I have seen several references in this forum and others that state Henamarth Riversong is great when used near the end of the round to peak at what Encounter card will be revealed in the following turn. Wouldn't it be just as useful to use him during an action window in the beginning of a round to see what Encounter card will be coming at you later later that same round? I Just want to confirm this is a legal play.

It's a legal to use him during the planning phase. The advantage of doing it in the previous round is that Henamarth will be ready rather than exhausted in the questing phase itself, which matters to treacheries that like to punish exhausted characters. Henamarth is fragile.

Oh -- that makes perfect sense -- thank you !

It should be pointed out though that a great many quests do not contain such treacheries. The important thing if using Henamarth this way is to know your encounter deck, so you know if it's safe to exhaust him early or not.

I think the best way to use Henamarth Riversong is :

-if there are engaged ennemies : at the end of the combat phase, right after the attacks are resolved, so he can ready during the refresh phase.
-if there are no engaged ennemies : right after the travel phase, so he can ready during the refresh phase.

Also, there are quests where you may be more concerned about shadow cards than about staging cards. In this case you will want to wait until after staging to trigger Henamarth to see what the first shadow card will be.

23 hours ago, Seastan said:

Also, there are quests where you may be more concerned about shadow cards than about staging cards. In this case you will want to wait until after staging to trigger Henamarth to see what the first shadow card will be.

yeah, some nightmare quests have crazy shadow effects... Silver Lamp would also be a good option.