So it was ladies night in Arkham tonight: Female Ancient One, all female Investigators (at least initially), and an ambiguously gendered Herald. More specifically, we began with Gloria, Patrice, Mihn, and me with my personal favorite, Sister Mary. Drawing Yibb-Tstll and Tulzscha as our opponents, we were set up with an all female cast. (Not too sure on Tulzscha's gender, but that sounds like a feminine name to me...)
Anyway, things started out great. With Patrice's aid, Gloria and Mihn sealed gates almost right from the get go, Gloria succeeding her PS and Mihn picking up a free seal through her Other World trip. Meanwhile, Sister Mary found a tommy gun in the woods and kept the streets clean while the others worked. However, once the doom track reached the halfway point, things turned around very fast. Patrice was arrested in Innsmouth. Mihn was driven insane, failing her personal story. Gloria received delay after delay. Patrice was devoured in prison. One of Tulzscha's cultists broke a seal. A gate burst occurred in Innsmouth. And Mary was drawn through a gate, pullilng her from clue gathering duty to keep Yibb-Tstll's combat mod down, since by now, it was clear that we would be entering final combat.
Patrice was replaced with Roland Banks, breaking our all female cast. He and the rehabilitated Mihn gathered all the clues they could, and received blessings at the church, fulfilling Mary's PS. By that point, Yibb-Tstll's doom track was at 10, and the Deep One Rising track was at 5. There was no turning back now. There was a gate surge, filling the Rising track. We were pulled into Final Combat, with Yibb-Tstll's combat modifier at -5. Not hopelessly high, but not as low as we would have liked.
Sister Mary's PS was a godsend. If it weren't for all those blessings, we wouldn't have held on for as long as we did. We peppered Yibb-Tstll with tommy gun and revolver fire from Gloria and Roland, and castings of Shriveling and Dread Curse of Azathoth from Mihn and Mary, aided by an Elder Thing crystal. However, despite our blessings and powerful arsenal, we could not score any hits. In the first two rounds we landed not a single attack die higher than three, I kid you not. It was...discouraging. Eventually, a blessing or two slipped through Mary's safety net and Mihn was devoured, followed shortly by Mary herself. A few rounds later, Gloria and Roland were taken down by the End of Everything. We had suffered our first loss as a group.
Despite our TERRIBLE streak of luck in the second half, I think it was a very entertaining game. You can't win them all, right? And we did much better than we expected. Yibb-Tstll had 4 doom tokens remaining by the time of our defeat. If it weren't for those devastating first two rounds, we might have pulled out a win, but the dice just weren't with us tonight. I had the most fun I've had with Arkham in a good long while, and am looking forward to a rematch against this duo sometime soon |D
