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, Session 6, Session 7
We came back to our rough situation and tried to make the best of it. WoD just arrived so another freshly started campaign looks pretty alluring to the group, finally having everything available. Adding stuff in an ongoing campaign is repeatedly vetoed as “not playing according to the rules”. But before cowardly quitting we bravely set up to overcome the challenge…
At beginning of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 112, OL: 29/85; Total: 197
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Wizard’s Robe, Mana Weave, Crystal of Tival, (Pacify,); 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, Ghost Armor(Crystallize, Leather Armor)
Player 4 (Ronan): {Shadow Soul, Swift}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Cloak of Deception, Bag of Holding, Archer's Charm, (Mace of Aver, Falcon’s Claw, Backbiter, Ripper, Leather Armor)
Heroes at Gate to the North. They have 3950 gold, Staff of the Wild, Enchanted Ship, Guide and Kerak’s Map. Upgraded market (1)
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 29/85
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Tamalir), Endless Hunger, Silver Eldritch, Lord Merrick F. (at Tamalir), Kar-Amag-Atoth (at Nerekhall), Event Treachery (1)
City Status:
Greyhaven razed, Nerekhall at 4 tokens, Tamalir at 1 token
Week 17 continued
I forgot to buy an upgrade last time and choose Toughness I’m saving for a monster upgrade just after the campaign level change. Still, a second Event treachery would’ve definitely been a stronger move (i.e. [url=]Ambush[/url]). But me heroes keep telling me, I’m the one to keep the group entertained while at the same time pose as a worthy opponent. So yeah, I let them off the hook a little  .
The heroes ready for an all-or-nothing fight, changing around some equipment to bolster Varikas into a hard-to-kill object. He is supposed to protect Andira, the only hero at almost full health (Varikas and Landrec both have one wound left, Ronan two.) So he gets Wizard’s Robe from Andira, who get’s Cloak of Deception from Ronan who puts on Leather Armor. Now Varikas can put on Ghost Armor for further wound prevention. Ronan lends him his Crystal Shield and lastly Varikas gets the Crystal of Tival. Varikas now has Ironskin, 5 armor, a shield that prevents two wounds and Ghost Armor to prevent at least 1 more wound each turn as he regenerates fatigue. With skeletons and sorcerers doing max 6 damage without threat boosting (pierce and sorcery is cancelled by Ironskin) he should survive pretty long. The other two are expected to die, of course and then return at full strength for Sir Alric F. As a final idea they try to provoke an encounter to get killed even before attacking Merick (taking the risk of drawing the “Lost” encounter). But they draw a non-combat merchant, who has nothing valuable to offer (Gauntlets of Power, Bane and a shortage). So they arrive in Tamalir and attack Merick.
Lord Merick Farrow @ Marshy Valley
Ok, I have almost play-by-play notes for this. Chosen treachery are two Rages. Merick is placed in a tree on the 4x4 tile close to the exit space, skeletons and sorcerers protecting him, one of each is placed in the other sidearm as a distraction.
First turn: Landrec Battles, kills manticore and skeleton, others all guard and stand in a tree, Ronan’s Shadow Soul moves toward the monster huddle. Merick retreats further into another tree and reinforces two more skeletons at his exit.
Second turn: All guard, Varikas in front of Andira in the corridor leading towards the monsters. Ronan and Landrec stay on the starting tile, Shadow Soul now moves onto the 4x4 tile. The skeleton and the sorcerer from the sidearm are killed by guards, monsters move around a bit, Merick reinforces two more skeletons.
Third turn: Ronan switches with Shadow Soul, puts on the Mace of Aver and knockbacks Merick closer to the others. Varikas Battles and hits Merick for 6 wounds and a miss, Andira Battles and hits for 6 wounds and a miss, Quick Casting for 12 more wounds. Landrec then finishes Merick off (+4).
So much for “insurmountably difficult”! Good play by heroes, not so good by OL, Merick should not have been reachable either by blocking with monsters or moving him further away or both. Shooting at Varikas would have been a waste of time. At least they’re all still wounded, Alric can still beat them.
Onto the next.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 3 turns; Heroes: +4 (116), OL: +0 (24/85); Total: +4 (201)
Sir Alric Farrow @ Hedge Maze
This goes significantly more in my favor. Treachery chosen are again two Rages What am I thinking? I should have taken Danger and Rage!
First turn: Andira Battles and breath-attacks two hellhounds and kills both. Varikas guards and stands in front of Andira, others just guard to shoot down the fliers. Razorwings move cleverly and attack only Landrec. The first is killed, second kills Landrec [+2]. I play Rage on Alric, he Runs through trees (and takes damage of course) and attacks Andira for measly damage but kills Varikas [+5] with his second attack who was still wearing the wizard robe. I didn’t see that at first or I would have attacked right away, Player 2 gave himself away by accident.
With two heroes out they have no chance, the Andira flees, Ronan kills [+3] himself walking through the thorns. Don’t really know what that was for. Being at full health for upcoming fights? Frustration? I have no clue.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 2 turns; Heroes: +0 (116), OL: +10 (34/95); Total: +10 (211)
They visit the market (Shadowblade, Skull Shield, Dragon Tooth Hammer) but buy nothing, draw a rumor (The Twins, put at Moonglow Marsh) and upgrade the city walls.
Week 18
Campaign changes to silver. [+2] and Nerekhall finally falls [+5] (41/102). Kar-Amag moves to Greyhaven, Alric sieges Tamalir (now at 2) and I buy gold eldritch [-25] (16/102). Gold eldritch don’t seem to gain much, especially skeletons. I think a minute if other monsters might be a better choice, or treachery or even a plot card. But they are not in range of Olmric and razing Forge looks too costly to me. So I go for the easy choice of preferred monster category. It does pay off nicely.
Heroes train n Tamalir: Varikas +1 black and +1 silver dice upgrade, Landrec +2 silver dice upgrades. Ronan goes shopping (Staff of Fire, Flying Death and a shortage; both items bought for Andira and Ronan respectively) and Andira buys two vitality potions (they now own all but one vitality potion). Finally, they upgrade the walls again.
Week 19
[+3] (19/105), Kar-Amag moves to Tamalir, Alric towards Dawnsmoor to Blackwing Swamp. I buy one point of monster treachery [-15] (4/105) for Dark Servant in a Kar-Amag fight  .
Heroes think about their next plans. They saved some money for silver items, so going to Riverwatch seems a good idea. But they want to make a little more money and got to the second-to-last dungeon in two trails reach of Tamalir, the Hanging Gardens. On their way they have an encounter.
Throggs Bandits @ Corrupted Forest
Everyone guards into a tree, Varikas Advances and kills two hellhounds. Except for the gold sorcerer nothing poses a real threat. In an combined attack, the mages kill the sorcerer, Varikas gets knocked around a bit by the leader but the heroes are never in any danger until they finally kill the ogre (+2).
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 4 turns; Heroes: +2 (118), OL: +0 (4/105); Total: +2 (223)
They arrive at The Hanging Woods (+1) and explore them.
The Hanging Woods Level 1 – # 43 The Secret Garden
A difficult level, not a good start for a gold accumulating run-through. I pick all shades and a master dark priest, all gold.
The card description clearly says “heroes entering the trees” which seems a little unfair but most monsters have fly anyway so that advantage is only marginal I think. The garden room does offer easy spawning, though, which is probably one effect which makes this level difficult (and the often-mentioned hard-to-reach forward glyph).
Anyway, heroes move forward guarding and covering LoS in the first part. I move the leader onto the glyph and the other shades a little closer to the group but still covered by trees. The heroes then have a hard time deciding what to do. Guarding feels too slow, rushing forward is not really possible with turn-ending trees in the way. So they just guard and move closer, Landrec and Andira in front. Varikas covers the middle as he can’t hit any shades anyway but is slower than Ronan. Unfortunately I don’t have any spawns yet, hitting them now would be pretty great. Instead I have a pretty good alternative plan. I play Dark Charm on Landrec and hit Andira for good damage. Then my first shade survives the remaining guard attack by Landrec and hits Landrec for some wounds. I Rage the master dark priest to reap the CT but I miss both attacks, what a shame. Those two attacks would have meant at least one kill, I think.
Varikas now has lucky rolls and kills the master dark priest. But as a group they feel they would lose too much when pressing on. Ronan should try to get as many treasures as possible as the others move back and flee. I kept too many treasures unoccupied so by switching with his shadow soul a lot he grabs both money markers (+ 800 gold) and the chest (Healing Amulet, +325 gold). But I get enough chances to attack and finally kill him [+3]. Before fleeing they visit the market (Drain Life, Mace of Kellos, Black Widow’s Web; the first two bought) and alchemist.
LEVEL SUMMARY: 7 turns; Heroes: +0 (119), +1175 gold, +1 potion, OL: +3 (7/108); Total: +3 (227)
DUNGEON SUMMARY: 7 hero turns, 6 OL turns; Heroes: +0 (119), +1175 gold, +1 potion, OL: +3 (7/108); Total: +3 (227)
Week 19
[+3] (10/111), Sir Alric F. moves to Dawnsmoor, Tamalir +1 Siege Token (now at 3).
Heroes move to Riverwatch and have an Encounter.
A Hot Time @ [u]Haunted Trail
Too boring to describe, heroes kill everything (+2).
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 2 turns; Heroes: +2 (121), OL: +0 (10/111); Total: +2 (232)
They arrive in Riverwatch and buy Scorpio Helmet and Serpent Blade.
This ends our session.
At end of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 121, OL: 10/111; Total: 232
Player 1 (Andira): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Cloak of Mists, Mana Weave, (Pacify, Drain Life, Staff of Fire); 1 black 2 silver dice + Pico
Player 2 (Varikas): {Able Warrior, Tiger Tattoo}; Serpent Blade, Morningstar, Chain Mail, Belt of Strength, Ring of Protection (2 Iron Shields); 2 black 1 silver die
Player 3 (Landrec): {Vampiric Blood, Marksman}; Staff of the Grave, Cloak of Deception, Ring of Quickness, Ghost Armor; 1 black 2 silver dice
Player 4 (Ronan): {Shadow Soul, Swift}; Flying Death, Crystal Shield, Wizard’s Robe, Bag of Holding, Archer's Charm, Scorpio Helmet, (Mace of Kellos, Falcon’s Claw, Backbiter, Ripper)
Heroes at Riverwatch. They have ??? gold, Staff of the Wild, Enchanted Ship, Guide and Kerak’s Map. Upgraded market (1) and city walls (2)
OL Avatar: Demon Prince, XP: 10/111
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Dawnsmoor), Endless Hunger, Silver Eldritch, Lord Merrick F. (dead), Kar-Amag-Atoth (at Tamalir), Event Treachery (1), Gold Eldritch, Monster Treachery (1)
City Status:
Greyhaven razed, Nerekhall razed, Tamalir at 3 tokens
Comments:
Seems like the road hasn’t been too steep after all .
Killing Merick is a pretty good achievement, don’t you think? And the silver treasure draw hasn’t been so bad, has it? Maybe I gave them a little breathing room but they also clearly underestimated their strength (as usual). And even with this successful session they groaned when I laid open my plan for the Kar-Amag-Atoth fight and the Dark Servant card.
Maybe you have some advice for them (remember: no power potions allowed!)? They were calculating their maximum damage output against a gold master demon and came up with 2 or 3 wounds per attack with maximum rolls and no fatigue spent from Landrec and Andira. Putting on Drain Life raises that to 7 or 8 for one of them. Does that sound hard-hitting enough to you?
I thought they might be eyeing the new stuff a bit more, maybe playing bad on purpose to force a campaign loss but they really showed a good effort. Let’s see how the next session will turn out.
P.S. Please forgive any inconsistencies and the shortness of comments in this reports, I squeeze in writing whenever I can and sometimes miss to update the session status or other parts.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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i think the heroes are doing just fine. they have good weapons, they are up on CT vs. you, have had numerous upgrades and skills. coupled with merrick dead, they are doing probably better than the OL.
now, you have 2 active lt's, i think against kar-amag, the heroes will do just fine with their new weaponry. the web weapon will be huge.
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Christopher Reid
United States
New York
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Unfortunately, I've been in this situation.
My party had sub-par heroes, but was well upgraded.
We hit the Fool's Rapids at the end of Silver and warped back to try to stave off Kar-Amag-Atoth and his Gold Eldritch.
This was my party-
Karnon- Tiger Tat, Swift, ShadowSoul, Leadership, w/Life Drinker
Arvel- Skilled, Inner Fire, Born to the Bow, RapidFire, w/Scythe of Reaping
Eliam- Parry, Mighty, Prodigy, +2 Fatigue, +1 Bl upg, w/ Drain Life + Bo
Lord Hawthorne- Cautious, Boggs, Unmovable, 2 Ag upg, w/ Barbed Blade
Light on ranged dice, but heavy on skills.
We had full hands of feats, plenty of potions, and good equipment, including a Flute of Repose and an Amulet of Healing. Our location was rather neutral- Swollen Stream, which was easy for both sides to defend. Treachery was random, but the Overlord did pull Dark Servant.
Outcome?
The heroes were utterly destroyed. Never had the slightest chance.
It wasn't even a question of Soaring, or a lack of ranged dice. Eliam and Arvel got plenty of shots off, while the bruisers went after the sorcerers. The Eldritch were simply too powerful, and while we were able to kill the Sorcerors, a Demon, and use Shadow Soul to get the fearless Karnon right into the boss's face, we just couldn't hurt them enough before they demolished us. The offensive power of Gold demons was just devastating (Rage means they can kill anyone in one turn) and there's nary a party that can kill one back every turn, which is what they'll need to do.
In my estimation, with any treachery at all, Kar-Amag-Atoth is pretty much undefeatable. He's what makes the Demon Prince the nastiest of all.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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duhtch wrote: i think the heroes are doing just fine. they have good weapons, they are up on CT vs. you, have had numerous upgrades and skills. coupled with merrick dead, they are doing probably better than the OL.
now, you have 2 active lt's, i think against kar-amag, the heroes will do just fine with their new weaponry. the web weapon will be huge. Well, actually, they didn’t buy the silver web weapon. They do have the copper one and didn’t think they’d need it just for adding more webs on one attack (and it’s two-handed instead of one-handed, which they also didn’t like). And Kar-Amag and Alric are Unstoppable .
cameronhawkins wrote: Unfortunately, I've been in this situation. [...]
The offensive power of Gold demons was just devastating (Rage means they can kill anyone in one turn) and there's nary a party that can kill one back every turn, which is what they'll need to do.
In my estimation, with any treachery at all, Kar-Amag-Atoth is pretty much undefeatable. He's what makes the Demon Prince the nastiest of all. Thanks for that input, that sounds like a one-sided fight. And yes, reinforcing demons after they killed the first will make my group shake their heads and complain, I think.
By the way, I forgot to ask two questions.
First: In the Secret Garden level (or anywhere else with trees… ahh, forget that, outdoors they will be soaring… but they could disable it, so it is relevant again), do shades (or razorwings) pay 1 or 2 MP for entering a tree space and staying there? Fly: “Figures with the Fly ability may move through enemy figures and obstacles as if they weren't there. However, flying figures cannot end their movement in a space containing another figure or an obstacle that blocks movement. A flying figure may end its turn in a space containing an obstacle that inflicts damage without effect.” So moving through the trees is clear, 1 MP, but moving into and staying? Fly (and Soar) and possibly Acrobat always make me feel unsure about rules interpretation.
Second: Varikas has Ironskin. What happens in a final fight? Is he immune to Aura and the damage from Sorcery? Or just Aura as Sorcery is part of his attack and the FAQ says something like “heroes can never be immune to an avatar’s attack”? The answer was directed towards Zyla and Ghost against any melee avatar but does contain this general statement. How am I supposed to handle that situation?
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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BastiRand wrote:
First: In the Secret Garden level (or anywhere else with trees… ahh, forget that, outdoors they will be soaring… but they could disable it, so it is relevant again), do shades (or razorwings) pay 1 or 2 MP for entering a tree space and staying there? Fly: “Figures with the Fly ability may move through enemy figures and obstacles as if they weren't there. However, flying figures cannot end their movement in a space containing another figure or an obstacle that blocks movement. A flying figure may end its turn in a space containing an obstacle that inflicts damage without effect.” So moving through the trees is clear, 1 MP, but moving into and staying? Fly (and Soar) and possibly Acrobat always make me feel unsure about rules interpretation.
Fly is entirely separate from Soar. Yes, the flyer can enter the trees without paying any effect. Staying is irrelevant to this. I can't really see what your problem is here.
Quote: Second: Varikas has Ironskin. What happens in a final fight? Is he immune to Aura and the damage from Sorcery? Or just Aura as Sorcery is part of his attack and the FAQ says something like “heroes can never be immune to an avatar’s attack”? The answer was directed towards Zyla and Ghost against any melee avatar but does contain this general statement. How am I supposed to handle that situation?
It isn't clear. Hopefully it will be in a couple of months time...
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