Comic Book Extras - Volume 2 - Zombicide Black Plague - Road to Hell

Comic Book Extras - Volume 2 - Zombicide Black Plague - Road to HellThe best of intentions paves the road to Hell, or worse, to the Black Plague. Legendary wizard Einar thought he could make a deal to cure the plague. But the dark pact pulled him into an abyss from which only his half elf apprentice, Lewyn, can rescue him. She cannot do it alone. Venturing into this dark night of the soul with her are Freya the thief, Drakka the dwarf, and Otto the paladin. This group must journey through the world of Black Plague,

The best of intentions paves the road to Hell, or worse, to the Black Plague. Legendary wizard Einar thought he could make a deal to cure the plague. But the dark pact pulled him into an abyss from which only his half-elf apprentice, Lewyn, can rescue him. She cannot do it alone. Venturing into this dark night of the soul with her are Freya the thief, Drakka the dwarf, and Otto the paladin. This group must journey through the world of Black Plague, fighting the newly dead, hidden threats, and perhaps, their friend Einar himself. Along the way, they may find his soul is not the only one on trial. 

Just like all comics featured in the pre-order and previous campaign, Road to Hell reunited an incredible team of writers and artists, committed to adapt and expand the world of Black Plague. The team includes Stefano Vietti (script, story, and editing),  Francesco Rizzato (art), Paul Bonner (cover art), Mattia Iacono (coloring), Antonio Esposito (lettering), and Matteo Brembilla (graphic design).

The 120+ page hardcover graphic novel is the first released on the Black Plague setting, following the success of Zombicide and Zombicide: Invader in Comics Vol. 1. It accompanies a party of survivors fighting the dreadful emerging plague and their struggle against horrors, be them external or internal. 

Do not cross Drakka's path, or he will show you what he (and his axe!) are made of. Drakka is a skillful fighter, which is reflected in his skills, rolling extra dice for melee actions right off the bat. When reaching the red level, he may deal extra damage, allow players to take extra actions, or gain extra dice for subsequent melee actions with his battle rage.

Einar's life is fulled by magic. But one can also say the opposite - that his magic is fulled by life. His life. Or lack thereof, considering that one of the skills available at the red level is frenzy magic, in which spells get more powerful as Einar is more wounded. 

Otto's talent in handling a sword is only surpassed by his braveness. Traumatized by the events of his past, his priority is to protect others, beginning the game with taunt, luring zombies in his direction and away from other survivors. Once that is taken care of, he can continue to pursue his goal of becoming one of the most skilled fighters that ever was, moving extra zones to attack or killing additional zombies with his red level bloodlust or reaper skills. 

As a thief, it is really no surprise that Freya's blue level skill allows her to get a free search action if she has eliminated a zombie, that one of her orange skills lets her acquire one extra card when searching, or even that red level skills involve slipperiness and sprinting. It is, however, surprising that despite her unstoppable urge to steal, she has been showing nothing but loyalty to Drakka, at least for now. 

To say that Lewyn is an extremely powerful sorceress would be an understatement. Spellbook is her blue level skill, considering equipped all combat spells and enchantments in her inventory. All of her other possible skills are also directed to magic and sorcery, giving her free enchantment actions, ignoring minimum range to cast spells, and gaining free magic actions, to list a few.

With his bow, Rainer is a marksman, capable of freely choosing his targets, a skill that is only strengthened by the following level skills, like point-blank and tactician. Unfortunately for him, his combat skills are not as helpful in social and romantic situations.

Marike is a fearsome fighter that has never shied away from a combat. Among her melee combat-driven skills are barbarian, in which she thrives on the amount of zombies in her zone by replacing the result of the dice with their number. The more zombies she's facing, more likely she will succeed in killing them.

Cord Dankwart is a master swordsman, always accompanied by his sword, which he uses to decimate zombies. But his most prominent characteristics are his loyalty and friendship, making him able to increase his dice results simply by standing is zones with other survivors. 

There's not much more than can be said about Lotas, as his nickname "Lotas the Lucky" pretty much says it all. He starts with a lucky skill, allowing him to re-roll his die, and in further levels may acquire destiny, gaining the chance to disregard and redraw an equipment card, as well as regeneration, losing all wounds he gained throughout the round. That is... until his luck changes.

Neto Orash is a natural born leader and a source of inspiration to others. His mere presence can push survivors to aspire to try harder and achieve higher feats, receiving free actions that they can use as they please. 

Road to Hell has 2 additional survivors, which have been redacted to prevent spoiling the comics as these would be somewhat recognizable (or unrecognizable?) under the right light... 

Lord Janas' origins may be of a necromancer, but he is, in fact, an abomination. The devious ways that he uses his power to corrupt even the most righteous people, the absolute mastery of dark forces, and his superhuman strength conquered him the title. Not even powerful survivors resist his power. Especially powerful survivors, actually. When Lord Janas spawns, the survivor with the highest XP is immediately moved into his zone.

Road to Hell also has another abomination, whose identity cannot be revealed in order to not spoil the events of the story. However, we can address its special rule. This particular abomination is enraged and hunting down our heroes, always performing 1 action plus 1 additional action for each survivor in their line of sight. 

When it comes to necromancers, Erinn is as wicked as one can be. Taking pleasure and strength in seeing her past victims suffering, she makes sure to have them bound to her, following her wherever she goes, by spawning walkers at the end of each zombie phase. 

In addition to the survivors, abominations, and necromancer that form the Road to Hell exclusive promos, there is also an exclusive quest, based on the story explored on the comics, in which players will be able to experience, first-hand, the same horrors that survivors had to face in the graphic novel.

Finally, in addition to all the content listed above, Road to Hell also brings Massive Darkness 2 crossover components, making survivors, abominations, and necromancer playable with Massive Darkness 2!