Hemlock Vale Spoiler Roundup #2

Here’s new info that we got this week on what’s waiting for us in 2024’s Feast of Hemlock Vale investigator expansion. There’s one source and it’s a promotional spoiler image in german. Most cards are at least partially obscured, but we do get the full text of an investigator here(!!!!) and enough to go by to reliably put together the text of two other cards. And some teasers.

Sources

Official spoiler image for the german expansion

Guardian

Wolf Mask: It’s partially obscured, but it’s apparent that it’s in a cycle with the Sparrow Mask that was in last week’s spoiler roundup. Translating the german bits that are there and estimating the rest, we can come to something like this:

Wolf Mask (Master of the Moon)
cost 1, level 0
Item. Charm. Mask.
Limit 1 Mask per investigator.
Uses(2 offerings). Replenish 1 of these offerings after you engage an enemy.
free trigger, Spend 1 offering: You get +2 combat or +2 agility for this skill test (Limit once per test.)

Seems good? These masks are really strong. 1 resource for 2 fat skill bonuses is fine even before we get into the whole recharging business. With the recharging, these get silly quick. Now, the second skill on this card is covered, but the assumption that it’s combat and agility on this one is a solid one, considering the skill pips on the card.
Like… you play this and get +2 to your next two attacks? That’s already fantastic. And it reloads a charge whenever you engage something so your first attack/evade against an enemy is always boosted? That’s insanely good on a card that doesn’t take a valuable slot. Truth be told, i’d probably pay 3XP for this.

Seeker

Not much we can see here. The name translates to “Control Variable”. It’s a 1 cost event with Insight, Science and Cursed traits.

Mystic

This is this weeks real prize, the full front of Kōhaku Narukami:
Kōhaku Narukami (The Folklorist)
statline: 4-4-3-1
Scholar. Blessed. Cursed.
Reaction at the start of your turn: Either add 1 bless or 1 curse token to the chaos bag, depending on which one are fewer in the bag (choose when tied), or remove 2 bless and 2 curse tokens from the chaos bag to take an extra action this turn.
Elder Sign: +2. Add 1 bless and 1 curse to the chaos bag.
6 stamina, 8, sanity.

This looks quite good to me, allowing you to keep stocked up on tokens for synergies on various Mystic cards. If played with token generators and few payoffs, his extra actions could even become something to build around. Tempt Fate is pretty much one and a half bonus actions for him, even if he has no other token synergies going on. Not something conventionally strong, you do need to build around him a bit. Seeing his backside will be interesting of course, as it will determine how good his access to curse and/or bless generators ends up being. The ability to play cards like Keep Faith, Faustian Bargain or Deep Knowledge – or not – will determine a lot about how well he plays in the end.

Again, some guesswork involved, but the german parts do give a good impression of what the card does. While we don’t know the level and cost of this card, its ability should be pretty close to this:

Malicious Athame (Cursed Blade)
cost ?, level ?
Weapon. Melee. Cursed.
(uses a handslot)
action, add 1-3 curse tokens to the chaos bag: Fight. You get +2 combat for this test for each curse token added this way. If this attack defeats an enemy, replenish one of the charges on an asset you control.

That’s a lot of combat bonus. It doesn’t deal extra damage, but it can easily murder a cultist or deal the third damage to something tough following a Shrivelling charge. It’s also a really easy way to consistently pack the bag with curses if that’s what you want to do. I expect this to be level 1, cost 3. Simply to mirror the Spirit Athame.

Basic Weakness

It’s a weakness. It’s an asset with “-” cost. Its traits are Item and Relic. And its name is “The Silver Moth”. Aside from that, we can’t really gleam much from this…