Hell's Vengeance 2, All Hell Breaks Loose

Monday, November 6, 2017

Hey, I just got done revealing the surprise fifth entry in our upcoming Ultimate Add-On Deck series, and now it's time to get back to evildoings. Remember when I showed you in Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 1? I'll bet you thought, "Okay, these guys are awful people. But I get them. Linxia's just the anti-Seelah; strong and lawful but not at all good. Lazzero is Kyra with a downward-pointed star around his neck. Urgraz is kinda like Oloch with his pounding things flat and his abilities to 'help' his 'allies' with 'useful' tricks." And before you got too caught up in all those air quotes, you thought, "I'll bet the three characters in Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 2 are gonna be just like that."

I'mma go with a big "No" on that one, pally. The next three characters you will meet are not like anything we've ever done before. And the fact that they're willing to gut you like a trout makes them all the more likable.

Let's start with Zelhara.

She's got scars upon thars.

Zelhara is an inquisitor just like Imrijka! Except in no way like Imrijka. Because Zelhara is a straight-up torture fiend. Burying cards, shuffling other people's discarded cards into her deck, making her companions discard their allies—Zelhara is a pincushion of uncomfortable choices.

This whole deck is loaded with cards that have the Corrupted trait. Zelhara is so corrupt that she barely knows the rules for Corrupted cards exist. She doesn't even interact with the Redemption card that's in the deck (or the one in Wrath of the Righteous). She just blasts by all those penalties and clamps the thumbscrews to the world.

Oh, also, Zelhara is into whips and chains. She's so good with those that she can use her Divine skill to cut things to ribbons. Rolling Divine checks for weapons is awesome. Especially when these cards are on the table:

You don't know chains till they're coming out of your eyes.

Next, see this guy Emil? He's a pitborn, with a little bit of Hell in him. We've done a pitborn character before; what makes Emil special is he's our first-ever assassin. Here's what that's like:

Killing you softly.

Emil doesn't fight anything unless he wants to, and can evade his encounters at the cost of your cards. He can Harsk you from a distance. He can handle poisons like no one else; burying cards to poison is what happens to other people.

And when he turns into a bug-faced Red Mantis Assassin, he turns weapons into killing machines without having to play them as weapons, which means no Harpy Monk is gonna ruin his day.

Here are some cards Emil's going to want to have around:

Reepazo called. She wants her mask back.

Finally, we get to our first-ever kinda-undead character. Nyctessa is a dhampir, the offspring of a vampire and a human. Lone Shark's editor Aviva recently told us all about what happens in the Twilight novels when this occurs, and I tell you, Chad and I have never been more horrified. Anyway, Nyctessa is many things, but sparkly isn't one of them.

Life is for suckers.

Nyctessa is a necromancer in the style of my favorite character, Darago. But Nyctessa is really, really good at it. She hoovers up monsters and banishes not only them but allies and Corrupted cards, which might be your cards if she's checked the right boxes.

Then there's what might be the most interesting power in the whole box. Once per turn, if Nyctessa would die, she doesn't. If she checks both boxes on that power, she might siphon her discards when she's in dire straits. She's not invulnerable, but she's way less vulnerable than most beings tend to be.

Plus she does these things with those beings:

Death is for suckers too.

Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 2 completes the cycle of evil for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. It really felt good to get that out of our system. I promise we'll only do sweetness and light from now on. C'mon, you can trust me. I'm one of the good guys.

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

P.S. In case you missed our design team playing four hours of Wrath of the Righteous on Paizo's Extra Life gaming marathon, here are all eight videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Enjoy!