for his death, story wise he escapes alive and he is part of the first main plot thread really, which I’ll get to in the entry after this one.
He is next mentioned in the following mission but not stated if he is part of the Emperor’s army which attack Morcar at the end of the book but we do know when he pops up next. After the Witch lord returns and you beat him again in ‘Return of the Witch Lord’, you found out that the Witch Lord’s second in command escaped aided by.. the Traitorous Sir Ragnar! Yep.. the guy you saved from the Orcs, was corrupted by Chaos. The good news is you find out what happened after that. Sir Ragnar was captured, again, but this time by the forces of the Empire, and executed. Bet you wish he had been slain trying to escape the first place eh?
Outside of Heroquest.. well, nothing at all. Just this stuff. Maybe I should just put this bit for stuff which DOES have some content outside of Heroquest.
Ulag and Grak – Ulag and Grak are both Orc’s who are part of the whole Sir Ragnar story arc in the first book. Ulag was the Orc Warlord who captured Sir Ragnar, or was atleast the guy who ordered it. After saving Sir Ragnar (or not as the case may be), Prince Magnus put out a bounty on Ulag and you are sent to kill him in his Stronghold. This is the quest after the Rescue, entitled ‘Lair of the Orc Warlord’. Ulag is given a custom stat line which is more powerful then a normal Orc.
A few quests later, you get ‘Legacy of the Orc Warlord’, we met Grak. Grak is Ulag’s Son, who wasn’t very happy that someone killed his father, so he captured you and you start the mission in prison with none of your gear. Grak is weaker then his father and that’s about it really.
It does make a nice 3 part quest with some interesting game paly elements to show the kind of thing you can do with the game system, but story wise, that’s about it. for them as they are both killed. Maybe Grak has a son? or a pet goblin.. who knows..
Prince Magnus – Now, I really think I should go on with Prince Magnus now. He is a Prince of the Empire and .. well, we don’t know what area he is a prince of. Probebly gonna say Nuln because Mentor talks about him alot and Mentor is based around Nuln.
He is first mentioned when giving a reward for the Rescue of Sir Ragnar. He then offers the Bounty on Ulag for being behind the kidnapping. After that, He was sending 3 chests of gold to the Emperor when it was stolen and he put a reward on finding it. However it was possible to just take the gold and run. After this, Prince Magnus isn’t mentioned again and your bounties come direct from the Emperor himself.
Now… Outside of Heroquest is.. interesting.. There is Magnus the Pious (Magnus I) who was from Nuln, was a general who fought in a great war against chaos. He was behind reunited the Empire and founding the Colleges of Magic. He is very highly regarded and seen as the greatest emperor since Sigmar, the original founder. Date wise, they use the Warhammer calendar to say he was in charge from 2304 IC to 2369 IC (Imperial Calendar). He was the first of some elected Emperors after they had some problems. If this is the same guy, well.. he isn’t really a prince but.. maybe when he was a general he was a prince? not impossible with how they do stuff but.. don’t know.. trying to work out the ‘current’ date is.. a bit of a joke ^_^ so it’s possible it’s there guy, so the Hero Quest story line takes place around this era, but it is also possible it’s not this guy.. But the Nuln connecting is interesting. of course, if it is him, it would be before he was Emperor.. which wouldn’t make sense as they shouldn’t be an empire, or afterwards if we say he just retired when a new one was elected. But I very much doubt it’s the same guy.
Oh a quick mention
The Emperor – The Emperor is the guy that rules the Empire. Simple as that. He often takes an active role as he led the army which got trapped in Kellar’s Keep, he sends you on many quests etc. They never say which Emperor, as they have been tons over the years, but he is a major force in the Warhammer world as well as Hero Quest, as you are in the Empire and you are defending the Empire. While loosely mention, he starts to appear more after you either return or steal Prince Magnus’ gold. Later on, well.. In the Kellar’s Keep quest book, he is clearly the Emperor in the intro and ending story but in the quest’s themselves, he has been demoted to a King. For some reason, they had… editor issues with some of the expansions.. which is a shame.
Outside of Heroquest.. OH, let me count the ways.. yeah.. Empire is a major faction of the Warhammer World and the Emperor is a major part of that.
Melar – Melar was a powerful sorcerer who create the Talisman of Lore, a powerful talisman which could increase the wearer’s understanding of Magic. He kept it with him always for fear that Morcar would steal it.. then for some reason, he left it in his Laboratory, at the centre of his Maze, with many traps and guardians.. also all those who failed to get it.
In the quest ‘Melar’s Maze’ you need to find the Talisman of Lore Quest treasure and Melar is given as the backstory for the creation of the maze, the item and stuff. Did he die? well, it’s said it was ‘Long ago’ so maybe. It does seam the only magical guardian he left was a Gargoyle as every other enemy was undead, and thus would be the haunted people who have sought the talisman and died in the attempt which the flavour text talks about. Other then that, Melar had a key.. when you find it, it opens a secret door.. yay?
Karlen – Karlen was the Emperor’s personal Wizard, so a pretty high position. However, he disappeared and the Emperor put out a bounty to any one that finds out what happened to him.
Well, we know what happened. In the Quest ‘The Stone Hunter’, we are sent to find Karlen. HE was working on a Chaos spell for some reason, and was consumed by the magic and turned into a generic zombie!. He did leave behind 200 gold coins though, which was nice of him.
The Stone Hunter was one of the quests which was converted into story book form for the Sticker Album, and it locates it in the Stone Palace in the Black mountains, west of Black Fire Pass. The Black Mountains border the Empire and lead into the World’s edge mountains.
In the Sticker Album telling, Chandra the Wizard is sent to the Stone Palace.. to find Borin’s Armour.. Which is interesting cause while you do find Borin’s armour there (which is a great piece of Armour for the Wizard, so nice attention to detail there) it is more of a surprise to find it more then the reason for your mission. However, Chandra does find Karlen.. and this is one of the weird things in this story.. It claims Karlen seized the Stone Palace after he succumbed to Chaos Magic and became a Wizard Zombie! far more powerful then in the game, where he was just a normal Zombie. Makes a more interesting story line but odd change. However, when you think about it, it does fill in the details missing in the original quest. You see, the Emperor didn’t know what happened to him. Was he killed? did he succumb to chaos? It wasn’t known. and like I said, when you find him, he had been trying a Chaos Spell but failed.. So really, the Sticker Album expands it to say he did indeed succumb to Chaos and took the Stone Palace for his home. He was then messing about with Chaos Magic when he was turned into a zombie. This is the kinda thing that makes me want to find the original story notes, Cause I’m sure they shortened them in editing.
Borin – From a one-off character with a bit of story to.. one on the other side of things. What do we know about Borin.. We know he either created the enchanted chain-mail ‘Borin’s Armour’, or he wore it. Well.. that’s alot huh? that’s all we know. Maybe if the quest had some set up for the armour, but nope..
In the Storybook, the Wizard is sent to get the Armour, and it is later worn by Grugni the Dwarf. Who wears it when they all go to fight the Witch Lord.
Balur – Balur was a fire mage who started to work with the Orcs of the Black Mountains. He was with them in his lair in the Black Fire Crag (which is at the Black Fire Pass) and was were you fought him in the quest ‘The Fire Mage’. Being an expert with Fire Magic, it was not possible to harm him with Fire magic and to make sure you really couldn’t, the players were unable to take any fire magic spells for that quest. He got the spells to use, making him the first real wizard you went against. He also had the ability (once per game) to run through a wall, which is quite a pain.
In the Sticker Album, Ladril the Elf is sent to fight him and to get the wand of recall which is in his lair. They give him a very Fire elemental like form in their art and in their monster guide, they feature him but he is drawn as the Fire elemental from the Fire Spells. Different from his elemental like (but clearly more human) form in the story images.
Ollar – Long ago, a crazy wizard (aren’t they all?) discovered the entrance to a gold mine and build a magic castle above it for protection. Not only did it had alot of magic portals but Monsters trapped inside.
Ollar is quite a jolly guy as if you find a wandering monster on his quest ‘Castle of Mystery’, his ghost appears to chuckle madly and disappears. So it’s quite clear he died sometime before. Not surprising as this is one of the most annoying quests. It’s kinda fun in the fact that no two rooms are joined. when you go through a door, you roll a dice to randomly go to one of 11 rooms but it can mean it takes a long time trying to get around the place. Oh and he has one final joke.. the gold in the mine is in fact Fool’s gold.
Unnamed guy! – Yes.. I’m putting an unnamed enemy as a character! This is because in the quest ‘Bastion of Chaos’, you are on a bounty hunting mission and get paid based on what you kill. Fun. A gang of Goblinoids is being lead by some Chaos warriors and that’s about all you know. However, In the centre room, you find what is clearly the head Chaos Warrior and while he can’t use it himself, he is welding the magic sword ‘Orc’s Bane’, so clearly an important guy here.. why wasn’t he named?
In the Sticker Album, Grugni the Dwarf is sent into the Bastion to get Orcs Bane, and the Chaos Warrior is highlighted as being the leader of the group and a main guy who was holding Orcs Bane. Grugni then defeats the nameless use by taking a goblin sword and ramming it through his face.. Ohhh Nasty
Next time Finally! a REAL Major foe!
Continue reading over on Random Idiot
Owner: ManicMan
Author: Manic Man
Post: Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part II – From Sir Ragnar to a nameless guy!
Let’s go to the next lot of Hero Quest characters.
Sir Ragnar – The first major character who you really met is Sir Ragnar. He is one of the Empire’s most powerful Knights But was captured by Ulag, the Orc Warlord. He is kept prisoner in a dungeon and you need to find him and rescue him in the second quest of the Original book ‘The Rescue of Sir Ragnar’. Prince Magnus will pay you 200 gold coins if you save him but you get nothing if he is killed whilst escaping.
This mission is a quite nice one as it introduces you to a kinda NPC/Henchman system. When you find Sir Ragnar, you have an extra figure on the board to control, though he cannot attack, he does defence and has limited health, so you need to protect him on the way back home. While the game does give an option for his death, story wise he escapes alive and he is part of the first main plot thread really, which I’ll get to in the entry after this one.
He is next mentioned in the following mission but not stated if he is part of the Emperor’s army which attack Morcar at the end of the book but we do know when he pops up next. After the Witch lord returns and you beat him again in ‘Return of the Witch Lord’, you found out that the Witch Lord’s second in command escaped aided by.. the Traitorous Sir Ragnar! Yep.. the guy you saved from the Orcs, was corrupted by Chaos. The good news is you find out what happened after that. Sir Ragnar was captured, again, but this time by the forces of the Empire, and executed. Bet you wish he had been slain trying to escape the first place eh?
Outside of Heroquest.. well, nothing at all. Just this stuff. Maybe I should just put this bit for stuff which DOES have some content outside of Heroquest.
Ulag and Grak – Ulag and Grak are both Orc’s who are part of the whole Sir Ragnar story arc in the first book. Ulag was the Orc Warlord who captured Sir Ragnar, or was atleast the guy who ordered it. After saving Sir Ragnar (or not as the case may be), Prince Magnus put out a bounty on Ulag and you are sent to kill him in his Stronghold. This is the quest after the Rescue, entitled ‘Lair of the Orc Warlord’. Ulag is given a custom stat line which is more powerful then a normal Orc.
A few quests later, you get ‘Legacy of the Orc Warlord’, we met Grak. Grak is Ulag’s Son, who wasn’t very happy that someone killed his father, so he captured you and you start the mission in prison with none of your gear. Grak is weaker then his father and that’s about it really.
It does make a nice 3 part quest with some interesting game paly elements to show the kind of thing you can do with the game system, but story wise, that’s about it. for them as they are both killed. Maybe Grak has a son? or a pet goblin.. who knows..
Prince Magnus – Now, I really think I should go on with Prince Magnus now. He is a Prince of the Empire and .. well, we don’t know what area he is a prince of. Probebly gonna say Nuln because Mentor talks about him alot and Mentor is based around Nuln.
He is first mentioned when giving a reward for the Rescue of Sir Ragnar. He then offers the Bounty on Ulag for being behind the kidnapping. After that, He was sending 3 chests of gold to the Emperor when it was stolen and he put a reward on finding it. However it was possible to just take the gold and run. After this, Prince Magnus isn’t mentioned again and your bounties come direct from the Emperor himself.
Now… Outside of Heroquest is.. interesting.. There is Magnus the Pious (Magnus I) who was from Nuln, was a general who fought in a great war against chaos. He was behind reunited the Empire and founding the Colleges of Magic. He is very highly regarded and seen as the greatest emperor since Sigmar, the original founder. Date wise, they use the Warhammer calendar to say he was in charge from 2304 IC to 2369 IC (Imperial Calendar). He was the first of some elected Emperors after they had some problems. If this is the same guy, well.. he isn’t really a prince but.. maybe when he was a general he was a prince? not impossible with how they do stuff but.. don’t know.. trying to work out the ‘current’ date is.. a bit of a joke ^_^ so it’s possible it’s there guy, so the Hero Quest story line takes place around this era, but it is also possible it’s not this guy.. But the Nuln connecting is interesting. of course, if it is him, it would be before he was Emperor.. which wouldn’t make sense as they shouldn’t be an empire, or afterwards if we say he just retired when a new one was elected. But I very much doubt it’s the same guy.
Oh a quick mention
The Emperor – The Emperor is the guy that rules the Empire. Simple as that. He often takes an active role as he led the army which got trapped in Kellar’s Keep, he sends you on many quests etc. They never say which Emperor, as they have been tons over the years, but he is a major force in the Warhammer world as well as Hero Quest, as you are in the Empire and you are defending the Empire. While loosely mention, he starts to appear more after you either return or steal Prince Magnus’ gold. Later on, well.. In the Kellar’s Keep quest book, he is clearly the Emperor in the intro and ending story but in the quest’s themselves, he has been demoted to a King. For some reason, they had… editor issues with some of the expansions.. which is a shame.
Outside of Heroquest.. OH, let me count the ways.. yeah.. Empire is a major faction of the Warhammer World and the Emperor is a major part of that.
Melar – Melar was a powerful sorcerer who create the Talisman of Lore, a powerful talisman which could increase the wearer’s understanding of Magic. He kept it with him always for fear that Morcar would steal it.. then for some reason, he left it in his Laboratory, at the centre of his Maze, with many traps and guardians.. also all those who failed to get it.
In the quest ‘Melar’s Maze’ you need to find the Talisman of Lore Quest treasure and Melar is given as the backstory for the creation of the maze, the item and stuff. Did he die? well, it’s said it was ‘Long ago’ so maybe. It does seam the only magical guardian he left was a Gargoyle as every other enemy was undead, and thus would be the haunted people who have sought the talisman and died in the attempt which the flavour text talks about. Other then that, Melar had a key.. when you find it, it opens a secret door.. yay?
Karlen – Karlen was the Emperor’s personal Wizard, so a pretty high position. However, he disappeared and the Emperor put out a bounty to any one that finds out what happened to him.
Well, we know what happened. In the Quest ‘The Stone Hunter’, we are sent to find Karlen. HE was working on a Chaos spell for some reason, and was consumed by the magic and turned into a generic zombie!. He did leave behind 200 gold coins though, which was nice of him.
The Stone Hunter was one of the quests which was converted into story book form for the Sticker Album, and it locates it in the Stone Palace in the Black mountains, west of Black Fire Pass. The Black Mountains border the Empire and lead into the World’s edge mountains.
In the Sticker Album telling, Chandra the Wizard is sent to the Stone Palace.. to find Borin’s Armour.. Which is interesting cause while you do find Borin’s armour there (which is a great piece of Armour for the Wizard, so nice attention to detail there) it is more of a surprise to find it more then the reason for your mission. However, Chandra does find Karlen.. and this is one of the weird things in this story.. It claims Karlen seized the Stone Palace after he succumbed to Chaos Magic and became a Wizard Zombie! far more powerful then in the game, where he was just a normal Zombie. Makes a more interesting story line but odd change. However, when you think about it, it does fill in the details missing in the original quest. You see, the Emperor didn’t know what happened to him. Was he killed? did he succumb to chaos? It wasn’t known. and like I said, when you find him, he had been trying a Chaos Spell but failed.. So really, the Sticker Album expands it to say he did indeed succumb to Chaos and took the Stone Palace for his home. He was then messing about with Chaos Magic when he was turned into a zombie. This is the kinda thing that makes me want to find the original story notes, Cause I’m sure they shortened them in editing.
Borin – From a one-off character with a bit of story to.. one on the other side of things. What do we know about Borin.. We know he either created the enchanted chain-mail ‘Borin’s Armour’, or he wore it. Well.. that’s alot huh? that’s all we know. Maybe if the quest had some set up for the armour, but nope..
In the Storybook, the Wizard is sent to get the Armour, and it is later worn by Grugni the Dwarf. Who wears it when they all go to fight the Witch Lord.
Balur – Balur was a fire mage who started to work with the Orcs of the Black Mountains. He was with them in his lair in the Black Fire Crag (which is at the Black Fire Pass) and was were you fought him in the quest ‘The Fire Mage’. Being an expert with Fire Magic, it was not possible to harm him with Fire magic and to make sure you really couldn’t, the players were unable to take any fire magic spells for that quest. He got the spells to use, making him the first real wizard you went against. He also had the ability (once per game) to run through a wall, which is quite a pain.
In the Sticker Album, Ladril the Elf is sent to fight him and to get the wand of recall which is in his lair. They give him a very Fire elemental like form in their art and in their monster guide, they feature him but he is drawn as the Fire elemental from the Fire Spells. Different from his elemental like (but clearly more human) form in the story images.
Ollar – Long ago, a crazy wizard (aren’t they all?) discovered the entrance to a gold mine and build a magic castle above it for protection. Not only did it had alot of magic portals but Monsters trapped inside.
Ollar is quite a jolly guy as if you find a wandering monster on his quest ‘Castle of Mystery’, his ghost appears to chuckle madly and disappears. So it’s quite clear he died sometime before. Not surprising as this is one of the most annoying quests. It’s kinda fun in the fact that no two rooms are joined. when you go through a door, you roll a dice to randomly go to one of 11 rooms but it can mean it takes a long time trying to get around the place. Oh and he has one final joke.. the gold in the mine is in fact Fool’s gold.
Unnamed guy! – Yes.. I’m putting an unnamed enemy as a character! This is because in the quest ‘Bastion of Chaos’, you are on a bounty hunting mission and get paid based on what you kill. Fun. A gang of Goblinoids is being lead by some Chaos warriors and that’s about all you know. However, In the centre room, you find what is clearly the head Chaos Warrior and while he can’t use it himself, he is welding the magic sword ‘Orc’s Bane’, so clearly an important guy here.. why wasn’t he named?
In the Sticker Album, Grugni the Dwarf is sent into the Bastion to get Orcs Bane, and the Chaos Warrior is highlighted as being the leader of the group and a main guy who was holding Orcs Bane. Grugni then defeats the nameless use by taking a goblin sword and ramming it through his face.. Ohhh Nasty
Next time Finally! a REAL Major foe!
Continue reading over on Random Idiot
