Descent: The Road to Legend — Preview #5

Mordrog Lord-Smasher,
Champion of Terrinoth

Things are looking grim. The overlord is untouchable, hidden away in his secret keep and planning his secret plans. His lieutenants are marching on Tamalir. His monsters breed in the depths and roam the land hunting for innocent flesh.

Fortunately, at the same time, a small band of heroes is forming in Tamalir…

From Zero…

Great heroes have humble beginnings; it's part and parcel of being a hero. Anyone can vanquish a monster if they're just handed a Sword of Monster Vanquishing and trained extensively by a wise old master in the comfort and safety of their own home from childhood to be a Monster Vanquisher, but heroism is more than that. Heroism is boldness in the face of peril, stoicism in the face of adversity, and triumph in the face of defeat. The hero's journey, according to Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, starts from an ordinary place and ends with the hero's triumphant return to his home, forever changed by his experiences.

What this means is that heroes in Road to Legend start a little weaker than you may be familiar with from Journeys in the Dark. It's a subtle difference, but it's important to give the heroes some room to grow into their roles.

Let's take Mordrog as our example. Mordrog hails from a small tribe still wandering the Misty Plains. After visiting Dawnsmoor for trade, Mordrog became fascinated with the wealth and business of the human cities and promptly hired himself out as a caravan guard. He'll return to his tribe one day, he knows…but what adventures lie in store for him beforehand?

Mordrog's character sheet

In a classic Journeys in the Dark game, Mordrog would draw his three fighting skills, pitch one he didn't want and draw a new one, buy his gear (probably chain mail, an axe, and two potions) and he's off to the races! In some games, that chain mail and axe would be all Mordrog needs to dish out the hurt even to the final boss monster of the entire dungeon, especially if he had a favorable combination of skills.

Well, those days are done–Mordrog is now both more and less powerful. He is a hero.

At the start of the advanced campaign, Mordrog will draw his three fighting skills and then one additional skill from the deck of his choice. Then, he will discard all but one of these skills. A starting hero is more about potential than raw power, and potential is something Mordrog has in spades.

Our example Mordrog draws his three fighting skills and gets Mighty, Able Warrior, and Knight. Because he's always wanted a pet, Mordrog also draws from the wizardry deck and gets Prodigy. Since he doesn't plan to be a wizard and because he has a pretty low fatigue score, Mordrog keeps it simple and selects Mighty as his starting skill. He is Mordrog the Mighty, a tribesman fresh off the Misty Plains, ready for adventure!

Mighty skill card.

…to Hero

When the overlord's activities within his hidden keep become known, Mordrog immediately invites himself into the band of heroes assembling to stop the evil plot! When Sir Valadir objects, insisting that the uncouth orc must clearly be a spy sent by the overlord, Mordrog introduces Sir Valadir to the concept of orcish diplomacy. The rest of the party enthusiastically welcomes Mordrog the Mighty into their fold!

Quickly, the heroes explore nearby dungeons in search of clues. Mordrog's axe and berserker strength quickly prove their worth, and by the time the heroes reach Vynelvale and lift the siege there, he's amassed enough XP and coin to get a new skill. He examines the list of skills available to him at Vynelvale and eagerly selects Weapon Mastery. By the time the heroes have reached Olmric's Hut and are asking the wise old adventurer for advice, Mordrog has enough XP and coin to induce Olmric to teach him the fine art of Cleaving through his foes! Mordrog also follows a rigorous training regime with the old dwarf and comes out of the two weeks spent there with +2 to his fatigue score!

Weapon Mastery and Cleaving cards.

By now, Mordrog is well advanced on his heroic journey. He's acquired a snazzy new sword and shield to replace his worn old axe and even added a bow to his arsenal for those times when he can't reach his target. Each time they pass through a city, Mordrog makes a point to work on his combat skills, eventually reaching 5 black dice in his melee trait and then upgrading some of his dice to silver. (The rest of his party gently suggest that Mordrog may want to practice with his bow a little, but Mordrog just laughs. Sir Valadir is apoplectic.)

Pile of power dice.

While his friends might have a point, it's hard to deny the appeal of those silver dice, especially since Mordrog knows that he'll be that much closer to gold. Silver and gold dice are exactly twice and three times as good as black dice, respectively. They have the same ratios–3 power enhancement faces, 2 surge faces, and 1 blank face–but each face is twice as strong. Silver surge faces have two surges. Silver power enhancement faces have two range or two damage. Silver blank faces are… twice as blank? Okay, well, they're just the same, but twice zero is still zero. Between his Weapon Mastery skill and his silver power dice, Mordrog is regularly rolling five or six surges on a single attack and converting them to impressive amounts of damage.

Rage Blade and Serpent Blade cards.

Finally, the campaign reaches gold level. Mordrog has acquired another skill–Ambidextrous, since dual-wielding snazzy swords is his new favorite game!–and has amassed an extra +8 to his health via additional secret master training. (He also wanted to buy Tough at Forge, but Sir Valadir insisted that he needed it more, "in case I get turned into a monkey again.") He's dual-wielding the Rage Blade and the Serpent Blade, as well as wearing the Belt of Strength and some very nice Dragon Scale Mail.

The Belt of Strength and Dragon Scale Mail cards.

By now, he's a force to be reckoned with. But let's answer the question you're all burning to ask: how hard can he hit?

Alright, let's assume that Mordrog, via spending fatigue and training in town, has managed to get up to the maximum possible five gold dice on this attack. And let's further assume that, thanks to a helpful Aim order applied via Sir Valadir's Leadership skill (hey, that guy is good for something!), Mordrog has managed to roll the absolute best possible result.

The absolute best possible roll!

So, on the dice we see 7 hearts. With Mighty, the Belt of Strength, and the off-hand bonus (plus Ambidextrous) from the Serpent Blade, that's a total of 13 damage before we even look at the surges. The red, green, and yellow dice have all rolled one surge each, so that's four surges. The gold dice have rolled THREE surges each, for a total of nineteen surges on the dice, plus two more from Weapon Mastery for a total of twenty-one. With the Rage Blade's power, that's 42 additional damage. Mordrog just did 55 damage with one swing.

Mordrog is, indeed, mighty.

Now the disclaimer stuff: most heroes won't roll five gold power dice on most attacks, and of course the odds of Mordrog rolling the best possible result with that many dice involved are actually very small. However, 25 damage on a swing is not even unlikely for a gold-level Mordrog, so yes, the heroes will hit very hard indeed…

That's all for now, folks! Join us next time, when we discuss how Fantasy Flight Games takes pity on your table.

Read the other articles in this series:
Preview #1: The Quest for Adventure »
Preview #2: Right–Talon Man »
Preview #3: Home Sweet Home »
Preview #4: Lord it Over the Heroes »
Preview #6: Packing for the Road to Legend »
Preview #7: From the Bat–Cave »