Thread: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition):: General:: Another Update: "Tough but very fun Labyrinth of Ruin"

by M Cotton

My wife and I are currently running a 1vs1 Labyrinth of Ruin campaign, and her hero team is very strong so it's been a load of fun so far.

She's playing Elder Mok Bard, One-Fist Beastmaster, and Logan Lashley Treasure Hunter . So I rarely feel like I need to start easing up. I'm a strategist by trade really, so I tend to dominate these kinds of games. But the 3-hero Labyrinth of Ruin campaign with such a strong team keeps it a really exciting challenge.

I'm playing Basic II, Baron Zachareth, and a Scourge . So I'm still able to guide the campaign pretty well. Though I got worried when she drew the crossbow for the Treasure Hunter at the first damned shopping phase! (And was just barely able to afford it) Lol. And she decided to give him that damned Sun Stone too so that he'd roll B+Y+G. Haha. Also, she already drew the Trident for One-Fist, also gave him a Lucky Charm, and even barely squeaked out a LotW rumor quest win allowing her to put the Aurium Mail on Mok to keep him harder to knock out. (Though tbh, I was really hoping she'd manage that one and even used the plot deck to bet on her winning for some bonus threats. )

Right now, I'm trying to just have fun for a couple more quests so she can hopefully get at least two of the Serena upgrades in order to round out the big challenge for ActII. (I don't hold back much during the quest, but I won't study hard enough to choose the best open groups for the situation unless I feel like I *really* have to win that one. (I've realized that once you have all the monsters, an OL can almost always find one that'll break the quest if they think about it enough.) Although fun, clever and mean moves always come up, and I refuse to not play them when I see them. Haha. (Favorite so far is using a card to swap the Scourge with the Treasure Hunter's target, then another card to possess the Treasure Hunter after he kills the Scourge, then using the Treasure Hunter's +4 damage, Pierce 3, B+Y+G crossbow/sunstone attack for an easy knock out on Mok... (Aurium Mail be damned!) 😂

Anyway, ActII of this campaign looks like it's going to be really exciting, and I'll post a few updates once it starts moving along again. (On a vacation at the moment, so we won't get to the interlude for a couple of weeks)

So, she's managed to upgrade Serena with both the health and defense boosts. As I posted about before, I could have certainly prevented the second upgrade by playing Nagas in that encounter, but I decided it was too unfair. And then she just *barely* pulled a win.

Then, she picked Pilgrimage as the Interlude quest, and someone even pointed out that the play data on that one was only 9% chance for the OL. And then I f'ed up further by placing Skeleton Archers as my open group, which just couldn't hardly ever do enough damage to overcome the double grey defense of those guardians with her good luck on defense rolls. However, she bungled the last couple rounds and I managed to eke out a win on the Interlude anyway!

Now, part of ekeing out that interlude win was burning through a lot of threat tokens AND a rumor card I was holding. (I got to reorder the three travel events because of a rumor card and then I spent two threat for Zachareth's "Trouble on the Road" and another threat right then for "Nefarious Power" in order to make her entire team be stunned for their first round. Haha

So now I've got 3XP to play with and upgrade my Scourge, and she only has about 200G saved up for the first Act II shopping step. (150G plus what I expect she'll be willing to sell)

I'm thinking I need to immediately select Web of Power as the next quest in order to transform Ariad as soon as possible, and maybe even play the Zachareth agent in it to help guarantee a win. Haven't studied the objectives and open group choices enough yet though to know if that's the right play. Will decide by tomorrow. For that one, if I can think of a monster that breaks it, then I don't feel bad doing it. Haha. Although Zachareth next to a lava pit is already pretty scary.

I won Web of Power, so now Ariad is Queen Ariad! 💪
While I didn't get the chance I wanted to use Zachareth's Direction power to immobilize her one heavily armored hero into a lava pit, lol, it still turns out the Zachareth agent was a strong play here. I was able to use Direction a few times in order to throw a hero into a space adjacent to an active spider drop point allowing me enough reinforcements to help Ariad transform and keep her reasonably protected. And while the heroes had done a decent amount of damage to Zachareth right away, I played a Dark Resilience to heal him, and then they gave up and tried to move on to attack the spiders and the Ariad the spiders were protecting. So not only did I win, but Zachareth was not knocked out and I still have him in hand as a 2-threat play! Haha

Next, I forced her and her heroes to play the Visions of Dawn sidequest. Why would I allow a side quest when were at a point where I intend to play hard? Well, one, it's fun. And two, I was confident If win it and the reward per for me felt pretty substantial while the rear for her team (having low knowledge) was nearly nothing. And I also got to play the last rumor card I had in hand to block the following bonus shopping step (again, the team has low knowledge, so that card made all shopping items a blind gamble. lol)
Won this dude quest handily, and now have 8 threat built up, a ready-to-go Zachareth agent, almost all plot cards purchased, AND the ability to give my monsters free bonus surges whenever I have them work together.

Now, she is starting to get a decent good pool saved up and even super lucked out in a travel step that gave her the ability to draw 8 from one of the shops instead of 5. So it's totally possible that she draws the Eclipse Bow for the Treasure Hunter and the Claws or Dragon Tooth Hammer for One-Fist, in which case she'll have a pair of nukes and the tide will turn. Haha. But still, for a LoR campaign where I allowed the heroes to get a well-upgraded Serena and a nearish to optimal Act I loadout, I've been able to keep Act II quite a challenge and just barely squeeze then out of any more wins so far.