It started out so well.
We drew six characters and picked four, taking Darell Simmons, Akachi Onyele, Minh Thi Phan and William Yorick. Everyone knows the value of Darell already, which perhaps is why his Personal Story nerfs him. The Pass condition is to have two gate trophies, which constitue photographic proof of what he has been saying. He immediately gains a Retainer if he does not already have one and can never lose his retainer. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, the Fail condition is for him to be in possession of five or more Clue tokens! Then his film is ruined, he immediately loses his Retainer if he has one, and cannot get another Retainer or a Bank Loan for the rest of the game.
Akachi is a Sanity 7, Stamina 3 Shaman who gets a +1 on all rolls to close or seal a gate, spends one less Clue token to seal a gate and can always seal a gate, regardless of other game conditions. So in other words, "No One Can Help You Now, Except Akachi Onyele" 
Akachi also starts with a gate trophy and her Personal Story is fantastic. If she can get three gate trophies before anyone spends a gate trophy on anything, she Passes and you put one clue on each unstable location which doesn't have an open gate.
Minh is a Secretary who starts with the copy of the King in Yellow her employer gave her right before he committed suicide. She gains a +1 bonus to all Skill checks when she has an ally or is in the same space as another Investigator. During Upkeep she can give an Investigator in her space a +1 bonus on all Skill checks until the end of that turn. Her Personal Story requires her to read three Tomes before she losing all of her Sanity. If she does so, she gets the Ally of her choice!
William Yorick the Gravedigger, while having a fairly uninteresting Personal Story, is quite an interesting character. He only has max three Speed, unfortunately, but he starts with three Monster Trophies, and he can spend monster trophies as though each one was a Clue token! Furthermore, he can choose to bury deep any monster trophies he spends, returning them to the box rather than the monster cup. For this game he drew a Maniac, a Lloigor, and the loathsome Tcho-Tcho Priest!
The AO we randomly selected was Glaaki, which disappointed my fellow player, since he'd been hoping for one of the new ones. I was as well, but I wasn't disappointed that we'd drawn Glaaki; he has long been my favorite Ancient One.
Starting equipment was a bit lacking weaponwise. Minh had a Sword of Glory and a revovler, while William had a Bullwhip. He quickly picked up Minh's revolver and killed a Zombie which came out of the first gate to open, at the Witch House. Akachi, most fortunately, had the Ancient Tablet, which gave her four Clues.
Darrell gathered a Clue at the Unnameable and also picked up Eric Colt. I then sent him to Innsmouth, because I was wary of the Deep One Uprising track and I wanted to get four Clue tokens in place on the Fed track before martial law was declared. Before leaving Darrell passed much of his cash on to Akelya, who picked up a luck+2 mirror and a copy of Nameless Cults.
Darell managed to lay down the four Clue tokens without a problem. Then, down in Kingsport thieves carelessly broke an artifact, releasing a Warlock and a Color into the South Shore streets. Darell went to handle things there, and did for a while (picking up Basil Elton in the process), but a Hound of Tindalos chased him into the 7th House on the Left and sent him to the Asylum.
Minh went and sealed the Witch House gate with no problem, and Akachi soon sealed the Silver Twilight Lodge gate, getting rid of the Color and the Hound.. But Innsmout had started to hop, gates opening at the Esoteric Order of Dagon and the Marsh Refinery. The Order gate was to the plus sign Lost Carcosa and disgorged our first Deep One. The Refinerey gate put forth a Maniac and a Tchl-Tcho and Zombie appeared in the Factory District. One move later the Deep One was being guarded by the Tcho-Tcho and Zombie at the Church Green, and the Maniac was in the Factory District. The four remained in those positions for a long time, as though waiting for something.
William had made his way up to Dunwich, killing a Cultist on the way. A gate to Ry'leh had opened at the Whately Farm and another Cultist emerged from it. I intended for William to seal it, which might seem like asking a lot from a Fight 4 character. But with this last Cultist William would effectively have ten Clue tokens, and I figured that was enough to get the job done. Besides, closing it would get rid of a troublesome Star Spawn that had come out of an Independence Square gate to the City of the Great Race.
Veteran Arkham players can probably guess what happened next. In addition to Dunwich Horror, Kingsport Horror and Innsmouth Horror, I was also using three Gate cards from Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, and the right (or wrong one) came up immediately as great Cthulhu himself attacked William. Needless to say, the ten Clue tokens I'd been counting on were nowhere near enough and William was devoured. That pushed the Terror Track up by two and released two Servants of Glaaki, the two Clue stealer and the Unique Item one! The latter appeared in the Woods, while the fomer showed up on Devil Reef. Most appropriately the cards deploying them were Streets Flooded (a new Environment that makes all streets aquatic locations) and Ry'leh Rising.
William was replaced by Joe Diamond, who started off with a Revolver in addition to his Automatic. Immediately the pickpocket ring stole all of Joe's money, even as the Clue stealer Servant reduced him to one Clue. He tried and failed to sneak past the Star Spawn and ended up filling it fill of lead. A rift opened at the Witch House and a gate opened at Devil Reef, releasing a Goat Spawn. Darell couldn't close the Rift because of the Warlock in Kingsport, so he went and bought a carbine from the General Store, right before the Goat Spawn passed through the Rift and shut down the General Store for good, ushering the Skill Servant into the game.
Minh jumped through the Independence Square gate, the mirror of the gate opened at Devil Reef, and Akachi tried to follow, but was caught and hospitalized by a Formless Spawn. Similar incidents would occur repeatedly each time Akachi approached a gate to get that elusive third gate trophy, even when the odds of sneaking past were greatly on her side. On the birght side of things, Minh read Nameless Cults and Eltdown Shards, bringing her Professor Morgan as an ally.
Darrell shot the Warlock and he and Joe soon shut the rift, thanks fo the Foolishness encounter, before it had even moved once.
Monster surges occurred and then we were blessed with great good fortune: there was a Manhunt in Arkham! A Witch, a Shoggoth, a Cultist, a Color, a Cthonian, a Deep One Hybrid and a Proto-Shoggoth were all returned to the cup!
There was another monster surge the turn Minh emerged which saw both Shan come out, one at the Order gate and one at Devil Reef. Fortunately for Minh, she succeeded in sealing the Devil Reef City of the Great Race gate the first turn, disposing of the Shan and leaving her alone with the Clue-stealing Servant.
Fortifited with money Joe was ready to go charter a boat to get Minh off that accursed reef. That's when the four monsters in the streets finally moved, the Deep One moving onto Joe Sargent's Bus Stop, the Maniac moving to Innsmouth Shore and the Zombie and Tcho-Tcho moving into reserve in the Factory District. The way to Falcon Point, which had been clear all game, was now completely obstructed. I had to go and fight the Deep One, and barely avoided being arrested. I had to kill it because I didn't want it passing through the vorex. The Goat-Spawn and three attempts to open a gate at the Witch House had already put the Deep One Uprising track at four.
Minh kiled the Clue-stealing Servant (great, just the one I want to put back on Glaaki's sheet; still, better than having him pass through the vortex) and had our first ever encounter at Devil Reef. If Dagon or Hyrda had been the Herald, she would have had to pass a Luck -1 check or be devoured! If they weren't, or if she made, she recieved two Clues, which she used at the beginning of the next turn to call in the Feds and empty the Uprising Track!
Up in Dunwich a Crawling One passed through a vortex, bringing out the Spell Servant. Minh had a chance to pick up two Clues at Y'ha-Nthlei as Joe fought the Maniac, but she feared to enter the city of the Deep Ones. When she drew her encounter it looked as if she whould have no choice; she found an old boat which would allow her to move to any aquatic location, but she had to make a Luck +0 check or it would sink! Due solely to her +1 on all Skill checks from having an Ally she made the roll and escaped to the River Docks!
The Stars Are Right Rumor came out and of course the Zombie and Tcho-tcho jumped Joe, as I knew they would. Using Eric Colt's Speed bonus Darell solved the Rumor that very turn, sacrificing Eric to do it. The next turn the Innsmouth Plague Rumor put two Doom tokens on the Doom track, bringing Glaaki up to ten. The Ongoing Effect is that each turn the First Player must draw one Innsmouth Look card. To Pass the ?Rumor, you have to discard two spells at the Church Green Streets, and you receive no reward whatsoever! The Rumor is failed if one of the Investigators gets the Innsmouth Look and is Devoured.
There is a good argument to be made for leaving this Rumor in play. After all, there is only a one in ten chance of it going off each turn, you get nothing for passing it, and while it is in effect you are protected from all other Rumors.
Naturally the very next turn Darell developed the Innsmouth Look, bumping the Terror Track up by another two and bringing out the final two Servants of Glaaki. That;'s where we had to stop for the night, poised on the very brink of doom. Glaaki's track is at ten, the Terror Track is at six, all five Servants are out and there are five monsters in the Outskirts (including the Servitor of the Outer Gods and Darell-the-Deep-One). We only have three sealed gates, none of the Investigators have the Clues to seal a fourth one, and thanks to the Servants we lack the time and weaponry to take the armoured slug.
Thoughts and impressions: This has been one of the best games of Arkham Horror I've ever played in my life. The suspense has been terrific and the way things have gone the added theme from Innsmouth is almost a tangible presence. It's as if Cthulhu and his Deep Ones were partnered with Glaaki, from Cthulhu's personally disposing of William in Ry'leh, to the Deep-One led defensive phalanx to prevent Joe from reaching Falcon Point and renting a boat to save Minh, to Darrell developing the Innsmouth Look!
I've seen six Personal Stories so far. One has been cruel, one okay, and the remaining four have been terrific! I was a little uneasy after I saw in the preview how harsh Jenny's Personal Story was, so it is a relief and a great pleausure to see what a good job they've done on other stories.
WARNING! In my opinion, Innsmouth is the LAST big board expansion that any player should buy. It adds by far the most danger and strategic complexity of any of the four, and so is best added as a final step, rather than a first one.
