The game snatched my victory because I pulled a Night Gaunt from the monster box...this is how it went:

Two Doom tokens were needed to awaken Tsathoggua, but Marie and Rita were both in the second area of two OWs and were both capable of sealing them in the next turn (my investigators were basically bursting with clues in the late part of the game, but they had trouble reaching open gates to seal them). The Terror level was 10 (thank you Dunwich vortexes and Sheriff Engle blight...), and I pulled the Mythos card that opens a gate in the Science Department (no gate or seal there, so +1 Doom). I pulled a Night Gaunt for the gate. Okay so far, so I moved the monsters...Night Gaunt had to move to the sky. Hey, great, that way Darrell can move into the gate that just opened without trouble, but it shouldn't really be necessary because I would be winning the game next turn! Sooo, I go on and read the special text...all night gaunts must return to the reserve, increase the terror level by one if at least one monster returns to the reserve this way...terror level was 10, so +1 doom. Tsathoggua awakened and devoured everyone, despite everyone being blessed (thanks to the Blessing spell and the luck of having the stars aligned for at least 5 turns in a row) and having the warding statue absorb his attack for the first turn. At least I did last long enough to bring him down to 6 doom tokens =P

It was really a pity, because I even managed to kill off the Dunwich horror and to put down six seals (but two were cancelled by bursts).

It's so weird, every single time I think I have victory in my pocket, the game goes and pulls something like this...like that time I lost to Yig with half a doom token left or the countless "freak" awakenings (usually two or three doom tokens in a turn while I'm about to seal and win) =P

..You've got to love this game!

Interesting to notice that a Servitor of Nodens helped an AO!

Julia said:

Don't blame the nightgaunt: it was the unimaginable penetrating terror induced by the collective cries of the remaining residents of Arkham that nudged Tsathoggua to awaken.

Tibs said:

Tox said:

Thanks for the delightful tale of defeat!

The game is ALIVE. It KNOWS exactly what it's doing. It hears your plans, it feels your touch, it feeds on your groans. When you lose, it thrills and laughs. When you win, it remembers and holds a grudge. There simply can be no other explanation for the spooky level of "coincidence" Arkham maintains.

Sister Mary started with a Summon Monster spell. She used it on the first turn for a quick trophy. Her player had pumped up her Fight, intending to throw the Horror Check and absorb it into Mary's 7 Sanity. In a cup with every monster known to AH, what came out? A Shan. DEVOURED.

A situation like yours: two Investigators ready to return with our last two Seals. And what was the Mythos card right before that? NO ONE CAN HELP YOU NOW. The Ancient One devoured us all with that card still face-up.

How many Innsmouth stories of Investigators devoured on Turn ZERO? How many times have you rolled 9+ dice looking for a single success, and FAILING? How many of us have approached Ithaqua loaded like the Marine from Doom, and ended up with a frozen pile of junk?

IT KNOWS. AND IT WAITS. BECAUSE IT KNOWS WE'LL COME BACK. IT KNOWS!

jgt7771 said:

Yo Brother, testify! Never a truer word spoken in these halls. I have seen way too many total setups to fall for that 'just a game' ploy ever again.

Get real, people! This THING is ALIVE and its getting stronger with every person that joins the 'game'. !!!!! In my last game, Stanford was observed conducting a 'strange ritual' at the Unvisited Isle, and the very next mythos, a gate opened on the Lodge and a Hound came out and made straight for George whio was waiting to seal!

Just ONE instance among countless.

Its all freaking true! What can be done to stop this? Glad you asked ! Rule one I have observed is:

1) DONT EVER TALK ABOUT YOUR PLANS OUT LOUD. Pass notes under the table.

dj2.0 said:

What if one plays on the floor ?

Dam said:

Pass notes through gate in floor.

Now Im scared, I do not own the game yet, I just hope it doesnt cost me my sanity when I finally play it

Hail Cthulhu

H.P. Lovecraft said:

No, no Sanity cost. Sanity losses however ...

H.P. Lovecraft said:

There's good kinds of insanity, like when the game wipes the floor with you.

"Well, I have four clue tokens and amnesia. Surely I can risk a trip to the First National Grocery to buy research materials." "Actually, the moment you set foot in Innsmouth the cops grab you and feed you to a Shoggoth. You're dead." "Dammit."

And there's bad kinds of insanity, like when the rules could be saying two completely different things.

"I'm Charlie Kane, so I'm going to go to Ma's Boarding House and use my connections ability to recruit The Messenger." "That ability only works on allies that have been returned to the box." "Hello. I specifically remember returning The Messenger to the box when we were setting up." "No, no. It only counts if the ally was returned to the box after the game starts." "Where does it say that?" "Um, it doesn't." "Then how do you know?" "Umm..."

avec said:

Hahaha, now it is a necessity that we define an even higher tier of discard.

1. Discard. The card is discarded. In many cases it returns to the bottom of the deck or into some discard pile. For all intents and purposes, this card is still in the game. It may be drawn again somehow.
2. Return to the box. When you see this, you know that the card is now effectively discarded, and disintegrated. This card does not exist anymore, and can't be brought back to the game.
3. Not in the game in the first place. Not ONLY is this is this card out of the game, but it never was IN the game. It doesn't qualify as "returned to the box" because for the purposes of this game, it wasn't even taken out of the box to begin with.

Tibs said:

So when you're shuffling the Ally deck to determine which allies get taken out of the box, you have to shuffle the deck while it's still in the box?

Having fun, are we?

The politican can recruit allies that were removed during the game. This does not include those allies that were not picked out at startup.

If you play with Charlie Kane, just split the ally deck in three: remaining allies, removed allies and unchosen allies, making sure you don't mix them up.

All of which neatly brings me to

Rule No 2: The game was designed for a non-human intelligence, with tentacles.

dj2.0 said:

...of the GOO, by the GOO, for the GOO...

Shuffle time greatly reduced. Set up in 3 seconds. Multiple investigators moved at once in order. NOTHING EVER FORGOTTEN. Oh, to be a Many Angled One.

Haha, it would have been cool to get a card shuffling device for this game. So many cards...

Merely beholding the volume of the Mythos and Gate encounters decks would cause you to lose 2 points of sanity.(: