Session Report - Using Soakman's Investigators

By Schmiegel, in Fan Creations

I have been wanting to take Soakman's custom investigators out for a spin and finally got a game completed.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?showtopic=97796

But enough about the good news. Or if not exactly good news, then at least better news than what was to come.. For those looking for happy endings, you can stop reading here, this is one of those cases of "move along folks, nothing to see here." I had tried twice previously to play a group of investigators that included Sadie Godfrey, Anton Pavel, Obi Laveau and Astrid Lee. The first time I didn't play a couple of their abilities quite right (it was a loss against Cthulhu). In the second game, I made a different sort of mistake that had a major impact on the outcome (it ended up being a "win" vs. Bokrug when "The Departure" came up as an epic battle card, shortly after Obi Laveau had been devoured, with four red cards remaining in the Final Battle, and the remaining investigators down to their last turn).

In each case I decided to call these games "practice games", due to the misinterpretations or the violations of the rules that had occurred. This is not to say that they weren't highly entertaining games....they just didn't "count". Still, I got a good look at how some of Soakman's custom investigators play.

For my third game, I decided to take on Bokrug once again, with the same group. As Astrid Lee has a secondary ability ("Rumor Has It") that calls for her to draw a Corruption card if she uses it, I decided to use the Black Goat of the Woods herald (knowing this was probably a death wish), since each time an investigator defeats a hexagon monster with that herald in play, he or she draws a Corruption card. Maybe I'm missing something, but it strikes me that the Corruption deck is pretty unlikely to be much of a problem, especially if you're using a couple of expansions to "dilute" the decks, which I do (and did). (I also used the Innsmouth Horror board expansion and the revised Curse of the Dark Pharaoh as well as the Black Goat of the Woods card expansions.)

Anyway. On the initial Mythos card draw, "Oppressive Atmosphere" came up, opening a gate at Devil Reef. Hexagon monsters moved, and one moved immediately into the vortex, placing a token on the Deep Ones Rising track. The alarm went out for investigators to head for Innsmouth...if not all of them, then at least a strong contingent. A definite sense of unease was already in the air.

On the second Mythos card draw, "Gathering Storm" came up. This would have opened a gate at Devil Reef, but there was already one there, so instead, a monster surge occurred. This was about as bad a draw as you could have gotten at this time, as all four monsters had to be placed at Devil Reef, since it was the only gate open.. Making matters worse, this card was a Headline with the text.."The situation in Innsmouth continues to worsen (ya think..?). Add one uprising token to the Deep Ones Rising track." Two more monsters moved into the vortex as well! So three uprising tokens were placed on the track on ONE turn, bringing the total to four at the end of the first full turn!

On the following turn, the investigators caught a bit of a break when "A Dark Wind Covers Arkham" was the Mythos card drawn. Ordinarily, that wouldn't seem like such a lucky break, but such was the state of affairs in this game that it was actually cause for wild celebration, as no additional uprising tokens went on the track. Two Formless Spawns (hexagon monsters) lurked at Devil Reef, waiting to cause some sort of trouble or else move into the vortex.

During the next turn Anton Pavel arrived in Innsmouth, hastened to Falcon Point and caught a Boat Charter to Devil Reef. He was armed with an elephant gun but the Spawns have Physical Immunity, so that weapon was useless, and he elected to evade them instead, leaving behind a ticking Time Bomb with one clue on it. That should teach them. If only they would not move on the next Mythos card...they'd be blown up and the other two investigators now in Innsmouth (Obi and Astrid) could lay down sufficient clue tokens to bring about a Feds Raid of Innsmouth... (Obi had placed two already.) Anton continued on to explore R'lyeh.

Ordinarily an investigator would be thrilled to get out of R'lyeh as soon as possible. In this case, Anton's other world encounter was to make a Luck (+0) check.."if you succeed, return to Arkham (NO-OOOOO! I just placed a time bomb there..). If not, you are lost in time and space." He succeeded at the Luck check, and it was back to Arkham, to await his fate. Either he would be hideously disfigured by his own time bomb, or the Formless Spawns would move into the vortex and immediately awaken Bokrug.

The next Mythos card revealed was "Jail Break!", and sure enough, hexagon monsters moved. Both Formless Spawns hurled themselves into the vortex, the Deep Ones Rising Track filled up and Bokrug awoke from his slumber, at the end of the third full turn of the game.

It makes me wonder if that's some sort of world record.

As all four Beings of Ib still remained on Bokrug's sheet, I decided that the investigators would pass on the Final Battle. After all, Bokrug was upgraded to both Physical Immunity and Magical Immunity and six extra doom tokens were to be placed on him (all as a result of the surviving Beings of Ib). I decided my time would be better spent writing this report.

All the same, I did have sufficient time to form opinions about Soakman's custom investigators.. (I'll assume anyone still reading and interested at this point can just open the link to the investigators and read about them there.)

I like Obi Laveau a lot! While I may not understand all the machinations of his Nanchons of Loa or Gris-Gris of Legba, I'm totally fascinated by it all, nonetheless. Maybe if I understood it, it wouldn't be as mysterious and entertaining. In function, it's straightforward enough. In the second game I played, Obi sealed a gate before placing 2 Sanity tokens on Other World locations (his Pass condition), thereby failing his personal story and causing him to pay "Papa Legba's Price". Good stuff! In that game, Bokrug devoured Obi in the Final Battle (strangely sparing the other three investigators) and then abruptly Departed. As a narrative element, this was obviously a case of Bokrug personally seeing to it that Obi paid Papa's price, and then being satisfied that his "work here was done". That's the sort of thing you can get with a character like Obi Laveau, the Voodoo Bokor. And of course his Lore of 6 is perfect, making him a natural at Other World exploration (or at least gate closings) and spells.

I also really like Astrid Lee! The personal story is brilliant. Both the primary and secondary special abilities are spectacular....that is to say, I personally love strong one-time abilities that can be played at "just the right time" to save the day (her primary ability) and I'm also a fan of abilities where you get a nice benefit but also take on a risk (secondary ability). In this case, Astrid's back story, personal story and abilities all interact in a way that is able to develop an intriguing sidebar narrative, for lack of a better way to put it.

Anton Pavel is a little bit more difficult for me to properly assess. Again (as with all of them), I'm a big fan of the back story and personal story. With the latter, I'm not sure what the odds are that either Anton or any investigator will have an encounter with Anna Kaslow (probably quite low), but it provides an interesting side story to hold in the back of your mind (and how awesome will it be if it actually happens). Both Fleetfooted and Guardian of the Scales are interesting concepts that are clever. I like his Speed and Fight of 5 for the character. I probably could have made better use of Fleetfooted than I did.

Lastly, there is Sadie Godfrey... First off, what an interesting character! The Turning (into a werewolf) and Abomination are fantastic ideas, adding yet another narrative element that is fascinating to follow during the course of the game. The only problem is that this makes for a very "unreliable" investigator, in terms of getting much accomplished, as you never know when she suddenly won't be allowed to enter locations (which is certainly understandable). Still, I really like the general idea, and the back story and personal story, and their interaction with her abilities. Very entertaining. Oddly, in the games I played, she never did take down a monster immediately following The Turning, but she was a very good monster hunter, even so, and that can be useful.

My next project will be to either play these four again (since this last -and only legitimate - game was SO SHORT), or play the other four Soakman custom investigators, or do some sort of combination thereof.....a good problem to have to contemplate. I'm leaning toward the former. Thank you, Soakman, for sharing these investigators! Great work! They really have added to my enjoyment of this already awesome game experience and I recommend them to anyone.

Interesting session report, Schmiegel :) A couple of notes:

- you say that " the Corruption deck is pretty unlikely to be much of a problem, especially if you're using a couple of expansions to "dilute" the decks ": not so sure what you mean here. The corruptoin deck is made with corruption cards, that are drawn under specific occasions (like defeating hex monsters, as you said), so, it never dilutes. Encounters forcing you to draw corruptions can be diluted overall, but as long as you play with the BGotW herald, you'll be snowed under with corruptions

- the time bomb: it was not resolved in the right way. You had an investigator on Devil's Reef, just returned there from an encounter in R'lyeh. Monsters were instructed to move by the Mythos card, but rule n.1 for monster movement is that, unless monsters are elusive (which Formless Spawns are not), if they are in the same area as an investigator, they do not move. Hence the two Formless Spawns would have stayed on the spot, and be blown vy the Tmie Bomb the following round

So, the game would not have ended, and Bokrug would not have awakened

Oh no! Poor Anton! Trapped between R'yleh, a time-bomb, and horrible formless spawn! It certainly must be some kind of record! I'm not sure I've ever even had the Innsmouth Track fill in any of my games.

I will say that fleet-footed (Anton's ability) has some very limited uses but can be a great boon when needing to pick up a clue at a location while allowing you to rush off towards a rumor or what-have-you with his remaining extra movement. The ability is relatively weak because he starts with such a powerful artifact. Fleet-footed has saved me a few times, but I often consider it a small bonus rather than a powerful investigator mechanic.

I love the write-up and I'm glad you're thoroughly enjoying my investigators. :) I love hearing stories about what they get up to when I'm at my boring 9-5.

Julia, thanks for the feedback (and congrats on your 7,000th post, that's impressive, and I would have to say that they have all been insightful, what you have added to this community is incalculable).

And of course you're right (again!). Now you can begin to understand how my first two games went on "tilt"... I always manage to pull something like that, it seems, but frequently I catch it myself. So what to do? I had already begun to disassemble the game, but only by putting away the investigators gathered clues and their sanity and stamina tokens. I might be able to recall that information and be able to continue with this game. The key info is the Formless Spawns certainly should not have moved into the vortex, so thanks for being there to catch that. (It turns out that Anton's quick return to Arkham was really quite fortunate, at the end of the day.) How do I miss that sort of thing...? You don't need to answer that.

I wasn't clear with my ramblings about the Corruption deck. Essentially the reason that I did add the Black Goat of the Woods herald is for the reason you said, to assure that there would be a number of Corruption cards in play, to better interact with Astrid's ability (that is to not make the Corruption card flow too easily manageable for her, if that makes sense).

Thanks again, I think I will try to re-construct the situation and continue with this game now, so it's not over yet. No world record after all.

Also, Schmiegel, in regards to the corruption deck:

While the herald + Astrid certainly creates a growing concern that the Corruption deck MAY run out ( :o ), I primarily added the corruptions as the cost for her ability due to the small negative effect the Corruptions themselves have on Astrid.

For example, Jealous Guardian suddenly denies Astrid the ability to trade with other investigators (until the corruption is removed by closing a corresponding gate). At the wrong time this could be game-altering. Some corruptions are definitely less problematic for Astrid than others without them coming from other sources as well, but it's a bit of a fun gamble I think.

I've never seen the red corruptions come into play in any game I've played. They are much more interesting IMO, but I didn't know if it would be appropriate to have Astrid pull from the red half as some of them are quite severe. As I don't have a ton of experience with those ones, perhaps the ability could even be altered to pull a red card every other activation of her ability? Just some thoughts because I rather like how thematic Astrid can be. And though I cringe to think of anyone ever drawing the "Vessel of the Mythos" Corruption... how telling would that be, ya? ;)

Edited by Soakman

Happy I helped, and good luck with the prosecution of the game :) (and don't worry about the rules, Arkham has an FAQ document thicker than an encyclopedia volume, you can't remember everything)

(and thanks for the clarification on what you meant by dilution. Indeed, you're right)

Edited by Julia

Soakman, I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed that report. Of course now it's going to need to be continued....since the investigators aren't dead yet. Looks like it's going to be next week before I'll get back into it.

You're right, the "Vessel of the Mythos" corruption card would not be a good thing for Astrid, at all. I wouldn't want to see the Corruption deck get so active that it got into the red cards. It's nice to have it coming into play up to a point, but there is a limit to how much fun I would want to have with it. Interesting to hear your thoughts about some of these investigator abilities, specifically the Corruption card draw for Astrid in this case. I was trying to be "fair" by exposing her to the possibility of gaining a number of corruption cards, but maybe I over-reacted by including the Black Goat of the Woods. Curious that you've never seen the Deep One Rising track fill up. That's what awoke Cthulhu in my first game, and here it goes again in game three.

Soakman, I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed that report. Of course now it's going to need to be continued....since the investigators aren't dead yet. Looks like it's going to be next week before I'll get back into it.

You're right, the "Vessel of the Mythos" corruption card would not be a good thing for Astrid, at all. I wouldn't want to see the Corruption deck get so active that it got into the red cards. It's nice to have it coming into play up to a point, but there is a limit to how much fun I would want to have with it. Interesting to hear your thoughts about some of these investigator abilities, specifically the Corruption card draw for Astrid in this case. I was trying to be "fair" by exposing her to the possibility of gaining a number of corruption cards, but maybe I over-reacted by including the Black Goat of the Woods. Curious that you've never seen the Deep One Rising track fill up. That's what awoke Cthulhu in my first game, and here it goes again in game three.

Yeah, I get a little paranoid with the tracks and tend to overcompensate for them, haha. Luckily I've never had a game where it has been impossible to control, though I know that it can happen.

I love the write-up and appreciate your thoughts on the investigators. I'm not really sure I've ever played Astrid in a Black Goat session so it's always a good awakening to think about abilities in contexts that I had not thought about. Now I might have to try it... :D

Anton Pavel is a little bit more difficult for me to properly assess. Again (as with all of them), I'm a big fan of the back story and personal story. With the latter, I'm not sure what the odds are that either Anton or any investigator will have an encounter with Anna Kaslow (probably quite low), but it provides an interesting side story to hold in the back of your mind (and how awesome will it be if it actually happens).

Oh, I also just wanted to mention a new variant that I recently discovered that may make Anton's PS more accessible. I think it's referred to as the "citizens of Arkham" variant. Basically, you keep the typical limited deck of allies for the sake of recruitng at Ma's and those that leave due to terror etc, BUT you keep the deck of other allies to the side as the "Citizens" deck. If you have an encounter in Arkham that lets you take gain an ally you can take the ally from the "Citizens" deck if you choose.

I've never played this way before, but now that I have all of the expanions, I'm thinking of giving it a whirl.It's a shame to see so many cards and opportunities go unused.

Edited by Soakman

Thanks for mentioning that Soakman. I'm actually already using that variant. I believe Julia mentioned it when I was attempting Avi's Den of Unspeakable Indignities, or whatever he calls that series of very brilliant variant scenarios that he created. If you haven't tried that yet, you might check it out, but it's not for the faint of heart.... :o

I have NOT survived Avi's League of Unbearable Indignities yet. :) I'm trying to find a friend to go in with me. I have one, but we only see each other maybe once a month, and it'd be nice if I could see the light at the end of the tunnel before I mismanage myself and walk head-first into a D-hole.

I have NOT survived Avi's League of Unbearable Indignities yet. :) I'm trying to find a friend to go in with me. I have one, but we only see each other maybe once a month, and it'd be nice if I could see the light at the end of the tunnel before I mismanage myself and walk head-first into a D-hole.

(rofl) Hey, it's not that difficult! Schmiegel had quite a good run, managing to pass the first 4 scenarios!

WIth their lives spared when Julia noticed a rules gaffe on my part, the team of Anton, Astrid, Obi and Sadie pressed on with the effort to prevent Bokrug's awakening...

Still in Innsmouth, Obi cast a Mists of Releh spell to evade a Dark Young and then subdued a Mi-Go, gaining a unique item (just a useless mission). Then during Upkeep, both Obi and Astrid spent two clues to summon the Feds to Innsmouth, emptying the Deep Ones Rising track. Shortly after, Obi travelled to The Abyss, where a ghostly ship captain "offered" him passage home, but for a price.....he was Cursed. And while Obi was able to apply the Gris-Gris of Legba and place a sanity token on The Abyss by discarding the unwanted mission, the overall game mission indeed seemed cursed for its remaining duration. It may have been better to just let sleeping dogs lie in this case, as things went rapidly downhill until an "Unpleasant Surprise" mythos card ( http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Unpleasant_Surprise !) awakened Bokrug.

As it turned out, not only was the terror level at 8 or higher (it had just hit 10), but there were 11 of 12 doom tokens on Bokrug's track as well, so, appropriately....both conditions for awakening were met!

At this time, one gate (at the Unnameable) had been sealed, in the entire game! Four other gates were open (Esoteric Order of Dagon, Marsh Refinery and Devil Reef in Innsmouth and Unvisited Isle in Arkham). In the Merchant District, a Dark Young, Flying Polyp and Chthonian blocked the path to Unvisited Isle. A Wraith hovered in the sky. Martial law had of course been declared in Innsmouth. If that wasn't enough, a Dark Young guarded the Devil Reef gate. A Star Vampire and two Dark Youngs lurked in the Factory District, making entrance to the Marsh Refinery gate essentially impossible. A Maniac and High Priest (appropriately) skulked in Church Green and a Goat Spawn guarded the Esoteric Order of Dagon gate itself.

A series of monster surges had created a situation where only the two aforementioned gates opened in Arkham itself, along with the three in Innsmouth, all of which were essentially impossible to get to, particularly after martial law had been declared in Innsmouth. All four Beings of Ib remained on Bokrug's sheet, so gate closing were also at a -1 penalty, as were horror, evade and luck checks. Of course the gates were unassailable anyway, so that penalty didn't really matter. At the same time, the doom track advanced during every monster surge, thanks to the Black Goat of the Woods herald. (Yes, there were four Dark Youngs roaming the board at the game's conclusion.)

Of 10 mythos cards drawn, four featured gates at Devil Reef, one was the Esoteric Order of Dagon, one was Marsh Refinery, one Unnameable, one Unvisited Isle and there were two "Strange Sightings", (where a monster surge occurs, no gates open and all monsters move..).

Other things went wrong. At the outset, the equipment draws were poor. Obi's weapon was a Molotov Cocktail (which he never used, choosing to use his superior Evade abilities and spell instead). Anton did have a .45 automatic and an Elephant Gun (but only had $2). He was able to fell a Shoggoth. Astrid had an axe, and Sadie had her knife. That was it. As this particular team started with $10 between them, purchasing additional equipment was out, and everything closed anyway since the Terror Track escalated so suddenly. Anton was "Tainted" early on, taking a -1 Will in addition to the -1 to horror checks from the Beings of Ib...

At one point, Sadie did freshen up after returning from beast mode and secured a loan from the Bank of Arkham. But it didn't help because she "turned" again, wasn't allowed to enter locations and next thing you knew, all the shops were closed.

One highlight occurred when Anton found himself surrounded by six monsters in the Merchant District after a Strange Sighting (all monsters move). The "Turning" affected Sadie and she moved through the Merchant District, defeating 3 toughness 1 monsters and immediately activating "Beauty and the Beast". Later when "Formal Dress Gala" was announced ( http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Formal_Dress_Gala_Announced !), Sadie was the only investigator with $5, but she was in beast mode...so she "passed" on attending the gala (but wouldn't have been allowed in anyway, lol).

Ultimately, when Bokrug did awake, the team simply forfeited rather than going into battle with the creature. With four Beings of Ib still on the sheet, his combat modifier was at -8, and we've seen the list of weapons the team possessed. Enough said. Bokrug and the Beings were seen leading the investigators away, and nobody has seen them since..... A most unfortunate thing indeed.

Final thoughts: Using the Black Goat of the Woods herald isn't something I'll do again anytime soon. Bokrug is tough enough with the Beings of Ib assisting. With Dark Youngs free to roam the board, progress became difficult to impossible. Perhaps a guardian or friendly institution should have been added to offset the Black Goat. As for these custom investigators, again I am a big fan of both Obi and Astrid. This has been discussed previously. Anton, I don't know...not a big fan. And Sadie...while it was interesting to see her experiencing "The Turning", at the end of the day it makes her too unpredictable to be reliably useful.

At some point I'll play Obi and Astrid again, probably not Anton and Sadie. Up next will be Soakman's other four custom investigators, namely Anna Anderson (The Impostor), Edmund Moore (The Streetrat), Hosea Mayhew (the Emery Miner) and Eunice Goulding (The Geometrician). We'll hope for a better outcome!

Great write-up! Sounds truly brutal! I usually opt out of the BGotW herald myself, haha. I'm very glad to see that Obi and Astrid ring your bells. And as for Anton and Sadie, I feel similarly to you. And although they can be quite interesting options, their unpredictable natures can definitely be problems in a pinch. :)

I love the image of were-beast Sadie attending a gala, lol. Maybe sipping on a bit of bubbly, dipping a cultist-finger-sandwich in some au jus.

I have to say that this session may have some of the WORST monster/gate set-ups I've seen in quite a while. These write-ups are fantastic! I hope the rest of the crew can swing a bit more in your favor!

Edited by Soakman

Man, a brutal game indeed! +5 doom due to surges is really crazy :D

As for FB against Bokrug: always play it with Epic Battle Cards, there's one card that actually sees Bokrug departing and the investigators winnning :D (ok, I see how this could not sound exactly like winning via seals...)

Thanks, Soakman! I'm glad you liked it. I was feeling guilty for leading them to such a grisly end. But wait.....

Julia, thanks for pointing out the Ancient One plot card where Bokrug departs! I was actually already aware of it. I was going to add that since all four Beings of Ib on Bokrug's sheet were still remaining, that the investigators were only going to be able to weather three attacks from Bokrug before being devoured on the fourth one. (And in the meantime he had the -8 combat modifier as well as both Magical and Physical Immunity...) And, also, I was thinking that the Ancient One Plot deck would only come into play once the final battle got into the red cards. However, a quick check showed that I was WRONG about that. There is indeed a green epic battle card ("Sinister Plot") that calls for a card to be drawn from the Ancient One's plot deck.

Since I had left the game undisturbed ever since it "ended" a few days ago, I figured it was only fair to now go ahead and shuffle the green epic battle card deck and deal out eight cards, just to see what actually happened.. The first green card was "Thoughts Shape the World", and Astrid failed the Will (-2) check that followed. The card's instructions were to then immediately draw and resolve another Epic Battle card. The next card drawn was.......amazingly, "Sinister Plot", which says to draw a card from the Ancient One's plot deck. So I did that, and maybe you can guess what card came up.. It was "The Departure". (Bokrug leaves, returning to its home. The investigators win, although if they are scoring this game, they are penalized by -4 points.) What were the odds? It's never over til it's over.

Good call, Julia!!

So in a game that couldn't have really gone any worse, and in which Bokrug had a -8 combat modifier, Physical Immunity and Magical Immunity (as well as six additional doom tokens added to the track for the Final Battle).....the Investigators win! (Julia, no it's not like winning via seals. But technically it's still a win. Maybe Bokrug found this group of investigators boring and not challenging, and not worthy of his time, who knows, maybe it was Astrid's smile or something to do with the mysterious Obi..?) But a little later, I'm going to record this one as a win on Tibs spread sheet.

Thanks, Julia! That's twice during this game that you've caught something that turned things completely around, this time resulting in a win! The investigators will be celebrating in Hibb's Roadhouse tonight! :P

:lol: Hooray! I, too, almost pointed this sinister plot out, but I was convinced it would be a wasted effort as well. Dem GOO's! It's like they intentionally just do the opposite of what you expect.

..hmm... maybe I've found a new strategy. Now if I can just force myself to expect them to win from the get-go... ;)

LOL. Well, congrats for the victory, then :)