(Avi, Dam, this one’s for you.)
Jenny (Zebra), Joe & Minh (Me), Tony (Pizza). Innsmouth and Arkham. Joe got an Elephant Gun, eventually traded to Jenny, who also had Kerosene and Wither. Joe also had Mental Fortitude for 1 free Horror Check Pass once per turn, provided he didn’t need his Focus the following turn. Tony got an Axe pretty quickly, and Minh found Sir Brinton on Turn 1.
The avenging House Rules in question are: (A) Hidden AO. AO face-down (out of play) for 3 turns: no Gates, no Doom Tokens, just Monsters. (B) Merchant District and Rivertown Streets permanently Aquatic (with the two Kingsport Aquatic markers; consider the river flooded).
Without even realizing it, Tony grabbed the first double-clue in the Woods (natural reflex, right?), failing his Personal Story...which turned out to be a win-and-a-half. After playing Trish last time, it would seem that Pizza has a knack for being employed by the “wrong people”.
Jenny went shopping to try to find Minh a tome or two for her personal story. Joe met her on Turn 2 to give her the Elephant Gun and buy something for himself.
Turn 1: Jenny buys an Elder Sign. Turn 2: Jenny buys an Elder Sign. Joe buys an Elder Sign. (Who’s shuffling these cards, anyway???)
Most of the activity was up in Innsmouth, but all of the monsters were Physically Immune/Resistant, so Joe was trying to stall for easier monsters for his Personal Story. He traded a Rifle for Tony’s Axe, giving them both a good combat bonus. Bring on the Ancient One!
Turn 4: CHAUGNAR FAUGN. 
Elder Signs turn to poison. Jenny was -1 for most of the game, and Minh sacrificed her own Ally bonus to save Joe from the same. Things went to hell VERY quickly. The dice rebelled en masse. We devised grand plans, and they turned to dust on the first dice roll. Many, many times did that -1 ruin everything.
Minh went to Innsmouth to stop the Innsmouth Plague. She then went to seal Devil Reef, while Tony cleaned up Innsmouth, and would wait to get her a boat. Minh actually pulled a great switcheroo, holding up at Falcon Point, hoping to coax the Hound on Devil Reef over to her while her Sneak was maxed. Hound came, Minh snuck onto a boat, and dove into Devil Reef’s gate.
The Ghost Ship dumped Barnabas Marsh and the Priest of Dagon into the (Aquatic) Merchant District Streets, while Joe was failing to seal the Unvisited Isle with the other Hound on his case. Strange Sightings. Barnabus, Dagon Priest, and a Deep One from Innsmouth (while Tony was safely on dry land) dogpiled on Joe, eventually knocking him unconscious (got the Hound, though). The following turn, Gate Burst, turning the Elder Sign Jenny worked so hard to get rid of at Independence Square to useless powder. The Wet Mob along with a swooping Nightgaunt, converged on Tony, now in the streets after amusingly Handcuffing the Dark Druid. (Legal? Seemed like it!) It looked like Tony wouldn’t have too much trouble, so long as he got some…decent dice…rolls…dammit. Tony had to use the Nightgaunt for an emergency extraction. The good news is that Minh had sealed Devil Reef, so Tony was safely carried to the newly-popped Independence Square; the bad news is that Minh was left all alone, clinging to a salty rock.
Chaugnar Faugn was toying with us. He would never open too many gates; he just kept pounding us with surges and cards that would dump monsters in Streets, and we were losing a war of attrition, as the cursed dice kept sucking away our Clues. Terror Track spun out of control, which I now realize was part of the plan: Chaugnar was removing our Allies. Jenny lost her sister, and, trying to preserve his Max Sanity, Zebra got his first Madness card ever: Xenophobia (-1 Sanity if in Other World during Upkeep). Not the kind of thing you want when you’re trying to lose an Elder Sign. On the brighter side, Joe gained $15 and a Silver Twilight Membership from Carl Sanford. (Ended up buying a Gladius of Carcosa.)
Minh could NOT get out of Innsmouth! Eventually she found a boat ride back to Falcon Point, and called in the Feds (Tony and Minh had been doing the footwork on the Feds Raid track). Martial Law was already in effect, and Minh couldn’t lower her Sneak if she wanted to get past the monsters between her and the Bus Station (she only had 1 Sanity and 1 Stamina). She made two AMAZING one-die Evade passes, and then BLEW IT to be arrested at the Bus Station. Her Sneak maxed, she broke out easily, only to be arrested AGAIN while delayed in Sawbone Alley. Then Jenny had a chance at a Unique Item, so long as the rest of us lost 1 Sanity and 1 Stamina. I was willing to sacrifice Minh, but Pizza was not so hip to ding Tony’s fragile brain.
“But it’s your call.”
. . .
“Well?”
“I’M THINKING!”
Jenny passed on the Unique, and Minh eventually passed out, losing her Personal Story (wow…big deal).
Terror Track at 7. Even Tony gaining Professor Rice wasn’t giving us enough Clues to seal enough Gates. Then two double-doomers in a row put Mistrust out and Cover-Up at the bottom…
Interlude: In his zeal to play, Zebra was grabbing cards out of boxes perhaps a bit willy-nilly during set-up. He claimed there might have been a few Kingsport Mythos shuffled in: “Only one or two.” I wasn’t paying enough attention to realize that that “one or two” were the Kingsport Rumors. OUCH. (Sheepish Zebra.)
There was no way to stop Mistrust…there just wasn’t. Chaugnar was at 11…one away. Pizza asked if sealing a gate would do any good…and I had to admit, “Probably not.” Zebra was obsessed with getting all of us Blessed before the Final Battle.
We…gave up. (Audience gasps.)
Soon Mistrust failed, our sliders were fixed, and we were all stuck with the equipment we had. We all managed to get Blessed--unclaimed Allies had all fled--with Jenny and Joe’s trophies. We all tried to get a few more Clues to manage another round with Chaugnar; none of us got more than five. The real tragedy is it STILL took Chaugnar another 3-4 turns to finally pop another gate…which means we actually MIGHT have been able to quadruple-gate-hop and sealed the game…Chaugnar was playing a psychological game and WINNING.
Chaugnar finally woke up. Tony had Professor Rice, 5 Clues, and the Storm of Spirits (with a Dusty Manuscript and a Lore Skill). Jenny had an Azure Flame and 5 Clues. Minh had a Shrivelling, Sir Brinton, and 3 Clues. Joe had the Gladius, Eric Colt, and 5 Clues. And all of us had a Blessing. What were we missing?
Anything that would get any of us to the fourth round. 
I can imagine Chaugnar just sat there and took it while our minds eroded away and our Allies' blood filled his corpulent belly. He let us easily take the only 9 Doom Tokens we could, and then, "That all you got? Yeah, I thought so." INCHES! INCHES AWAY!!!
Zebra wanted a harder game after we breezed past Nyarlathotep. Rhan Tegoth beat us on a technicality after the game was packed away, but did nothing to stop that feeling of victory when the Final Battle happened. Chaugnar devastated us to our faces, not even bothering to laugh. And now Zebra...understands...what it is to be an Arkham Horror player.
Zebra likes Jenny, but it helped that she started with a Speed Skill, her primary fault. Against any other AO, her shopping would have been spectacular. Pizza likes Tony, with one of the most curious Personal Stories, and finds Handcuffs most amusing. I rather like Minh, although I did get her an Ally very quickly; she's very good in Innsmouth. Joe...is Joe, still one of the best.
P.S. It's time to rethink the Hidden AO variant. Most of the Innsmouth AOs kinda require you to know who they are from Turn 1: Ghatanothoa threatens the first double Clue location; Chaugnar threatens Elder Signs; Rhan Tegoth threatens Cultists; Quachil Uttaus attacks the First Player, and it seems wrong not to attack the player who rolls for pole position before the game starts. If we had known it was Chaugnar Faugn, I don't think Jenny would have loaded up on Elder Signs, and instead got enough books for Minh's Personal Story. Joe definitely would have purchased the Ancient Spear instead. I think maybe I'll discuss revealing the AO upon selection, but still stall out gates for 3 turns. And maybe we'll roll to see if the river is flooded.
! In a Chaugnar Faugn game, if I get an Elder Sign, dive someone into the gate you're going to use the ES on, have them make the OW trek and then rush-trade when they come out.