Greetings fellow furtive Investigators and marooners of forbidden knowledge,

I require reassurance. My steadfast and much esteemed colleague, Mr Harvey Walters, had travelled through the damnable Dreamlands and returned to close the Gate. The tireless and oh so determined Mandy Thompson (the mere mention of her name is a cause for me to unashamedly swoon) had entered the Dreamlands Gate location in the Woods after Harvey had appeared. She was confronted not only with a dishevelled and gasping Mr Walters (hiding beneath a pile of cankered old curtains, I may add) but also two nefarious fiends from the abyss (a Cthonian and a Mi-go, no less). She held her nerve and hefting her trusty chromium flame thrower from her Art Deco handbag , the ignition flame causing shadows to dance playfully across her silk blouse...ugh, cough...she let loose the fires of hell. The Cthonian was fried, its blackened carcass collapsing into a mushroom cloud of ash. The Mi-go too was despatched utilising the sabre and handgun. ****, Mandy you are without doubt the best.

I am ashamed to say, for one reason or another, I had a momentary lapse of concentration. Harvey was to close the Gate and seal it giving us 5 gates closed (an important moment for all of us). Would I lose blessed Mandy though? I had made her enter a location with a Gate that was about to be sealed for good leaving her to battle her way through the Dreamlands and (if she prevailed) end up delayed in Lost in Time and Space. I felt such a fool. She gave me a withering stare from the board that felt not unlike an icicle knife puncturing my lower bowels. I was abashed. Yet...and yet I suddenly remembered the turn order. Following the turn order Harvey was to go first during the Arkham Encounters phase. He promptly and with his usual ridiculous arm waving and manic incantations (theatrical flapper if ever I saw one) closed and sealed the gate with five keys. Mandy, saved from the Dreamlands Gate now went on to eventually close and seal the sixth gate and so save the world from Cthulhu.

I hope I got this procedure correct. It is a strategy I will use again to clear locations of monsters when Investigators return to close gates.
PS Mandy has forgiven me for my terrible oversight and we are just about talking again. I refuelled her flamethrower canisters...which helped.

Farewell brothers and sister quietly saving the world from the abyss

Correct. Turn order was Harvey and then Mandy. Thus Harvey first can close/seal the gate and then Mandy takes her turn on a now gate-less location.

Nah, you got it right. I do the same thing sometimes, in case I have someone with a low chance of sealing the gate and there's some monsters on it (or if there's another gate open to the dreamlands, lets say, somewhere else on the board). DOn't forget Mandy has an encounter at the woods, though! Oh, and Harvey wouldn't have to face the monsters that turn, either, if he returned in that same turn. The rules give you a 1-round free pass. But you probably already knew that and wanted to make sure Harvey made it out alive! So yes, turn order really does matter!