From van Schaack, sad to say, the relic was stolen in 1683 by a French trader, Jean Grenier, whose Popish zeal recognized the features of one whom he had been taught at his mother's knee to revere as St. Ibide. Grenier, fired with virtuous rage at the possession of this holy symbol by a Protestant, crushed van Schaack's head one night with an axe and escaped to the north with his booty; soon, however, being robbed and slain by the half-breed voyageur Michel Savard, who took the skull - despite the illiteracy which prevented his recognizing it - to add to a collection of similar but more recent material.

- H.P. Lovecraft, Ibid

If magic is completely understood, it stops being magic. It becomes science. The black, arcane power the sorcerers in the cult of Yog-Sothoth use, as a result, is unpredictable at best. While the oldest servitors can weave spells together to create spectacular results, it's mostly like trying to impose your will on a particularly violent lightning storm. Calling Down the Ancients (Secrets of Arkham, F32) might rid you of an enemy, but it's difficult to pinpoint which one. Sometimes opening the gates is a matter of brute force.

In the second spotlight on the upcoming Murmurs of Evil Asylum Pack we take a look at an artifact that helps you taking down a specific nuisance. Not by being easier to direct, but by increasing the amount of removal effects in your deck. That card is Cursed Skull (Murmurs of Evil, F40) – a variant on A Single Glimpse (Core Set, F117). Both cards force players to decide which of their precious characters is actually their least favorite, which is a harrowing dilemma. Put together they make the choice twice as hard.

While there are similarities between these two cards, there are some key differences. While A Single Glimpse costs 2, Cursed Skull will have its cost split between two domains. And while Glimpse only works during your Operations Phase, the Skull can be activated at any time. For example, after your opponent tries to recover from the Skulls' bigger brother: Dimensional Rift (Secrets of Arkham, F40.)

Given that sacrifice effects gives the power of choice to an opponent, you will want to have a lot of them to make it count. Conveniently enough Chant of Thoth (Secrets of Arkham, F35) can bring back both “spells” like Glimpse and “artifacts” like the Cursed Skull. Since it only costs 1 to bring back, it's easy to pay for. Just make sure you have enough domains by including Eldritch Nexus (Core Set F154) and Overzealous Initiate (Core Set F145) so you can return and activate several of your non-unique Skulls. Unlike event cards, these artifacts will go back to your discard pile after chanting to Thoth, ready to be unearthed again.

Special thanks to Marius Hartland, who wrote this week's card preview.