Hothouse Flowers

Here we are again, going back into Hell. So Meatloaf doesn't have to, I guess. 

Chapter 4 of the Infernal Crypts campaign! A split party at the start of this one. The elderly wizard the heroes are working for has wandered off, and they've become separated trying to find him. In the distance, the first glowing bloom of the lava flowers their employer is after can be spied, however, so the heroes are after that in the assumption he won't be far away. 

It's a small but twisty and turny board, lots of narrow gaps and quite a lot of baddies patrolling them. With me, Kraken, in the Overlord seat, Kasfunatu would be attempting to grab the flower and loot both the nearby chests for a win, with just eight short turns to do it in. 

He got off to a bad start. While the Demon Hunter and Cleric ran foul of some hellhounds, the Barbarian and Wizard got totally bogged down by a pair of Succubi. Luck was with me, and for the first half of the game, these two didn't get a single move! A series of bonus activations let me keep them locked in whilst still harrassing their would-be saviours.

It was 6 of my 8 turns that I was stalled. 

There was even a new enemy, the self-immolating Lost Soul. It runs up to you and dies, hurting everyone around it as it goes. So I did that, obviously.

Fair point - good move and ow!

The Cleric and Demon Hunter did, to their credit, get all the way to their beleaguered companions. The Barbarian made short work of the demon ladies once he'd been de-tranced, but it was too late. There just wasn't enough time to get the chests and the flower sorted, so the heroes suffered another loss.

Horrible experience that one. 


It had, however, been a swift attempt, so there was plenty of time for a second go. This time, the Demon Hunter and Cleric went the other way, looking to hook up with the others early on. They got off to a much stronger start, too, hacking one guard right up straight away.

Meanwhile, the Barbarian hunted down both Succubi and got straight on with killing them looking for some retrospective payback. And in fact the heroes were doing so well early on that the Demon Hunter was able to race round and help out, as the Wizard got the first chest open.

After that, though, not so good. The Wizard and Cleric had been left behind, and got bogged down in a small pack of enemies. 

Neither of these two are all that durable (none of this lot are, in fact), and over three turns the Wizard got shredded despite various uses of healing and protective magic. The other two were just too far off to help, partly because Kas was keeping an eye on getting them to the other side of the map to open the other chest.

Just could not heal quick enough; the hunter made it to the last chest and the barbarian got the lotus but a ganged up on, and wounded, wizard is such an easy target.

Game again, and it only felt sporting to swap roles, so I led the hero team in their final attempt of the night. Demon Hunter and Cleric sprinted up the corridor, killing as they came. The Barbarian and Wizard tempted fate by ignoring the Succubi and heading right for the nearby chest, mashing one guard with a Tornado spell as they ran.

Although the Lost Soul hurt them on the way in with his death blast, I'd got the chest open and the two teams united by the end of turn two. I felt cocky!

And so immediately forfeited the match. Somehow, I managed to get the Barbarian stuck on the back line of a push for the far side of the dungeon whilst the Wizard got left behind going toe-to-toe with an Efreet. Using the Demon Hunter's Cool Waters ability to buy myself a round, I got almost to where I needed to, but I'd taken some flak on the way in.

Cool waters also did not prevent the flamespitters from spitting and getting a couple of wounding hits in.

Things came unstuck when the Demon Hunter got hit by volleys of fireballs and hellhounds at the far end of the dungeon. Even if I'd kept her alive, everyone was pretty battered by this point, and I don't reckon the Wizard was long for this world either.

A really tough challenge, this level! Made harder perhaps by the discovery half way in that I'd been playing with a double deck of Overlord cards. Not sure how I'd scored that, exactly, but it meant it was possible for me to draw more Double Command cards than I should have been able to.

Although looking through the decks it was one extra than possible and there is a 3 extra commands, so I think it just changed the odds rather than being too overpowered. It does however explain your previous complaint about not drawing enough of the crypt specific cards. 9 out of 35 instead of 9 out of 22. 

So we'll let the heroes off with a mere two hours of their time gone, although I didn't do any better myself again the standard deck of Kas. We'll be back for more later!

That leaves 3 hours to successfully beat this level and the next to start the final level before hour 10.... I am not sure I fancy chances.