About Shamira: This scenario says:
Treat the henchman Shamira as the villain. When Shamira is defeated, put a marker on the scenario card, then shuffle Shamira into a location other than the Abyssal Rift. You win the scenario only when the number of markers exceeds the number of characters.
I take it this means:
(a) You don't have to corner Shamira, just defeat her.(b) If Shamira is undefeated, she escapes like a villain, taking blessings from the blessings deck, etc.
(c) If Shamira is defeated, you close her location.
I've made assumptions, which I am not certain about.
Comments?
About locations: You start this scenario with two locations, the Abyssal Rift and one other. You have Shamira and the henchman Harvester shuffled into the two decks.
The scenario says:
When you permanently close a location, banish its location deck, display the location card next to the scenario card, ... If the number of location cards displayed is less than the number of characters plus 1, summon and build [another location].
I take this means:
(a) When you build the summoned location, you do not add a henchman to it.(b) If you just closed the non-Abyssal Rift location by defeating Shamira, you would shuffle Shamira into the newly summoned location.
(c) You have to be careful about closing locations without defeating Shamira, because you could end up not having a location to shuffle her into.
I've made assumptions, which I am not certain about.
Comments?
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1a. You do not need to corner Shamira.
1b. Yes; though there are only 2 locations at least. Maximum 1 blessing lost :)
1c. Per usual, yes. Abyssal Rift is still wacky and the Abyssal Rift.
2a. That should be correct. (Tanis may overrule me here)
2b. Yes.
2c. Indeed. The intent is that you chase Shamira around a bit, seeing the chaos of the Abyss but still securing a safe spot to land, rather than falling through the Abyssal Rift forever.
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About locations: You start this scenario with two locations, the Abyssal Rift and one other. You have Shamira and the henchman Harvester shuffled into the two decks.
Thanks for this thread. We found this scenario super confusing and not very clear at all. This thread was very helpful.
Having said that, how do you assume that you start with Abyssal Rift and one other location? That's how we played it, but I see nothing to indicate that's how you start.
Also, when you build locations on the fly, in the past they've contained henchmen. We followed what you wrote here (and had no henchmen in the new location), but it wasn't clear at all.
This scenario took a long time and even in a 2-player group, we almost ran out of blessings (after losing to Shamira only once).
I'll admit it: one of the goals for AD4 was for the Abyss to be crazy and do some things that we don't have room / sanity to do normally. Unfortunately, that inevitably leads to questions :)
Having said that, how do you assume that you start with Abyssal Rift and one other location? That's how we played it, but I see nothing to indicate that's how you start.
You start with the Abyssal Rift, since it's on the location list. The location list lists a second location of "See Text". The text says "When setting out location decks, add a random location that has the Abyssal trait other than Battlebliss or Rapture of Rupture." It also refers to going to the Abyssal Rift and going to a location other than the Abyssal Rift. It's not ideal, but I haven't heard of any groups starting without the Abyssal Rift so I think it's working.
Also, when you build locations on the fly, in the past they've contained henchmen. We followed what you wrote here (and had no henchmen in the new location), but it wasn't clear at all.
I suspect I've made a mistake there and each should have a Harvester in it (or at least a Brimorak that looks like a Harvester). There's a reason I thought Tanis might overrule me, and on rereading it I'm much more sure, since there are HarvesterS and no wording to the contrary. Sorry that it made your experience slower, though I'm glad you still succeeded.
Since defeating the Harvester does not give you the chance to close, adding them to the subsequently summoned-and-built locations would actually slow progress. Is that what's intended?
So, full explanation, since no one higher than me has weighed in.
RAW: If you're instructed to summon and build a location, you don't normally add henchmen and villains to that. You do that at the start of a scenario, of course, because it says to do so then.
When initially working on this scenario and testing it, I did not assume you added a new Harvester each time, because Shamira is your primary closing mechanic. You basically only really need to worry about the other location when you fail to defeat her.
I started to think it might have changed after it left my hands, to add Harvesters each time, because of the Brimorak proxying for multiple harvesters. That said, it might have been added so that if you draw the Harvester's Pit as a random location _and_ you needed it available for the summon on the location, which you shouldn't normally but technically could happen... or it might just have been that we've had to proxy almost every single henchmen card that it was put in on general principle.
Either way, that's why in my first answer I stated that you don't add them, as far as I know, but that I might be overruled. :) I have not been overruled, so I believe the most technically correct answer is still that you don't add them.
There is a corner case use for any henchman in a deck, using the mythic champion's 5 point ability (which is not hard to pull off) to close off a henchman, but like the need for a 2nd harvester it feels dubious.
I'm happy either way it's played, so long as it's played, so encourage people to pick the way you enjoy most until and unless the adventure is errata-ed.
So, full explanation, since no one higher than me has weighed in.
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Keith. You're plenty high enough for me!
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We just played this scenario last night and we played it like you explained Keith. I think it ran just fine with not adding the harvester to the new location. I used a brimorak as a proxy for the harvester just in case something made us summon him.
Regardless, this scenario still made us very frustrated and the power curve and banes made us grumble very often and it did feel like a chaotic tumble through the abyss. We now have a least favorite barrier known as the Mythic Glyph. We had 3 characters at that location when that showed up and it almost killed two players.
Thank you for this thread (sorry about necro-ing it). I believe we played it correctly.
We started with two locations. Shamira and the Harvester were shuffled randomly across the two (luck was on our side; she was at the non-Abyssal Rift). We fought her and didn't bother temp closing the Rift (since she was still defeated and does not escape). We built a new location (without a henchman), and shuffled Shamira into it. Rinse and repeat 4 times (we had 4 characters).
We had to re-read it a few times, and two of my party still didn't quite understand what was going on. It was tough.