So, new game today, Roland, Darrell, Jenny, Marie and Kate vs Eihort, helped by Dagon & Hydra. As usual, AH, KH, IH, MH in play. The game went quite smooth, apart from a double Devil Reef Mythos and two moving gates opening at the Esoteric Order of Dagon and Marsh Refinery, followed by other two Mythos opening gates there after the original ones moved. This forced me to some extra work, but in the end I kept more or less everything under control and won by closing gates in 13 Mythos.

What I really want to share with the you is the setup. Never ever ever had such an incredible setup.

Roland: Press Pass, Yithian Rifle, Erica Carlyle (granting +2 Combat, +2 Spell & a Retainer) and Informant (no way you can't control the DOR track with Informant in play).

Darrell: Whisky, Cabala of Saboth, Masquerade of Night, +1 Speed

Jenny: Athame, Carabine Rifle, Nameless Cults, Denying the Ancient One (vital with Eihort in play!!), Clairvoyant

Marie: Red Sign of Shudde M'ell, Find Gate, +1 Luck

Kate: 357 Magnum, Gate Box, Foresee, Lure Monster (ideal to control the Outskirts, and considering Hydra was in play...) and Linguistics

I had the clues, the definitive equipment of the perfect OW traveller, some interesting weapons and money, loads of money to buy the whole Arkham...

Roland is one of my favorites, hands down. I've never had a bad game with him, and he probably has connections in the Newspapers, because whenever I do play as him, he winds up with the Press Pass. This sounds like the stars were right in your favor this time, Julia, it really was.

Aye, they were indeed! Roland with Press Pass is a total monster: after he passes his PS - which can be done very very early in the game, he can simply travel in the OW and exhaust the Press Pass when generating clues n.1 and n.4 to reach the 5 to seal. Better than Bob Jenkins because he doesn't need to feed the clues with money!

Julia, what did you do to improve Darrell? To my untrained eye his initial items look a bit disappointing. Although I don't know what Masquerade of Night is.

Did you arrange an early weapon trade with one of the other investigators? Or did you send him shopping in the first couple of turns?

Well, I decided to have him failing his PS as soon as possible, and sent him to Devil Reef to grab the clues. Too bad a gate immediately opened under his feet. I grabbed Research Material and gave the Gate Box to a good fellow that passed RM to Darrell upon his return to enter the same gate and exit somewhere else.

I really tend not losing time shopping: in some cases yeah, it's vital, but generally speaking I start my games clue hunting and dividing the roles (having others doing what you can't, basically).

Masquerade of Night is an interesting KiY item, allowing you basically to either cancel the AO attack for one turn or to postpone the Sanity damage derived from a failed Horro Check until the end of the combat (this totally gives you a chance agains some nefarious things like the Servitor of the Outer Gods or a Colour Out of Space)