(replaces Whippoorwills from The Dunwich Legacy)
Goal of this replacement set: The Whippoorwill being an unlucky sight and also a sign that someone is about to die is very well presented in the original cards: The creature itself lowers chances to pass tests, so it is indeed unlucky. And the treachery hits you hardest for some horror damage the closer you are to your death. It’s a very well done set that is hard to craft a replacement for. As an attempt, i decided to focus on the “unlucky” part and use the Crow, who also is a common bringer of bad luck in superstition. Crows that are seen sitting on the crosses above graves even have a similar connotation to Whippoorwills, basically saying “You are next.”
This is another set that can not really be mixed and matched with the original set because the treachery references the Crow by name and would be considerably weaker if there’s only one or two crows in the deck.
About this card: Like the Whippoorwill, the Churchyard Crow messes with your chances to pass any sort of tests. They do not follow you around, though. Instead they spawn on an empty location and hold your best numerical chaos token hostage until you come an liberate it. This of course makes them in some ways an even bigger pain than the Whippoorwill because they affect everyone everywhere, not just the ones sharing its location. In turn, they affect each test a little less than the original, but affect more tests in total. Mystics who care about drawing special tokens may even find this slightly beneficial.
A note on the lack of Hunter on this card, and the concern that it plays to differently from the original set: Two of the three scenarios that use this set also use the Dunwich set and in the replacement for Dunwich i put the Wary Townsfolk card, an Aloof Hunter that operates similar to what the old Whippoorwill did. Having two different cards like that around seems a bit redundant. As a result, i would suggest using those two replacement sets together if you can.
About this card: Since Churchyard Crows can use quite a lot of actions to actually take out, players might decide that a single crow or two isn’t worth the effort. Screaming Murder makes every Crow in play seal another token, increasing the effect each one of them has. Especially if there’s multiple crows on the board (you know… a “murder”), this card can aid in depleting the chaos bag to a point where players may need to reclaim their luck.