It’s October, and we don’t know about you, but we love us some Halloween. It only makes sense that we take the opportunity this month to preview a bunch of models from the cursed realm of Glauerdoom Moor.

We also thought it would be fun to preview one of the stories from the new Explorer’s Handbook, which is currently looking like it’s going to be 20 pages of Crystalia history, races, and realms. So lets start with a passage about the birth of Crystalia.

The Goddess

Before Crystalia, there was only the Goddess. Swimming in a vast sea of etherium, she was only consciousness borne aloft. Only a faint mote within the infinite. Then, from the consciousness came laughter, and with the laughter came light. The darkness of the etherium was shattered by the heart and joy of the Goddess’s growing warmth and blinding light.

Her beauty shone like the sun. The lands of Crystalia were willed into being by her joyful song. The seas formed from her happy tears as she realized the marvel of creation.

The first, soft footfalls of the Goddess were felt upon the surface of Crystalia, and where she walked, life sprang forth. As she traveled the breadth of her creation, the realms formed.

The roots of the Deeproot Tree took hold, giving birth to deep green forests and fertile vales. Chill wind and snow swept through the towering spires of the Frostbyte Reach, locking them in permanent winter. Volcanoes roared and belched forth molten rock, forming the jagged spine of the Dragonback Peaks.

In the blue skies above, majestic clouds caught the molten earth thrown into the sky, forming Celestia. A realm of floating alabaster islands of cloud and dream, held aloft by the Goddess’s song.

All around her, Crystalia took shape under her watchful gaze.

Within its heart, she placed a gleaming tower. Its delicate spires and minarets touched the clouds. Its pure surface and crystalline facets reflected the beauty of Crystalia and shone like the sun.

From atop her tower, she smiled upon the beauty of her thriving garden, and then bestowed one final gift. With grace and love, she bound a fragment of her consciousness within a ray of brilliant light. Pleased with her work, she cast the light into the sky, where it split into all the colors of the rainbow and gave birth to all the creatures and peoples of Crystalia.

Pumpkin Patch Spawning Point

Its been awhile since we showed the spawning point card along with its monsters. I figured this was a great time to show off a new feature for the spawning points: crystal affinity abilities. These abilities do two things. One, it makes it so spawning points have a bit more character that suits their awesome sculpts. Two, it lets us use crystal affinity in some fun ways.

You’ll see that next to the Immune: Status Effects icon is Gloom Aura. Gloom Aura makes it so that any Hero within two squares, that does not have Ruby Crystal Affinity, reduces the result of their offense rolls by one star. A potent defense for sure!

All spawning points have been given aura that create a variety of thematic effects. We’ll start previewing these abilities along with the monsters going forward.

Now lets look at some monsters!

First up is the Crypt Spider. This potent elite monster shows up with 3 action point and 6 movement points. Surefoot lets the spider nimbly move around the field while ignoring negative terrain effects.

A Strength of 2 red with 2 range lets the spider bite Heroes with a nice solid hit that also inflicts Poison. When the spider really needs to put the hurt on a Hero it can usedEnervating Bite pushing its STR to 3 red and adding the status effect Hex, which forces the Hero to discard the highest dice rolled on offense rolls.

For pure support the Silk Spinner action is a Lance 4, that causes Slow. Since the spider is on a large base this hits 8 squares, but be careful! The ability isDangerous and will affect friend and foe alike.

Next up is the Curse Coven Witch. This adorable witch uses her WILL of 3 blue to zap Heroes from 6 squares away. She’s a bit soft though with zero defense. A deficiency slightly made up for by having 2 hearts. Eight movement points and the ability to fly also keeps her out of harm’s way when played carefully.

Shocking Bolt is a powerful Jolt that increases her WILL by 1 red and also causesKnockdown. However, Transmogrify is the real star of the show. Using both of her action points, the witch and Hero make offense and defense rolls using their WILL. If the witch wins the Hero gets turned into a Miserable Toad.

Oh look at this cute little guy. With a miserable ARM and no Melee Attack you might think your days of adventuring are over when you get turned into a Toad. But fear not! The Toad’s DEX is loaded with a range 2 Missile Attack and a shield icon indicating it can be used for defense rolls, at a respectable 3 blue dice.

Even better there is really no reason not to use the Sticky Tongue unique offensive action. Which allows the toad to steal a heart or potion token from their victim.

For abilities, Small makes it so the toad can never be targeted from further than 3 squares away. Fixed Form forces the Miserable Toad to stay in toad form until another caring Hero moves adjacent to it and use the Smooches ability, spending 1 action point to give the toad a kiss and shapeshift it back into its original form.

Next up are the Skullbats. These annoying flying skulls are weak and generally not very deadly with a WILL of 1 blue and 1 red, but they have a few key tricks that can ruin any Hero’s day.

First, they are Insignificant which means that Heroes get no loot for destroying them. It also means that they can activate in addition to any other monster the consul activates, as long as a Hero is on their tile! Free hordes of monsters. Wow!

For veterans, it’s also important to note that Insignificant no longer gives you free attacks for destroying an insignificant model. You’d better come with some area effects to clean up that chaff!

The Doom support action is a nasty little hit as well. Forcing a WILL vs WILL roll or suffering the status effect Bane, which causes Heroes to discard the highest defense dice rolled. Silver lining is that the Skullbat is destroyed after using it.

Wait, wait, wait. What is this? Is this…an Arcade card? Yes it is! You can tell by the little arcade icon in the bottom corner. Neat!

Lets figure out how to read this thing. First you might want a refresher on Arcade Gangs from Update 51 and Update 52.

All read up? Okay lets go through this card then. Lets start with basics:

The name of the gang is Curse Coven. The Curse Coven Witch is the elite. Therefore all attacks and actions for the gang are made by her. Skullbats are the bonded minions.

Each model has their own unique number of movement points, hearts, and ARM. In Arcade monsters use ARM for all defense rolls.

Okay, so attacking them is pretty much that same as in Classic. Attack any model you want and use their specific stats to determine the results.

Lets look at how they function during the Consul Turn.

The most important thing to know is the first, yellow, pennant is the witch’ssolo attributes, i.e. the attributes she uses when she has no Skullbats around to help her out. The second, red, pennant is the witch’s gang attributes, i.e. the attributes she uses when she has one or more Skullbats within 2 squares of her—helping her out.

During a Move Command, the Curse Coven Witch moves towards the Hero with the most wrath, using her 8 movement points. She will stop when she gets into solo range which is 4 squares.

The Skullbats will move towards the witch and stop when they are within 2 squares of her.

When a Fight Command (formerly “Attack” in Update 51) is issued, the witch will attack the Hero with the most wrath that is in her range 4. If she is all by herself she uses her solo attributes and makes 1 Basic Attack offensive action with her 1 action point. The attack has a STR of 1 star. Meaning, Heroes only need to roll one star on their defense roll to keep from taking damage. Not too tough.

However, when the Skullbats have gotten close enough to help out she uses the red, gang attributes and makes 3 attacks with a STR of 2 stars. Much tougher for the poor Hero!

When a Unique Command (formerly “Special” in Update 51) is issued the witch uses the Transmogrify unique support action. Unlike the Classic Mode version the Hero gets no defense roll. They just get turned into a Miserable Toad as long as a model is available in the spawning pool. Transmogrify also does not have a separate range. Instead it uses range 4.

Once again when the Skullbats are around the witch gets a boost. Providing her the unique support action Doom, which she will use immediately after using Transmogrify. Just like Transmogrify, the Arcade version of Doom allows no defense roll, the Hero just suffers the status effect Bane.

There we go, your first preview of a real Arcade Gang! We will, of course, be showing off more of these in the coming weeks!

Next week we are going to have a great big production update. We are starting to get a better picture of what the production timeline is looking like. We will give you some good inside information so you can see the whole process as we continue to produce your Super Dungeon!

Until then, may you always roll stars and—

Sparkleburst!