Gloomhaven #9 - (70) Chained Isle

27th May 2018 (Sunday)

Game(s) Played:

No, really, the following post has MAJOR spoilers for the Gloomhaven campaign. This has been your spoiler warning.

Gloomhaven #9 – (70) Chained Isle

Game: Gloomhaven
Designer: Isaac Childres
Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 30 – 120 minutes (This Play: 150 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Role Playing, Legacy, Hand Management

Player(s):

And so, after feasting on Bear Hotpot for a week, Thalia steps through the portal into Gloomhaven to find that her compatriots have gained quite a few pounds whilst she was away. Lyramof appears to have contracted severe heartburn, something about Savvas' arteries being too narrow to withstand the cholesterol from 21 meals of bear meat. He is now lying in hospital recovering on a diet of banana shakes, the cries from behind the reinforced door of his hospital room are piteous indeed.

Having received the divine prophecy of Jekserah's location (our mercenaries decided vengeance being the better part of power and wealth), Thalia kicks the team out of the Sleeping Lion and force marches them towards the West Gate on to Jekserah's hideout in the Dagger Forest. Perhaps they will lose a few pounds living on nuts and berries on the trail.

The more keen eyed of us will notice that this is City Event 80 which should not be available to be drawn at this stage. Which is why the narrative of a vermling invasion out of the blue is very odd.

Already at the end of her patience with her compatriots, Thalia spits on the ground before the guards. "That will teach you to wrongly accuse the next person you meet, it would appear incompetence is a pre-requisite to joining the city guards." The guards have to be restrained by their colleagues as they threaten violence at Thalia's retreating back and her compatriots sticking their tongues out at them, the traditional but effective taunt taught to children of all races since the age of 3. "Let's go." Thalia waves the gang out the gate. "If you guys were in better shape, we would have slaughtered them before backup showed up. Let's get this show on the road."

There was much consternation and rule book flipping at the word "collective"

Already pooped from helping the Inox tribe resettle in their temporary homes, the party decides by majority vote that it is perhaps not the right time to serve vengeance on Jekserah. "Actually, a short holiday on an island off the coast of Gloomhaven sounds like just the thing. I'm sure the spirits and demons mentioned in the journal are just horse dung and poppycock of a deranged author." says Thalia as she waves a battered old journal in her hands. "Let's head back to Gloomhaven and hit the docks."

The party jumps out of the rowboat and splashes through the surf onto the beach. "So much for horse dung and poppycock," mutters Rincewind under his breath as the group unlimbers their weapons to meet the gathering demons on the shore.

The beach has more vegetation than one would expect, making it hard to see the enemy as they approach under the shadow of the foliage

Even as the demons close in on the party, with a simple "Cover me", Thalia takes a running start and leaps into the nearest tree, quickly moving higher and higher into the treetops. Faced with incoming forces on all sides, All Might, Xanna and Rincewind hold their weapons tightly, unsure which quarter to engage. The nearest Wind Demon is suddenly slammed into the ground, spraying sand everywhere, as Thalia steps on the demon's corpse to pull out her dagger now protruding from the Wind Demon's back.

As if a signal gun had been fired, Xanna leaps forward to plug a narrow gap between the trees and thorn bush before the two Wind Demons can squeeze through whilst All Might crosses his arms across his body and jumps through the tree foliage, snapping branches and leaving an All Might shaped hole where leaves used to be. Sensing that he had managed to get behind the Wind Demons' lines, All Might jumps out of the undergrowth and now has the Wind Demons pincered between Xanna and himself.

Meanwhile, Rincewind flips his spellbook feverishly as Thalia is about to be surrounded by 3 Night Demons, "Doesn't work on demons… Kills the caster as well… Turns target into a rampaging rhinoceros (WTH?!)" He's so busy that he fails to notice that Thalia has managed to retrieve her dagger and ran up the nearest tree heading towards All Might and Xanna's direction.

Between All Might & Xanna, the first Wind Demon is vanquished, its' corpse disappearing in a poof of smoke, leaving behind a big shiny coin. Turning his attention towards the second Wind Demon, Thalia drops down from the tree bough overhead and snatches up the coin, smiling "Don't mind if I do." Before All Might can voice his protest, a Living Spirit floats through the tree at his rear, wailing its lamentable death at the hands of the demons, seeking despair amongst the living. "Great, now we have to deal with ghosts too."

Finally, Rincewind finds the page titled "MANABOLT" but the hairs on the back of his neck are standing at attention, his innate trait of survival warning him that his survival stocks are looking at a questionable future. Looking up, three of the Night Demons have closed in to striking distance and ready to turn him into diced sashimi. Rincewind's survival instincts kick into extinction mode as he makes a desperate leap to escape being surrounded by the Night Demons, pulling on his "INVISIBILITY CLOAK" as he makes his diving leap. Rincewind does suffer some serious hits as the Night Demons slash at his retreating back but their attention is diverted by the arrival of All Might who comes rushing in at their flank, taking down the first Night Demon in his way with a mighty slash of his sword.

Meanwhile, Thalia is fending off the attacks of both the Wind Demon as well as the Living Spirit when suddenly the Living Spirit is twisted into nothingness. Realizing that this occurred when All Might went back to take down the Night Demon, Xanna shouts, "Killing the demons frees the Living Spirits!" Even as she makes this realization, more Living Spirits show up in the gloom, coming out of the shadows, making Xanna gulp at the number of previous inhabitants of this island that were decimated.

All Might continues to fend off the advance of the Night Demons, covering the party's back, "Get to the cave entrance! I'll hold them off."

All Might heroically waves the gang onwards, well more treasure for us then

Reaching the cave entrance in the mountainside, Thalia's eyes adjust to the darkness of the cave but senses more than sees that there are two demons lying in wait in the corners of the room. Even as she pulls out both her daggers from their sheaths, Xanna whispers to her from behind, "Thalia we can't stay here. The ghosts are coming. You guys bust in whilst I try to hold them off." Nodding once, Thalia vaults off the wall towards the far corner, her speed taking the Night Demon by surprise as she crashes into the demon, both of them crashing to the ground in a tangle of flying arms and daggers. Whilst Xanna holds the cave entrance, shooting towards the incoming ghosts with little effect, All Might comes crashing out of the trees with a loud, "Here I come!!!" and charges straight at the bewildered Wind Demon just inside the entrance of the cave. Sensing the Wind Demon trying to escape, Rincewind leaps into the entrance as well and both he and All Might manage to corner the Wind Demon and take it down swiftly.

Our characters' lives may hang in the balance in this moment, but there is always time to brag about how cheapskate we are

As the party takes brief shelter in the small but enemy-less entrance chamber, they gather together to discuss breach and enter tactics for the next chamber. That's when Xanna notices Thalia picking up something shiny from the floor.

We play big adult games like this as if we were a tenth of our actual ages.

"You know, I've just about had it enough with your larcenous ways. Can you stop…" as wails of despair from outside the cave cut off All Might in mid-sentence whilst he tries to give Thalia a dressing down. "We're continuing this later" as All Might turns and kicks the next door off its hinges into the next room with Rincewind and Xanna quickly following after as the Living Spirits begin pouring through the cave entrance.

Demons in the front, Spirits at the back, who ya gonna call???

"Me of course" quips Thalia as she swings across the entrance gripping the cave's stalactites and plunges a dagger deep into the shoulder blade of the Night Demon facing All Might. As the Night Demon shrieks in agony, All Might's blade comes sweeping horizontally, taking the Night Demon's head from its shoulders as All Might leaps over the rubble to confront the two Wind Demons. As the two remaining Wind Demons fall to the onslaught of both physical and magical projectiles coming from Xanna and Rincewind who are taking cover behind the rubble, more and more of the closing in Spirits twist away into nothingness, and yet more can be heard coming from the beach outside the cave, slowly but surely, hunting down the trespassers on this island.

As Xanna and Rincewind slowly make their way around the rubble with Thalia in the lead, All Might forges ahead into the next room which is devoid of any enemies, instantly triggering the suspicious nature of the Inox. Hearing Thalia tell Xanna & Rincewind to avoid a trap on the floor behind him, All Might pulls a piece of plywood off of the wall and tosses it onto the floor in front of him, triggering the pitfall traps containing nasty 3 ft spikes at the bottom. He then notices a big solid coin sitting in the corner of the room and is about to head over to it when a hand appears out of the shadows and picks it up, placing it in her pocket, Thalia smiles at her ever increasing riches from this sojourn to Chained Isle. All Might curses mightily and swears, "Are you freaking half wraith?!" With nothing else to do, All Might jumps over the pitfall traps and opens the next door his traditional way, creating job opportunities for carpenters everywhere.

My PE teacher was right, running is good practice for when it will save your life

The glint of the golden treasure chest catches the eye of All Might before he even notices the four demons in the room. Ignoring the sordid proclamations of the demons as background noise, All Might remembers that Thalia and her cave vaulting ways is still in the previous room, he takes a few steps back, drawing the attention of the demons as they converge on the doorway. As the rest of the party gathers on the other side of the pitfall traps, All Might takes a mighty leap and crowd surfs the enemy demons by stepping onto their heads and jumping off before their talons can rend him, landing neatly at the rear of the enemy with nothing between him and his p-r-e-c-i-o-u-s.

I googled "multiple of déjà vu" and it said "addictive habit"

Thalia takes a running leap and easily clears the pitfall trap and engages the Wind Demons directly. Xanna heroically tries to disarm the pitfall trap by reaching over the lip of the pit to look for the disarming trigger. She manages to find it but not before taking a flying dagger in the forearm from a secondary hidden trap. As All Might saunters over to the Treasure Chest, singing a jaunty tune, he opens the chest to find a "HOOKED CHAIN", not quite what he expected but loot is still by its nature, free, so he picks it up and tosses it into his backpack. The concentrated fire from Rincewind, Xanna and Thalia takes down the demons until there is only one left. With a clear opportunity to put the remaining Wind Demon out of its misery…

For some character classes, being a mercenary doesn't pay very well it seems

As Thalia finally deals lethal damage to the last Wind Demon, gusts of wind coalesces into a huge vortex of spinning air in the middle of the room before blasting out in all directions all over the island. As the blast of air passes through the Living Spirits, they begin to unravel before winking out with a small explosion of light.

Government… highly efficient when you don't need them to be

Now let's cut to the action in real time!

Results Of Game(s)

Loot!:
Justin aka Rincewind "*marks a slate* survived another one" – 16 Exp & 3 Gold
Moses aka All Might "The Greatest Contributor!" – 23 Exp & 6 Gold
Sean aka Xanna "I need to artifice some longer legs" – 17 Exp & 3 Gold
Gideon aka Thalia "$ . $" – 18 Exp & 30 Gold
+2 Prosperity

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Big maps really amp up the challenge for us and the Chained Isle was a really close thing for a number of us. We celebrated a little bit at the +2 Prosperity reward as this takes Gloomhaven to Prosperity Level 2! New stalls selling more powerful equipment awaits us back at the city of Gloomhaven.

We will be back with more Gloomhaven adventures in two weeks' time.

Until next time, keep calm and play better.