“A feeling of fear had been growing on him all day, and he was unable to rest or go to bed: there was a brooding threat in the breathless night-air. As he stared out into the gloom, a black shadow moved under the trees; the gate seemed to open of its own accord and close again without a sound. Terror seized him. He shrank back, and for a moment he stood trembling in the hall.”
— The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Aldburg Plot Stats
- Groups registered: 14
- Total attempts: 30
- Most attempts: 5
- Average attempts per entry: 2.14
- Official difficulty: 5/10
- Community difficulty (28 February 2026): 6.1/10
- Total number of wins: 15
- Win-rate: 50%
- Average opinion on the quest: 4.3
Achievements
Here are the achievements we had for this quest:
McDog’s Nightmare
Choose Recreant Rider as your starting enemy during initial setup.
Elementary, My Dear Ealdwulf
Win the quest with all 8 clues under the players’ control.
Encounter Card Opinions
The Good
The winner for favorite encounter card was Misty Street. The effect on this card tucks a high-cost ally beneath it, but puts it into play after it’s explored. It may look familiar to some, as pointed out in the Quest of the Week submissions, as an inverted sister location to Narrow Alleyway! No one ever said no to a little synergy from the encounter deck.
The Bad, and Ugly
Two cards were tied this week for the least-liked encounter card: Sudden Ambush and none other than your friendly neighborhood Recreant Rider! While the Recreant Rider can often catch you off-guard, forcing you to always be prepared for a sudden attack, a Sudden Ambush can force you to make the hard choice of increased threat pressure or an unplanned defense.
Things worth sharing from the games
Turn 5, Whisperer came out, dealt 5 damage to Citadel Plate Gilmli, who then proceded to one shot him.
I don’t think I’ve played this quest since designing and playtesting (I know I didn’t get a chance to play it at the Con the year we showcased it). The quest is just as much fun as I remember it being during playtesting. Back then we were all trying to puzzle out how to make this “choose your own adventure” quest flow in a streamlined manner, there was so much iteration on that front! (Crazy to think all those OCTGN sessions with Shellin, SaltedPork, Darkling Door was 6 years ago already).
I took out a stupid Outlands deck because I wanted to take a nostalgia trip through the whole quest and I knew it could handle seeing the whole quest.
I’d just gotten OHauH Gandalf out, put The White on him, and gave him his Staff, when he suddenly lost all his things and himself in a simple Misty Street. That’s just what happens when playing blind, I guess. Without his questing power and facing an enemy, I scooped.
I had a Recreant Rider show up in staging each of the first three rounds. Two of those times, it got the shadow that gives it an additional attack for being in staging. I managed to survive thanks to some undefended attacks (shout-out to Ioreth). Once I got my footing it was a race against threat. In what I figured would be my last round, one of my decks was sitting at 49 threat when I thankfully (finally) drew The Galadhrim’s Greeting.
This is a wonderfully thematic adventure. ALEP have been doing such brilliant work.
Elfhelm helped me to keep my threat exceedingly low, allowing me to collect all 8 Clues!
I swapped out Hasty Stroke for a couple copies of Galadhrim’s Greeting to try and collect all the clues with my Dale deck. The first game ended quickly when a turn two Recreant Rider was dealt two Deadly Defectors as its shadows for three attacks during questing. Didn’t bother to continue. Second game had a very slow start, but thankfully didn’t draw any additional enemies until a few turns in to the game when I was finally able to draw King of Dale. The ally swarm snowballed and was able to gather up all of the clues.
I’ve never really built a proper direct damage deck before revisiting this cycle for QotW, and I can’t recommend it enough. There are just enough >3 HP enemies to make it interesting, but mowing down Recreant Riders and Town Guards as soon as they enter play is super satisfying.
Fourth and fifth time playing this quest, and it’s the first time I’ve done the side quests leading to the Spreading Inferno. Incredibly replayable and fun! A 12 out of 10, ALeP!
I kept threating out with my Eagles, then switched to a Dale deck and made pretty quick work of the quest. Should have brought some threat reduction to get more clues. I would have had six if I could have pushed it one more turn.
Decklists used
Autumn’s Three Hunters for Wainriders https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/632108
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/64238/damageallaround-1.0
Erestor Outlands spam
Rohan Discard: Éowyn, Théoden, Thengel (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/648023)
Lost with https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61296/isengardinperil-2.0 a few time, then won with https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61756/thegreyvoyage-1.0
Gondor Swarm: Boromir, Denethor, Ingold (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/648134)
The Riddermark’s Finest Finest Hour and How from the Last Homely House
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/62554/theriddermarksfinestfinesthour-1.0
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/58862/hopefromthelasthomelyhouse-1.0
Tried a new all-Gondor fellowship. It did not do well in Aldburg. Also played my Rohan Fellowship (1-1). Also tried my Woodmen Fellowship, beat it first shot.
Mono lore Aragorn, Galdor, Pippin. It was a Helm of Secrecy, Thorongil, Master Ring deck. Stuff got weird.
Messenger of the King Elfhlem + Pipes: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/64094/elfhelmholmesquestoftheweekthealdburgplot-1.0
Caldara/Cirdan/S. Dain and Argalad/Thalin/Beregond
Grima brought the Ring to Galadriel – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/651732
Eagles: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/653460
Dale: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/619028
For the time being I will be taking over the Quest of the Week duties from the amazing Autumn. I hope to meet the same expectations from folks in the community and to help provide a space for people to explore and enjoy the adventures we have in this game we love. –Patrick (Derrio)
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:
McDog’s Nightmare
Choose Recreant Rider as your starting enemy during initial setup.
Elementary, My Dear Ealdwulf
Win the quest with all 8 clues under the players’ control.
Vision Of The Palantir 