Masquarade ball - can't stop heroes from taking search tokens

By Oncus, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

In my last session with the group, I managed to "escort" 3 guests, while the remaining one was under one of the 4 heroes. Knowing the encounter would end if they escort the last guest, or when all monsters are defeated they stalled and prooceded to kill all my monsters except 1, and gather all search cards avaliable from the map.

Was there anything I could have done to end the encounter before they got all search tokens? I tried standing on a search token, but as it turns out, they could search under the monster without defeating it.

Note: Stalling was in their favour, because they healed and rested, and had danger sense (so no extra cards for me)

Here were some of the ideas I had, but am unsure if it is allowed.

1) Escape with the last monster through the exit. The quest reads "A monster may abduct his guest through the exit". Since my last monster didn't have a guest, I am not sure if this would be a legal move.

2) Use Dark charm on one of the heroes to attack my monster. Also not sure if this would be legal, since the hero is considered "as one of my monsters".

Any other ideas?

ANSWER: Blood rage or killing the one carrying the guest would end the encounter.

Edited by Oncus

Neither of those options is legal. Unless the rules say elsewhere that a monster can move off the map, you can't abduct a guest without a guest. Also, while under dark charm, you are correct that the hero is treated as a monster, and you cannot choose a friendly figure as the target of an attack. If you had a blood rage card, that would do the trick.

With persistent Danger sense, that's pretty annoying. The most you could try to do is knock down the wildlander, but with one monster that's not likely. Your best bet is to get the win in encounter 2 as fast as possible so that they can't search anything there.

Edited by Zaltyre

Frankly, there's not much you can do if they just refuse to kill your last monster other than keep attacking. It's an annoying but smart move on the part of the heroes, as there is no hard time limit here.

Danger Sense is the biggest reason the Wildlander is the best scout class in the game.

Edited by Whitewing

Blood Rage could do if you have it and willing to use it..
on enc1 myself I wouldn't...

but already done it on Splig in the Fat Goblin enc 2 to avoid the searching of the last two search tokens...
the poor Splig was really unlucky with the dices (6 rolls to find the blue token) and when he finally succeeded he was alone with the heroes and all doors closed till the exit !
.. I had pitty on him and blood raged him to shorten his suffering.. and "accidentally" the wandering of the heroes !!! :rolleyes: :D

Yeah, blood rage seems like the only option you could use in the core set. I have also received the answer from FF, and they confirmed that neither dark charm or escaping would be viable options. Oh well. It feels kinda disappointing to watch helplessly as heroes cash in especially after escaping with 3 guests. Thankfully, they didn't pass the dice test, so I may have my gratification in the 2nd encounter :)

Yeah, blood rage seems like the only option you could use in the core set. I have also received the answer from FF, and they confirmed that neither dark charm or escaping would be viable options. Oh well. It feels kinda disappointing to watch helplessly as heroes cash in especially after escaping with 3 guests. Thankfully, they didn't pass the dice test, so I may have my gratification in the 2nd encounter :)

If it makes you feel better, I don't think I've ever seen the heroes win encounter 2 if they lost the die roll in encounter 1.

Yeah, blood rage seems like the only option you could use in the core set. I have also received the answer from FF, and they confirmed that neither dark charm or escaping would be viable options. Oh well. It feels kinda disappointing to watch helplessly as heroes cash in especially after escaping with 3 guests. Thankfully, they didn't pass the dice test, so I may have my gratification in the 2nd encounter :)

If it makes you feel better, I don't think I've ever seen the heroes win encounter 2 if they lost the die roll in encounter 1.

That's what I'm counting on. Having lost Fat Goblin, and them being very luck with events (out of 6 travel cards, 3 times they got search cards, and in getting those search cards, 2 times they got a treasure chest..) I really need the reward from this quests to counter danger sense.

Losing Fat Goblin was quite disappointing too. On the first encounter I managed to get all quest objectives. On the second encounter nearing the end of the game I had both of my Shadow Dragon's hurt but alive, as well as all goblins. Explosive runes and closing doors did managed to hurt them a bit but just enough for the horror that was about to be unleashed upon them. The heroes made one big mistake and grouped together tightly. One firebreath from a shadow dragon + dark might + critical blow combo managed to kill 2 heroes with a whooping 8 damage.The third was shutdown by goblin archers that moved into position. All that remained was Avric with no stamina and no heroic feat.

And it went all downhill from here. He revived 2 of his comrades, rolling 5 hearts each time. The newly born heroes turn used their actions to revive the 4th hero, and kill the goblins that moved in a bit too close to them on the turn before. A couple of misses later, and a failed dark charm, Splig was left all alone with full health after the last dragon fell. Not even dash helped him escape his humiliation.The only upside is that they couldn't risk Splig escaping so they didn't go for the rest of the search tokens.

Edited by Oncus