The Path to Carcossa - Black Stars Rise

Well it is getting near the end now. Our valiant trio have travelled to Mont Saint Michael to potentially sacrifice all to save the entire planet. We are quite the well honed machine now. Except Min. Min started as the quite 'paranoid, schizophrenic, manic depressive' as she drew almost all her weaknesses turn after turn for the first few turns and essentially spent all her time working on the 'inner' Min and probably through several mother and father issues as well. This left Jenny and Agnes having to do the dog work in the early stages but this was not a major problem as this is one of the few where doom can assist. We basically organised to generate the most doom possible so we could find out what (and where) we had to go as quickly as possible. I had drawn both shrivelling and rite of seeking (buwahahaahah) though after an auto fail on an investigate I also had to use time warp to ensure we did not drop behind plan. At one point my personal weakness put up so I happily played it to add doom to our preferred agenda (now that is not a frequent occurrence).

We absolutely blasted through the C pile getting to 3c surprisingly quickly only to discover it was the wrong path and we should actually have tried a. One nice point that Craig pointed out was how thematic the Outer Walls and tower were. If you were on the tower and doom went on one of the agenda piles then you would go a little madder seeing Carcosa approaching whereas if you were at the sea wall you would take damage as it was literally battered to pieces also by Carcoassa.

It was when we were all at the tower that one of my favourite moments occurred. I had engaged an acolyte and in the previous enemy phase a Rift Seeker turned up. First action next turn Jenny parleyed the creature, added doom to both agendas which caused the creature to leave. The doom caused us all to take one horror which allowed me to kill the acolyte with one zap from Agnes impressive head.

Anyway Minh had gotten over her 'issues' and was not clue gathering so we gained the nine needed to open up the chapel. I evaded a Spawn of Hali that was sitting on the broken steps and we moved across. We had already found the guide and were almost at getting a key when the agenda flipped (thank you wizard of the order for services rendered in moving the agendas quickly) and revealed that we had to go to the Chapel. Now a Beast of Alderabran was sitting 'on' it and we had a Tidal Terror approaching slowly through the town. The Wizard was still gaining doom and the 3c agenda had three so we had both time and combat issues. I personally had Silver Acolyte issues but used my Shrivelling and drew a skull which was just enough to do the two damage and add a horror to me doing a further mental trauma allowing a further (deadly) damage on the Silver Acolyte (here is where I blow raspberries in all evil acolytes general directions)

The final play will gain the play of the game designations and goes to the team.

Play of the Game

Jenny moved into the Chapel and evaded the Beast of Alderabran (Key of Ys made her real fast) then stole a clue before doing two damage to the creature (Leo de Luca in play). This allowed Minh to pathfinder to a shortcut to get there then throw two successful strange solutions in its face killing it. I could then attach my Athame, move in and use Rite of Seeking to gain two clues. During the enemy phase I blocked my unpleasant card with Ward of Protection and we then cleared all the clues. I say 'we' as Minh managed five on her own.

Monster of the Game

Hmmm. Nothing really killed here and as in the entire campaign we really lucked out in having killed all the theatre members as we avoided another Grade A nasty turning up and complicating things in an unpleasant style. Technically the Beast was the strongest but that was dealt with easily….So this scenarios monster will be the Rift Seeker just for being thematic and looking cool

Conclusion

Another nicely designed scenario. I also loved the way some of the encounter cards become more dangerous as Carcossa comes closer causing damage from debris (or to the mind) or breaking your items (discarding cards whipped away by the wind! Or shattered by a rock). The fact either agenda path could be correct is hilarious and allows for many possibilities.

The Path to Carcosa - The Pallid Mask

The Catacombs! I loved this scenario the first time I played it and our group just managed to survive by the skin our teeth. Now to return with our tooled up and remarkably undamaged group.

We had the ideal start with the secret passageway in play and an easy entrance to the tombs but then hit repeated road blocks. My start was decent (Shrivelling and an Athame being the highlights) though for once Leo did not show up to chaperone Jenny. Perhaps he was scared of confined places? Or skulls.. 

Someone has way too much time on their hands

The decent cards did not help as the scenario then buggered up our catacombs draw with always  at least one slot taken up and gradually we had all the horror of two long corridors with neither connecting and when a final 'above' would have joined the two we instead got a 'below' so they didn't.  This created difficulties....

Another thing I like about the scenario is that it dangles lots of Victory Points in front of you but then gives you lots of ways to subvert and speed up (docents and location revealers). If you chase the vp then you may be at risk of failure but if you use the 'shortcuts' you could miss out on lots of vp. As it stood we relied a lot on the shortcuts to allow Agnes to progress along the northern corridor while Minh and Jenny became progressively more embroiled in the southern which ratcheted up the urgency nicely.

I think the group would have been screwed though especially when Minh and Jenny finally exposed two of the final five locations in the southern path and neither were the key ones. This meant that Agnes (who was standing next to the last unexposed three in the northern corridor) was certainly next to the key locations but sucked at getting clues so would have difficulty getting them all. With the Specter of Death sweeping merrily around as well it looked like it would be a long night. Though as a plus we did not have Haruko their to complicate matters further.

I suddenly wonder how all the King in Yellow monsters from the U.S stage show managed to get to Paris? Admittedly in this run through they all were burnt to death on Jenny 'I murder multiple people on a whim' Barnes but still. Wouldn't the ship staff (or air ship/hostess as I doubt mass plane travel was common) notice the tail or the 'eating other passengers instead of a steam cooked plasticy meal'..Enquiring minds need to know.

But things did manage to start to swing round. I managed to draw 'Drawn to the Flame'  which gained two clues then Jenny pulled a blinder. She used Elusive to move straight to my location and opened up a catacomb, which naturally enough was not the key location. I then luckily gained a third clue on a 2 shroud location (with two 'books') by drawing a zero (I had the actual lucky in hand so could have coped with worse) so we opened a second and it was the key chamber. At this point we had enough clues between us to advance the act immediately and not too fight the stranger. This led to us all needing to be in the blocked passageway which , by a process of elimination, must have been the final unrevealed location. The problem here was that Minh was stuck in the south wing with two docents,coprse dweller and two poltergeists close by (with two locations doing damage on leaving) and the Specter of Death  steadily approaching.

Jenny though was having none of it and used a second Elusive to shift back to the location next to Minh where she talked a poltergeist to death then moved next door to engage a docent. This allowed Minh to talk her own poltergeist to death. Another well organised turn had Minh killing another docent while jenny finished off the Corpse Dweller (nice concept of an average monster turning into something much nastier)

I am fairly sure that is an unusual look in Paris and quite probably elsewere. Except perhaps Chernobyl

While this was going up Agnes had drawn Rite of Seeking so was now merrily getting many clues and opening the blocked passage. She's a waitress, she probably has had to clear a lot of blocked passageways at the café.

Ahem. Anyway while Agnes kicked her heels in the end location now came the charge. Jenny moved to evade the Specter of Death and moved two locations on (thanks Leo) before Minh ran even further past. Another two turns and we completed.

I think I prefer the 'killing the stranger' ending to this one which was a bit weird but nothing like as exciting as running through the flooding catacombs. Be that as it may we had finished with no trauma (though we were all fairly beaten up) but only one expereince (from a Delve to Deep from Jenny) this is our worst ever experience total.

Play of the Game

Jenny must get it from her zippy movement skills in freeing up Minh otherwise this would have resulted in our first defeated investigator.

Honourable mentions include Agnes playing 'Ward of Protection' to stop an encounter card that would have changed the docent Minh was engaged  with into something much nastier (as the only humanoid present) and falso or both Minh and Jenny who early in the scenario when Agnes was in a narrow tunnel with the 'Pit Below' attached but could not move to the new catacombs location and we did not want to wast time moving backwards. Minh moved first and gained enough clues to open a southern location allowing Jenny to move in and parley with the docent allowing the location next to me to be displayed and thus the group to progress and not tread water.

Basically it was a solid team effort.

Monster of the Game

Though it did not do any damage 'Specter of Death' gets the award for being cool. Tough little SOB. If we were all organised and in the same location we might have been able to take it out but seperated there was no chance its clever ' do an attack if you fail an evade' ties really nicely into the fact that most of the time you are furiously running around the catacombs as opposed to fighting..

The Path to Carcosa - A Phantom of Truth

Ah, Paris, after regaling each other with stories concerning scary caricature drawers outside Notre Dame we started. Jenny and Agnes seemed to have decent starts I had hard mulliganed for Shrivelling and managed to get one along with two time warps! And holy rosary. With the extra cash from having interviewed Jordan (why extra cash did we pickpocket him? Or was it that expensive 'leaving' the train station - perhaps those damned caricature artists 'charged' too much and we would otherwise have been caught in a tourist trap. Jenny meanwhile managed her fifth scenario on the trot with Leo in the opening hand. You have to hand it to him. He was paired with her in the book and is obviously smitten as he never leaves her side even when she frequently causes people to shoot at him and monsters to stab him. That's love. Or infatuation. Admittedly she does seem a catch if a little 'out there'.

Minh had a reasonable start with Doctor Milan turning up early (never did that for me when I was a seeker. ) But as a negative used her backpack and suddenly realised she must have forgot to pack it.

This was all needed though as early encounter draws were unpleasant. I picked up two damage from failing one test (and did the same later on so was dangerous close to passing out) and also drew a screeching byakhee. Since I was nicely tooled up and it had a victory point this made the group happy as I zapped it quickly. An early Arcane Initiate was put out that drew another Shrivelling and the clue search spell just before I accidentally pushed her into a different byakhee so the doom would not prevent the agenda from advancing , 'thanks for the spells, byeeeeeeee - splat'

Not the screeching but a Byakhee with great art all the same

We rapidly shifted past the first act which drew our version of the Organist. Since we were convinced of the evil we had the 'cannot damage does 3 mental trauma whilst hunting twice' version but this is not a major issue for a party of three. The key is to either have one person who is good at evading sitting close to him OR split the party into different locations and essentially play 'organist tennis' sending him backwards and forwards without getting to anyone. As it stood we went for the first option as Jenny was ready for him and had bought a Key of Ys out which she 'accidentally' charged by saying Hastur twice. Woops. This did allow how to lead him round like a small dog after a treat and the ever present loyal (slightly bleeding) Leo with his extra action really helped in this process. This allowed Minh to spend quality time trying to get rid of the King in Yellow (Jenny always finds Leo, Minh seems to have an affinity for her weakness) and Agnes could wander round zapping people's heads with shrivelling and even getting some clues.

This meant we rolled relatively easily to the end without getting too many  difficulties and finding the rather messy house of Monsieur Ingram.  Due to the zapping of both victory pointed Byakhees and the clearing for four VP locations we also pulled in a tidy 6 xp.

Monster of the Game

Anything that was not called 'the Organist' has its head shrivelled so the winner here is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Organist!

Since he cannot be hurt he is possibly the toughest creature we have had to face (at least this version) and I just like the concept.

Most innovative way to charge the Key of Ys (alternately the 'play of the game')

Nothing earth shattering and I was considering things as mundane as Agnes engaging a byakee from Jenny to allow her to go do 'stuff' or Minh hilariously spending four or so cards to get the 6 pips needed to remove her weakness - and then failing by one. But have decided Jenny gets this for the amusing method of charging the Key of Ys just be repeating Hastur several times. That's the last time though no matter how many times she may repeat this in the next few scenarios.

Hmm mentioning this dude when holding the infamous Key of Ys can prove riskily useful.

The Path to Carcosa - The Unspeakable Oath

Not the nicest asylum when we left it

A classic! This is such a great scenario. We started positively due to our great result in scenario two with each of us having an extra 'courage' card providing an extra two sanity and instantly did the Scooby Doo and split to rush through as many locations as possible. My starting hand was disappointing as for once I did not have anything combat worthy with no Shrivelling! I did have Rite of Seeking and Uncage the Soul which meant I could at least assist in finding clues though I felt strangely defenceless moving about.

Setup before we decided where to start

Clues did start piling in as I used the spell as my last action (to avoid the potential negatives and by turn two actually had the most clues (4) in the team. I was steadily clearing the mess hall mainly as I could grab two an action so would only have to discard one card.

Then disaster as my card draw for turn two was the ffing Silver Acolyte  - someone who (at that point) I had no (decent) chance at killing or evading and no cards in hand to help.  Luckily Minh was tooled up and she was able to move across, throw acid in its face killing it then grab a clue. Beyond the emotional bruising caused by needing to be rescued by the book worm (as opposed to 'assisted') and the fact that if I had not needed rescuing then we would have advanced the act by the end of turn two as it was we had eight clues at that point and the agenda moved instead.

Agnes felt unusually vulnerable. Plus she didn't have any pointy sticks like this lucky child.

Jenny merrily robbed the keys from the Ward Sister and disappeared down into the basement to start hunting for Daniel. Minh meanwhile was starting to collect an almost continuous range of Whispers and other terrors that were seriously impacting her ability to clear the garden and yard or do anything much at all.  I in the meantime I had cleared the Kitchen by the devious approach of using Delve to Deep to get the two clues then cancelling the encounter card with Ward of Protection before setting a fire there .I also drew  Aquinnah experienced who then cost me all of my money (and made me regret discarding an Emergency Cache in the mess hall earlier).

Dressed like that it is hard to see how anyone would forget her. 

This proved lucky as Jenny found Daniel in room two and he promptly turned into a monster (spoiler! I love the acts. If you read them you might think picking up the clasp of Black Onyx would be a good idea but if you did then you would not be playing this act. That is so devious and clever. Well played Mr Matt the designer) and was herself unusually badly tooled for action beyond her ever present Leo (who has turned up close to the start every scenario so far - he was her ally in her book though so its thematic as well as helpful).  Jenny then drew a fanatic in the encounter phase so had two nasty enemies she would have problems killing. Not an issue though as she evaded and left the location.

Daniel, pre 'wtf'

Next turn Agnes the non combat heroine stepped up to the plate with what may actually be an illegal play. She moved in and was promptly engaged by both (receiving and giving 1 damage to the fanatic). She then spent two to attach her Athame drawing two attacks of opportunity. I then added one horror for each to Acqunnnah who dealt both their damage to each other killing both. All I took was the one horror from Daniel. Which I put on my courage card as my ability would not hurt as they were both dead. It is potentially illegal as it might be that the attacks are not simultaneous but even had we not played it that way I could have used the fanatic to kill daniel then only needed one more to kill the fanatic and then had the Athame in play so I will claim the glory and shove the rules query under the carpet with a vigorous broom.

The situation just prior to finding Daniel (who was in the next cell to the one Jenny was currently in. The yellow paper indicates a shortcut on the location added by Minh.

We now had to get out and needed another two 'events' to assist. Jenny grabbed the third and Minh (just) managed the fourth. As the encounter deck merrily kept restocking her whispers/terrors she also drew her weakness and then drew another whisper that prevented using cards at all.

This was the situation when things changed and we had the joy of an auto monster being drawn from the encounter deck. Fortunately (as will be seen) it took 2/3rds of the encounter deck to even find one though the one found was an Asylum Gorger and was not only nasty but also landed on no-combat Agnes in the Basement. Sweet. Not having any chance of standing and fighting I moved back to the Wings being followed by the (fortunately for me) Attack of Opportunity less monster. At the end of the turn though I did have to suck up a 3/3 attack where I dropped one of each damage type on the now dead (defeated) Aquinnah meaning I was left with four of each and was looking a bit of a  risk. A bad encounter card could have sent me over the edge but I drew Filth and Decay so was able to drop 'Fight or Flight' in the next turn and evade it ,with an impressive seven evade, before using the handy shortcut to get me to the garden on time and resign. Minh also hopped out quickly but Jenny was after experience. She moved to the garden and used Delve to Deep to gain an XP.The encounter card was a minorish monster but had another XP should Jenny kill it. Which she did. 

Someday Jenny will be the earphones and 'Delve' will cause the cat to arrive

So we survived the asylum and gained 7 xp (I had not spent the three from the last scenario so would have 10 to play with!

Play of the Game

Agnes gets it for the Aquinnah in the face defence. Even when she is not tooled for combat she still rules

Agnes looked great in leather. Plus it was easy to wipe the blood off. 

Monster of the Game

Though Daniel gets honourable mention here for just being thematic and repulsive the more dangerous monster was the  Asylum Gorger  which almost succeeded in defeating valiant Agnes.

The Path to Carcosa - Echoes of the Past

Sis,

The ‘party’ was as bad as I said it would be. These people are seriously warped and have many eager denizens trying to assist them. We ended doing something you only read about concerning deep down south and those horrible KKK people. To put it another way we ensured none of the evil would be able to move out. We are moving to the Historical Society next. Minh should be most at home though Jenny and I will stick out like sore thumbs.  The odds of bumping into more low lives seem strangely high. Considering my work brought me into contact with plenty of other low lives I should be used to it.

Our intrepid trio now has to enter that infamous den of librarians – the Arkham Historical Society. This is a perfect control scenario. If the group can keep down the many cultists and deal with them quickly then the agenda deck is almost entirely under their control. In a group of three this would normally need at least two of the investigators to be capable of dealing with a cultist on their own with the last doing most of the clue work.

Setup and raring to go

As we started with three we had two Cultists already in play on the upper floor and if we left them to their own devices they would soak up enough doom to flip the agenda in 3 turns. I therefore took a faster start attaching a shrivelling and moving straight up to the 3^rd floor lobby first turn. My compatriots started on their own gear and the clues. Our first encounter draw was fairly innocuous though an acolyte turned up generating a further auto-doom. This was not a worry as yet as Agnes was able to erase the first cultist with a  strength shrivelling. Meanwhile Minh (Minh!) moved up to the 1^st floor to kill the Acolyte and failed.

Pressure carried on ramping up as I drew my weakness (a Silver Acolyte) and at the same time someone else drew a fanatic that went to the same location. I was now facing two enemies and would be highly unlikely to be able to shift across the 3^rd floor to deal with the other cultist who was now on 4 doom (due to The Kings Edict turning up and buggering up all our calculations).

We could still handle things as long as nothing disastrous went wrong with the next turn.  On my encounter card I cancelled with…erm.. and took a horror which  allowed me to do 1 damage to the silver acolyte bringing him within one zap Shrivelling range, Agnes then zapped the two enemies in location reducing pressure and drew out her Spirit Athame (so one attack would be 9! Strength). Minh cleared her enemy and both Jenny wiped out a further acolyte.

The next encounter draw brought us very close to the edge as an extra doom was added meaning the 3^rd floor Seeker would need to die this turn to keep the agenda from advancing and preventing the discard pile recycling. I though was two locations away and it is aloof so the best I could do would be to engage and deal a single damage in the enemy phase. This would not be good enough. Minh was 3 locations away (with pathfinder) so would have been able to get there but was restricted by her Shadows draw. We then pulled off a nice team ‘save’ that really shows how great the game can be. Minh was the driver though as she spent two actions clearing her whispers (I guess it must have been the ‘you can only move one location’ or something along those lines). She then used a fast action pathfinder to move to the 2^nd floor lobby then her last action to move to the 3^rd floor lobby. She then used another fast action to drop the shortcut on the 3^rd floor lobby. This allowed me to move to the 3^rd floor lobby, fast action use the shortcut to move to the other room and engage and zap the cultist with a 9 strength shrivelling. Those were all used but the cultist died and the agenda was saved.

That was the key risk point and we were in complete control after that. Jenny switchbladed a Hunter of the King to death and we rapidly pushed forward to clear the hidden library and win out. We did consider whether we should delay finishing to draw the big monster at the end to get a further two experience but it was late at this point so we called it a day. Minh and Agnes both collected three experience and Jenny pulled 5 (Charons Obal). Next up the wonderful asylum scenario.

Play of the Game

Has top go to Minh’s use of pathfinder and shortcut to allow the group to get where it otherwise could not and zap a doom laden cultist.

Minh takes the 'hollywood transfor' and removes her glasses and turns into a babe!

Monster of the Game

We never got to the huge nasties so this goes between the doom cultists who were both one shotted by Agnes and the Hunter of the King. It can go to the second as Agnes was out of spells at this point and in the end Minh chucked acid in its face causing it to disintegrate on the carpet. You don’t mess with the girls.

The Path to Carcosa - The Last King

The girls are ready to go party to save the world! One does wonder where they store all those weapons, or Minh her backpack..

Sweet Sister,

I shudder to describe what occurred at the play, suffice it to say that my particular talents were needed and I have totally lost any desire to eat octopus. There was 'something' in that theatre that was a bit like Billy Blithe - do you remember him? you'd manage to block one hand from approaching your chest and find another had mysteriously gained a death grip on your backside. The man had more arms than was decent and no self control.  Hmm may be going off topic a bit here... Daisy - she of the inexhaustible wallet - has decided we are going to crash a cast party and has splashed out (a lot) of cash on some lovely dresses so that we look the part. I have enjoyed the shopping not certain I will enjoy a party with murderous psychos.

I am also not sure Minh was entirely appreciative of her fine clothes as I am sure she will dump them as soon as is possible for a beige cardigan and sandals - though  remind me to tell you how she came running out of the theatre dressing room wearing nothing but underwear and some reuplsive smelling slime. 

 The usual, not that useful, setup  shot. tbh its missing the bystanders so is not even that accurate!

This scenario is one we, as a group, are well suited for. Our particular skill sets are nicely balanced towards each of the peeps we want to investigate so we should do well. Being tooled up with xp helps and I took two experienced Shrivellings, the Book of Shadows (allows my spells to recharge) and two Spirit Athame - Agnes tooled up is a good fighter but that tooling rarely lasts and these choices should make her more consistent..As I was adding 4 cards I dropped the Astral Travel, the two Improvised weapons (the Athame essentially replaces them) and a Hypnotic Gaze.

We did the 'Scooby Doo' and instantly split up with each person targeting one of the Bystanders. Nice plan! unfortunately stymied by some horrible encounter draws. I kept getting corrosion which wiped out a Holy Rosary and then my Heirloom and 'tough crowd' was drawn two turns in a row by the others so we managed bugger all of anything achieved after two turns. This was distressing as the Agenda rolled over and the Dumaine woman arrived - luckily once we clear one Bystander she loses a lot of potency, at least until that Bystander changes. Now Agnes particular skill set proved useful. I had also drawn a 'Young Psychopath' so 'chose' to take the engaging horror to do one in return. Then in my turn I simply ignored her and drew an attack of opportunity which allowed a further damage killing her. This allowed me to move to the courtyard and attempt to get two clues from Ishmaru. I only gained one but that was enough to allow Minh to finish her off and move over to Constance Dumaine.

Ishmaru has 'turned' but this gives a general idea of what clues were left at this point

That turn Jenny cleared Ashleigh (she had Leo de Luca out so four available actions) and with a lot of money (around 20 at this point) moved over to Jordan Perry.

Now time was not on our side and the first bystander turned. Fortunately enough it was Ishmaru and Jenny showed confidence in 'handling her' which was helpful as the Man in the Pale Mask had arrived in the lobby and I was moving to deal with him. A further Young Psychopath meant that I was actually getting a bit low on Sanity so a fortunate Clarity of Mind allowed me to lower my sanity loss from 7 to 5 prior to moving to the Pale Mask. Meanwhile Jenny evaded Ishmaru before 'turning' Jordan Perry while Minh finished of Moreau - we had now talked to everyone and just needed to get out. Moreau now turned and he was close but as Agnes easily finished off the Pale Man with her sole Shrivelling use we could just hop out and resign. Minh did the same before Jenny decided to play a Delve to Deep to try and get some extra XP. - whilst engaged with cockroaches with Sebastian a location away. She survived the resultant cards and attacks and due to resigning not triggering attacks of opportunity was able to hop out for the win.

End damage/sanity totals. 

We decided to burn the place down, what's a little arson between friends when confronted by a madhouse like that...




Player of the Game

It was actually quite close this game as we all did what we were supposed to do but for sheer style points the award goes to Jenny for letting Ishmaru come to her location, absorbing the attack then evading her, finishing off Sebastian then moving off. All in a turn and allowing the rest of the party time to safely clear the exit.

Jenny is ready for all!

Monster of the Game

The Young Psychopaths were the most irritating but for simply stylish design points this award will go to Ishimaru Haruko. I love the change text for the bystanders and they are all horrible monsters to fight and though Jenny handled her without fighting it is still a great card (as are the other bystanders)

Combolicious

End Result

We had around twenty two clues at the end so split it 4/4/3 with 1 extra XP from the Delve so 5/5/4 with Jenny having the 4 (but also Charon's Obal to not mattering so much). We should be well set for the next mission which is the Asylum ( another great scenario) allowing I have remembered correctly..

The Path to Carcosa - Curtain Call

Dear Sister,
Had a rich girl in the bar today. Looked out of place amongst the fry ups in all her finery but she was game and tipped well. She was having a laugh with me, well all the staff really and persuaded to join me at a performance of that new play being shown. You always say I should put myself out there more so perhaps this is that. She has a sister too from the sounds of it but she went sad when asked about it.

Who knows what goes on in the head of the rich - the play though sounds pretentious crap and exactly  the sort of things the la di da's do... It will be opera next bluuurgh. She is paying though so I thought why not. Originally it looked like I was being asked as 'bait' for a good looking man but , to be frank, she is quite a looker herself and I felt quite dowdy next to her. Perils of a greasy apron I think. We are also being joined by another woman from the bar - you would remember her from your last stay. She was the little Asian woman you were convinced owned ten cats and talked to herself. She seems a little obsessed by this play..

Gratuitous startup shot

So back to a new campaign! Are group is a little weaker than before with no dedicated killer and though we have a Seeker Rex is so 'strong' everyone else suffers in comparison.

Dropping straight in to the lovely designed scenario 'Curtain Call' things started slowly. I spent most of the first turns squishing rats (one swarm from the encounter and two from the trap room, if I remember correctly). Minh started gathering clues and Jenny marched off in the other direction. It suddenly struck me that the group was showing remarkable similarities to another threesome.

I suppose that makes Agnes Dew Barrymore...

Anyway after a stroke of luck from the encounter deck we managed to flip the act just before the agenda and the Man in a Pale Mask turned up to be miserable in the Dressing Room. Minh was having none of it so charged over to tell him to get over himself which she did so efficiently he sodded off to sulk in the Lobby while the Theatre was suddenly faced with a disgusting mould invasion.

Minh has just dealt with the Man in the Pale Mask and the Emissary is about to appear.

In the meantime the valiant Agnes moved to the theatre tempting a clue heavy Servant of the King to jump off and come in search off. It did not go well for him as she had dealt with the rats with her shoes. For him she shrivelled his head. The Royal Emissary now showed up adding extra amusement for all. Jenny carried on clearing locations of clues while Agnes tried to implement project instant kill. I moved from the lobby to the theatre (taking one damage from an encounter card which allowed me to add a damage to the Emissary. I then waited for the end of turn attack and played 'Hypnotic Gaze' if I drew a special token then the Emissary would kill himself!.

The Emissary arrives.  On top of Minh

Unfortunately I did not so had to settle for an extra 'Agnes' damage from the extra horror for all at the end of the enemy phase. Next turn he was handily zapped and I moved back to the lobby taking 1 damage and horror from the ooze which allowed me to drop another damage on the Pale Mask. Jenny then ran in and shot him with a .45 pistol.

Look into my eyes? wont work with most men who will be wondering how she fitted in that dress. Distracted other ways perhaps.

We could have just resigned here but thought we would push things slightly. Jenny still had two turns and two 'Delve to Deep' in hand which she played to increase our xp by two. I would like to see it went swimmingly but the result popped the agenda again which resurrected the Royal Emissary (potentially costing us 2 xp) and led to poor Agnes having five physical damage and five mental and some random Whispers. Woops. No worries though as the Emissary is not that much of a fighter and Jenny blew it away.

As can be seen Agnes was pushing it in damage terms

Result! I love this scenario which is thematic and well written and fun to play through. We ended up with ten experience! and if it wasn't for a useful encounter card would have probably had a harder time with the Emissary. Roll on the next scenario..

Player of the Game

For once not an actual player but an encounter card. It was early in the scenario and Minh had a mere 3 clues. Jenny had 3. All three of us were in different locations. We needed 9 to roll the act and the agenda would pop at the end of the next turn. Two of the encounter decks were a 'Servant of the King; in Jenny's location and a Fanatic in mine (which handily moved a clue onto him).  Then came the magnificent 'The King's Edict' It moved a clue onto the Servant of the King and another clue onto the Fanatic. Though this pumped fight this meant less books more attack and the next turn I easily zapped the 5 strength fanatic to gain two clues and then luckily got the third. This allowed us to pop the act immediately and thus allowed Minh to deal with the Man in the Pale Mask before the agenda flipped. Sweet

Now half way through the game we also discovered that Craig was apparently a shape shifting demon. This was how he appeared in appear.in for a good five minutes.

And before anyone says anything Craig is bottom left...


Monster of the the Game

Has to be the Royal Emissary which has opera singer  undertones. Moves about has massive and hunter and does reasonable damage with an auto horror to all within one location range. Also has great art.  Shame it met a gun toting Jenny and  Agnes 'make me mentally distressed and you will feel it'  facing it..twice.   The Poltergeist met Minh a couple of times but she discussed thermal theory and how it could not really exist with it until chastened it ran away..

Magnificent job by FFG's art department and the artist 'MoonSkinned'

The Dunwich Legacy - Lost in Time and Space

Dear Diary

Just scribbling a note as I find myself in hell! Literally with spawn of satan all over the place like a field of cows. Except the cows are purest evil and will kill you on sight.

Luckily I remembered to pack my super sharp knife set that will allow me to get up close and personal in a way that Satan himself will hear of. I do wonder how my diary will get back should a minion of evil get a lucky strike in. 

Bible Reading of the Day: Revelation Book 14 Chapter 10

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

I must be a Holy Angel. I don't think I am the Lamb. That is probably Rex

So finally the epic last campaign scenario. The group is as elite and well prepared as can be (considering how smoothly the campaign has actually gone) so if anyone can succeed we should be able to.  My last experience purchase this campaign was restricted as I like most of what the deck does so finally gained Zoey some Charisma ( guard dog and another would be a lovel combo) along with moving up the other Vicious Blow to the experienced level.

Onto the scenario it is difficult to write up a decent report on this scenario because the structure changes all the time. It is another of, what I would call, the 'deck threat' decks with minimal nasties to fight. So success or failure is heavily predicated on clue finding ability and luck in getting the locations you need in play early enough to allow access to where you need to go.

I was unfortunately useless all scenario. Whenever I bought a knife out (my first was a 'reliable' machete) an encounter card would make me discard it. This happened twice and for the first time this campaign Zoey went through the entire scenario without a proper weapon. Fortunately this was not a major disadvantage as Rex was quietly confident throwing acid at things (taking out both a conglomeration of sphere and an Interstellar traveller) and Yorick had his own reliable machete out.  When combined with Rex hoovering up clues at a rapid rate of knots we quite quickly progressed to the 3rd act keeping careful watch on doom carrying locations so we could discard them before they got dangerous.

Weird space, not the best place for a day trip

If anything the hardest part was getting out. The big nasty was starting to drift towards us (nicely hinted at in the agenda text) and both Rex and Yorick could leave easily. The problem was Dear old Zoey. I had my own plan which involved Yorick hitting another Interstellar Traveller for 3 allowing me to taunt it off him then kill him with my lately attached cross then playing the Guardian evidence card to gain a clue followed by scuttling to a 1 shroud location for a couple of attempts at a clue but Rex was confident he could help Zoey over the 2 shroud of the exit location so I moved there instead. I was pumped by 3 the first try, 2 the second and 2 the third and managed to get one clue. Rex still had multiple tricks up his sleeve and managed to play the search card allowing me to get Working a hunch (fast) which gained the last clue. A stressful last encounter phase was all that stood  between us and victory and all we really wanted to avoid was a card which generated a location and moved us there. Thankfully that did not occur and we had (again) saved the earth from the perils of otherworldly evil. To almost quote Rocket from Guardians,

We're really gonna be able to jack up our price if we're two-time earth savers."

Player of the Campaign - Difficult choice but its between Rex and Yorick and Rex gets it mainly because his clue gathering potential is enormous and combined with his unexpected ability to launch topical acid attacks makes him a dual threat and that can really help when the shit hits the fan. 

When this occurs Rex is needed!

Yorick had a few glorious scenarios where he literally saved the day but Rex was consistently useful.

Rex - 'useful'

Monster of the Campaign - I don’t regret not having to face the big nasty in the last scenario so that means something else will get it and for sheer innovative abilities the Hunting Horror from the Miskatonic Museum will get the nod. I love the way its growth is organic and you get the feeling of you striking it enough that it runs but then it returns stronger and angrier.

Scenario of the Campaign - This is again hard to call. Essex County is a bugger of a scenario to beat as is 'Undimensioned and Unseen' but my favourites are the starting two and the balance between them. Each being a joy to play and so thematic.

Next up: This group is moving to Carcossa. We are making things more difficult for ourselves as we are avoiding the Guardian/Seeker/other group structure that has served us well and currently look to be taking Seeker/Mystic/Rogue. I am looking forward to it.

Zoey is the second. I was going to write 'number two' then I realised what 'that' would read like..