Our Family’s Descent (Part 2): First Blood

The following is part of an ongoing chronicle of a family’s role-playing gaming experience. Follow along on this epic journey of family intrigue, learning, sharing, and dungeon plunging as they work together to get loot and slay monsters. Refer to “Part 1: It Beings” to start from the beginning.

As documented in part 1 of this series, the family is now ready to embark on “The Shadow Rune” campaign. The first quest is an introduction to the game entitled, “First Blood”. Please note that this summary of our family’s gaming experience contains spoilers, but I will not reveal any major plot lines so that future Descent players can still enjoy the campaign.

With this being our first time playing the game, we had to refer to the rules many times to make sure we were playing correctly. Thus this introduction quest was setup to play through rather quickly in order to allow the players to become familiar with the game’s rules.

Our heroes are on their way to Arynn and up ahead they see a two-headed ettin. A guardsman runs up to them and tells them the ettin, named Mauler, is trying to direct his goblins into Arynn through a secret passage in order to attempt an attack. Our heroes, obviously, are not going to stand for this and recognize the only way to thwart the attack is to kill Mauler.

The four heroes enter the map and head north towards the fire pit to face the ettin. As they approach the fire pit, goblins from the east garden are heading west across their path towards the secret tunnel. At this point, the heroes are conflicted in regards to what they need to do. Ashrian the Elven healer, and Tomble Burrowell the scout, want to keep any goblins from getting to the tunnel. Meanwhile, Grisban the Thirsty, the Dwarven warrior, and Leoric of the Book, the Human necromancer wants to take Mauler head on and end the threat. As a result, the party tries to take on both goblins and the ettin at the same time.

The Overlord is pleased with their decision.

The heroes have decided what they want to do – now to see if they can work together!

With the forces split, the Overlord decides to divide and conquer. The ettin rushes into the necromancer and warrior while the goblins surround the scout and healer. The warrior and the necromancer’s familiar tanks against the ettin. The healer tries to stay adjacent to the goblins as she is able to stun any creatures near her. The scout however seems to be pulling back from the battle out of fear of getting injured. This maneuver is not well received by the rest of the party and there starts to be dissension among the heroes.

With injures accumulating and the party’s synergy breaking down among the group, the Overlord suffers a moment of sympathetic pity for the adventurers. With this being their first adventure in Arynn, he decides that maybe they need a shot a confidence. As a result, the goblins will now try to avoid the heroes which allows the heroes to focus on the ettin as a group. After a couple rounds of the four heroes dealing massive amounts of damage to Mauler, the ettin collapses to his knees. With his last breath, he exclaims, “We are but servants to the Overlord. Our master will triumph in the end!”

Epic combat and victory!

The heroes are excited with their well-earned victory but it is short-lived. Tomble Burrowell realizes he is just not ready to take on the awesome responsibility of participating in this adventure. He feels his time is better suited solving the puzzles in another mystical world called, Little Big Planet. The other three heroes are sad to see him go and must now finish their adventure without the benefits of a scout.

Meanwhile, the Overlord is glad to see his foes so confident. He let them have this little victory and the next time he faces them…he will not be so forgiving.

To Be Continued…