Best Christmas present ever

Just a day before Christmas we played a three player game of Talisman.

We used a random ending with a few most annoying ones removed.

Characters were Chivalric Knight, Tavern Maid and, well... the Alchemist.

Alchemist.

Such an annoying character that's all but bound to win any and all games he plays.

The other two players tried to balance out the Alchemist by targeting mostly him with any possible opportunities to kick another player in the knee. And for a moment it almost seemed to pay off - but then he picked up the Everfull Purse. Just what the Alchemist needs. If he doesn't have a gold at the beginning of his turn, he gains one.

Tavern Maid had a really good start, too. I don't remember any more what the items were that she got, but that didn't matter for long - she encountered the Leprechaun at the beginning of Highlands and got turned into a toad. Before she managed to get her stuff back, the Chivalric Knight picked them up.

For one reason or another Alchemist didn't start gaining Strength or Craft too much, and neither did anybody else. It was a slow start all over - don't know if some trips to the Woodlands caused that.

First Alchemist ran through the Woodlands board, but luckily didn't get a real Destiny. Only reward for him was to raise Strength or Craft.

Tavern Maid started grinding the Woodlands and during whole game managed to gain two destinies for herself, and even a magic object that essentially functioned as a destiny. And they all combo'd up.

I don't remember the complete horror, but it was something like that whenever another player rolled "1" for movement or lost a battle or psychic combat, she would replenish one dark fate. She was able to spend a dark fate to choose the result of a movement roll for anyone. One magic object gave her a fate if she started her turn without any. There was additional shenanigans involved, too, but those were the ones that came up most often.

Chivalric Knight managed to snatch Alchemist's Everfull Purse eventually, but by then all heroes got around 8-10 of either Strength or Craft, and so the race for Crown of Command began. Probably there were lots of memorable little happenings that I fail to remember, but game had already lasted for quite a while. Everybody was getting tired.

Alchemist was the first to try to enter Inner Region, and he had Craft 9. And somehow he managed to fail three times in a row to pass the Mines. By this time Tavern Maid and Chivalric Knight had got a bit scared that the Alchemist was running for victory, so both of them entered Inner Region too. Chivalric Knight was the last one to enter, but he had Cloak of Feathers. Before Chivalric Knight started stripping his clothes, Alchemist failed to pass Mines fourth time in a row with a roll of 6, 5, 5. To the tavern it was, then.

But game didn't end just yet, though Chivalric Knight teleported to Valley of Fire, and picked the ending next. Oh no. The game was just beginning, since the ending we got was "Spreading Flames", where every player dropped a fireland token at the start of turn.

And, well. Alchemist looked like the winner here, since he had easy healing available. And things didn't look any better for other players when he snatched Everfull Purse right back.

Tavern Maid had only dark fate, and she encountered Death and rolled one. The board was almost filled with fireland tokens, many spaces containing more than one token. Well, it had been a long game, but finally it'd be over.

Nope.

Chivalric Knight drew some kind of Ifrit enemy that removed all fireland tokens from current region. Gosh, looked like game just didn't want to stop.

So Alchemist and Chivalric Knight started to dance around the board again, trying to dodge the fireland tokens.

That one enemy unnecessarily easily added an extra hour to the game length, but the result was fully worth it.

Alchemist was left in the Outer Region that again had perhaps two spaces with no fireland tokens, and many spaces with two or more tokens. Chivalric Knight dodged the tokens and got his heals first twice from Chapel and then from Castle in the middle region. Final steps were that Chivalric Knight entered the black knight space that didn't have a token, and Alchemist had had to melt his Everfull Purse last turn to heal enough that he wouldn't have died. And then after over two hours of dodging the hot spaces Alchemist was not able to heal any more, and he lost.

Alchemist lost a game! Party!