Lord Geryon

Geryon is of course named after the three-bodied herds-thing of Greek myth. But our Geryon is an entity of terror.

All the demon lords ostensibly came about by the transformation and inversion of one of the fabled occult heroes, originally trained to stop them. Geryon is composed of three separate heroes, all doctors. Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, and another Dr. Howard.

Geryon’s Menace is simple enough – to enter its Hell Time, you must simply pay its threefold price – 1 luck, 1 courage, and 1 health. A hero without courage and/or luck must pay health instead.

The Three Bodies

Geryon’s three bodies each have their own health total, which are not equal. The first Dr. Howard has the most health, followed by Dr. Fine, and the second Dr. Howard has the lowest health.

While Geryon does not attack three times (only once), the effect of the attack differs with which bodies are surviving. If the first Dr. Howard is alive, then an injured hero loses 1 Luck. If Dr. Fine is alive, then the victim loses 1 extra health. If the second Dr. Howard survives, an injured hero loses 1 courage. As with Geryon’s menace, a hero who is out of luck or courage loses health instead. Over time this can really add up.

Of course Geryon has a Reward too – a hero earns 1 courage per point of damage he inflicts on a Howard (though not Dr. Fine; hurting him must be its own reward).

Fighting Geryon

One of the issues fighting Geryon is that because of his three bodies, he has a LOT of health. For example, in a 4 player game, Lord Tarasque has 15 health. But Lord Geryon has the equivalent of 29 health! Of course, you can kill Geryon’s bodies one by one, but this doesn’t decrease his 6d10 damage a bit – it just costs one of his bonus attacks (draining luck, courage, or extra health).

Really the only silver lining in Geryon’s miasmic cloud is that you can earn a lot of courage while fighting him, at least if you are targeting the Howards. This courage can be used after you flee, to buy gifts, or to help your friends while they are whaling away at the lord.

At least fighting Geryon doesn’t have after-effects, unlike Baphomet, Jabootu, and Tarasque. As you may recall, Baphomet & Tarasque can set heroes on fire, while Jabootu permanently reduces their attack dice. Geryon is more straightforward, in a way. Though while fighting him it’s convoluted enough for three normal lords.

And no, I’m not going to admit where I got the names for his three doctors.