Mary/Minh (Zebra), Wilson (Pizza), Bob & Agnes (Me) versus Shub-Niggurath. Innsmouth expansion, Black Goat Mythos added.
This was a solid Ancient One BEATDOWN. Things would go sour left and right, and any break we got was just a ploy to give us hope just to thrill in snatching it away again. Not a single “monsters-back-to-cup” Mythos. Only one Environment could be considered “good” (although Bob used Blackest Night to avoid the Innsmouth authorities). THREE Rumors (BOTH Innsmouth Rumors!), the second coming two phases after the first was passed. Single-toughness monsters were rare, and even then they were “loaded” single toughness monsters, like a Rat Thing or Crawling One. The majority of our combats required three successes or more. Where the hell were all the Cultists, Byakhee, and Deep One Hybrids? To quote Pizza: “Clues flowed from us like water.”
Shub. We were her playthings.
Before the game started, the Priest of Dagon moved into the Southside Streets, and First Player Mary couldn’t get past him. Her only “weapon” was a Fist of Yog-Sothoth he could completely shrug off, and with her lousy Focus, she couldn’t do anything with her Sneak. (Zebra was FRUSTRATED.) It took Wilson coming all the way down to blow the Priest’s head off with his shotgun to clear the way. (Amusingly, Sister Mary was thrown out of the Church for her Encounter: “You’ve brought evil to our doorstep, you wicked girl! Take your blasphemy and get out!”)
Zebra, a man who likes to be prepared, went to the General Store for a weapon, and cast Summon Monster for an early trophy (in order to get Blessings for Mary’s Personal Story). The intent, of course, was to absorb the Horror Check with Mary’s huge Sanity, and use Yog’s Fist to obliterate it. So what does he draw? A Shan. Zebra STARED at every card he had (twice!), but there was NO WAY to pass that Horror Check.
Wicked Sister Mary danced naked off into the Woods and was never heard from again. And Shub LAUGHED. 
Zebra drew Minh, with a Fight Skill and another Tome besides her King in Yellow, so while she gathered Clues, she read what she had. (She even ended up finding an Ancient Journal in her first Encounter.) Bob hooked up with her to trade his Book of Dzyan for that Journal, and they both passed their personal stories. Minh took Ali Kafour, and spent the next several turns in the Asylum, casting Lure Monster to clean out Innsmouth and clear gates of really bad monsters: Shoggoths, Mummy, Dark Young. (Couldn’t even take the Young as trophies!)
With all the monsters we had crawling all over the place...except they weren’t really “crawling”...it seems that the only monsters slated to move were stationary or special. Shub was determined to keep her Gates guarded with the nastiest horrors she had. Anyway...with all the monsters, you’d think Agnes could pull off her story. Sadly, the opportunity to kill something never really presented itself, because there was either something more important to do, or the “target of opportunity” was something aforementioned: horrible. Agnes had just found John Legrasse, when she had to give him up for “The Stars are Right”. That’s the second time in two games with this group that Rumor’s shown up under the exact same conditions: the same turn in which the first Ally is found in the first few turns. Even "better", our reward loaded us down with weapons that were not only difficult to use against the Shoggoths, Dark Young, and Lloigors in all the dark corners, but utterly useless against Shub herself.
Like I said, the same turn we defeated that rumor, we got the Innsmouth Plague. I know a lot of you (even myself) have gotten to that point that devouring is “no big deal” (even a valid “tactic” sometimes), but this group does not appreciate being devoured. Especially if it’s already happened! As much as Agnes wanted to hold on to her Third Eye and Wither, she was ordered (more or less) to stop the Plague. Luckily, Minh had read herself a Storm of Spirits, so Agnes made great use of that. Oh wait...no, she actually didn’t, all that much. Agnes rarely fought during this game!
So Agnes defeated the Plague, and prepared to scratch Innsmouth clean of monsters trophies, when she was STRUCK BY LIGHTNING (she was the only target in the Streets for Lightning Storm) and removed to the Hospital. (Thankfully, it was just a grazing blow.) On her way back to Innsmouth, she was surprised-dropped from the Unnameable to R’lyeh, where she was reduced to 1/1 San/Stam, as well as losing a maximum point off both. (Frankly, that wasn’t worth the extra Skill and Focus point.)
Wilson, on a double hunt for money (personal story) and Clues, found himself at the Train Station to trade with Agnes on her way to Innsmouth. But then Wilson got on the wrong train and found himself Lost in Time and Space! A setback, to be sure, but also an opportunity for a crazy gambit. Wilson couldn’t “un-LiTaS” himself directly to Y’ha-nthlei, but he could appear on top of Devil Reef, and since it wouldn’t be during his Movement Phase, he wouldn’t be subjected to Devil Reef’s Accursedness. Wilson could infiltrate the sunken city for its three Clues, and then use them to seal Devil Reef. Best part about that: he used his ability to avoid a dangerous Encounter!!! “You fish got any problems with your plumbing?” 
Minh pulled a Shoggoth away from him, but Wilson still had to risk a Yithian (who followed him from beyond Time and Space?) to get offworld.
With Agnes lost to R’lyeh, and Minh still engaged in necessary monster-wrangling, Bob headed to Innsmouth with $15, a Military Motorcycle, and Minh’s Team Player boost to be there to extract Wilson and help him pass his story, as well as “gather some evidence” for the Feds (Deep One Rising Track at 3). The three Clues at the Esoteric Order of Dagon were too juicy to resist...and Bob flopped off to the Dreamlands. Worse, Wilson failed his story, and completely lost his Sealing option. Luckily, Bob now had enough Clues to seal...
No One Can Help You Now. (Oh, come ONNN!!! 
) Silence was never so deafening.
We all agreed that if we were going to be screwed, we were going to be screwed, so the only way to proceed...was to believe that we WEREN’T going to be screwed. And that there was another Environment on the top of that deck. If for no other reason than Shub was having WAY too much fun with us to kill us too quickly. (More Shub giggles: the Loreless Bob found Arcane Insight, with no way to cast it and still Seal.) Sure enough, the cat wanted to play with the mice a little more: with both Wilson and Agnes pausing on their monster-guarded Gates, the oppressive Environment was replaced with Estate Sale.
Wilson came out from Unknown Kadath beat up bad on top of a Ghost and a Dark Young. Without being able to seal, we figured the least-of-evils was leaving Devil Reef open with two unmoving monsters, and Minh yanked him out the next turn with Call Friend. Agnes, still on the EDGE at 1/1, was sitting on a Colour, which shouldn’t have been a problem since I jacked up her Sneak (and she had a Map), but then a Hound found her. No Clues to spare...Will maxed at only 3...the dice would HAVE to work.
Somehow they did. Single-die Horror Check passed. Storm of Spirits (11 dice with a maxed-Lore Agnes!) blitzed it. Successful Sneak to avoid the Colour. And then an Encounter that wanted a Luck (-2) Check for my choice of Clues or a free Monster Trophy, but if failed, out to the street. My Lore was maxed for the Hound, so...I was forced to leave the Colour behind. Oh pooh! We did chuckle.
Until the Colour moved, and drove Agnes insane. I couldn’t afford to risk what little I had, so I took a Madness: Schizophrenia (-1 Max Sanity). Plus, she failed her story (-1 max Stamina). Instantly down to 3/3 Max (weaker than the Urchin), and fairly crippling her Blood is Power ability. Worse, this was the first of four consecutive turns that moved the Colour, until Pizza, in full-bore game rage 
, ran up to it and had Wilson punch it in the face.
Meanwhile, back in Innsmouth, Bob was able Seal the Esoteric Order, and took to the Streets to clean out the monsters making their way to the Bus Station. He was able to avoid the cops, thanks to his bike and Blackest Night, but then he succumbed to the brain-pounding horror of the Colour. A lowly Zombie was able to slough off into a Vortex, raising the DOR Track to 5 and closing the Curiositie Shoppe. We were beginning to feel the walls of the hole caving in...
The other Innsmouth Rumor “Plans in Motion”. Like Shub hadn’t had plans in motion all **** game. One bad die roll...one more creature...even one blocked Gate...Final Battle would ensue. Plus, Doom Track up to 10.
Ninth Inning, two outs, run on anything.
Minh had sealed the Witch House (Seal #4). Both the Woods (with a Lloigor) and the Graveyard (with a Deep One) led to Leng, so First Player Bob plowed the road to the Graveyard, and Agnes followed him. Bob still had 5 Clues, but Agnes had only one Clue (there weren’t any left on the board)...
Then Agnes had an Encounter that allowed her to trade Clues with everyone else. She got a total of 3 from Wilson and Minh...and once again, Shub put out the carrot. If Bob gave her a Clue, and Wilson or Minh got him another dollar, he could buy himself another Clue the turn after he got out...so Agnes took Bob’s fifth Clue.
Then Bob got an Encounter that promised $6 for a successful check, but Bob had no dice for it. But 1 Clue = 1 die = $6 = 2 Clues. And there was just enough time to maybe pull it off...
Beautiful roll! In two turns, with 1 Doom to go, Bob and Agnes exited with enough Clues to seal each Gate!!!
.....................yeah, that’s not what happened. 
Bob flubbed the roll. Then he Shubbed another one. With the car slowly sliding off the cliff, Minh got Blessed. Agnes sealed the Woods, but that same turn, Shub tired of her sport, and burst forth.
We spread what we had around: Agnes with the Storm of Spirits, Bob with a Gladius, Minh with Ali, a Shrivelling, and an Enchanted Blade, Wilson with a Team Player Boost, a Dread Curse (once) and a Withering. We were able to put her down on the fifth round, mostly thanks to Minh’s explosive rolls (getting two Doom Tokens all by herself once). Only Bob had any (“I messed up offworld”) Clues.
We all agreed this group had never had a more suffocating game. Our victories were few and minor. I think this says quite a bit about Innsmouth breathing new PAIN into the aging original Ancient Ones. Also, does Innsmouth make the Base Game harder...or is the Base Game necessary to make Innsmouth I think it might be fun to set up the Final Battle again, and take these guys through an Epic version. (I tried it myself, and Shub still lost, but a few rounds later, and only Minh walked away.)
Once again, an Investigator gets shackled with a horrible first impression: poor Sister Mary and her bad bad luck (or maybe Shub just had a personal beef with her). Those are not so simple to overcome. Zebra had the same problem with Darrell (a long-standing favorite), thanks to his lousy story, and Pizza got stuck with Rex in a Yibb game. I myself only got over my Mark hatred when Kingsport and Innsmouth shoveled out the two scoops of Delayed and Arrested; I think Mark is packed in the wrong box.