I don't think this was really difficult, if anything I felt it was quite easy. Won this on first try with all characters alive and none of them close to dying. Use Maze of Mind to keep the enemies together, then use Acid Pool. Path of Knives is useful for killing the mercenary. The Barbed Platemail on the Mantis helps a lot too. I'm not too sure what the Inciter was for but he managed to damage some of the foes with Bungled Bolts, Unholy Curses and Unholy Wellsprings. Overall a really fun scenario, would like to see this submitted to MM. Suggestion for text: Pre-battle: "Welcome everyone! Lord Batford has captured a Gnome Inciter and his two monstrous pets and stranded them on these islands that they stand on, with no means of escape. Watch as his guards taunt them and dance out of their reach before stabbing them, all for your viewing pleasure!" Post battle: "Unbelievable! The captives have managed to slay the guards! Better run while you can, folks, they look really, really angry..."
I think it's a bit luck based. I lost without killing a single opponent, and I don't see anything I could have done to improve my odds. I only drew one Acid Pool before the mantis died (Barbed Platemail failed all six times) and my first Path Of Knives was drawn after all the trogs were in range (and the inciter was also dead by then). The only useful cards I drew were Acid Pool, Unholy Curse, and a few Mazes. My second try, I won fairly easily. For the map, usually the audience sits outside the arena walls, in particular they're Blocked but don't have the black border. You're also missing the corner bits from the water borders: Spoiler
How do I add the black borders? There aren't water borders that fit the decal doodads I used, I guess I'll have to go to the thicker variety.
I think Kalin is correct here, having played it a few times myself. If I could, I would do something to make barbed platemail more reliable and have the Trog gougers move more often, but I'm not sure how this could be done. If the Hell Mantis dies and a trog gouger is standing within range of one of your characters, they will never play a move card, making maze of the mind much less useful. The only way to get them to move is to cause their armor to trigger so they hop back and have to go forwards again.
