Descent 2nd ed: Campaign games part 2

The campaign resumed this weekend, and it will probably be played every other week until it's finished. This will allow most if not all the guys involved now to take part in it.

The Cardinal's Plight is the third real scenario in the campaign.
This weekend the party consisted of 4 heroes, all of whom had been leveled up to equal strength:

(Player name, character, skills)
Andreas "Widow Tarha": Rune Mastery
Fredric "Avric Albright": Time of Need
David "Tomble Burrowell": Dirty tricks, Sneaky
Johan "Grisban the thirsty": Counter attack, Brute
Alexander "Overlord": Dark Resilience, Explosive Runes

Encounter 1:

The heroes are travelling to the Cathedral in order to meet cardinal Koth who has a powerful artefact to help them out on their quest to defeat the Overlord. As they approach the they notice that the someone is desecrating the graveyard beneath the Catedral, lord Merrick Farrow is raising undead and sending them towards the Cathedral.

The heroes must race to stop the abominations, but since their path has been blocked off by a magical barrier of lord Merrick Farrow's minions they must fight their way past them first and find the magical key to dispel the barrier. Time is of the essence as the more zombies are raised and exit the board the tougher it will be for the heroes to save cardinal Koth in the second encounter.



Flesh Molders and goblins make up the opposition. They are only fodder meant to slow down the heroes, not actually do any real damage. The game began good for lord Merrick as he instantly pulled up two zombies early on and sent them off towards the cathedral while the heroes were battling his minions.

The halfling Tomble Burrowell was initially laughed at but showed off some interesting skills that made him quite potent, and in synergy with nearby heroes he could add their armor to his own armor saves which proved to be very valuable.

The heroes searched through all the search tokens on the table but failed to find the magic key until they turned the last search token left on the board which cost them a lot of time. This was somewhat compensated by the Overlord failing to roll resurrection rolls with lord Merrick Farrow. Now the protective magical barrier was gone and the heroes moving towards the  graveyard tile.

Two small goblins were all that the Overlord had to throw at the heroes to stop slow them down, one more zombie was summoned before lord Farrow was stunned by a hero and left paralyzed as the heroes started hacking away at him - letting the third zombie slip under the radar and off towards the cathedral.

With the temporary defeat of Lord Farrow (who disappeared in a mist with the usual threats of revenge) the heroes raced towards the cathedral.

Encounter 2:

Upon entering the cathedral the heroes find cardinal Koth already under attack by the zombies raised by lord Merrick Farrow. Unfortunately the door to the cardinals chamber is locked and the heroes must search the cathedral for the key.

The cardinal himself is not easily killed, but with 4 zombies in the room he won't last long. The heroes must divide their attention between searching the cathedral and using the altar of healing at the center of the cathedral. Successful roll at the altar will remove inflicted wounds on the cardinal.

As an added twist the Overlord does not place his two "open" monster groups on the board until the heroes open a the doors to the large empty chambers. On top of that, as soon as t he door to the cardinal's chamber is unlocked and opened lord Merrick Farrow will return at the cathedral entrance with more zombies! The entrance is also swarming with goblin archers.

The goal for the heroes is to rescue the cardinal and get him out of the cathedral alive, doing so he will give them his artifact, the "Staff of light". If the Overlord manages to kill the cardinal he will steal the staff and corrupt it, and use it for his own schemes in future games!

Almost instantly the cardinal is cornered by the 4 zombies who all begin to claw at him. The halfling Tomble Burrowell is tasked with using the altar of healing to keep the cardinal alive while the other hereas begin to search the nearby room - which turns out holds 4 Flesh Molders. A prolonged fight breaks out  as the heroes try to reach the search token at the back of the room.

Flipping it over it turns out it didn't contain the key needed for the cardinals door. They kill all but one Flesh Molder and race down the hallway towards the second chamber which turns out to hold two shadow dragons! The constant damage and healing of the cardinal wears him down little by little, but the heroes are fortunate enough that the zombies all inflict damage each turn, most of the time only two zombies manage to score hits that cause actual damage on the cardinal.

As the search token near the door to the final last chamber is turned over the heroes find the key which unlocks the door to the cardinal's chamber. The problem for the heroes is now to back down the corridor while blocking it for the two shadow dragons - with lord Merrick Farrow arriving at their backs.

Widow Tarha blasts one of the zombies cornering the cardinal with her magic missiles , this leaves a hole for the cardinal to escape through. While blocking the shadow dragons, and ignoring the remaining zombies and the last flesh molder Acric Albright and Widow Tarha concentrate on moving the cardinal through the hallway at the exit, they briefly stall lord Merrick Farrow who once again gets stunned and the cardinal escapes from the cathedral to safety.

The heroes have won and are awarded the "Staff of Light". Everyone is also awarded 1XP.
..
Part 2 summary:

Prologue: Victory for the heroes
Scenario 1 A Fat Goblin: Victory for the Overlord
Scenario 2 Castle Daerion: Victory for the heroes
Scenario 3 A Cardinal's plight: Victory for the heroes

Overlord 3XP
Widow Tarha 3XP --> upgraded character with the "Exploding Rune" skill
Avric Albright 3XP
Tomble Burrowell 3XP
Grisban the Thirsty 3XP

The heroes also traded in some junk and bought additional items in the Act I store. The hero shared item pool now consists of:

Chainmail
Steel broadsword
Crossbow
Staff of light* (artifact)