On Journey in the Dark, if the final damage on Doom, Doom, Doom is removed during staging (Fool of a Took, Moria Orc, etc) the Balrog does not enter play immediately, correct? Only per Doom, Doom, Doom's end of quest phase effect?

If the balrog never enters play, then do I only have to choose two burdens? The campaign card reads "If the Balrog is STILL in play," so I wasn't sure.

Totally unrelated: Is the second core set quest Journey Down the Anduin, or Journey Along the Anduin? My quest cards say Along, but the core rulebook says Down...

7 minutes ago, Bobbymcbobface said:

Is the second core set quest Journey Down the Anduin, or Journey Along the Anduin? My quest cards say Along, but the core rulebook says Down...

As you pointed out, it is called both.

Personally, because the Wilds of Rhovanion quest is called Journey Up the Anduin, I've finally settled on calling the core set quest Journey Down the Anduin for symmetry's sake. YMMV.

Balrog will only enter play as a result of his Forced effect at the end of the quest phase, you're right.

And if you manage to rush rush rush and finish the scenario before he comes out, you only have to choose two burdens. Yay! Hard to accomplish though.

Here's a funny question. Doom, Doom, Doom says:

Shadow. Flame.

Forced: At the end of the quest phase, remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom. Then, if there are no damage tokens here, add The Balrog to the staging area. Forced: At the end of the quest phase, The Balrog makes an attack if it is in play.

So... if there are no tokens (because they got removed via card effects), you FAIL to remove one via the Forced effect right? Then, the "then" clause shouldn't fire.... And the Balrog should never enter play, right? What am I missing?

I wanted to point this out as well.

That was addressed in this thread, which amusingly features GrandSpleen 😀

Hah! My dwarf beard grows too long.