Julia said:

I am laughing too hard to write up a response right now. Later.

Hi Avi,

some questions regarding Scenario 10. So, first of all: we have three cultists on Whateley farm. In the clarifications section, you say "Cultists are treated as if their name has been changed to Dark Young too". If I understand it correctly, then they cannot move during Mythos zero, right? and then they can move twice in the same round, one movement because DY always move, and one move in case there is a crescent symbol shown on monsters movement patters. Am I right?

Second point (regarding your BGotW Herald): you specify that 2 monsters emerge every time a gate opens. But what if the game has to be played by 5+ investigators? It's not my case, because I play with enough boards to have a 4-investigators team in play, I'm just asking for bigger team (just to clarify it when I'll write the Scenario.eon).

Last but not least, I'm not so sure I get completely this point: "Always designate a location for monsters to place before they would go to the outskirts (if no gate is shown), if it is a Dark Young, place them there instead. If a gate was shown, place them there. Don’t take three corruptions for defeating Dark Young". Could help me? And why one should be tempted by drawing three corruptions for killing a DY? The Herald says two

Julia said:

I was a bit worried that someone might read the herald as suggesting that you draw one for killing DY as a hexagon monster and 2 more for killing DY as a Dark Young. That's not the intent at all, but until I tweak the wording slightly, it felt like it might be a good idea to have the clarification. I might tweak that movement section a bit to make it clearer. The truth is I need to fix the actual herald... That entire section shouldn't be there.

An extra monster would be placed with 5+ players. I'll probably change the wording there too when I tweak the herald. Hopefully none of these things will be issues after I revise it.

Yes, the Dark Young will have double movement sometimes, and once the Dark Druid comes out, they will have triple movement sometimes.

Okay, I rewrote parts of the text, moved stuff around, condensed things, and altered the rule about initial investigator placement.

I think I'm also going to redo Dracula... AGAIN. With this image. Unless I find something better in the next half hour.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/320/5/7/castle_age___vampire_by_genzoman-d32z5v1.jpg

Scenario 10 - Farming on the Countryside

Investigators: Joe, Finn, Michael, Marie, Mary, Roland

Boards: all boards in play

I had many doubts on the best way to deal with the Backwoods country problem. Killing the three Dark Young - double corruption Cultists placed on an unsealable and unclosable gate seemed to me quite a tactical suicide. To beat them I should have sent over there my best character, just to have him snowed under with corruption at a very early point of the game, and force to lose the first, fundamental turns without having a chance to do something useful for the party. I thought about the possibility of sacrificing Mary (feed the beast and then play with my beloved Jenny), but the only reasonable thing for playing this was, for me, letting them dive into vortices and then kill the Dunwich horror. A 6-toughness monster shouldn't be so impossible for a fully equipped Joe, especially if I'd have given him some rounds to gather some extra clues. Besides, he had Precise. In this way, I'd have had a marvellous free object of my choice, no corruptions, and so on. BUT... what a marvellous set-up I had. Mostly crappy items, but one of them was brillian. Time bomb. With cultists moving every bloody turn but the first one, I had 2 out of 3 chances to have them stuck in the Backwoods Country streets. And you know, it worked pretty well. Besides, on the first turn, Finn went shopping for some unique items, and his first draw was Warding of the Yellow Sign, which was placed on the Whateley Farm. This solved that gate problem for the rest of the game, even if it was still impossible a closing victory (*sigh*)

The next round were kinda strange. First Mythos a gate opened at Wizard's Hill. Michael had an Elder Sign and a Gate Box, so he jumped immediately into the gate, ready to exit somewhere else, while Joe gathered the last clues and then followed Michael into Another Dimension. Marie shopped some useful spells in the meantime. Second Mythos: One Thousand Young. Yikes. It was the first time of my life I drew that rumor. And I misread the card, thinking I'd be allowed to discard allt he required clues at once. So in the first rounds, I completely ignored the rumor, focusing on other stuff. Third Mythos, Strange sightings. I had tons of clues gathered, but almost no gate to work on. The tension increased. Roland finally was able to enter a gate at the Woods, but had two defeat two Dark youngs (what a magnificent thing is having two Petrifying solutions?) so he became a twice Jelous guardian, with an Endless greed and the urgency to Speak to some friends about the marvellous cult activities in town. That gate lead to the Abyss, his first encoutner forced him to go to the Black cave (welcome darling! 9 clues & an Elder Sign and you're still a little poor kid not able to reach the other side of an OW without getting lost, uh?). Joe jumped into the Abyss gate the following round, while Marie and Mary started trying to discard clues for the rumor (at this point I had two monsters on the card, and there was a flyer in the Sky. Bad times for everyone!).

When the Mythos counter hit 12, I had five seals on the board, and the rumor had been passed the round before (with three monsters on that card! I had a *terrible* luck while rolling dice for checking my Lore). Despite having solved the problem with Whateley farm, I had another THREE gates opening in Dunwhich (and nothing in Innsmouth), with tons of monsters popping out. My best fighters tried to stop them, but something entered the vortices, and the Dunwhich Horror track hit 2. Michael was ready to seal after a trip in Celano, but he went LiTaS during the last encounter. Finn followed him immediately, both in Celano and LiTaS. Rolan entered Celano with an ES and 8 clues, and was delayed. Then I had mummies from the Dark Pharoah arriving to town, swarming into the streets. Shub was at eight doomers, but the situation continued to worsen. A gate popped out at Marsh Refinery (Hound of Tindalos + Cultist), and another couple of Cultists appeared in the Innsmouth shore streets. The terror level kept on rising, and the General Store closed. And then the Terrible Experiment entered play. New turn, two Cultists jumped into the sea to feed the Deep One. Another monster in Innsmouth was ready to followe them, anxious to play waterpolo with the fishermen. Three investigators able to put the last seal on the board having a journey to Celano, only one of them was not delayed. One of the delayed draw an encounter where a wise man would have shown him the way home if he had passed a Lore check. 4 dice to roll, zero successes. Only 5 clues, so no way to throw one to add a die to the check. Having mummies in the street forced the investigator in Arkham not to move properly. A bad situation.

Next Mythos: nothing dangerous moved. Then Roland returned to Arkham. 4 dice to close, 2 successes, 6th seal on the board.

This game was a blast.

[back to work now! I'll post some impressions about the Scenario this evening! Anyway, a *great* Scenario!]

Heh... You didn't even mention the druid ;') Lucky with the warding draw though. Do you think you'd beat it again if you tried it again?

Avi_dreader said:

I got the point. IMHO, it's pretty clear you don't get three corruptions, but anyway, clarifying it won't hurt anyone, I suppose :-)

Avi_dreader said:

Yep, I noticed... fortunately it happened only once in the whole game (but.. have you changed the rules about the Dark Druid again? I'm pretty sure I read something like "for this Scenario, the Dark druid is not treated as a Cultist" or something similar

Ok for the extra monster. Still one point remains obscure: "Always designate a location for monsters to place before they would go to the outskirts (if no gate is shown), if it is a Dark Young, place them there instead. If a gate was shown, place them there. " The more I think about this point, the more I do not understand its meaning

Avi_dreader said:

The Druid wasn't a real issue. If I had been more lucky, he'd never have appeared on the board. Afterwards... yeah, he boosted a little the movement of some monsters. But nothing to really worry about, apart from the last turns. But they were difficult mainly because of the CotDP encounter with mummies in the streets, which made "free" movement a real problem. Otherwise... it would be annoying, but not mortal (usualy I'm quite good in keeping the monsters on the board low in number)

As for your question... who knows? Arkham has too many possibilities for answering to this question. I lost games that I thought were completely under my control, and I won games I never thought I'd ever win. I could only say that the Scenario was very challenging, since the very beginning. There were many things to control and to worry about, much more than those you have to look after in normal games. And this was a great plus. The pressure was high, but wasn't overwhelming, and this was good for a *great* game. Among the Scenarios of this second quarter of League, this was the most interesting. I'll probably play it again, sooner or later, since it has some great elements. And it was rather well balanced! Thumbs up ::smiling::

Julia said:

Heh... So what do you think... Is it time for me to unveil the horrible mind melting horror of scenario 12? I think so ;'D Balance is about to fly out the window.

Uhm, the 12th Scenario itch.. ::laughter:: ok, gimme the spiders ::wearing armor and preparing the DDT::

Scenario 11 - The Big Bad Guy eating Avi's books and his nasty gang

Investigators: Joe, Michael, Marie, Mary, Roland

Boards: all boards in play

This one was tough. Really tough. Between all the Scenarios of this part of the League, this was the one I feared the most, basically because there was no way to get rid of the gangster tokens. Thus... the main risk was finishing the corruptions and having a nice talk with both Y'golonac's mouths. For this reason, I decided to lower the number of investigators in play, from 6 to 5. I'd have lowered this number even more, but I couldn't sacrifice any of the remaining ones. So, let's go.

The first Mythos was Museum Haunted, which opened a gate at the Science Building (screwing completely my plans). Barnabas Marsh jumped out f the gate & directly into the MU streets, just to meet the Pharoah ghosts and two Cultists arriving from the Unvisited Isle (the other one appeared at Independence Square). Five monsters in front of the only open gate was a bad start for a game I had to play blindingly fast. But. Mary was blessed, and had a Blessing Spell she used during the very first Upkeep to bless Roland. Joe, with a press pass moved to Hibb's, to grab a sandiwich and, thx to the press pass, clues n.4 & 5. Roland had a joyful beginning, being blessed thx to Mary, and having David Packard with him, and a couple of marvellous skills, one giving him +1 fight & reroll '1', the other +1 will & reroll '1'. He decided he had to clean up the Miskatonic Streets and he did it, gaining a couple of Exhibit items (pentagram of blood and the mask which allows you to gain some other character's powers). Marie went spell shopping (Find Gate) and Mary went to the Silver Twilight Lodge, just to drawn a marvellous, sweet, delicious encounter able to give her the Visions special card. Michael went to the Witch House and was sucked through a gate. First Mythos: a new gate opened at the Unvisited Isle, and the Mythos card instructed to return all Cultist in play to the cup. So the third one was removed, and I took a deep breath. Terror hit 3 (2 cultists & the opening Mythos card), so I had some other locations corrupted.

Joe entered the gate at Science Building, giving Roland the Press pass. Roland went to the Unvisited Isle, killed the Warlock on the gate just to gain 2+1 clues, passing his PS and obtaining resources to seal it. He then entered Yuggoth. Marie drew the second spell (Dreaded curse of Azathoth), discarding during her Upkeep the Greater Banishment he had since the beginning of the game, gathering some more clues. Michael moved through Celano, gaining clues as result of some encounters. Mary bypassed the zombie in the French hill streets (arrived via gate opening under Michael's feet) went clue-gathering at the Historic Society.

New Mythos, new troubles. A misfired experiment of the Silver Twilight Lodge released a Hound of Tindalos & a Formless spawn in the French Hill streets, and a gate appeared at the Black Cave (and a Colour out of Space appeared there too). Mary moved first, with 2 clues, stats of 2 fight & 2 will, Holy water, and her faith. She started from the Hound of Tindalos. A clue for a die for Sanity. 4. 2 dice to roll for the combat check (+1 fight skill): 5 & 6. The puppy felt asleep under Mary's caresses. Now back to the Formless spawn. Mry used the Holy water and it was absolved by its sins. Then the zombie followed, the last clue needed to succeed in combat. Marie was able to enter the Witch house gate & help Michael.

A couple of Mythos later, 3 seals on the board (Roland at the Unvisited Isle, Joe at the Science building, Marie at the Whitch house). Roland had returned from Yuggoth with a lovable little card, triggering his death as soon as 5 new portals will open. Being returned to Arkham during an OW Encounters phase, he had to spend 2 Upkeeps at the corrupted Unvisited Isle, raising his total of gangster tokens to 3. Bad, bad, bad. He had tons of clues (generated by himself and gained thanks to other interesting options) but I knew he was doomed. Nonetheless, I decided to risk and sent him at the Black cave, where he bypassed the Colour and entered the Abyss. Michael had 4 clues (all generated in Celano, where he also found a King in Yellow) and, after trading equipment with Marie - she gave him her second Find gate, obtained through a lucky encounter in Celano) he went to the Silver Twilight Lodge to gather the last clue. There, he stumbled into Ruby Standish. They became friends, and she gave him a Unique item. I looked at Y'golonac's doom track. Very, very, very low. If I had to lose, it wouldn't be that likely because of the doomers. So I decided for drawing a Unique Item instead of an Exhibit. And Nodens was with me. A shining Elder Sign. Marie entered the Dreamlands gate at the Woods. OW encounters: nothing relevant happening.

New Mythos phase: Gardner's Place. A crawling one arrived in Dunwhich. No crescent on any path. It was the third gate opening after Roland drew that horrible Yuggoth card.

New turn: Michael dived into the R'lyeh portal at Independence Square. In a hurry, since red corruptions had already said "hello" to everyone. He left the ES to Sister Mary, just because I thought it could have been wiser having the ES in Arkham, and a jolly character able to pass it to whom in need. In the meantime, Marie tried to cast Find gate to return to Arkham, but failed. She then moved to the OW second area. A no-encounter encounter. Roland had a nasty encounter while in the Abyss. Check a skill and keep 1 clue for every success, discarding the others. He had 8 clues, after this encounter he had only 2. The encounter of Michael in R'lyeh made him losing a Sanity (and non-losing a Stamina).

New Mythos phase: Return to the Old Ways. Moon on black. After giving investigators new Corruptions & resolving the effects of those already in play, I had the corruption deck with only 2 red cards left. The end was near.

New turn: Upkeep: Roland generated the third clue via his ability, and exhausted the Press pass to gain the fourth one. Then he discarded a spell to gain the 5th clue thanks to the visions card. He then discarded, while still in the Abyss, his Dark Cloak, making everyone gain two extra clues for passing the Rumor. He returned to the Black Cave. 3 dice to roll, one success scored. 4th seal down. Marie returned to the Woods. 5 dice to roll, zero successes. First clue spent: no success. Second clue: 6. Having still 5 clues left, she put the 5th seal. Mary during movement moved on the R'lyeh gate. Michael, still in R'lyeh first area, casted Find gate. One die to roll, thanks to his +1 Lore skill. 6. Returned to Arkham, grabbed the ES from Mary and put down the 6th seal.

Victory by sealing gates in 7 Mythos, while Y'golonac's doom track was at 3 doomers.

Anyway, a remark: you (probably) forgot to make Cultists immune to Handcuffs

Holy SHpqoiurtyeoghT! 2 corruptions left, huh? Well, next time it'd be easier since you'd start with five fewer corruptions ;'D Still, I'd say you definitely got the win on hard mode :'D (although I might throw one or two starting cultists on the board with a hard mode version).

::Facepalm:: I thought Amikezor made his Cultists immune to handcuffs ;'D I think we need to notify him.

P.S. Stop killing my monsters ;'D

Avi_dreader said:

Yep, maybe it's better to tell him :-) But I had three cultists on the board since Mythos zero because of the Sheldon Gang Herald's Start of the Game ability (2 at the Unvisited Isle, 1 at Independence Square)

I really loved the idea of using The Sheldon Gang Cultists to trigger Y'golonac's raise the terror level ability in order to spread the corruption through Arkham. It's something cool :-)

Julia said:

Oh that's right, I forgot it started with three on the board ;'D heh... I knew there was a reason I paired the two (beyond theme).

Now... can't wait to play the Atlach Scenario :-) If the French League remains stuck (no news since I don't remember when), maybe I'll give it a try next sunday. Don't know. I need to recover mental energies from today's game ::laughter::

Julia said:

Alright. If you beat the 13th scenario, I'll send you the text for the aftermath, but not the next scenario information. I might wait until CotDP revised is released before posting it.

Note I say if and not when ;'D (no doubt this irrational taunt will get you to rise to the occasion).

You meant 12th Scenario, didn't you?

Anyway, will the revised CotDP be needed in order to play further? This can be a problem (the English edition of the Lurker was distributed here in Italy something like 5 months *after* the official release date, because of the summer break)

Julia said:

Errr, yes. 12.

Okay, so how about I release the scenarios as they are and also make a revised CotDP version later?

Avi_dreader said:

Sounds fun! Anyway, no rush, I think Scenario 12 can be quite difficult to pass :.laughter::

Julia said:

Feeling daunted at last, are we? ;'D

Avi_dreader said:

Neh ;-D I feel the impelling urge to stiletto-trampling some spiders ::laughter:: The pleasure will be *so* great I'm afraid I'd love to do this more than once ::laughter::

Julia said:

Kill one for me ;')

Julia said:

well, right, they should be immune to handcuffs. I'll make that clear asap. thank you for notification.

amikezor said:

You're welcome ;'D And thanks for changing it.