Hello

I have a question, as heroes in the Heirs of Blood we won the shadowfall mountain quest so there will be no Shadow Dragons in the last encounter of the final. But can the overlord still choose Shadow Dragons as minions as one of his open group minions?

I don't think so, because Shadow Dragons are a fixed group in the quest.

I believe the OL can choose an available monster group as an open group, and the Shadow Dragons are unavailable- they're in quest setup, just never placed.

I believe there is a rule about that but I don't have it with me.

Quote

Rule Book

For each open monster group the overlord may choose any unused monster type that matches at least one monster trait
listed at the top of the quest description page.

Based on these rules and an uFAQ on the LotW quest At the Forge, I think that it is possible to choose shadow dragons in this situation.

In this quest the monster section reads: "Hybrid sentinels, 2 open groups. Valyndra. Any shadow dragon figure that moved off the map in Encounter 1 [...]"

Here is the uFAQ on that:

Q: In " At the Forge " encounter 2, can Shadow Dragon s be chosen as one of the open group, regardless of whether any dragon escaped encounter 1? Can Reinforce be played on Shadow Dragon s if they are not chosen as an Open Group (because they are stated in the "Monster" section of that quest?

A: Yes, you could choose shadow dragon s as an open group if none of them moved off the map, but no, Reinforce could not be used in this case, since the overlord only receives shadow dragon s as a monster group if he wins the encounter.

Interesting... so (in At the Forge) there is actually a variable group. I suppose this is similar to "The Man Who Would Be King" and LTs replacing open groups.

In my opinion, this case is different . The victory section of "Shadowfall mountain" ensures that "shadow dragons will not appear in the finale." Picking the as an open group would cause them to appear.

As a counter-argument, you might ask, "why didn't the victory section just say, 'the OL can't choose shadow dragons?' as that would be more clear?"

I don't think it would be clearer, as fixed monster groups are not chosen.

In any case, my read of "shadow dragons will not appear" is "shadow dragons will not appear at all ."

Ah, I missed that bit in the rules for Shadowfall Mountain. We need to ask FFG to clarify this.