Glóin sighed. ‘Moria! Moria! Wonder of the Northern world! Too deep we delved there, and woke the nameless fear. Long have its vast mansions lain empty since the children of Durin fled. But now we spoke of it again with longing, and yet with dread; for no dwarf has dared to pass the doors of Khazad-dûm for many lives of kings, save Thrór only, and he perished. At last, however, Balin listened to the whispers, and resolved to go; and though Dáin did not give leave willingly, he took with him Ori and Óin and many of our folk, and they went away south.
‘That was nigh on thirty years ago. For a while we had news and it seemed good: messages reported that Moria had been entered and a great work begun there. Then there was silence, and no word has ever come from Moria since.’
–The Fellowship of the Ring
Into the Pit Stats
- Groups registered: 30
- Total attempts: 68
- Most attempts: 5
- Average attempts per entry: 2.3
- Total number of wins: 42
- Win-rate: 62%
- Average opinion on the quest: 3.5
Achievements
Here are the achievements we had for this quest:
OH YEAH!!!
Complete stage 1 in less than 3 rounds.
Show Me a Sign
Forced: When stage 3B is revealed, shuffle each copy of Signs of Conflict into the encounter deck. Then, each player reveals one encounter card.
Encounter Card Opinions
There were a ton of different cards nominated for favorite card this week. Part of that is that we had an incredible turnout for participants this week (thanks everyone!!) and also the size of the encounter decks in this cycle are truly massive. The card to take the lead on votes, though, was the unassuming Goblin Scout. Really really easy enemy to fight, but the complication is that if your threat is between 25 and 37, he is stuck in the staging area contributing his sizable 3 threat. Very cool design! Cards like Haldir and Tactics Aragorn will shine against this enemy.
I can’t really have a short section this week where I discuss the one or two cards that made both lists, because almost every single card nominated for least-favorite encounter card also appeared somewhere on the favorite encounter card list. I wonder if part of this is that some of the really poorly designed, nasty cards have nostalgia factor for some of us long-time players, so they end up getting our votes for favorite encounter card, even though they are pretty poor designs.
Taking 50% of the votes for least-favorite encounter card was Sudden Pitfall (it should also be noted that this card also appeared on the list of favorite encounter cards). This card–either its revelation effect or its shadow effect–can be instant scoops. The revelation effect can lead to a turn 1 loss of a hero, and the shadow effect can lead to 2 heroes being killed at once. In my opinion this is one of the worst designed cards in the entire history of the game.
Things worth sharing from the games
I always forget about the engagements effect on East-Gate. Even had to scoop a game because of it.
I will always have such a fondness for Dwarrowdelf. It’s a cool setting, and they were the first quests I played that really made me fall deeply in love with this game. Mirkwood Cycle is… well a bumpy road… but Dwarrowdelf cemented my faith in this game. The nostalgia is still very real, all these years later.
I took no encounter tech at all in order to match Pippin’s level of blissful unawareness to the dangers all around him. He wandered out here in search of some rare fish.
I had Dreadful Gap delay me a round (only because I didn’t save a resource on stage 3 for my last A Test of Will) then Signs of Conflict threated out one of my decks. I was going to keep going, but then Cave-in removed 16 progress from Dreadful Gap. This encounter deck sometime…
I ended up mining all my threat reduction in my 3-hunters deck and end the game at 47 threat!
Asfaloth ended up doing a lot of legwork, Eowyn closed it out
I had a moment where I had 3 enemies in staging while I progressed to stage 2, then one of them had a goblin swordsman shadow. Next combat phase there were two more goblin swordsman shadows. It was insane combat for a few rounds until I died.
Asfaloth is king under the mountain, and putting Tactics Aragorn on Lorangorn is nice aswell!
All my runs felt very swingy. I had a run with my Dúnedain deck where the only enemies I ever fought were those I put into play via 2A of the nightmare quest card. An early Northern Tracker and the Cave Torch meant I could clear any locations, and Sword that was Broken made it so stage 3 was simple.
I sideboarded in a copy of Distant Stars, which led to a fun sequence while still on stage 1 (Bridge of Khazad-Dum was the active location, so I couldn’t play cards, but I had an unattached Entangling Nets in staging): Dreadful Gap is revealed -> becomes active and kicks Bridge of Khazad-Dum back to staging (allowing me to play cards again) -> Eowyn used Cave Torch to place 3 progress on Goblin Tunnels -> Patrol Leader was discarded from the encounter deck and snared in Entangling Nets -> Damrod draws Distant Stars -> a Guardian of Ithilien exhausts w/Distant Stars to replace Dreadful Gap with a harmless location :). Otherwise, the game was relatively uneventful.
Damrod got me to 0 threat in both games I played the deck.
Got to put Sudden pitfall at the bottom of the deck with the Branching paths!
Got (I think) the easiest possible setup reveal for two-handed play: Sudden pitfall followed by dreadful gap. On the game I lost I had Watchful Eyes on both Boromir and Glorfindel, which just became very frustrating and limited what I could do, hence it being my least favourite card
Super-Dáin was defending and the shadow effect was Sudden Pitfall. I had shadow-cancel events in hand, but the active location was Bridge of Khazad-Dum so I couldn’t play them. Luckily I remembered I had a Phial of Galadriel attached to him (courtesy of Saruman Giftmaker) and it totally saved my bacon.
The eagles managed to soar up, out of the pit to finish stage 3 in one round, narrowly escaping the 2 Patrol Leaders and 3 Patrol Sentries engaged with them.
Even though this quest seems ideal for direct damage (low hit point enemies), I ended up getting location-locked. Played once more on Dragncards with these two decks but added in a Woodmen location control deck and got a pretty easy win.
It was a fairly standard trek into the pit. Sudden pitfall came up in both of my games, but I was able to discard an ally. I really enjoyed using this deck from Mormegil.
Decklists used
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/10686/into-the-pit-combat-deck-1.0; https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/10687/into-the-pit-dain-deck-1.0
To Hunt a Balrog https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/637826
Rohan Fellowship Contract (Theoden, Thengel, Grima) These are Rhosgobel Horses (Radagast + Thengel + Theoden) Fourth, Four Hunters (Bereavor, Elladan, Elrohir, Glorfindel)
Radagast-Rohan (inspired by roguerhirteen) ringsdb.com/deck/view/638454
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/636749
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/629934 My take on a Pippin Gone Fishin’
Various decks I had on-hand.
Dunedain Oathbreakers
Dwarf the Three Hunters, Gondor ft. Eleanor
https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/23457
Perilous Journey Balin, Ori, Oin and Grey Wanderer Bilbo (Tactics)
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/637826
Victory Display, Noldor Children 3 hunters (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/60230/childrenofelrondmd-twinsthematic-1.0)
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/637559
A flight to the ford
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61296/isengardinperil-2.0 for one playthrough, https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/58016/inmemoryofarvedui-1.0 for another
Tactics Aragorn, Gilraen, Halbarad: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/59575/dunadanvigilantlovesoathbreakers-1.0
“Date Night Dragon Hunt” (Faramir (Lore), Eowyn & Damrod) – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/533741 alongside “Gondorian Tactics” (Boromir, Hirgon & Mablung) – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/639231
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61635/damrodsbeorningfriendsgoto0threat-1.0 https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/636719
Perilous Voyage Balin, Ori, Oin https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/637642
Used GW Pippin for a few attempts, then the “Saruman, Giftmaker” deck by Autumn 🙂
Alt art Root and Twig – Lore bilbo (the man with the Burning brand) Quickbeam & Lodo
https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21343
Deck 1: Spirit Glorfindel, Lore Aragorn, Spirit Frodo. Deck 2: Tactics Gimli, Tactics Bromir, Theodred. Cycle progression
Bond of Friendship Hobbits (Tom Cotton, Sam, Merry, Pippin)
Saruman Giftmaker alongside a Tactics Glorfindel + Spirit Dain AtEoAT deck: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/23456
ALeP (Jon’s) Eagles [https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/627821]
Argalad, Thalin, Celador and Bilbo, Theodred, Fastred. Direct damage / traps / staging area
Mormegil’s Bond of Dwarves deck. https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/45455/bondofdwarvesmd-dwarvesmultiplayer-1.0
This week we are pressing deeper in the Black Pit with the only quest in the entire run of the game after Passage Through Mirkwood that has gotten an official difficulty rating less than 4. We all know how accurate those ratings are, though! Once you have finished The Seventh Level, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/TsdkZykGktAzNQEA9
If you want to share in the discussion of this quest live, join the Cardboard of the Rings discord and look for the Quest of the Week channel: https://discord.gg/5tkTeSCdxc
And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have:
No Unfinished Business
Stage 2B gains the text: “The players cannot defeat this stage while an enemy is in play.“
They Have a Cave-Troll
Forced: When stage 1B or 2B is revealed, search the encounter deck, encounter discard pile, and victory display for 1 copy of a Cave-Troll and add it to the staging area.
Vision Of The Palantir 