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Damn you, goblins and grindylows!
Both tables succeeded, but barely. My table with four players had two come with a card draw or two of death, myself included. But it seemed only fitting that Goblin Keelhauling would appear in a scenario about goblins.
The random d6 for each monster encounter was stressful. Two of us played Fighters, so naturally we wanted to team with others to give them combat bonuses. Twice, that ended up resulting in extra damage to us because a 3 or 4 was rolled before the fight.
How did everyone else fare?
Only 3 people this time (Radillo/Meliski/Agna), our roll luck wasn't with us as much today (lots of low rolls) but our encounter luck was still good, Grindylow on the first explore, Villain in the Sea Caves soon after, third Grindylow was near the top too. That meant 3 of the henchman were defeated in the first 6 turns.
We also delayed exploring and manipulated the last deck to see if we got any 2s, we were able to grab the 2 weapon off the last stack along with a 2 Blessing and a 2 Ally (thanks scouting) so we were all happy.
My deck progress is updated. (Greatclub +1 replaces Longsword. You've served me well Longsword, but it's time to move on)
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I really feel like the title of this thread should be "0-2B Yo Ho Grindylows - How did it go?" But that might just be me loving silly rhymes ... Nothing to see here, carry on.
I forgot to mention we had a bit of shenanigans during the second last Grindylow kill. Radillo only had 1 attack spell and we mindlessly explored and encountered the Grindylow, but the Hatchery's close text also had summon a monster and so Meliski handed over his Lightning Touch with a Merchant during the window between the encounter resolution and the location closing. It seems that there would be an anytime window somewhere in there, since there's a delineation from when the Henchman is defeated and the "closing location" happens, and that's not part of the encounter (which would prevent anything not related directly to the encounter from being played).
I believe this was played correctly (and I ruled as such as the person with the most rules knowledge at my table) but I want to make sure.
The henchman card says you may "immediately" try to close the location. I don't think there is an anytime window there. I would have ruled the Merchant couldn't be played.
It does seem a gray area, though.
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Elco is correct (and no Elco, not really a v gray area).
Cards do what they say, and don't do what they don't say. The henchman says immediately, it means immediately, no time in between you go straight to the close or you don't make the attempt at all. That Merchant would not be allowed. This has actually been discussed here on the forums and confirmed by Mike and / or Vic. I'm sure Hawkmoon will be here soon enough to link it.
Given the ruling on "immediately", I don't think it's a gray area either. I forgot about the ruling on "immediately" (and linking it to text on the henchmen.) Thanks Andrew.
I think it's a FAQ candidate in the same way "immediately" explores are a FAQ candidate. I didn't think to search the forums for it (and frankly, it's a poor way to look for a ruling in the heat of the moment).
(I do admit playing TCGs has conditioned me to allow for reactions at almost any time.)
Here's the long overdue report for our group.
Here are our starting positions:
Arabundi: Hatchery
Siwar: Beach
Vika: Ghol-Gan Ruins
Kyra: Holy Isle
Vika stumbles upon a scalawag ou her first turn and takes 1 damage from the scenario effect. She defeats it with a combination of recharged blessing of Erastil from Siwar (matched the blessings timer), covering fire from Arabundi, and a blessing of the gods from Kyra. She then explores again, but finds nothing exciting.
Siwar falls into a drowning spikes trap on the Beach, but she manages to handily escape it with the help of her loyal burglar ally.
Arabundi finds a grindylow in the Hatchery, and easily defeats it by using his archer's bracers with his returning hatchet. He re-uses the hatchet to defeat the Shackles pirate and close the location.
Hoping to repeat her feat from the previous week where she closed Holy Isle in 1 turn, Kyra crosses her fingers to get a blessing, but only gets mesmerized by an illusory wall.
Vika moves to the Sea Caves to fight a cecaelia, and again takes 1 damage from the scenario. She beats the fearsome creature with her whirling warhammer, supplemented with some assistance from the gods.
Kyra's luck is turning in a major way at the Holy Isle. She finds two consecutive blessings of Sivana, followed by a blessing of the gods. She uses them all to double explore, and finally meets the grindylow, which she kills with the help of a blessing of the gods from Arabundi.
Arabundi moves to the Jungle, and soon finds himself face to face with another grindylow, who meets the same fate as his brother from the Hatchery. A blessing of the gods from Vika and one of Pharasma from Kyra helps him close the Jungle.
A stray storm had drifted towards Kyra at the Holy Isle, but Sarenrae was watching over her servant, and it moves away with her first roll.
Siwar meets the last grindylow at the Beach. He is thoroughly electrocuted with a lightning touch and a blessing of the gods from her, covering fire from Arabundi, and a blessing of the gods from Kyra.
Time to finish this! Everyone converges on the Sea Caves, and it is Vika who finds the brinebrood queen -- but first, she must defeat "the Whale", which she does with some ally support from Siwar, combined with a blessing of the gods from Kyra. The unnatural creature causes 1 damage the party with its death throes. Undeterred, Vika faces against the queen, and kills her with the help of an ally and a blessing of Erastil from Siwar. The brinebrood queen is now queen of the slain!
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We (Flenta, Agna, Zarlova, and me as Amaryllis) played this one last night, and it was my closest one yet! The goblins had it in for us from the start; I quickly became an expert at attracting goblin damage while at a location with others, while they did everything possible to prevent Flenta from getting help from anyone.
Early on we ran into the Villain with five open locations and failed to defeat her, losing valuable time. After my near death and a second villain encounter (defeated, but with open locations) our goal changed from victory to survival. With some luck and a lot of healing, we managed to get a couple more locations closed.
With four turns to go we knew the villain had to be in one of two locations. Agna checked the only card at the Ghol-Gan Ruins and found...a Blessing of Cayden Cailean! She used it to help get the location closed. Zarlova, short on combat cards, avoided the boss fight location and instead encountered something safe in the Jungle. (Earlier we'd failed to close it after fighting the Grindylow.)
Next it was my turn at the Sea Caves with two combat spells and some cards I could bury for rerolls. While we were hoping for the villain I got the next best thing: the Grindylow. With some Blessing help and good rolls we were able to defeat both the Grindylow and the (Jellyfish?) Swarm summoned by the location, leaving only the Brineblood Queen.
This left everything up to Flenta, with two weapons and everyone low on helping cards. That's when her player had his best rolls of the night, defeating the Whale and the Queen and turning what looked like a sure loss into victory!
Everyone was happy to get the skill feat. Unfortunately, the only non-B card we had acquired was a Spell 2, which nobody wanted. (There's no combat Spell 2s in the Sorceress deck, and Amaryllis can't afford to give up too many slots for non-combat Spells.)
Between the location synergy and the goblin "help", this one was pretty nasty. Hopefully we won't have so much trouble next time. (Famous last words? :)
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The non-villain non-henchy monster table only sucked once or twice, so I count us lucky. Brielle misread the Hatchery ("Oh, add to the DIFFICULTY...") and went there FIRST (but it turned out not to be a real problem), Merisiel went Beach-combing, and Grazzle looked for interesting rocks in the Sea Caves. We managed to get those three closed before anyone closed either of the other two, so no extra barriers were encountered. The Brood Queen (and her pet Whale) were no particular problem (even with the +2 from the hatchery), and victory was had.