From the Frozen Crypt we go to the Glowing Catacombs. I mean, I’ll take glowing over frozen any day of the week except – the damn place is a lot more dangerous!

Characters

• Boneshaper (David) lvl 2>>3, minions: Bob the dead lumberjack and Raging Sally
• Geminate (Math) lvl 2, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
• Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 2, versatile Inox fighter

First room is crowded, full of monsters, traps and obstacles. I’m frontline with Bob the dead lumberjack (that’s a bit foolish with my impressive 5 hp). Bob is back to a pile of bones almost immediately. Those Living Dooms (center) hits hard! The Geminate and Drifter gather their strength.

The Geminate is annoyed at the lack of fresh air and more importantly, room to manoeuver. At least, that’s how I’m interpreting his constant buzzing. What, they’re actually speaking, oops, my bad!

Raging Sally gets in from nowhere and proves that she has more angst than the Living Spirit. She also picks up shiny loot, she likes those. Can we have it Sally? « GRRAAHAAAH! » Okay, okay, you can keep it sweetie.

After (what felt like) two hundred rounds we finally get out of the first room and… WHADDAHECK – more frikkin Ice Wraiths and Living Spirits. And what’s that dripping sound we can hear from farther away? An Ooze?

Can we even make it? Do we turn back? The Inox Drifter isn’t one to ask himself these questions, here he is rushing gallantly forward. Alone. Very far from us. Seriously he’ll get himself killed – I think we should help.

All the way pass the long twisting passage, there’s a strange room with some kind of mechanism. Two switches. And there’s happy Oozes and when Oozes are happy, well, they reproduce like there’s no tomorrow. Of course they do.

The brave Drifter is determined to end this in style. The Geminate skitters as fast as he can and barges in the room and annihilates several oozes. Two switches off and two characters down (exhausted) later, we’re perilously close to defeat. Will the Drifter and Geminate will be slowly, agonizingly dissolved and become part of the BLOB? Me, I’m like a mile away: « guys? GUYS? what’s happening, is that you screaming? »

Pseudopods lash at the Drifter and he hangs on to life by a thread (my curses come in handy!). And you know what, we’re saved by the Law of Conservation of Mass. All that reproducing that the Oozes’ been doing? Not good for their health, they die off just like that, dissolving in an inanimate puddle. And we’re alive, all of us!

Closing Comments:

• Our very first true test of the campaign, a very challenging scenario where we’ve come really close to regret enabling the « permadeath » option. It came as a surprise too as our first four scenarios were on the easy side of things.
• We’ve managed to win by the skin of our teeth after having been really close to abandon and we finally got through with a combination of, hmm I’d say, sheer stubbornness, some luck and huh, our astute knowledge of ooze ecology…
• Speaking of oozes, we just kept getting the card that made them cloning and incidentally, losing 2 hp until their eventual demise
• Ice Wraiths are a real PAIN, I tell you. Like Math said, even at level 1, with their built-in powers they feel like 1 or 2 steps stronger.
• Interesting town event with a White Oak official coming to inspect the outpost and actually paying us! Nice! I can’t complain about our lack of pay anymore!
• Built the Hunting Lodge, all set.