Beat this on the first try today, but it was close.

Seems to me the whole trick comes down to timing. You have to be able to finish the last stage while still retaining enough willpower to pass the final escape test.

I could see finishing the last stage prematurely, without being prepared. Having to start over at Stage 1B doesn't sound like any fun.

Yeah, the real trick with this quest is to have lots of willpower and ways of readying heroes after they quest so that they can join the escape test as well.

On a side note, if you use any kind of event that raises your will power till the end of the phase, if a character can both quest and commit to the escape test, that bonus applies to both.

Also, you can get some more utility out of Escort from Edoras by using it for escape tests instead of questing. That way it only commits 2 will power, but it doesn't get discarded.

15 hours ago, Felswrath said:

On a side note, if you use any kind of event that raises your will power till the end of the phase, if a character can both quest and commit to the escape test, that bonus applies to both.

Are you sure about that? I was reading some discussion of that, and there seemed to be some disagreement about it.

Agree with Felswrath. If the willpower bonus applies for the entire phase, you can use it for questing and escape test (they are done during the quest phase, if I remember correctly)

The escape tests are "at the end of the quest phase", and we've had a ruling that effects that last "until the end of the phase" have gone away before that Forced effect triggers.

Hum, if it is at the end of the phase, maybe you can't benefit from bonus as you say.

Discussion here:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/248142-the-dead-marshes-sneak-attack/

Although I think the passive > forced ruling is well-argued, I still think the end-of-phase magically un-ending for the duration of the escape test is contrived. The intuitive answer would be that the escape test happening at the end of the phase is still happening *within* the phase, and effects that last until the end of the phase are terminated by the phase *actually ending*. Alas, that's not the ruling.

The whole problem could have been avoided by interpreting "until" as inclusive of the end state instead of exclusive of the end state. This is usual in English, for example "taxpayers have until April 15th to file their tax returns." You *may* file tax returns on the 15th, it is only the *16th* that it becomes late.

14 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

The whole problem could have been avoided by interpreting "until" as inclusive of the end state instead of exclusive of the end state. This is usual in English, for example "taxpayers have until April 15th to file their tax returns."

I agree with you, that to me "until the end of the phase" and "at the end of the phase" sounds like it is still happening within the phase.

But it appears that the official ruling is that it does not, and that Felswrath was mistaken, if I read everything correctly.

My suggestion is that they should have said that the escape test occurs BETWEEN the quest phase and the travel phase. Can't get much clearer than that.