Fill in the Blank Season 1: Lairs #23 - Restart!

[menace64]

Welcome to Fill in the Blank Season 1: Lairs!

Each week I'll post the collector's information for one of the cards in the set's card-list.

Contestants are free to create whatever card they see fit for that slot in the card-list, keeping in mind the surrounding cards. As the contest progresses, the card-list will become more and more defined, guiding the contestants' choices.

The theme of our set is Lairs! You're free to interpret this however you want.

Not every card has to fit the theme, of course, but it's something to keep in mind when coming up with entries.

Each week a poll will go up for the previous week's entries. Simply vote for one you like the most. In the event of a tie, I'll let a random result generator make the decision - but each of the tied cards will appear in the final set card list.


On to Stuff!


Before we announce last week's winner...
Super - to azogsbane for pointing out that I'd accidentally lost a card from the submission pool. The error has been rectified.

Mountains of Shadow has been added to the misadventure deck with an asterisk, since its game-text has been edited after the vote in order to fit to 7 lines of text.


Last week's winner...
It's a split 4-4 tie between From Morgoth's Lair They Came and Host of the Upper Hall.

....and the dice go...!

Congrats to Cw0rk for the win! From Morgoth's Lair They Came gives new fiery life to Balrog decks! (Host slides over into the misadventure deck.)


Last week's entries to pick from for Card #10...

•Saruman's Cloak, Eye-bewilderer
Artifact • Support Area
For each or Wizard you can spot, the number of burdens you can spot and sites you control is +1.
Shadow: Discard an artifact to play an card from your discard pile.
"...the colour of which was not easy to tell, for it changed if they moved their eyes or if he stirred."

Designer's notes: Just Saruman bewildering the eye and mind of the Free Peoples by posing as friend and counselor, gibbering his way either to conquest or out of trouble. The illusion of burdens and controlled sites helps Saruman to kickstart cards like Evil Afoot, Alive and Unspoiled, Banner of Isengard, Isengard Scimitar, We Are The Fighting Uruk-hai and Uruk-hai Mob, assuring their texts will have a decent minimum of utility. The Shadow special ability enables you to cycle out extra copies of it (and Throne of Isengard), gives utility to the otherwise useless Palantir of Orthanc SSS (and a new, different use to Library of Orthanc), and helps Saruman and his Staff to appear more often. Giving Saruman a more predominant role in the deck, a la Gollum ESF / So Polite.

Isengard Test Subject
Minion • Orc
Strength: 5
Vitality: 2
Site Number: 4
Shadow: Remove to stack a tentacle from your discard pile on this minion. Until the end of the turn, this minion gains that tentacle's strength and vitality.
"Twenty other arms came rippling out."

Designer's notes: Coming straight from Saruman's science LAIR! Just thought it would be interesting to give a second use to tentacles. Good luck @menace64 finding an image for that one! 

•Saruman, Sharkey
Minion • Wizard
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Site Number: 1
Lurker. Saruman is always roaming and may not bear artifacts.
Shadow: Exert Saruman twice (or remove 4 cards in your discard pile from the game) to play an Man from your draw deck or discard pile; that Man is strength +3 until the regroup phase.

Designer's notes: Going for a Scouring-episode Saruman. I wanted this version of Saruman to look weaker "on paper" than any other persona, while also filling a niche: in this case, summoning Men and empowering them to do dastardly things. In the early-game, Sharkey will typically be constrained by his 3 vitality, but towards the end of the site path he gets a little better, since by then you should have enough cards in your discard pile to get a few more Men into play without having to exert for them.

Pursuing Wolf
Minion • Warg
Strength: 6
Vitality: 1
Site: 4
Fierce.
During a fierce skirmish involving this minion, it is strength +3.
Response: If a mounted Orc is killed, play this minion from your hand or discard pile. It is twilight cost -2 and you may not take another response action during this phase.
"...but you shall see that at least the wolves of the mountains do not devour them. It is with their friends, the Orcs, that they hold their feast: such indeed is the friendship of their kind."

Distant Howl
Event • Shadow
Play an mount or warg-rider from your discard pile to add and draw a card.
"Where the wolf howls, there the orc prowls."

Designer's notes: The warg-riders' biggest downfall is that they require a pairing of orc and animal, of minion and mount, two cards to make one decent minion. It kills to have three wargs and no riders, or three riders and no wargs. But having four copies of this new card in your deck should make either scenario much less likely. You might almost say that it squeezes the well-known combo of Host of Thousands + Goblin Scavengers + Goblin Scimitar + Goblin Armory into one simple event. The lore is of a saying that Aragorn quotes in The Fellowship of the Ring.

•Saruman, Lord of Isengard
Minion • Wizard
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Site: 4
Saruman may not take wounds during the archery phase and may not be assigned to a skirmish.
Each weather condition is twilight cost -2.
Shadow: Exert Saruman to play a condition or event from your discard pile.
Shadow: Exert Saruman to discard a free peoples condition.

Designer's notes: The idea here is simple. Key weather conditions, specifically Saruman's Snows and Saruman's Frost now cost only an exertion (But that's why Isengard Worker exists.) We don't what Saruman taken out, in case of a double move, so we can take out something like... Betrayal of Isengard.

This week's contest is...

Card #24!

Here's what we've got this week, and it's a big one!

• A Site (of any block and regardless of titles of other sites)
• A Premium-level card (with some form of themed justification)

Any entry for a Premium-level card should probably be a character, but since any entry going this route requires a written justification aimed at tying into the theme of "Lairs", I'm cool with any card type here. Hmm. Yeah. This is basically a Wild Card slot, since you can submit pretty much anything! Just make it Lair-y!

Closing date: October 10th!


Lairs Card List 
Number - Name - (Culture • Type) - Contestant - Week It Won
1. Burned Village ( • Condition) - Dictionary - 12
2. •Stronghold of the Adorn River ( • Possession) - Durin's Heir - 3
3. •Balin, Lord of Moria ( • Ally) - menace64 - 8
4. •Mithril Gates ( • Condition) - azogsbane - 18
5. Sméagol Lied ( • Event) - SGollum - 4
6. Worse Than Orcs ( • Event) - menace64 - 9
7. Commandeered Vessel ( • Possession) - azogsbane - 16
8. Sheltered Hollow ( • Condition) - TelTura - 6
9. Cold and Perilous ( • Condition) - Durin's Heir - 17
10. SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK'S VOTE
11. Smoke From Isengard ( • Condition) - menace64 - 13
12. From Morgoth's Lair They Came ( • Event) - Cw0rk - 21
13.
14. •Wrested Kingdom ( • Condition) - menace64 - 1
15. Primitive Cave Paintings ( • Event) - Cw0rk - 19
16. •Úlairë Attëa, Khamûl ( • Minion) - SGollum - 7
17. Angmar Haunts Us Still ( • Condition) - TelTura - 15
18. Southern Stranger ( • Minion) - Inspire - 10
19. Dark Communion ( • Event) - menace64 - 20
20. •Bag End Hearth ( • Condition) - Inspire - 2
21. •Merry, Conspirator ( • Companion) - Inspire - 5
22. •Pippin, Out of the Bog and Briar ( • Companion) - Inspire - 14
23. The Black Gate (Site) - SGollum - 11
24. IN CREATION THIS WEEK
25.


The Misadventure Deck (cards that lost due to coin-flip but will appear in the final cardlist! Maybe?)
26+. •Durin's Axe, Omen of Fortune ( • Artifact) - Durin's Heir - 4
26+. From Lowest Dungeon to Highest Peak ( • Event) - menace64 - 4
26+. Oath of Cirion ( • Condition) - Cw0rk - 16
26+. Key of Orthanc ( • Artifact) - Cw0rk - 17
26+. Host of the Upper Hall ( • Minion) -menace64 - 21
26+. Orkish Whip ( • Possession) - Durin's Heir - 7
26+. •Alliance ( • Condition) - azogsbane - 19
26+*. •Mountains of Shadow ( • Condition) - menace64 - 2[/list]

[Durin's Heir]

As promised, here is my present-time version of Balin the Lair-clearer:

•Balin, Leader of the Whisperers
Companion • Dwarf
Strength 6  Vitality 4  Resistance 7
While Balin bears a artifact, each Dwarf is resistance +1 and damage +1.
Each time a Dwarf wins a skirmish, you may discard a card from hand to heal another Dwarf or to remove a threat.
"'At last, however, Balin listened to the whispers, and resolved to go... though Dáin did not give leave willingly...'"

Instead of another bearded terminator, Balin comes as a wise leader who helps the culture in two aspects in which Decipher made them unfairly deficient: healing and threat remotion. But does it in a limited way, needing hand extension to work consistently (thus synergizing with Delving and Calculated Risk, whose costs can be cleared by Balin). The threat remotion opens the doors for site liberation, if he manages to seize back Durin's Axe.

After succeeding in recovering a relic, he behaves like a mixture of Elendil HKoG and, well, Lord of Moria.

[Inspire]

8[K] Shelob's Lair
Site
The first Shadow player may take the first action during each phase.

[JamesCB]

2 Barrow-downs
When the fellowship moves to and from this site, each companion must exert.
-->

A brutal site for Dwarves and Elves (but mostly Elves), this place half-kills the best, and exhausts the rest. (That rhyme was not intentional.)

[JamesCB]

To menace64:
In regards to my card breaking the 7 line limit, how about replacing the first sentence with the key word Elusive. It means the same thing, just takes less space.

[azogsbane]

Dark Lair
Event • Shadow
If there are at least 80 cards in your draw deck, discard the top ten to play a site. Stack a minion from your draw deck there. Until the end of the game, that site may not be replaced and you may play a minion stacked there as if from hand.
"The deep places of the world! And thither we are going against my wish."

I would contend that the title and the unique ability of this card justify granting it Premium status for the Lairs set. This event adds a new dimension to gameplay, allowing a powerful attack to be set up ahead of time, but also giving your opponent a warning of what is inevitably coming (hence the lore). It also does something no other card (that I know of) does, which is to play a site that may not be the fellowship's current or next site, but one further down the path. This event is available for use with any shadow culture, but with a severe playing requirement/cost that will make it usable only to decks specifically designed for it. The other functions of the high cost are to make it extremely difficult to play more than one, or at most two, copies of this event in a single game, and to deter people from abusing it just to manipulate the site path. The culture symbol is not completely arbitrary since it fits the flavor, and in my experience is particularly well-suited to over-size decks.

[Cw0rk]

4[K] Dwimorberg
Mountain.
Regroup: Spot your minion and remove 2 burdens to take control of a site.

Designer's note: It is the mountain range under which lies the Path of the Dead (which is also at site 4K) were mountain-people similar to the Dunlendings used to live in, hence site control. This site follows the pattern of other King Block's site 4K in regard to removing burdens to do a specific action.

[Cw0rk]

As promised, here is my present-time version of Balin the Lair-clearer:

•Balin, Leader of the Whisperers
Companion • Dwarf
Strength 6  Vitality 4  Resistance 7
While Balin bears a artifact, each Dwarf is resistance +1 and damage +1.
Each time a Dwarf wins a skirmish, you may discard a card from hand to heal another Dwarf or to remove a threat.
"'At last, however, Balin listened to the whispers, and resolved to go... though Dáin did not give leave willingly...'"

Instead of another bearded terminator, Balin comes as a wise leader who helps the culture in two aspects in which Decipher made them unfairly deficient: healing and threat remotion. But does it in a limited way, needing hand extension to work consistently (thus synergizing with Delving and Calculated Risk, whose costs can be cleared by Balin). The threat remotion opens the doors for site liberation, if he manages to seize back Durin's Axe.

After succeeding in recovering a relic, he behaves like a mixture of Elendil HKoG and, well, Lord of Moria.

Interesting to have a second Balin in the set. Im not sure about that twilight cost of with the 6-4 statline though, especially since the Balin ally made by menace costs , and a lot of characters tend to keep the same cost in both companion/ally versions (I know there are some exceptions, especially in the later sets).

8[K] Shelob's Lair
Site
The first Shadow player may take the first action during each phase.

I also thought about making a Shelob's Lair site... but you posted it first this time. My only issue is that it doesn't really fit with the style of other 8K sites which are all about removing threats to perform an action. I feel that new 8K sites are difficult to make because all relevant King Block shadow culture/races already got one site each.

Dark Lair
Event • Shadow
If there are at least 80 cards in your draw deck, discard the top ten to play a site. Stack a minion from your draw deck there. Until the end of the game, that site may not be replaced and you may play a minion stacked there as if from hand.
"And thither we are going against my wish."

I would contend that the title and the unique ability of this card justify granting it Premium status for the Lairs set. This event adds a new dimension to gameplay, allowing a powerful attack to be set up ahead of time, but also giving your opponent a warning of what is inevitably coming (hence the lore). It also does something no other card (that I know of) does, which is to play a site that may not be the fellowship's current or next site, but one further down the path. This event is available for use with any shadow culture, but with a severe playing requirement/cost that will make it usable only to decks specifically designed for it. The other functions of the high cost are to make it extremely difficult to play more than one, or at most two, copies of this event in a single game, and to deter people from abusing it just to manipulate the site path. The culture symbol is not completely arbitrary since it fits the flavor, and in my experience is particularly well-suited to over-size decks.

Interesting. If it wins I promise to also try making a Premium event for card number 25. Counting cards up to 80 might be a bit of a hassle during physical play though.

[Cw0rk]

2 Barrow-downs
When the fellowship moves to and from this site, each companion must exert.

A brutal site for Dwarves and Elves (but mostly Elves), this place half-kills the best, and exhausts the rest. (That rhyme was not intentional.)

Is this site FOTR, TT, King or Standard Block? If this is FOTR, it seems too powerful compared to the already existing Midgewater Marshes.

[JamesCB]

FOTR. The idea is you bid to go first, and then do two wounds during the skirmishes to make wounds accumulated before site 3 actually mater.

[menace64]

I'm technically tardy to the submission deadline but I claim Wizard's Defense.

Rhovanion Expanse
Battleground. Dwelling. Forest. Marsh. Mountain. Plains.
Your adventure deck may include up to 2 copies of this site.
<--->

My interpretation of "Lairs" as a site landed on the entire region of Rhovanion: the great lands to the east of Middle-earth, full of its own distant stories and cultures. Knowing that I was dealing with a rather large lair, I looked at what we know of Wilderland, of its outlying and scabbed easternmost countries, ultimately filling the top line of the text box with applicable terrain keywords, then reinforcing the theme of a "region"-sized lair by making the site, well, half-unique?

This site can be pretty much anything you want it to be. Left, right, festering marshland or embattled city. While I personally enjoy the idea of allowing players to run 3 or 4 of these at a time, I think less is more on a site like this - just a sprinkling of modularity in terrain keyword interactions is the goal here, not automating the site path. For that reason, I've limited it to 2 slots in your adventure deck.