Of Betrayals and Meenlocks

I had brought Betrayal at Baldur's Gate with me on my weekend trip. Three games were played with three players.

Game 1: Haunt 13, Juiblex Commands

First game was with Magic Missile wizard, Dhadius the Scarlet and non-event Orc Paladin, "Grim" Grusk and not-slowed-by-enemies Halfling, Tasha Brightbottle. 

It was the first game for Halfling and Orc, and quite a while has passed when I had my last game of Betrayal. But at its core the game is easy to get into. Even when the Halfling finally triggered Haunting, the betrayer rules were clear enough for a newcomer to navigate alone.

Me, as the veteran player, did not exactly do a great job at contributing to... anything, really. Halfling and Orc had found the Ranger Statue and whatever the place was where you gained Knowledge, right next to each other. I tried to get to those places, but at the same time expand map. Well, my detour was stopped every single turn by an event. And when I could have turned to close in towards those stat-ups, I started receiving only corridors. So my adventurer just took a direction and walked there, one step at a time, until the haunt began.

Haunt was number 13, Juiblex Commands, which was some sort of slime god cult thing. And my mage began his long walk back into action, and just died to first gelatinous cube encountered. 

Halfling had found locket and chainmail in her travels, as well as demon flask of tuerny(sp?) so she was rather tanky. Orc, on the other hand, _paladin as he was_ had collected Book of Vile Darkness, Gambler's Dice and had earlier been temped by some arch-devil to make a pact, although he did not succumb to its promises.

Orc managed to beat gelatinous cubes rather easily empowered by Book of Vile Darkness, but the showdown against the Halfling was epic. Orc had enormous damage potential with Gambler's Dice and the Book, but using them now was precarious to say at least. Both adventurers had base Might of four but Halfling had damage reduction. Orc, on the other hand, had a healing potion so it could go either way. However, thanks to some wonderfully skewed rolls  Orc didn't even have to resort to healing potion - Baldur's Gate was saved from whatever plans the slime god had for it. 

Until we read the rules for Meenlock a little closer. The Orc Paladin died turn ago to over-use of Book of Vile Darkness.

Game 2: Haunt 29 - Bottled Lightning

Second game, we had better grasp of the rules and Torskar Stonecleaver the Dwarven Barbarian, Vort Dormal the orc Cleric and Azadeh Rashka the Human Monk. 

Dwarf kept discovering the city level of Baldur's Gate, most notable finding Helmet of Teleportation and Ring of Regeneration.

Orc Cleric fooled around both above ground and in the catacombs, finding Figurine of Wondrous Power and, importantly, Chainmail and Cursed Armor.

Human Monk headed straight into catacombs, and there she kept grinding omens. Bhaal's influence seemed apparent, as Bhaal temple was discovered along with blood covered statue of Bhaal. And Meenlock. And Berserker Axe. And Dimensional Shackles. And, finally, Iron Flask of Tuerny in the sacrificial chamber, triggering flood in the basement with haunt 29, Bottled Lightning

As it happened, Orc Cleric was just one move away from the valve, and he was able to open in the first hero turn. That was good, because the damage potential of the Monk with Berserker Axe was horrifying.

However, the Dwarven Berserker was not too shabby either, having Might value of 6 with his Reckless Attack special ability. He used his teleport to enter the space before neglected chamber to block Azadeh's way. Much to heroes dismay, Azadeh rolled an absolutely hideous roll with eleven successes. Urgh. Aaargh. Ring of Regeneration didn't help much, when the dwarf died with first strike. 

Uh oh. A crappy cleric versus a superior murder machine. It was up to Vort Dormal now to stall long enough to flood the required chamber. And he did put up an admirable resistance, surviving an astounding five turns. However, only once did the heroes get an additional trickle of water that was eventually removed by a water spirit thing.

Oh well. Another victory for the betrayer.

Game 3: Haunt 35 - Mother's Fury

Avrixis Mizzrym, the Drow Ranger, Azadeh Rashka the Human Monk and Ralvio Escanor the Human Sorcerer began to wander through the streets of Baldur's Gate. I was playing the sorcerer, and at first it looked like he'd face the same fate as Dhadius did earlier - events, and only events after every single turn. The one and only item he encountered was at least the Book of Vile Darkness. Clueless as the Wild Mage was, he never encountered even one omen card.

Same can't be said about the Ranger, who went tomb delving right away. Somehow she managed to draw most of catacomb tiles that injured her, even failing checks in secret cache. Soon enough she had accumulated, like, four omens without ever triggering haunt.

Monk had started by searching city levels, but eventually decided to join Avrixis in catacombs. There she picked up Cursed Armor and Meenlock, the latter of which triggered haunting in Kobold's Lair. This gave us a cooperative ending 35, Mother's Fury.

Each adventurer found their first dragon egg on the first turn. Luckily the dragon had also been funneled into a corridor, so it didn't pose much of a  threat in the first turn. Scenario felt way too easy, and Sorcerer, who was next in turn after dragon found the fourth egg right away.

However, the easy areas had now been scavenged for eggs and neither Monk or Ranger found any eggs that turn. Dragon also burned at least two extra tiles every turn. No adventurers were injured during process, though.

So, turn counter hit three. Wild Mage used Book of Vile Darkness to scrounge up fifth egg. Drow Ranger had to run in a straight line through the streets, and ended up in a newly discovered item tile. And look at that, sixth dragon egg. So that's a win for adventurers.