Well! Tom Bombadil is a card in the old forest after all. He might not be a player card but at least he's still there! (I personally prefer him like this)
Looks like even though he only lasts the turn because he makes you shuffle the discard pile back into the encounter deck there's no limit to how many times he may pop up.
He provides an automatic +3 boost to questing and can then attack for 3 or defend a nasty attack and survive with 3 defense and 6 health.
Old good Tom. Happy to see him at last!
I love how it says Legend.
#likeaboss
I love his trait. And a nice card he is, thematic
This makes me happy.
why do i want to break out in song... Oh Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo 
TOM BOMBADIL CONFIRMED FOR REAL!
In what set will this be in?
Look beneath the card title.
I do not know why I expected it but I was quietly hoping that his textbox would be made into a rhyme.
I do not know why I expected it but I was quietly hoping that his textbox would be made into a rhyme.
In iambic pentameter no less!
Look beneath the card title.
Thanks! Although, sorry guys, I really am confused now. Where we will find the quest "The Old Forest"? 
it is not out yet, it is an event quest that will be released in the future sometime 
In our particularly tense, last round win game against Old Forest, Tom Bombadil showed up 3, count 'em, 3 times as a shadow card and not once during staging. I may or may not have called him a flaky **** ...
So he was more of a Tall Tale than a Legend in that game?
Please someone who play GenCon quest tell more about it! I very curious !
Spoilers ahead for those who don't like to know quests in advance...
Old Forest is a very location heavy quest, but there are a few meaningful enemies. One memorable enemy attacks the first player from the staging area when the active location is explored (if I'm remembering correctly). The bulk of the quest revolves around 4 different stage 2's. You have to put a certain number of victory points worth of locations into the victory display to advance to stage 3. Until you do so, then you have to revolve between these different stage 2's, each with a different effect (for example, revealing an extra encounter card during staging, exhausting a hero during planning, etc.). Once you get to stage 3, Old Man Willow and the Withywindle come out. Old Man Willow is a big indestructible boss that sits in the staging area and attacks each player while raising your threat. Withywindle must be cleared to win the game.
Reviews were somewhat mixed in my particular group. For my part, I really enjoyed the scenario and feel this is a location heavy scenario done right. It fits the section of the book and can lead to some tense finishes. I will say that I've only played it 3 or 4 player so far, so can't speak to the solo experience yet. In terms of difficulty, it isn't the most nightmarish of the Gen Con scenarios, but it's important to remember that it's supposed to fit into Campaign Mode and it does give a challenge, at least with 3 or 4 players. It comes with a Campaign card and a new Boon that can be earned in Campaign.
Can someone please spoil the campaign and boon card?
SPOILERS AHEAD
TURN BACK NOW
LAST CHANCE
DON'T SAY I DIDN"T WARN YOU
The Old Forest
You are playing campaign mode.
Setup: The first player attaches Old Bogey-stories to a hero in play.
Resolution: If there are at least 12 damage tokens on Old Man Willow, the players have earned the Old Bogy-stories boon card.
Old Bogey-stories
0 Cost
Boon
Setup: The first player attaches Old Bogey-stories to a hero in play.
Action: Add Old Bogey-stories to the victory display to shuffle your hand of at least 6 cards into your deck. Then, draw 6 cards.
Edited by Boris_the_DwarfThe quest is basically location based. You have to accumulate a number of victory points in locations equal to 5 times the number of players. You do this by questing successfully (although you hardly ever place progress tokens). There are multiple stage 2 cards and every time you quest you flip a new one over, replacing it with the current one which gets shuffled back into the quest deck. When you get to stage 3, you have to clear a final unique location as you fight Old Man Willow, who attacks each player from the staging area and cannot be optionally engaged.
It's hard as balls and I only beat it once.
Spoilers ahead for those who don't like to know quests in advance...
Old Forest is a very location heavy quest, but there are a few meaningful enemies. One memorable enemy attacks the first player from the staging area when the active location is explored (if I'm remembering correctly). The bulk of the quest revolves around 4 different stage 2's. You have to put a certain number of victory points worth of locations into the victory display to advance to stage 3. Until you do so, then you have to revolve between these different stage 2's, each with a different effect (for example, revealing an extra encounter card during staging, exhausting a hero during planning, etc.). Once you get to stage 3, Old Man Willow and the Withywindle come out. Old Man Willow is a big indestructible boss that sits in the staging area and attacks each player while raising your threat. Withywindle must be cleared to win the game.
Reviews were somewhat mixed in my particular group. For my part, I really enjoyed the scenario and feel this is a location heavy scenario done right. It fits the section of the book and can lead to some tense finishes. I will say that I've only played it 3 or 4 player so far, so can't speak to the solo experience yet. In terms of difficulty, it isn't the most nightmarish of the Gen Con scenarios, but it's important to remember that it's supposed to fit into Campaign Mode and it does give a challenge, at least with 3 or 4 players. It comes with a Campaign card and a new Boon that can be earned in Campaign.
Amazing quest, we came 1-2 question power from beating it with out pick up 4 player team, so that was really cool.
The card that gave us the most trouble was a treachery card, Fallen Branches, it said something like each player removes a hero from the quest and deals 2 damage to that hero. Needlesstosay, when Tom came out and shuffled all three copies in things got bad fast!
Reposted from my comment on a different thread, as it seems relevant here.
The Old Forest is very location heavy. Most of the locations have victory points. The first stage is simply a "setup" stage and then players move to a random stage 2 (of which there are 4). Players keep going from one random stage 2 to the next at the end of each round, until they have accumulated 5 times the number of players worth of victory points (from locations) in the victory display. Once this happens, the players instead move to stage 3 at the end of the round. There are some enemies, and they can be dangerous if you don't plan carefully, or get caught over-questing. The worst enemy makes an immediate attack from the staging area at strength 4 against the first player, whenever the active location is explored.
Many of the locations have terrible passive effects that apply while they are in play: e.g. players cannot heal, players can only play 1 card from their hand each round, progress must be placed on this location before the current quest. There is also a location with a forced effect that makes a player raise their threat by X when optionally engaging an enemy (X is the enemy's Attack). This made it harder for the combat-focused decks to help the quest-focused decks. Sentinel on Elrohir was very helpful (Elven Mail is amazing). I even managed almost the entire game without a copy of Steward of Gondor, so I had Errand-riders frantically transferring my other resources so that he could defend multiple attacks.
Each stage 2 does something different, and one of them removes a location from the victory display, which could make this quest almost impossible solo (or without serious location-control). They all have a passive that triggers if there are less than X locations in the staging area at the beginning of the round, you have to add locations until you have X. (X = # of players). For us, in a three player game we almost always had at least 3 locations in play. This is why Greyflood, Northern Tracker, and especially Asfaloth were so important. No surprise, Idraen is beyond amazing in this scenario. Also Elf-stone and Ancient Mathom are highly recommended.
The last stage is no joke. First you add Old Man Willow and Withywindle to the staging area, then you reveal number of players - 1 cards from the encounter deck. Old Man is indestructible, immune and cannot leave the stage area. He attacks each player for 5 each round and raises the threat of the defending player by removing more locations from the victory display. When we beat it, I spent my precious Leadership resources to play Faramir and everyone quested with every single character they had to clear the Withywindle (which must be explored to win) and put the 18 progress on the 3B. My threat and Ian's were both at 47 and Matt H's threat was around 43. Ian and I would have likely died that round to threat increase, not to mention the attacks of multiple enemies. It was a thrilling, "by the skin of our teeth" type of victory. The Old Forest is beatable, and had we all built specifically for it, or had a drawn a Steward earlier, we probably could have done better. Still, I suspect that players who go into it blind with decks that lack a strong mix of location-control, questing and combat will be very frustrated.
Some of the treacheries are basically must-cancel in multiplayer. The worst was probably "Falling Branches": Each player removes a character they control from the quest. If the chosen character is a hero, deal 2 damage to it, 3 damage instead if it is an ally. Absolutely brutal in the early game when the risk of location lock is looming. It also totally throws off your willpower calculations. Eowyn and Protector of Lorien are really helpful as well, since it helps to be able to control your progress down to the point. Good old Bombadil will show up from time to time, great stats and helps with the quest, though he goes away at the end of the round. Sadly, we lost him as a shadow card a couple times in the game that we won - he certainly would have made combat less dangerous, especially in the later rounds. Anyway, the fact that it is challenging, and thematic, and part of the Saga, makes it one of my new favorites.
For anyone who wants images of the cards, Cardboard of the Rings already posted (a while ago) pictures of each card in the quest: here.
Edited by GizlivadiJust to make sure i have it right. When tom bombandill comes as a shadow card, he has no effect and just discarded , without the discard pile being shuffled. Correct?
Ps: wasn't there an objective ally in an AP who when appeared even as a shadow , he was placed in staging area? I think i remember one but maybe i am wrong
Edited by NickpesJust to make sure i have it right. When tom bombandill comes as a shadow card, he has no effect and just discarded , without the discard pile being shuffled. Correct?
Ps: wasn't there an objective ally in an AP who when appeared even as a shadow , he was placed in staging area? I think i remember one but maybe i am wrong
Yes, shuffling the encounter discard pile into the encounter deck is part of Tom Bombadil's "When Revealed" effect, so it does not trigger when he is flipped as a shadow card. Are you thinking about Goblin Spearman, that has a shadow effect which adds it to the staging area?