~{||}~ Dungeon Quest ~{||}~

By Kjeld

The Story

At the close of the Fourth Era (c. 2178 EVx), the ancient seer Qi' Nue Xan foresaw a terrible threat to the Azure Kingdom looming on the horizon, the portent of a cataclysm so vast it would throw the known world into chaos and darkness for one hundred generations of men: the opening of a way between the worlds of men and the nether Hell of the demonspawn. Upon hearing of this new danger to his realm, High King Math heeded the counsel of Qi' Nue Xan to seek out a new champion to take up the mantle of the Dragon Warrior and put a stop to the festering evil before it grew even larger.

Four brave and adventurous souls answered his call -- an erudite Wizard of the Sparkling Towers, 8th class; a towering Knight of the Way; a lithe Ranger of the Eastern forests; and a crafty Thief from the rumored Shadow Brotherhood. To test their mettle and decide whom among them would be declared Dragon Warrior, High King Math gave each adventurer a quest -- to collect a set of five relics from the Epic Dungeon which together would form the ideal raiments for each hero's class. He sent them forth (with a few henchmen each for good measure) and sat on his throne, brooding over the dark days to come...

Unbeknownst to the King or Qi' Nue Xan, another force had watched the proceedings with great interest, hatching its own sinister counter-plot. That night, as the adventurers grabbed a scant few hours rest before the dawn and the start of their quests, a mysterious figure appeared to each, whispering tidings of great power and fortunes to whomsoever would take up an alternate quest, to collect not the Heroic raiments intended by the King, but rather the cursed Armor of the Damned. And so, with the seeds of greed and avarice sowed amongst virtuous thoughts of honor and glory, the heroes set out to face the Epic Dungeon and their destinies...

Gameplay

Each player starts in one corner, and must collect all five items in one of their two quests. The first person to complete one of their quest wins the game. (Note that all items overlap with one other quest.)

To collect an item, a player must own the associated territory at the start of their turn -- the checkmark next to the item's icon in your quest log will turn your color once you've collected it. After collecting an item, you may move on to the next.

Each player will only have 3 units on the board at any time. All territories revert to neutral immediately, and you get 15 attacks per turn to move around the dungeon. All attacks in maze are 4v3 -- if you have fewer than 3 dungeon units on the board, they will respawn on your character the following turn. If you ever have more than 3 units on the board at a time, you will automatically be eliminated your following turn.

To begin the game, attack from your starting character to the adjacent corner tile. The edges of the dungeon wrap, so an exit on the right side will take you to the exit that lines up with it on the left side. Also, you may not camp on a single space for more than three turns -- if you attempt to do so, your unit will be reset to your starting location.

Lastly, each questor begins with three sabotage orbs (located under or above the character icons), which can be used to attempt to erase a collected item from an opponent's quest (10v3 dice). Each orb may be used only once, so choose your sabotages wisely!

Scenarios

Can't I get a torch?

Some evil presence (or maybe just a stray wind) snuffed out all the torches, leaving the dungeon questors to feel their way in heavy fog. At least they each get 20 attacks per turn, now!

Henchmen for Hire

The questors went down to the Henchmen's Local and hired a few sturdy backs to help carry the loot, er, I mean the precious artifacts. The per-territory unit maximum has been raised to 2 for each Dungeon tile, and each player may occupy up to 6 tiles at a time (more than 6 leads to automatic elimination). Since more hands don't just make lighter work but also a heavier burden of command, the number of attacks per turn has been raised to 20.