The largest spider you’ve ever seen bursts out of the enshrouding webs. Colorings across its bristled body resemble Ariad’s clothing, and with horror you realize this monstrous creature is the sorceress herself, hideously transformed. “What’s wrong?” she says, her voice as twisted as her monstrous body. “Am I not beautiful?”

In Labyrinth of Ruin , the heroes first encountered Ariad, a deadly sorceress and a powerful illusionist. A vile and deeply clever servant of the overlord, Ariad stops at nothing to bring total darkness to the world and its people. Though her motivations are unclear, she remains a dangerous foe not to be underestimated. Ariad’s power only grows greater once she completes her transformation into a horrifying spider: Queen Ariad!

Soon, the depredations of Queen Ariad will spread from the ruins of Sudanya across all Terrinoth. The Queen Ariad Lieutenant Pack offers a new expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition , allowing you to summon Queen Ariad as an agent into any quest outside the Labyrinth of Ruin campaign. (For the full Lieutenant Pack rules, visit the Descent support page .) Today, we’ll take a closer look at the strategic power you’ll gain from this Lieutenant Pack .

Ensnared

Queen Ariad’s Plot deck, Tangled Web , offers you a host of options and opportunities for strengthening your Wilderness-traited monsters. When using this Plot deck, you begin with the card Natural Camouflage , which grants your monsters an immediate defensive bonus for an encounter. While Natural Camouflage is exhausted, your Wilderness monsters add one shield to their defense roll for each blank you roll. Essentially, Natural Camouflage ensures that no attack goes completely undefended by your Wilderness monsters, helping you to keep them alive and ready to attack the heroes.

Wilderness monsters gain another benefit from the Hidden Predator card. This card gives all Wilderness monsters the Ambush ability for an encounter. Ambush means that if a monster attacks a hero that did not have line of sight to the monster at the beginning of the monster’s activation, the attack gains Pierce 2, slicing through the hero’s defenses. By cleverly positioning your monsters and attacking from out of sight, your monsters can do much more damage than they otherwise could. The Solitary Prey Plot card grants bonus damage to monsters attacking a lone hero, and if your monster has the Wilderness trait, the monster gains Pierce, dealing even more damage!

Other Plot cards in Queen Ariad’s Plot deck focus on her cunning, arachnid nature by rewarding you for playing Trap Overlord cards. Some cards, such as Unsafe Passage , simply return a Trap card to your hand after you play it, giving you more opportunities to foil the heroes’ plans. Another Plot card – Savage Exploitation – offers you the chance to finish a weakened hero. After playing a Trap card on a hero, you can use Savage Exploitation to choose a Wilderness monster. That monster can immediately attack the hero who was the target of the Trap card, stacking more damage onto a hero.

The Spider’s Fangs

If you summon Queen Ariad into a quest as your agent, the heroes will have a fierce battle ahead of them. Queen Ariad is not as nimble as smaller lieutenants, but her bulk gives her a massive amount of health, plus strong defenses against any heroes that dare to attack. Queen Ariad’s own attacks feature a deadly amount of dice, and when she surges for two additional damage or Pierce 3, a hero might find himself dangerously close to being knocked out.

Queen Ariad’s other abilities only add insult to the injury inflicted by her Plot deck. Queen Ariad’s Trap Springer ability allows her to move one space whenever you play a Trap Overlord card, granting her extra mobility, whether she’s chasing the heroes or dodging away from their blades. When Queen Ariad triggers her Pincer Attack ability, any nearby heroes are in for a shock. As an action, Queen Ariad can attack two adjacent heroes, and to make matters worse for the hero players, any hero that takes damage becomes Immobilized, trapping them next to Queen Ariad for another turn!

Into the Wild

The overlord’s agents are leaving the ruins of Sudanya to ravage the rest of Terrinoth. How will you use their power? The Descent Lieutenant Packs from Labyrinth of Ruin will soon be on sale! Preorder your copies at your local retailer today.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition is a story-driven board game for 2-5 players that takes a party of adventurers deep into the dungeons of Terrinoth for adventure, treasure, and glory. Players will embark on a campaign of linked quests as they develop characters based on four fantasy archetypes.