BTB Horrors of the Underground

A couple of questions came after last game:
1. What is the size of the Wyrm's base? 50mm like all the Dragons or 40mm, because it is not a Dragon. In the description of the Wyrm it is said that this is a "huge monster".

2. Powder keg. In the description of this items it says, that "A powder keg is treated as a chest with one exception: it can be caused to explode!". So let's look at the chest description: "A chest must be carried by two models.The carriers must remain in base contact with the chest or it is dropped. They may not use ranged weapons or attack in combat."
What about running with powder keg? Can these two carriers run with a keg?

3. "Wyrm"!. When rolling this exploration roll you have to apply this rule: "If the Wyrm hasn’t been placed already place it anywhere on the newly explored tile." OK. But what happens when The Wyrm is in the game, and another roll "The Wyrm" is made?
a) another Wyrm appears?
b) re-roll exploration?
c) nothing happens?
d) Wyrm appears in newly explored location, leaving the one it was before?
e) other solution?

4. Placing monsters. When rolling a monster (rats, spiders, wyrm) who places them on battlefield? Is this the player who rolls for exploration (following the description of positioning in the chapter Beasts of the East)? In any place of the tile he wants? In this case it's kinda strange, because in some situations you can place a model out of sight of your warband, and not being charged in subseqeunt round.

5. Random Happenings. I suppose that in this scenario you don't roll for this. Am I correct?

This scenario has been asked about before, some of your questions may be answered:

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t1451-btb-horrors-of-the-underground?highlight=The+terrors+of+the+underground

I don't believe these aspects of the Horrors scenario are touched upon in the other thread.

It is worth bearing in mind that there has been early material for Mordheim dungeon style scenarios in Town Cryer from the Khemri setting and a classic scenario called Rivers of Blood, originally written by Carl Sergeant for Advanced Heroquest and translated into Mordheim rules.

There is going to be a dungeon quest scenario in the Marienburg scenario pack so I have a significant interest in identifying areas which players find unsuitably confusing!

To address the frenzied orcish mutterings of Crazygandalf;

1. Base size for the Wyrm is irrelevant. The Wyrm is as much an objective as it is a monster. It cannot be killed hence you can use any size objective to represent the beast. In order to differentiate between models that are warriors/NPC's and models that are objectives I tend to use round bases for all my objectives markers. Mark out objectives however you prefer.

2. Are the rules for Powder Kegs really that badly explained? They're objectives as well as rare items, meaning they need to be marked out in the game whenever a keg is not being carried or when a keg has been picked up during a scenario. They're easier to move with 2 models than 1 because a single warrior is encumbered by a heavy objective like a chest or barrel. Blackpowder and fire-based attacks can cause kegs to explode. That's about it I think.

3. The Wyrm is the only wyrm. He hasn't started a family yet like in cheesy Wyrm horror movies where they kill the Wyrm and then Mummy Wyrm turns up and gets angry.

4. As I understand it, when a wandering monster appears it is deployed on the affected dungeon tile. The usual etiquette for quest games is for the opponent to place the monster(s) to represent the attack.

5. You don't roll for a random happening on the Perilous Phenomenon chart. Instead there are special rules which will apply to this scenario; e.g. Wyrm attack, find the egg etc. I think that if you roll that the Wyrm turns up but it is already in play then there is no result to apply. Just proceed with the game.

Regards,

Werekin

1. It is relevant due to the narrow nature of the corridors. On some occasions it is possible to charge more units against a smaller base. I know that everyone will have the same based opponent in one game but we kinda like to stick to the rules .

2. We got the kegs so marking them is not a problem . According to the rules one person can not move the keg. So the only question is whether the two carriers can run with it or not. Judging by the treasure chests from original Mordheim quests I'd say no, but those might not be the same weight.

The minimum width of a regular corridor in quest is two models. Narrow corridor tiles from WHQ are single file which indicates that a monster base would not be able to enter, but I think an ogre-sized character would be able to pass.

So far as the Wyrm is concerned, I would not attempt to restrict models from attacking it. To represent that the Wyrm is a great long beast, In our games, we used two objective markers. One for the head and one for the tail! This allowed models brave enough to get stuck in whilst the creature is lashing all over the cavern or tunnel space!

Sorry there is no movement penalty applied when moving powder kegs. Chest and kegs must be moved by two models except for when... *and I will let you look up the exception*

Now I have a question now...

What does a chest actually do?

There doesn't seem to be a rule for what it does! Perhaps a warrior can climb on top of a chest and declare a diving charge.

Regards,

Werekin

The chest was put in the rules because I found it appeared too often in various scenarios where is was described again and again individually in each scenario. So putting it in the general equipment rules (and then basing the powder kegs on them) was an attempt at cleaning up the rules.

By the way, we've always used a dragon on a 50mm base for the wyrm model.

Thanks Von Kurst. I didn't notice a previous topic which covers some question.
It is better to hear how other players solve different things, and especially form the creator of specific scanrio. Thaks cianty.
So, concluding the topic it is up to us what rules we apply. Less reading, more fun. Werekin's directions, are quiet usefull. Thanks. Now I can stop this orcish muttering.

But what does a chest do?

The description in 'Spoils of Wars' gives no explanation for its use.

werekin wrote:

The description in 'Spoils of Wars' gives no explanation for its use.

It's not meant to. The effects for chests are in the respective scenarios (see official scenarios). The intention was to integrate this recurring "scenario element" for general reference and convenience.

I had wondered whether there was any point in buying one. I suppose by listing it with a value, it can effectively be sold for half its value if you find one!

It appears in scenario 7 from the Mordheim Rulebook with no rules aside from it requiring two models to be moved. Be nice if it could have another purpose. The only thing I can think of is using a chest when transporting wyrdstone shards and tainted items, to prevent warp-taint from mutating your warriors.