I hate that damm aboreal blight
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Yeah, Arboreal blight and the one that summons the servitor demon for everybody are pretty darn annoying, but at least we have a very strong party that can actually deal with these threats!
On the other hand, don't forget we can get the help of the herald to heal ourselves by burying blessings. It's costly, but the scenario seems to be designed around us having to do it.
I like Amaryllis' point (link) that the Forsaken Cloister allows you to discard a card and bury another card to evade the encounter and move to Forsaken Cloister. Since Fiendish Tree is going to be doing two instances of 1 ranged damage to each of you already, that may not be a bad solution for remaining encounters (Harsk/Anthul). Especially since Uliah has no cards in hand and no other characters are at his location, so if he fails the d20 roll nothing bad can really happen. Normally you'd still want to try to defeat as many Fiendish Trees as possible so Ulkreth (now in campaign heading under summoned henchman) isn't summoned, but in this case nothing bad can happen and the barrier is already considered defeated
It was nyctessa not Amaryliss but still a valid strategy. I stand by my previous post however
redeux:
I don't think the Forsaken Cloister is correct in the most recent post? The card counts don't add up and I thought Nyctessa had gone there to evade a Fiendish Tree.
I missed that Nyctessa had moved there, but card counts add up.
You encountered 3 cards on your first turn, 2 on your second turn, and Harsk also evaded there and acquired an armor 1. That's 6 cards and 4 remain.
I made an update post with Nyctessa's correct location and Abyssal Rift being on the "bad" side due to being unoccupied.
Thanks!
I like Lann can I keep him
Lol he was in my clerics deck for AD1-3. You'll just have to make due with an ally1 deck upgrade.
Well, that backfired. I figured with no cards in hand, there wouldn’t be much risk in exploring a location with lots of boons and no barriers. And I wanted to not have more than 1 person at the Forsaken Cloister.
Unfortunately, I have no hand, no usable powers, nothing except a d6 STR. It’s going to take a lot of help if we want to try to defeat the villain. And if we don’t, we’re losing at least 3 turns. This may be worse than the Arboreal Blight.
Sorry party.
The top card is the Blessing of Shax, which would give me 2 d6 to my combat check. But Faxon requires recharging a card before the Blessing could be played.
I suppose regardless of what I wind up doing vs the villain, we should try to close as many locations as possible? But we probably should decide on a strategy before spending resources.
Redeux (or whoever knows), 2 rules questions:
1) Does Faxon’s “while you act” power take effect during tempclosing?
2) If a Blessing of the Gods is copying the top blessing Blessing of Shax, would the blesser have to discard a card? Something similar came up in another game I’m in, and the ruling was that that final bit isn’t copied, but I want to be sure before we determine strategy.
(The card counts that I was referring to were the M:0 Ba:1 W:0 Sp:2 Ar:1 I:0 Al:0 Bl:2 ?:1 at the Forsaken Cloister- I think we found all the spells and armor. But, uh, there’s more pressing issues now.)
1. Temp closes are before encounering the Villain, (MM pg 16, top right hand column)
2. Your other game played correctly. The "corrupted" bad stuff is not picked up from playing a BotGods for the BoShax ability.
Reference *link*
If you guys don't want me to provide advice, then feel free to tell me to shut up :)
But i don't think this is too bad. Nyctessa is at Abyssal Rift and has BotGods available. Abyssal Rift is now the "good" side for d12's. So that alone will put you in a strong position (2d12+1d6 is 13+3.5=16.5 average. if someone adds a single die you're looking at a 20 average, or 23.5 if it was another BotGods.
The plus side...Abyssal Rift is already "temporarily closed" so we don't have to worry about the villain running off there. You guys can choose how to temp close everything else. I probably wouldn't put too much effort in temporary closes because even if you did all temp close your locations, there would still be 2 locations he'd escape to. IMO save the resources and take it as a nearly-free permanent close of Guard Tower.
Of course, some people really don't like fighting the villain multiple times, so you guys may think it's worth temp closing everything. I just wouldn't worry about the villain combat check too much, because that could be the easiest part of this.
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Thanks! I am sure I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate your advice very much. We are really taking a beating to this scenario!
You are right. We can use the abyssal rift's ability to succeed here. I unfortunately failed my check to temp close, but didn't really lose much trying it (a spell got recharged but that's it).
I can definitely use the Blessings of the Gods that I have in my hand towards defeating the villain and I think it is very much worth it.
I would advise against trying to temp close the Canyon, since that requires that we remove a card from the Blessings. I'd say try to close the others if no important resources are spent in the process.
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As someone new to OP for PACG I am always open to more advice. And getting a close on a pretty much full location is a nice boost aside from loosing all the boons in there.
Those d12s should come in handy and you are welcome to use my Botg.
We know he is getting away to somewhere so we shouldn't use more resources to try and temp close, imo.
Yes, thanks for the advice, redeux! And for the relieving news confirming the rules. I think I panicked because I worried that we'd have to use so many resources between the Shax penalty and the Faxon penalty. But I'm feeling a little more confident at the thought of 2d12 + 1d6 or 3d6! (Although remember, whoever contributes a blessing to help Amaryllis will also have to recharge another card.)
So we leave the Canyon open to save the turn.
The Watchtower requires banishing a weapon, and I think Ramexes said he was running low on weapons?
What about the Forsaken Cloister? Harsk has a lot of rechargeable damage prevention in hand. (And would his damage be decreased by 1 because it's the first exploration?) Or is that just an unnecessary risk for not enough of a reward?
Yeah np! Happy to share my thoughts.
You're correct that this all counts as first exploration so damage dealt is reduced by 1. Harsk also has elven armor to reveal and reduce damage by 1 as well. He'd have 2d8+3 which is 12 average against DC 11 (most likely, 25% of being DC8. He has a 84% chance to roll at least 9 and avoid discarding anything, and 67% to roll an 11. So I'd say chances are pretty good for neutral or positive outcome
Whew! Thanks all for the help and the encouragement. As it turns out, I didn't need the second blessing, but I got too nervous at the risk of losing 3 turns.
Both Ramexes and Uliah indicated that I could use one of their blessings against the villain. I picked Ramexes because now he has 5 discarded cards and was going to be healing with the Herald anyway. Also he's lower in the turn order and might get 1 fewer turn. And I have to use Nyctessa's for the d12s. Remember that you have to recharge another card because of the villain's power. You 2 definitely get priority for the use of my Black Spot or a blessing!
Redeux:
The reroll was because I accidentally rolled a d10 instead of a d12 for my recharge check the first time. I'm not intending to use Amaryllis's reroll power.
No problem and nice work! I should have the locations all set up now with the villain/blessings shuffled in where appropriate. Keep up the good work!
I used both Ramexes and Nyctessa’s blessings vs the villain, so I don’t believe either has any.
I have 1 Uliah could use- I was saving it to bury for Ramexes’s Herald cure, but this seems more pressing. Have to check who else has.
I think Harsk and Athnul both have spare blessings? It’s probably best for Athnul to not use given the evasion ability, so yeah, use mine for the villain’s Combat check.
I’m typing too slowly! :)
@Uliah and everyone - as an FYI there is a "random card from discard" feature on your spreadsheets. It's right under where you normally draw from. you can always use that to pick a random card as well. I'll trust that you're honest about it. So no need to roll dice for random card from discard unless you want to (i don't care the method you choose, just giving an FYI)
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Sorry, I went ahead and used them. I thought I had checked Hark's hand and didn't see blessings, but maybe I just missed it. In any case, I managed to close the location and did draw my Cure, so I can go and start patching up people with Uliah's power and cure. I also drew 2 blessings that I could bury if we want to use the Cohort's power, but I think we are not in such mortal peril just yet.
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@Uliah and everyone - as an FYI there is a "random card from discard" feature on your spreadsheets. It's right under where you normally draw from. you can always use that to pick a random card as well. I'll trust that you're honest about it. So no need to roll dice for random card from discard unless you want to (i don't care the method you choose, just giving an FYI)
Somehow I had missed that feature! I will make sure to use it in the future.
Well, welcome to your first demonic horde!
I paused because I wasn't sure- is it better for Amaryllis to face this 2nd demon now, or to go after every one else faces theirs? If I fail first, then everyone else has less pressure. But if someone else fails first, then we don't need to spend extra resources helping Amaryllis.
Amaryllis is out of attack spells for the 2nd demonling, so she is again going to need make Strength d6 Combat check, this time without Shax's help. She does have a Black Spot to decrease the difficulty by 2, and a Sage to have a chance at the Wisdom check. And Harsk volunteered a blessing. So it's possible, but I wanted to check with everyone first.
Whatever happens, I may need to use the Herald at the end of my next turn- all of my blessings are in my discarded pile.
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Uliah is almost certainly going to fail the check as he currently doesn't have a weapon, so he would need significant help from others to get to a point where he can make the DC 11 check (or DC 8 if he makes the Wisdom save, but that is unlikely at around 39% chance). However, he has 2 blessings in his hand that he would rather not discard as damage. I think he should do his check last and you guys should feel free to use his blessings to at the very least prevent some damage.
Okay, then Amaryllis will fight her 2nd demonling next. (I have to run now- will do the rolling in about an hour)
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An option I hadn't considered is to use one of my 2 blessings on the Wisdom check to facilitate the check and then the second on the combat check. If I do that I have an even 50% chance of making it. Given my luck during this game I wouldn't count on beating it, but it is a way in which I can make it.
Given how well Amaryllis has done at unarmed combat, don't count it out!
hmm with no cards in hand and a horrible creature to fight Ramexes is wondering whether to waste his turn fighting an impossible fight just to shuffle the watchtower location. Probably still better off pushing his luck elsewhere
Athnul:
Even if you don’t have a skill, you can still roll a d4 for the check. I know we’re running low on blessings, but Harsk at least has a blessing that could help, not sure about anyone else. But I think it’s worth trying!
Also, if someone else is “using” your blessing, it’s basically you using it for them. So the default is for the blessing to be discarded unless there’s some other effect saying otherwise.
Yup, no problem! And nice work! Now since you acquired it, it would go in your hand and you'd need to remove the last card you drew.
Yay, another location closed! I'm going to talk aloud through some strategy.
We have 11 turns left total. (2 turns for everyone except Ramexes who has 1.)
We know the villain is somewhere in the Maze (6 cards) or Wounded Lands (8 cards).
We have 5 locations remaining:
- Forsaken Cloister: No villain, almost closed. Harsk can probably close it on his next turn, but even if not he'll be there able to tempclose it.
- Abyssal Rift: No villain, currently closed. It will "flip" open at the end of Nyctessa's turn regardless of whether she stays or leaves. I'm thinking that Amaryllis might head there on her turn to "flip" it back closed- she doesn't really have anything particularly productive she can do otherwise, and with no weapons and a puny d4 Wisdom, not really anywhere else productive she can go to tempclose. Unfortunately though, she's out of blessings, so couldn't contribute any d12s.
- Watchtower: No villain. Uliah could stay there to close or tempclose it, but he won't have a weapon until the end of his next turn at the earliest.
- Maze: Maybe villain, or else needs a weapon to close. Ramexes is here with a weapon if it needs to be tempclosed, he but only has 1 more turn for exploring.
- Wounded Lands: Maybe villain, or else needs a Wisdom/Survival 8 check to close. Athnul doesn't have weapons and has a d10 Wisdom, so presumably he'll be going here? And Nyctessa is unlikely to get her weapon back any time soon, so maybe she could here with a d8 Wisdom in the meantime?
I'm thinking that blessings that can be used as explores by people going to the Maze or Wounded Lands may be too "valuable" to use for the Herald's cure. But blessings from people at the other locations might be worth curing up some of our resources. How is everyone else doing on blessings?
Anyone else have thoughts?
Short on time but two quick thoughts: harsk can't survive a hand wipe and will likely need to use the Herald unless someone can heal.
I probably wouldn't worry about doubling up at rift because you can always bury a blessing to temp close it. Explores for villain are going to be limiting factor of success here. Though blessings will also be a limiting factor.
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Thanks everyone for their input on strategy. At this point I think we have little choice but to spread out and try to keep all bases covered for temp closing in case we get lucky (which we might!). As such, I think we should try and focus on keeping everyone where they have the better chances of closing. About healing Harsk, it will be tough to do so if we need to discard a card to get to where he is. If he wants to lay low in the Forsaken Cloister for a while and just focus on temp closing that still contributes meaningfully to our strategy, so it wouldn't be terrible.
In general I'll try to keep the game post updated as much as possible, but you can always look at the next blessing in the blessing pile and then take your turn. For scenarios where people aren't frequently moving around it may be every few turns when i make a post.
In this case though, I've just been swamped with work+evening classes which will continue for a few weeks until mid April. If you'd like for me to make a game update before you take your turn and I don't do it automatically feel free to shoot me a hangouts message or email to am.fear.liath.mor1@gmail.com and I'll try to get it up as soon as possible