by Dexter345
My group just played this one last night, and it was a huge slog.I chose Ettins for my group near Zachareth, Merriods on the river's edge, and Shadow Dragons as my ringers. The Heroes made an extremely slow push toward the cave door, then spent a few turns opening it, taking potshots, and closing it again. After healing to full with their abilities and resting to have full stamina, they pushed on.
Once they got around the first bend, I had a train of large monsters blocking the hallway. They opted not to open the stuck door so they could funnel my monsters in one at a time, and so I was only ever able to get in two attacks on my turns, one with the monster at the front who would then move to the back, then a second with a monster that was behind moving up to the front. I got a good shot in my master Shadow Dragon, hitting all of the heroes with a 7 damage Fire Breath (with the help of Dark Might and Critical Blow), but Avric's Heroic Feat reversed a lot of that.
In the end, it was an inch-by-inch battle where the heroes would gain a square or two of ground every two or three turns. Finally, Jain saw an opening and tried to make a break for it (because we were going on 4 hours at that point). After she separated from the group and swam down the river, I was able to surround her with my master Ettin and master Shadow Dragon, down her, pick up the casket with Zachareth, and Dash to the exit. It ended up being a five hour session in the end. I think if we play another campaign, we're going to do Overlord Revealed, regardless of how many wins are on the quest pad per side. Shadow Vault was just way too long for what it was.