Rise of the Dread Moon and the Traitor Returns

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This is going to be a short one, but packed with lots of exciting HeroQuest goodies about Rise of the Dread Moon and a ton of speculation.

The awesome guys over at Avalon Hill gave us quite the treat last night. I was debating publishing this then, but I decided I should wait until morning, give it some more time to sink in. Wait until some of the commotion over it settled down a bit. That, and it was nearly 2AM by the time I finished drafting this and I wanted a chance to proofread it before posting!

Rise of the Dread Moon Cover in all its Glory

We now have a really good look at the Rise of the Dread Moon box art! I’m really excited about this, it gives us a bit of a sneak peek into what we can expect to find in this all new adventure.

In case you haven’t heard of Rise of the Dread Moon, it’s an all new HeroQuest Quest Pack that should come sometime this year. This new Quest Pack will feature an all new adventure that has never been published before. This will be one of the first big new things coming to HeroQuest in about 30 years.

Front and center you can clearly see the new Guardian Knight hero. This will be the new sculpt and will also feature a new Knight card that has the same stats as the limited supply Commander of the Guardian Knights Hero Collection. This is great news because it means that everyone who missed the opportunity to pick up a Guardian Knight will finally get the chance to get one.

Now we can see several different types of adversaries that our heroes might find themselves up against.

There are some ghostly spectres or spirits.

Along with one that, some have speculated may be the Spirit Queen from the Mythic Quest Pack Spirit Queen’s Torment. I don’t think this is the case though, but I’ve been wrong in the past.

If this is the Spirit Queen, then that’s good news for the future of the Mythic Exclusive Quest Packs, but I’ll get to more on that later… You probably already know what that will be about.

It looks like we might have some more Elvish adversaries joining the forces of Zargon. I can see what look like some Elven archers, warriors, and some new Elven spearmen.

Then we have a couple that look, surprisingly, similar to the Rogue Heir of Elethorn that was released just before the Mage of the Morror Quest Pack. More on some speculation about this later.

This guy looks like it could be some kind of cultists, or maybe just a hooded wizard like figure.

And finally, standing off against our honorable Knight, we have a new and mysterious figure.

I wonder who this could be!?

The Traitor Returns

Warning! This will contain some spoilers for the Return of the Witch Lord Quest Pack. If you haven’t played it yet, maybe skip this part!

This mysterious new figure can only be the Traitorous Sir Ragnar who we saved way back in the second quest of Game System. This image backs this up from the Avalon Hill Discord server.

This is some pretty awesome concept art.

For those of us who grew up with the North American version of HeroQuest, you may not know that Sir Ragnar actually turned to the dark side.

In the European conclusion of Return of the Witch Lord, it’s revealed that Skulmar did not actually die and that the traitor Sir Ragnar helped him escape.

In the North American version, as well as the remade version from Avalon Hill, this part of the story is omitted, Sir Ragnar’s story ended after we rescued him.

There is some speculation that the story might find our heroes saving Sir Ragnar again, not another rescue mission, but rather a redemption story like Darth Vader. I don’t think this will be the case though; I think it would be better to keep him a villain.

A Tie-in to Mage of the Mirror and the Rogue Heir

One last part of the puzzle was revealed by Avalon Hill Employees. The Cadre of the Raven Veil.

This image was posted by Avalon Hill staff, specifically with this text circled. What could it mean!?

We first saw this mentioned in the Rogue Heir of Elethorn Hero Collection.

This person, place, or organization, summoned the Rogue Heir back to Elethorn at the beginning of Sinestra’s rebellion in the Mage of the Mirror Quest Pack.

It was hinted at previously that the Mage of the Mirror Quest Pack will lead into the story for Rise of the Dread Moon.

So it makes sense for Elves to be featured prominently. Maybe this conflict didn’t end with the Mage of the Mirror, maybe it doesn’t end with the Elves. Maybe Sir Ragnar has plans to throw the whole realm into chaos… wait, dread, we can’t say chaos anymore.

As for the Cadre of the Raven’s Veil, who are they? It sounds like it could be some kind of organization that works closely with the Royal Elven family, since they were the ones entrusted to summon back the Rogue Heir.

I like the idea that they could be a band of Elves for hire, similar to the Mercenaries in The Frozen Horror Quest Pack. This would give us some more diversity at the table when it comes to miniatures controlled by the heroes.

Whatever the case may be, I’m really excited for it and would love to hear your opinions as well.

Another Special Surprise for Fans

Remember above when I said that I would talk more about the Mythic Exclusive Quests, well here we go.

If by some chance this is the Spirit Queen from the Mythic Quest, this would be amazing. Maybe they’ll include The Spirit Queen’s Torment quest book in the box with Rise of the Dread Moon.

This may not be as farfetched an idea as you may think. We already have confirmation of another of the Mythic Exclusive Quests in the pipeline for production, and with a fancy twist.

The Mythic Quest: Prophecy of Telor, designed by the legendary Stephen Baker will be seeing a retail release at some point. Avalon Hill has also given us a special treat with this one, the box will be printed with a holographic, foil effect.

If they are planning on releasing one of the Mythic Quests, I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to release them all, as long as they can work everything out with the rest of the quest designers: Teos Abadia (Spirit Queen’s Torment) and Joe Manganiello (The Crypt of Perpetual Darkness).

Stay Tuned for More HeroQuest

That’s all I’ve got for this new content for now, but don’t worry, there will be more awesome HeroQuest content coming soon.

I’ve currently got in the works a secret project for you. Several members of the HeroQuest community have gotten together to interview a very special person with great importance to the history and story of HeroQuest.

That’s all I can say for now, you’ll just have to wait for the reveal.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you again soon.