Picture above is how it ended. Or rather, how I ended. Surrounded by lightning eels and piranha pigs with a pig herder staring me in the face with a lizardry grin twisting his scaly skin around.
Our Deathwalker’s life goal is to travel by sled, boat, or some other conveyance we haven’t yet figured out, five times. When Jagged Shoals unlocked with a boat icon, we immediately made it a priority.
First, though, we had to build a boat. This took a lot of lumber, some metal and some coin, but we got it done, and opened the mysterious “B” envelope, which contained some new boat actions. But first, we had to name the boat. While we were brainstorming names (somehow, “Boaty McBoatface” didn’t make the cut), an old salt named Captain Doghopper came by with a terrible tale of all the many, many ships he has lost at sea, in every single instance all crew lost and he the sole survivor. He offered to pilot our new boat for a small fee.
Well, we felt we were just the crew to turn this poor captain’s fate around, and we gratefully decided to name our boat after our new leader: “Doghopper’s Demise”. We only scraped a few rocks making our way out of the harbor. Several hours later, we spotted a small island where no island should be. Doghopper insisted we beach there so he could rest for a moment on dry land. Turns out he gets seasick easily. Luck was not with us, as the island was revealed to be a very large tortoise who was lost at sea and hoping for directions to the nearest coast.
You and we both, brother. Captain Clueless floated the idea of just killing the turtle and returning to Frosthaven with enough food to feed the hungry for weeks. We felt the turtle deserved at least a little respect, and we pointed the turtle back in the general direction we came. What happens to the turtle when it reaches Frosthaven, happens.
When we finally, somehow, made it to Jagged Shoals, we immediately knew why we’d come: the same sort of crystal that had driven the Algox and the Lurkers mad was present here as well. Here it was gathering all the most dangerous denizens to its call — the eels, the pigs, the herders.
We knew we had to kill it.
In this scenario, and with four players, three elite mobs (two lightning eels and a piranha pig) spawn every turn. The eels aren’t too much of an issue — they can’t leave the water in which they spawn — but no such thing stops the pigs and herders. Left alive, the herders can summon even more pigs and give the pigs extra moves. Our only hope was to get to the crystal and break it before its evil influence could spread further.
The crystal doesn’t take damage in the usual way. Instead, if at least one of the players is adjacent to it, it takes a point of damage. We only needed to hold the line for seven turns.
Both my Banner Spear and the Blink Blade had scenario goals that required us to not kill any creature (in my case) or just no elite creature (in the Blink Blade’s case). Those didn’t happen.
Our strategy was to have my Banner Spear become her tankiest and aggro as many pigs as possible while the rest of the group made their way to the crystal. The Blink Blade made it there on the second turn, starting the timer. Deathwalker made it two turns later, and Boneshaper soon after. Meanwhile, I was burning cards to stay alive. I stayed alive longer than I expected, but went down with two turns left on the timer.
The pigs immediately started swim-walking toward the crystal. They were stunned and quickly returned beneath the waves when the crystal broke after the seventh turn.
We were immediately plunged into a vision of a heavenly spirit that thanked us for our victory and pointed us out into the ice fields for our next adventure.
We were given a choice of classes to unlock: Kelp or Coral. We chose Coral, despite not knowing anything about them ahead of time. I opened the box; no spoilers, but it looks like a class I would enjoy playing… if I can ever retire the Banner Spear.
Drew was hoping to retire his Blink Blade soon, but the scenario that I thought had the robot mobs that would clear his second retirement goal… didn’t have those at all. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them. Not sure why I thought they were there. I must have turned to the wrong page in the scenario book.
The next scenario will bring Deathwalker closer to her retirement. I can’t remember what Boneshaper’s was — I think it had something to do with rebuilding Frosthaven.
