Is there anything that prevents heroes who have already accomplished their goals in a dungeon from sitting in town, taking turns at the temple healing until full health, then announcing a succesful flee?

This is minorly aggravating. I intentionally left the heroes alive at around 3-4 health each so they would burn one more turn on the overworld map healing, and I could play siege engines and they would be out of range to stop me from razing two cities in line with each other, but instead I lost the chance to kill three of them as they all healed and promptly chased away both of my Lts.

Am I missing something somewhere that disuades this?

There's nothing in the rules to prevent this.

There's also nothing in the rules to prevent you from leaving them alive with 3-4 health each which I expect was every bit as annoying for them when they saw what you were doing until they thought of a way round it.

There's also nothing in the rules to prevent you from just killing them whcih would have got you a much better result.

Yeah, the worst part was they didn't see that I had done it intentionally, but decided to heal as they were leaving anyway. It goes back to that as the OL you must kill when presented with the opportunity. Which is sad, because I like to have a variety of strategies available and subvert plans in creative ways.

The only thing about them fleeing, of course, is that they end up back at Tamalir, but depending on the situation, that's not really a bad thing, is it?

Well, at the end of the legendary dungeons, there is no option but to leave via a glyph, and as long as there is nothing left for them to gain from the dungeon, I can't really make them take a flee can I?

I can't stress this enough to my players, but every turn they linger in a dungeon is another turn that I get to draw cards and generate threath to mess with them. The literal reading of the "The Portal" section of RtL the players must leave as soon as one player has entered the portal and no heroes are still on the board. I'd stress this to the players to keep 1 person in the dungeon at all times, or to pile on obstacles for when they do make a push for the portal.

I once blocked the portal with a swarm of kobolds which the party ended up not making it past and drawing the fight out long enough for me to score an extra kill. Pit traps and crushing block traps are also hilarious to drop on situations where the players are barely going to make it to the door and you stop them halfway only to get pounced on by dark priests.

Once they've killed the leader there isn't a whole left to drop on the players but if you keep hitting them you'll probably pull off 1 or 2 more kills before they finally manage to leave.

On a related topic, I recently had a discussion with my players about effect tokens disappearing after a dungeon. I argued as OL that effects don't disappear after a dungeon, so a hero would keep his frost token. effects like burn or (somehow possibly, not sure) web this would be almost as possible. How does everyone else handle this?

Neostrider said:

I agree with you on a literal reading of the Portal section. People (including myself until you pointed this out) have been confused by the fleeing the dungeon section specifically saying the heroes must announce they are fleeing. However fleeing and portalling are very different.

Lingering effects - FAQ pg 10

Q: What happens to lingering effects (Bleed, Burn, Curse, Poison, etc.) when an encounter ends?
A: At the end of an encounter or dungeon (but not a dungeon level) all lingering effect tokens are removed from all heroes with the following exceptions: Poison and Curse tokens stay. (Note, however, that Red Scorpion’s healing power means that she will heal all her Poison tokens and then continue to heal until she is at her maximum wounds.)

It is marginally silly to suggest that effects which wear off quickly over time, and usually within a few short dungeon turns, wouldn't automatically wear off over the next 7 days worth of considerably more relaxed travelling or resting. OTOH, the good Temple Acolytes bandage right over flames and webs etc without affecting them, so anything is possible.

Neostrider said:

I agree, noting my players will often spend an extra turn between dungeon levels to restore their fatigue, and trips to the temple during this time are not uncommon as well. The key thing is that at least one adventurer has to remain in the dungeon for the level to still be active. During this time, I'm accumulating threat and picking up nice trap cards

I feel that it is within the spirit of the rules, so it hasn't worried me.

GeminiWeb said:

Actually, as long as the heroes choose not to flee, all of them can be in Tamilir with no one actually IN the dungeon. Of course, Kevin threw in the rule that they automatically flee after the OL goes through his deck the third time.

Oboewan said:

Actually the point is that once a hero has gone through the portal there is an automatic end to them being in that dungeon level. If there are no hero's left then the level is over, they proceed to the next level. If the level they were on is the 3rd level then they have a choice of staying at the overland location they are at, or going to Tamalir.

If the pary flees the dungeon strictly through the glyphs, they can wait as long as they want before ending the dungeon. If they have cleared the level and want to heal before leaving they have two choices. If they are going to go to Tamalir anyway they just retreate to the glyph, pay the temple until fully healed and that's it. If they want to stay at the location they are at, one of the hero's must go through the portal. Once that happens the level is automatically over if no players are in the dungeon. To heal everybody up then is going to require one hero to go through the portal, preferably after everybody is healed. In the meantime the hero's need to cycle through town to get the temple to heal them or buy more healing potions. The downside to this is that the overlord does get a chance to hit the hero's one more time, especailly if he can play a card like dark charm, or the power card Sloth and Gluttony. Once everyone is done the one hero will need to move to the portal. This gives the OL another chance to hurt a hero by using traps.

Everything above assumed that the hero's were able to place at least 2 hero's in a location that made spawning difficult or impossible. If three hero's need to stay on the board to prevent spawning then things get harder as it will take considerably longer to get people healed, and at least one other hero is going to have to move to get to the glyph for any healing they may need.

Brian

Even with only 2 heroes going to town at a time to keep LOS in the dungeon there are still plenty of corners to hide in (in most anyway. Graveyard is a pain to keep the heroes from blocking LOS in). Traps are a hilarious way of making all their turns wasted as they spend 1 turn to gain 5 or 7 health just to have you drop a crushing block on them for anywhere from 4-8 damage (averaging almsot 2.5-6 damage).

The key point to make is that 1 character must move through the portal, and once that happens there must always be a hero in the dungeon or its over. So the four state after the leader has died are:

A)Everyone in town healing

B)some people in town and some in dungeon.

c)some people on the board and 1 went through the portal

or D) 1 went through the portal and no one else is on the board

note that D means the dungeon is over, and A-C are all at risk situations. A leaves LOS open anywhere for the OL to spawn. B leaves some people in danger of being hit while alone or trapped if they are moving and/or resting (nothing is worse than taking a rest and finding yourself wakings youself up with a sword in the gut), and C is slightly safer than B but still leaves people alone in the dungeon.