QOTW - A Knife in the Dark - Mildly Thematic

A Fellowship to tackle the quest A Knife in the Dark for the Cardboard of the Rings Quest of the Week.

My "Mildly Thematic" campaign means the only thematic condition for deckbuilding is that the key characters need to be present. That's it. The Fellowship for A Shadow of the Past can be found here and has a few more details on the campaign plans. The other campaign Fellowships can be found by searching for "Mildly Thematic" once they are published.

So for this quest, I need to make sure Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Merry, Pippin, Bill the Pony and Strider are all present (as heroes or in the decks, or otherwise), as these are the characters who trek from Bree to Weathertop. Gandalf finally joins the group to represent his presence as well, albeit at a distance. This is also Fatty Bolger's time to shine as he sounds the alarm to drive the Nazgûl out of Buckland.

The other hero choices carry over from the previous quest, with Glorfindel included for the thematic requirement of the next quest and Éowyn and Círdan the Shipwright chosen solely for mechanics. After the next quest there will be an opportunity to change heroes with no penalty.

I am quite partial to the Land of Shadow version of Frodo Baggins, so have elected to use him here. This version has a nice flexible ability, which can be used after staging to avoid punishment for using the Ring if needed.

The quest largely went well, although not exactly according to plan. What did go well was a turn 2 defeat of Bill Ferny thanks to a Hail of Stones, and with it this week's Waste of a Good Apple achievement. I also got Jubayr into play on the same turn thanks to The Prancing Pony, who I had found with Gather Information the previous turn, so a strong start.

I also drew all my copies of Sneak Attack and Gandalf, so had a lot of magical assistance. In the nearly 7 rounds of the quest, Gandalf appeared in 4 of them.

What didn't go so well was enemies - enemies appearing at the wrong time, engaged with the wrong player and turning up in too great numbers. I was able to handle them just about, but couldn't kill them as quickly as I'd have liked. I also got pretty unlucky with Jubayr's ability, always seeming to discard the harmless shadows. On the penultimate turn I needed to cancel The Ring Draws Them else I would have had 5 enemies engaged with the first player - this was the turn the 3 Nazgûl appeared. There was a 4th added to the game, but he was handled almost immediately by Fatty.

In the end I very nearly couldn't defeat The Witch-king, but Elrond's Counsel allowed a Sentinel defence from my Derndingle Warrior, allowing me to scrape together exactly 14 to take him down.

This quest gives a really meaningful choice at the end, with the first Permanent Boons to be earned. These can be quite impactful in future quests, which is why I have already put some thought into how I intend to select Boons and Burdens for the rest of the Campaign. As Permanent Boons, they also reward making consistent hero choices throughout the Saga, one of the reasons I have chosen my "Mildly Thematic" deckbuilding approach.

My decision was to select Noble Hero for Glorfindel and Tireless Ranger for Sam Gamgee. These attachments boost the stats which are generally the most important so i would expect them to have the most impact on success in future. There's even a small chance that the Ranger trait may come in useful too. Sam and Glorfindel are very strong heroes that can fit into basically any Fellowship, so I will be happy to choose them as heroes often during the Campaign.

Results:

0 Fallen heroes.

Boons/Burdens earned: Noble Hero (Glorfindel), Tireless Ranger (Sam Gamgee)

Score: 115

6 full turns (60)
27 + 31 threat (58)
2 damage on heroes (2)
5 Victory Points (-5)

Campaign Log:

Heroes - Aragorn, Éowyn, Glorfindel, Círdan the Shipwright, Fatty Bolger, Sam Gamgee.

Boons - Mr. Underhill, Old Bogey-stories, Ho! Tom Bombadil!, Noble Hero (Glorfindel), Tireless Ranger (Sam Gamgee)

Burdens - The Ring Draws Them