Valeros Victorious!

Sunday night, I played through a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenario using the human fighter Valeros. In yesterday's post I described the setup, so this time I'll give you a narrative summary of what happened.

Tasked with defeating a group of bandits, Valeros needed to select a location to investigate. He seemed ill suited for completing (or "closing") the woods, so I decided to begin with the farmhouse. Val immediately encountered a nasty enchantress whose magic inflicted some damage that his armor could not absorb. After that inauspicious beginning, Val hacked his way through several other creatures and picked up a bit of loot along the way. His natural melee combat skill, combined with his trusty longsword, made short work of all his foes. Even the bandit leader's henchman -- the last foe in the deck -- was no match for Val.

Having cleared out the farmhouse (more like a monster hotel!), I then sent Val to the town's waterfront district. His first encounter there, on the very first card I turned over, was the other bandit henchman! That was a stroke of good luck. Val cut him down with ease, and thereby was able to close out this location without the need to explore it further. By closing these two locations, I also ensured that the master villain would be unable to escape to them later in the scenario -- Val had cornered the bandit leader in the woods.

The woods proved to be more difficult. First Val ran into a shadow that he could not defeat because of his lack of a magical weapon. His lowest point came when he failed (badly!) his combat check against a horde of rats. His armor absorbed the damage, but it was still pretty humiliating for this mighty warrior! Moments later, however, Val scored an unlikely success on a Dexterity check (he needed roll an 8 on a 1D8) to avoid a pit trap. The next card revealed the bandit leader himself. This fight wasn't much of a challenge -- Val hit him hard enough to kill him twice over. With the death of the bandit lord, the scenario was over. Val earned another treasure and claimed a resounding victory in his first adventure.

Luck played a big role, however. Had the second bandit henchman not appeared at the beginning of the waterfront location, Val would have had to face numerous other challenges that probably would have depleted his resources. I also found that a couple of serious obstacles for which Val had no applicable skills remained unrevealed at the bottom of the first and third location decks. It wouldn't have been so easy if the cards had come up in a different order.

So how was it, overall? I friggin' loved it. This game rules! I can't wait to try out other characters in solo play, and to rope Amy into joining me for a few multiplayer scenarios. I can't endorse this game highly enough. I hope you'll seriously consider picking up a copy and giving it a try.