Descent: Journeys In The Dark (Quest) - The Masquerade Ball

Quest II - The Masquerade Ball

As a reward for flushing out the goblins from their den and rescuing one of the former Shadow Binders, Baron Greigory invited the heroes to the social event of the season - Lord Theodir's masquerade ball.  As Lord Theodir was himself once a member of the Shadow Binders, Greigory was concerned that his old friend might be targeted by the Overlord.  [The heroes won the previous quest, and had chosen The Masquerade Ball for the second quest of the campaign.]

Joining the heroes was Jain Fairwood, an experienced Wildlander who had been stalking goblin raiders menacing the local countryside.  Together, the four heroes departed for Lord Theodir's estate to the north of Arhynn.  Along the way, Jain's experience in the wild allowed the heroes to take a shortcut and make good time.  However, in the distance they saw smoke rising from a small hamlet - no doubt the work of the Overlord's minions.  The heroes hurried on to the masquerade ball, lest they arrive too late!  [For the Travel Events, the first card allowed the heroes to skip the second Travel Event, and the third granted an extra Overlord card.]

No sooner had the heroes arrived at the ball than a beautiful, golden-haired woman - Lady Eliza Farrow - arrived with the Overlord's minions at her side.  She grabbed a nearby guest and sank her fangs into his neck, drawing blood and revealing herself to be a vampire!  The guests began panicking as goblin archers and cave spiders poured into the Library and Chapel, while the heroes rushed forward to save the guests.  As the cave spiders moved forward to attack the heroes, the goblins began unmasking guests.  To the heroes' surprise and dismay, four of the guests were cultists in the disguise!  These flesh moulders bolstered the ranks of the cave spiders assaulting the heroes, as Lady Eliza Farrow casually moved forward.  [Things looked pretty rough for the heroes starting out, as the cave spiders held the line in the first room (the Chapel) while the goblins proceeded to unmask guests.  Within the first two turns, all four flesh moulders (cultists) were unmasked and on the board, and there was a wall of enemies between the heroes and the two remaining guests!]

Heedless of the odds, Grisban charged forward with his new steel broadsword and iron shield, cleaving a path into the spiders.  The dwarf had developed quite a hatred of the creatures after being overwhelmed by them during the heroes' attempts to secure the farm in their previous quest.  Avric, wielding a new crossbow, opened fire as he advanced, followed by Leoric.  Jain, her fire blocked by the ensuing melee, moved forward and unmasked a guest.  Her guest turned out to be one of the nobles, so she began covering his retreat to the entrance.  [Grisban's new Whirlwind attack was devastating to the massed numbers of monsters crowded into the Chapel, and his new steel broadsword allowed him to reroll the red power die when attacking - ouch!  The tables quickly turned in the heroes' favor as the number of monsters dwindled rapidly.  The Overlord's plan of drowning the heroes in sheer numbers was only partially successful.]

As the Overlord's minions fell to the combined onslaught, they managed to take down Avric and hold the heroes in the Chapel.  Two goblins escaped with captive nobles, as Jain successfully secured one of the nobles.  Lady Eliza Farrow attacked the heroes, but Grisban was in a sour mood and quickly put her on the defensive.  Her attempts at vampiric seduction were lost on Grisban, as the drunken dwarf continued his assault.  As Leoric added his runic blasts in support, Lady Eliza shrieked her fury and faded into a fine red mist, streaking down the stairs to the basement.  As the last flesh moulder was attempting to escape with the remaining noble, Grisban quickly recovered and rushed forward, slaying the cultist and rescuing the guest.  [Grisban put a serious hurt on Lady Eliza Farrow with three attacks (two Actions plus his Heroic Feat), taking her down to one health in one turn!  She managed to hang around a little while longer, but was largely underwhelming.  Perhaps with more support she might have been more useful, but the heroes were keen to take out the Overlord's Lieutenant.]

With guests secured and the Overlord's minions chased into the basement, the heroes were relieved to learn that Lord Theodir was among those rescued.  Oddly, he did not seem overly concerned with the Overlord's attack, and told the heroes to hurry along to his family vault to secure Fortuna's Dice, one of the relics used by the Shadow Binders years ago.  [The heroes rescue two of the four nobles, and rolled a 2 to determine if Lord Theodir was one of them.  This meant that the heroes won Encounter 1 and Lady Eliza Farrow would have to test to answer the riddles in the second Encounter.]

As the heroes entered the basement, they were forced to clear out a cave spider den as Lady Eliza proceeded on her way to the vault.  The doors were all magically sealed, requiring a riddle to be answered in order to pass beyond.  Grisban, having none of that, smashed the first door off its hinges and revealed a cave full of goblins.  In an astonishingly bad display of marksmanship, the five goblins all fired at Leoric and failed to take him down.  Clearly, they had been surprised by the door being knocked down!  [The heroes quickly dispatched all but one of the cave spiders in the Spider Den, and Grisban smashed down the door to the Goblin Cave.  Leoric was out front, and all five goblin archers fired at him.  Three of the archers missed completely, and the others did minimal damage.  This was not going terribly well for the Overlord, but at least Lady Eliza had gotten a respectable head start on the heroes.]

The heroes whittled down the goblin archers as Grisban smashed through the next door.  By this time Lady Eliza Farrow was in the Tomb, and had gotten stuck on the riddle to the door leading out.  The few remaining goblins took shots as the heroes, and moved to slow down their progress through the corridor (not that they had much hope in accomplishing that, but it was worth a shot).  The one remaining cave spider managed to take down Leoric, and then began harassing Avric.  [Leoric finally went down between the remaining goblin archers and the cave spider, and the spider subsequently went after Avric who was doing some significant damage with his crossbow.  Despite being Poisoned twice, Avric managed to roll a challenging Might check to shake off the Poison both times.]

Jain Fairwood, more fleet of foot than the other heroes, hurried forward and successfully picked the lock on the next door.  Opening the door to the Tomb, she found herself facing two ettins!  One goblin and one cave spider remained, and Lady Eliza was almost to the last door!  The ettins moved forward and held the heroes back at the entrance of the Tomb, eventually taking Grisban out of the fight.  As the dwarf recovered, Avric and Jain continued to attack the ettins, killing one of their number.  However, despite their heroic efforts, they were too late:  Lady Eliza Farrow had entered the vault of Lord Theodir and secured Fortuna's Dice for the Overlord!  [The Overlord's minions had done their job of delaying the heroes, and the ettins in particular did a good job of holding the line against the heroes.  Lady Eliza Farrow entered the vault first, so the Overlord won the Quest and gained the Bones of Woe relic.]

Despite the Overlord's victory, Lord Theodir was safe and Baron Greigory was thankful for the heroes' aid.  There were rumors that the Overlord's minions were making a move in the south, so there would be further quests ahead...

OVERview

I'm going to start adding this new section to my Descent quest posts as a sort of "Overlord's Review" of the quest.  I hope to outline my thoughts, successes, and failures as we proceed with the campaign.  For example, this was the quest where I learned just how damaging the Berserker's Whirlwind attack can be!

Encounter 1
I thought this encounter would be a breeze, with the sheer number of monsters I had arrayed against the heroes (full groups of cave spiders, goblin archers, and flesh moulders, plus a Lieutenant!).  Unfortunately, Grisban's Whirlwind attack and the increasing power of the heroes quickly whittled down the ranks of the Overlord's minions.  With four heroes, they only have to rescue two nobles to have a very good chance of winning the encounter (though I was close to getting the third off the board!).


Encounter 2
I was fortunate, as even without Lord Theodir's answers (from an Encounter 1 victory), Lady Eliza still managed to slip past door after door and maintain a healthy lead on the heroes.  In fact, she only got stuck twice, while the heroes were getting caught up by the Overlord's minions.  I chose goblin archers as my first open group (for the Goblin Cave, naturally).  The Goblin Cave allowed me to spread out the monsters so Whirlwind or Blast attacks wouldn't slaughter them all at once.  This forced the heroes to chase down the goblin archers (or at least exchange fire with them) and slowed them down a little.  The second open group was ettins, which I placed in the Tomb and used to block the doorway.  Overall, I felt my strategy for this quest was very sound and contributed by my solid win as Overlord.

Descent - Storage Solution

If you've seen Descent (whether in-person or online), you know that it has no shortage of tiles, tokens, cards, and figures.  All of these pieces come packed in the original game box when purchased, but can be a challenge to fit back in unless you toss the organizational insert that keeps the unpunched tiles separate.  Unfortunately, while everything fits, it leaves it all in a jumble and risk damage to the figures.

As a solution, I stopped by one of my local retail stores and picked up the following items:

Plano Magnum Satchel (Model 1350)
Plano ProLatch Stowaway (3500 Series)
(note that the Magnum Satchel comes with one Stowaway, and I picked up a second one)

The Magnum Satchel has a large primary storage area which works well for the various floor tiles.  This area also holds up to four of the Stowaway cases.  I used the two Stowaways to keep the various game tokens organized and easily accessible during play.  The Stowaways are small, so keeping them near (or on) the game table during play is feasible.

In the upper lid I've stored the various cards and figures.  Everything fits fairly well, though I wish there were more dividers for the upper part.  I only have the Descent base game at this time, so I don't know how much room I will need for the Lair of the Wyrm expansion.

The Magnum Satchel was a solid purchase and everything except the Rule Book and Quest Guide fits.  However, I don't know how much room I'll have for future expansion and I expect I'll have to reorganize a few areas.  The Stowaways are definite winners, as they're sturdy, small, and provide a very flexible amount of storage for small items such as the various tokens.

I'll add photos of my storage setup at a later date, so you can see how everything fits and see if it's a viable option.

Update:  I picked up a Plano Deep ProLatch Stowaway (3700 Series) to hold the various cards, and it does a pretty good job.  Unfortunately it's not quite tall enough to hold the large cards when they're fully upright, but there's plenty of space to allow them to lean and the small cards fit perfectly.

Descent: Journeys In The Dark (Quest) - A Fat Goblin

Quest I - A Fat Goblin

Having triumphed over Mauler the Ettin and his goblin lackeys, the two heroes made their way to Arhynn.  The mighty dwarf Berserker Grisban the Thirsty sought out the nearest tavern, while the devout Avric Albright paid his respects at the temple as befit a Disciple.  While in Arhynn, the heroes heard tales of increasing goblin raids on the nearby farmlands.  Joined by the Runecaster, Leoric of the Book, they outfitted themselves with provisions and journeyed north.

Shortly after leaving Arhynn, the group came upon a sage traveling to the city.  Thanks to a quick exchange of information between the sage and Leoric, the heroes were able to avoid some of the goblin raiding parties in the area.  [Leoric won the Knowledge test for the Travel Event, so one Overlord Card was discarded]

The heroes continued their uneventful journey and arrived at the northern farms only to find them under attack by goblins and villagers fleeing in panic!  Rushing to the villagers' defense, Grisban held off the goblins' pet cave spiders while Avric and Leoric rushed ahead.  The goblin archers were intent on stealing the village's harvest, and managed to escape with two bundles before Avric and Leoric could secure the remaining crops.  [The Overlord escaped with two bundles of crops, but the heroes secured the remaining two.  Grisban remained behind to hold off the cave spiders, which gave him a hard time and took him down once.  However, his dwarf constitution (and the amount of alcohol he drinks) let him easily shrug off the effects of the cave spiders' poison!]

Once the goblins saw that they wouldn't get any more of the crops, they fled back to their nearby lair.  According to one of the villagers, his brother Frederick and several others had been kidnapped.  The heroes gave chase, easily tracking the goblins' sloppy movements to the cave entrance.  Once inside, the heroes stayed together and fought past yet more cave spiders and a very tough ettin.  [The lack of Overlord reinforcements let the heroes make significant progress by focusing their attacks and not having to deal with newcomers.  Avric used his Heroic Feat to heal the group early, which greatly helped them recover from Encounter 1.]

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed "King of All Goblins", Splig, was torturing captive villagers in an effort to find which one was the retired Shadow Binder (which was none other than the villager's brother Frederick).  Of his four captives, it seems the fourth and last one was his quarry.  However, by this time the heroes had fought their way past the spiders and ettin, and were moving deeper into the goblins' lair.  Splig ordered his goblin minions to clear the way, so he could escape with his prize for the Overlord.  [No joke, the fourth and last token was the villagers' brother, Frederick.  The heroes had finished the ettin and were moving through his lair at that point, ready for the final battle.]

The goblin archers burst out of the corridor, firing a hail of arrows at the heroes.  While they did respectable damage, Grisban's mighty axe quickly slew two of the goblin archers who had crept too close.  In the chaos of battle, Splig made a mad dash past his fellow goblins, between the three heroes, and into the cave spiders' lair.  The heroes were stunned by the display of speed from such a fat goblin, but quickly turned and gave chase!  Upon the stairs leading outside, Avric and Leoric managed to wound Splig enough for him to drop the captive villager and flee outside.  [Thanks to some Overlord Cards and the health boost for Splig from the crop bundles recovered in Encounter 1, Splig managed to get to the very last square of the entrance!  The heroes pulled out all the stops and a last-ditch short range attack from Leoric finished off Splig and won the quest!]

Frederick thanked the heroes for their help, and informed them that they needed to see the Barons as soon as possible.  Their work was far from over...

[I hope you've enjoyed my narrative spin on our Descent campaign, and I look forward to continuing it as the campaign progresses!]

Descent: Journeys In The Dark (Second Edition)

For those who aren't familiar with it, Descent: Journeys In The Dark is a tabletop dungeon-delving board game with a strong story-driven element, released by Fantasy Flight Games.  I would like to state that while I did play the First Edition of Descent a couple of times, I'm not overly familiar with it and do not have any "First Edition bias" when looking at Second Edition.  However, to help give readers a point of reference I'm going to recall my many fond memories of HeroQuest, which provided much enjoyment in my youth and served as a sort of "gateway game" into this genre.

Components
The quality of all the game components is excellent.  This is exactly what I expected from Fantasy Flight, and they didn't disappoint.  The cards and the heavier tiles and tokens are all very solid, and all have very vibrant colors.  The miniatures are plastic and though they aren't as good as those you'd purchase for wargames, etc., they have good detail for a board game and are fairly solid.  I haven't decided if I'll try to paint them up or not, or if I'll look for alternative miniatures to replace them.

The map tiles are all double-sided, which is a brilliant idea.  Generally they have an "indoor" side and an "outdoor" side, which lets the tiles serve double-duty while maximizing the number of tiles you can use simultaneously.  Also, every tile has a number and a letter, which lets you quickly locate the tiles necessary to set up the map for a particular quest.

Gameplay
The game plays very smoothly.  Each hero is allowed two actions per turn (such as Move or Attack), and any abilities which require an action to use are clearly marked.  Also, all rules for effects are included on the appropriate card, so there's no flipping pages in the rulebook to find out that a Wooden Shield can add one defense if exhausted (for example).  I've read that this "streamlining" was a big part of the changes between the First and Second Editions of the game. 

Monsters, controlled by the Overlord, are all activated by type.  For example, all Goblin Archers are activated together, and they must all act before another type of monster is activated.  This helps keep track of which monsters have acted for the turn.  In addition, the Overlord gets to draw Overlord cards, which allow him to play various tricks and traps (such as tripwires to slow heroes' movement, or dark magic to reroll dice) and keep the heroes' on their toes.

Heroes and monsters are pretty close in stats.  Obviously, heroes outclass lesser monsters like Goblin Archers, but the latter help make up for it in numbers.  This surprised me, as I recall in HeroQuest where even several Orcs couldn't hope to take down the Barbarian.  I'm curious if this balance will hold out as the game progresses, but given that monsters all get buffed to tougher versions for Act II during the campaign in Descent, I suspect they will continue to be a challenge to the heroes.

Conclusion
A couple of the players in our group have commented about how easy the game is to pick up and play.  While they've both play board games before, they're not regular board game players.  This is one of the reasons I enjoy and highly recommend Descent, as it's complex enough to satisfy veteran board gamers but still accessible for new players.

In addition, the Overlord player has his own goals.  This adds a lot to the game, and differentiates Descent from similar games where the player controlling the monsters is really just there to slow down the heroes.  In Descent, the Overlord is trying to achieve a goal that may or may not be in opposition to what the heroes' goal is.  For example, in the introductory quest ("First Blood"), the heroes' goal is to kill Mauler the Ettin, while the Overlord's goal is to escape with his goblins.  This gives the game a very dynamic feel and makes for some tense battles, as strategy comes into play and combat isn't necessarily the focus for victory!

I wholeheartedly recommend this game for both veteran board gamers and new players alike.  I know some fans of First Edition don't care for the new edition, but so far it's been a lot of fun and my gaming group is looking forward to the next gaming session!

Game Ecologies

One aspect of games (RPGs, specifically) that can greatly affect the "suspension of disbelief" for me is the ecology of the world.  Everything should have its place in the greater whole, and there should be reasons behind the way things are.

Asheron's Call 2 is an example of how this was not addressed (among other aspects of the game, but I won't go there in this post).  One of the minor races were the Mimbu, and they were all hostile.  They obviously had some level of civilization (if only at a "tribal" phase) as they had equipment.  But there was no explanation on why they were hostile.  I mean, seeing how many other hostile races are in the area, I would think the last thing they'd want to do is make more enemies.  To my knowledge, that was never explained.

Another example are the giant beetles outside Freeport in EverQuest II.  What do they eat?  And what eats them?  One would expect a creature of that size would make a significant impact on the local ecology, whether eating plants or animals (though I suppose the stone beetle could theoretically be eating rocks, so I guess there's an explanation for them).

Also you'll rarely find sufficient farmland in any RPG.  Granted, it would probably be boring to run through crop fields of the appropriate size for the cities they're supposed to support, but it's ridiculous when two small farms are somehow supposed to generate enough grain for an entire city (not only for bread, but also for beer)!

On the other hand, Guild Wars 2 developers have addressed these kinds of issues with some of the minor races of Tyria.  The Quaggan, the Krait, the Jotun, the Skritt, and the Grawl have all had significant thought and planning involved to make them unique.  Not only does this help to elevate them from "generic hostile creature" to something more distinct, it also sets the tone for interaction with them and adds depth to the world.

Dragon Age: Origins is a good example of certain aspects of an ecology being made a non-issue by design.  The game's explorable areas are limited to certain points of interest, and the map is used to travel between those points.  While this generally makes the game world feel smaller, it allows the game designers to focus players' attention and cut out less exciting (but important) areas without omitting them completely (such as the farmlands necessary to support a city and surrounding region).

A lot of these details don't matter as much in a single-player RPG; they'll help add depth to the world, but you're generally working within a "snapshot" of the world.  However, when you move to a persistent world such as an MMO, where there needs to be a sense of continuity and depth to create a believable and consistent world which will keep players coming back.

Miniatures: Removing Paint

If you paint miniatures for any length of time, you'll inevitably look back at some of your earlier work and think, "Wow, I could do a much better job on those guys." Maybe you have an idea for a better paint scheme, or perhaps your skills have improved and you could do a neater job on them. Regardless of the reasons, if you're intent on repainting a miniature, you are faced with an immediate hurdle: removing the previous coats of paint!

There are two considerations when removing paint from a miniature: the type of mini (metal vs. plastic), and the solvent to be used.

Metal miniatures are much more resilient, as as such can withstand harsher chemicals than plastic minis. The plastic used for miniatures is usually fairly soft, so you have to be very careful about letting it sit in a chemical bath for any length of time!

I have found that undiluted Simple Green (a household cleaner, which can be found at department stores) does a good job of dissolving the old paint. I've left metal miniatures to soak in Simple Green for a day or two (even as long as a week), and it usually causes the paint to lift off of the metal. I haven't tried it on plastic miniatures, and though I've heard it's safe, I wouldn't leave them unattended for longer than a day (if that). Simple Green has a "pine-ish" scent, which is rather potent (given that it is undiluted). I try to leave it outside when I can (a back porch is ideal).

Previously, I have used nail polish remover on metal miniatures. Do NOT use this on plastic miniatures, as they will most likely melt! It works, but my results were not as effective as Simple Green. The smell is even more noxious than Simple Green, as well.

I've read warnings about using vinegar on metal miniatures, as the acetic acid can mar & pit the metal. If you decide to try vinegar, I would not use it as a chemical bath, but only as a spot cleaner.

Another solution I've heard is dishwashing soap. I'm giving this a trial run now, and will post the results.

If you wish to accelerate the paint removal process, an old toothbrush can be used to scrub the miniatures. Coupled with the chemical action of the solvent, the physical scrubbing can really speed up the process. I've read that the stiff, narrow brushes designed for cleaning braces are even more effective, and I look forward to trying one out.

Note that paint removal may often take multiple "sessions", as the solvent works on the outermost layers. Again, scrubbing the minis can accelerate the process, as it helps remove the outer layers and allow the solvent to reach the next paint layer more quickly. One of the worst cases I've encountered is where miniatures have two layers of primer, which is harder to get up than paint. In such a case, I have used a second chemical bath; if you do so, be sure to dispose of the used solvent and use a fresh batch to make sure the process will do any good!

UPDATE: It seems the dishwashing soap did absolutely nothing to help remove the primer on my test miniatures. It might do better against actual paint, but as far as removing primer, I'll be trying a second bath of Simple Green.

Reaper Dark Heaven: 02218 Abraxus

Another example of Reaper Miniatures' fine sculpts, today I'm posting my completed version of 02218 Abraxus: