About this page: the official quest books sketch each dungeon briefly, in a title and a short paragraph of quest notes. This page mixes those official names (Mentor, the Loretome, Zargon, Rogar, Sir Ragnar, Prince Magnus, Ulag, Grak, the Witch Lord, Barak Tor, Kaba Karn, Darkfire Pass and others) with fan elaboration, which is labelled.
"Every dungeon was something else first: a tomb, a fortress, a mine, a maze built to keep a secret. The monsters only moved in later."
Dungeons the Books Name
Most HeroQuest quests take place in unnamed tunnels, but a few sites have names that recur in play and in conversation. These come from the 2021 core quest titles and the Avalon Hill packs.
Fellmarg's Tomb
The setting of Quest 1, The Trial, where Verag the gargoyle waits. It is the heroes' first dungeon and Mentor's test of whether they are ready.
Ulag's Lair
Quest 3, Lair of the Orc Warlord, takes the heroes into the stronghold of Ulag and his orcs.
Melar's Maze
Quest 5. As the title promises, a maze: a good place to remember that searching for secret doors is one of the six hero actions.
The Castle of Mystery and the Bastion of Dread
Quests 10 and 11 are named for buildings rather than tunnels: a castle and a fortress. Bastion of Dread was called Bastion of Chaos in the classic editions.
Barak Tor
The barrow of the Witch Lord, visited in Quest 12 and again in Quest 14 after the heroes have searched for the Spirit Blade in Quest 13. Barak Tor is the closest thing the core game has to a final dungeon.
Kaba Karn
An ancient dwarven stronghold where the King's army is holed up in Kellar's Keep. A reminder that many of the realm's dungeons were built by someone, long before the monsters arrived.
Some packs leave the dungeon behind for part of the time: Against the Ogre Horde opens with three arena quests in the World's End Tournament, and Jungles of Delthrak uses branching jungle paths.
How a HeroQuest Dungeon Works
The rules give every dungeon the same bones, and those bones are half the atmosphere:
- The stairway. Most quests start and end there. A quest is only complete once the heroes get back to it (or to the exit the quest names).
- Doors. Every door starts closed, and once opened it can never be closed again. Opening a door is free, but you never know what is behind it.
- Rooms and corridors. Treasure can only be searched for in rooms, once per hero per room, and only with no monsters in sight. Heroes can also search for secret doors and traps when no monsters are visible.
- Traps. Pits, falling blocks, spear traps and trapped chests or furniture. A falling block permanently blocks its square. Monsters never spring hidden traps; only heroes do.
- Line of sight. Walls, closed doors and other figures block it, which is why a closed door feels so tense.
A sample dungeon section
Kinds of Dungeon in the Quests
Sorted by type, the named sites fall into a few families, which is handy when you design your own.
A Fan Reading: The Dungeon's Memory
This section is interpretation, invented for this guide. The books never explain who built the realm's endless tunnels. One satisfying answer is that every dungeon has layers: a dwarven hall, later a noble's tomb, later still an orc warren. When you design a quest, decide what the place was before deciding what lives there now. It tells you where the treasure is (in the oldest part), where the traps are (where the builders wanted to protect something) and why the corridors twist the way they do.
Three Questions for Any Custom Dungeon (fan)
- Who built it, and why?
- What went wrong for the builders?
- Who moved in afterwards, and what do they want?
Where Next
- The Core Quest Book walks through every core quest.
- Playing Zargon covers placing traps and monsters well.
- Lore: Magic & Artifacts covers what the heroes find in these places.