The Heart of Fire

by Michael J. Ward

  For the fans

  Keep the fire burning

  Once again, a big thank you to the team at Gollancz for making geek dreams come true – especially my editor, Marcus, who had the Herculean task of reading, editing and testing this labyrinthine game-book. I owe him more than a few drinks (and payment for therapy bills) for surviving this one. I also want to thank my family, who have always had unquestioning faith in my ‘weird and wonderful pastimes’ and have supported me every step of the way. I hope they’re as proud of this achievement as I am.

  Welcome to DestinyQuest!

  ‘Another will follow; to break the chains of destiny and forge their fate anew – in fire.’

  Cornelius the Prophet

  Unlike ordinary storybooks, DestinyQuest puts you in charge of the action. As you guide your hero through this epic adventure, you will be choosing the dangers that they face, the monsters that they fight and the treasures that they find. Every decision that you make will have an impact on the story and, ultimately, the fate of your hero.

  Your choices, your hero

  With hundreds of special items to discover in the game, you can completely customise your hero. You can choose their weapons, their armour, their special abilities – even the boots on their feet and the cloak on their back! No two heroes will ever be alike, which means your hero will always be unique to you. And even better, you can take your hero into battle against your friends’ heroes too!

  Limitless possibilities, endless adventure

  You can play through DestinyQuest multiple times and never have the same adventure twice. With so many options and paths to choose from, the monsters that you encounter, the people that you meet and the loot that you find will be different each time you play. There are numerous hidden secrets to discover, bonus items to collect and unique special abilities to unlock – in fact, every turn of the page could reveal something new for you and your hero.

  Discover your destiny . . .

  The next few pages will take you through the rules of the game, outlining the hero creation process and the combat and quest system. Don’t worry, it won’t take long – and then your first DestinyQuest adventure can begin!

  The hero sheet

  Let’s start with one of the most important things in the game – your hero sheet. This is a visual record of your hero’s abilities and equipment. You will be constantly updating this sheet throughout the game, as you train new abilities and find better armour and weapons for your hero. (Note: The hero sheet is also available as a free download from www.destiny-quest.com.)

  Attributes

  Every hero has five key attributes that determine their strengths and weaknesses. These are speed, brawn, magic, armour and health. The goal of DestinyQuest is to advance your hero from an inexperienced novice into a powerful champion – someone who can stand up to the biggest and baddest of foes and triumph!

  To achieve this, you will need to complete the many quests throughout the lands of Valeron. These quests will reward you with new skills and equipment, such as weapons and armour. These will boost your hero’s attributes and give you a better chance of survival when taking on tougher enemies.

  The five attributes are:

  * Brawn: As its name suggests, this score represents your hero’s strength and muscle power. A hero with high brawn will be able to hit harder in combat, striking through their opponent’s armour and dealing fatal blows.

  Brawn is the main attribute of the warrior.

  * Magic: By mastering the arcane schools of fire, lightning, frost and shadow, a hero can command devastating spells and summon fiendish monsters. Heroes that choose this path should seek out the staffs, wands and arcane charms that will boost their magic score, granting them even deadlier powers to smite their foes.

  Magic is the main attribute of the mage.

  * Speed: The higher a hero’s speed score, the more likely they are to score a hit against their opponent. A hero who puts points into speed can easily bring down stronger enemies thanks to their lightning-fast reflexes.

  Speed is the main attribute of the rogue.

  * Armour: Whenever a hero is hit in combat, by weapons or spells, they take damage. Wearing armour can help your hero to survive longer by absorbing some of this damage. Warriors will always have a high armour score, thanks to the heavy armour and shields that they can equip. Rogues and mages will typically have lower scores, relying instead on their powerful attacks to win the day.

  * Health: This is your hero’s most important attribute as it represents their life force. When health reaches zero, your hero is dead – so, it goes without saying that you should keep a very close eye on it! Armour and equipment can raise your hero’s health score – and there are also potions and abilities to be discovered, to help your hero replenish their health during combat.

  Starting attributes

  Every hero begins their adventures with a zero score for brawn, magic, speed and armour. These attributes will be boosted throughout the course of your adventures. All starting heroes begin with 30 health.

  Equipment boxes

  The hero sheet displays a number of important boxes. These boxes each represent a location on your hero where they can equip an item. Whenever your hero comes across a new item in the game, you will be told which box or boxes on the sheet you can place it in. You can only have one item equipped in each box.

  Backpack

  Your hero also has a backpack that can hold five single items. On your travels you will come across many backpack items, including useful potions and quest items. Each backpack item you come across takes up one space in your backpack – even if you have multiple versions of the same type of item (for example, health potions).

  Special abilities

  The special abilities box, on the right of your sheet, is where you can record notes on your hero’s special abilities. Every hero has two special abilities, which they learn when they train a career. Items of equipment can also grant special abilities for your hero. All special abilities are explained in the glossary at the back of the book.

  Paths and careers

  Your hero starts their adventure as a simple traveller, with no remarkable skills or abilities. Once your hero has gained some experience, however, three paths will become available to you – the path of the warrior, the rogue and the mage. Your hero can only choose one of these paths, and once that decision is made, it can’t be changed – so choose wisely. The chosen path will determine the careers and abilities that your hero can learn throughout their adventures.

  Your hero’s path and current career should always be recorded at the top of your hero sheet, and its special abilities should be recorded in the special abilities box on the right of your sheet. A hero can only be trained in one career at a time, but you can swap their career for another one, providing you have found the relevant trainer or reward item. When your hero trains a new career, all abilities and bonuses from the old career are lost.

  Gold

  The main currency in Valeron is the gold crown. These can be used to purchase potions and other special items whenever you visit a town, village or camp. More gold can be discovered by killing monsters and completing quests.

  Quests and monsters

  The kingdom of Valeron is a dangerous place, full of ferocious monsters, wild beasts and deadly magical forces . . . bad news for some people perhaps, but for a would-be adventurer it means plenty of paid work! By vanquishing foes and completing quests, your hero will grow stronger and more powerful, allowing you to take on tougher challenges and discover even greater rewards.

  The maps

  The story is divided into three chapters – known as ‘Acts’. Each of the three Acts has a map, which shows you the locations of all the dif
ferent quests that your hero can take part in. To select a quest you simply turn to the corresponding numbered entry in the book and read on from there, returning to the map when you have finished.

  Choosing quests

  Each map will provide you with a number of different quests. Some quests are harder than others. A simple colour-coded system ranks the quests in order of difficulty:

  * Green quests: These are the easiest quests to complete. Heroes with even the most basic of equipment will still emerge victorious.

  * Orange quests: Heroes will find these tasks a little more challenging, requiring them to defeat numerous enemies to succeed.

  * Blue quests: Things get a lot tougher with blue quests. Monsters are more likely to have special abilities and higher attribute scores, meaning your hero will need to be fully prepared and equipped for the dangers they may face.

  * Red quests: These quests should only be attempted once you have completed the majority of green, orange and blue quests. Your hero will need to use everything they’ve got to overcome these tough challenges and triumph.

  Quests can be done in any order you wish – although note that it is wiser to complete the easier quests (green and orange) before you attempt the harder ones (blue and red). Once a quest has been completed, it cannot be revisited.

  Legendary monsters

  On each map you will also see some spider symbols. These represent ‘legendary monsters’: opponents that are tougher than your average foe. Only the bravest of heroes, who are confident in their abilities and have good gear from their questing, should seek out and battle these mighty opponents.

  Team battles

  The black sword symbol indicates an ‘epic monster’ – one that you will not be able to defeat alone! You will need to team up with another hero to help you battle these demonic entities and win their highly-prized treasures. (See advanced rules.)

  Boss monsters

  Each Act of the story has a final boss monster that must be defeated before you can advance the story to the next Act. These boss monsters are represented by the skull symbol on the map.

  It goes without saying that these final bosses are no pushovers and should only be attempted once you have fully explored each map and completed most of the quests.

  Towns, villages and camps

  Every Act of the story has its own town, village or camp, which your hero can visit anytime between quests. They are represented on the map by the building icon. Simply turn to the corresponding page entry whenever you wish to visit. These locations can provide your hero with items to purchase, additional quests, hints and tips and even some career trainers.

  It is always a good idea to visit these areas first, whenever you start a new map. The inns and taverns can be a great source of rumour and information regarding the challenges ahead.

  Upgrading equipment

  The primary goal of DestinyQuest is to equip your hero with better weapons, armour and equipment. These will boost your hero’s attributes such as brawn and magic, and help them to survive longer in battle.

  At certain times in the story you will be offered a choice of rewards for your hero. Usually this will be the result of killing a monster or completing a quest, but there are also many other ways of gaining rewards – some easier to find than others.

  When you are offered a choice of rewards, you will be told how many items you may pick from the selection. It is up to you to decide which reward/s will be best for your hero. These rewards, such as rings, pieces of armour, weapons and necklaces, will commonly give boosts to certain attributes. Select your rewards wisely to boost the attributes that are the most essential for your hero.

  When you have chosen your reward, you write its name and details in the corresponding box on your hero sheet. Make sure to update any attributes that are affected by the new reward. Remember, it is your decision what rewards you take. You can always ignore items if they don’t interest you.

  Replacing equipment

  Your hero can only carry one item in each box. When you choose a reward and your hero already has an item in the corresponding box, the new item replaces the old one – and the old item is destroyed. When you destroy the old item, all attribute bonuses and abilities that it provided are lost, to be replaced by those from the new item.

  Combat

  Valeron can be a wild and dangerous place. Most of the creatures you encounter will be hostile and it will be up to you (and your hero!) to battle and defeat these monsters, to emerge victorious.

  When you enter into combat, you will be given your opponent’s attributes. These are usually speed, brawn (or magic), armour and health. Some may also have special abilities that you will need to take note of.

  The combat sequence

  Combat consists of a number of combat rounds. In each round of combat you roll dice to determine who hits who and who takes damage. (Note: A die is considered to be a standard 6-sided die.) Once damage has been applied, a new combat round starts. Combat continues until either your hero or their opponent is defeated.

  In each combat round:

  1. Roll 2 dice for your hero and add their current speed score to the total. This is your hero’s attack speed.

  2. Roll another 2 dice for your opponent and add their speed score to the total. This is their attack speed.

  3. The combatant with the highest attack speed wins the combat round. If both scores are the same, it is a stand off – the combat round ends (see step 7) and a new one begins.

  4. The winner of the round rolls 1 die and adds either their brawn score or their magic score to the total, whichever is highest. (Note: monsters will only have one or the other, not both.) This will give you a damage score.

  5. The loser of the round deducts their armour value from the damage score. Any remaining damage is then deducted from their health. (If the damage score was 8 and the loser had an armour of 2, they would take 6 health damage.)

  6. If this damage takes your hero’s or your opponent’s health to zero, they are defeated. If both combatants have health remaining, then the combat continues.

  7. At the end of each combat round, any damage from passive effects (such as bleed or venom) are applied to each combatant. If both opponents still have health remaining, then a new combat round begins. Return to step 1.

  Example of combat

  Sir Hugo has awoken a slumbering serpent and must now defend himself against its venomous attacks.

  Special abilities

  Venom: Once you have taken health damage from the serpent, at the end of every combat round you must automatically lose 2 health.

  Round one

  1. Sir Hugo rolls 2 dice to determine his attack speed. He rolls a and a giving him a total of 6. He adds on his speed score of 4 to give him a final total of 10.

  2. The serpent rolls 2 dice to determine its attack speed. The result is a and a making 11. The serpent’s speed is 6, making its final total 17. The serpent has won the first round of combat.

  3. A die is rolled for the serpent to determine its damage score. The result is a . Its brawn score is added on to this, to give a final total of 9.

  4. Sir Hugo deducts his armour value from this total. This means he only takes 4 points of health damage (9–5=4). His health is reduced from 30 to 26.

  5. Sir Hugo is also poisoned by the serpent’s venom. He automatically takes another 2 points of health damage, reducing his health to 24.

  Round two

  1. As before, Sir Hugo and the Serpent roll 2 dice and add their speed to the result. Sir Hugo ends up with an attack speed of 15 and the serpent has an attack speed of 10. Sir Hugo wins.

  2. Sir Hugo rolls a for his damage score. He chooses to add on his brawn (which is higher than his magic score). His final total is 12.

  3. The serpent has an armour value of 2, so takes 10 points of damage. The serpent is left with 2 health.

  4. Because the serpent applied its venom special ability in the last round, Sir Hugo must now deduct another 2 points
from his health – reducing it from 24 to 22.

  Combat then moves to the next round, continuing until one combatant’s health is reduced to zero.

  Restoring health and attributes

  Once you have defeated an enemy, your hero’s health and any other attributes that have been affected by special attacks or abilities are immediately restored back to their normal values (unless otherwise stated in the text). In the above example, once Sir Hugo has defeated the serpent, he can return his health back to 30 and continue his adventures.

  Using special abilities in combat

  As your hero progresses through the story, they will discover many special abilities that they can use in combat. All abilities are explained in the glossary at the back of the book.

  There are four types of special ability in DestinyQuest. These are: speed (sp), combat (co), modifier (mo) and passive (pa) abilities.

  * Speed (sp): These abilities can be used at the start of a combat round (before you roll for attack speed), and will usually influence how many dice you can roll or reduce the number of dice that your opponent can roll for speed. You can only use one speed ability per combat round.

  * Combat (co): These abilities are used either before or after you (or your opponent) roll for damage. Usually these will increase the number of dice you can roll, or allow you to block or dodge your opponent’s attacks. You can only use one combat ability per combat round.