The Ruin of Nimbar Adventure 4: The Mustering of the Dwarves

Returning to the lands of H'Garth, Bruenor, Herald of Clan Battlehammer and Warden of the East, sought to muster the forces of the four dwarf clans into preparing for the war against Zaldramas, the mysterious Lord of Chaos who plans to plunge the world of Nimbar into ruin. Having gathered in their ancient halls beneath the Iron Mountains, the dwarf chieftains and their tribes were preparing for Azkal'ronath - the Council of War when a great calamity struck! A spell of darkness fell upon the great hall and when it lifted, the Heralds, the four chiefs of the Dwarf tribes had vanished! In their place stood a single goblin with  a menacing smile and evil words: "We have your dwarf lords, we have your kings beneath the mountains. In stone and rock did they delve and upon the setting of the moon, in stone and rock will they remain! Find them if you dare and dare you not for the greediness of dwarves have summoned dragons and abberants to guard them lest they escape their stone prisons!" And, after delivering this chilling message the goblin slit his own throat.

When You Start the Adventure, Read:

I say we give this dragon a taste of Dwarvish steel right up his jacksies!

Without leadership the dwarves are in disarray and the War Council cannot be formed. And having a dragon guarding each of the captured heralds makes matters worse for dwarves fear, above all else, the sting and curse of dragon fire. They are reluctant to come to the aid of the remaining Companions of the Hall and for now, it seems Drizzt, Catti, Wulfgar, Regis and Artemis are on their own.

But our heroes will have need of quick wit ad skill for the clock is ticking. If they fail to reach the heralds before dawn, they will be cast to stone permanently and the Dwarves will remain leaderless. On top of that, each Herald has a particularly nasty guard to contend with...a particularly scaly and fire-breathing guard!

Goal: Split up and guide your hero down one of four dark paths to find the kidnapped heralds. Then, safely escort the heralds back to the Throne Room so that the War Council rite of passage may be completed.

Number of Heroes: 4 Heroes (Or reduce the kidnapped heralds to the number of heroes playing). This adventure also plays well solo - take it in turns for each hero to attempt a rescue.

Suggested Heroes: Drizzt (LOD), Catti Brie (LOD), Wulgar (LOD), Artemis (LOD)

Healing Surges: 4

Adventure Setup

Cavern Tiles, 2 Dwarf Statue Tiles, Dark Chasm Tile, Crystal Shard Tile, Rocky Passage Tile, Throne Room Tile - all from the Legend of Drizzt Boardgame.

Special Components in this Adventure:

Heroes:
Drizzt D' Urden Dark Elf Ranger figurine, character card and power cards.
Artemis Entreri  Human Assassin figurine, character card and power cards.
Catti Brie Human Archer figurine, character card and power cards.
Regis Halfling Rogue figurine, character card and power cards.
Wulgar Human Barbarian figurine, character card and power cards.

Heralds:
Bruenor Battlehammer figurine and 1 at-will power card.
Thorgrim Dwarf Cleric figurine and 1 at-will power card.
Athrogate Dwarf Battlerager figurine and 1 at-will power card.
Vistra Dwarf Fighter figurine and 1 at-will power card.

Encounter cards from Legend of Drizzt
Monster cards from ALL the adventures (If you like a challenge!)
4 Time tokens per player.
4 randomly selected monster tokens per player.

Villain Guards:
Shimmergloom Villain card & figurine (LOD)
Zombie Dragon Villain card & figurine (CR)
Rage Drake Villain card & figurine (WOA)
Ottyugh Villain card & figurine (WOA)

Setup:

You get a dragon! And you get a dragon! We all get dragons! Except for you...you get an abberant.

Place the Rocky Passage tile on the gaming table. This will be the start tile for this adventure. Place the Throne Room Tile on any unexplored edge of the Rocky Passage Tile. Set aside the 2 Dwarf Statue Tiles, Dark Chasm Tile and Crystal Shard Tile. These form the unique tiles for this adventure. Shuffle the remaining cavern tile stack and separate into 4 stacks of 7 tiles each. Remove the top 3 tiles from each stack and shuffle in one the unique tiles into this and place it at the bottom of its stack. In this way you will end up with 4 8-tile cavern stacks each one with a unique tile somewhere after the 4th tile (i.e. either a dwarf statue, dark chasm or crystal shard tile).

Randomly assign a dwarf herald to one of the stacks. Then, each player randomly chooses a stack (use a die or place the heralds into a dice bag and have each player draw one). Your hero is now responsible for rescuing the kidnapped heralds. Follow the same process and randomly assign a villain guard to a stack. This is the monster that guards the herald that your hero will need to overcome/ escape.


Tactics:

Dragons are all the rage these days

After exploring 4 tiles, at the start of your next Hero phase (i.e. before exploring the 5th tile), each hero flips over a time token. Once all four time tokens are flipped over and a hero has NOT rescued his/her herald, the herald turns to stone. A hero may then attempt a second time by reshuffling/ rebuilding their stack but MUST return all but 2 treasure cards/items and XP gained from monsters. If the hero fails again this time, the herald is permanently cast to stone and the hero has lost the game.

When a hero 'reveals' their unique tile, place that stack's herald on the tile's unique icon (dwarf statue, dark chasm, crystal shard etc). Then, instead of placing a monster, place the villain guard on that tile instead. The villain activates at the start of THAT heroes villain phase (and not all heroes).

Shuffle and randomly distribute the 4 monster tokens on 4 tiles closest to the throne room. For the remainder of the return trip back, no encounter cards are drawn. Instead, whenever your hero moves through/over a tile with a monster token, flip up the token and place a new monster(s) according to the token number. Monsters activate at the end of the hero phase. The return path back is going to be tricky!

Rescuing the Herald:

Meanwhile, back in the throne room...

To rescue a herald, a hero must spend 5XP or, alternatively, forfeit a Hero Phase completely. Once rescued, the Herald may fight alongside the Hero as an ally using the selected At-Will power card. Heralds, like ally cards, count as heroes for all purposes of movements and tactics and only have 5HP for the duration of the game. You may only assign ONE treasure card to a herald but you may use as many spells/potions/ healing surges as you like to 'heal' a wounded herald. If the herald is killed before reaching the Throne Room, the hero has lost the game. Once you reach the throne room with your herald, any monsters/villains under your control now belongs to the next player (you may select which player). Monsters/ Villains may not enter the throne room.

Victory: The adventure is won if all four heralds are safely back in the Throne Room.

Defeat: The heroes fail if any one herald is killed or turned to stone or if any one hero is killed and no more healing surges remain.

When All Four Dwarf Heralds Are Returned To The Throne Room, read:

As the four chieftains of the Dwarf clans ascend the Steendag - the ancient stone altar, a music suddenly emerges from with the chamber, the music of the Azkal'ronath  - the War Council, that had been unheard of for centuries. Its notes are fast and evocative and in the background comes the beat of a drum that rises with tempo until it erupts up in a tumultuous splendor, filling the hearts of the Dwarves with a fierce pride and certainty as they march on...to war.