There agelong she had dwelt, an evil thing in spider-form, even such as once of old had lived in the Land of the Elves in the West that is now under the Sea, such as Beren fought in the Mountains of Terror in Doriath, and so came to Lúthien upon the green sward amid the hemlocks in the moonlight long ago. How Shelob came there, flying from ruin, no tale tells, for out of the Dark Years few tales have come. But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness. Far and wide her lesser broods, bastards of the miserable mates, her own offspring, that she slew, spread from glen to glen, from the Ephel Dúath to the eastern hills, to Dol Guldur and the fastnesses of Mirkwood. But none could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world.
–The Return of the King
Beneath the Sands Stats
- Groups registered: 6
- Total attempts: 18
- Most attempts: 5
- Average attempts per entry: 3
- Total number of wins: 5
- Win-rate: 28%
- Average opinion on the quest: 3.2
Achievements
Here are the achievements we had for this quest:
Get Away From Her, You…
Brood Mother gains: “Forced: After Brood Mother engages you, it makes an immediate attack”.
No One Left Behind
The On Track objective gains: “Forced: After a character is destroyed, flip this objective.”
Encounter Card Opinions
The winner of favorite encounter card is the Spider Broodling, which is a great example of one of the overall designs of the quest: that when you are off track, encounter cards are easier, and when you are on track, they are harder. If you happen to be on track, this enemy gains surge and the shadow effect pulls it out into play with you. Otherwise it’s not a big deal at all.
There were no cards this week that received votes in both categories.
The two cards this week to receive multiple votes for least favorite were Pitch Black Tunnel and Enfeebled. Pitch Black Tunnel is one of those very special and very annoying locations that are prime targets for Thror’s Key. It hits swarm decks particularly hard and can be a huge spike in threat if you’re not ready for it. Enfeebeled, on the other hand, is relatively easy to manage in swarm decks but much more deadly if you’re focusing on having a few strong characters that ready multiple times to handle every phase of the round. Also I’d like to highlight how good the art on Enfeebled is!
Things worth sharing from the games
Listened to the COTR episode where Caleb talked a bit about Explore secret ways and wanted to try it as an alternative to Bombur. Tried to put in distant stars, Find secret ways and Eryn Galen settlers to help the strategy, bit by bit. Let’s say that together with the recycling of explored locations while off track, the time I got Explore secret ways to make a difference I was doomed anyways. Both distant stars and Eryn galen settler were handy tools to be able to manage the Pitch black tunnel, though.
This is one of the most annoying quests I’ve played in a long time. One of those where you have the board state to win but the treacheries keep deciding you need to go off track again so you can’t defeat the Brood Mother so you can’t defeat the quest. I finally just threw in the towel and decided to move on from this one.
On my best playthrough, I had to complete In Enemy Territory and Craft Remedy before I could take down the Brood Mother. The constant attacks from the achievement put a lot of pressure on my decks, but I was able to use Host of the Galadhrim the final round to seal the victory.
I kept stalling out on stage 3 with my 3 Hunters deck. The treachery that exhausts a character the threw a wrench in my game twice in a row.
Enfeebled absolutely ruined my game. Had the encounter locked down all game until it came time to face the Brood Mother. Enfeebled (as a shadow) shattered my defense for the subsequent riding, basically buying the encounter deck 3 additional rounds – one of which I would have been 1 short of killing the Brood Mother. Then I had to bail for real life demands. I hate that card
Decklists used
Distant stars/Eryn galen settler quest and location control + dunedains and side quests Explore secret ways
The Beacons are Lit in Umbar https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22821
True Solo – “Galion, Fetch More Wine!” (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/48428/eredmithrinelvesorgalionfetchmorewinerco-1.0) Two-Handed – “Elven-Wiser” (“The Elven-Wise” + Celeborn, Galadriel, Thranduil; https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21272)
Rohan Three Hunters https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/389241
The elves must take action and the Swords of the Noldor reforged
“Vanilla” Isengard deck (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/610073) and a Three Stewards Isengard deck (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/610357)
This week we return above to the land of the blazing sun and have a duel with a very memorable enemy. Once you have completed The Black Serpent, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/TRTKn3NHt3zJkKYP6
And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have:
Double Your Danger, Double Your Fun
The Black Serpent should read “X is twice the stage number of the main quest” instead of the stage number of the main quest.
It Gets Worse
Setup: Search the encounter deck for a copy of Southron Captain and set it aside, out of play, and add the Southron Champion side quest to the staging area. Add the set aside Southron Captain to the staging area as “the champion”. Shuffle the encounter deck.
Vision Of The Palantir 