Roland (Pizza), George (Zebra), Monterey (Wings), Gloria (Me) vs. Ithaqua. Dunwich with Lurker Mythos.
Gloria started with an unwieldy Elephant Gun, but Monterey started with a Credit Rating, and those two cards go GREAT together. Since Monterey was in an ideal shopping situation—free $2 available every turn!—and standing pat for a turn or two, I figured Gloria could make a quick stop at Independence Square (the opening double-clue location) to almost wrap up her story, casting Alchemical Process that Upkeep to do some shopping of her own. Then I got some typical Arkham Blindness (when you waste Clues on something you want, rather than saving them for what you need), and blew all those Clues trying (and failing) to get Sarah Danforth. Dumb dumb dumb.
Wings got “Buyer’s Dilemma” twice at the Curiositie Shoppe. She wanted a Magical Weapon to bolster her arsenal (for Personal Story monster trophies, and because she’s just a weapon nut), and Monterey’s really good at shopping for those, so of course the game sought to mess with her. First Purchase: Ancient Spear vs. Elder Sign. 
Monterey had already started with an Elder Sign, and Wings reeeally wanted that spear, but the rest of us tried to talk her into the second Elder Sign…cuz it’s an ELDER SIGN! It took a few minutes:
“I’ve already got one of those!”
“There’s only five in the whole deck!”
“Do we really need two?”
“It’s us. When have we ever NOT needed a boatload of them?”
“But…”
“Look, the Elder Sign is only going to cost you $3 with your Credit Rating, and you’ll have plenty of cash to shop again for another weapon next turn. And there are much better weapons.” (Was I lying? Who can tell?)
>pouty< “……….oookaaay.”
Second Purchase: Cursed Sphere vs. a THIRD Elder Sign. 
(Can you hear the game snickering?) Of course we offered a token defense for the Sign again, but I think we knew we used up our goodwill on the last buy, so we caved. Besides, the Sphere is pretty great when you’ve got a 7 in your San/Stam. (Note Pizza wisely sat out of these proceedings, as he didn’t want to get locked out of the house.) Gloria eventually made it to the Shoppe, and it was easy to get Wings to part with her .38 for a cheap-to-load blunderbuss, and even easier to get her King in Yellow (Wings not like Spells and Books!) to make up for my Clue idiocy.
Meanwhile, George crawled to the General Store to find a Map or a Motorcycle to make up for his worst shortcoming, and Roland made short work of his story. Roland started with Earl Sawyer (extremely effective at blocking Ithaqua’s Icy Winds), but Pizza has a bad habit of forgetting which cards he has—I always give him flak for this—and made a major effort to avoid being in the Streets. (Remember this…Pizza will have his payback.)
Bristling with weaponry, Monterey took off for Dunwich’s Blasted Heath, where a Proto-Shoggoth and a Nightgaunt had appeared. Even though the Shoggie had more toughness, it had smaller modifiers, so she whomped on it first. Except that she didn’t. Wings fell victim to the dreaded Arkham Dice Curse: handful of dice, fistful of failures. This happened twice—Sphere/Bullwhip/Skullcrackers and Elephant Gun—and when she tried to beat it with her fists and my Intervene, there were still more 1s than Wings had ever seen in consecutive bad rolls. She found some truly creative ways to rationalize her rolls all night, my favorite being that her pink dice (purchased specifically for her) were being rolled in the “wrong box lid”: the right box lid would be the Innsmouth one, which has a ring of “printer pink” on all four cover flaps folded inside. Pizza and Zebra refused to relinquish their shared lid, choosing instead to blame the Dunwich box lid, which obviously hated us all. (As it was, I did end up switching out for the Arkham box lid. 
)
After reading the Cursed Play and buying a Sword of Glory, Gloria revisited Velma’s Diner to finish her story. This is where I was “forced” to Intervene on Monterey’s misfortune—I gave in to the majority vote—reducing me to 1 Sanity. (Maybe one too many Alchemical Processes?) I made a quick stop to give George the Sword, Intervene, and one of Monterey’s Elder Signs in exchange for his Enchant Weapon (then I bought him a Motorcycle!) before checking into the Asylum.
Right on time, a Cultist joined the guardian Ghost at the Witch House. George had done some pretty lean shopping on his own, but he did come away with the King James Bible, which allowed him to raise his Fight to protect his minimal Stamina. Monsters cleared and Story passed, George headed to Leng and returned with our first Seal.
Our monster limit had been reached, so there were creatures everywhere. The majority of them were squares (2 Lloigors, Hound, Dimensional Shambler…eventually a Colour would show up), and the only Gate for that was on Wizard’s Hill (with a Lloigor on it, and the Colour in Backwoods Country). Roland had been trying to get to Dunwich for a couple of turns to get rid of the Hound that kept, er, hounding him. With Earl and a Dark Cloak, Roland was in Stealth Mode, continuing to move, but not making a great deal of progress. I guess the game got tired of watching him inch up the board, so it sent a Gate Encounter on top of him at the Black Cave. Not too big a deal, since he had 11 Clues, but it still left Wizard’s Hill open.
Monterey had also been moving north, but there were some lightweight targets of opportunity in her way that were too hard to pass up. Risking both Icy Winds and Curfew, Monterey made short work of a Cultist and a Child of the Goat to complete his Story, although George had to keep her out of jail after the Child. (Make up your own story there: Monterey, out after Curfew, with a dead half-naked woman at his feet…George is either a really good lawyer, or a really crooked one. 
)
The R’lyss Gate popped in the Woods, but its Mi-Go took to the Sky. Wings decided that the Woods were a better target, since I was closer to the Train Station, so Dunwich was up to Gloria…except there was a Crawling One outside the Asylum. I decided to go for broke: my Enchant Weapon failed, so if X was too high, I would go down pretty fast. X = 1! Dead Crawling One. (Whew.) Except the Nightgaunt landed on me, and I couldn’t afford to be out in the cold for another turn. So we all gave up on Dunwich for the third time, and I let myself get transported to R’lyeh at Independence Square.
Three little pigs, all offworld. Monterey was on the edge in the Abyss—his stupid Story gave him +1 Max Sanity, but NOT +1 to his Current Sanity!—and a simple “Lose 1 Sanity” knocked him off it. Lost in Time and Space with a Mania Madness. Roland was able to get out intact to Seal the Black Cave, and thanks to our Friendly Rivalry, Gloria got +1 to close the R’lyeh. Of course, that +1 merely negated the -1 of “Dire Portents Abound” (which remained in play to the end of the game, due to Weather Environments being powerless to replace it). Gloria, like Jim, is a good Offworld Survivalist, but a lousy Gate Closer. Only 1 die to close…
Independence Square Sealed.
Then the game got in a sucker punch. 
The Witch House burst George’s Seal, and put the Star Vampire and a Colour (Ooo! Appropriate!) in the Backwoods Country, making Wizard’s Hill a dangerous siege. Once again, Roland tried to reach Dunwich, but got blitzed in the Merchant District: hit by the Unvisited Isle Lloigor and the Backwoods Colour, and descended upon by the roaming Nightgaunt with a Wraith partner. Too nervous to take on the Wraith in any kind of encounter, Pizza opted to utilize the Nightgaunt to bypass the adjacent Lloigor and go directly to the Dreamlands.
Oddly, we then got our own sucker punch: “Strange Waves Subside”. 
Obviously we chose to close that persistent Wizard’s Hill Gate, removing all those troublesome squares. Gloria had already moved to Dunwich, but having lost her purpose, diverted to Gardner’s Place for three Clues. Of course, the game does not give without payment, so naturally I opened a Gate under me to Another Time. Irritatingly enough, the moment I left, Wizard’s Hill popped again, dumping enough monsters to bring out the Dunwich Horror.
Monterey returned to his home dimension at the Library, where George had stopped for a Clue. Wings had a grudge with the R’lyss Gate, so she took back her other Elder Sign from George (since no one wanted to roll a -5 Gate Check), stopped at the Science Building for a Clue, and ended up Blessed. She marched right back to the Woods and dove in.
Zebra, on the other hand, was eyeing the Horror with interest. I explained its doom token threat, its unpredictable stats, and its reward for defeat, but Zebra was unfazed (or oblivious?) George had acquired a decent stockpile—Sword of Glory, Brazier of Souls, the Bible—but I warned him that the Horror was capable of different Resistances. Since the General Store was closed (Terror Track at 4), he took a chance at Hibb’s. Ryan Dean gave him a Tommy Gun. Ooooo, let's go watch!
Unfortunately, the Gardner’s Place Gate seemed to be a portent of the end, as the next two Mythos were “lesser Gates” instead of our usual monster surges, zipping us quickly to Too Many Open Gates, too quickly for a gate-dumped-delayed Gloria and trapped-in-ghoul-cage-delayed Monterey to return in time to stop it. If Gloria had just had one more turn…
…or if I had bothered to remember that I had a **** TELESCOPE from my Starting Possessions!!! 
Oh, they really gave it to me for that one. And I totally deserved it. 
Ithaqua was in rare form, freezing the rust out of almost everything we had. At the end of the dicebath, Roland had his Magnum, Monterey had his Elephant Gun, and George had the Sword of Glory. Gloria borrowed the Sword for a first round Clue-dumping Slam, and was devoured the next round. (Toldja I deserved it.) Monterey held onto his Blessing for the whole battle to remove the last two Doom Tokens himself.
Question: I know money is not gained during the Final Battle, but we traded all of our collective cash to Roland to keep his .357 loaded, and Monterey was loading his Credit Rating into the Elephant Gun. Anyone have any problem with any of that?
This is the first time this group has passed all four Personal Stories, but wow, were these EASY Stories. On the other hand, why am I increasing Gloria’s FIGHT, for heaven’s sake?! You want to help me, increase her LORE and give her a chance to be USEFUL against those mean Lurker Gates! What good is being an Offworld Survivalist if you can’t close the deal?!? There really needs to be another round of these Stories, light easy stories to balance the tough painful ones, and vice versa, for each Investigator. (C’mon, Kevin, Android detectives got THREE!)
