Summer of Betrayals

Wow, second time playing Betrayal at Baldur's Gate within a month, when last time around was four years ago.  

During my bi-annual trip to Kuhmo, we had three players for two games. My sister had a wedding to plan - I suppose that's good enough of a reason to not play more Betrayal at Baldur's Gate. 

Game 1: Haunt 33: Will of Yeenoghu

Adventurers were none other than Torskar Stonecleaver the Barbarian, whom the haunt calls for specifically and Azadeh Rashka the monk, plus Lia Faen Tlabbar the Warlock.

Early on Warlock went spelunking in the catacombs, and armed herself with Cursed Armor and Berserker Axe... not really the best combination for a warlock.

Azadeh kept company for the dwarf for a while until she, too, took a sewer grate and went into catacombs.

Dwarf Berserker was the only adventurer on city level, and there he found Meenlock and Dimensional Shackles... and triggered haunt with that. What a horrifying combo - endless reckless strikes! And that re-roll of blanks...!

Warlock and Monk might have had a chance had they planned movement a little better... but that kill potential of the traitor wasn't apparent to us. If the monk would have lured out the dwarf with Warlock a little behind but out of reach, heroes would have had a shot at wrecking the possessed dwarf with an eldritch blast. But, Torskar had a speed of five and warlock had three, so she would have to tank one attack of, like, eight or nine dice with re-rolled blanks before getting to it.

There were no miracles this time around. Victory for the traitor.

Game 2: Haunt 49: The Dark Light of Bhaal

Adventurers were Gretchen Titchwillow the Druid, Grusk Mugtug the Paladin and Dhadius Scarlet, the Wizard.

Gretchen was hell-bent on trying to uncover every single street tile there was. She failed in her endeavor, but at least she found a spell-book. Such a good item for a versatile character able to pump a single stat of choice.

Dhadius and Grusk were kind of hovering between catacombs and city level, not making up their mind where to be. Dhadius found potion of speed, locket and some sort of fireball beads that were worse than his own fireballs.

But the Paladin found Hand of Vecna, and triggered haunt with Figurine of Wondrous Power inside Shrine of Bhaal. Uh oh. 

First round after Paladin went rogue both the druid and wizard picked up two out of three quest tokens. Second turn Grusk wasn't able to do much other than position. He lost Figurine of Wondrous Power to a fireball by Dhadius and stopped Gretchen in her tracks with Eye of Vecna.

But then, Grusk entered same space with Dhadius and charmed him.

Since Grusk had moved to same space with Dhadius, Gretchen was able to go and pick up the third quest location with her mighty Sanity of six... not. Check failed miserably.  Fortunately Dhadius was able to shake up the enchantment, and blasted Grusk again with a superior fireball - and took the lantern. Curses! Had Gretchen picked up the quest location, heroes would have won.

But now things got a lot trickier. Grusk scrambled the lantern from Dhadius, and now finally Gretchen picked up the quest location. Unfortunately, however, Wizard could not repeat his last success and, in fact, just died to next attack the paladin did.

Druid still had a chance to win the game by using spellbook to attack Grusk. However, Eye of Vecna denied entering the space and paladin charged druid dead.

Another victory for the traitor.

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.

Minsc and Boo were there

Oh, I completely forgot to publish this one when I was in Kuhmo. So, these games were played during Christmas time, when I got to play my first full games of Betrayal at Baldur's Gate.

A total of five games were played, with all but one being played with four players. One was done with three instead.

I think we got a pretty good distribution of different haunts. One with no traitor, one with bogus traitor, one with all players kind of being traitors, and two "honest" traitors. Of course I cannot know for sure how many alternate versions there are, but I think the only one we missed was one with a hidden traitor.

1st game: Fire in the Sky 38 (four players)

Here suddenly fire rained down from the sky for various reasons. Adventurers needed to carry some civilians to the safety of a teleportation circle to win. There were no traitors here, so I suppose it was a good introduction to core mechanics without the hassle of an asymmetrical ruleset. Adventurers won, although it was a close call.


2nd game: Rabble Rousers 10 (four players)

I was playing the dwarf warrior who was able to take hits for other players. With Cursed Armor, Berserker Axe and Iron Flask of Tuerny (spelling?) I was the traitor. Being able to take hits for the citizen who was guarding the treasure chest gave me a plan: lure all adventurers to the neglected shrine, take hits for the citizen to deny adventurers opening chest all the while attacking other players. Then, once all are in, I'd lob the flask, unleashing a demon to attack everybody. Bwahahaha.

Well, I rolled poorly for the peasant movement, so they weren't of much use. And first player to enter same square with me dealt around six or seven damage to the peasant. There were... some limits in how valiantly I would sacrifice my character, so the chest was opened. Which unleashed the monster.

It went down relatively easy - after all, no players had been injured by peasants (or my dwarf, for that matter) and nobody died. Except for the monster.

3rd game: The Big Score 36 (three players)

This scenario had players eventually competing against each other. First the halfling rogue found Star of Cthay, but it was stolen from her by evil wizard. From evil wizard it was stolen by... uhh... I don't remember which character I played. It was probably the evil monk. And at last, evil halfling stole it back and won the game.

Nice game it was, as each player held the Star at least once. Instead of one-sided run-through we had players using more or less violent methods to acquire the treasure.

4th game: Priscilla 21 (four players)

And here drow ranger proved to be the traitor, who was possessed by evil spirit. It was a close call, this one. Eventually Priscilla was able to seize enough eyes to win the day - victory for the traitor, that is. However, the players did have at least two chances to succeed in their banishing ritual.

5th game: Bottled Lightning 29 (four players)

Halflings are not to be trusted. The rogue was a homicidal maniac who valued a little ornament over the life of her comrade. The druid, on the other hand, went whole-hog in demonic manifestations. Her bloodthirstiness was her undoing, however. She, too, found it more appealing to murder all the people she once knew instead of trying to stop a particular chamber from flooding. While multiple adventurers died, the chamber was soon inaccessible and traitor lost the game.


Throughout all the games, each adventurer was being played at least once, which somehow pleases my completionist tendencies.