I recently completed Seeds of Corruption’s interlude (“The Archive”) for a second time.
Please be aware that this post contains spoilers for Seeds of Corruption.
It is a very long quest. It’s quite similar to a standard two-encounter quest, albeit without the heroic feat refresh and the fatigue recovery.
The first part is the party’s first real entrance into the Black Realm. (Or the Ynfearnal, I can’t quite keep it straight). This comes after their taste of it at the end of either of the second story quests.
The flavor text has Tristayne’s execution happening outside the building. (I really liked this callback to Shadow of Nerekhall’s introduction, which takes place moments after the execution)
When Tristayne does not die and chaos ensues, Celia gets the party into the Black Realm to search for the archive. (Though the quests and background are different, this reminded me of a Nerekhall quest where Celia helped the heroes locate information on the incident in Nerekhall’s past).
The first portion of the quest has the heroes wandering a small section of the black realm, until they stumble across a strange portal leading them to the archive. (There is a very claustrophobic use of a secret room tile here).
The Archive is an Ironbound. I appreciate how this helps grow the idea that not every monster is against the heroes (this is played with in several other quests in Descent’s massive catalogue).
In the second portion, the heroes come face to face with Mirklace in his Act 2 version, which is one of the more fearsome lieutenants. This leads to a desperate rush to the exit with the slow, slow, slow Archive.
The post-quest events have a great deal of input from the heroes regarding what to do with the Archive.
It’s a thrilling quest, and I’ve run into major perils each time I’ve played it. It might be the best cooperative quest I’ve played.
