Chronicle of Wrath: the 6p WotR experiment. (Spoilers likely.)


Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion


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This is based on an open offer that I made in the blog post, which was responded to by Ilpalazo, to take an arbitrary party through Wrath of the Righteous as a data point for Wrath's difficulty.

The party consists of all WotR set characters: Harsk, Alain, Enora, Balazar, Seoni, and Shardra. Size clearly matters not for this band of heroes. (This is my turn order.)

I am using starter decks out of the book, rather than optimising (eg, taking the Stalking Armours, replacing Poison spells with Acid, etc.) This is from an assumption that new players wouldn't think to optimise and would instead take the book decks as a canon start point.

Without further ado... I do have an AAR for the first scenario already.

Short form: Easy scenario. Seoni and Balazar fared worst on health, due to more aggressive discard use. Blessings deck ran down to 3 due to some late bosses.

Spoiler:

B-1 "The Godless Ones"
This is a rather calm before the storm scenario, with several locations not even carrying monsters, and only four barriers among the eight locations.

I started with Harsk and Enora in the Cloister - the latter ONLY to give her the Hand Crossbow. The others were in the other boon locations, trying (and reasonably well succeeding) to grab boons.

Balazar acquired the Blackfire Adept henchman third down in Armory (after getting a Lance - yummy!) and closed handily; shame about the lost boons though. Shardra obtained a Silver Raven and gave it to Balazar (location power) who then used it to give the Lance to Alain... who was actually happy with his non-horse companions for once.

Alain, in the Manor House, managed to pull its barrier... the Arboreal Blight. Luckily, he had his Helm, and others at least had some armour against the BYA. Balazar and Shardra failed their combats; a 9 on the d20 meant no Ulkreth though. The party's hands were hurting for a moment though.

Late in Manor House was Sophini - and two locations that couldn't be closed, so she limped away after Alain skewered her and caltrop'd her Bunyip.

Balazar pulled a Horde later on; two for Harsk, one each for Alain, Enora, Balazar himself, and Seoni. All successful, but it wasn't comfortable. Harsk was at least able to throw shortbows at a couple of the checks.

It ended on Enora's last turn, by a thunderstroke of luck; Sophini had fled to Sanctuary, and though Alain killed a henchman, the party had no Corrupted boons in any deck so no chance to close. Luckily, though, Sophini came up as Enora's first explore.

Against the summon, she scrolled Sacred Weapon, of all things, pulling a mace to smash the Demonic Fly; yay 2d8+1d4 against 9. Sophini herself got a ball of ice in her face for 3d12+3d4+1, and victory was ours!

Never encountered the Ceustodaemon, though; he was the last card in the only other open location (which Balazar temp closed with a found quarterstaff.)

----

The health situation was ok, with Seoni and Balazar actually getting rather low at points; luckily, Enora found an extra Cure and sent it over to Shardra via location power.

The blessings deck... actually did run a bit low, with just three cards left in it; but the team did get a fair haul of boons.

Next up: B-1 The Elven Entanglement. Welcome to the jungle.


Well, Elven Entanglement first attempt:

Aborted after Alain's third turn, due to Arboreal Blight condemning Seoni to unavoidable death. (This was resolved as a death, though I didn't play it out.)

Causes of failure that can be attributed to strategy:

-Having groups of 2, though the fact that potential grouping punishes occurred thrice could just be luck.
-On the other hand, having 6 locations without "conventional" closing mechanics, it could be that grouping is needed. I'll experiment with this.
-Having casters start in the Cemetery; that should be Alain or Balazar, in all likelihood.
-The experiment of having Balazar summon three at scenario start, and having Shardra cure his spells back - that may have been a mistake on either side or both.

Causes of failure that can be attributed to luck:

-Enora encountering Demonic Horde on her first turn's second explore - the first being a by-one failure againt Blasphemous Priest.
-Generally bad rolls.
-Alain hitting Arboreal Blight on his third turn. (And it wasn't the only Arboreal Blight; there was another one, not to mention two Baleful Shadows.) All three casters were caught with either no or unusable spells; but Balazar had Mirror Image (which Harsk had acquired) and demons in hand, so he was fine... relatively speaking.

And one attributed to game mechanics:

-Fiendish Tree is immune to Create Pit (CA=13) AND Sanctuary (Mental), leaving casters with no evade options against Arboreal Blight.

Also, for being roughly halfway through the run, it didn't feel like I was close to being on track to win. Even had Seoni survived, recovering from Arboreal would have entailed five turns (possibly seven) without progress.

I never found the villain - he was the 8th card at a location where I had two characters.

---

Will try again; will respawn Seoni with what she had, less the non-basics (ie a Blessing of Abraxas) of course.


Thanks for doong this. Very interesting reading


Agreed with Matsu, thank you very much! I am interested in getting a more detailed breakdown of what is required or experienced from an independent party on this.

I will say, if you get to AD2, I fear for this party in scenario 3. Hark is your only character with Ranged, and the only one with Survival, so you're going to struggle against the armies in that one.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

I suspect the mythic paths will help some there.


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I imagine it will help some, but it still can't turn an untrained skill into anything but a d4.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

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Yeah, it only helps so much, but d4s turn into d20s as good as any other dice. Better, really.

Not that d20+~3 or 2d20+~3 isn't still a pretty decent chance of failure.

Edit: Mea culpa, responded too quickly on this one.

Sovereign Court

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Except that if it the skill is Stealth, if you don't have the skill, then it's not associated with a Stat and therefore you don't have the chance of mythic-sizing it since they only work on 2 stats.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

Oops, teach me to not pay enough attention to the problem.

So I guess the problem instead turns into "I wonder how quickly you work through decks that have had all the boons removed by armies"

That's a pretty unfortunate result there.


Actually, Keith, I thought you had something else in mind:

-Characters that CAN get their path bonuses on the checks have less resource dependency (and less yet depending on what your first two Troop medals are,) meaning more available to support the raw d4 against 12;

-Champion's 5-charge power can "hack" at least one of the army battles.

----

Edit to add: Just a data point for Arboreal Blight. With no support and a +2d4 spell to throw, Enora has a flat 50% chance of defeating her tree. Seoni is at 58% (due to her better Arcane.)


Darn you all for living in the USA. I'm still waiting for my AD2 to arrive. :/

It is an interesting topic though, I agree.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

Between the Knights and the paths, many of the other checks get a lot easier. But needing to throw 4 blessings to nail a totally unskilled check is rough.

Not that you need to defeat all of the armies, but it's an interesting quandary.


If you can pass Elven Entanglement then you can do anything. But if I was a betting man I would say this is going to take around 4 tries.


Keith Richmond wrote:

Between the Knights and the paths, many of the other checks get a lot easier. But needing to throw 4 blessings to nail a totally unskilled check is rough.

Not that you need to defeat all of the armies, but it's an interesting quandary.

Wait, in Scenario 2-3, how can you get by without defeating all of the armies? Since you encounter each location one-at-a-time, you always have to close the previous one. Is there a banish clause I missed?

Pathfinder ACG Developer

Magic or cheating, probably. Boy am I glad I can cite joining the team _after_ AD2 as an excuse, but I may have to stop posting here in a "for fun learning the community" way for the sake of my credibility ;) Or at least stop posting rules stuff when I don't have cards on me.

So, now that I realize / remember that you're citing not just the henchman, but also the actual scenario, yeah, that sure is interesting with 6. I'm more used to how it works for SotR, where you're far less likely to run into this problem.

On the plus side, since you're all together you can possibly make sure of certain things, you'll have the Shardra reroll. Sage's journal would be helpful though potentially tricky to have on the right person each time. I'm guessing it's possible, but it could be a lot of retries. Especially with the all-group damage from the cadres.


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I can confirm that Shardra's reroll ability absolutely rocks in AP2-3. At least you got that right ;)

Pathfinder ACG Developer

Woo. :)


Yeah, I imagine Shardra would be amazing in that scenario. Possibly Seelah, too, if you have the heals to handle her nearly killing herself 6 times during the scenario.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

It'd totally be worth it. One cure per army and you'd be good to go, I suspect. Some of those checks will be basically automatic.


Before I report on my second run at B2, I noticed that the Undead army is going to pose a similar problem, with Divine / Fortitude anchored by Shardra. But at least 2-2 isn't... unconventional like 2-3.

Short form: I was SURE I was going to lose on time control. Caught Fihralaz on the penultimate turn (ie, Seoni's last,) and put him on ice again.

Spoiler:

B-2 "The Elven Entanglement"

Started with Harsk, Shardra, and Enora at the Dark Forest; Alain, Seoni, and Balazar at the Cemetery. This worked out to supremely lucky for our plucky arcanist as she was able to scout the dreaded Carrion Golem (along with a Vampire Spawn; but she had Cecilla for just in case that sort of juffo-wup would happen.) Didn't find the Forest henchman until among the last two - along with the Carrion Golem, which Alain pasted with his usual battle cry of "LANCE OF THE COVENANT!" He thinks he's Kain or something.

There was another Golem, but that turned out to be Balazar's non-problem as he dropped a blessing.

Didn't have any Demonic Hordes, but did have one tree-spreader; wound up having to shield Shardra with two Potions of Beast Skin, because combat is not really her thing. Used a Temptation of Arms to pick up a Glaive +1 for Alain (at the cost of Seoni's Padded Armour, banished to block the damage assigned to her.) The Corrosive Dagger was also available, but Harsk will have to wait for now.

Fihralaz was found because the card before him, a Rallying Cry, allowed Shardra to codex for a Knowledge check - and to Loremaster codex (I had sagacity up for d10+d6+5 and d10+5 on recharging Loremaster, which turned out to be the key. Kolo had already been recharged.)

By the way, found two Rallying Cries and blanked both. Incidentally, neither was Harsk's fault.

After that, it was just scattering to do closes.

Shardra was on Seoni's location, and wound up evading the summoned Demonling thanks to a successful Wisdom check and Holy Water. (On a fail, I would have banished it.) Fihr himself was casual.

Three locations closed (one via Vescavor Swarm around the middle; the other two by total purges.

Health status: Balazar was actually the worst off, and could well have bought it if he'd had to be aggressive with his last turn. Two cards in deck. Seoni had three, but didn't feel as "at risk."

Pathfinder ACG Developer

Nice work!


And just cleared B3 - another one that came down to the wire, and could have gone either way.

Question is raised. When closing (or temp closing) the Canyon, if you don't acquire the blessing, is it banished as usual? (It came up and I played it as such; just verifying.)

Other question: Does the scenario banish Ilivan before or after he gives you his dice against an Outsider? (I played it as after.)

Short form: Demonic Horde sucks. Having two Demonic Hordes in the same turn sucks twice as hard.

Spoiler:

B-3 "The Wardstone Patrol"

The team started relatively spread out, with just one group of 2 (Balazar and Seoni) at the first location. Harsk took down two Carrion Golems and resisted the Temptation of Lucre (no B item is worth six deck discards... just saying) on his first round.

Enora's turn was: evade cockroach, encounter Savash, Mirror Image to avoid the BYA, punch it for 4d6+1d4 (Harsk's shortbow recharge) thanks to Alain sacrificing the Quarterstaff he got off the temp close at Armory. (Blessing of Shax had its corrupt blessing trigger because the clock was showing Baphomet.) Harsk missed a Blessing of Abadar on the Canyon close. Family Tomb closed, opted not to continue delving; but Savash escaped.

Shardra's first turn: failed ally, then a Brimorak. Ilivan decided to immediately turn to the dark side as, sure enough, a Shax was topdeck for the blessings deck.

Balazar's fourth turn got SUPER hairy, as he managed to pull TWO Demonic Hordes in explores in the same turn. The first put one on Shardra, one on Harsk, and FOUR on Alain; the second distributed more evenly, but Shardra had to hit Sanctuary on herself, leaving that Horde undefeated.

As it turns out, this was a very good thing: the resulting shuffle wound up topdecking Savash there. Harsk got the finish with two other locations open (temp closed), and Enora even got a token use of her spell-as-armour ability. :D Token because it didn't matter, it was only 1 damage anyway - but it was something.

The blessings deck had 3 cards in it (instead of the expected 5, because of the Canyon: one failed temp close and then the permanent close.)

Didn't have any serious health issues thanks to Enora being able to go over to Befouled and pick up the Cure that Balazar scouted with Detect Demon. :)


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

For Sir Ilivan, see this thread. No official clarifications on that thread, but I believe there is very good rules support that you banish Ilivan first, fight the Corrupted Soldier, and then carry on the encounter with the original thing with the extra dice from Ilivan.


skizzerz wrote:
For Sir Ilivan, see this thread. No official clarifications on that thread, but I believe there is very good rules support that you banish Ilivan first, fight the Corrupted Soldier, and then carry on the encounter with the original thing with the extra dice from Ilivan.

Sounds good. (Luckily, the sequence didn't matter in this case, but good to know when our main table gets there.)

----

And now for a freaking thriller.

Short form: Yet another down-to-the-wire thriller, ending with Seoni pumping a minotaur ghost full of roughly ALL the magic missiles. It could have gone otherwise though...

Spoiler:

B-4 "The Traitor's Lodge"

This started rather swimmingly, with Balazar closing the Manor House and then helping with the Cemetery... which happened to have Karsos. Enchanted Fang is NOT USELESS, MY FRIENDS; but it left Karsos with five escape locations after Harsk couldn't make his temp close.

A couple dramatic moments:
-Alain got stuck in the Abattoir after his plan to dash in and dash out was thwarted by a Mongrel Ranger shooting Donahan out from under him.

-Meanwhile, Seoni and Shardra were trying to wear down the Torture Chamber... and hit a tree-spreader. While Seoni managed to beat her tree, taking 1d4+1 BYA and AYA is the most obvious of hand-wipes. Shardra had to evade. Alain (who suffered a +6 because of Abattoir) hand-wiped. Balazar also failed; so three failures.

Rolled a 2. By the craziest stroke of luck, though, Balazar had Vultured his Silver Raven, and it ended up on Enora, who had a Wand of Paralyze because of Belthis Loumis, so was able to use the Raven's when-you-encounter to hand it to Seoni, who used it to evade Ulkreth before it smacked Shardra for 1d4+6 damage.

The birds are your friends, my friends.

So on the last round of turns, I ended up with the sinking realisation that Karsos would be in the Abattoir, where he'd get his +6 for everyone merely existing. On the other hand, I knew that Wight was topdeck because of Ring of Climbing and a Giant Fly.

Alain fought the Wight and the Brimorak, wiping Harsk's hand with the amount of support needed to pull this off; he BARELY survived this. But it was key, as it isolated Karsos.

Enora therefore decided to just go and actually close the Lab (which only had a Wight - necessarily the case as it had been temp-closed before,) which turned out fine. She could have taken Karsos with lightning, but it would have been Balazar rolling raw Int for the temp close.

Seoni dodged the BYA thanks to rolling a 1 on 1d4-1, and crushed the combat 20 check with a 65 on 7d12+2d4+8 with Arcane, Magic, Force, and Attack. (When I know it's the actual climax, I like to throw everything possible at it; this was two B. of Abraxas, two B. of Ascension, and two Glibness spells (one from Seoni and one from Balazar) displayed in advance.)

Shardra didn't have anything against Karsos, so had Seoni not succeeded somehow, I would have lost on time control.

The health situation was actually dire:
Harsk had an empty hand, but nine in deck = ok.
Alain had a full hand and empty deck = critical.
Enora had no problem at all. (Yes, she does put in the work. I'd say pull her own weight, but she's a halfling.)
Balazar would have had to use his pocket Cure on himself to survive: three in hand, two in deck = critical.
Seoni would not have survived a hand wipe. 2 in hand, 5 in deck.
Even Shardra was hurting, though not as bad as the others. This was mainly due to ducking her tree.

And for those curious: I've decided that my scenario reward is survival. In fact, I never even considered drawing temptations on the Wights, because I knew I was going to refuse them and take the close checks instead. The time control was really that tight to where my decision was forced in this matter.


And a report on wrapping up the B adventure.

Short form: Martials are sad without weapons. Balazar is sad when cards have Balazar-friendly powers on them and he never gets any.

Spoiler:

B-5 "Vengeance at Sundered Crag"

Ran into an early bit of misfortune with a tree-spreader and Alain hitting a Baleful Shadows... in the Abattoir. Wisdom / Divine / Stealth 17... with B-set gear... not even. Combat 16 after burying a card? SLIGHTLY more reasonable. SLIGHTLY.

Also hit T&I with no locations closed; and given what closes these locations have, I opted to NOT temp close anything except the Wis/Surv 8 that's only there in 6p. So the guy ran.

Harsk and Alain had several weaponless explores - but at least a topdecking of Donahan can serve as a 1d8(Veteran) pseudo-weapon. This problem, combined with Harsk getting nickeled before-act, left him almost dead.

The location closes came quickly, with several Eidolons getting pulled in the second and third set of turns; nailed T&I for good on Seoni's fourth turn, thanks to discarded spell juggling. However, this left her feeling less than comfortable about the whole survival thing, and Balazar rather frumple that he didn't get a chance at a free Cure spell.

It ended with Shardra and Alain poking down the Watchtower (and a timely Sanctuary preventing Alain from getting carried away), Harsk and Enora cleverly manipulating the Abyssal Rift to be on its happy side for Balazar's turn, and Balazar going all EL POLLO DIABLO! on Tancred. The Watchtower dropped a Scizore, which Alain was happy to take.

Also: FIRST CARD FEAT.
-Harsk: Spell. Even though I had Skitter and Brilliance in loot, I opted to do this because an extra pocket spell is bound to be useful whether scrolled or given to a caster. Besides, maybe I can get Skitter and Ring of Climbing in the same hand and get an extra scout out of it.

-Alain: Item. This was mainly due to the number of Item loots coming up in 1. Blessing and weapon were my other thoughts.

-Enora: Spell. She took the Brilliance.

-Balazar: Item. Same story.

-Seoni: Spell, and she pulled a Force Missile from the box.

-Shardra: Weapon. Alain's new Scizore displaced his Battle Aspergillum, which Shardra will be happy to have in reserve. I almost went spell, but she's less likely to be caught helpless if she's rocking a weapon... especially one that doesn't need proficiency.

I'll post decks if desired.


So it looks like you handled B with only one loss, and with a team I would consider missing quite a few of the powerhouses and essential divine casters. CONGRATS!

Should be much easier from here on in.


Bah, post was eaten. So the short short form:

Quite a few of my victories were "just as good lucky as good," since even a couple cards placed differently or a few more 1s on the dice, and I wouldn't be being congratulated on a one-loss run right now. :) But it shouldn't be said that luck IS the factor; you still have to be smart about your plays.

And at least 1-1 was a cakewalk... which you wouldn't think trying to quickly loot and escape a crumbling city would be, but yeah. Only got firestormed once (it hit Seoni alone, in protest of her previous lucky turn where she closed Collapsing Bridge in a single turn, grabbing and exploring with two allies and hitting Ulkreth to gain the other three with no random monster encounters.)

The skill feats were:
Harsk - Wis; Alain - Str; Enora - Int; Balazar - Cha; Seoni - Cha; Shardra - Wis.

1-2 worries me a bit because of the starting deck buries; but I'll have to see if I can find some boon locations to offset that. Having three cohort-owners helps, as I can give Mendevian cohorts to the other three so everyone has 17 cards before the bury.


1-2 isn't nearly as bad as you are fearing. The free recharges help a lot, and the locations aren't particularly bad.

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Sandslice wrote:
Question is raised. When closing (or temp closing) the Canyon, if you don't acquire the blessing, is it banished as usual? (It came up and I played it as such; just verifying.)

Canyon tells you to "Encounter and acquire" the blessing, so standard encounter rules apply. That includes this sentence, under Resolve the Encounter: "If you succeed at a check to acquire a boon, put it in your hand; otherwise, banish it."


Awesome, so I had that right. Thanks for verifying! :)


1-2 was only slightly less bad than I was fearing, in that no one died; but it wasn't for want of my dice (or the card distro) trying.

Short form: To everyone who thinks that Arboreal Blight is the bane of B... imagine them at Combat 15 and your boons aren't better. Yeah, that's Arboreal Blight in 1, thanks to the trees having double Veteran.

Spoiler:

1-2 "Under the Broken City"

First off, yes, I remembered that Millorn is the villain, not T&I.

Right off the bat, I had a nasty spread of buries, with Harsk, Enora, and Shardra dropping 5 (including two of my three party Cures --- Harsk has a pocket); Alain and Seoni 4 each, and Balazar but 3. I gave Anevia to Harsk, Arash to Enora, and Horgus to Seoni.

The regeneration effect, ostensibly a benefit, was crimping Seoni's style to the point where she had her third and fourth turns fighting with an acquired Longspear instead of spells, because she couldn't get attack spells into her hand/discard fast enough. No, really. Both times, she fought a henchman; failed one by 1 which wasn't a problem because of the bury-to-topdeck option. Shardra cleaned that one up with her weapon and a Blessing of Baphomet on first explore, then recharged Kolo against the close check, making it simply d8+d6 against 5.

An Arboreal Blight did its level best to destroy me. Alain hand-wiped. Enora, caught without spells, hand-wiped (because Mirror Image decided that of the three sources of damage, the ACTUAL DAMAGE was the best time to betray her.) Seoni, for once, hand-wiped, and Shardra evaded; Harsk was spared an Ulkreth by a 16 on the die.

Yet everyone hung on by a thread. Now, for the thunderstroke of luck. Fresh Canyon, with an extra monster (because Enora used her fourth turn to move away.) Millorn had certainly escaped there because everything else was permanently closed.

Millorn was at the bottom of the now 12-card deck, guarded by both Bilious Bottle and Demonic Horde - and certain to enjoy victory because I'd never get through half of that deck with my explores. But then Harsk took his fifth turn.

1. Pulls a Blackwing Librarian - I roll untrained Knowledge just so Shardra can use her book to get a recharge check. Harsk fails on the check (4 on d4+d6, needed 6), but Shardra makes hers and peeks. GIANT BAT HENCHMAN.

2. Blows a blessing to fight the bat. Defeat the bat handily (because it's Harsk with Anevia Tirabade and a Heavy Crossbow, fighting an animal bane.) Close chance: summon and acquire the bottom card of the blessings deck (yeah, the Canyon.)

3. It's a Blessing of Ascension. Choosing CHARISMA, Harsk's dump stat, Seoni throws one of her Glibness spells and a blessing, giving Harsk 2d4+3 against 6. Millorn is isolated. Harsk, satisfied, ends his turn. (Had the blessing been Abraxas, I could have considered 3d4 against 5 instead.)

4. Alain, with his usual battle cry, charges, then spends the next thirty minutes cleaning magical dwarf goo off the other lance that Shardra had helped him obtain over at the Marketplace.

Shard of Sacred Weaponry get. Harsk is picking it up.


Definately a lucky run. Thanks for posting

Pathfinder ACG Developer

I dunno, it sounded like it started with all bad luck. Good finish!

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Yeah I actually found my 1-2 solo run to be the easiest scenario yet with all the free healing - but that is likely indicative of the major difference between a one character game and a six. Healing is so much more important when each character needs to survive for 30 or 15 turns, not so dire when you only need to live through 5. Knowing I could freely "spend" a card every turn made otherwise difficult decisions easy - normally in a solo game you have to carefully consider every discard.


1-3 turns out to be easier yet, thanks to its "harmful" mechanic of adding a Combat 11 henchman to a random location each time you try to close a location.

Spoiler:

1-3 "The Lair of the Vile and Vicious" (or somesuch.)

I started with Alain and Balazar on Armory, Shardra in Sacristy, and the others in Mongrel Village - the boon locations, at least in theory. The idea for Mongrel Village was that once that was down, the rest of the Mongrel Traitor henchmen would be nerfed.

Harsk missed a blessing and an ally on his turn.
Alain missed an animal ally, then glaived Uziel and acquired a weapon to close. So much for boon location.
Enora, having no attack spells in her hand, punched out two Mongrel Traitors with blessing support - 8 and 10 difficulty. So much for boon location.
Balazar also wound up closing a location; he chased after a location where a Cultist had gone, and discovered that the shuffle had topdecked it anyway. The Cultist ran to the Sacristy.

So yeah, three locations down in the first turn. Balazar's second turn was in the Sacristy, and included a run-in with Hosilla; the lack of human targets annoyed her, but not as much as the fact that the gnome threw a Cultist of Baphomet at her. All the same, she ran away...

...as it turns out, to the Abattoir. That wound up being Seoni's problem in the end - and that +1 vs. humans fell just short of hand-wiping the sorcerer, even on a roll of 4. (Sometimes, JUST sometimes, a hand size of 6 is a good thing.) Life Drain brought the pain.

All locations were permanently closed in the end; all of the scenario's barriers were avoided, including Arboreal, Bottle, a Horde (in the Abattoir!) and Sin Seeker. Harsk dropped his Cure on Seoni, so he's only got a Good Omen now. Also sadly, I missed what surely would have been some NICE boons - the Demonbane Crossbow, Manual of War, and Sweet Dragon Costume being the highlights.

Balazar and Seoni were in the worst health situation; no one else was threatened all that much, though Alain was annoyed. Didn't even reach the fifth set of turns, thanks to rapid closing.


Apologies for the downtime; my roommate's driving needs have been weird the past few days. I have completed AD1 now.

The short form is that both weren't hard - especially 1-5.

Spoiler:

1-4 "Tracking Down Templars"

This was a casual boon-grab for the most part, though I did end up in a bit of time pressure due to an annoying Baleful Shadows in the Cemetery; after the second encounter with it, it finally shuffled under the boss.

Faxon didn't get to recharge anything when Enora walked up to him on her last turn. I did wind up scoring some nice loot, though: a Demonbane Crossbow out of the Iomedae close; a Spellcaster Shield picked up by Harsk; and another Life Drain spell, so both Seoni and Enora have one now. :)

1-5 "The Wardstone Legacy"

Wound up "corrupting" a total of six blessings due to simple aggressive use... and wound up closing locations crazy-fast. By sheer randomness, Jeslyn was at the Wardstone Chamber. (My method involves absent-mindedly shuffling the boss pile, then rolling a d8 and starting at that point in the line of locations then moving right.)

This ended on Alain's THIRD turn; his Fortune Teller didn't work (despite Wardstone Chamber having eight banes and but two boons, my choice of "bane" examined a B. of Baphomet,) so he acquired that with Melee, then used it to explore because he could, and encountered Jeslyn.

There were only two temp closes needed: a Perception check (and Harsk was already working on that location after his first-turn closing of Cloister) and an Int/Knowledge (and Shardra had moved there to cure Enora and help her work on it.)

So there was no fear of burying Donahan for the actual victory.

AD1 post-mortem and team state in an upcoming post.


So, AD1. It's certainly easier than B, owing mainly to the special mechanics in B-2 (most locations can't be closed - but read on!) and B-4 (an Incorporeal villain who can summon a location PLUS peel the blessings deck just because he gets to exploit being Incorporeal. I didn't personally encounter this problem, but it's certainly one.)

Some luck is still indicated in 6p; you can mitigate this by paying attention to location effects.

Quick peek at party state:

Spoiler:
Harsk - Champion
Skill: Wis +1
Power: Evasion to demons (with +2d4 picked up after 2-1)
Card: Spell, Ally

Alain - Marshal
Skill: Str +1
Power: Recharge ally/item (with Hand Size +1)
Card: Item, Weapon

Enora - Archmage
Skill: Int +1
Power: Knowledge to items (with spell-armour to other elements)
Card: Spell, Item

Balazar - Marshal
Skill: Cha +1
Power: Monster to barrier (with monster to item)
Card: Item, Spell

Seoni - Hierophant (gotta try it :) )
Skill: Cha +1
Power: Recharge item (with Hand Size +1)
Card: Spell, Item

Shardra - Hierophant
Skill: Wis +1
Power: Examine any location (with examine 2 cards)
Card: Weapon, Ally

Also, 2-1 and 2-2.

Spoiler:
2-1 "The Gibbering Swarm"
This turned out to be rough, due to Seoni managing to hit two different Carrion Golems; luckily, she was able to evade the second because while Carrion Golems are immune to Attack spells, they have no such immunity to Attack items such as the Wand of Paralysis.

First-explore Arboreal Blight was also quite fun; Combat 17 trees now.

It can at least be said that it was straightforward, though had it gone beyond Enora's last turn, THREE deaths (Balazar, Seoni, Shardra) would have been conceivable.

And yes, I simply tossed Queen Galfrey at the boon location to start. Later AD boxes will tell me if I erred in this.

2-2 "The Fifth Crusade"
Confession: I cleared this one by a fair bit of luck. Alain (at the Watchtower) found the twin ghoul clerics and bid adieu to his Mace, replacing it with a Scythe. Harsk had already done a nice first round in Dark Forest, including scouting an army.

Seoni hit Nulkireth or whatever the first villain's name is; since there was no worry about cornering, I just wasted him and spawned Maulga... who forced the Watchtower back open. Good: I know where she is. Bad: I have to deal with at least one Undead Company for sure. Good: The Sacristy is still open.

Why good? Well, I encountered its Undead Company there on Shardra's second turn, and figured this: either I succeed (yay) or fail and sit on an empty location that Alain can close with a divine card discard.

As it turns out, 5d4 was not enough to make the raw Fortitude 12 check as I rolled 11124; the army went to Abyssal Rift. Spent the third turn tuning hands and spreading for temp closes, and blew up Maulga on Alain's fourth turn.

The key to success was having the luck to not have to deal with armies, and to trivialise one of them. Had I actually had to fight more of them, I don't think I would have won.

Finally... I don't think this group CAN beat 2-3. It turns out that Mythic Champion can't hack the henchman fights, because it only works on monsters, not barriers; which means that I have to defeat six barriers, each of which will have an untrained skill check against 12; and defeat IS mandatory, because the army returns to its current location on a 1/1 random chance.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I don't think tossing Galfrey is an error due to the fact the card appears in AD2. As far as I'm aware, Wrath still follows the Afghanistan principle meaning any cards that appear in AD2 aren't going to be used in any later adventure.

As for 2-3... I wish you the best of luck. Possibly save blessings for the armies (as opposed to exploring or using them to pick up boons) and then curing said blessings so they get back in rotation, but even then that may not be enough.


Well, it took two runs at it. The first was aborted after Alain's first turn, because the sequence went like this:

Harsk - encounters Mongrel Wizard.
Harsk - encounters a boon that he can't get.
Alain - encounters Demonic Fly.
Alain - encounters Cadre; Harsk flubbed his one-blessing check then ran it back with Shardra's only spell, and the team also failed the raw d4 check because the party's hands were collectively bad. With a full turn basically lost to the damage, I opted to abort. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

The success:

Spoiler:
2-3 "The Siege of Some Town"

What turned out to be the key to success was Chuffy Lickwound. This guy gives you d6 against barriers for each card you're willing to peel off your deck; and he reveals to do it. This left Balazar as the usually designated d4-checker, as he could just peel three for a relatively comfortable 3d6+1d4.

Seoni actually took one herself, because she was able to +2d+2 off her Blessing of Deskari, and another +2d off Enora's Baphomet. Harsk wound up evading Arboreal Blight a couple times - it's a good thing that Tree Spreader is a bane with the Demon trait, na? One was random; the other was scouted (yay Seoni, getting a Wolf off Temptation of Attraction.)

Come Harsk's last turn, I had to do something a bit sad: RFG my Wardstone Fragment to reset everyone's decks. No one was dead; no one was near death. However, I had no explores and was only on my sixth barrier with everyone only having one more turn; so I had to do it.

So Harsk did some explores. Alain did some. Enora pulled the last Cadre, which we handled; but she had another explore, and ended up hitting a Brimorak with three attack spells in hand. So I blow my mythic charges to get 2d20+1d4+(constant), then get Kolo's help and use another spell to isolate Soltengrebbe.

Balazar passes for a hand reset.

Seoni, on her last turn, encounters Soltengrebbe. THREE THEN-CHECKS and unavoidable BYA damage...nuts.

Harsk hand-wipes to the BYA.
Alain buries his armour.
Enora drops her third attack spell as armour, then casts Brilliance and drops a blessing on Seoni for the Knowledge check.
Balazar banishes a spare Hide Armour he'd found.
Seoni takes some damage... but not enough to hand-wipe her.
Shardra hand-wipes.

Balazar hits the first combat, bouncing his charges to Alain.
Alain takes the second, bouncing his charges to Seoni...
...who discards her last card to pick up Fiery Glare, then drops the remaining charges and gets like 50 on the last check.

Chuffy Lickwound PLZ.


A note / disclosure on the 2-3 success: I discovered that my AD2 box lacked any location card called Celestial Beacon; as a stopgap, I used a second instance of Paradise Hill.

-----

And with that, I carried on to finish AD2.
Short form: 12 and 16 blessing-turns respectively; surprisingly short.

Spoiler:
2-4 "Into the Citadel"

In 9 turns, I had 5 locations permanently closed; Harsk had two, and Seoni, Enora, and Alain the others. Now, you might be wondering how I dealt with Kiranda, and the simple answer is that I never did.

Harsk went first, and explored fairly quickly, using Aron Kir to duck a tree-spreader and hit the henchman. He's in the Great Hall, of course, which means that the henchman encounter triggers... Harsk's EVASION of the servitor demon. Woo. On his second turn, he moved... "But wait a picky moment, Slice! Doesn't moving trigger Kiranda?" Well, yes, but not if you're Harsk. She's a demon, and Harsk EVADES them just like that guy who was edited to not shoot first EVADES Creedo's wand of dazzle.

On his second turn, he explored a bit and found... another henchman. Fiendish Minotaur found himself on the wrong end of a Demonbane Crossbow - Corrosive Dagger combo. Being weak to acid isn't fun, is it, you literal cow boy from not exactly hell.

Seoni also moved on her second turn... but what about her date with the demonic duellist? Cancelled by Wand of Paralyze. I did hit Jaster or whatever his name is, but Janeamire wound up hiding under a common henchman.

Shardra's first turn was a dream scenario for Alain, as she acquired a Lance +1 and a Warhorse through the power of "throw blessings at boons." Her second turn was a dwarf duel against the villain. Harsk's third turn never came.

2-5 "Gauntlet of Ruin"

So I realised two things. One, that I'd have to clear Chasm of No Divination; and two, that it'd be extraordinarily BAD if the Chasm had You Story Hax. Used Toy Racks? Whatever that guy's name is supposed to be (Eustoyrax, I know. :P )

So Balazar pre-started by dropping three spells for monsters and then curing them back with Sosiel's bury effect. Then Harsk explored... Sin Seeker. Blessing to explore, Cultist of Deskari. Hand recharge, draw six (he had Aron Kir,) and an annoyed Harsk blasts the Cultist with force lightning. No, wait, his Marksman. And a bat. And his Terendelev scale. Crowe's the one that does force lightning.

So now the army barrier, and my party (such as it is) is still not free to do whatever checks, unless I want to throw raw d4s. And after 2-3, to heck with that noise. Still easy enough, and Banner of Valor get. Peace of mind about Houston Pax's possible undefeat GET.

Alain also first-explored Cultist of Deskari; but his hand-reload had no weapons and no Donahan. So I beat up the cultist and had no location close option. (Harsk would give up one of his heavy crossbows later.)

The victory went to Balazar's third turn in the Molten Pool. Three temp closes, a blesssing on the Knowledge check to avoid more card recharging, and a surprisingly hairy Combat check. I wanted to use my two demons, but those got recharged by the scenario effect.

AD2 clear; skill feats to everything but Constitution. And now I wait for AD3.

And I didn't get to redeem anything, because I didn't get to perma close Corruption Forge. On the other hand, I ducked TWO tree spreaders, a Crazed Cultists, and a Death of Righteousness with this victory.


Sandslice wrote:

"Traitor's Lodge: In fact, I never even considered drawing temptations on the Wights, because I knew I was going to refuse them and take the close checks instead. The time control was really that tight to where my decision was forced in this matter."

Are you implying that for some reason I can't close after a Wight AND double the number of Henchmen in another location (by stashing some loot)?

Because the scenario gives you the option to shuffle a Whight into another location if defeated, but nothing says you can't actually also close the location (per the Wight's text) ?!?

Also:

"Under teh Broken CitY: ..But then Harsk takes his fifth turn: Pulls a Blackwing Librarian - I roll untrained Knowledge just so Shardra can use her book to get a recharge check. Harsk fails on the check (4 on d4+d6, needed 6), but Shardra makes hers and peeks."

How do you manage that and with what book? I know that Codex help with acquiring, but that 1) adds 1 die - so it would be 2d4 if used by Harsk 2) Can only be used by the player - so Shardra wouldn't get a recharge?


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Longshot11 wrote:

Sandslice wrote:

"Traitor's Lodge: In fact, I never even considered drawing temptations on the Wights, because I knew I was going to refuse them and take the close checks instead. The time control was really that tight to where my decision was forced in this matter."

Are you implying that for some reason I can't close after a Wight AND double the number of Henchmen in another location (by stashing some loot)?

Because the scenario gives you the option to shuffle a Whight into another location if defeated, but nothing says you can't actually also close the location (per the Wight's text) ?!?

Also:

"Under teh Broken CitY: ..But then Harsk takes his fifth turn: Pulls a Blackwing Librarian - I roll untrained Knowledge just so Shardra can use her book to get a recharge check. Harsk fails on the check (4 on d4+d6, needed 6), but Shardra makes hers and peeks."

How do you manage that and with what book? I know that Codex help with acquiring, but that 1) adds 1 die - so it would be 2d4 if used by Harsk 2) Can only be used by the player - so Shardra wouldn't get a recharge?

For The Traitor's Lodge: if you defeat a Wight henchman and opt to keep the random card (therefore shuffling the Wight into a random open location deck), you still get a shot at closing the location the henchman came from.

For Under the Broken City: Shardra played Book of the Loremaster which reads "Discard this card to add 1d6 to any Knowledge check by a character at your location. After playing this card, you may succeed at an Intelligence of Knowledge 7 check to recharge this card instead of discarding it." So that is how she added 1d6 to Harks's check and had her own Knowledge check in order to peek at cards.

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