Descent Session Report: Heirs of Blood Campaign - Interlude: Saradyn in Flames

Time again for the next chapter in my Heirs of Blood campaign. Just a reminder that this is being tracked online using the D2E Tracker - I am playing through the Heirs of Blood campaign for Descent 2nd edition using the RAMV system for solo play. In many ways, this system is like the Road to Legend computer system, but setup to play through the printed campaigns. Because there is no overlord, each round there is some variable effect in play. I am playing three heroes: Widow Tarha (mage), Tomble Burrow (scout), Syndrael (warrior) (yeah, trying to get by without a healer).

Also, there are some spoilers, so if you don't want to know about this campaign, don't read on.

Interlude: Saradyn In Flames
Opponents: Eliza, Alric, Zombies, Cave Spiders, Elementals, Flesh Moulders

Travel Steps: nothing happens, and the 3rd (of 4) events = no more travel steps.

At first, the defenders held the cliff. The enemy fell beneath their arrows and swords, unable to gain a foothold. However, when nightfall, winged horrors took to the skies and no man was safe from their assault. With no warning but the briefest flutter of wings, a soldier was torn from their post and thrown into the darkness below...

This quest has me escorting Tyrus (the plotline character for the whole campaign) out of Saraydn. I have to gather other cleric tokens to make it harder for the overlord to find the Tyrus token I carry. Alric will chase the group and destroys the dungeon behind him, so he's the timer. At some point, I have to drop into a pit with Eliza and two groups of monsters, find the key, kill Eliza, and then exit with Tyrus.

Round 1 - Global effect. If anyone takes damage while suffering a condition, take an extra damage.

Widow slides up and starts the attacks, with a small blast against the zombies waiting for the group. Eliza waits. Cave spiders are coming. Syn slides up using fatigue and misses her attacks on the Master Zombie. Elemental waits. Zombies go for Syn, who easily blocks their attacks. Tomble moves up and takes out a zombie. Alric is coming. Flesh Moulders wait. *(Eliza, Elementals, and Flesh Moulders are in the pit waiting, so I'm going to leave them out of each round's summary until they come into play).

Love setting this all up

Round 2 - Global effect - heroes can't suffer conditions. Alric arrives.

Syn destroys the Master Zombie. Spiders move up, but only one has a chance to attack and misses Syn. Tomble attacks a couple of times but isn't very effective. Zombies attack Syn causing her 4 damage over four attacks. Widow attacks but only manages to kill one wimpy zombie. 

**Note: I'm unsure about how to play the AI instructions for Alric, so I go with what seems to be most disadvantageous to me. Basically, I go with - at the start of his turn, if he isn't on the same tile as a hero, jump him to the edge of the tile with the nearest hero - not an action (Alric destroys the tile behind him as he goes, so this will speed things along.

Alric jumps into the room and then moves and attacks Syn. The dice turn against me and her defense has disappeared so she takes 3 wounds from his attack. 

Round 3 - Global all figures get one action only!

I have got to clear some monsters from the map. Having only one action this round limits my ability to do that this time. Syn almost kills the Master spider with her one shot.  With only one action, two spiders attack, and two have to move. Tomble kills a spider. The last zombie nicks Syn. Widow attacks but doesn't kill a spider. Alric beats on Syn a little more - she needs to get moving. 

Round 4 - Dark Influence - Merick Farrow Agent appears replacing the Master Spider from the first group. 

Ahhh, crap! I thought the Farrows were all fighting, so while a little bit not with the flavor, this is a big headache. Syn kills the last zombie and runs for it, grabbing a "cleric" token along the way. Spiders go after Tomble, but he manages to go unscathed. Merick shoots some fire at Tomble, but he blocks that too, so Merick blocks Tomble's path out. Tomble kills a spider (clearing a path), then tries to run for it. Widow can read the writing on the wall and makes a run for it. Alric charges forward destroying the tile he was on and dropping Merick and a spider into the lower area, killing the spider. Syn deflects his attack. I have half a chance now - there are no more monsters on the upper floor, just Alric chasing us and destroying everything.

Round 5 - Global effect, all monsters get a surge on their combat rolls.

Tomble searches and finds a stamina potion, then heads off towards a door. Merick is now waiting in the lower area with Eliza and the monsters. Syn grabs two clerics, passing (randomly so I don't even know) one too Tomble. *(I don't want to influence who the monsters go after, nor do I want to arrange the tokens based on the AI, so I just randomize who has what) Widow heads in a different direction, grabbing a cleric. Alric jumps to the closest hero, attacking Tomble. Tomble takes the 4 damage like a trooper. A trooper that will be running next round.

Round 6 - Instant effect: all monsters discard conditions.

Tomble searches, uses a fatigue move and then his heroic power to disappear. Syn grabs another cleric, and Widow does as well and moves as far away as she can. Alric jumps forward with a massive attack that Syn barely lives through. 

Round 7 - Global effect, surges = +1 healing for heroes

Syn runs for it. Tomble runs forward and instant heals Syn with a potion he found. I mix up all their tokens and split them between the two.Tomble rests to gain his fatigue back. Widow searches and finds a curse doll. She makes her way towards the ledge for her jump when its time. Not a ton of map left at this point. 

Round 8 - Global effect, all monsters add a brown die to their defense pool.

Given Tomble's remaining life, he gives up two tokens to Syn and runs for the ledge. They both jump while Widow is trying to get closer. Alric gives chase down into the pit.

So all I have to do is fight through all of these?

Round 9 - Global effect - heroes get the brown defense die!

Tomble and Syn are now in the pit along everyone but Widow. I have to take out Eliza, so Syn slides up for an attack. She manages 6 hits (9 needed). Now Eliza and Merick get to play. Eliza uses her sacrifice ability to damage the Elemental then recovers five of the wounds (she's a vampire, so I guess she drains the minions around her. She then uses her abilities to move and stuns Syn. Merick moves and then attacks Syn, but is blocked. Tomble tries to find the key, and does so, so now we just have to kill Eliza to get out. The Elemental attacks Syn, but is blocked. Widow jumps. Alric tries to beat on Syn but can't get past her armor better than anyone else can. The Master Flesh Moulder knocks out Tomble. Another of the Moulders moves up and checks him only to find Helena the cleric, who heals Tomble and Syn, and mass damages the monsters. This little bit of luck was really fortunate.

Round 10 - Global - when a monster suffers damage, others within 2 spaces suffer 1 dmg.

Widow uses the curse doll to remove the stun on Syn and then attacks Flesh Moulders, killing the master and a minion thanks to the global effect. Eliza attacks Syn. Merick also attack Syn and is guarding the door. Syn slides up and takes out Alric, then uses an ability for an extra attack on Eliza. Tomble gets in a pair of attacks, but he can't finish her either. The last Flesh Moulder knocks out Tomble again, but isn't close enough to check him. 

Round 11 - Global - when a hero recovers any health, so do monsters within 2 spaces by the same amount. 

Syn goes to finish Eliza and does with her first blow. She then rests. Widow helps Tomble up then attacks the last Flesh Moulder. Tomble takes that as his cue and runs out of the place. Merick turns on Syn to no effect. 

Round 12 - Global effect - heroes add a surge to their dice rolls. 

Syn exits the map with Tyrus and the heroes win the interlude

The survivors rush from the lower chamber, a host of monsters in close pursuit. You cut down as many as you can, and then, taking a bit of inspiration from Alric, you strike the pillars on either side of the passage. The eyes of the dark knight glow with fury as you step back and the doorway crumbles before you...

...Tyrus appears at your side as you flee the crumbling fortress. "Can you hear her at night?" he calls to you. "She speaks to me while I sleep. I'll never listen to her, but she's always there, always asking me to come to her. Tonight she told me that there are only afew days left to run away or surrender. I don't think we have much time"...

NOTES:

• Using the RAMV system has been good, though I won enough of the quests that all the Dark Influence (bad things) cards are now in the event deck. The Dark Influence cards are often bring an agent into play, which definitely can amp up the difficulty. 
• The online track won't let me add modules, so I'm stuck with just using the core set of monsters. When I play through the other box sets, I'm going to add in a fair bit of new monsters that will really up the variety. For now, I'll just have to look forward to fighting a dragon or two.

So, I'm officially through the first part of the campaign and heading into phase II! Three more quests and then the finale. The adventures have been decent so far (though the quests seem very lightly strung together), and I'm excited to see what the level II monsters and equipment are going to be like and how they effect the remaining quests.

Be sure to check us out at PunchBoard Media!