Some more time today for Arkham. The next game scheduled in the BGotW series hosted Carolyn, George, Charlie, Lily and Lola, against Hastur (and clearly the BGotW). Again, AH, DH, KH, BGotW and MH in play.
The game looked interesting: Hastur is the slowest AO ever with 8 clues required for a single seal (and you need a minimum of 6 of those); paired up with the best doom accelerator in town (the BGotW Herald) and you know you'll have to lose some extra San to coordinate everything. Furthermore, guys in the party had all low starting clues, so that I had to think more than carefully about what to do. The first thought was that, since they were all loaded with money, having those who were clueless shopping could have been good.
First gate opening was at Wizard's Hill, and so was the second. The stuation in Dunwich went fast out of hand, with another gate opening at the Whateley farm (moving gate to Another Dimension, which moved the round it opened, yay). No one had enough clues for the first seal, and the guys at the Curiosity Shoppe kept on drawing some good yet not decisive items (at least they were not as horrible as the bunch of Missions we all had as starting equipment). I needed Elder Sign, but countering doom with Eltdawn Shards was good, and then gaining extra clues with King in Yellow was even better. Especially because Carolyn and George were Members of the Book Club, and they all nailed all the required rolls, for a -2 doom and a +8 clues.
Anyhoo, it was time to do something to save Dunwich , so I decided to have Lily taking one for the team, jumping into Yuggoth at Wizard's Hill. No clues, but at least some good combat skills to make the monster stack there present a little thinner (she couldn't do anything against the Werewold and the Serpent People). Lola was there as well, focusing on gaining clues, and Charlie went into Another Dimension (having a gate adjacent to a vortex was something I could not allow). In the meantime, Carolyn went to the Unvisited Isle to gain the 6th clue, and was sent to R'lyeh (Silas sighed in relief from the box).
And then, clearly, yet another surge at Wizard's Hill. A *disaster*
So, I tried the easiest fix: George used the Milk of Shub to move all monsters from Dunwich in Arkham, causing terror to rise (hindered by Charlie) and gaining a Madness. Then, all routes to gates were monster-clear, and so George was able to jump into the double gate (Celeano / Race) at the Unnamable. Went for Celeano, returned with a curse. Carolyn returned from R'lyeh, and thanks to Understudying Script, she managed to gain the last two clues and seal. George got rid of the curse during the next Upkeep, evaded the Formless Spawn at the Unnamable and sealed the gate.
2 seals on the table, 6 doom tokens on the doom track.
Charlie, upon returning and closing Another Dimension, headed to Kingsport since two rifts were about to open. Corruptions kept on raining from the sky like there was no tomorrow.
Lily left Yuggoth without closing the gate, so that Lola could do that for her. Lily started roaming Dunwich streets to clear some monsters and avoid the DH track to raise further. Still some farming for Elder Sign, but no sign of any of them when Endlessly Breeding hit. Not too a bad rumor, since we had the money to pass it immediately and this allowed us to claim monster trophies from those swarming Arkham, so that in the end we all had a trophy and no monsters were around. Still, that +2 doomer was quite heavy to cope with.
By the time Carolyn returned from another time, we had 12 doomers on the doom track and only 3 seals on the board.
Then, the Mythos card forced one investigator to lose 3 San. For the first time in my Arkham career, I decided to have George losing the San, so that the second Madness enabled him to be retired. Wendy entered play in his stead.
Charlie went for a Bank Loan to keep on pumping money into the desperate search for the ES; Wendy moved to toss Carolyn her ES, to seal the gate and remove 1 doom. 1 additional doom token was removed by Lily kicking Barnabas Marsh back to the box. Carolyn sealed with the ES to gain time (she had the 8 clues needed for a seal) and moved to the next gate. 3 gates on the board, 1 investigator in.
Mythos opened a gate at the seal Unvisited Isle, nothing happened.
Carolyn returned thanks to Find Gate to the Black Cave and sealed the gate. Wendy moved to Dunwich and entered the Abyss gate opened at Gardner's Place after evading 3 hex monsters on it, gaining Carolyn's Find Gate via Carcosan Page. Charlie moved from Hibb's to Independance Square and jumped into the Dreamlands.
Mythos opened a gate at the sealed Witch House, nothing happened.
Wendy used the Carcosan Page to send Charlie the Find Gate spell during Upkeep. Charlie used the spell to return to Arkham and stayed put, waiting for the next round to close the gate. Wendy survived the Abyss and was about to return to Akrham.
Next Mythos: Unnamable, sealed.
Wendy returned to Arkham, and she and Charlie closed their respective gates, winning the game.
Victory by closing gates in 20 Mythos; doom track at 11, terror at 2.
:)