Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
-
I'll try and stick to the format of other reports that I found to be excellent, for example by PaulGrogan and edroz (and many others I missed). And I will adopt links to www.descentinthedark.com as that makes it easier to look things up, thanks corkysru for that idea.
So (+X) indicates Conquest Tokens CT for the heroes, [+X] indicates CT for the overlord.
Red highlighted text will be used for possible rule problems we had and blue highlighted text will mark personal comments (will change color some time later due to blue being the inherent link color; ← don't think this will happen, don't have enough internet time on my hands). We're playing with Altar of Despair and Tomb of Ice.
At beginning of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 18, OL: 11/11; Total: 29
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Immolation Rune, Leather Armor, Mana Weave
Player 2 (Varikas): {Able Warrior}; Bone Blade, Morningstar, Chain Mail
Player 3 (Landrec): {Vampiric Blood}; Crystallize, Leather Armor
Player 4 (Ronan): {Shadow Soul}; Crossbow, Crystal Shield, Leather Armor
Heroes have Staff of the Wild and ca. 600 gold.
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 11/11
Plot : Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Greyhaven), Endless Hunger
WEEK 5
[+1] (12/12), Greyhaven +1 Siege Token (now at 3). Lord Merrick won't be any help in the siege of Greyhaven (not accelerating it anymore, I mean) so I keep saving my XP.
Heroes move to Gardens of Tarn. They want to take advantage of easy encounters and roll for the more possible(???) one. Also, they think that they can't go on blitzing for long, this could be the last dungeon where they go 1-and-out.
Silence @ Marshy Valley
It's an automatic ambush. The heroes keep Ronan on guard duty. He punches Landrec and Varikas awake. Both ready and guard and block the way to the campsite. Andira happily sleeps. I mova and attack with Silence, taking the hits from both guards, damaging Landrec for 5 wounds. On the next turn Silence is easily killed. Single monsters are no real threat. I could have placed her as far away as possible, waiting for them to come to me, collecting threat to hit and run. But I don'T know if I would have gotten more than that one attack that way.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 2 turns; Heroes: +2 (20), 350 gold, OL: +0 (12/12); Total: +2 (32)
They arrive at the Gardens of Tarn (+1) and explore it.
Gardens of Tarn Level 1 - #19 Downward Spiral
Landrec is hurt so badly that Player 3 wants to heal him twice, so on the first turn he glyphs to Tamalir. That leaves only 3 heroes in the dungeon, pretty good opportunity for me, don't you think? Well, not so much. Andira kills the skeleton on the coin pile, Varikas and Ronan run and cover LoS. I spawn sorcerers Not a great move as they are too far away to attack and just wait to get killed. I should only spawn when I can attack with the monsters on the same turn. I already learned that lesson, come on! and block easy access to the second glyph.
Next turns are a stand-off as the heroes slowly advance in the long corridor and I stay mostly behind the corner. I focus some attacks on Ronan and manage to bring him down to 6 wounds Then they want to make a move for the glyph, bringing Landrec right back into action. I stop Varikas with a Paralyzing Gas trap on the secret spaces but Andira kills the sorcerer and activates the glyph for him (+3). Landrec and Ronan kill almost all remaining monsters. On the next turn Ronan then wants to advance to to the chest taking out the wounded Deep Elf on it. But I get to play an Exploding Rune and kill Ronan [+3]. I was celebrating a little as a no-losses first level was already spoiled. I didn't know yet how the rest of the dungeon would play out, of course.. The chest proved empty later (+1)The Giant took some turns to kill (+2, +100 gold) but didn't pose a real threat as Varikas with double shields absorbed all the damage. I was still thinking they would flee so I spawned Shades instead of saving threat. Whoohoo, first ToI monsters on the board. They didn't do anything though. Man, the eldritch upgrade better comes fast as my spawns would have been much better upgraded. Anyway, down they went to at least take a look at the next level. Before they visit the market (Dwarven Firebomb, Ring of Quickness; both bought for Ronan and Landrec respectively along with both magic robes for Andira and Landrec (Apparently they were listening to my advice...)) and alchemist (2 vitality potions).
LEVEL SUMMARY: 10 turns; Heroes: +6 (27), +650 gold and +3 potions, OL: +3 (15/15); Total: +9 (42)
Gardens of Tarn Level 2 - #10 Ancient Library
As I'm a librarian they took great fun in calling the leader “Mad Librarian Sebastian”. Not very original but that's how we are  .
A level with special conditions for opening the rune-locked door, this might take a while or be the factor to make them flee. Or so I thought.
First turn Ronan takes out a spider at range 10 with help from the feat Shooting for Distance. Andira moves onto a table and kills some more monsters with quick casting. With her newly acquired magic robe and the damage penalty from the table 5 attacks from spiders, skeletons, spawned dark priests and the leader couldn't kill her. They then quickly kill all remaining monsters and the leader (+2, +100 gold) and then manage to cover all four rooms so I have nowhere to spawn or put the leader back onto the board Card says to treat him like a newly spawned monster so we figured he can't be placed if everything is covered. They then simply clean up the glyph (+3) and empty chests (+2, 5 potions). I just sit grumpily.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 5 turns; Heroes: +7 (34), +1500 gold and +5 potions, OL: +0 (15/15); Total: +7 (49)
Gardens of Tarn Level 3 - #27 The Monastery
Well, the third level has no leader at first, that must be a good thing for me? No, saving villagers gives XP on finishing the level, meh  .
To add insult to injury the group openly discusses how Andira could almost reach the rune key on turn 1 and then all others would run to the exit portal. A skeleton is sitting on top, of course, but she has the feat Carried by Air. She is just short one MP and only because she starts in the back row. One the one hand I would have loved to see them pull off such a great stunt, on the other hand I’m happy to get some more opportunities to hit them.
But it turns out to be an easy level again. They block the way to the villagers, I do almost no damage to them. One spawn opportunity arises in the starting corridor, I want to get lava bugs in play to blast as many villagers I can but as soon as they look up the lava bug’s stats the play the feat Preventing Evil. Tough luck I guess. So they just kill everything, flip the glyph (+3), open the again-empty chest (+1) and move out with all villagers alive (+6) and return to Tamalir.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 5 turns; Heroes: +10 (44), +1250 gold, OL: +0 (15/15); Total: +10 (59)
DUNGEON SUMMARY: 20 hero turns, 17 OL turns; Heroes: +23 (44), +3400 gold and +8 potions, OL: +3 (15/15); Total: +26 (59)
(Wow, a total blowout victory for them and all three levels played, too! What happened to my mad overlording skills??
WEEK 6
[+1] (16/16), Greyhaven +1 Siege Token (now at 4).
Even without good gear they want to challenge Alric. They don’t want to give up the Prodigy skill as in our last game they saw their ranger getting a huge damage boost from Master Archer.
Sir Alric F. @ Corrupted Forest
All right, finally something going my way. Taking wounds when placing an order means: no guard orders. So they will always have to overcome the +4 range to the razorwings and Varikas will not be able to attack them at all. With 4 threat income per round I can reinforce a razorwing every turn.
I keep my monsters way in the back, the heroes advance to be just out of reach of anything. On their next turn they make a bold move, supported by vague hints from Player 3 (Landrec) that he has a killer feat card in hand. (The feat cards being secret to everyone, even the own group has put a nice little “Trust me on this, I have it covered.”-factor in our game. I like that a lot as players who are normally a little quit can have their shining moment.) We’re all excited to see it so they follow his plan. Andira flys (with the saved Carried by Air feat) into the midst of the monsters, landing on an exit tile and killing a razorwing. Varikas and Ronan also charge up and hit and kill a hellhound and the sorcerer. Landrec then takes out a beastman. On my turn Landrec finally plays Protect Thyself. Andira plays Sparks of Pain on her. The reinforced razorwing thus has to step into her aura to come on the board. Nonetheless two razorwings hit Andira and good rolls take her down to one wound. The hellhound can’t do much and tries to breath on the other three but his damage and his pierce is not enough to overcome the armor of anyone. It then moves to block the path to Alric. The last beastman gets a hit on Ronan for some damage. Alric stays in the back. There are now one beastman, one hellhound and two razorwings (one badly wounded) plus Alric on the board. After the turns of Varikas, Landrec and Ronan the Hellhound still remains. With only one wound left Andira attacks him, misses and decides to flee. So it's three heroes against Alric. The hellhound still blocks the way, they will get 5 attacks at most on him. I don't think that will kill him so I decide to stay and see how it turns out. He attacks Landrec and retreats back into the tree. With no way to recover fatigue (no potions anymore and no rest order) and with me hinting at a run-and-reinforce-every-turn plan they decide to flee. Alric stays at Greyhaven!
The heroes buy 5 vitality potions and visit the market (Shadow Blade, Mace of Kellos; the latter bought for Ronan) and tavern (Derafin the Mighty, placed at Ashen Hills).
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 4 turns; Heroes: +0 (44), OL: +0 (16/16); Total: +0 (60)
WEEK 7
[+1] (18/18) and Greyhaven is razed. Alric moves to Gate of the North on the way to Frostgate. I could have gone to Tamalir, threatening for a siege there or in Riverwatch afterwards, since they have almost no useful items (particularly weapons against Alric). My heroes would feel a little let down by this and honestly, I don't see a Tamalir siege would be successful at this stage. They simply can do too much before they need to challenge Alric again and would be significantly stronger at that time then I think. Threatening Frostgate (with Tiger Tattoo and Swift being on their skill list) might keep them in the north, away from Riverwatch and that extremely useful (at least in their stage) market and away from Olmric, whom I can destroy in Silver (bye bye, Rapid Fire).
Heroes are a little disappointed and curse the location draw. Despite their successes so far they feel this one event counts tenfold on the negative side. They are a little dramatic, my fellow players .
We stop with their turn still to come.
At end of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 44, OL: 16/16; Total: 60
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Immolation Rune, Leather Armor, Mana Weave
Player 2 (Varikas): {Able Warrior}; Bone Blade, Morningstar, Chain Mail
Player 3 (Landrec): {Vampiric Blood}; Crystallize, Leather Armor, Ring of Quickness
Player 4 (Ronan): {Shadow Soul}; Dwarven Firebomb, Leather Armor, (Mace of Kellos, Crossbow)
Heroes have ca. 3200 gold and Staff of the Wild.
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 16/16
Plot : Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Gate to the North), Endless Hunger
Comments:
Well, what can I say. A count of 26 to 5 for the heroes looks like a clean victory to me. Feats were played at critical moments and helped them to stay alive longer. They are starting to get the hang of the balance of moving fast and moving carefully, good for them! I made a couple of mistakes but didn't play too shabbyThe only thing going for me was the battle and raze of reyhaven. (By the way, they kept asking me how fast cities are falling in other people's games. Do you always manage to save the first sieged city or do you lose it? How many cities fall before silver?)
Since our math geek kept a table of successful and missed attacks (only an X counts as a miss on his sheet) I know that I wasn't very lucky with the combat dice (miss rate of 1/3) while they were fairly as expected (miss rate 1/6). Only chests are bad luck for them as 6 chests in a row now came up empty of items! Which left them with sub-par equipment so far. That fact still leaves me hoping as they need to gather more items either through markets or dungeons which leaves me with enough time to build up before they can go on lieutenant chases on a regular basis.
-
joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
-
BastiRand wrote: Anyway, down they went to at least take a look at the next level. Before they visit the market (Dwarven Firebomb, Ring of Quickness; both bought for Ronan and Landrec respectively along with both magic robes for Andira and Landrec (Apparently they were listening to my advice...)) and alchemist (2 vitality potions).
Would you mind going over this sequence for me, as I was having troubles trying to successfully doing this in our first game last night. So in a dungeon, you have the exit and the glyph. Once the dungeon is cleared, 1 or 2 people can run back to the glyph, then the next turn they can jump into town to "restock"? At that time, the 2 people who have already made it to through the red rune-locked door have disappeared into dungeon 2?
once the dungeon is made, it is the heroes turn, and the heroes in town can come into from the glyph?
-
M.J.E. Hendriks
Netherlands
Velp
Gelderland
-
:yuk:
duhtch wrote: BastiRand wrote: Anyway, down they went to at least take a look at the next level. Before they visit the market (Dwarven Firebomb, Ring of Quickness; both bought for Ronan and Landrec respectively along with both magic robes for Andira and Landrec (Apparently they were listening to my advice...)) and alchemist (2 vitality potions).
Would you mind going over this sequence for me, as I was having troubles trying to successfully doing this in our first game last night. So in a dungeon, you have the exit and the glyph. [1] Once the dungeon is cleared, 1 or 2 people can run back to the glyph, then the next turn they can jump into town to "restock"? [2] At that time, the 2 people who have already made it to through the red rune-locked door have disappeared into dungeon 2? [3] once the dungeon is made, it is the heroes turn, and the heroes in town can come into from the glyph?
[1] Yes
[2] Yes
[3] Yes
-
Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
-
duhtch wrote:
once the dungeon is made, it is the heroes turn, and the heroes in town can come into from the glyph?
In RtL, the heroes in town are placed directly beside the glyph during setup, the same as a starting level.
In SoB they stay in town and must spend 1 MP to glyph back to the dungeon during the first turn of the next level.
-
Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
-
BastiRand wrote:
Gardens of Tarn Level 2 - #10 Ancient Library
...then manage to cover all four rooms so I have nowhere to spawn or put the leader back onto the board Card says to treat him like a newly spawned monster so we figured he can't be placed if everything is covered.
FAQ pg16
Ancient Library (Dungeon 10)
Q: Does the leader reappear in his original spot or respawn as per normal spawn rules?
A: He reappears in his space, pushing aside any model in that space. The Overlord chooses where the pushed model is placed, up to 1 space away. No, this can not trigger movement traps.
You should have put him back out. It isn't actually a 'spawn' with spawn restrictions, he is just placed as though he was spawned.
-
joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
-
corbon wrote: duhtch wrote:
once the dungeon is made, it is the heroes turn, and the heroes in town can come into from the glyph?
In RtL, the heroes in town are placed directly beside the glyph during setup, the same as a starting level. In SoB they stay in town and must spend 1 MP to glyph back to the dungeon during the first turn of the next level.
that is REALLY good to know, because I have been reading SoB rules for so long and we just made the switch to RtL and that didn't click in my head
-
Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
-
duhtch wrote:
that is REALLY good to know, because I have been reading SoB rules for so long and we just made the switch to RtL and that didn't click in my head
I thought that might be the case... ;)
Actually it is a very strange change because the SoB rule can be badly abused. A good runner might activate a 'forward' glyph on the first turn, which in SoB allows the starting-in-town heroes to come straight out from the forward glyph with their first MP!
Indeed, I saw one session report where they'd made a mistake and had in-town heroes staying there, and the first hero (only hero starting in the dungeon) rushed forward and triggered one forward glyph, the second hero ran out from it and triggered another even-further-forward glyph and the last 3 heroes (it was a 5 hero campaign with some custom rules) 'Battled' out of the last glyph wiping out all the rear deployed monsters!
-
|
|
