Two players running two characters each.
- Harvey with Calvin -- this monster killing combo is too hard to pass up (tried Michael a few times with less luck).
- Joe Diamond works well with this scenario, he's adept with clue tokens and can fight or close gates.
- We like Jenny here, she can fight and cast, plus her cash really helps grabbing extra skills and keeps folks able to pay their Asylum fees.
- In our last game we used Amanda -- buying additional skills and with her 3 focus, she becomes very adaptable.
We had a truly outstanding start and a decent mid-game, but the end was VERY close.
The story....
Amanda met Jenny at the train station to welcome her into town. Both of them had rubbed their rabbit's feet to the max hoping to run into something useful. Amanda scored a Red Sign of Shudde M'ell, but Jenny found nothing. Jenny gave all her cash to Amanda to allow her learn a new skill and to help Harvey do the same. Meanwhile Harvey and Joe met in the Uptown streets to exchange some items and attend an Estate sale there. Harvey was able to purchase a couple useful unique items with their pooled money. What luck!
Amanda grabbed Jenny's last dollar and then headed off to meet Harvey at the Administration building. Joe jumped into an open gate at the Witch House. And Jenny decided to look for a clue at Independence Square. To their astonishment, Amanda and Harvey each had enough pooled cash to purchase one skill apiece! Amanda bumped up her Lore and Harvey improved his Sneak.
Everyone felt chills as a Great Ritual was performed somewhere and so Amanda, knowing one way to counter it from her studies, asked the Professor for a couple limited use spells to add to her own and she tossed them into the air while mumbling a few arcane words in the French Hill streets. As she finished the last syllable, she felt the tension in the air fade. Whew!
Meanwhile Joe was having trouble in the Other World and had an unexpected but catastrophic loss of sanity that left him lost in time and space. Jenny, feeling useless, prowled the streets and found a wandering cultist that she was able to blow away with her shotgun.
Before long, however, several gates were open and none closed.. things were beginning to look a bit worrisome so everyone jumped into open gates (and with Harvey killing things wherever he found them).
Finally gates began to close here and there, the terror level in the town increased just slightly and many monsters were slain.
Some crazed technician performed a Terrible Experiment and caused monsters to spawn just outside the weak etherial membrane in the University streets -- stretching it to near breaking. Harvey to the rescue! He slaughtered 4 of them right off before taking a breath to rest. He had to ask Calvin to help him tote all the monster trophies he was racking up. Things began looking very good for the team at this point with only 2 gates to close (5 were open in Arkham) and we were 3 steps away from doom. Jenny and Joe jumped into separate gates to the Dreamlands leaving Harvey and Calvin and Amanda to clean up the streets. Jenny and Joe were both spirited away expecting a quick return -- how nice!
Then things began to get interesting...
As fate would have it, neither Jenny nor Joe could escape back to town... Jenny misspoke her Find Gate cast and then she and Joe both lost their sanity in encounters to become lost in time and space. Monsters surged out of gates a couple times making it difficult to for Harvey to manage. The terror level in the town went up again! Amanda was able to close one gate on her own after a brief rest in the asylum due to an unlucky ancounter with a Flying Polyp. When Jenny and Joe were able, they jumped into a Dreamlands gate again but again both had sanity problems in their encounters and were lost in time and space.
Intuiting the trouble of their comrads, Amanda snuck past a Zombie and jumped into a gate to another Dimension and Harvey smashed his way through a couple monsters guarding a gate in the Woods to enter the gate as well.
Amanda was out first and closed the last gate only a heartbeat before Shub-Niggurath could emerge.
FINAL SCORE: 27 + 4 Clue tokens
