We started to play with MOM a few days ago and - besides the fact we think it's completely futile for the investigators to win - we enjoyed it very much. Just to be sure, I printed out the Errata and the FAQ before the games, so we could found answers for almost every question we had. Except one.

If you are familiar with the goal of the Objective 1B of the Story 2 you know that the keeper has to move 4 cultists to the Chapel to put a Chthonian into play. But there's a character Kate Winthrop, who's got the ability to prevent the keeper to put a monster in the same room where she is. Maybe we just missing something here, but what if Kate's in the Chapel when the fourth cultist enters?

A) The Objective card is stronger and the keeper can ignore that character's ability this time
B) The keeper has to wait till that character leaves room
C) The keeper can put the Chthonian into the next room
D) ???

I'd hazzard a guess at B. On the basis that it gives the Investigators that ace up their sleeve a re-addresses the balance slightly. Time to get out the mythos cards and use Uncontollable urges.

Uncontollable urges is unavailable in Story 2 so it can be a quite challenge to the keeper then. And a huge advantage to the investigators if they can figure out what the cultists want in that chapel.

- Mythos her 1 horror + Trauma: Panic
Make her leave the room for good (unless Panic isn't available at Story 2, don't know right now)
Of course this might cost a bit, given the +1 costs. And then there's still the question how her ability affects Trauma cards (+1 cost on "costs nothing").

- Attack Mary with 4+ cultists several times
Easiest way, kill her off, there you go

- Make the player move her away
Okay, this only works when the objective isn't clear to the investigators and if they are spread a bit.
Make Mary belief she's needed somewhere else. Start attacking another investigator with a hound, demolish them in another room so Mary wants to help her friends.

I am quite sure that the answer to the OP question is C, on the other hand.

Once you have the cultist in the room, you place the Cthonian. That action is interrupted by the Flux special ability, so the Cthonian goes to adjacent room.

Since the goal of the Keeper is to make it survive 4 turns, this would actually be a bad move on the players, since the Keeper can just move away the Cthonian and be 3 spaces away from the Investigators.

I'm not sure I agree with the last post. I mean, I know we shouldn't be cross-referencing Arkham Horror, but her ability in that game keeps a gate from opening -at all.- I understand that rules for a different and competitive board game necessarily differ, but it does seem to be intended to have roughly the same effect here. The cthonian would not be able to be summoned while Kate's in the room.

This could actually make for a fantastic gameplay mechanic. If the investigators aren't ready for the cthonian, sure, they could potentially keep Kate in the room while another (one? a few?) investigators go rummaging for weapons or items. But in the meantime, there are all kinds of nasty effects the Keeper can play (remember that the mythos & trauma decks are reshuffled when you reach their end), and the event clock is ticking down. I'm not at home to look at the card, but I assume that if the event clocks ticks out, either the investigators or both teams lose.

9-Jack-9 said:

Well, I believe the wording in the cards leave no doubt :

Objective card : "...reveal this Objective and place a chthonian in the Chapel."

Flux Stabilizer : "Whenever a monster is placed (not moved) into your room, the keeper must instead place the monster in an adjacent room (if able)"

So when conditions for placing the monster are met, the stabilizer will put the monster in adjacent room. "Whenever" means that the cause for placing it does not matter.

Ah, didn't realize the Flux Stabilizer was that specific. Excellent work, Doc the Libyans will never catch us now.

Seems that scenario would almost certainly be worse for the investigators ... especially if the Keeper could move the cthonian away and put a cultist or two between it and the party members. And the investigators wouldn't know at the start of that scenario that they'd chosen the wrong investigator ... nasty.

Acererak said:

Brilliant! That solves the whole problem, yeah. Well done, good Sir
Disregard everything I said, ESPECIALLY since I only now realised that I switched Kate and Mary while typing my previous post, resulting in some edits that make no sense at all.