Road to Legend Campaign 2 - Session 1

by Ed Rozmiarek

Introduction:
Welcome to our second Road to Legend campaign. Our first campaign, won by yours truly, was documented here. This time I will be just reporting the events with comments.

We actually set up this campaign at the end of our previous one so we are able to jump right into the action. To review, here is the party of heroes that will be attempting to save Terrinoth:

Nanok of the Blade with Taunt
Varikas the Dead with Leadership
Landrec the Wise with Quick Casting
Grey Ker with Eagle Eye

As I told the heroes when I saw this group unfold, I think that they have a strong party. With their experience from the first campaign and this party, they should do much better in this campaign.

They will be facing the Sorcerer King and his sniping Skeletons. The Sorcerer King will be attempting the Endless Night scenario.

On to the action...

Week 1:
The campaign starts slowly. With not many options right now, I sent Sir Alric out to cause trouble. There is only one road out of Blackthorn Grove and that's to the north to Bitter Downs. The heroes decide to stay in Tamalir to shop. They had not spent all of their initial money and hoped to find a treasure or two in the shop.

CP: Heroes: 0 / OL: 1/1
(That's Conquest Points (CP): the heroes' total and the Overlord's total / unspent)

Week 2:
It's another quiet week for the Overlord. I pick up the weekly conquest point and send Sir Alric further north to the Misty Plains. The heroes decide to move out and head to the Starfall Forest (+1 CP). It was a quiet journey with no encounter along the road.

Starfall Forest Level 1: (26 - Trial by Fire)
This is an interesting level as it has three level leaders of increasing difficulty. I thought it would be an interesting test of the heroes' party. The first leader was a hellhound, basically a speed bump (which was the theme for later in the day). The heroes start off cautious and hold back. This gives Firefang, the hellhound a chance to attack. It was more like a warm breeze than a fire breathing assault. (Question: Do copper level hellhounds ever do any damage?) On the heroes' next turn, Nanok quickly takes out the hellhound (+2 CP). This opens the door to the second section and Grimfire, the awaiting dragon.

Again the heroes played it cautious by moving up slowly and using guard orders. Landrec stayed back to watch the entry hallway to avoid spawns behind the party (which probably saved them on this level). I was able to spawn a beastmaster party to go along with Grimfire's skeleton minions. Over the next couple rounds we closed the gap. With the help of the master beastman, I was able to plink Nanok a couple times for minor damage as he ran for the gold pile. The normal beastmen also got a hit or two against Varikas who moved up to keep the dragon from rushing down the hallway. Nanok decided that healing was better than dying and ran back to the starting glyph to visit the temple in town. By now I had the dragon in striking range and I played rage to get in a double attack against Varikas and Grey Ker (Landrec was still hanging back). This did decent damage and also placed two burn tokens on the two heroes.

With Nanok already back in town and two other heroes hurt and burning, the party decided to pull out. This shows they have changed tactics in the campaign. Last time, they probably would have pushed on, lured by the treasure chest in the Grimfire's room. But, not wanting to give away conquest, they ran for the starting glyph. Since Landrec was watching their exit route I had not been able to spawn any blocking monsters.

Luckily, as the three remaining heroes are standing next to the glyph I draw my last cards... Dark Charm and Charge. Counting up my threat I found I had enough to play the Dark Charm, flip the spawn marker and spawn some Blood Apes and charge the dragon. Surely this will get me at least one kill, right? Here's where my good luck went out the window. First off, the Dark Charm fails (Two campaigns, 5 plays of dark charm, 4 blanks rolled to avoid the charm. Sigh) OK, let's spawn the apes. Only one can get spawn close enough to hit the heroes, but better than nothing. Well, Landrec's guard order allows an attack and takes out the ape. Strike two. Third try, charge the dragon so he just gets to the corner and breathes fire at the party. Miss. Strike three. The heroes then popped back to town, thus ending the dungeon.

CP: Heroes: 3 / OL: 2/2

Week 3:
Still without much to do, I pick up the weekly conquest point and send Sir Alric to Dawnsmoor where he sets up shop and starts gathering wood. Needing more money, the heroes head south to Thelsvan Highway, another quiet stroll in the woods with no encounter.

Thelsvan Highway Level 1: (36 - Mask of the Monster)
I was not impressed with this level. The level leader sounds interesting at first with the magical mask. However, once he takes three non-magical hits the mask breaks and he loses all of his extra powers and is basically a normal master. That's not hard to do. Also, the minions on this level are mostly beastmen, basically one-hit speed bumps to the heroes. So, to be different and hoping that I can get a few hits in I went with the master Troll and two beastmen option. These were placed in the first room to guard the treasure and gold.

The heroes were cautious again (seems to be normal for them now). They moved up, opened the door to the room with the troll and beastmen and placed guard orders. On the first OL turn I was able to spawn a couple sorcerers to help out (I do like the 10 threat the Sorcerer King starts with). However, the beastmen were wiped out by the guard orders before they could anything, but this cleared the way for troll and sorcerers. Great! Sorcerer one move in and attack... miss. Sorcerer two... miss. Argh! OK troll, three of the heroes are bunched by the door, bash time. After sizing up the situation I realized that I would most likely get one attack with the troll so I risked it and rolled all five power dice for the bash. Roll the dice and not one, but two blanks... miss. Of course, the heroes make take out the troll with a couple battle actions, leaving enough fire power to also take out the sorcerers.

With just the level leader and no spawn cards, the level looks about over. So I decided to play for the next level. I had the level leader move up to take on Varikas who was out by himself without a standing order. The master did cause a little damage but nothing serious. Varikas and Grey Ker battle and take out the level leader (+2 CP).

The heroes flip the glyph (+3 CP) and cautiously go for the portal thinking I was going to spawn. I wasn't going to waste a spawn when they could just run away, so I collect threat and wait. I did get Evil Genius out to play for the next level. In hind sight, I probably should have held this until the start of the next level. The heroes head into the portal to the next level.

Thelsvan Highway Level 2: (24 - Eternal Prisoner)
So, I spend several minutes putting this level together, getting it set up and placing the minions. The level leader is a demon who gets free spawns but can't move until freed by the heroes triggering the exit door. I have a full hand of cards, Evil Genius in play and have some threat built up, it looks like I might make up for the easy first level and finally get a kill. Wrong. The heroes size up the situation for a bit and discuss it. After a few minutes they decide not to even try and headed straight back to Tamalir. Yep, they have learned. And boy, how frustrating for the OL. Two dungeons, three levels, not a single hero kill. Again, sigh.

CP: Heroes: 9 / OL: 3/3

Week 4:
This is a quick week. I picked up another conquest and Sir Alric starts his siege of Dawnsmoor. The heroes stayed in Tamalir to spend their money. They upgraded the Tamalir market and bought the boat. This left the party with 100 gold.

CP: Heroes: 9 / OL: 4/4

Week 5:
The heroes decide they need to stop the besieging Sir Alric and head out towards Dawnsmoor. On the way to Blackwing Swamp we have our first encounter. The party met up with the Circle of Doom (sorcerers) in the Corrupted Forest (2 hits if a hero places an order). I thought with (probably) no guard orders to worry about and Varikas' Leadership ability nullified I might have a chance. Of course, I need to stop rolling misses.

Well, the misses return so I can do very little damage. The sorcerers turn out to be one hit wonders, although Landrec did miss a couple times which allowed a couple sorcerers to last a bit longer. In the end, no real damage was done and only the master sorcerer is left facing off against Varikas and Grey Ker. The heroes are placed so a desperate blast attack between them could cause some pain. Miss. Again. (Over 10 misses for the overlord today). The master sorcerer is then taken down, but he's undying so we roll... and he stays dead. My unlucky streak with bringing back undying leaders continues. The heroes pick up 2 conquest for the leader and one for discovering the Blackwing Swamp.

CP: Heroes: 12 / OL: 5/5

Week 6:
As Sir Alric continues building siege engines outside Dawnsmoor the heroes head towards the city and have another encounter. This time they encounter a master beastman and his cronies. Great, more one-shot kills for the heroes. This encounter goes pretty much the same as the other one. The monsters do very little damage to the heroes. Nanok and his taunt skill plays a major roll. I was not able to move the normal beastmen past Nanok so had to attack him. Even with the boost from the master's command was not enough to do more than scratch Nanok. But they added up. When the master moved up and attacked I was able to add some extra dice with the threat. I got Nanok down to 5 hits but that was it. The next round the encounter was over. (+2 CP for the heroes)

The heroes got to Dawnsmoor and visited the shops.

CP: Heroes: 14 / OL: 6/6

Comments:
This campaign has started off much differently than our first. The heroes are much more cautious and my conquest total is suffering for it. Although, unlucky rolls on that Dark Charm and a bunch of misses did not help the situation. As I thought, this combination of heroes and skills is a pain. Varikas' leadership is giving the heroes at least one more attack (via guarding) each round. This usually means an extra kill for them. Since Varikas gets a free fatigue each turn, he will always have one for the Leadership ability. Landrec's quick shot has been felt some and he recently picked up the Gauntlets of Strength. Let's see, Landrec gets two free surges each attack, he feeds those into the gauntlets and get a fatigue to power quickshot. Going to be a nasty combo. And then there's Nanok with taunt. If I can't get more firepower before they buff him with a couple more armor, I'll be in serious trouble.

As for the campaign, the heroes have a decision to make. Sir Alric will complete his last siege engine during the upcoming week. They can attack him right away during the next week and try to keep me from making a siege roll. However, they would risk coming into the battle not at full health. If they spend the week to heal up, I get one shot at razing the town before the battle.

What will happen? Only time will tell.