By the way Avi, i really groove on the tale you are telling here. It really sets the scene and gets me keen to begin each time.

I suspected you were enjoying it :'D Sometimes I really love the non-comic parts of your retelling, like the frozen family (icy eyeballs and brains included!) Just a great little image of horror.

I hope you enjoyed the freezing effects of scenario 7 and that you'll enjoy the continued chill of scenario 8 :'D

VIII. The Unthawable Winter: My Sympathy for the Devil

Before I get into the game report, a few tangential anecdotes about rats I have known:

‘Ratty’ lived in the unspeakable burrows of an old sofa that belonged to two bachelors living in Peterborough. The first time we met there was a rustling noise under my arse and then he popped his head out of a hole in the armrest. ‘Hi’, I said. ‘Hi, out of my way’, he said, as he skittered cross my lap in search of crumbs and the crumbly treasures of the cushion gaps.

‘Roland’ was a legend, and an eye opener. He lived in Leicester below a casino where I worked all night long. “Say hi to Rolie…” said the smirking staff as I made my way down to change the gas cylinder for the drinks dispenser in the kitchens. On the steps leading down to the basement I turned on the lights and the floor waved at me, moving with a carpet of rats, a commune centred on the bins at the back wall but large enough to cause the floor to undulate like seaweed in a storm. I checked my boots were laced to the top and set about kneeling down to change the cyclinder.
That’s when I saw Roland, living Urban Legend, with my own widening eyes. Huge does not do him justice as a description. ‘Tsathogghuan’ comes closer. He was an immense formless shape the size of a small dog with a rat-like head only just protruding from mounds of fatty, gore encrusted, matted hair, perched on the floor, squatting and unable to move his immensity to feed. So he survived by snatching at the smaller rats as they scurried by, a true cannibal. Oh, how they panicked when they were instinctively herded towards him by my movements…I would bet that this was part of his scheme, that he had dragged himself to that spot because it was a bottleneck that regularly filled up.
Even so, he could not have survived much longer. Could he..?

More recently, in fact clustered around the time I played this game, I met another rat, and had not one but 2 more encounters with Rat-Things.

First, in the Cthulhu rpg I am part of in which I play Roger Black, a bank robber trying to put a stop to the Arkham Witch Cult of Keziah Mason (the VP of Arkhams Bank is second in command), Roger was sneaking up on the villain at Snakes Den Cave (see story of Randolph Carter), aiming to stop the sacrifice of a missing girl. However, on arrival he finds he has it wrong, the sacrifice is actually Brown Jenkin, who is being offered to Yig by the traitorous VP in some sort of corporate extraction from Nyarlathotep. Roger sees the squealing sacrifice from a hiding spot, catches a glimpse of Yig through the portal and runs screaming from the cave after lobbing a bunch of dynamite at the entire scene. I had no idea this was going to happen, Jenkin had not showed up at all until then.

Then, the following day, and the day before I played, two things: I went out to feed the birds (a weekly pleasure of mine) using the weeks leftover bread and some seed. This week though, no birds were waiting at the usual spot, and instead a rat appeared. Which thrilled me, so I fed it. That’s when I had a close encounter with a *genuine* rat-thing. It appeared on a balcony across the street raving in German about the danger of disease rats bring, and how I was encouraging it by feeding wild birds. Now, hang on just a rat-tatting moment! Looking around the area (I live in Berlin) there is not a single square meter not inhabited by several pieces of human dumped trash, rotting bags of garbage, or piles of dogshit. The place is totally layered with mostly human made refuse, much of which is some sort of health hazard. Do we see any humans in the neighbourhood running around, picking it up? No. The councils have to do that. But the rats and the pigeons and sparrows, they spend an unsung lifetime picking over our garbage and removing it. And that makes *them* the chief causes of disease? After explaining this to the real vermin on the scene, I returned to my game.

My experience of rats is that they are pretty cool creatures, actually, and not the horror movie support crew we are led to believe, especially in Europe following the plague. I kind of pity them, because they are scapegoats for our own diseased mind. So it is with some regret that I take up arms to butcher them in Arkham Horror and must point out, at the outset, that when I kill a Rat Thing, *it is the human head that I am crushing beneath my heel*.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

ANCIENT ONE: The obscure Hyperborean god, Rlim Shaikorth, who fell from the stars onto what is now Greenland in his icy citadel Yikilth about 2 million years ago and then set about freezing Hyperborea, as recounted in the Book of Eibon. Rlim is a Great White Worm with gouged out eye sockets that perpetually drip blood. He has 12 Doom and removes 1 San from any investigator in an unstable location during the Mythos phase. When his track is half full, this extends to all streets adjacent to unstable locations (almost everywhere on the board except for Otherworlds and stable locations). His worshipers abduct people to force them into servitude, so I lose an ally when a Cultist is drawn. Final Battle I do not even consider at the beginning of the game, but I do note that its worse the more monsters I have on the board at he time, and note that monster control (and outskirts – better to flush just before you leave!) is a secondary goal.

HERALD: The Pied Piper. We had always thought that Rat-Things were created when cultists made deals with Nyarlathotep that went embarrassingly sour, but in this world it turns out they are the answer to the old riddle of what happened to Hamelins rat and children population back in the medieval ages. Grim, but delightful. A Rat-Thing begins at the Unnameable, and all Cultists become Rat-things (that still trigger Rlims ally loss effect, according to scenario rules, below). They move twice, enter unstable locations if there is an investigator, and worst of all is that they get 5 toughness. They do no damage but failure to kill them strips you of an item, and failure to comply with that raises the Terror by 1, and ends the combat placing the investigator in the Asylum with a Madness and Corruption. Spells have been given a nasty additional cost in the form of a forced Corruption draw – magic is slightly cursed in this world – and investigators with a Madness become fixated on revenge or the mystery or something, and cannot retire.

SCENARIO RULES (Elder God): I must use Jenny Barnes, and whenever a non-Cultist Rat-Thing is drawn for an encounter or placed on the board (including the one given by the Pied Piper), she gets 2 Corruptions. If it is instead a Cultist Rat-Thing, the 1st Player rolls a die and on a success draws 2 Corruption and on a failure the top red Corruption.
Rat-Thing trophies I bring in from last game are discarded. Rat-Things are never taken as trophies or go back to the cup and wind up at the Unnameable if defeated (but this does not count as placing it on the board). They are the endless spawn, centred on an über-warren at that horrid place. They do not count against the limit.
Finally, the kicker at Elder God is when the Doom track reaches 5, each investigator in Arkham rolls a die and on a failure, a random Rat-Thing is drawn and placed on them; investigators in Other Worlds roll a die and on a failure lose all their items.

EVALUATION: The main problem with Rlim is that my investigators will lose sanity just from gathering the vital clues at the beginning of the game. I need high San (5+) to weather that, but even then I will be running low. 3 San is basically crippling in this match. Fortunately Jenny has a high San and the pool has some good offers. It will become almost unbearable when Doom hits 6 and the streets freeze solid, causing major loss of San.
The herald is a bigger headache. 5 toughness on Rat-Things makes them enduring, and failure with few items could be fatal to a victory. I will need some garbage to drop on the streets, just like my neighbors, just to feel safe…The stricture on magic is malicious and potentially very dangerous, so spell casting will need to be judicious.
The Rat-Things themselves are nigh on impossible to Sneak past, unless you are Blessed and very Sneaky. I will have to watch the flow of the game when Doom hits 3 to keep an eye on that nasty clause at Doom 5 – I don’t want anyone in the Otherworlds at that point. That could be tricky, but with Marie, shrewd timing of her witch blood can save the day. Marie is really the star of this segment of the campaign. The Unnameable has become a truly horrid spawning pool - defeated Cultists just keep returning there - and so I will likely avoid any gate opening there.
I’m not worried too much about Jennys corruption, except at Doom 5. The chances of a Cultist being drawn randomly are not all that healthy. Many games, I don’t see them at all. Seeing the other Rat-Thing before 5 is even more unlikely.

THE TEAM (roll credits and music!):

Jenny Barnes, Performance artist (the useful skill which only starts being useful once Act 1 begins), with a Shotgun, a that’s-not-enough Elephant Gun, Wrack and the appropriate Endless Greed and Call the Beast corruptions. Oh yeah, and the Carcosan Page! Bwahahahaha!
Joe Diamond, Martial Artist, Dark Young killer, amateur astronomer (Telescope), also likes Make-Up Kits…
Marie Lambeau, Listener, also equipped with a nice Heal/Feed the Mind spell combo, but that’s a corruptible strategy…
Sister Mary (is back!), skilled in Linguistics, learned in calling both Azure Flames and Yellow Mists (she lights her gas).
Roland Banks, Fighter, teamed with the Terrible Old Man (his boss?), some Ritual Candles and a can of Kerosene to light them with (my birthday approaches end of this month, so I ask for the cake too).

SETUP: Rlim first tries putting 2 Doom on, but I wave the FAQ at him. Then waters rise to High Tide : the tides seem to be defying the tidal charts, causing elevated water levels far upriver. This forces Joe into a Fight check to avoid delay, which he passes. The gate opens on the Woods, leading to Kadath (yet again), a Spectral Hunter shadows the trees and the Rat-Thing moves to block Jenny in Northside.

Doom 1.

THE MATCH

T1) Jenny wants to indulge her wealth at the Curiosity Shop but is halted in her tracks by the obstructive Rat-Thing. She lets it gnaw away the scroll with Wrack on it to get a good blast with her Shotgun, only just defeating it and sending it scurrying back to the Unnameable. Joe, cold, wet and bedraggled, dashes to Mas to hand off $6 to Marie, before sneaking off via a secret tunnel to the Silver Twilight (failing to spot the clue), and then using his telescope while under a window sill to spy on them and collect 2 clues. Marie meanwhile wastes no time in securing her first lesson in magic at Ye Olde Shoppe, choosing Flesh Ward over Curse of Azathoth. Mary gathers her habit and ventures into the Witch House, but she draws the attention of the Rat-Things there and they begin to Harry her. She needs to avoid ending the turn in streets or attract monsters, which will leave her fewer options in hiding from Rlim. Her mind crumbles a bit, but she discovers a further clue. Roland and the Terrible Old Man investigate the pair of clues at Independence Square and end up chasing fragments of parchment with Sarah Danforth, who joins them (a lucky break with her being in the 10 allies left) and she hands over the 2nd Elder Sign fragment, worth a seal without clues – even better luck!
In the Mythos a Noted Author Dies , stripping a once thought useful clue from readers Joe, Marie, Mary and Roland. Joe, Mary and Roland suffer sanity loss from Rlim, and a gate to R’yeh opens on the Historical Society. The Tcho Tcho Priest is responsible, and flees to Uptown, but another clue lands in Joes lap.

Doom 2.

T2) Joe dives with foolhardy ignorance into R’lyeh. There he is immediately captured and subjected to terrifying experiments and torture games that reduce him to 1 stamina/sanity and lower both his maximums by 1, leaving him with a Rlim problem as he will lose his mind the turn he returns, and will always be skirting Madness. However, his clues were untouched, and he in fact gains 3 more, +1 focus and the Mental Fortitude skill, which is essentially a free Horror check/turn. Marie pays for her second lesson, acquiring the Wither spell (it was that, or Wither) and passing her personal story. Mary heads for the Cave and is lucky to avoid being sent to a random Otherworld and delayed when she avoids a gaping pit while being pursued by a growling thing (more harrying theme for her already). Roland and his grumbling companion row out to the Unvisited Isle where they find a grimy well, littered with bones, that causes Roland to run screaming to the Merchant District, bereft of a bit more false stability. (Now, at that point the Ancient Whispers marker was there, but he had already had his encounter that phase with no instruction to take another). Jenny walks in the door of the Curiosity Shop and snaps up the nutritious and tricksy Milk of Shub Niggurath.
In the Mythos, Mary is further hounded by Rlim in the Caves and the River Breeches Its Levees , washing up 2 Exhibits in the streets. A gate opens to Another Time and the Silver Twilight disappears into it, releasing a timeless Vampire.

Doom 3.

T3) In Upkeep , Jenny switches the Shotgun out to Marie with the Page and Marie then cooks up part one of a cold dish on Rlim – Doom cranks back down to 2 and she gains Premonition. She then successfully casts Voice of Ra, drawing the Speak To Your Friend corruption. Roland talks to the Terrible Old Man and calms down a bit. Marie then takes on the nightmarish Tcho Tcho Priest in Uptown, destroying it with the Shotgun. Mary probes the Graveyard, picking up 2 free clues but finding herself unable to pay to repair the broken teeth of the tombstones. Roland and the exhausted Old Man walk to the Science Building, gathering the clue that finally leads to Roland throwing out the book. They refuse to dabble with dubious machinery that can clear the Sky and Outskirts, since they are vacant. Jenny is tempted by the Exhibit Item in front of the Rat-Thing warren and nabs it while failing to Sneak around enough to find another one before Engle can. No matter, she finds the Mask of Vice, an object she was made for, and with the Carcosan Page as well she is now exceedingly powerful as a support character, which is just where I like her. In fact, I have never seen Jenny look so good. She almost makes Patrice look like Vincent. The White Worm gets even paler, or perhaps slightly pinkish. Joe staggers out of the horror inflicted on him to find an even greater horror when the geometry of R’lyeh actually starts to make sense – what did they do to him!?! – but now the edge of madness is actually helping, because 2 more clues are generated from the difference between his current and his maximum sanity. He is fully loaded with valuable information, but exceptionally vulnerable.
Rlim haunts Roland and Mary in the Mythos while opening a Yuggoth gate over Cold Spring Glen and sending a Hunting Horror. Songs From the Woods begin toughening up Goat Spawn, Tcho-tchos, and Dark Young, making Joes trophy more valuable, and the Vampire of the Lodge moves to the French Hill streets.

Doom stalls from last turn, remaining at 3.

T4) In Upkeep, I debate whether or not to hit Rlim again, or save it for when the Doom will reach 5, because I want to protect people in Otherworlds at that time. So I have to spend some time figuring out what that state of things will be in a couple of turns. Then I remember the double Doom at the start and the shock of it showing up in the last moment against Ithaqua, and I decide the best time is the present. So Rlim is stripped back one more time to 2 Doom, teaching Marie the Lure Monster spell, and elsewhere Roland has another chat with the Terrible Old Man while Sarah listens in . Mary then loses a game of billiards at Hibbs, handing over her Yellow Mist, but the move there has taken her to 5 clues, so she is all set even though her sanity is withering badly and will wither further at the end of the turn. Roland and his allies get the train to Cold Spring, successfully dousing the Horror in kerosene, then take off to Yuggoth. On the cold colony of Fungi on Pluto they find tok’l coins worth $3. Jenny heads back to the Curiosity Shop and greedily fingers the Petrifying Solution for free. Joe heroically returns from R’lyeh and seals the Historical Society away with clues, bringing the team a huge sigh of relief. He has 4 more clues, but needs first aid and psychiatric help. Marie goes with Jenny to the Shop and nabs her $10 to buy the Golden Trumpet as a kind of Rlim security blanket. She does love taking money from other people doesn’t she? This trumpet gets passed to Jenny and subsequently shared around the group like a hot joint.
Too late to think to save Joe though. Mary and Joe are stalked in their heads by Rlim, which pushes Joe over the edge and into Madness – Narcolepsy, a very nasty form, especially given that Rlim likes to devour sleeping victims. A succession of Black Moons will be a very bad omen for Joe, should he be in a bad part of town… Sailors Take Warning as aquatic locations become fight clubs (while this environment is in play, any investigator who enters an aquatic location must pass a Fight -1 check or lose 2 Stamina), a gate to the Abyss widens over Devil Reef, and a Shan emerges. Jennys ‘Call the Beast’ calls out to things lurking in the Outskirts, but there are none to smell the expensive but tasteless perfume. The restless Rat-Thing begins another hunt by moving to the Miskatonic area.

Doom stuck at 3 again.

T5) As Roland and his dynamic duo of Fight specialists move across the surface of Yuggoth, Sarah exclaims “What’s that behind you!” and (reaching into the cup behind me) they turn to find a Witch. Can I say Salem 2, with kerosene, and leave it at that? Jenny gets a five finger discount on the Staff of the Pharaoh. Joe falls back on Mental Fortitude, Kung-Fu and bullets to take out the French Hill vampire, leaving the way clear for Mary to dive into Another Time at the Lodge. A risky ploy but a necessary one, and I spend a few minutes beforehand staring hard at the top of the Mythos deck and trying to intuit when Doom will hit 5. Meanwhile, Marie spends more of Jennys trust fund to get the bus to Innsmouth, then the boat out to Devils Reef, where she has set her Will to 5 in order to face the Shan. It almost gets her, which would have been a serious catastrophe, but she easily kills it with the Petrifying Solution she took from Jenny. This throws both Mary and Marie into Otherworlds at the dangerous point near Doom 5, Marie to test her Luck -1 (2 dice), rolling two 1s, using her Listen to re-roll both and then finding a sanctuary that heals her of 2 of each stat, Mary to find a wounded beast – perhaps the future version of the thing harrying her – but refuses to delay herself watching it die.
Mythos activity opens a gate at the Historical Society, which fails and alerts the Deep Ones to my plans. Nobody is in the way of Rlith. The Church Calls on People to Boycott the Exhibit , calling it ‘ghastly and an affront to the Lord’ (Lore checks in Arkham are made at a -2 penalty. Will checks in Arkham are made at a +2 bonus), but of course that only makes avant-garde theater more popular – Act 1 opens immediately without fail. Jenny is now performing and Joe almost succumbs to narcolepsy in the streets under a White Moon.

Doom 4. I had better be right…

T6) Jenny shoplifts the Gladius of Carcosa and Pages it to Mary through the folds of her wimple. Joe staggers into hospital to finally receive urgent medical treatment. Marie penetrates to Abyss 2, where a terrifying Lloigor appears and must be evaded with only 2 dice – she pulls it off. Phew! In Another Time Mary is forced into stealing an idol from a tentacled thing (why?!), she has no dice for it and is knocked flying, down to 1 stamina. This proves to be the seal on her fate...Fortunately, Roland returns with his crew to lay down the second seal on the Spring, banishing the Miskatonic Rat-Thing back to the Unnameable so that the Science Building is available again.
Only Roland is exposed to Rlith this turn. The Mythos is A Severe Hailstorm – a surge on the Reef and Joe passes out waiting in pain in a hospital corridor, until he remembers he can throw away the telescope to see it coming. The surge puts a Mi-Go and a Wraith on the Reef (the Wraith then flies to the Sky), a Ghoul and Nightgaunt on the Woods, a Ghost on the Lodge, but no investigators are caught outside in the cold hail.
Doom has staggered at 4, just in time for M&M to make it back to Arkham next turn. A quick digressive word about this: a lot is made in talk of strategy about the frequency of gates opening at certain locations. But this is only one part of learning to ‘play’ the game at its own game. Another thing that factored into my intuition about when Doom would hit 5 was that each AO has a particular rhythm, a typical flow which is connected to several factors, including the length of the Doom track, the number and type of expansion boards in play, and any special effects that apply to the Doom track like Yigs anger. Knowing the ins and outs of these rhythms helps to make well educated guesses. Rlim is basically a standard 12 track AO with 2 expansion boards. Roughly, I add 2 points to his Doom (1 for each board with Doom accelerating gates) and divide that figure by 2, rounding down, and this produces the number of complete turns I can expect to pass before a surge occurs. It’s only a VERY rough guide but it helps, and so not having had a surge I gambled on 2 surges, having the Reef and the Woods active (they often surge). Definitely a logical stretch but the logic was in what I just explained and kind of lifted my intuition to the sense that I was ok to go. Fortunately, my wings did not melt. But if they had, and Marie and Mary had been stripped of their items, nothing critical would have been lost, and I had the amazing conjurer out of nothing Jenny to re-supply them. Plus, Mary was Blessed and had a 50/50 chance of coming out of the dangers fully clothed.

T7) Roland talks to The Terrible One again, rebuilding his mental equilibrium by talking to someone even more crazed. Joe, now somewhat fit for action, finds the Trumpet sent by Jenny and rises back up to 5 clues at Hibbs where a stranger buys him a bottle of Jack Daniels. Marie returns to Devil Reef, kills the Mi-Go and snatches its Cursed Sphere, and then Fragments the Reef for a free 3rd seal, one in each town. Following hot on her heels, Mary returns to the Lodge, exorcises the Ghost and seals it away, bringing the 4th seal onto the board. Rlim squirms! Roland heads off to Whately Farm, taking him back to 4 clues, but is blasted by a shotgun trap he sets off. Jenny Barnes ploughs through the back rooms of the Shop again, and lo and behold turns up the fabled Elder Sign, which she pages to Mary...
This turn only Jenny escapes the cold gaze of the White Worm, but Joe chugs the whiskey down to deny it all. The Mythos lights Fires In The Night, hypnotically pulling Uptown monsters towards the eerie lights in the Woods. A gate (burst) to Kadath opens on Independence Square and releases a Gnoph Keh.

Doom 5 , which means everyone takes up the dice, and only Mary has a Blessing. Roland and Marie fail. Roland is pounced on by an ‘original’ Rat-Thing at the Farm, inflicting the greedy Jenny with 2 hideous Downward Spirals (!!), and Marie is confronted with a Cultist Rat-Thing at the Reef, forcing Joe to roll a second die and fail, to wind up with Mental Paralysis (which by my reading can actually help you if you are Blessed, Retained or otherwise benefit from skipping Upkeep).
A Young Zoog is sacrificed by the Cultist Rat-Thing. End of Elder God intermission.

Clues descend on both Joe and Mary. Joe then horribly falls asleep at an unstable location, but luckily with the Trumpet. Jenny hits a good start at her helter-skelter into total corruption, gaining Nightmarish Visions and a second Call the Beast.

T8) Marie sacrifices the Wither spell and throws an amazing 5,6,6 to blast the Cultist Rat-Thing back to the Unnameable – the horrid spawning pool has begun. She later climbs up an imposing tower that stretches up to forever spending her last clue to clamber out of the stairwell fortuitously at an aquatic location, and choosing Falcon Point. Mary dashes with the Elder Sign to the Woods, defeating the Spectral Hunter, Ghoul and Nightgaunt there and heroically pressing on into Kadath, where she finds and kills Barnabus Marsh, collapsing Doom back to 4! Jenny pilfers the Puzzle Box and passes it to Joe as Roland and his duo offer up their Ritual Candles and only just douse their Rat-Thing with clues, fire and kerosene, adding another to the stockpile. Joe wakes up the next morning at Hibbs; some old timer offers to teach him a spell, but Joe is broke.
In the Mythos Joe and Roland suffer further sanity loss from Rlim, Joe being especially weak now and hanging on by a trumpet. A gate burst at the Unnameable finally completes that hell-hole, opening a maw to R’lyeh through which a Dark Young clambers into Arkham. Marshall Law is declared around Maries ears. Superstitions Abound – Mary is Cursed, failing her PS and becoming re-Blessed, and placing a second Blessing on Joe. I love that about Marys PS.

Doom 5. Dont tell me I have to do the Elder God thing again. Right? RIGHT!?!?

T9) Mary braves the freezing wastes of Kadath 2, where yet another monster – a Fire Vampire – tries to stop her and fails. She is playing for keeps with the Gladius this game. Roland, Sarah and The Terrible Old Git brazenly poke around Wizards Hill, and even more brazenly refuse to even try to help Professor Rice – Rlith sees the writing on the wall at this impertinent overconfidence and really starts to understand it is hopeless to resist me. Jenny throws the Warding of the Yellow Sign she turns up onto the Unnameable – ha! – Mentally Fortified Joe kills the guardian Zombie and dives into Carcosa via the Witch House and – what’s that? – discovers a secret shortcut back to Arkham after a Speed -2 [2] check (easy for a Blessed Joe). Marie decides to get the train back to Arkham rather than risk gathering the Innsmouth clues under curfew, and winds up in Northside.
Roland and Joe lose more of their minds – Joe narrowly survives a total bust by having just 1 sanity left after Rlith brushes past taking the last notes of the trumpet with him on the howling wind (I love The Music of Erich Zann and regard it as one of Lovecrafts best). The Feds Raid Arkham , the Black Cave opens into the Dreamlands bringing another Dark Young to Arkham, Jenny spirals down into Creeping Doom and Jealous Guardian – the last utterly breaks her ploy, as she will no longer trade, but its too late to have stopped her being effective – another escape.

Doom 6.

T10) The End comes for Rlim Shaikorth as Joe seals the Witch House and Mary is devoured using the Elder Sign to seal the Woods, causing the Great White Worm to shrivel up at Doom 5. Jenny has 8 Corruptions. All that is left of Mary is an echoing cry.

Trophies (survivors):

Joe: Zombie, Dark Young, Vampire
Marie: Shan, Tcho-Tcho Priest
Roland: Witch, Hunting Horror.
Jenny: nothing but bling

Dj, extremely well played Congrats for the success Although I was pretty sure you won't have problems with this one. I think the most difficult Scenario of the segment was the sixth one (very, very, very short Doom Track, even with Marie in play, simply because the poor old snake has some tricks to autoboost his awakening); all the others shouldn't be so difficult. Still, it's always a pleasure reading the way you control everything A couple of things come to mind:

- when you say "I will need some garbage to drop on the streets, just like my neighbors", you intend that you could use your neighbors as garbage to be dropped in the streets, correct? Aren't you implying you want to pollute the Environment (Urban) of an unwary town like Arkham, right?

- Performance Artist: it seems like you have some Miskatonic Stuff in the mix

Well played, anyway, and good luck with Scenario 9

Thanks! Yeah I got me some MH things in the mix, I have already been told to change over the new Act cards for the old at a relevant game, but I keep them in until they bust things because, honestly, I am still enjoying discovering them.

I would LOVE to use my neighbours as garbage in Arkham Horror, can we make a herald for that? :-)

Yeah, this game was smooth and easy compared to others, although there were a couple of really hairy moments when I escaped disaster by a rats whisker. :-)

Glad you enjoy the read :-)

I like your part about rats. Always glad to see that I am not the only person who is not disgusted by this clever creatures, the secret and silent rulers of this world.

Schwaig, if you lived nearby I would invite you over for an evening or few, role playing sessions of Ratkin by White Wolf. You would love it! The Ratkin are wererats breeding in untold numbers below human cities, waiting to surface and cull the children of ape.

@DJ

Sorry for the time it took me to reply :') and my reply's not even going to be that good. The thing I call my life has been... Ineffably petty evil lately.

Anyhoo. Agreed. Rats have a very undeserved reputation. I felt slightly guilty about making this scenario. Slightly. But when I have a choice between horror and ethics, I always choose horror. So scaperats they shall remain. I had a pet rat named Clinton for a few years. I named him that because his balls were bigger than his brain, much like our former president, a DemocRat. When he bit one of my darkling beetles (upsetting, fortunately, the bite was superficial, more of a nip really), I named the beetle Monica, of course. I'm not actually sure about what its sex was, beetles can be a bit hard to sex, but on the other hand, who says a man beetle can't be named Monica?

I appreciate you trying to make thematic sense out of the no retirement rule ;'D but actually that was purely mechanics.

I'm always pleased when Jenny gets Endless Greed :'D " She almost makes Patrice look like Vincent." Classic line. Also, was it just me, or was this sentence hilarious? " Mary was Blessed and had a 50/50 chance of coming out of the dangers fully clothed."

Nah, the trigger effects are intended to function like the martial law trigger. Once one is triggered, it can't be triggered again if the doom track is lowered.

I don't think my neighbors would appreciate if I made them into herald cards >_> though the temptation is there...

So, when do we get to read the next installment of your epic adventure? :')

Hi Avi! I am away Arkham and have been a while, had hoped to tackle it this weekend but the Byakhee of chaos flew off with my directors diary while I was fleeing from something unnameable with innumerable eyes rolling in every direction. Turns out it was the ghost of Marty Feldman. He wanted to turn me into a pet beetle called Monica. So I guess its ok.

Anyway, madness permitting, I am coming back, soon.

ish.

Hi Avi! I am away Arkham and have been a while, had hoped to tackle it this weekend but the Byakhee of chaos flew off with my directors diary while I was fleeing from something unnameable with innumerable with eyes rolling in every direction. Turns out it was the ghost of Marty Feldman. He wanted to turn me into a pet beetle called Monica. So I guess its ok.

Anyway, madness permitting, I am coming back, soon.

ish.

May madness permit it soon, not-Monica :'D