So after reading through some of the questions posted on these pages and collecting my own questions, I sent them all to the rules questions support. The questions with their respective answers are posted below:

1. If a player discards an ally for something like the "The Stars are Right" mythos, or sacrifices an ally for something like the "Joining the Winning Team" mission and he has a bound ally pact on that ally, is the pact also discarded? What happens to that pact?

The Bound Ally Pact is kept for the rest of the game or until the Ancient One awakes, even if the ally gained by that pact is discarded.

2. Can the Blood and Soul Pact abilities be used against Ancient Ones during the Final Battle? As in, can players discard power tokens instead of losing stamina, sanity, clue tokens, etc.

Yes.

3. When you are losing Stamina or Sanity to gain power, using the Upkeep function of a Blood or Soul pact, is it a cost or a loss? As in, can Harvey Walters gain 2 power by losing 1 Sanity with a Soul Pact? The wording on the pact card does say "lose."

It is a loss. Harvey Walter's Strong Mind ability does apply.

4. One of the reckoning cards says to lose sanity if you have power. If you have a blood pact, can you spend power as part of this loss?

Yes.

5. Can the blood/soul pact abilities allow you to gain power through the location abilities of the hospital and asylum, respectively?

Provided the pact is not exhausted, yes.

6. When a rift opens (from the Kingsport Horror expansion), it does not move until the turn AFTER it first opened. Is this the same with moving gates in Lurker at the Threshold? Or do moving gates open AND move with the same mythos card?

A moving gate may move during the same turn that it appears.

7. What happens if a moving gate would move into a vortex?

Treat vortexes as a space that already has a gate. A moving gate never moves into a vortex.

8. What happens if a rift moves into a vortex?

Nothing happens.

Revised: When a rift moves into a vortex, it stays there. Note that when a mythos card indicates that monsters with the rift’s dimensional symbol move, a monster appears in the vortex, raising the terror level by one and adding either one Dunwich Horror toke to the Dunwich Horror Track [DH] or one uprising token to the Deep Ones Rising track [iH]. If the dimensional symbol indicates that monsters move along a path that is the same color (either black or white) as the color of the symbol on the rift, add a doom token to the doom track. The drawing of the proper dimensional symbol on a Mythos Card triggers these effects, NOT the actual movement.

9. Is it possible for a moving gate to somehow move onto a location containing a seal? If so, what happens to that gate?

Moving gates do not normally move into any location that could legally have an elder sign. (Gates may only be sealed in an unstable location.) There is a Science Building encounter in Innsmouth Horror that lets players move a gate on to any unstable location. Once an unstable location has an elder sign it is considered stable, and is not a legal choice in resolving that location encounter.

10. If gates can now only be sealed at unstable locations, and Akachi can seal gates regardless of game effect, can she seal gates in streets and stable locations?

She may only seal gates in unstable locations.

11. Please clarify what the word 'cast' means for spells. Does 'cast' mean a successful check, or an attempt? If it says cast and exhaust and you fail, can you try the check again paying the Sanity cost with each attempt, and then exhaust once you've been successful? Or, once you roll an unsuccessful check, do you exhaust? The same goes for cast and discard- Do you get one attempt for the 'cast and discard' and if you fail, that's it, no more spell?

Cast is any attempt to use the spell whether successful or not. In the case of cards that say "cast and exhaust," an investigator may not attempt to cast the same spell again until after it has been refreshed during the Upkeep phase. (If an investigator has more than one copy of the same spell, he may attempt to cast and exhaust the additional copies in the same turn.) However, specific to cards that say "cast and discard," if the Spell check is not successful, simply exhaust the card. They are only discarded if the check is successful.

12. When starting a new character after a previous character is devoured, at which turn phase does the new character start? If my character is devoured by a monster during the movement phase, does the new character start at the Arkham encounter phase or does it wait until the upkeep of the next turn?

The new investigator starts at the beginning of the next turn.

Thanks for getting some of these answers! However, I see some problems...

The answers to 2. and 3. together create a situation where certain investigators cannot lose final combat against certain Ancient Ones. This is a big problem. Blood and Soul pacts should be discarded altogether when the Ancient One awakens!

5. But what happens if you spend $2 at the healing locations? Do you only get as much power as you would have healed?

7. works for me, but 8. is wrong! Rifts have already been ruled to be allowed to enter vortexes!

9. If sealed gates are considered stable, then what does this mean for Professor Rice's ally ability? What about the Hunting Horror or the "Windy" mythos card?

I've sent a message to "rules questions" in the hopes to clear up these issues, and to ask a couple other questions too.

Well, I hope the answers come soon since you pointed out some obvious discrepancies.

I'll be sure to post the moment I hear something

Tibs said:

For the first part: Example? Can't really think of any. Although, this wouldn't be the first time that an AO attack was rendered obselete. Roland/Nyarlathotep, for example, or Rhan-Tegoth before the set was even released (ugh). I don't think this is actually a deal-breaker. I think sooner or later FFG will release an updated pack of AOs.

For the second part..... deal with it. The new ruling is better than the old one. Everybody knows it. Preceedent can't be the only guide.

First part: Yig attacks. Harvey absorbs 1 point of sanity and discards a power to prevent a stamina loss.

Next upkeep: Harvey uses one of his pacts to lose 1 sanity (which becomes 0) and gains 1 power. Harvey can never be harmed by Yig.

All the AO issues have been oversight alone. That doesn't make it okay. Particularly since past expansions and errataed base-game items have been very careful to avoid these situations, it's been disappointing to see that later ones don't. It's not even an issue of multiple-expansion interaction: all the examples you and I gave were base game + expansion ONLY.

Additionally, since Reckoning cards aren't even drawn anymore during final combat, it seems silly to allow the investigators to continue to use the purely beneficial pact cards and power tokens, as there are no random drawbacks. Soul and Blood pacts should just be discarded at AO awakening.

Second part: why the hostility? It's not an issue whether or not rifts enter vortexes: it doesn't cause problems either way. It's not even related to the Lurker expansion in the first place! The issue is that a ruling was made on this long ago that worked fine and causes no issues today; but whoever is answering the rules questions seems to have forgotten it. This throws the whole situation of "getting an official ruling" into question.

And how is the ruling that rifts can't enter vortexes better than if they can? Why does everyone know it, and how are you so sure they do?

Who is answering these questions, and why was it so easy for them to answer these questions and ignore the 25,000 other ones we've been stockpiling? Not that I don't mind some of the answers, but I have trouble putting any stock into this since it has seems that FFG has been busier elsewhere, and to get these answers out of the blue reeks of getting answers from someone who hasn't really played the game as extensively as we have.

I'm not going to get in the middle of any of this, but Tibs, Kevin fixed Rhan-Tegoth with a sentence that has always stunk to me of "arbitrary": "No one can block Rhan-Tegoth's stamina loss." I think Kevin just threw that out because it is the ONLY way to solve the Michael situation without "fixing" Michael in some way. It's not printed on the card, and yet everyone was so very quick to approve of it. Adding the same unprinted arbitrary sentence to Yig, Ith, and Hastur, again, solves all the problems that might occur from any Investigator or card, and yet everyone seems to be dead-set against it. No offense, but wtf? Everything new is "broken" and everything old is "etched in stone"? I don't get it.

On the other hand...with Dark Pacts in play during the Final Battles, EVERYONE is immune to Nyarlathotep if they bring Vincent or Carolyn. So, sorry, FFG Answer Person, if Bound Ally Pacts are taken away, it's RIDICULOUS to leave Blood and Soul Pacts intact when it causes so many other problems with existing Ancient Ones. Someone's not thinking somewhere, and I'm not EVER adapting that during Final Battle, I'm returning the Lurker to the box and leaving any of his Pacts under Investigator control.

Final battle is the endgame, and is supposed to be somewhat epic. Designers of expansions should be more careful to make sure that they don't create insta-win situations. It shouldn't be up to the players to tease out flaws as large as guaranteeing a win. That is why I'm sad to see that Earl Sawyer and Ammi Pierce say "discard when the AO awakens" but Herbert West and The Terrible Old Man don't (they have been FAQed too though. Guess who had to suggest that one?).

jgt7771 said:

I don't understand the Nyarlathotep thing. Power tokens are not clues, so Nyar's effects don't target them. You run out of clues and have tons of power, you're still dead.

Also I'm not sure I understand your last declaration. Are you saying you'll never leave the pacts in play for final battle, or that you'll never discard them? Also this person says that Bound Allies stay in play until endgame (understandable), and it looks to me as though you think s/he said something otherwise.

Tibs said:

Uh...can't you use a Power token as a Clue token? Isn't that exactly what it says on the Pact cards? Nyarlathotep says "Clue Tokens", right? I can't substitute (according to the new rules)? I must be missing something here; enlighten me?

I will never leave Dark Pacts in play if I am returning the Lurker to the box. Bound Allys have a specific Final Battle function, but they are functionally discarded; I'm not treating Blood and Soul Pacts any different. ALL Pacts will leave Investigator control.

Tibs said:

I assume it means "stable for the purpose of moving gates on to them".

The answer to 7 hints at a question that hasn't been asked yet - what happens if two moving gates move into the same street space? The answer to 7 implies that the second one to move stays where it is instead, which seems an unnecessary restriction on fun in the streets, but does at least stop other more obscure cases from becoming a problem.

I got a revisal for the answer to question # 8:

Apologies! I see that I misread your question number 8 as a repeat of question 7.

When a rift moves into a vortex, it stays there. Note that when a mythos card indicates that monsters with the rift’s dimensional symbol move, a monster appears in the vortex, raising the terror level by one and adding either one Dunwich Horror toke to the Dunwich Horror Track [DH] or one uprising token to the Deep Ones Rising track [iH]. If the dimensional symbol indicates that monsters move along a path that is the same color (either black or white) as the color of the symbol on the rift, add a doom token to the doom track. The drawing of the proper dimensional symbol on a Mythos Card triggers these effects, NOT the actual movement.

I have edited the answers above to reflect the revised answer for #8.

jgt7771 said:

Not during the Final Battle. The ability to spend a Power token as a Clue token is granted by the Bound Ally Dark Pact, which is lost when the AO awakens.

Musha Shukou said:

I beg your pardon?

Word for word (looking at the card right now):

Blood Pact

When you gain a Blood Pact, restore your Stamina to full.

Any Phase: While this card is refreshed, any time you would gain any amount of Stamina, you may instead gain that amount in Power.

You may spend a Power token as either a Clue token or as 1 Sanity when you suffer a Sanity loss.

Upkeep: Exhaust Blood Pact and lose X Stamina to gain X Power.

Soul Pact is almost exactly the same, but switching "Sanity" and "Stamina". Now read that, and reconsider your statement.

I duno, I can see the clue thing as being similar to the cost vs loss issue. When you run into an encounter that tells you to lose a clue token but you don't have one do you lose a power if you have one? Nyarly says lose not spend.

No, Nyarlathotep does not target Power. Power tokens are not clues; they may only be spent as clues sometimes (you need the correct pact). This is a good thing anyway, since certain investigators could then hold Nyarlathotep at bay indefinitely (Michael, Harvey, Carolyn, Vincent, Leo, Lily), which is something to avoid.

Veet said:

. . . . .

ACH! GIBBER! Rassafrassarassafrassa...

>SIGH< Thanks, Veet, Tibs. Feeling quite sheepish to have totally missed that, EVEN AFTER typing out the whole flippin' thing myself.

Noob newb noub knewb pneub knuyb gnueb.

Tibs said:

Heh, the wording on nine really irritated me also. The answer was clearly rushed through.

Also, the first question left out what happens if the investigator with the bound ally pact is devoured or retired. Does it stick to the player or disappear with the investigator?

jgt7771 said:

Yes. Except for the discard vs. spend distinction :')

re: Tibs. I think it'll have to be ruled that blood pact and soul pact are discarded in final battle; otherwise I'm going to start petitioning that FFG errata Lurker so it's a Guardian instead of a Herald.

When I sent my questions in, I mentioned discarding (non-ally) pacts at final battle, reasoning that since no gates will open during final combat, the Reckoning mechanic will not be used. Considering that this is the main risk associated with the pacts, it's a very good idea to strip off the pacts at final combat. Bound allies join the AO, and pacts are considered fulfilled.

Avi_dreader said:

Yeah I just thought of that one too. Write it down for the proto-FAQ.

Tibs said:

Heh... I'm pretty sure most of this stuff needs to be included in the proto-FAQ... Which reminds me, we need to talk about that.

Musha Shukou said:

According to page 16, "casting" a spell requires 2 things: pay sanity and passing a Spell check (see highlighted portion below), which is more than merely attempting to cast.

In addition, the hands indicated on the spell are used up in the attempt. (mentioned elsewhere).

So "cast and exhaust" may mean either exhaust, then roll dice or roll dice and exhaust if the spell check passed.

I've always played it the first way, now I'm not so sure. It's the way the rule answered indicates, but I don't think its what the rules really say.

"cast and discard" clearly is more like the second way: roll dice, then discard if the spell check is passed, otherwise exhaust (which is nowhere mentioned in the rules). I don't think anyone discards the spell on a failure though that question has come up a lot in my games.

Rules from page 16: An investigator must successfully cast a spell in order to
gain its benefits. Every spell has a casting modifier, and
most have a Sanity cost. To cast a spell, an investigator
must pay its Sanity cost and then pass a Spell check.
To pay the Sanity cost of a spell, the player simply
removes a number of Sanity tokens from his total equal
to the cost of the spell. Players must always pay the
Sanity cost of a spell, whether or not the investigator
subsequently passes the Spell check.
A Spell check is a skill check that uses the investigator’s
Lore value, adjusted by the spell’s casting modifier. If
the Spell check fails, the spell has no effect. If the check
succeeds, the spell takes effect.
Example: Harvey Walters attempts to cast Heal, a spell
with a casting modifier of +1 and a Sanity cost of 1.
First, Harvey pays the Sanity cost , then he makes a
Lore (+1) check. His Lore is 4 at the moment, so he rolls
5 dice and gets 2 successes. The Heal spell is successful.
The spell’s effect allows Harvey to recover Stamina
equal to the number of successes he rolled on the Spell
check, so Harvey recovers two Stamina.

So I just asked some of the remaining questions to the rules questions support at FFG, here is the response:

1. It has already been answered that the blood/soul pact abilities can be used to gain power at the Hospital/Asylum, respectively, but can you please explain this for the case of an investigator already at max stamina or sanity? If they are already at max value, can they still spend $2 to gain power? How much would they gain? If they are NOT at max value, can they spend $2 to gain power and how much would they gain?

A. If an investigator is at the Hospital or Asylum and spends $2 to restore his Stamina or Sanity (respectively) to it's maximum he may use a Blood Pact or Soul Pact (respectively) to instead gain an amount of Power equal to the amount of Stamina or Sanity he would have gained. If an investigator's current Sanity is 3 less than his maximum and he spends $2 at the Asylum, he could either gain the 3 Sanity that restores him to his maximum or gain 3 Power instead. If his Stamina or Sanity is at full, using a Dark Pact would give him 0 Power, as 0 Stamina or Sanity would be gained by spending the $2.

2. If an investigator with a dark pact card (specifically, bound ally) gets devoured or retired, what happens to those dark pacts? Are they discarded as well? Or do they stay with the player as do monster and gate trophies?

A. If an investigator is devoured (or retired), he loses all Dark Pacts and Power tokens.

3. It has been stated that an Elder Sign turns an unstable location into a stable one. How does this affect other cards that deal with unstable locations, like the ally Professor Rice's ability, or the Hunting Horror monster, or the Windy mythos card?

A. For all cards that make a reference to stable or unstable location, any location with an elder sign on it is treated as a stable location.

4. It has also been stated that gates cannot move onto other gates, including vortices. Would it be safe to assume then that if a moving gate would move onto a space already containing a gate, that it wouldn't move at all? What if 2 moving gates would move onto the same location at the same time?

A. If multiple Moving Gates are activated, the first player chooses the order in which they move. A Moving Gate does not move if there is already a Gate marker in the location it would move into. For the purposes of Moving Gates, treat vortices as a location that already has a Gate marker.

5. If blood and soul pacts can still be used during the final battle against the ancient one, it does seem that certain investigators would become invincible against certain AOs. For example, Harvey Walters with a Soul Pact and Michael McGlen with a Blood Pact could not be defeated by Yig. They could use the upkeep ability of their dark pacts each turn, gaining 1 free power, then reducing the damage dealt by Yig by 1, according to their Strong abilities, and then spending that power for the other loss. Or does the pact have to be refreshed i n order to spend a power as a stamina/sanity.

A. In an upcoming FAQ it will be clarified that investigators cannot gain Clue tokens or Power during the final Battle.

6. The same question as above for any investigator in a battle against Nyarlathotep. Are investigators able to spend power as the clue token loss during Nyarlathotep's attack?

A. In an upcoming FAQ it will be clarified that investigators cannot gain Clue tokens or Power during the final Battle.

7. For the ancient ones, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, and Shub-Niggurath, when does the devouring take place- as soon as you have 0 tokens/trophies, or when you fail a check with no more tokens/trophies to lose? ie: Against Yog, you have only 1 gate trophy, and you fail the will check. Do you lose that trophy and then get immediately devoured? Or do you lose the gate trophy, keep fighting, and if you ever fail the check again, get devoured?

A. As soon as an investigator loses his last Clue token/monster trophy/gate trophy, he is immediately devoured.

Thanks, Musha! Your responses are of great interest to me. Particularly that you can't gain clue tokens or power in final combat, and that having 0 trophies after Yog's/Shub's attack is what kills you, and you can't merely stay afloat indefinitely with 0.

This upcoming FAQ is gonna be awesome. I can just tell. The coordinator has been very clear with us and has kept good communication, proving that this project isn't going to be lost in time in space again.

Musha Shukou said:

Answer 6 is something I saw coming.

Answer 7 is something I find a bit unfortunate, since it doesn't seem to make sense (flavour-wise). I understand they decided on this ruling because in effect the resource you're losing replaces SAN/STA in final combat and when one of these hits zero, you're finished, too. Still, what exactly is killing me if I run out of clues? This will take some getting used to.

jhaelen said:

What exactly is killing you? It's an indescribable horror from beyond time and space! Not understanding what exactly is killing you about losing clues/tokens is exactly what is killing you. The attacks from these beings are incomprehensible!