Fog over Innsmouth

My take on this set: This is a mini set of only three cards that puts a sizeable Hunter enemy into the encounter deck together with a card that lowers the players chances at getting to successfully investigate their way through Innsmouth. Both of those cards are best evaluated on their own, there is very little tying these two together except for their flavor and a minor interaction concerning the shroud value on locations. That is fine, though. Both cards stand on their own perfectly. Winged One is a card that can have a lot of impact on the board state when it hits and Fog over Innsmouth synergizes with a lot of other cards that are used throughout the campaign.

What it does: The Winged One is a big Hunter enemy that not only has 5 stamina, but also takes less damage from anything but cards that are either Ranged, Firearm or Spell traited. This damage prevention ability can’t reduce the attack damage to lower than 1.
Its evasion value fluctuates depending on the location it is at, it’s equal to the location’s shroud.
Defeating the Winged One awards a victory point.

My take: Very tough to take down if you don’t have something with the required traits around. And even if you do, it will often take a full turn away. Running and evading it is certainly a possibility, especially if you are pressed for time like in Vanishing of Elina Harper. The shroud values of the locations vary heavily within Innsmouth, ranging all the way from 1 to 5, so having an eye on that can pay off if you do end up having to engage and evade the Winged One at some point.
There is the possibility for Winged One to gain some extra evasion from Obscuring Fog or this set’s Fog over Innsmouth, but in practice this will rarely matter much.

Threat level: Mid to High. It doesn’t deal a whole lot of damage and horror, but it is hard to take down and will occupy a good amount of actions in any case.

Dealing with it: The victory point is certainly a strong incentive towards defeating it, but without the correct assets available that can be way too costly in terms of actions. If all you have available are Survival Knifes, Machetes or even Timeworn Brand, fighting this thing takes more effort than it’s worth. Innsmouth is a very open town with lots of connections between locations, so running from Hunters isn’t trivial either, though. If that is the plan, it may require someone to evade the Winged One on low shroud locations from time to time to slow it down for everyone. It is not an Elite, so Waylay does very good work here (as it does through most of Innsmouth, actually)

What it does: After failing a willpower test, the player takes 1 horror and puts Fog over Innsmouth into play. If they pass the test, they can choose to prevent one of those two options. If Fog over Innsmouth enters play, it stays there until the end of the round when it is discarded to its own Forced effect. While in play, each location’s shroud value is increased by one.

My take: This is right on the sweet spot where i don’t feel immediately concerned about it, but then end up failing something because of it. Giving each location +1 shroud is not all that bad on its own at first glance, but it does apply to everyone in the group and for all of their investigations this turn. It also stacks with things like Obscuring Fog and Innsmouth Look to make testing for clues a challenge.

Threat level: Low in solo. Medium in a full group. Scales in between for 2 or 3 players.

Dealing with it: It discards itself at the end of the round, so throwing some specialized card like Alter Fate or even a cancel at it is likely not the best use of resources. Mostly, you’ll want to try and pass the willpower check so you can decide to discard it and just take the horror instead. Of course, there is a chance for the card to do very little if your current priorities are lying somewhere else (fleeing from Hunters, setting up assets, discovering clues without investigation).