Descent 2nd ed: Campaign Interlude "The Shadow vault"

Time had come to play the campaign interlude scenario. After last session the error of having played one more Act 1 scenario led us to consider playing 5 act I and 5 act II scenarios but a warning from a reader of the blog made us change our minds. Instead we jumped to the Interlude (playing "The Shadow Vault").
Act II will also be one scenario shorter to balance up the one scenario longer Act I.

The Shadow Vault:

Players during this session

The Overlord: Me
Grisban the Thirsty: Johan
Tomble Burrowell: David
Avric Albright: Fredric

In this scenario the heroes have already found the treasure they are looking for, a valuable Shadow Rune artifact. However the Overlord is also looking for this magic Rune and intercepts the heroes just as they are filling their pockets in the treasure chamber of the Shadow Vault. The scenario here is for the heroes to escape the clutches of the Overlord by making a very long trek down the entire board, the Overlord has to intercept them, steal the Shadow Rune and escape off the exit halfway down the map.

The long haul for the heroes is balanced by the fact that some minions cannot be activated before the heroes reach a certain point on the map (the Shadow Dragon) and the Ettin has to walk all the way from the halfway entry/exit point before it can reach up with the main fight. The Shadow Vault is attacked by Baron Zachareth and Goblin Archers.

Despite the partially weak opposition the heroes ran into trouble, as the Overlord had learned how to make the most out of his Goblin archer minions - simply attacking and retreating to maintain a distance between themselves and the hero characters. The large cave became a choke point and the fragile Tomble Burrowell who was carrying the Shadow Rune became the prime target for the monsters as soon as he showed himself. With a particularly fortunate chain of attacks and actions Tomble was knocked unconscious and his dropped Shadow Rune was picked up by a nearby Goblin archer.

As the heroes failed to kill this Goblin it soon made off with the stolen treasure and began running towards the exit while the rest of the Goblin archers and Baron Zachareth stalled the heroes with great success. By the time the heroes had slain the remaining Goblin archers and killed Baron Zachareth (who just respawned by the exit area) their path of pursuit was blocked by both the Shadow Dragon and the Ettin who had just arrived from the his long walk.

Unfortunately for the heroes they just could not fight their way past both monsters in time to catch up with the running Goblin archer carrying the Shadow Rune and soon saw themselves defeated as the rune left with Baron Zacareth through the exit area. The Overlord had boosted his inventory with another artifact.

Regardless of whether the scenario was won or lost, every player received another XP, bringing the XP level of both the heroes and the Overlord up to 5. The heroes also bought the following items as part of ending the Act I arc of the campaign: Iron Battle Axe, Heavy Cloak, Iron Shield

Campaign summary so far:

Prologue: Victory for the heroes

ACT I
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
Scenario 4 The Masquerade ball: Victory for the Overlord

Interlude The Shadow Vault: Victory for the Overlord

Overlord 5XP (1 Unused XP)
Widow Tarha 5XP (1 Unused XP)
Avric Albright 5XP --> Upgraded with Armor of Faith
Tomble Burrowell 5XP ---> Upgraded with Caltrops
Grisban the Thirsty 5XP --> (1 Unused XP)

The hero shared item pool now consists of:

Chainmail
Steel broadsword
Crossbow
Iron Battle Axe
Heavy Cloak
Iron Shield
Staff of light (artifact)

Overlord items
Bones of Woe (artifact)
Shadow Rune (artifact)

The Overlord has the following upgraded cards at his disposal:
Dark Resillience, Explosive Runes, Wicked Laughter, Unholy Ritual - and also owns the "Bones of Woe" and the "Shadow Rune" artifacts.