We attempted scenario 5 last week and I think we were so traumatised I haven't posted in a while.

It was bad. The extra toughness of monsters, no way of getting extra clues. GOO waking up a lot faster du to the 12 doom token cap. No unique items for the final fight. I got to say with 2 players this is the worst one yet (apart from the infamous Black Cave scenario in league 1).

We eventually got a winning score, but it was bum. I don't even think we can drum up the enthusiasm to try it again. Aarrrggghhhh.

You got more guts than me... been to scared to even try it

I agree, it's brutal. We've tried 4 times and can't get through it. We've been unucky each game with low activity gates going off seeming like every other mythos, double doom token rumors, and the terror track going out of control because we can't kill the tough monsters...

So far each game we've had Pete recycling Old Journals -- seems like the only way to get clues.

sadly in a 2 player game we feel we can't use pete

We did it! ;-) After 7 times...but...We did it!

Arghhh.....

We finally had it in the bag (or so we thought).... 5 gates sealed, Marie was sitting pretty on the second spot in the Abyss with 7 clue tokens ready to exit next turn. The monsters were under control at last and the rest of the folks were busy collecting clue tokens for the next scenario when... Nooooooo! the second double doom Mythos pops up... Shub climbs out and promptly devours us all.

We would've scored around 19 I think -- not great, but at least a win. The Terror track was at 9 because of the rumor (forget its name) that raises the terror level during every Mythos on a roll of 1 or 2 plus we really had a problem getting magical weapons capable of killing all the physically resistant monsters that kept roaming around the town. The Dark Druid came out twice too just to keep things stirred up.

It sure would be nice to play one game without a double doom token Mythos showing up paired with a crippling rumor to distract us. But fun? You bet!

Must have had some kind of selective blindness when I first checked out this scenario as I missed the fact that the Curiositie Shoppe and Ye Olde Magick Shoppe were still closed. Just realised my mistake and don't know if I'm going to be able to find the time or summon the mental strength to play this one with the locations closed before the next scenario comes out. You lot make it sound grim and I just can't face Arkham with the Curiositie Shop shut after happily shopping there over the past 2 weeks. Maybe I'll come back to it some time.

Anyway, if anyone has the time then try this scenario with the locations open. In our blissful ignorance we had a great time over the past couple of weekends with free access to elder signs, swords of glory etc., some of the most epic games we've ever played.

We used :
- Wilson Richards (Double Vision & Schizophrenia )
- Bob Jenkins (Back Injury )
- Dexter Drakes (with Calvin Wright)
- Jenny Barnes (Sprained Ankle & Amnesia )

Rumors Card: "Good Work Undone" fail - "One Thousand Young" in play when the story end - No seal location e no investigator lost... -

Final score :

Total: 12 - 1 (terror) - 0 (elder signs) - 0 (retired) - 0 (bank Loans) + 4 (lived investigators) + 3 (monster) + 9 (gate) + 0 (Tasks/Missions) = 27

Real Paris said:

We finally beat this with almost the same group of investigators:

We used

- Wilson Richards

- Bob Jenkins

- Jenny Barnes

- Rita Young

Rumor Card: Terrible Experiment (failed)

Final Score:

Total: 12 - 10 (terror) -1 (elder sign) - 0 (retired) - 0 (bank loans) +4 (Live investigators) + 4 (monsters) + 8 (gates) + 0 (tasks/missions) = 17

Not a very good score but after failing multiple times we decided we could live with it.

I've recived this message after send the e-mail with the results of 5th scenario... :

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I've try to send another mail...but...I think is better to post here our results ok?

5° Scenario (win after 7 attempts) :-)

Team Name: Martesana Arkham Team
Location: Masate, Milan, Italy

Investigators:
- Wilson Richards
- Bob Jenkins
- Dexter Drakes (with Calvin Wright)
- Jenny Barnes

Ancient One: Ithaqua + Shub Niggurath

No Investigator devoured = 4 points
Unspent Clue Tokens: 0
Doom Track #: 11of12 (5 Ithaqua - 6 Shub-Niggurath)
Terror Track Level: 1
Elder Signs Used: 0
Open Bank Loans: 0
Unspend Monster: 10 (2 Whilson, 2 Dexter, 3 Jenny and 3 Bob) = 10/3 = 3 points
Unspend Gate: 9 (3 Whilson, 3 Bob, 2 Dexter and 1 Jenny) = 9 points
Missions/Tasks Complete: 0
Total: 12 - 1 (terror) - 0 (elder signs) - 0 (retired) - 0 (bank Loans) + 4 (lived investigators) + 3 (monster) + 9 (gate) + 0 (Tasks/Missions) = 27

Rumors Card: "Good Work Undone" fail - "One Thousand Young" in play
Lost Time and Space: 0
Unconsciuns: Whilson (Double Vision) - Bob (Back Injury) - Jenny (Sprained Ankle)
Insane: Whilson (Schizophrenia) - Jenny (Amnesia)
Seal Location: 0
Gate on Seal Location: 0
Monsters Surge: 2
Gate burst: 0

Sorry...

Haven't sent mine in yet as I am hoping that a better score will materialise. Of course we're not actually playing in due to the trauma, so fingers crossed for a miracle...

Wow, congrats Real Paris! Looks like this was a real nail-biter at the end with no sealed gates left (I assume due to the failed rumor).

Thank you for your compliments ... this scene was really exhausting ...now ... we hope that the sixth comes out Friday that does not follow the same vein ... at least that will change the old ...Schub-Niggurath and the Ithaqua I love ... but that's enough ...

So let me make sure I got this right...

1. 10 doom track AO
2. -6 combat rating
3. physical immunity
4. no clues
5. magic weapon shops closed

Tried it today they woke up to many gates...didn't even try to fight them... every OW encounter made me LiTaS! lol Let me see 5 turns... 6 investigator team.

I hate this scenario. You start with no clues, and you can't even shop for unique items. Final battle is impossible.

I just played it twice back to back. I deliberately chose my investigators last time to maximize my chances of getting an Elder Sign. I got one.

Wilson Richards entered the first gate and sealed it soon after. No other gates had opened up. We were back at 0 gates with one seal and one gate trophy, putting us closer to winning by closing all gates.

Then the "fail every check" curse on my team kicked in. Guess if we won?

This scenario isn't any fun. I don't feel like it's merely difficult, with close-call losses; I feel like it's a close call whether or not your plans might be working a bit in your favor. I'm not even looking at Scenario 6 until I beat this one, but I'm losing motivation even to try to do so.

Congrats to all you who completed it! (7 tries? Might take me another two weeks.)

lol beat it 2nd (with my friend, 1st played by myself to figure out how to beat it, because knew he would give up after a few tries lol) try... 6 investigators... did the ol' Pete Old Journal combo... sealed 5 gates but won by closing all gates... 30 point score!

never even used witch blood

btw Dexter Drake is helpful to dig for Find Gate... the common tome that gives spells is where you'll find it.

We've tried this one 3 times with out 8 investigator team. Lost every time. We don't even try to fight the AOs unless we ave enough Magic Weapons (which means never). The last time we got together we played 2 games back to back. The first game we had investigators delayed in the OW, LiT&S and failing a close gate check. It lasted four turns/5th Mythos card. Took less than 30 minutes. The replay was almost going better --we had sealed two gates, had 7 trophies between us, but the Terror Level hit 10, we got a Rumor that auto-failed (involved the loss of an Ally each turn), and monsters had overrun the town. I took the initiative to tackle the 5 toughness Dark Druid, but we were getting beat down left and right, again failed a close gate check, and suddenly BAM 5 open gates and battle with the Dark Duo (we fed ourselves to the things). Ugly. The only bright spot was when Marie Lambeau sacrificed herself to a card to remove a doom token from a track and we brought in Bob Jenkins -- sadly much to late in the game for it to truly matter, though.

Somehow, all the magic weapons were with one guy, who had a blessing. He lost all of them when Ithaqua awoke.

I've played it 6 times now. The Great Ritual keeps screwing with me. I passed it just by the skin of my teeth, getting enough clues to lay down a ton of seals.

But we didn't. The 12th doom token was placed with seal 5 and 6 on the way, close to a victory by closed gates. Too many turns where the monsters were equal and the doom tokens were doubled.

I hate that my principal strategy is "be lucky." I'm still doing the thing where I maximize my Elder Sign chances with the starting players. No luck last two times.

Ugh.

Won on out thrid attempt yesterday, through we almost didn't realize, because we didn;t count on winning with fighting a GOO.

We sealed Unamble and the Witchhouse (one with tokens the other with an Elder Sign), and 9 Doom Tokens, we had one only one gate open thanks to the fact that gates tried to open in those two location for three-four turns. So we manmaged to close al the gate and win without fighting.

Fourth attempt today, but still at zero points. We'd have got over 30 with just a little more luck in the final round: Three gates sealed, two gates open with two investigators each attempting to close at the same time. That's when our luck ran out...

We'll probably skip Sc5 for now and go on with Sc6 and try it again in a few weeks time.

Finally got it. Four seals down and a win-by-close with one more doom token left. I withheld on paying 5 when closing the winning gate so that we can carry the clues over next scenario (if they appear anywhere that is).

At one point Wilson was offered a Unique Item of his choice in exchange for 3 sanity and a curse. Elder Sign, hands down. And we wouldn't have won without it.

21 points and 8 clues in posession of the investigators, by the way.

I have played this Chapter twice now with the same 3 characters: Wilson Richards, Dexter Drake and Vincent Lee.

In Both game Ithaqua has awoken. In the first all Investigators defeated without so much as the roll of a die - no magical weopons amongst them and highest fight value was a 4.

In second game managed to remove 5 tokens from Ithaqua's doom track before falling victim. Used 'Enchant weapon' to enchant the shotgun. even though I only had 2 die to roll I managed to roll a few 6's. The blessing also helped.

In game 2 I managed to get 6 gates closed but only one sealed. I may have managed to close all the gates if it weren't for a few bad trips to the OW.

The worst part was having to place 2 doom tokens when there were only 2 monsters on the board equal numbers.

This one is certainly a challenge. May need to look at the investigator mix again.

Finally!

In attempt number eight (in total) and three (for today) and after crueling hours, we've finally done number five. In the end it was a case of having unbelievable luck almost throughout the game. Through a combination of just the right mythos cards, ancient journals, the rumour that gives everyone clues when passed, even a Yellow Sign tome and an Elder Sign (bought in the Uptown auction - thumbs up to the rich people for holding a big street sale while icy winds are blowing!) we managed to win a sealing victory.

Highlights of the game (apart from the ones already mentioned):

• One character holding eight corruption cards, while the "Endless Breeding" rumour is in effect. That's what I call a situation rapidly spinning out of control! It's just one little corruption at first, but then...
• Using the Milk to draw three cultists, two Dark Young, a Dhole and a Flying Polyp into the Train Station. I'd love to see the face of the station manager...
• Cultists having toughness 6 due to the Great Ritual. I wonder what the cultists look like at that time? They can take twice as much pain as a regular Dhole or Star Spawn. If they are still human, you could probably roll over them in a tank a few times and they'd come out unscratched. Another idea: if your fight is zero, you cannot kill them with a rilfe, no matter how good you aim. That's what I call resilient (for a human, anyway!)...

Still can't quite believe it but so glad we've finally put that absolute torture behind us and can move on to Dunwich!