F:AT Thursday - Descent 2nd Ed.

The smell is appalling. The melange of human waste, rotting meat, and unwashed flesh is enough to turn even the most iron of stomachs. Echoing down the roughly hewn tunnels are the barks and gibberings of the goblin tribe.

At the end of one narrow tunnel, devoid of even the questionable illumination of the smokey pine tar torches in other areas of the lair, is the small cavern used to hold captives. The four humanoid residents sit huddled together attempting to find comfort and a degree of warmth by remaining in close proximity to each other.

"Alas, it appears as if the gods have forsaken us," one mutters more to himself than the others.

"If only those renowned champions would arrive and save us," whispers another.

"They shall not come. Not here. Not today." says a third dashing the hopes of his fellows.

"Why ever not," questions the last. "Is this not their duty and their destiny?"

"Aye," replies the pessimist, "Upon any other day of the week that would be so but on this of all days they have no time for such as we."

It is F:AT Thursday.

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This week we gathered again at the Rose secret lair. All the True Believers were in attendance and eager to play after our week off.

I had a sneaking suspicion that I was beginning to monopolize the decision process regarding what games we play, what with the Rose collection for the most part either in storage or burned up and I having acquired a number of good games during the Christmas season.  The others hadn't said anything but when Josh gave my pile of games a vigorous arm sweep which sent them careening from the table to dash upon the floor scattering plastic bits in all directions, I took that as a subtle hint. When he followed that up by flipping me the bird and saying "Not tonight, Dicksleeve!", I felt my suspicions were confirmed.

*some of the above events my have been fabricated in whole or in part in order to increase the dramatic tension and/or to make Josh seem like a jerk*

However it came to be, Josh was given the choice and he chose Descent 2nd ed. Now, you, loyal readers who pine away the week waiting eagerly for the next installment of the F:AT Thursday report, know that we had played this back in December. That we had played the "Intro" scenario only and that the initial impression was a fairly positive one.

This time we played a full on scenario. In the 2nd edition the scenarios are broken down into two "encounters" almost like scenes or chapters in a book. Smaller maps, more immediate objectives, that sort of thing. Not only does it allow for the game to be split between sessions if that is your wish but it also allows the story to have a little mystery because as a player, as opposed to the keeper (or whatever term they use for DM)  you don't really know what is coming up in the second half. 

The first part involved goblins kidnapping hapless farmers and stealing their crops. But to what end? That was the very question we asked ourselves. Thus the three heroes set out to stop the vile creatures but they had some spider pets along with them which complicated matters. Shellie was the "Horn Head" spell caster, I was wilderness archer chick, and Al played Carlos the dwarf.

Our tactics were not altogether those of genius. We spent too much time fighting spiders and not enough time pummeling goblins and preventing their thievery. Of course Shellie's inability to let any opportunity to get something shiny pass by and Carlos' propensity to trip and fall over his own feet didn't help matters. 

Alright, if we are confining ourselves to the truth...We encouraged Shellie to search and get an item and Al's falling down was due to Josh hitting him with a "trip wire" card. But the truth is so boring and never makes me look as good as I deserve so I'm sticking with the previous paragraph.

In the end we managed to save one of the four bundles of crops before the goblins disappeared down their hidey hole.

The second portion of the scenario took us underground where we had to attempt to rescue the kidnapped farmers before a certain one was interrogated and then carried out of the lair by the goblin chief.  The tunnels were full of spiders and strangely some zombies as well.

I boldly charged forward and began to protect the farmers but my companions lagged behind. What were they doing? Well Shellie was doing some form of calisthenics as she fell to the ground only to get up only to get knocked down again. Carlos decided to discuss the geopolitical conundrums that were facing the realm with the group of zombies.  I don't think they enjoyed the conversation.

In actual game terms, Shellie had been knocked down/killed near the entrance. The game doesn't allow for a hero to be killed but the mechanism for "standing up" brings you back with only a portion of your health. So, every time Shellie "stood up", the spider that Josh kept right next to her would attack and knock her on her ass again. Al was busy trying to keep the zombies off me so that I could kill the goblins that were needed to transport the farmers from the cell to the torture chamber. 

In the end, the goblin king was able to interrogate the right farmer and then bull rush his way out of the lair. The fact that his health was greatly augmented by the number of crops the goblins had stolen in the previous encounter didn't help our chances.

So we failed...evil reigns supreme and once again Josh will have that smug look on his face for another week.

Conclusions? My initial impressions remain. The game is such a huge improvement over Descent 1ed that it is like playing an entirely new AND better game. The flow is fast and the game is tight. The momentum of the encounters can swing in a heart beat and you can go from thinking you have no chance of winning to being sure of success and back again in the matter of a couple of turns.

I love the tiles. They just look fabulous and the small details bring a smile to my face. From the little skeletons on the torture tables in the Goblin Interrogation Room to the webs on walls of the Spider Hall. Just some touches over and above most dungeon crawl games that add a lot.

We liked it so much that we wrote down our stats and progress on the record sheet so we can continue later in "campaign" mode.

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The season of mud is upon us here in Connecticut. I have always said that February is the shortest month of the year but always feels like the longest. It's dismal, it's cold, and everything seems to be dirty and wet. Spring seems very far away.

A persons thoughts turn more to regrets and mistakes than to triumphs during this month. Frustrations take precedence over opportunities in our minds and our spirits turn to a dark shade of gray.

It is no wonder that the True Believers were all in a bit of a funk. Each of us dealing with the weight of the world. But as has been said "Misery shared is misery halved" and so we each did our best to halve that misery by doing a bit of bitching and ranting.

We solved nothing of course but for a few hours, at least, our problems were swept away and forgotten as we took up the roles of noble heroes whose actions do make a difference and who  inhabit a land where sometimes, though not all the time, good does triumph over evil.