The corruption of the Everdark is rising in Terrinoth, turning even the boldest hearts to evil. If you and your fellow heroes will ever triumph against this dark power, you won’t just need to fight monsters—you’ll have to battle your fellow heroes and the innocent people that you’ve sworn to protect. Only you can face this threat with the Shards of Everdark Hero and Monster Collection for Descent: Journeys in the Dark!

Like our other Hero and Monster Collections, Shards of Everdark brings heroes and monsters from the first edition of Descent into the game’s second edition with revitalized artwork and figure sculpts. Today, we’ll offer a preview of another hero and monster group from this expansion: Steelhorns and the ice wyrms.

Come, Battle Alongside Me

An oddity of his race, Steelhorns is one of the few minotaurs who does not prefer a solitary existence. Although all of his social interactions are difficult, he longs for camaraderie and companionship more than anything else. Now, on the field of battle against the minions of the Everdark, Steelhorns has finally found the comrades he desires—his fellow heroes.

Steelhorns is a powerful warrior, and his preferred tactic involves charging into combat, leading the way with his namesake horns. Whenever Steelhorns attacks an adjacent figure that wasn’t adjacent at the start of his turn, the attack benefits from increased damage. Not only does this make your attacks stronger and help you clear out your enemies, this hero ability encourages you to play Steelhorns in an extremely thematic way—charging into battle and attacking, then backing away and preparing for another charge.

If Steelhorns does get bogged down in combat with multiple enemies, it’s the perfect time to make use of his heroic feat. You can use this during your turn to roll any power die of your choice. You and each adjacent figure suffer damage equal to the result, and if you also rolled a surge, you can move each figure one space! Not only does this give you a way to deal explosive damage to multiple enemies, it can allow you to shake off your opponents and push your way through the mass to line up another charge.

A Freezing Foe

The heroes face many terrifying monsters in their struggle against the Everdark, but for most enemies, death is the worst fate they can deal out. When you battle against the ice wyrms, an even darker fate may await you. The ice wyrms prefer not to kill their foes, instead capturing them in a tomb of ice. In fact, the most valued treasures of an ice wyrm’s hoard are the bodies frozen within. The beast treats each captive as a testament to its cunning, power, and prestige. There is little hope for a person entombed by the merciless monster’s freezing touch: only the strongest can break themselves free.

Ice wyrms are extremely powerful opponents, featuring high health, defense, and a potent range of attack dice. Simultaneously, the Reach ability means that each ice wyrm can command a massive amount of space on the board, striking from afar to attack the heroes. If a melee-focused hero wants to come to blows with an ice wyrm, he’ll need to rush up to close range, but the Freezing ability can make that punishing—each time a hero enters a space adjacent to an ice wyrm, the hero suffers one fatigue. If the ice wyrm constantly retreats and forces the heroes to come to it, that fatigue can quickly build up to dangerous levels.

The heroes have another reason to fear coming to close quarters with an ice wyrm—the Entomb ability. This ability simply states that knocked-out heroes within one space of the ice wyrm can only recover damage from stand up actions and heroic feats. The consequences of this ability, however, are wide-reaching. By turning off many healing powers and the revive action, you can use your ice wyrms to massively limit the amount of actions the heroes can perform on their turns. What’s more, you make it that much easier to knock the heroes out again, keeping them down and pushing you forward to victory.

Destroy the Everdark

The Everdark has massive power, and only a small band of heroes has a chance of stopping it. Will you make your stand against the Everdark or join it in battle? You make the choice when you pre-order your copy of Shards of Everdark at your local retailer today!