I can't find anything about this on the forums or the books I have, so I have either overlooked something or am missing some physical content, not sure.

I understand there must be only 3 of the 5 act 1 and 2 quests played each, but is there any rule to the order?

1. Can we play a fat goblin, castle daerion and the cardinals plight then move to interlude?

2. Can we play fat goblin, masquerade ball, and death on the wing, then move to interlude?

3. Can the order be mixed up, i.e. death on the wing, cardinals plight, then a fat goblin?

Rumors may or may not be interspersed at random, of course...

Any other insight is welcome!

See the rules on page 21, under Choose Next Quest, and the subsequent paragraphs for how a campaign proceeds in terms of which quests are chosen.

I read it a few times and did catch some wording I had missed, and more importantly, noticed more clearly what was never there.

So, to clarify, perhaps for anyone like myself who played Heirs of Blood first, TSR appears to allow any kind of order for Act 1 and 2 quests. I.e. all 5 quests are available to choose at any time in Act 1, and 5 quests contingent on Act 1 victories, or the quest being skipped (OL is assumed to win), are also available in Act 2, in any order.

I haven't read through the flavor text to see if this has some kind of impact on storyline ...

Am I getting this all correctly?

Another question along these lines: I know if a rumor quest is skipped, the OL claims the reward. At the end of Acts 1 and 2, when the 2 available quests that were not played are no longer in play are are an assumed OL victory, does the OL immediately reap the rewards? This is to the tune of a couple XP or Relics in Act 1 and potentially 4 XP or a couple relics in Act 2. Is that a thing? Is that a thing in other campaigns, or does this only factor in to rumor quests?

The OL does NOT claim rewards from unplayed quests in the shadow rune campaign. "Assuming OL victory" only has 2 applications:

-quest availability in act 2

-setup of the finale