Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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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: 71, OL: 31/31; Total: 102
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Wizard’s Robe, (Immolation Rune)
Player 2 (Varikas): {Able Warrior}; Bone Blade, Morningstar, Chain Mail, Belt of Strength, Ring of Protection (2 Iron Shields)
Player 3 (Landrec): {Vampiric Blood}; Staff of the Grave, Wizard’s Robe, Ring of Quickness, (Crystallize, Leather Armor)
Player 4 (Ronan): {Shadow Soul}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Leather Armor, Bag of Holding, (Mace of Kellos, Ripper, Falcon’s Claw)
Heroes at Riverwatch. They have ca. 4500 gold, Staff of the Wild and Enchanted Ship.
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 19/19
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Frostgate), Endless Hunger
Week 9 continued
Velvet Plains Level 3 - #22 The Citadel
It's a looong way to the leader and the glyph so they just ready and guard in the first room, Ronan goes to the temple. Landrec opens one door to prevent spawning right behind it. The second turn they get closer, Andira fires an attack and wounds the leader. Landrec tries to finish him off but misses. Varikas guards in front of the two mages. Now I spawn shades. Supported by two command auras one takes the guard off of Varikas. Then Andira gets hit by a beastman and is brought down to five wounds. The leader takes a shot, also supported, but only does 4 damage. There she is again, the infamous one-wound-Andira! The fourth time or so I fail to kill her by one wound and she always escaped her doom on the following turns. So she does this time... That's all I could try on this level. All monsters are killed next (+4, +250 gold) and the glyph activated (+3). Ronan goes to the chest alone, it turns into a mimic. He plays Riposte on it's attack but fails, doesn't get hurt and covers spawn areas. They will get the chest some turns later, of course, it even has a treasure this time: Crystal of Tival (+250 gold, potion)  . They exit through the portal and return to Tamalir.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 6 turns; Heroes: +7 (78), +1000 gold and +1 potion, OL: +0 (32/32); Total: +7 (110)
DUNGEON SUMMARY: 21 hero turns, 18 OL turns; Heroes: +20 (78), +3300 gold and +7 potions, OL: +11 (32/32); Total: + (110)
Week 10
[+2] (34/34) and I finally buy silver eldritch [-25] (9/34)! Frostgate +1 Siege Token (now at 2).
Heroes train in Tamalir: Andira +2 silver dice, Landrec Marksman. They visit the market (but it has two shortages !) and the alchemist (vitality and health).
Week 11
[+2] (11/36) and Lord Merrick is sent out into the world [-5] (6/36) and moves to Nerekhall, Frostgate +1 Siege Token (now at 3).
Heroes move to Gate to the North (+1) but don't enter it. Alric and Frostgate is their first and only priority.
I don't know why they didn't try it. They want the rumor so they would have done all three levels anyway, which they would have needed to stay at the location and reach Alric the next turn. One more upgrade by me shouldn't have made that Alric fight impossible I think but Ironskin could immediately be helpful. Ah well, read on how it went anyway... As to why I didn't buy and event treachery: As I don't have WoD I can't get Crushing Blow. So the choices would have possibly been Danger and Rage or something similar, not a battle changing combination I think. But again, read on for the Alric fight and judge for yourself.
Week 12
[+2] (8/38), Frostgate +1 Siege Token (now at 4) and Nerekhall +1 Siege Token (now at 1).
Heroes move to Frostgate but have an encounter.
Circle of Doom @ Swollen Stream
First opportunity and silver eldritch on the board, I'm eager to try them out. Andira is at 6 wound and Landrec at 4, I hope to get them both. The leader has blast so maybe I can catch them in one attack.
They turtle and protect the two weaklings, especially since they can't kill a lot because of the mandatory stun token for everyone at the start of their first turn. I take a good look and find a lone spot for the leader to hit Varikas and Landrec, both on guard for incoming sorcerers. I hit but Landrec can prevent everything with his ghost armor and keeps his guard, Varikas is protected by his armor and shields. I try to move in the sorcerers anyway (they are tougher now at silver) but to no avail. Two are killed by guards from Andira, Landrec and Ronan. On their turn Ronan knockbacks the remaining two into the breath template and Andira kills them, also catching the leader. They can only get three attacks on him due to positioning, though, and fail to kill him. So I get one more shot, this time at Andira and Landrec. Andira plays Stealth to protect both but as per the rules only she benefits from it. The attack hits both nonetheless and does three wounds to both. I think about adding dice with threat to kill Andira right away but decide against it as then they will be severely hampered in the upcoming Alric battle. Heroes talk for a little bit and decide to sacrifice Andira and Landrec to have a better fighting chance against Alric so they will kill themselves by standing close to water spaces. Varikas and Ronan flee.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 3 turns; Heroes: +0 (79), OL: +6 (14/44); Total: +6 (123)
They arrive at Frostgate and challenge Alric.
Sir Alric F. @ Ancient Grove
Alric stays in the back with his minions around him, one hellhound and a beastman in the lower sidearms as distractions. Andira with her breath weapon proves to be really annoying, shooting around corners. They guard around her and she slowly kills all the monsters. I have no chance to get to them, the new silver dice really add up and Landrec's extra range enables him to shoot down the razorwings. On the second turn Sir Alric F. is alone and flees. The siege is over.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 2 turns; Heroes: +0 (79), OL: +0 (14/44); Total: +0 (123)
I noticed that I don't spend enough time to check for spaces the breath template can hit. On both turns she was able to battle and hit monsters with it. The guards killed the rest. While I could try to spend more time, placing the template on the board and such, I think it will make a much slower game (heroes are over-analyzing already) and a less fun game for me. My gut decision usually prove right enough to not place all monsters bunched together and Andira hardly ever catches more than two monsters. So I will keep playing like this  .
They arrive in Frostgate and visit the market, buying the Mana Weave for Andira.
Week 13
[+2] (16/46), I buy Kar-Amag-Atoth [-16] (0/46) and together with Alric he moves to Nerekhall where Merrick places +1 Siege Token (now at 2).
The heroes happily train in Frostgate getting Tiger Tattoo for Varikas and Swift for Ronan. The others visit the market but it only has a Crystal of Tival.
Week 14
[+2] (2/48), Merrick moves to Greyhaven and Nerekhall +2 Siege Tokens (now at 4).
Heroes want to gather more gold to be able to train at Shika's Tree since they're already up here. But the Wyrm rumor dungeon scares them to much after I told them that ice wyrms are eldritch and thus heavily boostered. So they pick some other dungeon. I'm still not really sure why they didn't go to the rumor. Their weapons and skills are now pretty good, I think and waiting just makes me stronger. They mentioned being afraid of Merrick reinforcing the dungeon but that really shouldn't be a factor. Anyway, those are the times where my rather poor monster placement is offset by sub-optimal decisions on the hero side.
They travel to the River of Sleep but get lost on the way and end up back in Frostgate.
Week 14
[+2] (4/50), I roll for Nerekhall but despite two dice I fail the raze roll. Sir Alric F. then moves out to Greyhaven and leaves Kar-Amag alone with the siege. I'm counting on a raze next turn and the extra conquest from Kar-Amag. Lord Merrick moves to Tamalir. What am I up to? Tamalir rush? Riverwatch raze? Dawnsmoor destruction? Honestly, I don't know but I wouldn't be telling you because my heroes read all this!
Heroes try again for the River of Sleep but again they have an encounter.
The Blood Moon @ Swollen Stream
Ohh, a silver master demon leader! But to make it quick, the heroes don't want to try it and run away. The demon is too slow to move around the corners so they escape unscathed.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 2 turns; Heroes: +0 (79), OL: +0 (4/50); Total: +0 (129)
They reach the River of Sleep (+1).
River of Sleep Level 1 - #29 Divide and Conquer
Over the course of this campaign the hero party has turned from slow moving to fast moving. Landrec has the Ring of Quickness, Varikas Tiger Tattoo and Ronan Swift and they make good use of this movement. On the first turn Ronan runs to the upper left room, collects the coins (+400 gold), avtivates the glyph (+3) and sits on the encounter marker. The other three clear the way to the second one, killing the ogre and a skeleton and Varikas finally sits on it on the end of turn one. All normal skeletons turn into bone heaps, great play! One skeleton was standing on the chest. If it was replaced with a bone heap, two markers would be on top of each other, so we decided to not put a bone heap in place. But this running left plenty of spawn areas open. So just for the fun of it (and the hitting power) I spawn skeletons. With the extra skeleton from the leader's special ability the board is full with them again. I gang up on Andira and kill her [+3]. The last skeleton closes the door to the lower room. Ronan is too far away to help, the glyph is not yet active so Varikas is pretty much by himself, Landrec is in the outside corridors. Varikas kills the sorcerer on the glyph and activates it (+3). Andira comes out blazing, using Focus, and killing two skeletons but not quite killing the leader. Landrec heads to the starting glyph as he also has only 4 wounds left. He can switch to town on the next turn. I have two normal skeletons and the leader left and with them I try to kill Andira for a second time. I get her down to... you guessed it ONE wound again. Pfft, I should have tried to take the long shot at Landrec, silver skeletons have a lot of range. Oh well, it wasn't a real mistake as the leader comes back from undying and kills Andira then [+3]. Landrec comes back without healing to kill him for good (+2, +100 gold). One out of three bone heaps turns into a chest but contains no item (+1, +400 gold). The real chest is also empty (+1, +400 gold), not a lucky group, aren't they  ? Ronan runs through the portal and the others heal and visit the market (shortage, Great Bow and Archer's Charm, the latter bought for Ronan) and alchemist.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 5 turns; Heroes: +10 (90), +1650 gold, OL: +6 (10/56); Total: +7 (146)
River of Sleep Level 2 - #24 Eternal Prisoner
We only draw the level and quit for the day.
We played this level now twice on other occasions, with the heroes finding it nearly impossible but that was with copper monsters. I think they never had a good strategy, though, always trying to kill the leader instead of just running out. Anyway now with silver eldritch the level will be even harder . I'm not sure what they will do, they want lots of money for the map and secret training, preferably from just one dungeon. The first level was pretty good money-wise, but not enough yet. Losing another week's action, meaning a Nerekhall raze (possibly) and Lieutenants abound everywhere they might just swallow the bitter pill and try the level. With Ronan as a very fast runner they might have a shot if they get through my monsters blocking the exit door.
At end of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 90, OL: 10/56; Total: 149
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Wizard’s Robe, Mana Weave, (Immolation Rune); 1 black 2 silver dice
Player 2 (Varikas): {Able Warrior, Tiger Tattoo}; Bone Blade, Morningstar, Chain Mail, Belt of Strength, Ring of Protection (2 Iron Shields)
Player 3 (Landrec): {Vampiric Blood, Marksman}; Staff of the Grave, Wizard’s Robe, Ring of Quickness, (Crystallize, Leather Armor)
Player 4 (Ronan): {Shadow Soul, Swift}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Leather Armor, Bag of Holding, Archer's Charm, (Mace of Kellos, Ripper, Falcon’s Claw)
Heroes at Riverwatch. They have ca. 2100 gold, Staff of the Wild and Enchanted Ship.
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 10/56
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Greyhaven), Endless Hunger, Silver Eldritch, Lord Merick F. (at Tamalir), Kar-Amag-Atoth (at Nerekhall)
City Status:
Greyhaven razed, Nerekhall at 4 tokens
Comments:
Gaahh, I was so sure we would see silver monsters on the bo … oh wait, we did see them . Dungeon levels are bursting with them and even the encounters were eldritch-heavy. I think now I see with my own eyes the difference between spawning strong silver beasts (on our spider campaign) and lots of silver eldritch available as starting minions. The difference in numbers is just outrageous.
Still I think my heroes are doing pretty good, mostly winning throughout the dungeons, cruising through (or fleeing from) encounters, forcing Alric to flee. Feats are not particularly saved for special occasions but useful ones are mostly available at appropriate times. The double silver dice for Andira are definitely very strong, the others should do that, too.
Unfortunately we're having a 4-week break now, I am already itching to play again.
Edit: Oh, one addition, how do you play? We take out played dungeon and encounter cards (for variety) but not locations (not enough). Especially on encounters this might be a little odd. Should we only be doing it with monster encounters? Taking out everything means no more Lost during the whole campaign, make the OL upgrade Big Trouble useless, etc. But putting the non-combat encounters back in might mean an unbalance between them and combat ones. I'll appreciate any advice.
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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Re: Campaign #3 - Demon Slavemaster - Session 4
BastiRand wrote: One skeleton was standing on the chest. If it was replaced with a bone heap, two markers would be on top of each other, so we decided to not put a bone heap in place.
I don;t think there is any hard and fast rule about two markers together, just logic problems if the two markers are both 'terrain' types - which type of marker does the 'space' count as?
That isn't a problem in this case, as one marker is an obstacle and the other marker is a treasure, so I think you probably should have placed it - on the grounds that there was no reason not to and it didn't create any problems.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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We are taking out the encounters and locations so we don't draw them again, same with feats. Once the deck is dissolved we will reshuffle it and experience it again.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Sorry if I bump this but maybe most people missed my edit with the question about how to deal with encounter cards. Take everything out after drawn once? Take only the combat ones out? Keep everything in? It affects the Big Trouble OL upgrade and the general probability of combat vs. non-combat encounters. I think according to the rules everything should be shuffled back in but is that how everyone plays?
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Bryann Turner
United States
Portland
Oregon
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BastiRand wrote: Sorry if I bump this but maybe most people missed my edit with the question about how to deal with encounter cards. Take everything out after drawn once? Take only the combat ones out? Keep everything in? It affects the Big Trouble OL upgrade and the general probability of combat vs. non-combat encounters. I think according to the rules everything should be shuffled back in but is that how everyone plays?
I discard them after use. I've never had a situation where I ran out of locations in 4/5 campaigns. If I did, I'd just shuffle them all up and recreate the deck.
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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BastiRand wrote: Sorry if I bump this but maybe most people missed my edit with the question about how to deal with encounter cards. Take everything out after drawn once? Take only the combat ones out? Keep everything in? It affects the Big Trouble OL upgrade and the general probability of combat vs. non-combat encounters. I think according to the rules everything should be shuffled back in but is that how everyone plays?
We've generally left them in, but probably would have redrawn for another combat encounter if we got a combat encounter we'd done already (it never happened, at least not in the same campaign).
It does affect Big Trouble, which is a very important game making/breaking card quite often.
A good OL player should be pressuring the heroes on the map and usually there should be a stage where the heroes are moving on a very tight schedule to either break an important seige, get a secret training or do a legendary dungeon. Big Trouble is a key weapon for the OL in these occasions, and it doesn't seem right to adjust the odds on it's success.
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Cross Haven
United States
Texas
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Edit: Oh, one addition, how do you play? We take out played dungeon and encounter cards (for variety) but not locations (not enough). Especially on encounters this might be a little odd. Should we only be doing it with monster encounters? Taking out everything means no more Lost during the whole campaign, make the OL upgrade Big Trouble useless, etc. But putting the non-combat encounters back in might mean an unbalance between them and combat ones. I'll appreciate any advice.
My gaming group prefers to remove previously played dungeons.
Crosshaven 'chessguy'
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Cross Haven
United States
Texas
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What am I up to? Tamalir rush? Riverwatch raze? Dawnsmoor destruction? Honestly, I don't know but I wouldn't be telling you because my heroes read all this!
This made me laugh. I face the same problem/joy when facing the 'spies' on the message boards. ;P
"Love live the Overlords!"
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Posted Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:24 pm
