Since getting Innsmouth my group has used the Mother Hydra Herald a fair amount, but up until a couple days ago we'd never used Father Dagon. Frankly I was wary of putting him in play since, while he might not be the equal of Ghroth or the Black Goat of the Woods, he seemed pretty frightening in his own right. Nevertheless we used him on Saturday, with Y'golonac as the bad guy and all three of the Horror expansions.

It didn't go well.

The first Mythos card was an opening at Silver Twilight and two monsters, a Mi-Go and the Servitor of the Outer Gods, were placed in Kingsport. Then we drew the extra Mythos card that Father Dagon requires you to draw at the start of the game: Innsmouth Invasion! Very thematically appropriate, but hardly a good sign for us. Roland had Pickman as an ally, so he motored down to the Innsmouth Shore and blew a Shoggoth apart with Dynamite. The thematic fun continued with cultists performing a ritual that unleashed two monsters into Innsmouth's Factory District. A Color in Sawbone Alley drove Roland insane and William Yorick, who'd followed Roland down to Innsmouth to fill some empty graves, was set upon by a Rat-Thing, the Mi-Go and the Servitor, when the Environment had just changed to Mi-Go Technology!

He killed the three toughness Mi-Go first and picked up the Fetch Stick and Joining the Winning Team. Feeding the latter item to the Rat-Thing he slew it as well. He rolled one die for the Servitor's Horror check and to my surprise passed it! His controller said through gritted teeth, however, that Yorick wasn't supposed to pass that check. Nevertheless with the Fetch Stick he managed to defeat the Servitor of the Outer Gods. Next turn the Color flashed again and Yorick went to the Asylum. He took a Madness card, and then another Madness card for failing his Personal Story. Double Addictions came up and the grave-digger went to his own grave.

Although we got Daisy as a replacement, William had possessed most of our good weapons and given Y'golonac's slumbering effect we were understandably reluctant to shop. Father Dagon tried and failed to eat Wendy at Devil's Reef and a gate and a rift opened at Wizard's Hill. The Cover-Up Rumor came up right after Roland had taken advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime offer from Basil Elton to become Captain of the White Ship. At this point in desperation I had Roland sail to join the other three Investigators in the Other World, even though he didn't have enough Clue tokens to seal, in the ludicrous hope that somehow he would gain them from OW encounters. And you know what? He did!

Rex Murphy got the Green OW encounter that lets you trade Clue tokens with other Investigators, and he gave what was needed to Roland. In spite of the Cover-Up going off soon, we were on our way to a quadruple seal and Wendy still would have had her Elder Sign to use after that. That's when a couple monsters slipped through vortices and Father Dagon took two clue tokens from everyone, leaving most of us without enough to seal. After we failed the Cover-Up Rumor a couple more terror increases were all that was needed for Father Dagon to awaken Y'golonac and doom the world.

So what have I learned? As I suspected from merely reading him, Father Dagon is a tough Herald. I'd actually put him on the same level as the King in Yellow. You have to keep the Terror Track from rising when using him, or you WILL pay. With all three Horror expansions being used in our games our win/loss balance is precarious enough that we likely won't use Father Dagon again. Like the Lurker gates, he adds just a bit too much burden for us to be able to deal with him.

Wow, interesting game report

Besides playing a scenario which called for using both Innsmouth Heralds, I haven't used either yet. I first wanted to get a couple of games under my belt using just the Innsmouth board to better judge how difficult it is compared to other boards.

Father Dagon sounds nasty indeed!

jhaelen said:

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Father Dagon is very nasty, as I got the chance to see in our two games following this one . My masochist of a brother wanted to keep using this nightmare of a Herald, so we tried him with Hastur and Shub-Niggurath as well. Sure enough, both times the AO awakened. As I stated before, Father Dagon with all four boards is just too much for you to hope to seal. There's always going to be a monster slipping through a vortice in Innsmouth or Dunwich and upping the Terror Level. And making sure all four Investigators have at least one clue at all times is extremely difficult. I put my foot down and we're done using him for now. We'll give good ol' Tulzscha a try .

Dagon is the worst. Everybody has a lot to say about the Black Goat herald, with good reason. The game speeds to an end. But it's kind of an interesting fast-paced game.

Dagon, on the other hand, speeds the game to an end while eating your clues . That's annoying .

If I played a Rhan-Tegoth/Dagon game, I'd probably need a stiff drink.