Greetings, fellow Arkhamites!

Looking for a few responses to gauge how others have played this particular card. As has been noted time-and-time again, FFG's strong suit is in the development of a very involved and highly thematic game, while occasionally missing the 'editing' function for their cards.

Museum Haunted ~ Headline: "...Investigators who destroy one of these Ghosts before the end of next turn may draw 1 Exhibit Item."

There are at least three interpretations (possibly more):

1. An Investigator defeats one Ghost (receives an Exhibit Item), and hides from the other Ghost, while another Investigator may defeat the other Ghost and also claim an Exhibit Item.

2. An Investigator may defeat both Ghosts and claim 2 Exhibit Items.

3. The Ghosts, while they both appear in the Miskatonic University Streets are treated ostensibly like the monsters encountered on the Rumor, The Terrible Experiment, whereby they're treated independently, so as in the first interpretation, the initial Investigator need not Evade the other Ghost.

Thanks in advance for your interpretation assistance.

The Professor

The Professor said:

I think your first interpretation is correct. You kill at least one Ghost, you draw an Exhibit item. I don't have the card with me, so I can't be too sure.

Number 1. Oh, and 2 if applicable. DEFINITELY not #3. No wording at all like that should happen. They're regular monsters, so there's a chance they may both end up in the outskirts, anyway :-x So treat them just like normal monsters, but when you kill one before the end of the next turn, you get an Exhibit item (so if you kill both, you get two Exhibits). I've played it that way when it's been drawn so far, anyway!

Thank you both ~ Sister Mary may be in possession of two Exhibit Items in just a few minutes...

The Professor said:

But according to Father Michael, these items are a 'ghastly affront to the Lord'...

Yeah, and those mummies are really just poor people in rags o_O

that's actually hysterical, as I've played a total of four complete turns (thus, five Mythos cards), and I've pulled...

Museum Haunted ~ Headline (original question)

Church Boycotts Exhibit ~ Environment (Mystic) Thank you, Mi Go Hunter!

Clothing Drive ~ Environment (Urban) Thank you, EcnoTheNeato!

Professor, I don't know whether my memory is good enough to help you, but, if I remember correctly what was said in a previous thread, both 1 and 2 are possible. An investigator can kill a ghost and hide from the other one, allowing a pal to finish off the monsters and being both rewarded by two Exhibit items, or the very same investigator can kill both ghosts and obtain two items.

Surfing through the old threads, I found this TIbs post:

Proto-FAQ:

Q: Escape from Arkham Asylum and Museum haunted - What happens to these monsters if the condition is not met: do they stay on the board, go back to where they came from, go back to the cup? Do they count against the monster limit?
A: They stay on the board and count against the monster limit. Which means some monsters might not get placed on the board when the card is resolved.

This of course also applies to the Museum haunted mythos card, that places two Ghosts on the board. But in that case you get an item for EACH Ghost defeated, so if one gets Outskirted, you can still collect some treasure.

Also, if you have some weird expansion item or effect, you may actually be able to defeat Outskirts monsters. Rare, but possible.

we know that the Proto-FAQ are something LiTaS (they can differ from the final version and our triumvirate is not allowed to talk about this final version until it's released) but for now this maybe can be a little help

Thanks, Julia.

To all, Sister Mary picked-up the Tablet of Bast and the Pentagram of Blood.

So far as I can tell, it says "each" Ghost drops an item (as opposed to the Asylum one where the third Maniac drops one), so I award an Exhibit item from each. And there's nothing saying they don't count against the limit, so hopefully you have room for them (or don't, depending on if you want Ghosts clogging the streets).

The Professor said:

Do yourself a favor and don't ask what the word "enters" means on the Pentagram of Blood. Just flip a coin.

For that particular card, "enters" probably means "moves to." Though, in all the years I've owned that expansion, we've never felt the need to use that card.

As in, when the chit moves from the monster cup to the location, right? [bats eyelids innocently]

Thinking about it, since Spawn monsters didn't exist when this card came out, if monsters appearing on the space are also blocked, that shouldn't apply to spawns. Spawns moving onto the card from another space should be blocked though.

Just to catch up the folks at home, sometimes "appears" counts as "enters" and sometimes it doesn't, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. If you use a Pentagram of Blood on a street, and monsters appear there as a result of a mythos card (e.g., "two monsters appear in Miskatonic U streets"), then the Pentagram won't keep them out. This is because the Pentagram keeps monsters from entering the space, but monsters that simply "appear" are not considered to have entered the space.*

However, if you have an encounter that says "a monster appears" and you draw a werewolf, you immediately lose 2 Stamina. This is because the werewolf does damage when it enters your space, and in this case a monster that appears does count as having entered the space.

As a result, it's unclear how the One Thousand Young rumor is handled, since monsters are only placed on the card if they "enter" the Uptown streets. So, if monsters appear in Uptown Streets (e.g., "Sheldon Gang Turns to Police for Aid!"), do we place those monsters on the mythos card? Did they enter Uptown streets or didn't they? No one knows.

*Tibs - I'm not sure how the Spawn status affects this ruling. Also, the Pentagram can only be placed on a street and I don't of any Spawn monsters that begin play on the streets.

avec said:

I was just looking for a way to say that the easiest answer would be to disallow the Pentagram from working on "appearing" monsters.

Yes, the whole "entering" bit is a bit confusing. Where there lack official answers, I'll play it thematically.

mi-go hunter said:

But it was Father Michael's paranoid outburst that sent Mary to do her own investigating in the first place.

Riot monsters do from the Doyle Jefferies Blight card in KiY. Oh! And the Dunwich Horror. Just to let you know (and not to partake in the enters/appears debate that involve verbage in two different cards from two different expansions, one of which is infamous for its terrible wording...)

Carry on, gentlemen!

No I feel like an idiot for failing to think of those.

I thought of the Dunwich Horror, but forgot that Sentinel Hill was a street space and immediately disregarded it.

Use the Pentagram of Blood on Sentinel Hill. That would be intriguing.

Like I said, spawns should be exempt from Pentagram. That would make a Pentagram on SH just about as useless as it could be.

Tibs said:

I don't follow. What's the rationale?

I think he means spawns SHOULD be exempt. But that's just me. Then again, if you are able to predict the emergence of the Dunwich Horror, and spend 7 or 6 stamina before he comes out, by all means, do so and waste resources, since no other monster goes to sentinel hill (that I can think of), more power to you if you get it to work!

IF the Pentagram can prevent a spawn from APPEARING:

Spawns should be exempt for the same reason they're exempt from "remove from the board" effects. Spawns provide critical gameplay mechanics. What happens when the Dunwich Horror awakens and there's a pentagram on his space? Where does he go? There's 3 DH tokens out, so he has to go somewhere. What happens when the pentagram gets too low? Does he appear then? It's just too confusing.

Maybe spawn monsters should be exempt, but they're not.

If the Pentagram is placed on Sentinel Hill, it actually probably wouldn't work so well. The Pentagram would prevent the Horror from appearing, but the Dunwich Horror track isn't cleared until the the Dunwich Horror is defeated. Also, the rules say to place the Dunwich Horror on Sentinel Hill whenever the Dunwich Horror track is filled (not "gets filled"). So the Pentagram would delay placement of the Dunwich Horror until the number of tokens on the Pentagram drops to four or lower. Then the Horror would be placed automatically.

Or we could rule that "appears" does not necessarily imply "enters," in which case the Horror would be placed normally. Just sayin'