The boat may have to off an antarctic expedition first.

I was quite impressed with this preview. I liked the two Reckoning cards I saw and the additional -1 to a Lore or Fight check to close a gate is a small change which I think could be surprisingly deterimental. I believe the comparisons of the Lurker to the King in Yellow Herald are appropriate. There you could decide on Blights or Doom tokens; here you can choose whether or not it's worth the risk of taking Pacts in order to seal gates more quickly. I don't know about the rest of you, but my group has lost games by one turn plenty of times. The temptation is strong, so I hope they have at least a couple of very cruel Reckoning cards in the deck to balance things out. And on a purely aesthetic level I even like the illustration of the Lurker.

One point that no one seems to have brought up yet is this quote in regard to the Reckoning cards: "Most often they will target investigators that have already taken a Dark Pact, but don’t think that if you don’t dabble in power you’ll escape the Lurker’s wrath. He will also offer his power forcefully, and then demand recompense soon after."

So should this be taken to indicate that at least one of the Reckoning cards will FORCE a Pact on a player, just as one of the Black Goat Corruption cards forces Cult membership on other players?

Adam