Wendy (Pizza), Amanda (Zebra), Mark (Wings), Silas (Me) vs. Zhar. Kingsport with Lurker; no Herald. Somewhat disappointingly, Zhar did absolutely nothing (no doubles, no Tcho-Tchos) but provide a short doom track, although by the endgame, that was enough.
In addition to his starting firepower, Mark started with the Fire of Asshurbanipal; with Mark’s Investigator photo, Wings delighted in the pyrotechnical theme. Silas got both grenades, Holy Water and a Molotov Cocktail. Wendy got the Mythos Lore Skill; great, but thank heavens we weren’t playing Cthulhu. Amanda started with a Revelation of Script and a Warning Mirror; this allowed Zebra to max out her Lore for the entire game, and with an Expert Occultist Skill, he turned her middle-of-the-road utility-ness into the party’s Spellcaster.
Wendy (her Max Sanity at 3 due to Mythos Lore Skill) grabbed Clues and went as quickly as possible into the Under Kadath Gate at Independence Square. Amanda went off looking for Clues and Unique Items for her Story. Mark stayed in the South Church for a free Blessing, but got a free Holy Water instead, so he took it outside and threw it at a Formless Spawn. Silas went for Clues by way of following his Mineralogy Report Task. As we all went about our errands, two Surges put our entire monster limit on Independence Square:
“Hey! The Evasion Brat just took off! Get everyone downtown!”
“What do you mean ‘everyone’?”
“EVERYONE!!!”
Poor Wendy came out on a Lloigor, a Shan, a Deep One, a Vampire, and a Cultist. Thankfully, a Rat-Thing and a Crawling One had just left (although the Rat-Thing could come back). Wendy horrifyingly blew her Gate Check, and was now facing all of them on the following turn. Sporting one of the best Sneak stats in the game, she passed all five Evade checks, but now came the decision: stay and do all of that again next turn, or use her still-viable Movement Points to bail out. Since the monster limit was already reached, Gates were opening unguarded; there were safer alternatives elsewhere, so Wendy bailed. Consolation Prize: Wendy attracted the pesky Rat-Thing away from Amanda’s Northside, who had taken a large nest egg (found and traded) to the Curiositie Shoppe to shop out her story (King in Yellow, Livre d’Ivon, and a second Elder Sign).
Silas finished his Task for the Terrible Old Man, but since he had the cheap fast track to Kingsport by way of the Docks, he sailed off to remove some Rift progress. By now, all of us had located an Ally: little Wendy found policeman John Legrasse, Amanda flirted off with Thomas Malone, and Mark tackled Ruby Standish, not to mention we had seen Professor Armitage and Father Iwanicki go by, so when the Southside Strangler showed up, Wings didn’t want to lose any more Allies (our Terror Track was rising steadily from the unlucky monster limit concentration) since they were obviously following us around this game. So Mark went and immediately turned the serial killer in, replacing all that money we had given to Amanda.
Silas used his Zanthu Tablets (reassembled at the Science Building when handing in his Geology Report) to find Alchemical Process, which he used with the Terrible Old Man’s Sanity recovery to turn every lead thing not nailed down into gold for the rest of the game. Amanda had passed her awesome story (bursting with San/Stam), and was constantly recasting Revelation of Script every turn. Between the two of them, we passed The Unraveling Tapestry Rumor with ridiculous ease.
Mark was making his way back north to deal with the Independence Square Monster Mash that was finally beginning to break up, and bought himself a Shotgun. Pizza, not adapting all that well to Wendy’s style of duck-and-run gameplay, wanted to shop for a weapon as well, but the Terror Track closed the General Store, and Mark was thrown out into the Streets where Wendy was hiding. So now Pizza is complaining he can’t get a weapon, and rather than try to force him into being Wendy, we diplomatically coaxed Wings into giving up her Flamethrower, since the Shotgun is a superior weapon. (Wings is a correctional facility officer, and really doesn’t like giving up her weapons. We’ve adapted as a group, for the most part.) The Urchin with a flamethrower happily bounded off to Yuggother Dimension…where she was forced to make a Luck -1 [2] check or lose 2 Sanity, which would drive her insane (and LiTaS). Pizza ended up rolling one die at a time, each time gauging whether or not to spend another Clue token. He quit at three Clues left, then spent a long time deciding whether to lose his new Spectral Razor Spell or take a Madness. He ended up drawing Paranoia, losing Legrasse (and the ability to trade without pain), and swore an oath to never take a Madness or Injury again. This is an oath he repeated several times that night, including once in the car on the way to get dinner.
Mark was swooped upon by the still-present Shan, and fully intended to Sneak away with Ruby and a Survivor relationship with Amanda, but nothing but 1-2-3 on his huge initial roll. Wings debated whether or not to use Clues to keep going, but if she STILL failed, she would be going Clueless into the WORST Horror Check ever. Besides, that Shan had been bugging everyone since it showed up, and we all wanted it GONE. So Wings turned around, gritted her Will, and rolled a single die…6. >SQUEEEE< Then she berserked the **** thing into a fine incorporeal mist.
Since the street girl who needed the seals was woefully incapable of getting any, Amanda followed in her footsteps to Yuggoth, Silas came back to Arkham to go to the Abyss, and R’lyeh finally opened up for Mark. (Amusingly, it was actually the R’lyss Gate, so Mark loopholed his way to the Abyss instead.) While everyone was out of town, this group got its first double-gate opening. Indicative of this particular monster-choked game, BOTH were already open, so Double Surge Outskirts Time! Terror Track to 5. Interesting to note: with so many Allies leaving the game, Young Zoog left at 1, Foolishness chased after him at 3, whom Duke pursued at 5. I wondered if there was a old lady outside of town swallowing them to catch some stupid fly.
Wendy returned from LiTaS to Kingsport for a few free-standing Clues and a little Rift attention, while Amanda finished off our first Seal on the Witch House, conveniently removing every monster off the board (only squares and circles were left). We were thrilled, which could only mean we were TOTALLY being set up. Enter disaster: the Cover-Up Rumor. We were really doing a great job this time of not wasting our Clues, so of course the game decided it was not all that appreciative of our newfound Clue-preserving diligence, and threatened to take ALL OF THEM in one fell swoop. The only ones with Monster Trophies were Silas and Mark, still working their way through the Abyss. But, if you couldn’t tell, Wings LOVES killing things, and was sitting on 9 toughness. We decided we just needed to stall, and spend every Clue we had on Seals as quickly as possible. “A Surge would be handy,” I offered, and got an eyeful of stares. “Did I say that out loud?” 
As it turns out, we did get a surge, on the still-open Independence Square and the Unnameable. Silas had sealed Hibbs and was already at the Rumor in Downtown (dumping his 4 toughness with a quick wandered-to-close-to-me Cultist chaser). Mark sealed the Unvisted Isle (passing his story, which is pretty rare in my world), but had to stop to smack down an Elder Thing (from the Unnameable) in his way. Amanda had gone to the Woods, found a quick return to Arkham, and decided to use a Crowbar on a Cthonian. Half-Life flashback! (Okay, she actually had a Cursed Sphere too.) Now that Wendy was free to use her Elder Sign, she snuck past the Proto-Shoggoth and Ghast so that Silas could rush in at minimum Will (Sanity to 1) to beat the both of them with his Cavalry Saber (plus a half Molotov for the Shoggie), and Wendy could Seal the gate (going insane again) before it sucked Silas in. Silas and Amanda then met Downtown, and after Mark’s 11 toughness dump, spent our collective 8 to actually PASS the Cover-Up. Blessings and Retainers for everyone! This is the first time I have ever passed that Rumor; it felt GOOOOOD. 
With 5 Seals, the game fought back the best way it had left: if it couldn’t get the doom tokens with Gates, it would get them with Rifts. Neglected Kingsport finally blew, spitting out two Rifts in the next two turns. Monsters were everywhere, Clues were gone, and most us were sitting on dangerously low San/Stams. But we were so **** close!
Mark, Master of Avoiding Delay, and Silas took off for Kingsport to shut down those doom-spewers. (The Black Star Rift ended up moving twice to bring Zhar to 9.) The Early Frost Environment (the chilly equivalent of Cthugha) forced Silas to stop in the Train Station or be knocked unconscious. He had an Encounter with a “reserved” train that trundled a Colour Out of Space out to the Outskirts. (Take a moment for that imagery: “Foggy night.” “No…no, I think that was the train…”)
While we slowed Zhar’s last-ditch effort for doom tokens, Amanda pulled out her rabbit: that saved-for-a-rainy-day King in Yellow, and an Astral Travel. Wendy grabbed one more Clue for a Seal (if she used her Mythos Lore), and they both dove into the last two Gates (Graveyard and Unnameable). The Mythos Deck lost Gate openings to Seals, and wasted Gate Bursts on Surges. Just before the girls came back, Nodens finally showed up. Wendy could have won the game with a cheap Seal, but with all the Gate trophies we were sitting on, I persuaded Pizza to let it slide on a mere close, so Amanda could win the game with an official “Closing Victory”.
“But what if he (Zebra) blows it?”
“He won’t.”
“But WHAT IF HE DOES?”
And he did. 
Naw, not really. Zebra blew his first roll, but he just splurged on a five-clue add-on, and closed the last gate with a collective 7 Gate Trophies. Pizza still wanted to throw dice at my head.
Kingsport really helps up the monster presence in your games, if you’re looking for that. A Kingsport-board-only game tends to double the surges and focus the Gate Bursts (Lurker and Black Goat Mythos are terrific for extra Arkham bursts); I find those games end with the Terror Track in the upper 5 (this game hit 6). Zhar can almost be as bad as Azathoth when it comes to interaction, but I suppose that’s why his track is so short and his Final Battle so nasty.
Wings loves Mark, and played him much closer to his on-the-edge persona than I ever do. But we never would have gotten that Rumor without her. Zebra has emerged as quite the Spell connoisseur, and thinks that everyone who dumps on Amanda’s “unremarkable” stats fails to realize that she doesn’t absolutely SUCK at any of them either; with even a minimum amount of cards, she can slip into just about any role a team requires. Pizza dislikes Wendy’s frailness, and seems to be prepared to refuse to play her again. This could be a matter of bad first impressions: with only 3 Sanity, and a LOT of Encounters that forced a Clue on Wendy at the cost of 1 Sanity, I think it stressed him out. I still think playing Silas without Innsmouth is a bit of a cheat, but I’m happy I got him all the way to end of the game without needing his story.
I really love reading your session reports, I wish I had time for them too, i know they are a lot of fun to write. I have had some very similar experiences with Zhar, no actual effect on game, but freaky numbers of surges at the beginning, leading to very close finish. I cant see myself ever taking him down after he wakes, it seems mostly impossible.
I passed it once, narrowly, and then (i believe) blew the game.