Dunwich

My take on this set: A fairly low profile set that does add more to the game in terms of flavor than in terms of gameplay. Personally, i don’t give this encounter set a second thought when i add it to the deck at setup. It’s just some cards to play around when i draw them, nothing to prepare for. The one exception might be investigators who are particularly affected by Unhallowed Country.

What it does: This treachery sticks to a location until the agenda advances. While in play, investigators at that location take 1 horror at the end of each round.

My take: Usually this comes from the top of the encounter deck at the start of the round and gives the player a full turn to finish their business there and move on. Even when they have to take a horror, that won’t necessarily be a huge deal. The only way for this card to be more annoying is when it attaches to a particularly important location, like the entry to Silas Chamber in Blood on the Altar. In those cases it can be a bit more relevant thanks to affecting everyone at that location and not just one player. Still, those cases are very rare.

Threat level: Low. Only very specific circumstances can make this card feel relevant, more often it will almost feel like a free pass from the encounter deck.

Dealing with it: Both scenarios that use it have fairly long agenda thresholds, so this card can stay in play for a while. Many groups will run Alter Fate to discard Beyond the Veil and both scenarios with Dunwich in it do not contain the Sorcery set. So that Alter Fate can be used here, should the card really become a problem.Both cards from this set are Terrors, so Logical Reasoning also applies. However, to discard Sordid and Silent, you would need the level 4 upgrade, an expense in XP that is very unlikely to be worth it in Dunwich. And certainly not for this card. In most cases, avoiding to finish your turn on the location for a few rounds shouldn’t be much of an issue.

What it does: The investigator puts Unhallowed Country into their threat area. At the end of each of their turns, they have one chance to pass a willpower test to discard it. While they are stuck with the treachery, the player can not play any Ally assets and any they already have in play are treated as if their text boxes were blank. Noteably, this does not include the stamina and sanity values of those allies, so they can still be used to soak damage and horror.

My take: Some investigators might not mind this card much, but anyone gaining considerable value from their allies can be severely crippled by Unhallowed Country. If those investigators also have low willpower, this effect can be similar to Frozen in Fear, since the templating of the discard test limits how other investigators can help with the test. When this was printed, it wasn’t really all that problematic of a card. For todays card pool this is a very efficient counter to the rogue decks with Lola Santiago and/or Delilah O’Rourke, however. Thankfully, the two ally focused investigators Tommy and Leo do both have decent Will and access to good skill cards for boosting it. So as long as they keep a Steadfast or something similar in their back pocket, they should be fine.

Threat level: Medium. How impactful this is fluctuates wildly with the investigator who gets stuck with it. This really can go all the way from “just ignore it” to “my deck broke”.

Dealing with it: It’s a treachery, it’s a Terror. So as with the previous card, Alter Fate and Logical Reasoning can wipe this away. If none of those is available and getting rid of Unhallowed Country is important, consider having other investigators pitch in a card for the Willpower test. Even a 1 Will rogue like Finn has a decent chance at passing the test if they can get a Promise of Power from a friendly Mystic.