A new game today, with the Kingsport board in play as the only expansion board, plus Black Goat and Lurker. Six investigators (Hank, Silas, Rita, Dexter, Rex and Darrell) against Eihort.. No Heralds and no Guardians were used. At Mythos zero, a gate opened at the Unvisited Isle, spawning a Deep One and another easy-to-kill monster. Hank went to the Newspaper searching for a Retainer, while Dexter, Silas and Rita gathered at the Curiositie Shoppe for some shopping (we were low with weapon after the initial setup). Rex went to Independence Square for collecting a clue, and his encounter was.. a Spectral Hunter. Needless to say, with no weapon he finished pretty soon at the local Hospital with an Injury. Darrell kicked the monsters away from the Isle and dived into the surrounding water, entering the City of the Great Race. He had nothing for sealing the gate, but he was confident that somebody would be able to find an Elder Sign in not such a long time. Nobody obviously drew an Elder Sign, and Darrell was cursed as a result of his first OW encounter

First Mythos card, "Ill wind grips Arkham". Hank rolled for avoid being cursed. Zero successes. By the end of the first round, we had three cursed investigators. Not a great game start. Anyway, we collected some clues during the first two rounds (by the end of round three we had 4 cursed investigators: even Drake joined the cursed team) and Silas dived into the galactic library of Celano with enough clues for sealing. During his second OW encounter, he drew a card that forced him to discard all of his clues.

At Mythos 5, we had 1 seal on the board and 3 gates opened at major locations. Some tons of monsters swarming around and kicking our best investigators asses and a general - unsaid - idea that this combo of expansions is nastier than a normal Atlach-Nacha game. By the end of the evening - we had to interrupt the game cause it was too late, but tomorrow we'll continue until death - we had two seals on the board, after 17 Mythos and 2 Rumors passed (Good work undone and One thousand young; please notice that both rumors are clue-sucking rumors, just to slow down the pace of the game), Eihort's doom track is still at 3 doomers, but 2 rifts are about to open (3 tokens on the track of two different rifts) and we are incredibly low with sanity. Rex passed his personal story, and so Drake and Rita. 2 investigators are in OW areas with Elder Signs (and considering that we had 2 seals removed by gate bursts... ah, well) and... honestly, I can't say what will happen next.

It's definitely something worth of trying. Very difficult to control, since all gates are focused on the same locations, bursting quite quickly and without giving us the chance to gather enough clues in quite a short time. We'd probably send somebody to the High House in the Mist to buy the Great Seal just to have a little rest in a high frequency location, and then we'll see. Anyway, difficult, amazing and different from the usual experiences

Julia said:

17 Mythos and 3 doomers?!?!?! W-T-F???

Dam said:

2 Elder Signs used, Barnabas Marsh killed, 3 Double Gates cards, a couple of seal-bouncing Mythos and I don't know how many monster surges (but the game knows it well, oh yes, the terror level reached 5 in quite a short time...)

So 4 ES total involved in the game? Since you say game halted with 2 investigators in the OWs with ES each.

Dam said:

Yep! And probably we removed a doomer via Eltdawn shards. Not so sure about this point, I remember we drew that card, but cannot remember wether we bought it or we bought something else. Hmm. I should check

Julia said:

What did I tell you? MEAT GRINDER.

Kingsport Undiluted takes you back to the old old OLD days of "just Arkham". Once upon that time, the base board was dissected, over-analyzed, and shunned. But played as Julia just played it, it becomes the Revenge of the Base Board. All the things that didn't quite work with only Arkham...now work too well. "Only 11 Unstable Locations." Good luck keeping them sealed. "The Terror Track doesn't move." You'll beg to lower it. "Monsters don't win; seals win." And now you have too much of one and precious little of the other. (Julia's gotten FOUR Elder Signs and STILL hasn't won yet. Boggles the mind, eh?)

I think Kingsport needed time to mature. When it came out, either it wasn't ripe, or we didn't like how it tasted. But with Lurker and Black Goat added, Kingsport's mechanics work as advertised. The base board erupts with life, and you'll be surprised how hard it is to keep those ancient 11 Locations under control.

Thanks, Julia! I'm thrilled you've enjoyed your Kingsport tour. I'm as amused as Dam that you've been able to keep Eihort at 3, but I also note the WEALTH of happenstance events that got you to that. Without a few of those, Eihort could easily be at an 8 by now, and Doom 8 with 2 seals is a SWEATY place to be. The fact that you are legitimately entertaining the notion of climbing the Kingsport Head to get the Great Seal makes my heart fist-pump. Fantastic!

At the very least, Julia...YOU UNDERSTAND. That's so very gratifying.

Dam said:

17 Mythos and 3 doomers?!?!?! W-T-F???

Hang on. I really want to know what this is. Is this "How is this mechanically POSSIBLE???", or is it, "How can you STAND to play a single game for SO LONG???"

jgt7771 said:

Bit of both. But more on the side of what the hell is going on, 17 Mythos and GOO is still nowhere near waking up, where's the bloody tension and difficulty (stupid 4 ES to boot) ? Should've just used the RAW BGotW Herald for kicks ! Especially with only the main board and measly 11 unstable locations .

We also played against Eihort today,with Innsmouth in play and no heralds or guardians, having sealed only two locations and kept getting one monster surge after another, all of them on a single open gate on the board at the Esoteric Temple of Dagon in Innsmouth. Innsmouth was literally flooded with monsters, (one of the mythos cards spawned 8 monsters in Innsmouth- 3 from the gate surge, 5 from the headline "Innsmouth Invasion"). Silas went there to do some thorough cleansing. He would've passed his personal story a long time ago which would've won the game for us, except he kept getting delayed constantly and losing his clue tokens on critical skill checks. We've drawn the annoying environment with the mummies attacking any investigators with no exhibit items, so navigating the streets was a pain. Silas was fortunate to acquire an Exhibit item soon after the environment entered play so he could traverse the streets unharmed. We finished barely,(terror level at 8, the deep uprising track at 5, doom track at 8) as he acquired the lacking clue tokens from a warlock that appeared in Innsmouth, and sacrificed himself to close/seal the accursed gate at the Temple of Dagon.

zealot12 said:

"Clothing Drive" FTW! #2 Environment, right after "No One Can Help You Now" . Unless Lurker adds some equally "fun" ones.

We managed to continue the game today. What a hell of a game it has been ::laughing::

Anyway, the situation continued to worsen (as a notorious Innsmouth headline states). Both investigator we had left yesterday in OW areas were able to return to Arkham and use their Elder Signs to seal other two locations, but that seal sequence was blasted away by two gate bursts in a row. At Mythos 20, we had only ONE seal on the board, and even if Eihort's doom track was still quite low, the game seemed not to go in the proper direction.

Then the winds of fortune blew for us, opening two low frequency gates (Science building and Historical Society). Darrel decided to go to the first one, while Silas glided toward the second one. In the mean time, Rita was in Kingsport trying to calm down the situation (two rifts were about to open since too a long time, and the last thing I wanted was having to deal even with rifts). Rex joined her, allowing her to return to Arkham, while their fellow investigator tried to keep clean the streets from monsters. No way. A 3 monster stack seemed not intentioned to move from Independence Square, keeping high the number of monsters on the board. A Dhole appeared at a gate at the Graveyard. Silas, about to return to Arkham for another seal, drew a horrible OW encounter card and was LiTaS. Darrell returned and sealed the Science building, then moved to the Asylum. Along the way to the Asylum, somebody (maybe Rita) tossed him the Milk of Shub Niggurath. He drank it while at the Asylum, moving every monster (9) at his actual location. Hank, who was able to move after Darrell, entered the Asylum, slaughtering a Shoggot, a Dark Young, a Witch, some minor monster a finally the Dhole (he already tried to kill the Dhole, rolling 14 dice for 3 successes. He scored 2 successes and was hospitalized). Hank had only 10 dice to roll against the Dhole this time, but he managed to succeed. Reducing himself to zero Stamina and obtaining a magnificent Injury (a lucky draw, he received a Head Injury, so no probs at all with the kind of dirty work he was used to).

No monsters on the board, but very few seals (a total of three at this point of the game). After a couple of rounds, we tried to go again for sealing / closing all the gates.

Dexter succesfully used the Alien Statue and obtained 3 clues and entered the gate at Independence Square (a double gate; he choosed to go to Leng). Not enough clues for sealing, but the hope was finding something along the way, or returning, sitting on the gate and using Alien Statue again (with the hope somebody would have blessed him in some way). Silas jumped into the Unknown Kadath, while Rita was exploring the Dreamlands. Rex was in Kingsport, dealing with the rifts-that-should-not-be-opened

A monster surge hit the Unvisited Isle and from Independence Square gate emerged a Lloigor. Dexter casted Find gate to return to Arkham, took the explorer marker and decided to wait a round in order to be able to use the Alien Statue again. Another monster surge from the Unvisited Isle. Fortunately for Dexter, the spawned monster was a Maniac (even if modified by Terror at 6, he was still a Maniac, after all)

In the next round, Rita was LiTaS by her second OW encounter. Silas returned to Arkham. Dexter had to deal with the monster on the gate and tried to use the Alien Statue (please notice that none has blessed him in the meantime). He rolled 3, losing 2 stamina. So he remained with 2 sanity and 1 stamina. And a Lloigor, ready to have breakfast with him. He used his Mental fortitude skill to avoid being driven insane by the Lloigor. With an active Voice of Rah, he casted Wither. Zero successes. Fortunately, he had some spare clues (not enough for a seal, but enough for granting a couple of extra dice when in desperate need). One clue spended, one 6 obtained. With Wither he killed the Lloigor, and with his Martial arts skill he was able to kill the maniac. After slaughtering his enemies, he closed the gate. Silas sealed his, obtaining his 5th brood token. He rolled the die, and obtained 6. So no devouring. We took a deep breath, and secretly raised a prayer to Nodens.

27 Mythos, 5 seals on the board, all investigators *heavily* corrupted by brood token. Even if Eihort is STILL at three doomers (can't imagine Dam's face at this point ) we have a very little time to win the game. Tomorrow we will play the last part of this macabre scenario.

After experiencing again this kind of game, the impression is still great. I mean, it's really difficult to beat. Even if I'm quite good at keeping the Doom track low (but yeah, Dam's right, with the Black Goat herald, the game would already have been over), it's terribly difficult to find a proper way to act. In these cases, some seemingly useless items like the Nacaal Key becomes vital. Opening a low frequency location when the doom track is low and you have the clues for sealing, can be great for adding an almost-permanent seal (I don't think there are gate bursts at minor location, but even if there are some, they are very rare).

Tomorrow we should play the last part of this adventure. The equilibrium of the game moved a little to our side (Silas needs only one clue to sacrifice himself for giving us the 6th seal, and Darrell has 5 clues, so he'll enter a gate, hopefully with Dexter tossing him the Find gate spell), but... yeah, I won't bet on it. Anyway, can't wait!

Dam said:

Well, there is a lot of tension indeed. Even if there is no pressure because of the doomers, there is a different kind of pressure simply because everything we try to do is very difficult to accomplish. The seals are destroyed by gate bursts. Shops close, and there is a very little chance to recover some weapons or whatelse, so in case you are driven unconscious / insane, Madnesses and Injuries are almost a must. Every time you're very close to victory, something screws you off and you have to start everything over again. With the idea of your number of brood tokens growing and growing. And it will happen that somebody will fail the roll after receiving a brood token. So, even if Eihort is still at three doomers, if you fail two rolls in a row, he's here, ready to kick our bum. Probably with a different AO we shouldn't have this issue, but nonetheless I find the game really enjoyable. Difficult in a different way from other games

jgt7771 said:

::blushing:: it's gratifying discovering also different ways of playing the same game, so thank you for pointing out this combo. A marvellous discovery!

I've never, ever, ever had a game continuining over 3 days. And this is something I really missed. Simply because I enjoy a lot using locations special abilities and exploring and searching new challenges. I've never ever considered the opportunity of getting the Great Seal, simply because it has never been necessary (apart in the game against Altach, but I never had the time to climb the Kingsport head in that games).

And we do not have a doom track high, but the idea that the minimum error would awaken the Ancient One makes the whole session a sweaty place! Tomorrow I will post the final result!

Dam said:

I'm interested in getting the Lurker expansion soon, mostly for the new cards and gate markers. Do relationship cards break the game in any way? If so, I might pair them up with corruption-those rarely enter play, anyway. (even with mine houseruling Y'Golonac to corrupt investigators who draw tomes)

Third (and last) part of the chronicles of the neverending fight against Eihort.

5 seals on the board. A couple of gates open. 6 investigators struggling for the 6th seal before is too late. Darrell had enough clues for healing, but not enough brains to brave a new other world. So he had to go to the Asylum, to recover some mental peace before jumping into the city of the great race. Silas went hunting for the missing seal at the Unnamable, but had a bad encounter, losing 2 clues and being delayed. Hank kept on harvesting some monsters, while Rex started climbing the Kingsport Head for getting the Changed card. 2 monsters were in Kingsport, a Zombie and a Wraith, and The chill of the grave was in play. Rita was in Kingsport, trying to keep under control the rifts. Dexter had a little problems with his brain too, and thus went to the Asylum to recover energies and have a little talk with Darrell.

In a couple of rounds, the situation became horrible. A moving gate at the Historical society moved and spawned a Dark Young just in front of the South Church main door. A gate to R'lyeh opened at Hibb's Roadhouse. Another gate opened at Independence Square. The risk of a final combat due to too many gates open was pretty high, but fortunately Hank met at the station some friends returning from London, giving him some little souvenirs. He drew three Unique items and kept the Fire of Asshurbanipal. A deep breath. We can still hope. Rita jumped into a gate, but ended Litas and finally, we understood. No way of winning by sealing, not enough clues, and too a high risk of being devoured cause of Eihort's blood. Even Silas' sacrifice seemed unlikely to happen. So we decided to go for closing. Rita had a close encounter with a Nightgaunt. The Nightgaunt was killed, and she entered R'lyeh with 1 sanity and 1 stamina. Dexter used his Mental fortitude to pass the Horro check against the Dark young sitting on the Dreamlands moving gate, and then, thanks to the Voice of Ra, the Golden sword of Y'ha-Talla and Wither, nuked the monster, entering the gate (with only 1 sanity too). Hank slaughtered a Deep One and a Proto-shoggot and entered the gate open at Independence Square. Darrell finally was able to enter the gate to the City of the Great Race. Silas entered Yuggoth. Rex obtained the Changed card, but was still in the Strange high house in the Mist. Nothing under control, 5 investigators in the OW and the only one in Arkham was almost cut out from the game.

Rex drew his encounter card. He met William Blain and cought the opportunity to join his forces with him. Eihort lost a doomer.
Rita's turn in R'lyeh. 1 Sanity, 2 Stamina. A red encounter. No encounter this turn.
Dexter found a bill. 5 dollars earned.
Hank met a monster. Well, the monster met Hank. And some friends in Hank's monster trophies stack.
Silas had to do some sacrifices to the green Pyramyd. Lost the motorcycle, but was still with us.

Mythos Phase: monster surge at the Unvisited Isle, nobody could do anything but looking from a different world hordes of monsters swarming through Arkham

New round. Dexter casted Voice of Ra and Find gate returning to Arkham. All other OW investigators moved to the second area.
Encounter Phase: Dexter closed the gate towards the Dreamlands. Rita han an encounter in R'lyeh forcing her to lose 1 Stamina. Still with us, even if with 1 Stamina and 1 Sanity. Hank passed a Speed check to avoid being LiTaS due to some earthquake breaking the ground under his feet. Darrell, with only 2 Sanity, faced the Face of madness. He rolled two dice, one success and one failure. He was reduced to 1 Sanity, but still able to return to Arkham in the following round. Silas... lost his mind and thus went LiTaS.

Mythos: another monster surge, this time from the Black Cave. The terror hit 8.

Rita, Hank and Darrell returned to Arkham and were about to close, but still one gate was missing, so they decided to wait for Dexter to do the miracle.

Dexter casted Voice of Ra and then dived into the last portal (still with 1 sanity), killing the monster that was sitting there. During his OW encounter, he foudn the door back to Arkham.

Mythos: Witch house, already sealed.

During the next round, after dealing with some monsters on our returning gates, we closed 4 gates in a row.

Victory by closing in 33 Mythos. My longest game ever, and one of the toughest.

Ha, nice. Eihort is actually is one of our favorite AOs, For one, his slumber ability doesn't rush the game, as it doesn't depend on monster surges, expediate the advancement of the doom track, nor is it lethal(well, only in the long run), so I often get some varied, long and interesting games with this AO, if you only play with the Kingsport board.