Bad news for me, the Overlord. The heroes drew the Rumor Quest Travel card, so I was forced to play either the card for "Rude Awakening" or "What's Yours is Mine" (both from Lair of the Wyrm). I went with the latter choice since I'd much rather prefer they possibly win armor over a powerful weapon with an anti-large monster perk. Winning the armor Relic would probably be better for me, too. In any case, the heroes couldn't play the Quest immediately since they were already in the middle of the Travel phase, but they'll undoubtedly pick it for next time, so I need to be prepared.

Having access to LotW, LoR, and the Trollfens, I'm considering picking Shadow Dragons as my open group starting in the Store Room, going through the Hidden Entrance to attack the heroes from behind while they try to make their way to the Wagon Trail. Looking at the Hidden Entrance's position, however, a disturbing possibility came to my mind:

A Necromancer and a Beastmaster are among the heroes. Can their familiars simply perma-block the Hidden Entrance as long as monsters on the other side don't have any way to move over enemy figures?

The wording for the Hidden Entrance reads as such:

The locked door leading to the Store Room is a Hidden Entrance . Monster figures may move through the Hidden Entrance as if there weren't a locked door on the map, but they cannot draw line of sight through the locked door. However, heroes treat the Hidden Entrance as a locked door for all purposes. Once a hero finds the Key (the unique search token), all heroes may treat the Hidden Entrance as a normal door.

I take this to mean that monsters aren't required to open the Hidden Entrance before moving through it. It still blocks line of sight, though, so attacks cannot be made through it, and I assume that large monsters cannot expand across the Hidden Entrance, either. The wording, however, also says monster figures may move, which leads me to the big question:

Can monsters still treat the Hidden Entrance as a normal door by opening and closing it?

If this is true, then the heroes blocking the Hidden Entrance isn't the game changer I suspect it could be. I'll just have to remember to close it again as to not allow heroes to rush through it upon being given the chance. Then again, it might still be considered a locked door, and therefore cannot be opened by monsters at all.

What do you guys think?

On a side note, I assume that Jorem Tolk starts under control of the heroes. So I'll have to chase him down and whack him before I can make him mine for me. It'll be okay if I can hit him the first time, but it can get problematic if the chase continues to a second turn since Jorem can outrun a single move action from an Ettin.

The way those rules are worded, the monsters can't open the door as if it weren't locked, they can just move through it like it wasn't there. If the heroes parked anyone (familiar or otherwise) on the far side, you'd be blocked. The way around this is to pick an open group that can fly. In terms of a monster that can move things (like Ettin's "Throw",) because it's a closed door, you can't count spaces through it- one side of the door is not adjacent to the other.

Monster figures MAY move through it, but it's still a locked door and they can't unlock it.

Choose something with fly or scamper, problem solved.

Well dang, that's troublesome. In that case, the only options I have are either Goblin Archers or Harpies, and it's hard to decide which is better. Goblin Archers have range and one more figure, though impeded by Cowardly. Harpies, on the other hand, have greater Health to conceivably absorb a hit and Fly to cross the water filled-hallway without hindrance. The exact strengths of their attacks are difficult to compare.

Alternatively, maybe I can take Shadow Dragons, anyway. I feel they're way stronger than the other options, and even if the heroes do realize the Hidden Entrance's exploit and block the Shadow Dragons in with their familiars, they'll only end up at partial strength when having to face off against constantly-reinforcing Hybrid Sentinels. The heroes will eventually have to face off against the Shadow Dragons, anyway, once they get into the mines.

I guess what it comes down to is whether I want to gang up on the heroes at the start with a combined attack from Hybrid Sentinels and Goblins/Harpies, or soften them up with constant pressure from Hybrid Sentinels until I can decimate them with Shadow Dragons.

Thoughts?

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To elaborate further, the party I'm facing against is composed as such:

Logan Lashley the Treasure Hunter

• Skill: Sleight of Hand
• Relic: Shield of the Dark God

Widow Tarha the Necromancer

• Skill: Vampiric Blood
• Item: Leather Armor

Augur Grimsom the Disciple

• Skill: Divine Fury
• Item: Mace of Aver

Pathfinder Durik the Beastmaster:

• Skill: (undecided, but he'll probably have something picked out for 2 XP)
• Item: Iron Battleaxe
• Item: Mana Weave

All of the heroes still retain their starting items, too. As for me, I have two Blood Rage OL cards, which I suppose I can use on the master Shadow Dragon in the event that blocking does happen. Might be practical.

Whether or not you want to move through the door early is your call. If you do, I'd pick goblin archers over harpies. I forgot about "scamper."

Given the group comp, they don't have much in the way of ranged combat potential, so goblin archers would be a great call. Necromancer is vastly inferior to the runemaster early game (before Army of the Dead or whatever the 3 xp ability is).

As a good rule of thumb, whenever you see a reinforcement rule that only allows 1 monster per Overlord turn, large monsters start to actually become viable.

I don't know if you have access to the Conversion Kit, but I think this quest might be a rare case where it would be worth trying out Manticores.

Normally the problem with these creatures is that they are very fragile for large monsters. However, possessing Ravage, high speed, and ability to Improve Range makes them very deadly if you can actually use them. The extra pierce will really come in handy against the shields and armor your heroes have acquired too.

These are monsters the heroes won't be able to ignore. Conversely, Goblin Archers once the masters are dead are much wimpier.

Since your Ettin needs all the time he can get, forcing the heroes to stop and deal with reinforcements is a great thing.

Even better, when they kill your manticores, they reinforce on the exit, which is right where the heroes need to be to fetch the key or smash the blocked door. This likely means you can Ravage them right from the reinforcement spot on the exit. Kick in one of your Blood Rages at turn end for an almost guaranteed Hero knockout, if not multiple thanks to the Hybrid Sentinels helping out.

I can envision with some decent rolling that you could keep the party struggling to spare the search actions to find the key for quite awhile, particularly since the TH didn't take Delver.

Then, later in the quest, the Manticores zip around the map as quickly as Goblin Archers do, allowing you to harry the heroes effectively while your non-Du'lak ettin clogs up the hallways.

Of course, all of this assumes that the heroes don't use a Familiar blockade on the Locked Door, as Manticores are neither flying nor scampering. Assuming you are using Basic I, you could always use a Dark Charm to move that pesky Familiar though, as they will always fail the test to resist it. Alternatively, you can Pit Trap, Tripwire or Grease Trap them too. Those things only get one move action, so that will stop their evil plan in its tracks!