It’s been over a week since we played this game, and prior to that, we hadn’t played Frosthaven since November. Sicknesses, holidays, other games and all sorts of other complications made it hard, for awhile, to get together for game nights.
Glowing Catacombs was, perhaps, not the best one to come back to after so long a break.
I can’t remember what brought us to the catacombs. I’d have to haul the game out and trace the back connections on the scenario chart to see how we ended up here.
The scenario started in a tomb filled with undead that would, at times, summon more undead. Even surviving the first room would be a struggle, but there was a long, curvy tunnel to pass through, full of enemies (including an ooze that would be continually producing more oozes if left alone, and it was so very far away that it had plenty of time to do it). And if we got that far, we’d have to dash through a final room and hit two switches or — you guessed it — more oozes.
My scenario goal was a double checkmark, “Don’t use any attack actions for three turns”. Okay. This is the sort of room where I would definitely want to attack, but, as Banner Spear, I can be tanky when asked. I dropped my Courage banner (+1 shield to adjacent allies), a personal shield against attacks, and a personal double shield against ranged attacks only. Even with all this protection, I still nearly died on the first turn, being driven below half health by extremely lucky flips on the part of my enemies. Still, I managed to struggle through as the rest of the team — Doomshaper, Death Walker, and Blink Blade — got their preparation done and started working on taking down the very tough enemies. They did not die easily and even when we started moving into the glowing tunnel, there were still a couple of enemies left behind that we’d still have to deal with.
But we couldn’t not move forward. Frosthaven is a game where you usually only just have enough cards for the scenario and the typical scenario ends with at least one or two adventurers exhausted or on their final turn before dropping off.
And me, I’d used two loss cards on the very first turn, which immediately lost me my usual advantage in deck size. The third persistent card I’d played in my first turns, the -2 to ranged attacks, I reshuffled into my discards once I stopped being targeted by ranged enemies. Even with all that, I was exhausted just as we got to the first oozes, which by this time had divided and divided again, with plenty of time to heal back up and get ready for us.
Though the Banner Spear was out of the game, the Blink Blade got in the final room and flipped the switches over two turns, while the Doomshaper handled the oozes in the room and the Death Walker wiped up the oozes outside.
The final room contained a mysterious door covered with runes. The scenario book assured us that we were entirely unable to make sense of it, and would have to return later. The chest in the first room yielded a random scenario, and this one would require our sled, and so this is the one we chose for the next session, as the Doomshaper requires this for her retirement.
My Banner Spear is still a few sessions from getting enough card experience to retire. Blink Blade is still waiting for us to meet more robots, and Death Walker still waiting for new construction in the outpost, but I sense at least three of us will be retiring in the next five or so sessions.
