Greetings, Adventurers!
With the recent release of Oblivion’s Maw, a terrifying new threat has emerged from the void. A betentacled monstrosity of humongous proportions. The Corrupter! And what a threat it is.
Let’s begin by examining the Character Board for this otherworldly behemoth:
Whoa. There is a lot going on here. Let’s break it down, because if there is one thing worse than facing the Corrupter, it is facing it unprepared.
Remember, an unprepared Adventurer is a dead Adventurer.
First, some good news.
The Corrupter is “mostly” Immobile, so you do not need to worry about it chasing your party through the dungeon any time soon. While it cannot move under its own steam, playing with the Corrupter adds new Event Cards to your games.
It’s Behind You lets the Corruptor reposition to a more advantageous point where it can reach the most enemies. It’s not just a onetime thing either as this Event Card goes back into the deck.
Keeping your party close together offers some control over where the Corruptor will pop back up by offering a tempting target, spreading out too far means you could find yourself having to chase it down with your main damage dealers instead of attacking it so stay tight.
It is also a Creature, which means it cannot open doors, interact with terrain, or use equipment. So, if things start spiralling out of control, you might just find salvation by ducking behind the nearest door (assuming there is one nearby… and it has not already been sucked into another dimension).
That is about where the good news ends, because everything else about this Adversary is designed to give your party a seriously bad day. Let’s see what we can do to make that day better.
The Corrupter comes from a nightmare realm shrouded in darkness so naturally it has Night Sight. It never suffers penalties in pitch-black dungeons. So, bring a light source, just maybe not too close. This Adventurer heartily recommends setting it on fire and turning it into a light source in such dark places. Not only does this provide you a source of illumination so that you don’t suffer any penalties in combat, but it will also deal one damage per turn in the Assessment phase which will help deal with those damnable tentacles.
An extra-dimensional devourer? Of course it is Terrifying. But what truly makes the Corrupter a nightmare is the relentless assault. With up to seven tentacles in play, it can unleash nine attacks per activation.
“At least Terrifying is only on a critical hit,” you say?
True, except when it attacks with its maw. Also introduced in Oblivion’s Maw is the Maw Die, doubling its chances of landing a critical hit. Bringing an Inspiring Adventurer along will greatly help mitigate the terror and a Eudaemon with Calm can’t hurt either.
I hope you are not fond of taking your time. the Corrupter is a Malacyte Conduit, so the Dread Tracker fills at double speed until it is defeated. If you are planning to cast a lot of spells, it is going to fill even faster. The pressure is on.
The Corrupter shrugs off Terrifying, Poison, and Sharp thanks to its Immunity, so you may need to think about your approach and what equipment to bring with you.
It is, however, not immune to Bludgeoning. Getting enough Fatigue through its defences is going to be a tall order though. Mostly because of the…
…TENTACLES!
One of the things that make this foe truly lethal. The Corrupter arrives with up to seven of these hideous appendages. Each of these tentacles has its own action and it uses these actions to clear Fatigue. Which means to Stun the Corrupter with all its tentacles your party would need to land a truly heroic ten Fatigue to overcome all of its actions. This sounds almost impossible right? Thankfully, this is a somewhat easy hurdle to overcome. Before the Corrupter manifests in its full form, the tentacles can, and do, pop up from nowhere as Wandering Beasts through the new Corrupter Event Cards.
For every tentacle you can defeat before the full manifestation the Corruptor will have one less for you to deal with. Wandering tentacles should be dealt with as a matter of priority whenever they wriggle their way into our reality.
Each tentacle attacks with an impressive Reach 3, giving it the largest threat area of any Adversary in the game. This is a huge threat range when they turn up as Wandering Beasts, but it gets even scarier when they’re attached to the Corrupter.
That door from earlier? Yeah. It is starting to look like a pretty good option right about now.
If you cannot find somewhere safe from them, they roll two combat dice in addition to the new Tentacle die. This new die adds a random effect to every single attack made by a Tentacle in addition to the fact they already have Entangle. This not only works on offence, but when they Retaliate as well! So, bring a Machete for some much-needed immunity.
The New Dice
The Tentacle Die:
The Tentacle Die is rolled every time the Corrupter attacks, either with the tentacles or the maw. This can be as familiar as adding a status effect like Bludgeoning, Poison, or Sharp, which a veteran party can usually handle with the right equipment and skills. However, there are worse things that can happen to an Adventurer than shrugging off a Poison with Impervious.
Plunderer adds an extra level of nuisance to the Corrupter. If any attack with Plunderer causes damage the victim must lose a random item from their inventory. If the attack scores a critical hit, the Corrupter takes the item and devours it, the item is permanently lost!
Ifyou thought keeping your distance from the Corrupter was a good idea, you would be correct. However, Constrict has other ideas. This one is nasty! The attack does not even need to score damage. If an Adventurer is attacked with Constrict and they are still in play, they are immediately moved into contact with the Corrupter. If and Adventurer is unlucky enough to already be in contact, they become Fatigued. This is in addition to any potential Fatigue from Entangle! You can (and should) spend a Skill Peg to avoid all the effects of Constrict. If you cannot though and end up in contact with the Corrupter while Stunned or Defeated, your Adventurer is permanently devoured.
Hurl is the opposite of Constrict. Instead of dragging things closer, the Corrupter launches the unfortunate target across the room. Like Constrict, no damage needs to be caused, your Adventurer just needs to be still in play after the attack. If they are, they are scattered six squares and knocked Prone.
Now, you may be thinking “I’ll just make sure that the Corrupter targets my best defender”. As if everything we just looked at wasn’t bad enough, the Corrupter does not target a single enemy. When the Corrupter attacks it spreads all its attack evenly across all enemies in range starting with the closest. You can use this to your advantage though as each tentacle only has two combat dice the maximum damage from any single attack is three. With enough armour in your party your Adventurers will stay somewhat in one piece.
You might also be thinking that loading up an Adventurer with Frenzy and a Great Axe should take care of these tendrils of doom, however, since the Corrupter is a single enemy, any ability that overspills or splits damage has no effect, and you can only eliminate a single tentacle with each attack. The being said there are other avenues for multi-tentacular elimination. Quickstrike and Onslaught provide additional attacks that do not costs action. An unarmed Adventurer with Rank 3 Brutal Assault can make swift work of multiple tentacles in one go. Boots of Celerity allow an Adventurer to Channel for an additional action. Djinnbane, Tonic of Furor or Powdered Drakon Bone (available in Ale and Adventure) all offer additional actions.
For each tentacle removed that’s less actions for the Corrupter which means less attacks, less chances to Retaliate, and less Fatigue needed to cause a Stun.
Don’t get overconfident though as every time the Corrupter rolls the Maw die, there is a chance that a defeated tentacle can grow back.
The Maw Die:
The Maw die is only rolled when the Corrupter attacks with its maw. Thankfully it only has two attacks with the maw each activation.
The first thing to note about this die is that it in addition to a normal damage face, it also has a critical hit face. This means that although the maw only rolls one combat die it has twice the chance to land a critical. Since it also rolls the Tentacle die with those critical based status effects this can make it very reliable so make sure your party is armoured accordingly even if they’re just wearing Helmets.
We have already seen that it can regrow tentacles using the Maw die however there are three more equally horrific things it can do. Raise Dread, Dark Energy Burst and Summon.
Raise Dread does exactly what you would expect, increase the Dread Tracker by 1. Combined with Malacyte Conduit your party may find themselves facing impending Doom rather quickly.
Dark Energy Burst Corrupts your Adventurer if using the Forbidden Creed expansion (coming later this year). If not, the Corrupter deals one damage to them. Just like Constrict and Hurl, this is resolved even if the attacks itself caused no damage.
Summon adds an additional threat to the board. A random Otherworldly Wandering Beast joins the fray. Given how fast the Dread Tracker fills there’s a very good chance it will be Elite. It does not arrive randomly either, instead it arrives at the closest Entry Point (or Summoning Point). This new arrival could be one of the new Wandering Beasts found in Oblivion’s Maw, a Skin Shifter an Alary or even some Cankers. All of which will serve to distract you from taking down your main threat.
Final thoughts
The Corrupter is not your average boss. It is a relentless, remorseless threat designed to test even the most experienced parties. The Tentacle and Maw dice introduce unpredictability, forcing players to stay sharp, adapt quickly, and manage their resources wisely. Every roll brings a new problem.
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy here. You need clever positioning, excellent timing, and no small amount of luck to overcome the beast. Sacrifices may be inevitable, and your party will not survive unscathed, but victory is possible.
Approach the Corrupter with extreme caution, attack with perfect coordination, and have a plan B, C and D. Because in this fight, every decision, and every die roll, matters.
This Adventurer though, is staying right here in the tavern. I’ll drink to your memory when you don’t return.
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