We recently had need and occasion to use Flute of the Outer Gods twice in one game. (Which is bizarre by itself.) Then we disagreed about how it worked. It reads: Lose 3 Sanity and 3 Stamina and discard Flute of the Outer Gods before making a Combat check to defeat all monsters in your current area. This does not affect Ancient Ones.

There seem to be a few ways this could go down. Option one, the way I thought it worked:

1) Lose three stamina and three sanity and discard Flute of the Outer Gods.

2) Roll a combat check (no modifier, with all weapons, one success neccessary).

3) Win all monsters!

There's also a way to read it that requires getting to a combat check against one of the monsters. So it would work this way:

1) See a monster, let's say a zombie (or whatever, on a square with a gug, a dhole, a color out of space, and a flying polyp, or whatever you want to flute.)

2) Make a sanity check against one of the monsters (in this case, the zombie).

3) Now that it's time for a combat check, you can lose three stamina and three sanity and discard the flute.

4) Win all monsters!

It seems like there were more proposals too, these were just the most likely.

What do you guys do?

I just had a look at the card and I am going with the 2nd option of getting into combat with the monster, horror check, and then discarding it Before making a combat check to use it.

I used to play it as the first option but by looking at it again I have to say that you can only use it before making a combat check (as it says). So you couldn't just use it whenever you wanted to, you would have to wait for the condition of just before a combat check. This in my ruling doesn't just mean combat with a monster though. If there are any other situations that ask you to make a combat check i suppose you could use it then too.

Hope this is helpful and isn't too rambling

In the rare circumstance that you get a Combat Check as part of an enounter (there's one where you encounter some kind of vampire and have to pass a Combat check, not a Fight check), you would have to decide for yourself. I'd interrupt the combat check in the encounter, use the flute, then if you're still conscious/sane, you continue with the encounter.

The only really tricky circumstance is the definition of "defeat" on the Flute's text. Some monsters don't become trophies when you pass a combat check against them (Mi-Go, Warlock, Tcho-Tcho, Wizard Whateley, Spectral Hunter, Spawns). If some of these monsters are affected by the Flute, do you take them as trophies, or do you get the Combat check reward? You're not technically passing a combat check against these monsters, but would it be correct to take them as trophies? What about endless monsters? Note that this affects the Dunwich Horror's combat reward as well.

Also note that there are other cards that say "defeat" in their text without engaging the monsters, and there are legit ways to take endless/reward monsters as trophies (encounters, for one).

This is one of those cards that causes a bit of controversy. In order to avoid that, I will just state the literal interpretation.

1. In a location with monsters, pass a Horror check against a monster of your choice.
2. Lose 3 Stamina and Sanity
3. Discard the Flute
4. Defeat and collect all the monsters as trophy if applicable

Also, for even more clarification, does it affect an "area", ie one location, ie one space on the board, or is it an "area" on the board, ie, one neighbourhood (street space and multiple location spaces).
I think I recall a final answer but can't remember what it is.

From your post I'm inferring it's one single space, but would like to clarify.

Area is a specifc "space" whether it be street area, Arkham location, or OW area.

It just seems so wrong that you have to do something else in order to get this to go off. In addition to spending 3 sanity and 3 stamina, you have to pass the horror check. I hope there's an easy monster on that square, or your just insane anyway.

Of course, option 1 isn't without such odd circumstances. Just rolling a straight combat check, many characters would be rolling 10 dice for one success, which seems pointless. However, it would be an additional thing you could screw up on - which is what this game specializes in.

flamethrower49 said:

And thus the controversy with some of us...

After reading the discussion and the card text I would restate it a little bit. Specifically I would state "Before making a combat check, lose 3 stamina and 3 sanity and discard the flute to defeat all monsters in the current location"

I think the intent is pay the cost and defeat all the monsters, not pay the cost for a chance to defeat all the monsters. I also think it is clearly an either or option, you can fight the monsters normally or you can use the flute. You can't start fighting then use the flute if things are going badly. This is definately an area where we can have legitimate disagreements about how it is menat to be played though.

flamethrower49 said:

I do beleive that you make the horror check before spending the cost of the flute.

fallofhamlet said:

That is the correct literal interpretation.

That makes sense to me...in fact Flute plus Milk is fun! Saved our butt once!

How does this work? If you use the milk first, you go insane. If you use the flute first, you kill the monsters that are where you are, and not ones that aren't. I don't see a combination where you can use both to collect all the monsters.

Now Time Bomb then Milk is a different story.

I should have explained a little more... investigator A Milk's... Investigator B Flutes!

Oh ho. That is a potent combo indeed. How did I not think of that

One of my proudest moments in AH was when I used the Flute of the Outer Gods to defeat the Dunwich Horror. Had to take an injury card to do it, but it was worth it.