Given that fact that several threads has posed questions about what OLs play styles are like, how effective they are, and if the game is shifted to favor the Heroes of the Overlord, I thought I would post a log summarizing one of the campaigns I am presently playing (because I don't think anyone cares to read about all four).

First off, the Heroes :

Ashrian, the Spiritspeaker

Avric Albright, the Disciple

Jain Fairwood, the Thief

Widow Tarha, the Necromancer

That's right, there's no Warrior, and interesting choice, no? While I recognize the advantage of having two healers, the lack of a dedicated heavy hitter can be problematic.

First Blood

As is often the case with First Blood, this did not go well for the Overlord. Jain used her Feat to move into the crossroads, kill a Goblin, then continue to place herself near the Search token by the water.

I quickly lost another Goblin to the Reanimate, while Tarha and Avric positioned themselves to start wailing on Ettins.

That very much set the tone of things to come. Goblins double-moved, doing their best to clear the map, but Jain did an excellent job of preventing them from doing so, letting only two slip by her.

The 4-7 attacks a round from the other Heroes made short work of the Minion Ettin, and then Mauler.

Victory: Heroes

Reflections: So, this Quest is very obviously designed to get everyone's feet wet. The differing Victory objectives gives each side of the tables something different to focus on, but without being able to ignore what the other is doing. It introduces the idea of named monsters, and a Master Ettin can dish out some serious hurt.
That being said, I still feel that this adventure is very powerfully geared in favor of the Heroes. All that Heroes have to do is occupy a couple of the spaces in the crossroad tile, and suddenly Mauler (and/or his minion) have very few movement options. I had come into this with the realiziation that if I could get Mauler to block entrance to the water tile, I might win this. Sadly, he never had the opportunity to do so.

XP Spending

Ashrian: Shared Pain

Avric: Armor of Faith

Tarha: Fury of Undeath

Jain: Sneaky

OL: Unholy Ritual

Castle Daerion (Heroes Choice)
Encounter 1

Monsters: I chose Marriod and Flesh Moulders as my open groups. The Marriod went on the River's Edge, blocking the way to the Search token and beacon, and intending to use their reach and Immobilize to slow down the Heroes. That leaves the Flesh Moulders to start in the Cabin, and use their greater mobility to kill as many villagers as they can, using their Mending and Heal to stay alive.

I note that is impossible for the OL to set up the monsters in the River's Edge to block the door to the Gatehouse completely. Note that, to my understanding, Monsters must be placed on the tile specified in the Quest instructions. There is a small connector tile separating the River's Edge from the Gatehouse, meaning that diagonal movement around a blocker here is always possible before the OL's first turn.

The general strategy of mine as OL was simply to ignore the Heroes as much as possible, and do my best to kill as many Villagers as I could before they lit the beacons.
Now, it's been a little while since we played this, but I seem to recall killing two of them before all the beacons were lit.

Encounter 2

Monsters: For the open group here, I went with Goblin Archers, and placed them bunched up at the top of the stairs as a blockade. The Ettins were both placed as close to the end of the hallway as I could manage, and the Zombies (2 of them) were placed between the squares of blocking rubble.

This actually went very swiftly. On their first turn, the Heroes moved up, attacked Goblins, Searched, and generally cleared a path into the Throne Room. As expected, the Goblins were little more than a speedbump.

However, on my first turn, I was able to get both Ettins into striking range of Sir Palamon, and they began to wail. The Quest then became a case of the Heroes trying desperately to beat on the attackers before they killed him. Sadly, some misses on their part, and some poor defense rolls for Palamon meant that the old man was dead before the end of my 3rd turn. I believe he died with 3 fatigue tokens on him, having successfuly reinforced 3 times.

Victory: Overlord

Reflections: I very much like Encounter 1 of this Quest. It gives the Heroes something new to worry about (bystanders), while making the goal about accomplishing something, rather than killing. Encounter 2, on the other hand, I'm having issues with. I have played this Quest twice now, once as OL, and once as Hero, and I find it horribly in favor of the OL. Despite his 25 health, Palamon dies very quickly when assailed by so many foes, who are under no compulsion to do anything but kill him. However, I think the solution is simple: An eratta that ups his defense from grey+brown to grey+grey. That would do it, I think.

XP Spending

Ashrian: Drain Spirit

Avric: -- (decided to bank XP)

Tarha: --

Jain: --

OL: Dark Fortitude and Word of Pain

Next time: The Cardinal's Plight

Well, the first problem I see is about house ruling two of the same classes when rules state only one class per player. Since I skimmed through and saw that you won the Castle Darion quest, this is probably why, no warrior class which helps balance the game out.

Nice log. Keep them coming.

Coldmoonrising said:

The rules say you can't have 2 characters playing the same class. This party isn't doing that. They have 2 people playng the same archetype (Healer) which is fine. There would be problems if they both wanted to play a Disciple, for example.

Warrior is not a class, it is an Archtype.

Rules state that you cannot have two of the same classes (2 necros), but 2 same Archtypes (2 casters) is completely legal unless I missed something.

Once again another spot I thought I had right but after looking over the rules it says nothing about playing the same archetype. So I'm sorry for assuming having two healer types was incorrect.

It's been a while since we actually played these first few Quests, which were done in one marathon session two Saturdays ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on some details. Speficially, through shopping and searching, the party acquired an Elm Greatbow, which went to Jain; an Iron Battleaxe, which went to Ashrian; and a Steel Broadsword, which went to Avric.

The Cardinal's Plight

Encounter 1

For the open group, I chose Shadow Dragons. I'm rather fond of them, and I thought this quest would give them some room to move, and gives the heroes a bit of a scare at the beginning.

The Overlord's strategy here is obvious. Merick raises a zombie every chance he gets (with Knowledge 4, pretty likely, but I planned to save any Dark Fortune's I happen to draw as a backup), the zombies march out when the can, and I used Shadow Dragons to block the heroes when possible. I planned to use the Flesh Moulders to attacks heroes, with the master Moulder ideally healing dragons.

I tried to block the players moving out of the Ruins with the Master Shadow Dragon, but the players were clever enough to notice that they could move through the corner by the rubble. Jain used her Feat to zip past the dragons, and get up into the Caravan, killing the master Moulder (there goes that idea), and then killing a second Moulder (the players having decided that searching while surrounded by Moulders may not have been the best thing). The other players also realize that attacking the dragons is pointless, and go around them through the rubble, getting into the corridor, and setting up a rear guard.

The master Dragon moves up to the corridor and attacks some heroes. What ever. Merick starts his summoning, and taking pot shots through the barrier at heroes. I don't think he ever got the range to hit any.

On the second round of hero turns, with close to half of the Moulder threat gone (or more, my memory's a bit fuzzy), they decide to start searching, and immediately find the Relic of Dawn.

Well, that changes everything. Merick's only raised one zombie, and now he's wide open. The other heroes quickly take out the remaining Moulders, again not wishing them to come from behind.

I am able to surprise the players with a nimble Shadow Dragon, slipping between them and blocking the way, while the other boxes Jain in the caravan tile.

What follows is the heroes trying to kill the Dragon and get to Merick before he can march off his zombie hoard. Nothing much to say, except that Merick got three zombies off the board before he got taken down.

Victory: Heroes

Encounter 2

Open groups, I choose Barghest, Goblin Archers, and… … you know, I honestly don't remember… I never used them… maybe Flesh Moulders?

Okay, again, the Overlord strategy here is obvious. I planted the Barghest in the Chapel, figuring that their Howl could slow the heroes down. Zombies (3 minions and a Master) will obviously wail away on Koth for as long as they can.

On their first turn, the heroes did well, taking out a Minion Barghest, and slipping Jain through the hall just on the other side of the door to the stairs, using her Feat and a move.

Avric double moves down to the Altar, while Ashrian and Tarha battle Barghests.

Then comes a full round of terrible defense rolls on the part of Cardinal Koth. I inflicted, I think, close to 10 damage on him with the four Zombies, having the Master Frenzy for a second attack.

Avric, of course, activates the Altar, and is successful, getting Koth a bit of a respite. Jain open the door, finding Goblin Archers, searches (**** ranged searching), and finds the Rune Key. The other Barghests are butchered.

Well jeez, I think, maybe they've got a shot after all.

Then Koth gets another round of lousy defense rolls (and another Frenzying Master). He's got 1 health left.

Another activation of the Altar, and Koth might survive. The heroes amass at the door, and open it.

Zombies kill Koth.

Kind of anticlimactic, but sometimes that's how it goes.

Victory: Overlord

XP Spending

Ashrian: Drain spirit

Avric: Divine Fury

Tarha: Vampiric Blood

Jain: Tumble

Overlord: Blood Rage, and I get the Staff of Shadows

Shopping:

Party acquires an Iron Shield, which goes to Avric; and Chainmail, which goes to Widow Tarha.

I believe that searching in this Quest was also where they found the Mana Weave, which was given to Ashrian.

Coldmoonrising said:

The reason for this is that there is only one set of ability/starting equipment cards for each class, not to mention the reanimate token. So only one of each class is possible unless you have multiple sets of the base game or want to write each ability card on pieces of paper.

I made the critical error of assuming that FFGs wanted us to only play one archetype per player to have one of each kind where having less players left one+ archetype out. Again, I will have to correct my mistakes with my group of friends and go from there. Here's hoping my streak ends here.

On the other side, having multiples of the archetype could cause potential issues with shopping for gear, that's the only down side I see.

I realized that I neglected to post my reflection on The Cardinal's Plight.

I like this Quest, both for the Overlord and for the Heroes. I think it is one the most well balanced Quests I have played. Encounter 1 gives the Overlord a goal that seems very simple, and he's pretty much assured to get at least 2 zombies of the map (unless his dice completely screw him, which will happen now and again)… but some quick and lucky heroes can put a serious kink in his plans.

As for Encounter 2, the Cardinal's decent defense roll, plus the ability to heal him, should make the scenario entire winnable by the Heroes. We all agreed that they had a decent mechanical shot at winning, but the dice just didn't agree. Crap happens sometimes when you deal with dice.

KristoffStark, I like your synopsis of both quests. I too find that there is more now for both sides of the game to focus on rather then just kill or be killed. I had a chance to play a 1v1 with my brother on those two you've gone over so far. The only problem he had was that I messed up a rule that I glanced over and made it "hard mode" for him.

I was using both action points on the monsters to attack which I found out was a no-no. In retrospect, I think doing what I accidentally did would be a great alteration to the game later on when my group has had a few plays through the campaign mode. Hard Mode: monsters can use both actions to attack, lol.

After looking at the "A Fat Goblin" Encounter 2 Quest map with my wife (we're about to play a game) I have discovered that I am a complete tool.

I have been OL in this Quest three times now. Every single time, I have missed that there are doors.

Coldmoonrising said:

A Fat Goblin

Our Third Act 1 Quest, though with two wins under my belt already, the Interlude is decided.

Encounter 1

For my open group, I choose Marriod. Same reasoning as with Encounter 1 of Castle Daerion. In a race Quest, Immobilize is fun and powerful.

The OL strategy here is simple: Double-move+Dash when possible, steal as much as you can, ignore everything else.

The heroes managed to very quickly punch a hole through the Marriod blocking line (Wow, are Vampiric Blood and Tumble great upgrades) and Jain and Tarha are almost to the farm.

Not really much more to explain here. Marriod reinforces (and the hilarious part is that the closest place for him to spawn was right back where he started), and he and his Master whack some heroes, Goblins grab crops, heroes grab crops, Jain tries very hard to chase down goblins, there are some fumbles, and some recoveries… at the end of it all, Goblins have acquired 2 bundles, heroes have saved 2.

On to the dungeon!

Encounter 2

For the Open Group, I choose Shadow Dragons. Maybe I overuse these guys, but I dig dragons. Besides, the high health and Shadow might slow these dudes down, not to mention the Fire Breath.

I have a tendency to place the Master Spider near the exit to a tile, or in a space where the heroes will have to go passed, usually protected by his minions. That seemed to work relatively well here, as the heroes were so eager to move on that after killing 1 minion, tried to just go, running into the web radius.
Didn't last long, of course, but it made me smile.

Now, as I mentioned in a previous post, I had completely failed to notice the DOORS, and did not place them. Yes, this means that the Goblin Archers got to the prisoners a little faster than the should have, but the heroes also didn't have to open the doors at the cave either.

Anyway… so Splig starts interrogating in OL turn 2, and finds a red token.

Heroes clear out the spiders, and move on to engage the Master Dragon, which has come up to meet them.

Splig finds another red token (having to use the Staff of Shadows to reroll).
The dragon gets in 1 good Fire Breath targeting the Reanimiate and two Heroes before he is dropped, despite Dark Fortitude.

Splig fails his interrogation check (having used the Staff of Shadows).
Minion Dragon does minor damage.

Heroes take out minion dragon. Jain's Elm Greatbow and the Reanimate have made short work of both dragons.

Splig finds third red token (Odd probability observation: having now done this Quest three times, Frederick has always been either first, or last.)

Heroes spend their next turn in relative leisure. They realize that all they need to do now is stop Splig from getting out, so they do some searching and start setting up a blockade. A tripwire, however, ensure that their blockade has a hole in it. Ashrian, the grumble, grumble, uses her newly acquired Immolation Rune (a product of searching) to attack a Goblin Archer, killing him, and using Shared Pain to deal 1 dmg to every other Goblin Archer. Well, of course, that half kills most of them.

Splig finds Frederick, Whoop-di-doo, and takes some movement, his Goblins in tow.

Another Shared pain against the Master Arches eliminates all remaining Goblins, but a tripwire stops them from completing their blockade again.

One attack against the Reanimate later, and Splig is dashing on his way to the exit.

Sadly, he is run down and butchered by vicious heroes.

Victory: Heroes

XP Spending:

Ashrian: -- (bank)

Avric: --

Tarha: --

Jain: --

Overlord: --

Shopping: nothing, leaving the heroes with a banked 325 gold.

Reflections: It might be tempting to say that this Quest is too easy for the Heroes, except that I've seen it go worse for them. While never being able to get all 4 crop bundles in Encounter 1, I did manage 3 once due to bad rolls, and the Heroes not quite realizing how fast Goblins are. As for Encounter 2, the lack of reinforcements might make it seem too easy, but really, if the OL plays his cards right, Splig should have a good chance of getting out of there, even if he finds Frederick last. Dark Fortune and Dash can make all the difference here. From his STARTING position, there are only 18 squares of movement between Splig and off the map, and he can cut that down a bit by moving closer to the edge of the Torture Chamber tile. His Knockback (save a Dark Might) can knock a hole in just about any blockade. Twice I've seen him without one turn of getting out before being killed.

So now, I eagerly look forward to the Interlude, The Overlord Revealed!

As we were setting up, we realized that we actually hadn't done the the XP Spending and Shopping phases after the last quest because it was late and most of us worked the next day.

So…

XP Spending

Ashrian: Nature's Bounty

Avric: --

Tarha: --

Jain: --

Overlord: --

Shopping

The player's purchased a Ring of Power, which was given to Avric Albright.

Interlude 2, the Overlord Revealed.

For my three open groups, I chose Shadow Dragons (which I put in the Dragon's Lair, a nice big place where they can move around), Cave Spiders (the Lava Cave, a tight space where they can block Runelock access), and Flesh Moulders (Sewer, where they'll probably get some ranged attacks at people approaching them).

First off, a bit of a rules weirdness. The game specifies that only a master monster, or Baron Zachareth may pick up the Shadow Key. However, it also say that "a figure," which would include heroes, may place it in an adjacent empty space by spending an action. So, while they cannot carry it, the heroes can sort of toss it around.

It is decided that they will toss the key around into the angled corridor leading to the Dragon's Lair, as this is a more defensible position.

Ashrian realizes that if she takes full move and lots of fatigue, she can make it to the Runelock of Power, and attempt to activate it. (I didn't place the Dragons to block off access to the Lair) She does so, but fails the activation test. The other heroes position the Shadow Key and themselves so that they block access to it nicely.

The master spider and flesh moulder approach so that they can swipe they key should the opportunity arise, the minion dragon blocks off the Lair, isolating Ashrian, and the master munches on her a bit.

Ashrian immediately actives the Runelock, revealing the green token. So, no dragon reinforcements, and enter Baron, Zachareth. I had informed the heroes that a Lieutenant was going to make an appearance, but I didn't say who, so Zachareth's arrival was met by a chorus of "That bastard!" It was awesome.

The Baron gets his interrupt activation, moves up to Ashrian, and takes a swipe. Miss. The heroes realize that it really is in their best interests to just flip the Runelocks as quickly as possible. Jain uses her feat, and some fatigue to get to the Runelock of Cunning, Tumbling past some Flesh Moulders, and activates it, sealing the red portal. No spider reinforcements. The remaining heroes kill the minion spider.

What follows after this are several rounds of heroes moving about, moving the Key about, chasing and defeating Zachareth when he gets the key (mostly through the Reanimate, who's Vampiric Blood makes him a goon; and Sir Avirc, who's Divine Fury and steel broadsword makes him a goon), and both sides generally being frustrated with apparent lack of progress.

Obviously, the heroes got someone over to the Runelock of Strength as quickly as possible, realizing that if they activated it, they win. Trouble was, no warrior. The entire group has a Might of 2. Jain, however, has a Lucky Charm, and so can reroll an attribute test, giving her 3 rolls (basically) a turn if she doesn't have to do anything else. Her tumble let her get to the Runelock pretty easily, though the spiders had a habit of killing her every now and again. Ashrian eventually moved in to help, but that left just Tarha and Avric to deal with Zachareth.

For me as Overlord this pretty much came down to: I likely only have a few rounds to try to grab that key and get out before Jain or Tarha eventually succeeds. Unfortunately for me, they did an excellent job of ensuring that Zachareth couldn't get very far at a time.

In the end, Jain succeeds, and activates the final Runelock.

Victory: Heroes

Heroes receive The Shadow Rune giving, us 1 Relic each.

XP Spending:

Ashrian: --

Avric: --

Jain: Tarha: --

Jain: Unseen

Overlord: Bloodlust.

Shopping : we decided to put this off until next time, as it was late again (total game time, about about 3 hours)

Reflections: I actually found this to be a rather frustrating quest. Within the first 3 turns, I think, I was left with only 1 group I could reinforce (and Zachareth, and as such the heroes never attacked it. The heroes did an excellent job of blocking my access to the Shadow Key after Zachareth was taken down the first time (he'd made it into the Cave with the Key in his position, but was defeated… her heroes moved it back into the corridor and blocked it off). Yeah, Zachareth's Dominion could have moved one of them, but then he'd only have one action to pick up the Key with, and likely get dropped again quickly, so I was forced to try to create an opportunity for him with monsters/OL cards, and it just didn't work out.

But this is when we discovered the really downside to no warrior: low might, and sometimes, just sometimes, you need it. I think it took 8 or 9 rolls to activate that last Runelock.

We've played this one (Fat Goblin) twice and the Overlord won both times. First time it took 2 tries to find Fredrick and second time it took 3. First time the Overlord place Splig next to the door where the open group is placed (he still had 1 Shadow Dragon left). On his turn, he opened the door with goblins and poked a hole in their "wall". Then dashed Splig down the hall and blocked it with the remaining Shadow Dragon (Movement for the large monsters is a little strange and can be used for blocking hallways easily).

The second time, the Overlord almost did not make it out but managed to get lucky on a few defense rolls and survive the onslaught from the heroes.

First off, the shopping that we delayed from last time.

The remaining Act I shop cards are dealt out.

It is decided that the Chainmail should go from Widow Tarha to Avric Alright, as the Widow will now be using The Shadow Rune.

Purchased from the Act I shop is a suit of Leather Armor, which goes to Tarha. The decision is made to bank the party gold in anticipation of the Act II shop.

Hero choice: The Monster's Horde
Encounter 1

For my open group, I chose Cave Spiders. Not only are they mobile, to dodge between heroes to get at Frederick, I love the master spider's Web.

Breaking out Act II monsters for the first time, I note the power upgrade that they've received. I like it. The extra attack (and in some cases, defense) dice sure can go a long way.

The strategy developed by the heroes is what one might expect: keep Frederick in the middle of the group, send out Jain or Ashrian to do Searching. But first, of course, they need to cross the river, which slows them all down.

The Marriod block off the exits from The River's Edge, forcing the heroes to engage them. The Master is taken down in a flurry of attack rolls, even with it's improved defense, and searching is done. The River's Edge token, and the token just south as searched. No luck.
That means the Rune Key has to be the one in the far south. The minion Marriod does some damage as it's Master starts to make it's way back from the Entrance, and the spiders shuffle around to block entrance to the Caravan.

The heroes amass in front of the door with Frederick mostly protected (the minion Marriod had been keeping Avric immobilized, but failed to do so this time).
However, the Master Marriod double-moves forward and Frenzy Flails, killing both Tarha and Jain.

Avric kills the minion Marriod, then his Heroic Feat gets everyone back on their feat and healed, the door is opened, and Jain advances. Tarha and her Reanimate make short work of the master Marriod, and Ashrian begins moving along the south passage to surround the spiders.
Two spiders advance and kill Jain, tearing through her single grey defense die rather quickly, but none can reach Frederick. The Master Marriod reinforces, and Dashes across the river.

Avric's Prayer of Healing revives Jain, who promptly steps back and closes the door. (This was an agreed upon rules call. While the Quest specifies that once the Rune Key is acquired, the door may be "opened by any hero, like any other door," it is less clear on it being closed. Other quest have mentioned locked doors being removed from the map when opened; since this one does not, we agreed it could be closed). The rest of the heroes spend the turn drinking potions and otherwise reviving themselves in preparation of opening the door again and assaulting the spiders. The Master Spider reinforces, and they both advance, the master shredding the Reanimate along the way.

The door is opened again, close spiders are killed, and all heroes (and Frederick) pass the door.
The recently reinforced Marriod and spider give chase, but cannot catch up. The other Marriod is reinforced. Spiders attack remaining heroes, and one of them gets a swipe in on Frederick, dealing six damage.

The next hero turn is a massacre of spiders. All spiders left on the Caravan die, leaving the heroes to calmly search on their way out, as the monsters remaining cannot hope to catch them. Frederick escapes.

Victory: Heroes

Encounter 2

This is an incredibly funky setup. I choose Elementals and the Cave Spiders again for my open groups, putting the Elementals in the Armory (on top of the Glyph), and spiders in the Lava Cave (also on the Glyph).

Turn one, Ashrian moves down and Shared Pain's the spiders. No fatailites, but a bit of damage. The Jain moves down and Searches… and FINDS TRUESHOT. Fricken' hell! (I should explain something. I know that in this case, I could have chosen to put the bow anywhere I wanted, but I chose to assign it randomly. Why? Because it gets rid of that irritating "well, if I were him, I'd have put it way over there… but we have to assume he knows that we know, so that's means…" garbage. This sometimes benefits me (previous Encounter), and sometimes screws me (this Encounter). Oh well.) So now all the hero's have to do is get Jain out of the dungeon, which is no difficult thing given her Heroic Feat, and possession of Tumble.
Tarha moves up and engages the Elementals, doing some damage to the Minion. Avric moves up onto the nearest Glyph, so I can't reinforce a Goblin onto it.
I reinforce the Master Goblin in the upper right Glyph.
The Spiders cast a Dark Ritual, getting me a nice mitt full of cards to add to the ones I got from last Encounter.
I Dash and Frenzy the master Elemental, getting it down all the way to Jain, allowing it to use Fire against her, Ashrian, and Tarha; twice. My first attack roll goes badly, so I used some OL cards to buff it (the one that adds a +3 heart Surge, don't remember the name), as well as Dark Fortune-ing one of the die rolls. The second roll goes a bit better, but Jain still survives (the other two did as well, but she was the one I cared about).
The minion moves to block the passage, and does some minor damage to Tarha.
The Master Goblin moves over and blocks the Glyph in the Armory.
The spiders converge on Jain and Ashrian, but can't attack.

Tarha and her Reanimate kill the minion Elemental. Ashrian feeds Jain a Health Potion, and a Stamina Potion, undoing the Master Elementals beautiful work.
Jain starts moving. I throw a Tripwire in her was as a last-ditch effort to stop her. To no avail, she passes, finishes her move. She then activates her Feat, motoring it towards the exit, spends two Fatigue, and she's off the board.

Game ends in turn 2.

Victory: Heroes , they receive Trueshot. All players get 1 XP

XP Spending:
Ashrian: --
Avric: Radiant Light
Tarha: Army of Death
Jain: Appraisal
Overlord: --

Shopping:
Instead of detailing the shopping and trading, I'll just let you know what every hero ended up with:
Ashrian: A Grinding Axe, Mana Weave, and the Lightning Strike rune.
Avric: An Elm Greatbow, Ring of Power, Chaimail, Heavy Steel Shield, and the Mace of Kelos
Tarha: Immolation rune, The Shadow Rune, Leather Armor
Jain: Trueshot

Reflections:
Obviously, this quest could have gone better for me. Encounter 1… my players have gotten very good at protecting things. It's very difficult for me to get around them to attack or grab something, even with agile monsters. I'm not sure what I could have done better here.
In Encounter 2… okay, to all my brother and sister Overlords: NEVER EVER EVER PUT TRUESHOT THERE. I don't care if your heroes expect it or not. Just don't. It's too easy to get out from there. Put it in the far right corner. Every time. I don't care if the heroes expect it, or go right for it. There's still a lot of space between their start and that token, and that token and the Exit.
I also recognize that if my attack rolls had been better, the Master Elemental would have killed at least Jain, possibly Ashrian and Avric as well, and that would have slowed them down severely.
Ah well, live and learn.

Heroes Choice: The Twin Idols

Encounter 1

For my Open Group, I choose Goblin Archers. I figure their high base movement and scamper will help them get the idol to its goal.

And that basically outlines my strategy. Try to get the idol to its goal as quickly as possible, while tying up the heroes with Ettins.

Well, Ashrian moves out in range of the Goblins, then uses her Lightning Strike rune along with Shared Pain, and kills every single goblin in one strike, except the master, who was carrying the idol. But he's hurting. Other heroes fan out towards Search Tokens.

One goblin reinforces, and they make their way as far as they can, with the minion doing a little damage. The minion Ettin runs across the pit and starts whacking at heroes, while Zak'n'Jak (the master) hangs back.

Jain searches, and finds the key, then tumbles her way past the minion to end her movement adjacent to Zak'n'Jak near the door. Avric searches and gets some item. Tarha summons her Reanimate to whack at the minion Ettin, and Ashrian kills the master Goblin, forcing him to drop his idol.

Well, the master Goblin reinforces, and he and his buddy motor down, one of them scooping up the idol. They're about half way to their goal, and I think I might actually have a shot at this. Zak'n'Jak tries to throw Jain (the idea being to put her in the pit so she has to burn an action getting out. Except the lovely 2 might Scout passes her test after using her lucky charm. Sadly, I can now no longer stop the heroes from winning, which is what they do.

Jain tumbles, uses Sneaky to open the door for free, and activates the Idol of the Sun. Encounter over.

Victory: Heroes.

Encounter 2

I decide that I need some heavy hitters to guard the Sun Totem, so I bring Ettins back to the party.

The heroes and I develop the same strategy: Leave a couple figs behind the guard the Totem, while the others go to snag the other Totem.

Ashrian and Tarha wipe the zombies off the board first thing, then Jain and Avric start making their way to the Graveyard via different paths.

Reinforce the Zombie Master. Lady Eliza starts her way to the Pond, while Ettins block entrance to the Graveyard, and the Zombie Master shambles into the River's Edge.

To sum up the next several rounds of gameplay: Jain tumbles past the Ettins multiple times but she can't get to the totem and back past the Ettins in one action. The Ettins then promptly kill her, forcing her to respawn on the Muddy Path. Lady Eliza hits hard enough to punch through the Ashrian/Tarha wall the heroes set up, and get to the totem… but she is then promptly killed and respawns in the Rocky Pass.

This Encounter quickly becomes a war of attrition, with reinforced Zombies slowly making their way towards the pond (being largely ignored) while Jain and Avric fight Ettins (and sometimes Lady Eliza as she goes past). Lady Eliza, for her part, fights valiantly to get her hands on that totem, but is repeatedly taken down.

It becomes apparent to all players that this could go on as is for some time. It really sort of came down to who had really crappy/awesome rolls one round. Unfortunately for everyone's favorite Overlord, the heroes had a round of awesome rolls. Jain was able to (barely) survive an Ettin beating after snagging the totem. Avric and Jain are able to kill the minion Ettin, clearing the path for Jain to get out, which she does using her Heroic Feat, putting her all the way back on the Ambush Site.
Eliza reinforces. She Dashes and Fenzies, running all the way down to the Ambush Site, and she kills Jain. Sadly, it is too little, too late. Ashrian picks up the totem, and is able to get away before anything of note occurs.

Victory: Heroes.

XP spending:

Ashrian: Vigor and Healing Rain
Avric: --
Tarha: Dark Pact
Jain: --
Overlord: Dark Resiliance

Shopping:

The heroes purchase an Iron Bound Ring for Jain, and a Tival Crystal for Tarha

Reflections: I'm not quite sure what I make of this quest. It seems to me that winning Encounter 1 as the Overlord is a real challenge. But the only reward for him doing so is going first in the next Encounter, something which is only vaguely useful.
As for Encounter 2. Hmm. The Zombies are next to useless. Except for the master, they're still rolling B+Y attack against heroes with at least an Act's worth of build. They don't accomplish much. The Master is a bit better, but only barely. And their B defense die means they die if they're hit. Lazy Eliza is good. No doubts there. Her Blood Call can do a lot to keep her alive… except that Ashrian kept hitting her with the Grinding Axe, and that made short work of her. Her defense dice are also not stellar. I think dropping Ettins in the Graveyard was a good idea; they made very good guards. But I had to work my tail off just to keep even with the heroes here. For the first half of the second Encounter I struggled just to feel useful.

Just one Quest to go before the Finale.
Heroes: 4, Overlord: 2. (not counting First Blood)
I kinda remember what winning felt like…