Fellow-Arkhamites,
Sometimes, even the most intrepid set of Investigators are doomed to failure when the Mythos cards conspire against them. Take the last game I played, which had Tony Morgan, Dexter Drake, Trish Scarborough, and Leo Anderson against Yog-Sothoth. For those of you who are familiar with my Variants, you'll know that we often have some time during the first few rounds to get accostomed to the board, establish a strategy, and look to win by Sealing Gates. This time, it was not meant to be…
During the first four Turns, only two Gates had appeared…one from a Mythos card and the second from an encounter Trish had in Dunwich where she had traveled ostensibly for some easy Clue tokens. Tony and Dexter had picked-up a few Clue tokens and after Leo did the same, he hopped a boat bound for Falcon Point. Things were looking-up, as even Trish could manage to get the Vision Quest spell from Dexter upon her return from the Abyss.
The next four rounds proved our undoing…and moreover, we knew what awaited us. Dexter's encounter at the Science Building allowed him to view the next three Mythos cards and place them in any order…the three cards included an Intermission card, which would raise the Terror Level and two separate Rumor cards. We had the Intermission card first, which Dexter and Leo discarded their Tomes to keep the Terror Track in check, and even the Rumor Plans in Motion wasn't that difficult, as Leo, now in Innsmouth certainly had enough time and Clue tokens to Pass it. What was worse for our fabulous four Investigators…each of those Rumors were accompanied by two Doom Tokens…for those of you familiar with Yog-Sothoth, that's 1/3 of the Doom Track in two cards. Julia…even you, my dear, would be hard-pressed to counter such malign indifference from the Mythos deck.
The last four Turns were a successive wave of new Gates opening faster than we could close and seal the existing ones. When Yog-Sothoth woke from slumber, Leo was immediately devoured and the others, with their pitiful weapons were no match for the awesome power unleashed by the Great Old One…Arkham ceased to be…
. Two more doom tokens, yay! On the next six turns, more monster surges, 2 gates opening in Innsmouth another 2-doom card, Miskatonic Launches Reasearch Ship and me rolling a 1 or 2 (Plans in Motion) 5 out of 6 times. That means a full Deep Ones Rising track, and my investigator's undoing at the hands, or tentacles....claws, hooves of Shu-Niggurath. Considering the only means of hurting her available to them was an Enchant Weapon/Tommy Gun combo and a Fist of Yog-Shothoth they did well enough to drop her to 8 Doom Tokens (she even healed one with a Plot).