Several plot cards start with... "Exhaust this card during the setup of the first encounter."

Most quests have two encounters. Some have only one encounter. I read that as being valid for single encounter quests as well as two encounter quests. Afterall, "first" is still true even if there is only one. I played the above card for a single encounter quest. One of my Hero players then played the "You cannot!" card because he claims that if it says "first encounter", it implies first of two encounters, therefore it cannot be used for single encounter quests. I said I would ask the Forum.

Your thoughts? Valid for single encounter quests or not?

Valid. It's still the first encounter, even if there isn't a second one.

While I think I agree with Omnislash (first and only is a real thing, after all)- what card specifically? Does it have an effect that is clearly intended to pay off in a second encounter?

Actually, there are only three cards, not several, as I originally posted (I never said I could count )

One card from the Inner Corruption deck (Rylan Olliven) : Shadow Council.

Two cards from the Seeds of Betrayal deck (Baron Zachareth) : Two-Pronged Gambit & False Friends.

None of these three cards mention anything about the second encounter. So I'm still leaning towards these cards being vaild for both single and multi-encounter quests.

While I have yet to play with my lovely Lieutenants, I would have to agree with Zaltyre. If, as Cejel has stated, that the cards themselves contain no references to a payoff in a 2nd Encounter, then "first" is descriptive to both 2 part quests (2 encounters) and 1 part quests (1 encounter).

After all, if there is a single encounter, it sure as hell isn't the second one.

I just looked at the Seeds of Betrayal cards. They can both be exhausted or triggered at the start of the first encounter, though the effect of the card doesn't trigger until much later. In Gambit's case, it doesn't go off until after the whole quest is over. In False Friends case, the card stays exhausted until the end of the shopping step of the next campaign phase. They are basically telling you when you can exhaust those cards, at the beginning of any first encounter- which is essentially telling at the start of any quest. You just can't do it anytime else.