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.
Previously: Session 1, Session 2, Session 3, Session 4, Session 5
This will be a rather thematic session, dungeon levels nicely relating to each other.
At beginning of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 90, OL: 10/56; Total: 146
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 River of Sleep. 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 Merrick F. (at Tamalir), Kar-Amag-Atoth (at Nerekhall)
City Status:
Greyhaven razed, Nerekhall at 4 tokens
Week 15 continued
River of Sleep Level 2 - #24 Eternal Prisoner
Of course I pick the setup with the master naga and place it in front of the exit door. The master demon leader towers on the pentagram with terrifying stats of 31W 7A, aura 3, sorcery 3 and fear 3, making him as close to impossible as it gets. Three heroes ready, move to and dodge on an encounter marker. They choose Varikas to be the one to soak all the incoming attacks so he equips his shields and stands in front of the first row of markers, also dodging. I'm trying to give them a difficult time and spawn beastmen for the additional command, now having two command monsters. They haven't seen that coming. Varikas is attacked by all four skeletons and hurt pretty badly. The demon then damages him down to 4 wounds. The rest of the monsters can't hurt him any further though. But it's clear that he won't survive another round and the way to the door is clogged with monsters. If Andira tries to clear the path with her breath she either has to leave the naga alive and not be able to open the door due to the grapple and thus not be able to leave on this turn or she tries to include the naga in the breath but that would also include the demon. Because of his fear 3 she won't be able to kill much if anything. So they make a dash for the starting glyph killing the razorwings on their way back. Now none of my monsters can reach them. I discard everything and spawn skeletons but without the two command bonuses they don't do enough reliable damage so I hurt Ronan to make them spend money on healing. On their turn they all move to Tamalir and heal two rounds then flee the dungeon.
Silver monsters and being able to spawn on my first turn really blocked all forward progression. I don't think they had a chance to get to the portal without someone dying. (I would rather guess two deaths would have happened) even with their now-pretty-fast heroes.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 4 turns; Heroes: +0 (90), OL: +0 (10/56); Total: +0 (146)
DUNGEON SUMMARY: 9 hero turns, 7 OL turns; Heroes: +10 (90), +1650 gold, OL: +6 (10/56); Total: +16 (146)
Week 16
[+2] (12/58), Nerekhall is resilient and still doesn't fall. Merick moves to Thelsvan Highway, Alric to Tamalir. I buy event treachery [-10] (now 1 point).
The heroes decide to do the rumor now. Waiting will only make me stronger even if the boss will be a silver ice wyrm. Why ice wyrms are eldritch must have balance reasons as they surely look much more like a dragon (and therefore feel more at home in the beast category). Secret master training is just two trails or one week away. So during the dungeon they want to accumulate as much money as possible but they're aiming for at least 5000 gold, for the Map, 3 times secret training and a skill.
They move to Gate to the North, no encounter.
Gate to the North Level 1 - #44 The Ice Tunnels
This dungeon will make a nice thematic dungeon as this level and the next will both be ToI levels.
This is the first time we really get to play with the new ToI additions (besides some shade spawning earlier). The level starts out pretty empty of monsters and I all hide them in the back. The heroes all ready and guard, jumping over ice spaces. I stay in the back. Landrec kills a wendigo from range 9! The others advance further, collecting a money pile. I spawn dark priests and the raged master priest kills Andira [+3] and all three attacks earn me back seven threat! Dark priest are really really strong! Landrec kills both of them in a battle, he is also very strong. Andira visits the market (Gauntlets of Power, Crystal of Tival and Cloak of Deception, CoD and Voodoo Doll bought), the other two move forward further. Because of the threat from the priest and some discards I can spawn again to kill the twice-cursed Landrec but unfortunately he survives with one wound left. While Ronan and Varikas make short work of the medusa on the glyph (+3) and the last normal wendigo, Landrec runs away from the skeletons, jumping over ice where he can. As he's so slow I can still get to him with all three skeletons but all three slip on the ice I need to cross! Next turn the boss is killed (+2, +100 gold) and Landrec runs to the glyph but can't quite reach it. The skeletons try again, slip again but one does get a shot in and Landrec is dead [+4]. They spend some time killing the ice block as Andira and Ronan have frost tokens from a boss attack and they don't want to risk breaking their weapons. In the end they open the chest (+200 gold, 2 potions, Backbiter), grab the money (+400 gold) and leave the level through the portal.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 9 turns; Heroes: +5 (95), +1250 gold, +2 potions, OL: +7 (9/65); Total: +12 (158)
Gate to the North Level 2 - #43 The Cavern of the Wyrm
Getting deeper down to the rumor wyrm the group meets.... another wyrm! And pretty similar to each other, this one has ironskin and unstoppable. Now lets see what an ice wyrm can do.
Ronan runs and activates one glyph (+3) and returns to the starting room so that if someone dies they will be able to get behind all the action. Just now I'm thinking they could've all gone to town and come back through that new glyph, might have been a little easier then. Everyone else just guards and tries to stay out of sight. I spawn skeletons and take some shots at them. Then I charge the wyrm, walk around the rubble and try to swallow Landrec while blocking the doorway. With their biggest damage dealer out for one or two turns I figure I could safely pick on the others. But what can I say I roll a miss. So my boss is just standing in range waiting to get killed. But with 31W 6A and ironskin I hope he will survive one round of attacks. Everyone takes their shots, Varikas with the ripper from Ronan does 2-3 damage also. Ronan and Andira manage around 10 between them, Andira being the stronger one with her silver dice. Then Landrec totally dominates with added fatigue and what-not, doing a bulk of damage but the wyrm stands with 1 wound left! I spawn sorcerers and go on an an attacking frenzy. Now I do swallow Landrec and kill Andira with one skeleton [+3]. I try to get a frost token on Varikas with the deep elf but roll a miss. I switch targets and go for Ronan, two skeletons are not enough so I charge a sorcerer who does only minimal damage. Ronan stays alive. On the hero turn they focus on the wyrm and get him down (+2, +100 gold). Andira then clears some more with her breath attack, playing Focus along with it.. She didn't actually try it but could she hit monsters behind rubble with the template? We now it works “like a flyer moving inside the template”. But is that also true if the very first single starting space covers rubble (or other line-of-sight blocking obstacles)? We always thought there needed to be an empty space in the beginning (or at least the heroes always wondered when I breathed through trees and such). Ronan drinks an invisibility potion, dodges and walks next to the glyph to go heal the next turn. So far the stealth die didn't help me much, the wendigos on the level before haven't been missed once due to stealth. Ronan of course survives an attack, missing because of stealth. After that I just take the easy points and kill Landrec [+3]
Almost every monster is dead, I save for the next level but manage to play Hordes of Things for free skeletons. (Maybe not really worth the threat but useful to my playstyle nonetheless.).
Only the last wendigo survives a couple of round with amazing luck on the stealth die, go figure. But he dies, too, the heroes loot both chests (+1, 1 treasure: Crystal of Tival, 2 Potions) and activate the second glyph (+3). Then they safely leave.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 8 turns; Heroes: +9 (104), +1500 gold, +2 potions, OL: +6 (15/71); Total: +15 (175)
We leave the fun of the rumor for next time.
At end of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 104, OL: 15/71; Total: 175
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Wizard’s Robe, Mana Weave, Crystal of Tival, (Immolation Rune, Voodoo Doll); 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, Ripper)
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, Cloak of Deception, Bag of Holding, Archer's Charm, (Mace of Kellos, Falcon’s Claw, Backbiter, Leather Armor)
Heroes at Gate to the North. They have ca. 4600 gold, Staff of the Wild and Enchanted Ship.
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 15/71
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Tamalir), Endless Hunger, Silver Eldritch, Lord Merrick F. (at Thelsvan Highway), Kar-Amag-Atoth (at Nerekhall), Event Treachery (1)
City Status:
Greyhaven razed, Nerekhall at 4 tokens
Comments:
First of all, their bad luck with chests and market draws is obvious. Ronan has all-bronze equipment, the others are only slowly catching up. The Crystal of Tival comes up more often than it should and they also had weeks of complete shortages. Still they are doing pretty well, staying ahead in CT even after the silver monster upgrade.
The campaign change to silver is just 25 points away. Even if I don't think that the next level will hand out these points it will be a pretty close race to silver master training. After all, there are definitely 2 CT coming next week, possibly another 5 from razing Nerekhall with Kar-Amag-Atoth, so that makes 18 CT left before silver. With a 3rd level boss and at least one glyph (together 7 CT) maybe there's less room than they think. I will try very hard to get those points.
Even if it wasn't felt during actual attacks, the stealth die upped their miss rate considerably, it was somewhere around 20-mid percent.
I still don't think they have a grand master plan for their weekly actions, certainly not planning over multiple sessions. They plan their evening pretty well but that's all I do, too. Maybe I'm thinking about my weeks a little more often while writing these reports  . While I'm at it: I do have some puffy smoke granades planned for next time, so watch out heroes...
Something unrelated: I see corbon is keeping his SoB report to one thread. I find this an excellent idea to keep things in order, i.e. in one place. As I'm certainly not aiming for lots of GeekGold or anything should I do the same from here on?
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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BastiRand wrote: She didn't actually try it but could she hit monsters behind rubble with the template? We now it works “like a flyer moving inside the template”. But is that also true if the very first single starting space covers rubble (or other line-of-sight blocking obstacles)? We always thought there needed to be an empty space in the beginning (or at least the heroes always wondered when I breathed through trees and such).
Flyers can move through rubble...
No need for any empty space at the start
Oh, and as far as the thread thing goes, I just figured, why need to point people back to old threads all the time? And if people want to follow something from start to end, easier for it all to be in one thread.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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i was getting excited for the rumor finally and was severely dissapointed
oh well. you are right though, for the amount of treasure they have actually got, they have got lucky with the draws. this last week i got lord hawthorne to 1-2 wounds left 3 times, i was really pissed. i'm wondering if redirecting resources would help the both of us out as OL. good luck either way.
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