Leo (Pizza), Patrice (Zebra), William (Wings), Ursula (Me) vs Shub-Niggurath. Dunwich + Dark Pharaoh + Miskatonic. Guardian Hypnos. House Rule: Patrice’s Clues may only be used to add dice to Skill Rolls, NOTHING ELSE.
Since Zebra joined the Cult, we had been working our way through every Ancient One without repeats, except for Atlach-Nacha (too hard) and Azathoth (too simple). However, Wings joined the Cult a few games into the first cycle. So we will begin the second cycle with the Ancient Ones Wings missed out on. Kicking off this cycle would be Shub, somewhat tailor-made for Wings’ combat-prone style.
This was the first time the Cult used Miskatonic Mythos, and this game had a supercharged Dunwich, to the point that—I am not making this up—EVERYONE (but me) claimed that we had NEVER played with the Dunwich board before. Obviously, a lively Dunwich board plays radically different than a sleepy one, and whether it’s statistically real or just an illusionary perception, Miskatonic seems to help with a jolt.
Wings preferred William’s more balanced stats and monster trophy manipulation—Wings does tend to end up with a lot of monster trophies—to Michael’s guaranteed Tommy Gun when selecting Investigators. She only ended up with an Athame for a weapon, but her trophy draws were fantastic: a Byakhee, a Rat-Thing…and the Servitor. It did not take long to figure out William’s ridiculously easy Personal Story, and give the Servitor the night off in the box. (Don’t worry, the Rat-Thing kept it company.)
Ursula started with an Enchanted Blade and a Sledgehammer (yay!), but also a Mission (Purifying the Town) AND a Task (Mineralogy Report). Since Leo needed Allies for his Story and I needed Spells for the Mission, I decided to start Ursula on the South Church with William, trading the Blade for his Nameless Cults (recall that Wings dislikes Spells and Tomes), and then booked it all the way to Leo at the Docks to pass him the Task for a easy Ally. Of course, the game then demonstrated its odd sense of humor, as during the following turn, Leo (started with Sir Brinton) found Eric Colt next door at the Unnamable, and Ursula read the Tome for a Third Eye Spell, of which its Curse protection Wings immediately wanted.
William got delayed by senior citizens at the Historical Society twice—Wings announced her profound annoyance—so Ursula ended up working her way back to him to pass off the Third Eye. On the way, Ursula was given a choice to rifle through the entire Common Deck for any item at list price…and she only starts with a single buck. (
I settled for an Old Journal.) Ursula got William his Spell, then used Hypnos to get a free Blessing back at the Church. Leo Clue-hopped around to complete his Task (and got lost in the Black Cave maze), finishing his Story with David Packard.
Of course, during all this, Patrice went hunting for Clues and Cash, following Hypnos or the Ancient Whispers around, if possible. She stumbled across Sir Brinton—except she didn’t, right? First time that’s ever happened to this group—and took his $5 to the Curiositie Shoppe. On the way, she sold Carmilla’s Ruby for $10! (Ursula had acquired the Visions card for anyone ELSE who needed Focus.) With enough cash to buy out her Story, she…got SLAMMED by Mythos TAXES! (Zebra was PISSED.) Tapped herself low buying an Enchanted Knife: so close, but no banana.
William was the first offworld, heading to Another Time at the Witch House. Ursula had used her Blessing to pile-drive a Leng Spider, and then knocked the block off a Zombie guarding a Gate to R’lyeh at the Unvisited Isle. Both Gardners’ Place and Wizard’s Hill had popped, allowing a Goat Spawn and the Mummy to escape…
This led to a conversation with the (out-of-practice) Cult about what the Dunwich Track meant, as the Terror Track had moved up two steps rapidly, which I think was a bit alarming to a group usually armed with its own terror-suppressing monster-slaughtering female. This started out a teeny bit depressing for me as I recalled that this group has never actually SEEN the Dunwich Horror yet, but changed to secretly enthused glee as it dawned on them how bad the Horror could be. Zebra back-burnered Patrice’s Story and shot out to Lost Carcosa via Gardners Place so fast, he left skid marks on the rails. The game retaliated by moving the Dreamlands Motogate off Wizard’s Hill…and just after Patrice had Sealed Gardners Place (1) and scrambled into the Motogate, the game popped Wizard’s Hill AGAIN! With a Star Vampire! And there was already a Colour (Pizza’s personal nemesis) there! (An omen? You have no idea!)
Pizza has acquired a certain paranoia that can only be understood by Arkham Horror players, and is thoroughly convinced that the game wants to hurt him. Not all of us…specifically him. Finished with his Story, he wanted to get into a Gate, but the only open Gate not already being attended to was at Wizard’s Hill guarded by nasty monsters. He intended to go to the General Store for a weapon, but on the way, he lost all his cash paying for a Lodge Membership he didn’t want (but he wanted to lose Stamina less). Hypnos had left a Clue in the General Store, but somehow Leo had managed to acquire a PILE of Clues, and Pizza was certain that had painted a horrific target on his back, so instead of getting that Clue, he stopped at Ancient Whispers outside instead. (We told him he didn’t have to take the Clue, but he responded that of course he would have to take the Clue—Investigators DON’T ignore standing Clues—don’t be stupid.
) Ancient Whispers granted him the Private Investigator Benefit, which came with THREE Clues. And then he ended up taking the General Store Clue on the next turn anyway! This earned him the nickname “Clue *****” for the rest of the night: “Oh, they’re just tossing ‘em at you!”
William acquired a Gladius offworld, got delayed, and had to fight two monsters with his new double blade techniques. There was talk about exiting at Wizard’s Hill—hooray for matching Gates!—in order to take out those nasty guards. But William was broke, and Wings did NOT want to get stuck in Dunwich without a train ticket. She eventually decided to let Zebra handle Dunwich for the moment, and seal the Witch House (2). (In hindsight, the game may have quietly snickered to itself.)
Ursula lost her Blessing just before leaving R’lyeh (dammit!), but I was beyond lucky on a single die roll to Seal the Unvisited Isle (3). Ursula was hurting, and a Sledgehammer might not have been able to get me through two fights with a Deep One and a Crawling One. So I snuck away to the Ancient Whispers for a Tablet of Bast, and then to the Science Building for three standing Clues to refill my Story requirements. (Believe me, no one was staring at the Terror Track more than me.)
The Deep One and Crawling One came out to the Streets looking for me (Strange Sightings), and I reeeeally wanted to finish my Story, but one must be careful when bargaining with Wings to borrow her weapons. Promising that it would be the most TEMPORARY of swaps, William traded arsenals with Ursula at Miskatonic, and Ursula went out to fillet some fish. Killing the Deep One was no issue, which instantly passed her Story, granting her a second Gladius and the Ancient Spear, and she went all Spartacus on the Crawling One. The Universe then deferred to Wings and gave us the Couriers Mythos, allowing us to redistribute all our weapons fairly, and a grateful me to return Wings’ property. (Aside: while at the Science Building, William bumped into Brinton—Leo: "…where the hell is Brinton? Someone find that guy!"—SECOND time that’s ever happened to this group…in the SAME GAME.)
Leo had gotten trapped at the General Store by a Yithian—paranoid shrieks of “I don’t wanna get Lost in Time and Space!”—and a Shoggoth and no weapon worth a ****. Once we shuffled weapons around, only the Yithian was left…so of course an undaunted Wings went to go kill it first. Properly armed with a Gladius, Leo was waiting for the next Arkham Gate to open while leaving Wizard’s Hill to a somewhat bedraggled Patrice…when the wind distinctly changed…
By this time, Wizard’s Hill had retained the Star Vampire, but traded the Colour (Gate Closure) for a Byakhee from the Strange Sightings; this surge also placed a Witch on the Dreamlands Motogate, who was waiting for the Violinist to return and close it. But then the Couriers surged Wizard’s Hill while it was now the only Gate open: Maniac, Ghast, Formless Spawn, Star Spawn. With this new mob, Patrice decided that the Hill seemed less achievable now, and planned to dispatch the Witch and bail from Dunwich. This pegged Leo or Ursula to come in to tackle the Hill (William was too slow). As we both made our way north, the Star Vampire and Formless Spawn descended upon Patrice, who was in absolutely no shape to deal with anything anymore, let alone one of the worst monsters in the Cup.
Shockingly—really, no one knows how this was possible—Patrice managed every roll necessary to defeat both horrors, albeit depleting her Seal cache of 5 Clues. I think even the game was stunned: it sent out the Disturbing the Dead Rumor, but that didn’t actually send anything else off the Hill to wipe Patrice out. Being the only Investigator with two Gate Trophies to quash the Rumor, Patrice fled south before the Maniac and Star Spawn moved down to pulp her. Angry at losing its prey, the game burst the Witch House—Wings wasn’t pleased with me (as First Player reading this Mythos) removing her Seal—and dropped another Maniac and a Deep One Hybrid in the Backwoods Country. Thankfully, Dunwich was quiet for a turn as Leo and Ursula's train arrived.
Leo had been holding on to a Makeup Kit since the beginning, intermittently grumbling how useless it was against Horror Checks—it always seemed to work for Shaggy and Scooby—until he got to the Bridge, where Sheriff Engle was waiting to arrest him for the numerous reports from the concerned citizens of Arkham. And lo, did the Makeup Kit fulfill its destiny. Somehow this spurred me to say, “I am not the droids you are looking for,” in a painfully exaggerated Indian accent…which got me an wry “Really?” grin from Zebra, whose parents are actually from India. My Koothrappali sheepishly retreated into my Hofstadter.
Finally approaching the center of Dunwich activity, Ursula had to go in first, hammering all the peons but evading the Star Spawn so that Leo could finish it off with his Gladius and gunsmith David Packard. Nope, the game wasn’t having any of that: Strange Sightings again! (At least the Witch House was open now?) The Dark Druid and Wizard Whateley, obviously the instigators of all these Hill shenanigans, stormed off the Hill with the Ghast and Byakhee in tow, while the clamor attracted the attention of a Fire Vampire all the way from the Arkham skies. Haggard beyond belief and lacking any Clues, Ursula was still going to have to face them all first (damned First Player rotation!). I could see a way to survive, but it had ZERO margin of error. The critical parts were an initial Handcuffing (offered from Leo) of the Dark Druid for a larger Stamina buffer, and using the magicked Ancient Spear to take on the Fire Vampire. I figured to just keep going until I was wasted; Leo would have to handle whatever was left.
Impossibly—really, no one can see how this actually happened—Ursula managed to stab and pummel her marks in successive order, ending with Whateley (using a couple of Patrice’s Clues). She came through bloody and baffled (1/1!) but standing. “There’s your Gate,” I grunted at Pizza. “Go Seal it.” Leo almost skipped up the empty Hill.
William had been left in charge of Arkham, and the Rumor had popped open the Black Cave. William spent a couple of turns cracking a few skulls for Clues (and keeping the Rivertown Streets clear) and skipped off to the City of the Great Race through the cavern corridors. Patrice made a quick stop at the Curiositie Shoppe with some cash from Ursula’s Retainer—by the way, I grabbed that on the way up to Dunwich, being the first to stop in at the Newspaper (Mythos card)—to buy True Magick to finish her Story, and get the Clues to keep Ursula conscious against the mad Wizard. (You can’t spell Arkham without k-a-r-m-a?) Then she ended the Rumor, grabbed a couple of Clues still lying around, and went to go nail down that knocked-loose dimensional fabric at the Witch House.
While everyone was busy getting offworld, being Ursula, I dragged my mangled pawn to Harney Jones’ Shack for healing WITH Encounters. After healing 1 Sanity, Harney gave me full Stamina. After 2 Sanity, I found a Patrolling the Streets Task outside in the yard. (I did what now?) After 3 Sanity, I was able to take off one Dunwich Horror Token off the track. Amusingly, when prompted earlier if there was any way to stall the Horror’s track, I said, “By stopping the monsters from leaving through the vortices…and there’s probably a couple of Encounters buried out there somewhere.” But honestly, who here has ever “hung out” with Harney Jones to figure that out? Not me…until now. (Ah, vindication.) I did a quick skip around all the Dunwich Locations Hypnos had visited before casting Astral Travel to Another Dimension (Dual Gate all the way down at the Woods).
In quick succession, William strip-mined the Black Cave (2nd 3), Leo capped Wizard’s Hill (4), and Patrice locked up the Witch House (5). "Brawling in the Streets" came out, every earthbound Investigator was a bit ragged from other-dimensional exploration, we were at Doom 10, and I have a somewhat spotty history of flubbing my Gate Checks: if something was going to go wrong, now was the time. That particular brain worm kinda burrowed into Zebra’s head, and he ran scared. So Patrice and William holed up in Velma’s, waiting for Ursula to do her job. Pizza, on the other hand, didn’t trust me at all not to screw up my roll, and dove Leo into the newly opened Gate at Independence Square as backup.
But Ursula Sealed the Woods (6) as intended, although Pizza would say it happened BECAUSE he never expected it. (Never let the Universe think that you think “it’s in the bag”, because that’s when the universe fills the bag with rotten chowder.)
Final Score:26, mostly due to the piles of monster trophies. I don’t think we were deliberately preparing to face Shub; it just worked out that way.
. Given your beginning I was certain your cult would have to face the Dunwich Horror this game! What a letdown and anti-climax when he never awakened after all! Oh, well, I suppoe with Mistkatonic Horror there's always next time.
