In Arkham, it says that after being arrested you skip the next turn and put your Investigator in the main police station part of the board. In Innsmouth it says that you are delayed when you are sent to the jail, but says nothing about skipping your next turn or placing yourself in the main Innsmouth police station part of the board. I have always played that you get a Jail Cell encounter on the turn you are arrested and since my Investigator has always been devoured by that encounter prior to yesterday there was never any need to concern myself about what happened next. Now, though, I have two questions:

1. Do you get a Jail Cell encounter on the turn you are arrested, or not until you get over being delayed, in which case you must remain in the jail cell and are not moved to the main police station?

2. Are you ever moved from the Jail Cell to the main police station, or must you stay in the Jail Cell until an encounter card there frees you?

Right now my interepretation is that when arrested in Innsmouth you are delayed and have a Jail Cell encounter that turn. If that encounter doesn't free or devour you, you stand up during the next movement phase but cannot leave the Innsmouth Jail Cell until an encounter card specifically directs you to, or someone uses Call Friend, etc. Does that sound right to you guys?

Solan said:

I think your interpretation is correct. More specifically . . .

1. Being delayed only affects your movement, so there would be no reason for it to affect whether you have an arkham encounter in the jail. Of course, whether you have an encounter the turn you get arrested also depends on which phase you get arrested during.

2. You stay in the jail cell until an encounter, or some other card like call friend, frees you. This is why Sawbone Alley is important.

I disagree, Squad.

You can get out of jail without cards or encounter. Jail proceeds like this:

1. Investigator is arrested and delayed in Innsmouth-jail-cell.

2. Investigator has encounter in Innsmouth-jail-cell.

3. Next turn. Still there? Have you been Delayed again? If so, continue having encounters until you are no longer delayed, or have gotten out of the Innsmouth Jai-celll. If you have not been delayed again, proceed to step 4.

4. Stand your marker back up in the main area of Innsmouth-Jail. Presumeably, you have to make the sneak check to evade martial law again. Have an encounter in Innsmouth Jail, but not the Jail cell.

5. Next turn. If you are still not arrested, you are free to go.

I think all of the "escape" encounters in the jail cell put you out into the alley (well, or Devil Reef), so there's not the same "stand up and move to the location" as the Arkham jail has.

Now I'm confused. As I understand it, while you are in the jail cell, you draw jail cell encounter cards. If you draw a card that allows you to escape, you move to another location. So, what difference does it make if you are delayed while in jail? Whether you're delayed or not, you still draw cards during the encounters phase.

awp832 said:

You've convinced me, although 99% of the time things will work out as I described. I just looked at all the Innsmouth Jail Cell encounters for the first time and a number of them cause you to be delayed. In response to Avec's last post, the whole point of the delay must be to keep you from being moved from the Jail Cell to the Innsmouth Jail location during your movement phase (as you describe in step 4).

*Slight SPOILER warning for the next paragraph - which describes possible outcomes for the Jail Cell encounters*

I think I had assumed that the presence of Sawbone Alley, along with the rulebook description of it mentioning "Investigators trapped in Innsmouth Jail may wind up stuck there for several turns", signaled that you had to get an encounter to get out. Actually, if I remember correctly, this is still true almost all the time, for there aren't any Jail Cell encounters that leave you in the Jail Cell but not delayed. All things being equal, you would never move from Step 3 to Step 4 as you described. The one potential exception I could come up with is the Explorer's ability to cancel an entire encounter.

Oh, I get it. I was somehow under the impression that you can only leave the jail cell via encounter cards. I guess the jailers in Innsmouth aren't quite as corrupt as I thought.

So it's technically possible to get out of the jail cell by moving from the cell when you aren't delayed, but this doesn't actually happen unless you have a card that allows you to skip an encounter?

Another Innsmouth Jail question: how does the special encounter (Jail Break if i'm correct) of the Innsmouth Jail work?
I mean another one has to acivate it when you're in jail right? Like in the Sawbone Alley?

I think what they're saying is that you get out of the Jail Cell the same way that you get out of jail in Arkham. You lose a turn and then stand up. Once you stand up, you can leave the cell during your next movment phase. The only wrinkle is those darn Jail Cell encounter cards. You have to draw them during the encounters phase and many of which cause you to be delayed. This means you have to lay your token back down again, which prevents you from leaving the cell. Does that sound about right?

Yes. There is actually no "normal" way to go from the Innsmouth Jail Cell to the Innsmouth Jail. From the Jail Cell, you can only (a) stay there delayed again, (b) break out to Sawbone Alley, or © . . . The only way to have an Innsmouth Jail Encounter is if you choose to move there from the Church Green Streets and end your movement. (I don't think I've ever actually done that.)

Ursula (can Wilson do it?) seems to be the notable exception to this; I guess she knows how to "wander around" exceptionally well.

Nephilim said:

No, Sawbone Alley merely modifies the Jail Break outcome, which occurs regardless whether or not "Outside Help" is available.