Nyarlathotep is a very mixed bag as an AO. On the one hand, he can be disgustingly easy to defeat in combat, even if you aren't especially prepared for him. Because they go into the monster cup you could go an entire game without seeing a Mask, and his Endless Cultists increase the difficulty of drawing a Mask monster. On the other hand, the eight Masks are very fun and challenging when they show up, and Nyarlathotep has the coolest Sinister Plots of any AO.

Whenever I do a game against Nyarly I always sprinkle the Masks across the top of our monster cup. Usually this pays off with increased exposure to the Masks, and the current game is no exception. We had the Bloated Woman appear when the first gate opened at Whately Farm. She passed through a vortice, and showed up later in the game at Unvisited Isle. A closed gate sent her back and she showed up AGAIN at the Black Cave, just as Diana was trying to close and seal the gate! The Haunter in the Dark was actually driven off by the bright and sunny evironment (the first time I've ever seen that happen), but he too returned. The Black Man has shown up and been defeated once, but here' s the really impressive part. The Beast appeared from an encounter at the Graveyard and nearly devoured Diana and the Skinless One has shown up on two different "A monster appears", once at Hibb's Roadhouse and once at the Science Building! In neither case was the Investigator involved remotely prepared to confront him and many clue tokens had to be sacrificed in order for us to escape.

Right now we have four gates sealed, and things are looking good, but we'll see how it goes. Anyone have any stories about encounters with the Masks?

I killed "God of the Bloody Tongue" twice with Bob and keeping it as a trophy the second time.

Really I'm glade they don't show up very often because when they do there here to stay because no one really wants to mess with them. Except for Bob but he's trying to sale them something.

Solan said:

This was during the Summer League Scenario. Amanda tried to evade the Black Man on the streets, failed, and got devoured. Incidentally, this has been the only time I lost an investigator in the League (I've played up to scenario 6).

It's really a pity the Masks don't show up more often.

Speaking of the Black Man, I'm never sure quite how to play trying to Evade it.

The rules say that if you fail an evade check against a monster, it deals it's combat damage to you (without any further rolls). But the Black Man doesn't actually have any combat damage. Does this mean that:

* Nothing special happens: You just move straight into standard combat and make a Luck check to see what happens

* You are instantly devoured- "devoured" being the closest thing to combat damage the black man has.

?

AndrewClarke said:

We've always played the former, and I feel a bit more justified in doing it that way, since now there ARE monsters that will devour you as their "combat damage", i.e., the Moon Beasts.

Thematically? "No sense hiding from me, stranger...I know you're there. Why don't you just come out here, where we can...deal..."

AndrewClarke said:

I assumed the latter, essentially Devoured is its combat damage.

Well, we did end up with a victory, but a couple of gate bursts and an awakened Dunwich Horror made it pretty close. Incidentally, the Skinless One turned up again, coming out of a Hibbs Roadhouse Gate, and the God of the Bloody Tongue thrashed Sister Mary in Lost Carcosa.

I'm sorry to hear that some people don't often see the Masks; they are certainly the best part of a game against the Crawling Chaos. Again, I think the key is HOW you put the Masks in your monster cup. I distribute them randomly over the top just before the game starts and always take the first monster token my hand touches, and therefore I usually draw about six Masks a game.

Actually, the Moonbeast's combat damage isn't devouring, it's only two Stamina. Now if you go insane or get knocked unconscious while you're facing a Moonbeast, THEN you're devoured (tortured to death, given what is says about Moonbeasts in the CoC game). The only monster whose combat damage (and horror damage) is devouring is the Skinless One Mask.

I don't think you should be devoured if you fail to evade the Black Man. It has his combat damage as nothing, and it states that you make the luck check before making a horror check. So my interpretation is that if you fail to evade him, you simply take the Luck check.

On a related note, since the Nightgaunt damage is throwing you through a gate, my interpretation is that if you fail to evade a Nightgaunt you get thrown through the nearest gate without having to make a horror check. Agree or disagree?

Solan said:

Absolutely agree. In fact, that's a valid tactic to being tossed into a Gate guarded by monsters you really don't want to face, since (a) most Investigators find it easier to fail an Evade Check over a Combat Check, and (b) it bypasses the Horror Check.

Kevin once said that since Nightgaunts are the servants of Nodens, it seems that they WOULD help the Investigators out once in a while...

jgt7771 said:

Specifically that comment was to note that when you fail a combat check (or evade check I guess) against a Nightgaunt while in the OW, you would return to Arkham with an Explored token. I've been saved many times by this turn of events.

I played a game the other day where we had two or three on the board at the same time. It caused quite a bit of chaos until we got lucky with a street being cleared while two were on it at the same time. But that said, that might have been the first time they actually played a major role in game I've played.

I'm tempted to tie the mask monsters to the terror track when Nyarlathotep is the AO. Have a new one appear every time the terror level reaches 3, 6 or 9, for example. Or alternatively include one in every monster surge. It still won't happen all too often with the base set, but if your deck results in a lot of monster surges it could really spice up the game.

Merrick

Has anyone given any thought to making up Nyarlathotep as a HERALD?

I know that seems like some kind of demotion (you 'n' me, Big N), but most of Nyarlathotep's bibliography seem to cast him as a Herald anyway. Nyarlathotep's "Masks" are certainly Heralds in literature and gaming in and of themselves. He's even got a "Messenger of the Outer Gods" nickname.

So instead of using the Ancient One template to try and get the Masks in the field, why not take his AO card and splice it into a Herald Template? You can keep the Endless Cultists, and just add that to whatever bonuses the AO grants. Use whatever mechanism works (surges, Gate openings, etc.), and you could possibly even tailor some Masks to specific events: Urban Environments bring out the Black Man, Rumors bring out the Shadowy Figure, Rift openings bring out the Bloated Woman, etc. Throw in some workable gameplay version of his Sinister Plots?

This way, you can use the Masks in ANY game with ANY Ancient One.

jgt7771 said:

There is a Nyarlathotep herald in the fan creations subforum that works quite well. You may want to look into that.

Go to page 3 of the Custom Herald thread in the Fan Creations section to see the final version of a Nyarlathotep Herald. You get masks popping up here and there, and you can never truly prepare for the Ancient One's Final Battle.