A fun contract that makes for a fun multiplayer support deck. The restrictions are real though, and for all intents and purposes they lock you out of some heroes (spirit Glorfindel is probably a hard pass without access to Light of Valinor). Not great for solo, as you will go many turns without having locations come out of the encounter deck.
With that aside, here’s an example of what you can do: turn 1 travel to a location and get Glamdring on it. Then, immediately exhaust a spirit character and play Strength of Will to plink 2 progress on it, or a dwarf and 2 to 4 progress with Ancestral Knowledge— in some cases you’ll be able to clear a location immediately on turn 1 before combat despite the added quest points coming from the contract’s effect, and attach that Glamdring before the combat phase. In that case, you can understand your event like Strength of Will to read “add 2 progress to a location and permanently add 2 attack and a card draw ability to a hero for the rest of the game.” (This was my actual turn 1 in a recent 3 player game) Nice way to breathe life into old cards.
The loot deck is not so reliable, having 14 different cards in it (no multiple copies allowed). Rare indeed will be the game when you see all of those loot cards, even with serious shenanigans. If the card pool continues to add strong Guarded attachments, this contract could become very very strong. At the time of this review, the current cycle is set to be the last, and the future of the game is not yet clear, so the card pool advancing enough to really empower this contract seems unlikely. Instead, we have a fun multiplayer contract capable of power but not guaranteeing it.
