Ages Unwound: Night of Fire

Setup

Ages Unwound starts us of with very little fanfare in terms of story text. We get a mysterious phone call from someone who knows remarkably much about us, a warning that we are about to be attacked. While still mulling this over, we go home, finding our house in flames. The attack is happening now. We have to flee as gunfire suddenly tears through the night…

Just as economic as the story text is with its word count, the setup instructions are also minimalistic. One location is put into play, the Rivertown, and both investigators start there. The other locations are all shuffled together, making up the “Arkham Streets” deck.
We pull five encounter sets, all from the campaign specific ones: Night of Fire. Agents of Aforgomon. Nyctophobia. Thugs. Unravelling Ages. The Agents of Aforgomon set and a few high caliber enemies are set aside at the start, so we got 24 cards in the encounter deck at the start and another 11 set aside. And that’s already all of the setup.

One other thing i should mention: The campaign log has a space where we record ticks for “Strange Assistance“, signifying that whoever is calling us to warn us has given us help. We have to record one tick right away, with the ominous possibility of more to come and no indication of how this may come back to bite us later!

The chaos bag is ready, with the usual array of numerical tokens for Standard difficulty. Notably, there are three skulls in the bag, one cultist and one tablet. No Elder Thing, and judging by the scenario card with the token effects we won’t be able to get one in scenario 1 either. There’s seven cards in the Arkham Streets, so the skull will be a -3 at worst. The tablet is also a -3, so except for the singular -4 token and the autofail, we can expect to pass any test where we are three over the difficulty. Good to know and keep in mind! Also, good to keep in mind with a look at the token effects: Moving before doing tests and getting Arkham Streets to the table will help us get the token modifiers down. Not something to obsess over, but sometimes every bit helps.

Our starting location is Rivertown, a 2 shroud location with 2 clues, so about as tame as they come. However, ending the turn here means taking a willpower(2) test, at the threat of 1 horror. We do however get the intriguing ability here to discard Darkness treacheries. Possible failsafe for Joe if he gets stuck with something that needs to go?

Finally, the act and agenda deck both have three cards in them. On the agenda side, the first one only has 3 doom threshold, so probably some sort of grace period before the heavy hitters from the set aside cards come into play. We are informed that doom on the board will subtracts from the doom on the agenda, not add to it – meaning this is the type of scenario where we have to survive until the time runs out. The Objective confirms this: “Survive the night.” Okeydokey. Finally a Forced effect triggers at the end of each turn if we didn’t move: We have to take an agility(2) test at the threat of 1 damage if we didn’t move. Makes sense, we got to stay on the run to get away from the gunfire! This is very concerning for both investigators… Joe isn’t really good at passing those tests. And Izzie can’t afford to fail them with only 5 health. So we better keep running!

How do we stay in movement with only one location on the board though? Luckily, the act deck has the answer. We can just take a move action blindly and will then move into the next random card from the Arkham Streets deck. Immediate concern here: If that random location is then not connected to where i came from, i can’t turn back. Also, the other investigator can’t follow and they get split up. Uh-Oh. To add to the chaos and to make sure we don’t just map out the grid of locations in a few turns, there is another hitch: At the end of each round, locations without an investigator or enemy on them shuffle back into the Arkham Streets. This means that bringing down that skull to -1 or even just -2 is not going to be easy unless there are some enemies around that helpfully keep some locations in play for us. Finally, there is no real objective here. We are just told again to keep running until something tells us to advance.

Round 1

Starting hands look good. Great, even. We need a running start in this scenario and thankfully that’s what we get. Both get options for fighting and clueing, plus some extra goodies.

Isabelle: Manual Dexterity, Soul Link, Timely Intervention, Second Sight, Twin 45s
Joe: Magnifying Glass, Machete, Scene of the Crime, Gather Intel, Overpower

I want to keep moving with both of my investigators, even if that will put them in different locations. There is actually nothing i need clues for right now… but it’s a safe bet that they will be useful eventually, so i should try to get those two from the starting location, they are easy enough to grab.
So i start with Joe. Play out the Mag Glass, then investigate twice at 5 vs 2. I don’t draw either of the two tokens in the bag that could make this fail and get the two clues. Joe’s investigator ability draws a Perception from my deck. With two clues secured, Joe uses his third action to move. He finds A Place To Hide, a 4 shroud location without clues that will autosucceed any tests from the agenda that investigators there have to take. So Joe could hide there from the gunfire. Neat. It is however not connected to Rivertown, so Izzie won’t be able to follow.
Izzie will have to decide sometime early if she wants to play the Second Sight or the twin pistols. But with her first action, she will also move into a random location, maybe that helps with the decision.

All three locations in play are unconnected. The Winchmore House which Izzie just found has some easy clues, but any enemy she’d run into here would get a buff and would need to be handled. The location comes with an ability to disengage from that enemy, but i kind of like the cards in Izzie’s hand right now and am not super keen on discarding them. So the choice is either: Play Second Sight and investigate, then hope to not draw an enemy in Mythos. Or keep moving on and let the House reshuffle at the end of the round. Or just investigate 2 vs 2 and hope that it passes, then play the Twins and prepare what might come. After thinking about it, i decide that most of the enemies are currently set aside and that i am just going to risk it. I play Second Sight, then investigate with it, 4 vs 2. It passes. I decide not to spend a charge to also pick up the other clue, i think that can wait for more difficult locations.

And that’s the first investigation phase done. Everyone kept moving, nobody got shot. In upkeep, Isabelle draws Look What I Found, Joe draws his second Machete. At the end of the round, Rivertown shuffles into the Arkham Streets deck. Time for our first Mythos phase.

Round 2

(1/3 doom)

Isabelle draws Just Business, a somewhat terrifying card that i hope Joe doesn’t draw too often. It’s a willpower(3) test and with Timely Intervention in hand, i just do the test unmodified. It’s 4 vs 3. I pull a skull which is currently -3, so i play the Timely Intervention to pass. Meanwhile, Joe finds out that The Place to Hide isn’t completely safe as there’s Arsonists about, aloof hunters that hurt anyone at their location at the end of the enemy phase. They have Aloof, so Joe will probably just have to spend his whole round dealing with it. Good thing he doesn’t need to move while at the hiding spot. This would have been a rough enemy to draw at the Winchmore House… Joe reacts to the Arsonists appearance by playing Gather Intel, drawing Deduction and Emergency Cache.

Joe plays his Machete, engages the Arsonists and attacks them. Not only does he fail, but he fails by drawing Cultist into -4, meaning the effect of the Cultist forces him into a new random location. He (and the Arsonists in his threat area) move into Independence Square, another 2 shroud location. This one has 4 clues on it, but while there any tests from the agenda get +2 difficulty. Thankfully the forceful move from the token does count and Joe will not have to test this turn.
Independence Square is connected to the Winchmore House, so Izzie could in theory come and run interference and help Joe out. That being said, while engaged the Arsonists only hit for a single damage and Joe will just have to take that. Instead i try to investigate the final clue off of the Winchmore House. The test succeeds with an Elder Sign, but since i don’t have horror to heal yet, that doesn’t matter. Still, a clue is collected. With my second action, i move into Joe’s location, then raw investigate 2 vs 2, trying to bait out the Look What I Found. I fail just as planned, play the LWIF and collect 2 clues.

In the enemy phase, the Arsonists draw first blood on an investigator, dealing 1 point to Joe.

Upkeep phase gives another Man Dex for Izzie and a Bounty for Joe. End of round, all locations except for the one we are standing on go back into the Arkham Streets deck.
The board looks like this now:

Round 3

(2/3 doom)

Isabelle draws Hired Thugs, an enemy that isn’t particularly scary. There’s some keywords on there and her agility is reduced while they are engaged… but the raw numbers make this guy not that threatening. The thugs enter Izzie’s threat area. However, it is now Joe’s turn to draw Just Business. I could help him out with a Soul Link from Izzie, but that might not even be worth it. We have to move anyways, right? And taking 2 horror here is not (yet) an issue for our 7 sanity investigator. On the other hand, if he stayed at the location, he could use his Machete to take care of the Hired Thugs for Isabelle. In the end, i decide to just take the test unmodified. 2 vs 3 fails and Joe takes 2 horror, then is forced to move into a random location. He gets Twisted Alleys, a 4 shroud location with 2 clues that is connected to the Independence Square where Izzie is still hanging out.

With his first action, Joe plays Scene of the Crime, collecting those two clues. Second action, he swings the Machete at the Arsonists, again testing 5 vs 2. It’s successful, the Machete exhausts to defeat the Arsonists and Joe plays Bounty to recover the 2 resources he just spent on Scene of the Crime. I only now realize that the forced movement from Just Business doesn’t count for preventing the test on the agenda ability: It didn’t happen in my turn. Therefore, i spend the final action on another random movement. Joe rediscovers the Winchmore House, back again with 2 fresh clues. It’s connected to both of the other locations on the board.

Izzie doesn’t have the resources to play out her Twin pistols, so i think i will just have to evade the Thug for now. Agility is reduced by one, so the test would be 2 vs 1. I throw in a Manual Dexterity to make it 4 vs 1. I suceed by exactsies (tablet). Manual Dexterity draws me a card, my personal weakness Breaking Point. It only deals a single point of direct damage now, so i am actually happy to see that here. I want to spend my final action to move to Joe before the agenda advances, but first i can do one investigation with Second Sight. 4 vs 2 fails with a skull. Fair enough. I move into Joe’s location, then that was it for the investigator phase.

In the enemy phase, the Thugs ready at the Independence Square.

Upkeep draws are Unexpected Courage for Isabelle and the second Mag Glass for Joe. Izzie now has two resources. Joe has three. At the end of the round, the Twisted Alleys leave the board.

Round 4

(3/3 doom)

The third doom hits play, the agenda advances and some stuff happens.
First off, we are instructed to spawn a Time Spirit in each investigator’s care … unless we just pay 2 clues as a group. Time Spirits are 4 health enemies which i really don’t need two of in play right now. And we have 9 clues in total, so spending 2 of them seems perfectly fine. We shuffle a couple of set aside cards into the encounter deck, along with the discard pile. There are now some bigger enemies around than Thugs and Arsonists. Oh joy. Finally, we advance to both the next act and the next agenda.

The new agenda looks just like the first, with two differences: One, the agenda threshold is now 8. Two, the test to not get shot for moving is now difficulty 3 instead of 2. This likely doesn’t matter for Joe, but very much does so for Izzie. Well, let’s keep moving then.

The new act finally gives us something to do with our clues: We can spend 2 of them to stop locations from leaving play. We also get a proper objective now: Put all locations in play and put resources on each of them. So what… eight locations means 16 clues to seal all of them? We have 7 clues right now, which means we need at least another 9. That seems reasonable enough to do, probably even before the agenda advances again.

Encounter card draws are next. Isabelle draws Weight of the Centuries, from the Agents of Aforgomon set we just shuffled in. At the end of her turn she will have to do a willpower test against a difficulty equal to the number of actions she took, then take damage by how much she fails. I am not too worried about this one (yet…), just don’t let Joe see it.
Joe in the meantime gets In Every Shadow. He has to test agility with a high difficulty, 7 in this case. And then for how much he fails by, needs to discard from the encounter deck, drawing a Darkness and a Criminal he finds. Oof. Since Izzie isn’t allowed to help (Peril!), he fails by seven, discarding as many encounter cards. He finds exactly one Criminal and one Darkness card:

Night Black as Pitch affects everyone for a round. Shrouds +1, evades +1, horror taken +1. That last bit includes Izzie’s investigator ability, should i choose to use it, of course. But the bigger immediate concern are the Irregulars, one of the big enemies that were just shuffled into the deck. When they enter play, they get considerable bonuses… and that Night Black as Pitch stacks with it quite badly. Oh, and he gets +1 fight and evade from the Winchmore House. When all is said and done, Irregulars are 6 combat, 3 health, 6 evade this round. If they hit, they hit for 4 horror. Yikes. And should they ever get to attack, they also shuffle back into the deck, ready to come down buffed again, and healed of course… Oh, and due to the location, while the guy is ready, i can’t move away except through the ability on the location.

Alright, so we know what our primary goal right now is: Handle this Irregulars enemy somehow. If i had a Vicious Blow or Insidious Truths available right now, i’d be tempted to just put everything into one attack, hoping that a 3 damage hit goes through. With only Machete as my weapon, i am much less optimistic. So the safer course of action would be to evade the guy, then take him down next turn when all his buffs are gone and he’s just a dude. I could also consider using the ability on the location but since that doesn’t exhaust the Irregulars, only disengages them, i’d have to use that for both investigators which would cost me four cards.

Okay, after some thinking, here’s the plan. Izzie will engage the Irregulars and try to evade them. If it works, great. We can continue from there. If not, i may have to take the location ability with both investigators. Alright then. Two actions spent, i am facing the evasion test. 3 vs 6, i spend 2 sanity to commit Soul Link from my hand and Manual Dexterity from my discard pile. Night Black as Pitch deals another 2 horror to me, bringing the total cost just for the test up to 4 horror. Damn. That brings me up to 8 vs 6. I decide this is too important to fail to one of the many -3s in the bag, so i also throw in Unexpected Courage, bringing the test to “anything but the autofail”. I do indeed pull a -3, but that is a pass now. Irregulars exhaust, i draw a card from Man Dex (it’s Timely Intervention) and Man Dex shuffles back into the deck. Phew. This better be worth it. I realize i didn’t move this turn yet, so i do that. A random move brings me to Twisted Alleys, the 4 shroud location from earlier. It’s connected to both other locations in play. I immediately spend 2 clues to make sure it stays in play. Then, after a turn that feels like it took forever, i still have one more test to make: Weight of the Centuries, the treachery Izzie drew this turn. Willpower(3) test, if i fail it means damage. Due to Intervention being on call, I just take the test raw, 4 vs 3, and pass.

I decide against trying to poke the Irregulars with a Machete already. There are still those Thugs around which are going to hunt into me this turn. While that only deals a single point of damage, it could interfere with Machete being able to do its thing next turn. And i want to move anyways. Alright, first things first, i seal the Winchmore House with 2 clues. Then, first action, i move into the Independence Square and engage the Thugs. Second action, i swing the Machete against them, 5 vs 2. I hit, they are toast. I spend two more clues, sealing the Square. That’s all three locations in play taken care of. Five to go. My final action is spent investigating, 5 vs 3, which i improve with Deduction and succeed. I collect two clues and draw a card for my investigator ability. It’s Joe’s signature, Detective’s Intuition which triggers to draw yet another two cards, Overpower and ECache.

In the enemy phase, Irregulars ready.

Upkeep draws are Blood Curse and Gather Intel. Joe suddenly finds himself with 9 cards in hand and has to discard Mag Glass to get back to max handsize.

At the end of the round, Night Black as Pitch discards. Quite the eventful round!

Round 5

(1/8 doom)

Izzie draws Lost in the Dark. If she wants to move this turn, she’ll have to take a test or have the move canceled. Not terrible?
Joe’s location is now Rigged to Blow. There’s 2 damage on the line unless he passes an agility test. Passing that test would also give him a free move which i find somewhat attractive right now. While it won’t count for avoiding the gunfire at the end of the turn, it would give me an additional action to deal with the Irregulars if i need it… The only agility icons i have in hand right now are 1 on Gather Intel and a wild icon on the signature. Tossing them just to test 4 vs 2 here seems wasteful, but on the other hand i just had to discard to handsize… I decide to go for it, after last round i need to pick up some momentum again and those Irregulars need to go. I pich both cards, draw -1 and pass. The free move takes me into the Winchmore House where i engage the Irregulars as planned. They are a lot more Regular now but they do still get +1 combat and evade from the location.

I swing the Machete, committing Overpower, at 7 vs 4 and hit. Overpower draws Logan Hastings. Oh right, i allegedly had four allies in my deck. How nice to finally see one. Anyways, second attack, committing the other Overpower, also hits. Irregulars go to the Victory display (actually the first point of Victory i have now) and Overpower draws me Vicious Blow. Again, this would have been really useful a turn or two ago. I could use the third action to move now, but i think i can take a damage this round. So instead i investigate 5 vs 2, pick up a clue and draw a card: Insidious Truths. I am now well prepared for another big enemy. At the end of the turn, the agenda makes me test 2 vs 3, which i fail and take a damage for.

For her first action, Isabelle moves to a random location. Her treachery makes her test for the privilege and i choose to test agility, 3 vs 3. I throw in a Manual Dexterity from my hand and pass, drawing Bandages. The move takes me to A Place to Hide. Not terribly useful, but i do have the two clues left on me to make sure it stays in play. I decide i finally need to get my guns into play, so i take a resource action to get me to 4 resources, then play the Twin 45s with my final action.

No enemies are in play, so i head straight to upkeep which draws a Soul Link and a Perception.

This is what the play areas look like right now:

Round 6

(2/8 doom)

Encounter draws this round are two treacheries.

Isabelle gets Memories Fade To Dust. A test of Intellect(3), and for each point she fails by she has to either drop a clue, discard a random card or take a horror. Those are all bad right now and for her specifically. This is worth a Blood Curse to me, so I take a damage to bring my intellect from 2 to 6 and pass the test.

Joe gets Accelerated Decay which attaches to an asset, threatening to deal increasing amounts of damage when drawing skulls. Unless i discard it to a free trigger ability on the treachery. There’s three skulls in the bag, so this is serious enough that i can’t ignore it. I will just treat it as if it discards my asset straight away. The question is, Mag Glass or Machete? i just discarded my other Mag Glass, so i don’t have a backup right now. Machete is more expensive, but i do hold a second copy and two ECaches in hand right now. So i decide on discarding the Machete to handle the treachery.

Joe uses his first action to investigate the final clue off of the Winchmore House, bringing him to 4 clues, enough to seal two of the four remaining locations. I only need 4 more clues to get everything done. The draw off his investigator ability is Hand-Crank Flashlight. Guess i could have discarded the Mag Glass instead of the Machete after all. Second action is a random move which lands him in a Cramped Passage. Only one investigator can be there at a time, shroud is very low and there is only one clue here. But whenever someone enters the Passage, another clue is placed on it. So it’s an endless supply of clues if we should need them. I spend two clues to immediately pin the location to the board. With the third action, Joe plays out his backup Machete.

While Joe is swimming in Emergency Caches, Isabelle is too poor to even play her Bandages. So she just takes a random move to start the turn and we’ll take it from there.

Izzie finds French Hill, a 6-shroud location with Victory 1 and two clues on it. Thankfully, it has an ability that lowers its shroud by 3 if i didn’t start my turn there… which i didn’t! So this is great. I use Second Sight to investigate here. I spend a point of sanity to commit Timely Intervention from my discard pile, making the test a 6 vs 3 which passes. Timely Intervention reshuffles into my deck and i spend a charge from Second Sight to also pick up the second clue here. Then those get immediately spent to seal the location as well. With my final action, i simply draw a card and it’s Manual Dexterity.

Upkeep draws are Blood Curse and M1911. Joe discards the Hand-Crank to max handsize. Izzie goes to 2 resources, Joe to 3. No enemies around, no end of round effects, so we go straight to the round.

Round 7

(3/8 doom)

Encounter draws are both treacheries again, cards we’ve seen before. Isabelle gets Just Business and has to pass a willpower test to not get hit for 2 horror and randomly moved. I still have a Timely Intervention in my hand, so i take the test raw, 4 vs 3. I draw -1 and pass. Nice. Joe gets Lost in the Dark. If he wants to move this round, he first has to pass a willpower or agility test or take 2 horror. Oh, this will probably not happen. So i suppose he’ll be exposed to gunfire at the end of his turn for not moving and i can just take a bit of a setup turn.

Joe picks up the clue on the Cramped Passage (drawing Scene of the Crime as a reward), then plays Emergency Cache and Logan Hastings. End of his turn he has to test agility, fails and gets shot for a damage. It’s fine, unlike Izzie he can take it.

Izzie finally plays her Bandages. Then takes another random move for her second action. It brings her back to Rivertown, the location where all of this started. As a reminder, it’s a 2 clue, 2 shroud location and if i end my turn here, i have to pass a willpower(2) test or take a horror. Fair enough, i don’t think i need to be scared of that with her. With my final action, i use Second Sight, pass and spend a charge, collecting both clues. Which are then immediately spent to seal the Rivertown. Only one location to go and Joe already holds the clues for it. Unless something goes really wrong, i should be able to advance the act early next round. End of turn, Izzie has to take the willpower test from the location and passes.

Upkeep draws are Ward of Protection and another M1911. End of round, the treachery on Joe discards, so he can move again.

Round 8

(4/8 doom)

Encounter cards! Izzie draws ANOTHER Just Business. Look, at some point it’s no longer “Just” Business, but becomes Serious Business. Anyways, same deal as before. I take the test with Timely Intervention still in hand. This time, i do need to use it to pass the -3 tablet.
And then Joe ALSO draws Just Business. Okay, whatever. I guess that’ll mean that Joe will take 2 horror here, but also that he’ll move randomly… which means he will go straight to the one location that is still missing. But first, i need to fail the test. 2 vs 3 … and i draw a +1. Ridiculous. The one time i would have preferred to fail.

For his regular action, Joe moves to the final missing location, it’s Easttown and we’ve actually not seen it yet. It’s a 3 shroud with 2 clues and two useful abilities that could have come in handy had we seen this earlier. Here’s a shot of the full location grid now (cleaned up a bit for adjacency connection and using arrows where that’s not possible):

Joe spends two of his three clues to seal the Easttown and the act advances.

The back of the act once again has some instructions for us. We are placing some clues on three locations. And we spawn a Hired Thug at the Winchmore House that also gets 2 health extra for the rest of the game and stays in place. Then there is some talk about an Eternity Sentinel, but that thing isn’t in play… yet. Safe to assume that this will come into play once the agenda runs out. Our new objective: Picking up all clues on A Place to Hide, Winchmore House and Cramped Passage. Six clues in total. Well, seven actually…

…because once Joe moves with his second action back to the Cramped Passage, the ability on the location spawns a clue there bringing its clue total up to 3. Guess i am not leaving before this is done. With the third action, he gets to work, picking up a clue (and a Vicious Blow from his deck).

The Place to Hide is 5 shroud now, so i think i’d rather have Izzie go to the Winchmore House and start tangling with the Thugs. They only hit for 1 damage, so the Bandages can just buffer a hit from them this turn should she not defeat them. Izzie moves twice, to the Winchmore House and engages the Thugs. With the third action, she attacks with the pistols. She gets two shots, should both hit, that’s already the Thugs taken care of. The tests are are 3 vs 3 and 2 vs 3 however (because the Thugs reduce my agility by 1) so this will once again require some investment of health, sanity and cards. I take a direct damage (healed by Bandages) to play Blood Curse on the combat test. It passes, dealing the first two damage. Now i want to make sure that the second shot hits as well. I commit Timely Intervention from the discard, taking me to 6 horror on 9 sanity. Cutting it close, but we are almost done here. I also throw in the Manual Dexterity from my hand, so the test is 6 vs 3. I pass and the Thugs are down. I draw Lucky Charm off of my Man Dex and shuffle Timely Intervention back into the deck.

Upkeep draws are Will of the Cosmos and Dorothy Simmons. Joe once more needs to discard to handsize, dropping Dorothy and an M1911.

Round 9

(5/8 doom)

Izzie draws the attention of another enemy, as Arsonists appear at the Winchmore House. Ugh. That’ll take at least another two actions to clean up. Joe gets Weight of the Centuries, which means he will have to take a willpower test at the end of his turn, difficulty equal to number of actions taken, and then take damage for each point failed by. Not much he can do about that, i suppose. Skipping my actions isn’t really an option here either

Joe starts us off, his first two actions picking up the final two clues on the Cramped Passage and drawing a Hand-Crank from his ability. With the final action, he moves out of the now cleared location to avoid getting shot, into Independence Square. The 2 vs 3 willpower test from his treachery fails by two. I let Logan soak one damage and Joe takes the other on his square chin.

Izzie plays out the Lucky Talisman and immediately spends one of its charges to move one horror from her to the charm. Second and third action are engaging the Arsonists and shooting at it. I have two tries from my pistols and i think i will just take the first 3 vs 3 unmodified. It might miraculously hit. And if not, i can boost up the second one. The first shot does indeed fail, so i spend another sanity to commit Manual Dexterity from the discard pile for a 5 vs 3. The shot lands, the Arsonists go down. Man Dex draws me Aleksey (hey where have you been all day) and shuffles back into the deck. At the end of the round, i have to test agility because i didn’t move. I draw my first autofail of the game and get hit for a damage, which the Bandages immediately patch up.

Upkeep draws are ECache for Izzie, another card i sorely missed all game. And Laboratory Assistant for Joe. Joe discards Hand-Crank and ECache to handsize.

Round 10

(6/8 doom)

Alright, i am pretty sure that i can end the scenario this round unless i get stalled by an enemy again. There is only two more locations with two clues each and with the help of Will of the Cosmos that should be relatively easy to do. Let’s see what the Mythos phase has for us… and it’s a pair of enemies. Thugs for both Isabelle and Joe. Not particularly terrifying enemies with their 2 combat and 2 health, but might be just enough to stall me out of finishing this round.

Isabelle uses her Lucky Charm again, moving another horror from herself to the charm. That discards the asset, but it has done its job of healing me for 2. I am back to 5 horror with her which is a lot more comfortable and allows me to keep using my ability without getting in range of getting defeated by an autofailed Just Business. For my first action, i shoot at the Thugs. I only have 2 ammo left, so it’d be nice if the first shot hit so i have one left for another Thug or Arsonist. I commit Unexpected Courage from my discard, bringing me back to 6 horror, but putting the test at 5 vs 2 which passes. Second action investigates the Winchmore House and after passing, i spend the last charge from Second Sight to get both clues. With my final action, i move once, towards the final location we need to clear.

Joe has to take care of his Thug as well, and the Machete does that very cleanly. I even pull an Elder Sign which gives me another resource (on top of the resource from Logan) and a card, Insidious Truths. That’s just overkill at this point, but sure. The final two actions are spent moving, into the Place to Hide where we hopefully can pick up the final two clues next round!

Upkeep draws are Premonition and Psychology Student. Joe has to discard again, Lab Ass and M1911.

Since this is what i strongly assume to be the final round, here’s one last look at the investigator’s play areas:

Round 11

(7/8 doom)

Isabelle’s encounter draw is In Every Shadow, that terrifying card that served up the Irregulars and Pitch Dark Night earlier. It’s considerably more mellow now, only an agility 4 test… but you know what, it’s the final round and before an autofail pops up and annoys me, let’s just Ward of Protection the thing.
Joe gets Memories Fade To Dust, which we’ve also seen before. It’s the Intellect test that threatens to drop clues, discard cards or deal horror. Sure, that’s no problem. For one, Joe might just pass. But even if not, discarding some cards is no big deal. Just for fun, i throw a Perception into the test. I pass and draw Deduction. Perfect.

Before moving into the investigator phase, I use Premonition and see a -1 token. Knowing this, Joe takes the first action and uses Deduction to get the final two clues. The act advances and we move into Resolution 4. Yay, we did it!

Resolution

We only stop running once we no longer hear gunshots. Silence is around us. We are out of breath , but we made it. We survived the Night of Fire.

In our campaign log, we get to record that “the investigators escaped the night of fire”.

As for XP… we have 1 Victory enemy in the Victory display and another Victory location in play. Luckily, the resolution also awards us 2xp for a successful flight, bringing the total up to 4. Not great, but at least we got through!

Now that the scenario is over, i take a quick look at the remaining encounter cards. Turns out that in the 5 cards that are left in the encounter deck, two more Victory enemies were hiding from us. Oh well!

Interlude: An Unknown Benefactor

The next day, we are approached with a package from an unknown benefactor. It could be help or it could be a trap. We have a choice to make…

I can either accept the package or not. If i do, i have to mark another Strange Assistance in my campaign log, along with the one we started with. I decide against it and instead get a campaign log entry that “we declined the offer of help.” I think the decks performed well enough this scenario that i don’t need extra assistance right now, especially not if it comes with ominous campaign log ticks that are sure to come back around on us. For additional context, I actually don’t remember the full specifics of the mechanics from my earlier plays of the campaign, but i do have a faint general idea of what the Strange Assistance will ask of us later. If i remember correctly, it’s not something to avoid at all costs, but when i can do without it, i probably should.

As a result of my choice, i also am instructed to remove all cultists from the chaos bag and add a tablet instead. My bag now has 2 tablets and 0 cultists. Also, 3 skulls and 0 Elder Things.

Spending XP

Joe gets Charisma, as planned. I didn’t really see much in terms of allies this game, but that really shouldn’t be the norm. I almost got completely through Joes deck and only found 1 of 4 allies. At least I didn’t find any of his weaknesses either, right? The final XP goes towards a copy of Counterattack which is simply a solid card that might get us out of a bind. I cut a Scene of the Crime to make room for it.

Now Izzie. I really would have liked for her to pick up a Longbow after the first scenario, to have another weapon alongside her Twins. But that’d leave me with not enough to get some of that essential horror mitigation that makes her go from merely good to amazing. So the Longbow will have to wait. I purchase a Canteen and a Fearless(2), removing a Lucky Charm and an Unexpected Courage.

Now, we are ready to take on the second scenario and meet The Myriad Gentleman.