Soooo ...

If an Investigator goes to, say, the Train Station and - for the sake of argument - gets an encounter that makes them go to the Dreamlands, have one encounter then return ... and that encounter turns out to be "A Monster Appears!" and that monster turns out to be a Nightgaunt and they lose to it but there are no open gates to the Dreamlands ...

Hrrr??

Does the Nightgaunt bring them back to Arkham and then drop them through an open gate to a different Other World (at there time there being only one open gate in play on The Unnamable leading to The Plateau Of Leng)? And does the Investigator then return to the Train Station as per the original encounter? Or do you treat it as if there were no open gates in play - conceptually that's just too far for a Nightgaunt to carry you and your Sedanette anyway!

The Nightgaunt's combat ability works the same as if you were moving out of or casting Find Gate while in an Other World with no openings: You're Lost in Time and Space.

Whether or not your LiTaS status prevents the original encounter from completing (that is, sending you back to the Train Station) is beyond me. But I suspect that LiTaS takes precedence.

weird situation, but I don't know the answer aswell

I have a house rule to cover these situations that makes thematic sense: if the players cannot figure out where an investigator should be, the investigator is LiTaS.

I think I've seen this one officially(?) answered somewhere. The "...and then return..." part applies only if you're returning from the area you were initially transferred to.

Thus, if you get a second encounter that moves you to yet another area, the "...and then return..." part of the first encounter is forgotten. Unless you somehow happen to get two "...and then return..." encounters in a row, in which case I think you'll come back the same way you went.

So, in the opening example, the investigator would end up wherever the Nightgaunt drops him, which would be lost in time and space if no gates out of that other world are open.

-Villain

Tibs said:

My rule of thumb for uncertain rulings is "take the answer that's hardest on the investigators." So I'd definitely say that LiTaS sticks (really for any situation in which the investigator ends up there.) For any cooperative game where it's players vs automated game, I always rule against the players in questionable situations. Beating an automated game gets easy (and therefore less fun) after a while, so anything we can do to make it harder means the game will stay fun that much longer.

I found this in the updated FAQ:

Q: "Go to ... have and encounter and return" - How do you handle encounters that tell you to move to another location or OW, have an encounter and return IF the 2nd encounter does something else for you? For example, what happens if the 2nd encounter tells you to go to another location or OW? Or are you lost in time and space? ...devoured? ...delayed? Does the 2nd encounter then cancel the first? Or do you still resolve the first 100%? If they are in conflict, which trumps?

A: 2nd encounter cancels the first, so you would resolve the second encounter and discard the first.

I don't know if this helps, but it's an answer.

So LiTaS is the answer, just like I would play it, and it makes sense.

If something happened along the way, you wouldn't return to the other location, just because the card told you so. The exception would be if the card said, for example: "ignore any side effects if you fight a monster/get delayed, and always return to the location"

Doesn't the official answers from Kevin thread state that with no open gates the nightgaunt's combat damage just doesn't happen? This is worded confusingly in that thread since the answer insinuates that it was intended for arkham to another world movement but the question specificaly asks what the vice versa would be.

Veet said:

Good point. The one thread in the "Answers from KW" thread has him answering both questions (no gates while in Arkham; no gates while in OW) by saying that the Nightgaunt's attack ends the combat with no effect. It is unclear if he's just answering the first question (while in Arkham) or both questions.

In all other cases, attempting to return to Arkham with no open gates results in LiTaS. The Nightgaunt's effect is to bring you to a gate. Are you LiTaS or does it give up because there are no gates back?

Since the answers thread says "combat ends," I'm going to go with that until further notice.

this is **** confusing