QOTW - Shelob's Lair - Mildly Thematic

A Fellowship to tackle the quest Shelob's Lair for the Cardboard of the Rings Quest of the Week.

My "Mildly Thematic" campaign means the only thematic condition for deckbuilding is that the key characters need to be present. That's it. The Fellowship for A Shadow of the Past can be found here and has a few more details on the campaign plans. The other campaign Fellowships can be found by searching for "Mildly Thematic" once they are published.

In this quest we accompany Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee as they navigate the terrifying lair of the spider Shelob. Another easy quest for theme - Sam is the only mandatory inclusion, everything else is up to me.

The heroes continue from the last quest. Damrod returns to the deck with Gandalf and Glorfindel so I can be more flexible in making space in the deck for his Traps. Argalad rejoins the Bond of Friendship deck with Sam, Eleanor and Thorin.

Cancellation is the name of the game for this quest, so Black Riders Frodo joins the Fellowship.

The quest actually went better than I expected. There were a couple of dicey turns early on where I didn't quite have enough quest power and the encounter card effects that discard cards from your hand felt quite burdensome. But after that things went relatively smoothly, and my card draw, particularly thanks to Expert Treasure-hunter kept me ahead of the encounter deck.

I had Gandalf equipped with A Burning Brand early on, and Shadowfax shortly afterwards, so he was able to take on most of the defensive duties, including Shelob's quest phase attacks. Thanks to this, the Stage 2 effect limiting the playing of allies was only an inconvenience rather than a real problem.

Treebeard, Asfaloth, and Damrod's Traps were all important for controlling the encounter deck, with the real star being Eleanor. She, along with a handful of A Test of Wills, kept the worst of the encounter deck at bay. I never needed to resolve a single copy of Rage and Hunger or Shelob's Poison for the whole game.

For the latter half of the quest I felt in complete control, only slowed down by the progress limit on Stage 2 and the need to clear Shelob's resources before she could take damage (which only took one extra turn).

The resolution of this quest does not have any choices to make, the players simply earn the A Heavy Burden... Burden.

Results:

Boons/Burdens earned: A Heavy Burden

Score: 169

10 full turns (100)
46 + 45 threat (91)
0 damage on heroes (0)
22 Victory Points (-22)

Campaign Log:

Heroes - Damrod, Gandalf, Glorfindel, Argalad, Eleanor, Sam Gamgee, Thorin Stonehelm

Boons - Old Bogey-stories, Ho! Tom Bombadil!, Noble Hero (Glorfindel), Tireless Ranger (Sam Gamgee), Andúril, Glamdring, Sting, Mithril Shirt, Leaf-wrapped Lembas, Three Golden Hairs, Beyond All Hope (Gandalf), Palantír of Orthanc, 2x Brace of Conies

Burdens - The Ring Draws Them, Panicked, Overcome by Grief, Ill Fate, 1x The Searching Eye, A Heavy Burden

+1 starting threat penalty (+2 additional penalty for one deck)

Enemies under the Black Gate: 2x Oliphaunt