And everybody contributed something to the final win, in hindsight. Everybody got something done they could be proud of, and it didn't take as long as our previous games. The cards were kind with monster sweeps (the police are usually useless in movies and tv and books), and only one Elder Sign factored into the Sealed Gate win. Everybody helped on Rumor control. Good stuff all around.

Only now am I wondering if Masks are somehow immune to clearing the streets type Mythos cards, only because they're ridiculously powerful and the poilce are fictionally so inept, historically speaking. Or historically so inept, fictionally speaking.

But I do have a genuine question on the timing of the whiskey card--I looked around and couldn't find this specific thing (but I sure found a lot of debate about other things, ha ha): as anal as the rules get, WE'VE become anal about them. Poor Handyman Dude couldn't pass a horror check. The card says reduce the loss by one, and in this case it would've kept him from going insane, but we were thinking he went insane before he could drink the whiskey. Had there been a shred of anything left he could take a slug and reduce the amount. But he was at ZERO. Could the whiskey card have kept him on the streets?

I love those close calls, you're so close to winning but also so close to the imminant demise of the entire world and it rests on you and your party's shoulders! We had a very crushing defeat on our last game, after several failed skill checks in both the other worlds and in Arkham encounters they resulted in several character delays and bought out our Ancient One which we were not prepared for at all. After removing 2 Doom token by brute force all our investigators were devoured at the end of the third combat round. The set up was almost as long as the play time!

In answer to your question though, we have always played that it is usable if it is your final shred of sanity to prevent your character from going insane and since there is no official ruling on this one (or at least not as far as I could tell) go withh what your group decides

Sadly, by design, Masks were not made Spawn monsters, so they are affected by Mythos cards cleaning the streets and they are removed by matching dimensional symbol gates being closed / sealed.

As for the whiskey thing. Drink, don't ask ::laughter:: the card states: "to reduce any Sanity loss by 1". So, first of all you calculate the amount of the loss, then you subtract 1 if you want to use the Whiskey and only then you look at the total. So, no probs if you're supposed to go to zero but a little drink helps you surviving the horror :-)

No, of course he could drink the whiskey.

The whiskey is specifically for those kinds of situations (reduce sanity loss by 1); and is playable during "any" phase.

"Any" phase cards can be used at any time and have an immediate effect; am I right?