Spires of Xin-Shalast (very minor spoilers)

[Joshua Birk 898]

I just wanted to my congratulations to the designers on the conclusion of Rise of the Rune Lords. I have been working my way through the final Adventure Deck, and it delivers a very satisfying epic conclusion. I am one of the players that has generally found the game incredibly fun but easy (I play with an extra location, for what its worth) , and while I enjoyed Xin-Shalast, I didn't find it that hard. I pushed up against the blessing clock in 'Scaling Mhar Massif' (mostly because I went slow out of deathly fear of Leng Spiders), but I never felt like I might lose or that a character might die.

And then I went 'Into the Eye'. I don't want to spoil the experience for those who like surprises, but it is far and away the most punishing experience in PACG thus far. Sajan, Seoni and Seelah struggled to stay alive, and I shudder to think about how some of my more fragile parties will survive that scenario. It came down to the final two die rolls, an a failure on either would have meant a total party wipe. I edged out the first of the two rolls by a scant two points. It was the most exhilarating experience I have had in the game thus far. Kudos to all of you.

[vagabondriot]

I had similar experiences in Into the Eye with Sajan, Valeros, and Seoni. One hell of a finale.

[Mike Selinker]

That is what we like to hear.

[Tanis O'Connor]

Fantastic.

[kysmartman]

I do want to say kudos to everyone. That last scenario was very tense and fulfilling even though I trounced the villain mightily. I say that because I had 3 casters with Augury/Scrying and drew another Augury from the Codex plus 2 Magic Spyglasses and the Quill which all make that scenario much, much, much easier. Not to mention Lem rolling a 9 (off of a d10) on the Staff which added a whopping 14 (9+5) allowing me to not even roll for the 40 check on the villain (that 14+Val's +2+Lem's +2+Meri's Dex+3+discarding the acidic sling for 6 or 7 dice+2 Buried Lamashtu's for 5 dice+Seoni's succesfull Swipe+3+2 dice from the Runeforge Weapon). That probably wasn't everything but I had like 25 to the base before counting up the dice. Merisiel smashed him up real well.

I doubt my 3 character group that has Harsk, Amiri, and Lini will do nearly as well, especially as Harsk is pretty well useless in that scenario.

Though I will finish with one thought. I found it really odd that the villain at the end had no combat immunity. Sure, the casting potential immunity can be really brutal, but not having to worry about discarding your weapon because he's immune to its effect was really big.

Oh, and Seoni checking that one power that lets her reduce 1 fire then one more tick mark to reduce 1 electricity damage is AMAZING. I had to get lucky with her and pull that AP6 ring that reveal to reduce all types of damage by 4 in the first scenario or she probably would have been very close to death.

[Mechalibur]

Yeah, the final scenario does seem like it will be more difficult for small groups than big groups. Usually the balancing factor is the blessings deck burns out faster, but that's a non-factor for Into the Eye.