I just finished Dim Carcosa (not return to...) and I wanted other peoples opinions.

1. I took over 3x my starting sanity in horror; no effect?

2. We were instructed to take two physical trauma; shouldn't that be mental given the setting?

Everything else seems pretty straightforward. The only other time I played this we all still had sanity left so I didn't pay much attention...

1: Not unless a game mechanic says it does.

2: In a Conviction run, Hastur is a horrible monster (or at least, you are of the belief that he is) who represents a physical threat to the world. So of course confronting that would cause physical trauma! Who knows, a different group of investigators might have a different take on the events entirely.

Thanks.

1. Since the resolution didn't mention any effect from the horror I assumed there wasn't any, but it "felt" like there should be... though I had drawn the instant death card twice just before my final decent into madness so that added stress may have been punishment enough.

2. I hadn't even thought about the different resolutions based on conviction/doubt. All is clear now!

There's three resolutions, too. If you play conviction, you are convinced that you slew a horrible monster and go home, clapping each other on the back. Well done, investigators!

The horror is not resolved by resolution, no. It's done entirely by encounter cards. If you didn't get any at the wrong moment, congratulations.

8 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

The horror is not resolved by resolution, no. It's done entirely by encounter cards. If you didn't get any at the wrong moment, congratulations.

I got lucky. I drew the instant death card twice while one away from triggering it.

Of course I did have my entire board wiped out three turns from the end of the scenario so "lucky" is relative...

Killed that King with a whap and a thwap and a HIYAH!!!!

Caroline Fern is SO underrated.

42 minutes ago, redcapjack said:

Killed that King with a whap and a thwap and a HIYAH!!!!

Caroline Fern is SO underrated.

Yes, yes... Keen Eyed Carolyn racked up enough resources to go whackity-whack on Hamster Lord of Carcosa with a meat cleaver... but she still couldn't keep me sane...

Also, not exactly a meat cleaver...

Our best carcosa moment was still when Mark Harrigan successfully investigated the Man in the Pallid Mask. How, you ask? By putting on his Bauta from Carnevale of Horrors and using Combat for the investigate check. Just ripping that mask off.

My mark just kept killing the stranger. He would incredulously ask Sefina and Daisy wtf they were doing trying to talk to these obvious nightmares. He took down as many of the party guests as he could and also insisted in blazing the house.

He avoided all eye contact with anyone/thing and frequently would only look up from his photos (Sophie and 2 somethings worth fighting fors) or stop his moody self-reflecting in the hallowed mirror to whisper soothing lullaby’s to himself and ignite anything that came into range of his flamethrower. 🤘

Killing him is fine, but in Dim Carcosa, you can't kill him. So you have to investigate him instead. With your fists.

(Mark also found six clues in that mission. By killing three cultists who all had an edict of the king with a flamethrower.)

Edit: That reminds me I haven't posted the entire anecdote here:

Spoilers for Dim Carcosa.

Scene one:
The Man in the Pallid Mask is in the throne room. He needs to be investigated ASAP. Neither Ursula nor Sephina are nearby enough. So Mark plays his Bauta from Carnevale of Horrors, which allows him to use combat for one check. He dons his mask, walks up to the Man in the Pallid Mask and just rips the mask off with brute strength.

Scene two:
Ursula is engaged with some Byakhees. Mark levels his machine gun, fires, draws an autofail, and kills Ursula.

Scene three:
We just need six more damage on Hastur. And through interesting card draw, there are three cultists on Spires of Carcosa, and through several other encounter card draws, they have, among them, picked up all the clues. Mark has a flamethrower, walks in, grills them all, and turns over the location.

THere is a woman standing on the railing. Mark knows what he has to do. He pushes her off. Hastur dies.

Mark wakes up in the ward theatre. Ursula is hacked to pieces. Sephina was driven insane. He player looks at the rest of the table, as the ending narration is read, and just reveals from his hand: "Possession: Murderous" and goes insane.

So yeah. Mark repeated his backstory of killing his wife, to defeat an incarnation of madness, though he had won, woke up from his nightmare in the theatre, but then succumbed to Hastur at the last moment.

It was his fault all along.

And people say TCU is dark...

My headcanon's always been that "the secret" is there is no secret. You walk into the Palace with no idea how to defeat Hastur. You walk back out without any more knowledge, but now you're oddly certain you've figured it out.

Man, I love the "neither Conviction nor Doubt" version of Dim Carcosa and the ending. It's a real pain to achieve but it's really worth it.

17 minutes ago, Allonym said:

Man, I love the "neither Conviction nor Doubt" version of Dim Carcosa and the ending. It's a real pain to achieve but it's really worth it.

It took us a moment to realise the implication of Act 2b. And when we realised, the table erupted into shouts...

Still haven’t seen it. We were off by a single point.

34 minutes ago, Soakman said:

Still haven’t seen it. We were off by a single point.

It's not possible to achieve without "failing" at least one scenario.

11 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

Killing him is fine, but in Dim Carcosa, you can't kill him. So you have to investigate him instead. With your fists.

(Mark also found six clues in that mission. By killing three cultists who all had an edict of the king with a flamethrower.)

Edit: That reminds me I haven't posted the entire anecdote here:

Spoilers for Dim Carcosa.

Scene one:
The Man in the Pallid Mask is in the throne room. He needs to be investigated ASAP. Neither Ursula nor Sephina are nearby enough. So Mark plays his Bauta from Carnevale of Horrors, which allows him to use combat for one check. He dons his mask, walks up to the Man in the Pallid Mask and just rips the mask off with brute strength.

Scene two:
Ursula is engaged with some Byakhees. Mark levels his machine gun, fires, draws an autofail, and kills Ursula.

Scene three:
We just need six more damage on Hastur. And through interesting card draw, there are three cultists on Spires of Carcosa, and through several other encounter card draws, they have, among them, picked up all the clues. Mark has a flamethrower, walks in, grills them all, and turns over the location.

THere is a woman standing on the railing. Mark knows what he has to do. He pushes her off. Hastur dies.

Mark wakes up in the ward theatre. Ursula is hacked to pieces. Sephina was driven insane. He player looks at the rest of the table, as the ending narration is read, and just reveals from his hand: "Possession: Murderous" and goes insane.

So yeah. Mark repeated his backstory of killing his wife, to defeat an incarnation of madness, though he had won, woke up from his nightmare in the theatre, but then succumbed to Hastur at the last moment.

It was his fault all along.

Holy Cow, I took 3 horror just reading that! And that was just for the “H word”. The rest was pure trauma. Poor Ursula, for whom I have a soft spot. But Mark evidently had it coming.

We haven’t started RtPoC yet. We have one more scenario of RtD with our son and daughter in law to finish, but just the act of sleeving the cards caused a fine sheen of perspiration to bead upon my brow.

All I can say is...gulp.

The Man and two cultists were in the Palace... so I threw in a dynamite blast with Caroline Fern rather than moving and investigating the Palace. Boom! Several clues from the cultists and, yes, the Man with the Pallid Mask was dead. Many turns later, Caroline had been ramping up on resources and I had me a Meat Cleaver and when the King walked up I went CHOP CHOP CHOP!!!!