Hank (Wings), Norman (Me), Vincent (Pizza), Charlie (Zebra) vs Cthugha. Kingsport with Lurker cards. In honor of the rainstorms plaguing SoCal, we “flooded” the Arkham River. (House Rule: Merchant District and Rivertown Streets are Aquatic.)
Cthugha is a PAIN during the Movement Phase. Suddenly, EVERYONE is a “slow” Investigator, and the game crawls forward one neighborhood at a time. (I suppose this is why Cthugha has a 13 Doom Track, because he sure doesn’t need all those **** hit points in Final Battle.) You end up divvying up Investigator roles not by ability, but by proximity. For good or bad, our Investigators were either naturally slow, or had the Stamina to tolerate the heat.
Wings took to Hank immediately, as the game bestowed upon her Martial Arts and a Tommy Gun. Plus, her first turn resulted in Sir William Brinton…but also left her down 3 Stamina. When a Mythos gave her a Fist of Yog Spell, I agreed to meet her with Norman at the Historical Society to take the Spell and Heal her. (Which I botched. TWICE.
“Yuh ain’t so smart, is yuh?”) Hank eventually left Norman behind, risking a Crawling One barehanded (+4 vs the Tommy Gun’s +3), and beat it up for his Soul Gem.
(Question: is there any problem with trading an “already-loaded” Soul Gem?)
After blowing two sizable Heal rolls, I blamed my traitorous dice, and exchanged them for a different set. (I have eight sets of 12 dice in my big boxes: forty-eight dice fit snugly in the space beside a small expansion box set inside a large expansion box’s plastic.) Norman tried for a free Blessing at the Church (evading the aforementioned Crawling One), but instead found a…who donates a Carbine Rifle (!!!) to a Church? Norman traveled to the Witch House, unguarded due to a full Monster Limit, and moved off to Celeano.
Zebra was torn between getting Clues and trying to find Charlie enough money to pass his Story. Vincent and Charlie pooled their cash, but because most of our monsters were pooling in the North, Charlie made a stop to buy a Sledgehammer on the way to the Newspaper. First instance of “Relentless Pursuit” for this game: Charlie “got drunk” at Hibbs, which threw him outside. A Goat Spawn from Northside charged over to him, then her partner, a Deep One, moved to stop Charlie in Downtown, long enough for the Servitor of the Outer Gods to swoop down upon him. Zebra did everything he could to slip past it—he evaded it once, but it followed him—but Charlie was devoured in Northside, inches from his Story. (Zebra was very disappointed. In the middle of all this, he switched out his dice, too.)
In his search for clues, Vincent kept running into “A Monster Appears!” Encounters. This was putting Pizza on edge, since acquiring trophies meant failing his story: “Do no harm!!!” After acquiring a Zombie and a Cultist trophy using a wimpy Athame, he raised his Sneak to avoid getting a third. This offhandedly allowed him to forget that Vincent could heal Cthugha’s burns (and thus move faster than most), so we had to keep reminding the physician to “heal thyself”.
Vincent had to choose between the Graveyard and the Black Cave for his final Story Clue. Pizza has had some BAD experiences in the Graveyard—Necrophobia!—so he risked the Black Cave instead. A dead spelunker erupted into “a monster appears!” (Vincent’s third!), and for the first time in a LOOOONG time, someone successfully EVADED a wussy Zombie. Ready to dive into the Street for his Story, the Mythos popped a Gate under him, and Pizza kinda flopped between resigned and frustrated. But then Wings said, “Oh wait. It’s a Weather Environment,” and Vincent was saved. That happened a couple of times during this game; we’re all so trained to start at the bottom of the Mythos card and work our way up.
Wings was ready to punch her way to the Train Station, but the Unnameable sent her off to Lost in Time and Space. She was all set to be indignant, but this was the first time she was LiTaS without being “Zeroed”; once informed that she lost none of her stuff AND could return directly to Pa, she was happy to spend a turn away from the heat. Then she ran around Kingsport for a couple of turns, getting Clues and removing Rift progress, before returning for healing. (Hank had been running on low Stamina since my lack of Heal.)
Zebra reentered the game with Rex, more attracted to Rex’s pile of stuff than chagrined by his Curse (probably because I said I would use my Celeano trophy to Bless him). So Rex went off for his colossal amount of Clues, and promptly got arrested in the Police Station (for not having any permits for his…wait, Rex didn’t HAVE any Weapons!).
The Feds cleared the Streets…
Rex was paroled to empty streets. He continued to progress his Story conditions, and since we were low on Seals and high on open Gates, we (I?) convinced him to postpone completing it for at least one Seal at the Black Cave (since Rex’s story has no “time limit”). There was some debate as to where to use his Warding of the Yellow Sign: the Graveyard where he was, or the Black Cave where he was going. We figured since he was going to Seal the Black Cave anyway, he could Ward the Graveyard.
…and after the Feds left, a surge replaced every one of the monsters they had been removed with meaner ones, like some kind of mass Lovecraftian Pokemon Evolution. Then another surge: “No One Can Help You Now.” BAD card with Cthugha killing a third of any possible replacements!
Vincent had passed his Story, but was immediately dumped off to Kadath. The Motorgate to Another Dimension got in Norman’s way. With no Sealing allowed, it was actually the tastiest Gate Trophy available, even though every Gate was unguarded. But because I was out of Sanity, I couldn’t use Find Gate…
Hank moved to the Merchant District Streets, to be healed by Vincent returning from Kadath (same neighborhood). When Hank attracted the attention of a wandering Wraith, they both snuck past it to move their MASH Unit south to Miskatonic (Hank to Science Building, Vincent to Admin), where Hank proceeded to undo all of Vincent’s aid by partaking in some cockamamie experiment. It had taken a dozen turns at minimal Stamina, but Hank finally checked into the Hospital. Fully refreshed, Wings bravely tossed Hank to R’lyeh at the Woods.
…and the delay allowed the Motorgate to join up with a Priest of Dagon and a gallumphing Proto-Shoggoth. “Go Norman!” Moment: I closed the Gate as a Diamond to lose the Shoggie, and used my Disguise Skill to slip past the Priest, leaving him for Vincent and his uniquely-qualified Athame. Desperately needing brains, Norman crawled north, stopping at Vera’s for a chance at some free…CURSE???
Cleaning off his blade, Vincent moved to the General Store for something bigger than a knife. He drew both the other Tommy Gun and an Old Journal. Of course he wanted the gun…but 3 Clues for $1? We actually had a chance of making a Seal comeback, and he would still have money left over for the next cheaper gun! He conceded…but only scored a Molotov in his next draw. I got a mild glare for that one, but I’ll accept that because it was one for the team.
And that’s when Kingsport blew. It always seems to happen with that one Mythos card that forces a Rift open. I said I would take Norman to Kingsport after hitting the Asylum (try to work off my Curse in the quiet mists).
Second “Relentless Pursuit” Event:
I needed cash for a train ticket after spending my last $2 on therapy. I could have joined the clue-gathering Rex (back on his Story) in Independence Square, but I didn’t want a Gate popping on me. So I decided to wait in Downtown (raised my Sneak), and get the dollar on Rex’s way out. Not only did another Proto-Shoggoth move for me, but the two Mi-Go in the Sky landed on me. No way out. Carbine Rifle for one Mi-Go: failed Horror, one 6 for Combat, Eltdown Shards. Fist of Yog for other Mi-Go: FOUR 6s for Spell Check (!), Ritual Blade. Disguise to hide from P-Shoggie. Unable to move my sliders to refresh Disguise, I only made it as far as Northside…where Hank’s Wraith descended on me. Again, no sliders! Inched to Train Station (FOUR TURNS).
Once Norman was mobbed in Downtown, Pizza declared my promise to handle Kingsport to be an offensive fabrication, and set off to do it himself. I’m guessing this ticked off Cthugha, as the Mythos deck flung Vincent to the top of the Kingsport Head. Pizza and I exchanged glances as Kingsport remained unattended. Cthugha got two Doom Tokens out of that Rift before we were able to close it five turns later.
Meanwhile, Rex had closed the Black Cave; he was going to leave it, but The Key and The Gate Rumor required two Gate Trophies. He stopped at the General Store on the way back to the Newspaper, but a Hound found him and the Terror Track closed the store, sending them both into the Rivertown Streets. However, the Seal Ban had finally been lifted. Only Cthugha’s bottom row was left, so Zebra deferred Rex’s Story again to sneak past the Hound and Seal the Unnameable. Hank was able to close the Woods—good thing too, the next Woods Mythos was a Burst, so a Seal would have been a waste—and gathered enough Clues and road kill on the way to Seal the Unvisted Isle.
Back in Kingsport, Vincent was almost insane. Vincent and Norman met at the Congregational Hospital to heal, not to mention that a second rift had blown and there were two tokens to clear at that location. But then, “Dreams of the Sunken City”. Pizza was getting twitchy, having had enough of this. After finding Thomas Olney, Blessed Vincent left Kingsport (and the Eltdown Shards) to Cursed Norman and shot back to Arkham to charge the dreaded -4 R’lyss Gate at Independence Square (eventually scoring our fifth Seal).
“Relentless Pursuit”, Chapter Three: the moment Rex sealed the Unnameable, the Hound caught his scent and came for him. This time, he was unable to slip away, and chose to be knocked unconscious rather than squander more than a couple of Clues. Of all Injuries? Double Vision, crippling Rex’s ability quite a bit. He traded in his Gate Trophy at the Science Building (giving him another Seal’s worth of Clues), and tried to get to the Asylum to fix his 1 Sanity. But a Deep One was waiting for him in the Streets. He snuck past it, but only got one street away, and it followed him. He decided to make a stand, and failed the Horror Check, choosing to save his Clues for the last Seal. Of all Madnesses? Mania, slamming down any chance of Rex getting that Seal (or passing his Story).
Wings went for some Street vengeance. After Rex had been crunched, she marched Hank right up to the Hound and caved its face in with iron fists. A Formless Spawn blocked Rex’s escape from the Science Building; she went and turned it into pudding (FIVE 6s! Yahtzee!). That Deep One was already fish sticks…
Norman had acquired enough Clues for the last Seal, but his old bones and the insufferable heat just wouldn’t give him the time. All of the “Hot Spots” were sealed or open, but it was the icy cold Lodge that let Cthugha in.
Without deliberately gearing up, Cthugha is very hard to kill. Because we weren’t able to get sane, Fist of Yog and Heal were unusable. Everything was halved: at least the Molotov and Petrifying Solution were already going to be discarded. Vincent and Rex tried to split every weapon we had into some kind of offensive strategy, while Hank with his ham hands and Brinton-fueled second wind took it all the way to the end. Norman was utterly useless, but lost his Curse about 20 seconds before eternity. Doom Track ended at 7.
Some of us took this one kinda hard. It could have been the lateness of the hour, but there was a distinct loss of morale when Cthugha woke up. We had some pretty nasty Mythos, not to mention a debilitating lack of Speed, and Rex was very specifically “snipered” by the Madness/Injury Deck, but I could partially accept our personal gameplay as part of that.
However, my Cult doesn’t know everything about Personal Stories, and I’m not going to tell them which stories are crap. (Such as, Hank gives up a Seal for his Pa—two Stats he NEVER needs!—which is pretty cool for a roleplayer, but really quite crappy for a victory.) I don’t want to stop using them, because we LIKE them, but I’m beginning to wonder how fair it is to:
“So I do this, and this, and I pass my story?”
“Yep, that’s what you have to do.”
…
“I did it!”
“Terrific! Here’s your dead rat!”
“…how will that help us win?”
“It won’t! In fact, all it will do is stink up the place! Congratulations!”
.