Previously on Campaign 2: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/387782

Overlord XP gain shown in [], Hero XP gain shown in ()

We are playing with a number of house rules: http://people.exeter.ac.uk/pg234/runestone/boardgames/descent/descent.htm

At the start of the session
Lord Hawthorne. Skills: Cleaving Equipment: Chain Mail, Bone Blade, Crystal Shield, Ring of Quickness. Potions: Healing, Vitality. Feats: 1. XP: 16
Ispher. Skills: Tiger Tattoo. Equipment: Ripper, Axe of Returning, Chain Mail, Iron Shield. Potions: Vitality. Feats: 1. XP: 16
Mad Carthos. Skills: Spiritwalker. Equipment: Gauntlets of Power, Cloak of Deception, Bane. Potions: Healing. Feats: 1. XP: 16
Runemaster Thorn. Skills: Blessing. Equipment: Leather Armour, Immolation. Potions: Healing, Vitality. XP: 16
Party Equipment: Magic Boat, 1300 coins

Overlord Avatar: The Demon Prince
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
Cities Razed: None. 4 Siege tokens on Nerekhall
Overlord Upgrades: Sir Alric Farrow, Focused, Lawlessness, XP: 14

WEEK 5 continued

Dungeon Level 1: 2 - Alchemists Lab

I'd made some changes to this level as covered on my website, replacing the leader with a Golem and using prolonged actions for the heroes to search the tables instead of the encounter markers as written.

The leader was a Golem and I'd loaded out the monsters with some skeletons, a chaos beast, a beastman and a kobold (Still using Bleached Lizards loadout sheet to an extent, but still have concerns about it)

The heroes moved in and went on guard. One skeleton popped out, jumped on a table, shot at Ispher and then ran away again behind the wall. The heroes advanced again, Ispher obsessed with looking cool and also jumping on a table. The level was looking tricky for them initially, with 2 high armour rating monsters on the board. Clever movement and an attack boosted by fatigue took out the chaos beast easily. Mad Carthos stayed near the enterance to the first room meaning I couldnt spawn anything behind the party and used his Spiritwalker to good effect as usual.

Some skeletons spawned in the room with the exit door and shot Lord Hawthorne down to 14 wounds, but then a concentrated attack by the heroes took out Cambranax without him ever getting an attack (+2 XP) and the skeletons were despatched easily. The chest also turned into a mimic, but this only managed to score 1 damage on Runemaster Thorn before also being killed. In the chest, the heroes found coins, potions and the Backbiter bow. They activated the glyph (+3 XP) and then moved to the next level, but not before I put Hordes of the Things into play. All in all, a successful level for the heroes, with them taking no losses and little damage.

Dungeon Level 2: 23 - Pit Fiend

This level is another that I have made a number of changes to, including replacing the pits with Lava and also the Razorwings with Lava Beetles. Maybe I should rename the level to 'Lava Fiend'

Rule: The pits / lava can move through monsters ok? This seemed odd. Also, if the pit / lava ends up in the same space as a hero, but they roll to avoid it, do they stay on it? This also seemed very odd.

The level set up as normal, I kept my monsters out of harms way initially and the heroes moved up, all going on guard. They have cleverly only advanced enough that I wouldnt be able to attack them. However, they hadnt counted on me remembering that I can attack an empty space with the blast attack of the beetles, and whilst I couldnt get into a position to actually attack one of the 2 heroes at the front, I could have a few attacks at the space directly in front of them. I'd been holding onto a Beastmen War Party card for a while so used this opportunity to play it, bringing the feared Master Beastman out with his command. I then advanced with a number of my beetles, attacking the space in front of the first 2 characters, boosted by the command ability of the Beastmen. Unfortunately, I only scored enough damage to exhaust the heroes shields and do 1 wound to Ispher, which he regenerated on his turn, so it was all pretty much a waste of time.

Then it was the heroes again, and at the end of their turn I'd lost most of my monsters; the master beastman and manticore were killed without them even getting an attack. However, I moved some lava around, scored some damage on Ispher and then concentrated a number of other attacks on him which managed to score a kill [+3 XP]. Carrion (the level leader) then retreated but on the heroes turn, Runemaster Thorn teleported next to him, activating the glyph (+3 XP) and attacking him. Ispher then came straight back from town, using fatigue to move and then battling to try and take out the leader. It would have worked if not for a well timed dodge.

Carrion then managed to move away and launched another blast attack, doing some more damage. At this point, Runemaster Thorn was low on health and had a burn token. He fled back to Tamalir with 1 wound, drinking a potion to get him out of the danger zone. Over the next 2 turns, he stayed in town at the temple, healing 5 wounds a time but we couldnt find anything in the rules to say that the burn token is removed. It did seem amusing that there he was in the temple paying for the priests to heal him, whilst all the time he is burning away trying to put out the flames.
Meanwhile, back in the dungeon, the level leader was killed (+2 XP), the chest was searched - no treasures (+1 XP) and the heroes rushed to the portal to end the level.

Dungeon Level 3: 7 - The Graveyard

We drew the next level card and then started to discuss what to do next. It was late in the evening so we were not going to play the next level, but the discussion was around whether to carry on or not. This level is worth 10 XP to the heroes, and around 1300 coins, but with the party somewhat wounded and me having 2 power cards in play and 18 threat, it was a close call as to whether to stay or flee.

I tried persuading them to stay, since they are ahead on XP already this dungeon (11-3), so they could afford to lose a few characters and still be ahead. Also, if they flee now, they go back to Tamalir, and will then have spend more time travelling to Forge. Ultimately, the choice is theirs. What is in their favour is that they are keeping me really low on XP so we are on week 5 and I still dont have enough XP to really do much.

Tune in next session to see what happens.

CONQUEST: Heroes: 27, Overlord: 17/17, Total: 44

Rules quesions from this session:
1. Can Gauntlets of power be used if the attack misses?
The FAQ only covers the OL not spending surges for threat on a monster attack.

Heroes leaving a dungeon level effectively get 2 consecutive turns?
Not sure why I wrote this one down as I know the answer. The heroes get their turn and end their turn on the portal. The next level is setup and the heroes get the first turn again, but yes, this means they effectively get 2 consecutive turns without the OL gettings cards / threat

When in town, if you stay, do you still get your normal turn and then restock at the end, or is the restock your complete turn?
We had a hero who wanted to stay in town and visit the temple, but while they were there, they wanted to know if they could still have their turn as normal and drink a potion.

Ripper and dodge?
Ripper allows a re-roll. I wasnt sure of the timing of this with dodge - so here is how we played it.
Attack 1:
1. Hero rolls the attack.
2. Chooses to re-roll one of the dice
3. OL plays dodge and forces the re-roll of whatever dice he wants
4. Attack resolved.

Attack 2:
1. Hero rolls the attack.
2. OL plays dodge and forces the re-roll of whatever dice he wants
2. Hero chooses to re-roll one of the dice
4. Attack resolved.

Both worked fine. Basically, the hero can re-roll a dice whenever he wants, but only once. If he does it before the dodge, he then cant use it again afterwards.
We also play that if fatigue is spent to add extra dice, the OL can force the re-roll of these also if a dodge has been declared.

At the end of the session

Lord Hawthorne. Skills: Cleaving Equipment: Chain Mail, Bone Blade, Crystal Shield, Ring of Quickness. Potions: none. Feats: 1. XP: 27, Wounds:8, Fatigue: 0, 1 burn token
Ispher. Skills: Tiger Tattoo. Equipment: Ripper, Axe of Returning, Chain Mail, Iron Shield. Potions: Vitality. Feats: 1. XP: 27, Wounds: 11, Fatigue: 5
Mad Carthos. Skills: Spiritwalker. Equipment: Gauntlets of Power, Cloak of Deception, Bane. Potions: Healing. Feats: 1. XP: 27, Wounds: 8, Fatigue: 3
Runemaster Thorn. Skills: Blessing. Equipment: Leather Armour, Immolation, Backbiter. Potions: 2 Healing, Vitality, Invulnerability. Feats: 0. XP: 27, Wounds: 12, Fatigue: 4, 1 burn token.
Party Equipment: Magic Boat, 3700 coins

Overlord Avatar: The Demon Prince
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
Cities Razed: None. 4 Siege tokens on Nerekhall
Overlord Upgrades: Sir Alric Farrow, Focused, Lawlessness, XP: 17
18 threat, 2 cards in hand, 15 cards in deck. Doom and Hordes of the Things in play.

to your rules questions:

It does say (in the long list, I believe) that you can either do a restock action, which is your complete turn, or you can take a turn and declare an action, which means you need to re-enter the dungeon. I am a little uncertain about whether you could stay in town and declare say a rest/move action, allowing you to drink a potion and then have fatigue restored...but I'm pretty sure you cannot even do that. restock at building of your choice, or come back via glyp.

Ripper v. dodge.

I would say both examples would be incorrect because in both cases you may be re-rolling a die more than once. Rules are pretty clear that you cannot do so. I would go with something more like aim vs. dodge which basically states that no dice are re-rolled when the two interact. in effect, you have one "aimed" die. So, I would say the hero rolls his dice for the attack, then you play the dodge. He may choose one die that you cannot force him to re-roll (probably the main die if it isn't a miss result) and you can choose which of the rest you want re-rolled. If he rolls a miss, your dodge effectively locks in that miss result, because you aren't going to choose to make him re-roll it and the best he can do is say that it won't get re-rolled.

As to adding fatigue, that's generally how we've played it, but I think you may need to have the hero decide if he's going to add dice and roll those dice before playing your dodge...since technically the triggering condition for dodge isn't met until the dice are rolled.

gauntlets:

we have ruled that a miss result means surges cannot be spent. However, since surges can be spent to give range, etc. we have ruled that a miss as a result of failed range does not prevent spending of surges for gauntlets etc. I think technically, you must be able to hit a valid figure in order to spend the surges (sometimes using surges to do this), but...I think it's really at your discretion.