QOTW: The Dread Realm

Here we are at the end of another cycle in our Quest of the Week march through all the content! This one was a lot of fun. We had a lot of participation, quite a few folks doing campaign mode, and lots of discussion on the Discord about the quests. Together we got through Carn Dum, one of the hardest quests in the game even to this day, and made it past it to the end. As always, thanks to everyone who participated in Angmar Awakened. Let’s get to the recap of Dread Realm:

The Dread Realm Stats

Groups registered: 17
Total attempts: 33
Most attempts: 4
Average attempts per entry: 1.9

Total number of wins: 19
Win-rate: 58%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.1

Campaign Mode

Who is Determined:

Eowyn, Grimbeorn the Old, Radagast
Inrahil, Elrond, Aragorn, Rossiel,
Everyone
Arwen, Elrond, Rossiel, Aragorn, Imrahil
Arwen, Aragorn, Beregond, Faramir, Eowyn, Damrod, and Legolas
Glorfindel, Eowyn, Beravor
Beregond, Lanwyn, Widfast, Elfhelm
Aragorn, Beravor, Amarthiul, Halbarad
Alatar, Pallando, Gandalf, Frodo, Rosie Cotton, Sam Gamgee, Saruman, Beregond

Achievements

Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:

Rapid Escape

Complete the scenario without taking damage from the “forced” effect on stage 3.

Overwhelmed

Stage 1A should read “Setup: Each player reanimates the top 3 cards of their deck” instead of the top card of their deck.

Encounter card Opinions

We had an astounding 11 different submissions for favorite encounter card. There was a lot in the design of this quest to like! The winner, with just 3 votes, was Death and Calamity. The art on this card, by Rafał Hrynkiewicz, is absolutely terrifying and grotesque (one person even listed this card as their least favorite card because of the art alone!). This card also leans into the main mechanics of this quest: sorcery attachments on the quest and reanimating cards from a player’s deck. Very cool design!

There were quite a few cards that were submitted on both lists: A Fell Dread, Death and Calamity, Possession, Sinister Dungeon, and Wraith of Carn Dum. Each of these cards interacts with the core mechanics of the quest in unique ways, and I think it’s a mark of a great design that so many of these cards are loved and hated. The overall most and least favorite cards even appeared on both lists!

Taking a third of the votes, the winner for least favorite encounter card was Possession. If you’re playing with any big impactful allies, this card can absolutely ruin your day. Not only does it destroy your most expensive ally, but it also then turns them into an enemy and adds a Sorcery attachment to the board, slowing your attacks against Daechanar as well.

Things worth sharing from the games

After seeing A Perilous Voyage in Card of the Day, I decided to try it out with a faction where I always want to pack more cards in than feasible: Dúnedain. On both of my winning runs, my first reveal was Death and Calamity, leaving me with two reanimated dead to give Amarthiul a bonus resource starting from the first round. Rangers of Cardolan, Northern Trackers, Halbarad, Guardians of Arnor, and Wardens of Annuminas all make great defenders against reanimated dead, especially with a Warden of Healing (or multiple) in play, so I regularly had 6 enemies engaged. I ratcheted my threat up with the contract, and used the contract to hit 50 and get a free Forest Snare out in the engagement phase both games. On my second winning run, I only had the single Death and Calamity sorcery out when Daechanar showed up, so a sneak attack Gandalf took care of that and I defeated Daechanar that same round. I then had plenty of willpower to get out in a single round. This quest was a blast, I really should return to it more often.

First game I hit triple Heavy Curse in stage 1 plus a Death and Calamity. While i had a good set up, it just boosted Daechanar far too much to win. Second game I had a much slower start but managed to slow roll stage 1 with some side quests until I got set up. Only had 1 sorcery in play when I went to stage 2, and won pretty smoothly.

While fighting Daechanar, 4 Curse Dead appeared at the same time and there were two undefended attacks. One got as shadow Terror of the North for +3, and the 6 damage didn’t kill any heroes thanks to Ring of Barahir – with the One Ring and Thrór’s Key for 7HP. I like to think of it as in the movies when the protagonist’s pocket watch stops a bullet; the key around Beregond’s neck stopped an undead’s sword!

2 cool moments come to mind; It was 2nd hand player’s turn to attack engaged with Reanimated Dead, Daechanar and another enemy so I was making calculations; if Azain (boosted by 1st hand’s Dain) with his 4 attack kills Reanimated Dead I can pay 1 tactics resource to kill the Reanimated Dead engaged with the 1st hand; then combine (dual wielding Dwarrowdelf axes) Stonehelm and Oakenshield to destroy the other one and start damaging Daechanar – the I realised: Azain’s 4, Stonehelm’s 8, Oakenshield’s 4 = 16 + 1 from Stonehelm’s ability = 17 and it’s bye bye to Daechanar 😀 (btw Stonehelm ability to deal 1 damage to an enemy engaged with you is a nice way to get rid of Daechanar’s indestructibility ). Since this was my first time playing this scenario for the 3rd quest “when reveal” I chose Unholy Crypt location but when I flipped the card and saw the mechanic I “cheated” and replaced it with another location XD (I assume I would have won anyway but I didn’t want to drag it out since I was confident I could finish it in 1 turn if I didn’t have to deal with a 7 quest location – and I was right, Rapid Escape check )

First time ever playing this one, escaping the final collapse and only Eowyn and Damrod made it out alive of the 6 heros that went in after taking the undefended attacked from all the reanimated. Fitting sacrifice by Theoden and Aragorn, Fastred and Haldir

Team Elrond’s Vilya and draw cards kept being reanimated so no proper setup on that side, but the other team crushed it with an early Faramir and Citadel plate. No deaths this time around.

After Aragorn (T) ended Carn Dum with five damage (surviving thanks to the extra HP granted by Raiment of the Second Age), I decided to give him the quest off and bring in Legolas (T). I started w/Orders from Angmar on Beregond to kill one reanimated dead and Daechanar’s Brand on Faramir (which took out a Death and Calamity). Two Miners of the Iron Hills were the MVPs, taking out two copies of Heavy Curse (apparently dwarves make light of curses as well as burdens). A lone Gondorian Spearman also did good work, finishing off several undead with his direct damage and heroically taking a hit from Daechanar to get rid of a sorcery. I was able to make a Hasty Escape that was marred only by Glorfindel succumbing to Possession as I escaped (RIP). I have been reminded of how much I enjoy this quest and campaign by Quest of the Week! Thanks to Autumn, Durin’s Father, and everyone who has participated!

I got A Fell Dread in setup and attached it to Beravor and just had her draw cards all game in planning. I got two early Tighten Our Belts with my BoF deck and that propelled my board state well beyond anything the encounter deck could do to catch up. I really liked the fight with Daechanar. It was an interesting way to extend the fight a bit without making it too long or difficult.

I’d decided to make a Council of the Wise deck, then decided the current quest of the week would make quite the test. Turns out Council of the Wise works pretty well against this quest, with single copies of every card taking some of the teeth out of the encounter deck. Had so much fun with both the deck and the quest that I played it again. Both times I put A Fell Dread on Galadriel, at a point where I wasn’t even using Nenya’s ability, so it effectively was just a blank sorcery in play. On my first win, I played Host of the Galadhrim to land the final blow on Daechanar, then didn’t quite have the willpower to get out in one round, which destroyed a lot of 1-HP Silvan allies, but I had barely enough willpower to make it through the next round. On my second winning run, I got an early Mirkwood Runner who tore through lots of Reanimated Dead. I also played Host of the Galadhrim to land the final blow on Daechanar again, at which point my deck was empty. In the next planning, I played a Galadhrim Weaver to recur Host, played it again, and had plenty of willpower to get out in one round.

I got all of the Cursed Dead right as I got to stage 3, but my threat was low enough I didn’t have to engage them!

Determination allowed me to defend 6 engaged enemies, including a Fornost Bowman who was possessed just as I thought I had the attack power to start clearing out some enemies. I survived, but playing a Dúnedain deck always feels like a gamble.

By time I was ready to take out Daechanar, Gandalf and Saruman were attacking for 19 between the two of them so they were able to take him out. I would love to see an animated depiction of Gandalf and Saruman, sword and staff in hands, fighting with Daechanar.

I think this quest begged for a Boromir sacrifice at points but the fact that they just come back into play it’s almost better to trap them in staging for cursed dead. Mirkwood runners and guardians of Arnor felt especially good on the table given how often 4 enemies were on both sides. Amarthuil was very resource smoothing.

The first time was terrible(two Heavy curses + swarming Death and Calamity + lots of Restless evil as shadow card) wore my deck down. Second was walk in a park, with only innocent locations and enemies being revealed.

Decklists used

Elladan/Elrohir/Arwen Three Hunters Celeborn/Haldir/Thalin

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/58016/inmemoryofarvedui-1.0

Tactics Eowyn, Grimbeorn the Old, Radagast

Saruman, Galadriel, Spi Bergond – Council of the Wise

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/24644/tameflamearadagastgandalfdeck-2.0

https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22274

Gloin, Timrahil, scorpagorn + Arwen, Elrond, Rossiel

Rohan and Trap deck

Tacrahil, Scorpagorn, Gloin & Elrond, Arwen, Rossiel

“Date Night Orc Hunt” (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/56737/qotw-datenightorchuntrco-1.0) + Legolas subs in for Aragorn to help Arwen & Beregond (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/584172)

BoF: Beravor, Eowyn, Erkenbrand, Glorfindel https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/581051

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/57989/magicsilvancouncil-2.0

Scouting Burglars

Rainbow Dúnedain (T Aragorn, Beravor, Amarthiul/Halbarad)

Four Istari and Their Emotional Support Himbo 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🏋‍♂️ https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22361

Various. One always had Arwen elven light. Tried three hunter as a hand along with silvans. Dunedain and silvans. Struggled with silvans.

First deck- https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/573864 Second deck: https://ringsdb.com/questlog/view/57374/thedreadrealm-1player-2025-04-20

Cycle Retrospective

When asked which quest in this cycle was their favorite, this is how participants responded:

The Treachery of Rhudaur (5 votes)
Across the Ettenmoors (3 votes)
The Dread Realm (3 votes)
Intruders in Chetwood (2 votes)
Escape from Mount Gram (1 vote)
The Wastes of Eriador (1 vote)

From the votes during each week’s survey, these are the order of the Angmar Awakened quests based on the average rating for the question “How much do you like this quest?”

Quest	Average Rating
The Treachery of Rhudaur	4.5
Across the Ettenmoors	4.1
The Dread Realm	4.1
Deadmen’s Dike	3.6
Escape from Mount Gram	3.6
Intruders in Chetwood	3.5
The Wastes of Eriador	3.3
The Battle of Carn Dûm	3.3
The Weather Hills	3.1

And this is the order of the quests from highest to lowest win rate:

Quest	Average Win Rate
Escape from Mount Gram	0.76
Across the Ettenmoors	0.67
The Treachery of Rhudaur	0.63
The Dread Realm	0.58
Deadmen’s Dike	0.56
Intruders in Chetwood	0.52
The Weather Hills	0.49
The Wastes of Eriador	0.41
The Battle of Carn Dûm	0.17

Players were also asked what their favorite campaign-specific mechanic or moment from the cycle was. This is what they had to say:

Fend Off Despair really made my decks operate much differently than they would have otherwise. It’s swingy since you might never see it, but I liked how fresh it made things feel since I did.

Finally winning Carn Dum on normal mode for the first time was easily the highlight. I don’t think I would’ve persevered through all the losses if not for quest of the week. Wild Stallion on Elrond’s Champion was a nice little synergy I got from the campaign mode.

The cursed dead and the encounter side quests – each of these really separates the quests to others and enhances the story.

Thematic ending of escape with everyone but 2 making it to end

This whole campaign has been really fun! Cool moments include: neutralizing both Dead Lords in Deadman’s Dike w/Ranger Spikes and Hands Upon the Bow, using Iarion’s Pendant to save the Day (pun intended!) in Wastes of Eriador, using Distant Stars to snatch Beregond and Damrod from the cells of Mount Gram, completing all three Rhudaur side quests, and surviving Carn Dum w/five damage on Aragorn. Honorable mention to the time I ret-conned myself out of a victory in Wastes of Eriador by drawing and playing a West Road Traveler (that I didn’t end up needing) during the final quest phase to use up the spirit resources that would have allowed me to save the game w/Hasty Stroke.

I really had a blast with the Ruthless boon. I chose it because my deck needed the early combat but it turned out to be a pretty reliable way to get ahead of the encounter deck. You can safely take an undefended attack with a high HP character (like Glorfindel) then effectively heal off the damage while providing a big attack boost. That often provided enough tempo to gain my footing against the quest early on. With all the damage dealing effects throughout the campaign, it was also pretty easy to load the hero up within 1 point of dying before using the ability.

Using Determined in this last game readied almost my whole board, and it was really tight to defeat the enemies that kept appearing, and that was awesome to see everyone determined to make it out alive!

Defeating The Battle of Carn Dûm for only the second time, ever. That quest remains one of the most difficult in the game, and it even with a full card pool it remains formidable. The campaign cards helped, but it still took two attempts to defeat it, and even then it was a narrow escape. Thanks for running quest of the week, I look forward to it every week!

I like that side quests are a focus of campaign mode. It really leans into the cycle’s main mechanic.

Don’t put away those Angmar Awakened campaign cards just yet! This week we defend Annúminas from the forces of Angmar and you have the opportunity to play this as a campaign epilogue, using your earned boons and burdens. Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/W7kJk9VFT6sB7Zk57

And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have: