Time to return to Arkham tonight; Michael, Rita, Mary, George and Bob are summoned to send back to sleep Abhoth and the Black Goat of the Woods. Abhoth’s difficult on its own: very short (11) doom track, with a built-in doom accelerator due to its Children (have 3 into play and the next one that should land on the board triggers both Terror and Doom), so that the help of the Black Goat (+1 doom on surges) isn’t really wanted. If you pair this with the fact that the total amount of starting clues among the different investigators is 2, well, succumbing to an ill fate seems quite probable. So, in terms of strategy the whole game can be summed up as: will the investigators be able to gather 28 clues from the board / eventually helpful items in less than 10 turns so that there’s a chance at sealing the ultimate evil away? The party’s loaded with money, so that farming the Unique item deck for at least one Elder Sign could be the way to go; but the real safe bet of the game is Bob Jenkins, whose passed personal story allows him to cash money and then convert money into clues at a 3 dollar = 1 clue / round ratio. So, we need to have Bob pass his PS asap, and organize the strategy accordingly. Setup is rather good, with a few major weapon entering play (Golden Sword of Y’ha-thalla, Sword of Glory, plus Michael’s starting Tommy Gun and Dynamite), but the real blessing is George pulling Ancient Tablet (spend 3 movement points and roll 2 dice, for each success get a spell, for each failure get 2 clues). Opening gates is an Abyss gate at the Historical Society, spawning a Black Goat and the Color Out of Space.
Round 1: Michael goes to the Science Building to get 1 clue and have an almost safe shelter above head; Rita moves to the Silver Twilight Lodge to get 2 clues (for a 4 clue total); Mary decides it’s time to start playing a few tricks, moves to the Historical Society, defeating both monsters (the Color isn’t difficult once you’re Blessed, and for the Dark Young, Wither helped a bit) to later enter the gate, hoping someone could fetch her an Elder Sign for the first seal (indeed, it’s a heavy bet. But having 4 investigators starting at 0 clues means you don’t have time to have them grow until they have 5 clues each in a game where the AO has a short doom track and you want to keep surges at bay. So, someone had to go there, the Historical Society is a low freq location so that even if she can’t seal, it shouldn’t be too of a harm). George moves towards Bob, so that Bob can get the Ancient Tablet, use it to spectacularly fail both rolls and go to 4 clues, and then spend the very last movement point (the beauty of having a Motorcycle among the starting possessions) to reach the Unvisited Isle for his 5th clue. Personal Story passed, and clue generating engine triggered. We need just a bit more for this first round, possibly Rita getting the fifth clue? She does better than that: at the STL she pulls an encounter not only allowing her to gain the missing clue, but also to gain the Visions card, which allows her to gain clues equal to 1+the San cost of spells discarded. So, round 1, two investigators with 5 clues, and two clue generating engines activated.
Mythos: Abhoth starts sweating, and opens a gate at Independence Square (Werewolf + Dark Young)
Round 2: Bob moves to the Kadath gate on Independence Square, killing the Dark Young, and ignoring the Werewolf. Kadath’s journey proves useful, since the first OW encounter sends him back to Arkham. Michael moves to the Unnamable to get 2 easy clues; George and Rita invests some of their savings at the Curiosity Shoppe, getting two pretty awesome items: a Gate Box for Rita, and the so long wanted Elder Sign to give Mary for George. Yay! Mary feasts in the Abyss, recovering 2 points of San and Sta thanks to a lucky break.
Mythos: a gate opens at the Witch House. No surges so far, we’ve got plenty of sealers, all is good in Arkham
Round 3: Mary returns to the Historical Society; Rita get the ES from George, move to Mary’s, tosses the nun the Elder Sign and thanks to Mary accepting to wait another turn to use the ES, she enters the Abyss. Bob seals Independence Square. Michael moves to the Black Cave to get the 4th and 5th clue, and George buys a Seeker of the Yellow Sign. One seal on the board, another one ready to be put thanks to Mary, only one gate open and one investigator in an OW. Perfect.
Mythos: Strange Waves Subsides, a gate opens at the Unnamable, but then the First Player is asked to close a gate of his choice on the board, returning it to the cup. We opt to close the Unnamable, so that we can get rid of a few nasty corruptions (Downward Spiral)
Round 4: Mary uses the Elder Sign to seal the Historical Society, removing one doom token from the doom track; Michael moves to the Witch House, evades the Lloigor standing there and then enters combat with the Dark Young. The Horror check is passed, but then the Combat check’s causing more problems than expected: the first attempt is done with the Golden Sword (8 dice) but fails (2 successes only, needed 3); the sword is then exhausted, so, Michael tries the Dynamite (7 dice) but again he fails (2 successes). It’s the Tommy Gun’s turn at this point, with only 6 dice: enough to finally score that darn 3 successes and dive into Yuggoth. Rita moves to the second area of the Abyss; George and Bob share a shopping spree, getting the Book of the Believer (George) and Eltdown Shards (Bob). Board still under control, but I need a weapon to give Bob, otherwise entering an OW could be incredibly messy for him
Mythos: Worlds drifting apart, no rift progress markers can be added to the rift progress tracks. Awesome. But yeah, the Unnamable opens again (at least, we closed the right gate during the previous Mythos phase: in this way, we still have a +1 doom – as per surge – but we don’t have the extra load of monsters nor the Child of Abhoth entering play)
Round 5: Mary moves to the Woods to gain 2 easy clues. Here she meets with Sadie Sheldon; not wanting to join the gang (trophies are needed in case we go for a closing gates victory), she’s moved to the streets with one less Sta. Ouch. Rita returns to the Unnamable thanks to the Gate Box, and starts clearing the stack of monsters there. Quickly succumbed to her fatal Sword: a Ghoul, a Maniac, and a Formless Spawn. She doesn’t have enough Will (or San) to attempt killing the Deep One, but here it comes George defeating for her the last monster. Awesome team work, and Rita puts the third seal on the board. Bob dashes his way up to Kingsport to grab a clue and remove one nefarious rift progress marker. Michael’s delayed while in Yuggoth.
Mythos: R’lyeh opens at the Unvisited Isle.
Round 6: Mike survives his 2nd area encounter in Yuggoth; Bob moves back from Kingsport and dives directly into the R’lyeh gate at the Unvisited Isle. The entrance of said gate is a bit crowded, but Bob’s got enough movement points to stop briefly at George’s, where he gets both the Seeker of the Yellow Sign (used to pass the Horror check against the Gug guarding R’lyeh) and the Sword of Glory George still had from Rita. With these two items, both the Gug and the Ghoul protecting the gate are gone, and Bob can dive into R’lyeh’s waters, where he’s later delayed. Rita stops for a moment at the Asylum to purchase some Sanity. George buys an Enchanted Blade and Mary gets a couple more clues at Hibb’s.
Mythos: the Witch House surges, and that opening spells gate burst, so that in the end Michael’s being delayed during Round 4, in Yuggoth, proved being benefical: without that delay, we’d have had a seal bursting away, while in this way, we just had a surge. +1 doom, first Child of Abhoth into play.
Round 7: Rita jumps into R’lyeh, meeting up with Bob recovering from delayed; George goes to the Train Station, where he’s moved to the Artists’ colony in Kingsport for a clue and an encounter. Mary gets a couple more clues at the Graveyard, while Michael seals the Witch House. One gate open on the board (R’lyeh at the Unvisited Isle), 4 seals (Unnamable, Witch-House, Independence Square, Historical Society), 6 doom tokens on the doom track.
Mythos: Abhoth asks for political asylum in R’lyeh (denied), then opens a new gate at the Black Cave. Yummy. With two investigators in the OWs, and one of them has a Gate Box, the new opening seems more like a conclusion.
Round 8: Rita gives Bob the gate box, so that she’s to return to R’lyeh and he’s to return to the double gate Dreamlands / Leng at the Black Cave (in this way their stats are more fit for what they have to roll); they both move to R’lyeh’s 2nd area. Bob’s reduced to 1 sta from his encounter, and Rita pulls a lovely card that would have devoured her, had she had 1 remaining sta. Fortunately she has 2, so, smooth. In Arkham, Mary attempts at killing a Chthonian, but stumbles on its tentacles (or the impossible spelling) and is knocked unconscious. She gains a Blood Disease while at the Hospital, but the rest is ok. Michael evades the Dark Young at the Witch House, then moves in the streets to evade the Child of Abhoth and finally lands on the High Priest in the Southside Streets, killing him on the spot. George moves back to the Train Station, where he sees a package left on the trails. Testing Speed (-3) is too much for him, so he simply opts not to recover the parcel.
Mythos: Abhoth’s last attempt is a pathetic gate bouncing at Independence Square. No new gates, 4 seals on the board, 2 gates open, 2 investigators returning to Arkham during the next movement.
Round 9: George, Michael, and Mary stall in the streets to avoid causing extra troubles. Bob seals with ease the Black Cave (at that point he had 11 clues, enough to close mostly everything existing in Arkham); then it’s Rita’s turn, 2 dice to roll, 1 success scored. Gate closed, and sealed.
Victory by sealing gates in 9 Mythos.
Then go play a few rounds of your next game