Scenario 7, or how I loved fighting Glaaki

By JerusalemJones, in Arkham Horror League

Tonight our team took on Scenario 7. Our team was 8 investigators, and we started off pretty well. The first gate opened at the Unvisited Isle, and we spent the turn pretty much trading equipment among ourselves. One investigator went to Independence Square to get a clue, and opened a gate. his encounter -- pass a Speed check to return to Arkham. So the next turn, he closed his gate. The second Mythos card was the rumor where we had to spend Stamina to draw a spell per palyers. Six of us went to the location, and burned the rumor, and among the spells we drew Find Gate and Heal. I was playing Gloria, so I used Heal on Michael McGlenn the next turn (where the Mythos card gave us all a Stamina point back). Then I finally went through the first open gate. For my OW encounter, it was another Speed check to return to Arkham and auto-close the gate. Sweet. Unfortunately, we had two other gates open, and one in Dunwich.

Our next Mythos card opened another gate in Dunwich, and I moved to the Asylum to get back my Sanity, sitting at 1 suddenly from casting some spells (like Call Friend) to help out the team. The rest of the group got stuck having to deal with monsters and we had three gates open. And the Merchant district streets were closed, so our movement was happered for the turn.

The next turn, still with no one through a gate, a fourth gate opens at the Wtich House, and the Dhole and a Formless Spawn wiggle out. Four gates. But the Terror Level is only at 0. I look around at our team -- two Withers, two Shrivelings, two Dread Curses, Dynamite, Tommy Gun, several minor enchanted weapons (knives, I think). The "spellcasters" all have high sanity -- well, except Carolyn, who has Calvin, but she can heal one each turn. I figure we have no chance of closing a gate this turn (I can't get to an open one from the Asylum) so I use the Alien Statue -- successfully -- to get some clues, and then used a Tome as well to gain four more. Then I heal back up to max. Sanity at the Asylum. Sure enough, the next mythos card opens gate 5, and Glaaki wakes up.

Well, it isn't really a fight. I have an item that gives me +1 to my spell checks, so I'm rolling 5 dice to cast Wither and 4 for Shriveling, and rolling 8 dice (using Brass Knuckles as well) pretty much every turn against the big G. Carolyn and Harvey each have the Dread Curse, and are casting it successfully. When Carolyn needs to "refresh" she used her Holy Water. Everyone was rolling at least one dice against Glaaki, and many of us were rolling 5 or better -- Carolyn was rolling 9, thanks to Calvin giving her +2 to her Fight check, when she successfully cast Dread Curse. Glaaki got five attack against us before we took it down. Almost too easy, and not a really exciting game, and only 19 points. But we did take it down, which frees us up to try Scenario 5 again. Or S8 next week, if it is ready.

Well, after reading a different game report, we realized that we played the final fight with Glaaki wrong. So on Thursday night we did a second attempt at the game. This game was completely the opposite of the first game. We were getting items left and right, picking up clues and closing gates. We never really got enough to seal them, and didn't get an elder sign all game, but we were kicking ass and taking names. At one point in the game, Harvey had 9 spells. Twice we sacrificed investigators to remove doom tokens, and they were the only times the Terror Level increaed. We did discard an ally once to stop a rumor (where we all drew 2 common items), and the Servant at that point had us each discard 2 clue tokens -- right after I spent my five sealing a gate. And when the other Servants came out, we never got the one to discard a skill, and beat them down easily -- well, except the last two, because we sacrificed Sister Mary with the Doom Track at 11, and on the next turn got a closed gate victory after Darrel Simmons activated the machine at the Science Building to close the gate which had just opened in Dunwich and the one at the Wtich House, while 2 other investigators got their gates closed. We ended up with 12 gate trophies, 26 monsters, and a final score of 37. It was an amazing game.