Played one more time today, Nyarlathotep and Black Goat of the Woods vs Hank, Patrice, Zoey, Ashcan and Mandy. As usual, AH, DH, KH, BGotW and MH in play. Setup was rather miserable, with no weapons or items of particular relevance appearing; Patrice managed to become Member of the Book Club with Hank, tho, which was nice.

So, clues were not supposed to be a problem in this gate, and with Mandy in the mix, a few extra rerolls for key moments were granted. First gate bursted at the Witch-House, with two flyers appearing and moving, leaving an opportunity for Hank to dive into the gate. Patrice went shopping to start working on her PS, and got an Eltdown Shards (one item we houseruled a lot of time ago to be bound to be returned to the box after using, otherwise with Pete in the party, you'd easily keep the doom track at zero; Eltdown is crazy enough with Members of the Book Club already); Mandy resolved an encounter at the Curiosity Shoppe allowing her to draw 2 Common and 2 Unique Items for all investigators to buy. Needless to say, one of the items was Press Pass, and Patrice bought it. At this point Nyarly officially applied for political asylum at the Onyx Castle in Kadath, but found all rooms already booked by the other AOs, scared of Patrice.

Next Mythos was Nightmare Pool (at least something to keep an eye on), and in the Uptown Streets we got a Dark Young, and a nearby gate at the Woods (Kadath, what a coincidence) with the Wailing Wither waiting. Zoey takes care of the Dark Young, and then in two rounds, we manage to clear away the Rumor, getting a few good weapons from the Common Item deck as reward. In the meantime, Hank returned and sealed the Witch-House; we got to keep an eye on the gate limit, but for now it was ok, so, we invested one more round in keeping monsters under control, and we worked a little bit on the rifts in Kingsport (two rift tracks were about to fill).

Still, luck was really on our side today, and of two monsters released by a crate opened at Neil's, we got a Serpent People and a Night-gaunt, so that an investigators headed to Kingsport to remove a rift progress marker then could get a free lift for the nearest gate. In this way Zoey hitch-hiked to the double Yuggoth / Another dimension gate in Dunwich. Hank hit his second gate (Graveyard, Abyss + R'lyeh) and Mandy her first (R'lyeh). First encounter for Hank was facing the face of madness (1 clue gained, 4 San lost), but the next encounter was just a Sta loss, so, he returned and sealed. Mandy had an easy life too, and with Zoey about to return, it's 3 seals on the board when the doom is 9.

Could seem bad, but actually it's not: the whole Arkham board is free from monsters, Patrice has clue to win alone another 10 or 12 games (at endgame she had 20 unspent clues) and we have two gates (STL, Woods) opening to Kadath; STL is unguarded, so both Mandy and Ashcan go there.

The Mythos is a surge, but it's negated by the Elder Sign pendant, so, no doom increased due to the Herald; then Patrice casts Eltdown Shards, and Hank backs her up, and doom is sunk back to 7. Zoey uses her Elder Sign Parchment on the Yuggoth / Another Dimension gate in Wizard's Hill, and doom retreats to 6.

Next Mythos bounces off the seal at the Witch-House, and when the next Mythos strikes, it's just a new gate at Gardners Place. Ashcan returns to the STL sealing it with ease, and Mandy uses her Elder Sign (gained during a random encounter in Kadath) to put the final seal at the Woods.

Victory by seals in 80 minutes (doom track at 6, terror level at 2)

20 unspent clues? ??????????? That's serious playing! !

i think I got a total of 32 unspent clues... but it's just Patrice to be too strong. Give her a Press Pass, and you break the game.

Next in line is Caughnar Faughn, one of my nemesis. He's not uber-difficult, and yet for some reasons I always mess up...

Chaugnar was eaten alive. Victory by closing gates in 7 Mythos. Gloria with Vision quest earned 3 clues on turn one passing her PS. Minh with two tomes passed her PS on turn one and gained a total of 5 clues (holy KiY, third most broken item of the game), and even if the Mythos tried to screw with us by releasing 2 monster surges on the first 3 Mythos cards of the game, it ended up being a cakewalk. There's not enough material to write any session report, unfortunately