Spectral Predators

My take on this set: This set is used only twice during the Circle Undone campaign and it always comes paired with Chilling Cold, The Watcher, Inexorable Fate and Realm of Death. As a set that focuses on providing additional Haunted abilities and opportunities to trigger them, it does interact especially well with Realm of Death.
This interaction makes the set have a bit more impact than the somewhat tame cards would suggest when looked at on their own. Especially At Death’s Doorstep can really throw out a lot of extra Haunted triggers due to the combination of those encounter sets.
The standout card here is Nether Mist, an enemy that constantly taunts you with its victory point and begs you to waste your actions to deal with it. Meanwhile, it attacks from aloof should you ignore it. Very cool enemy.

What it does: Nether Mist is a sizeable Hunter with Aloof. That means it doesn’t engage and attack on its own, but it will follow investigators around. While at a location, that location gains a Haunted trigger that causes Nether Mist to attack the investigator that failed their test. Nether Mist has enough health to soak a hit or two, but does award a victory point on defeat.

My take: This annoying thing can be ignored as long as players manage to pass their investigate tests. However, there are good reasons for trying to defeat it proactively. Not only does it award a victory point, but it also interacts with the forced Haunted triggers from the Realm of Death set and the Shadow Hound and also with various symbol token and location effects that care about spectral enemies and Haunted effects. Defeating it takes up a whole turn, so finding a good moment to do so is not always easy. A very interesting enemy.

Threat level: Mid to High. A considerable action sponge if you want to get rid of it.

Dealing with it: The danger of this enemy lies in how it never seems like something urgent. It’s tempting to just let it be and work towards other goals instead. And then suddenly you realize this thing has been hitting you three times already and is still around. Its four health puts it in a place where killing it with the usual tech against aloof enemies suddenly stops working. Even Spectral Razor will only save one action, but not defeat it outright. Some of the best ways to kill it are actually Seeker cards like the damage version of Ancient Stone or even Gaze of Ouraxsh.

What it does: Shadow Hound is a Hunter enemy that will not only deal a point of damage on attack, but will also trigger all haunted abilities on the location. Its stats are fairly low, but three health is enough to often require two actions to overcome. It does have Retaliate which can lead to additional attacks (and thus haunted triggers), but its low combat stat makes that only relevant for investigators with similarly low combat values.

My take: An above average threat that should be somewhat of a priority to take out. It’s not all that difficult to do so, but you don’t really want to have a Hunter skulking about that threatens to trigger extra Haunted effects.

Threat level: Low to Mid. While not exceedingly dangerous, it does pose somewhat of a priority.

Dealing with it: Overcoming the three health is the only real challenge here, allowing to possibly save an action if the investigator has some way of delivering that damage in one blow. Otherwise the card is fairly straightforward. Should the Shadow Hound have engaged a player that can’t reasonably attack the enemy without risking the Retaliate, evading it and having someone else deal with it is recommended.

What it does: Whispers in the Dark stays in play for the rest of the round. While in play, each location gains an additional Haunted ability that will have any investigator take a horror when they trigger it.

My take: This is a softball from the encounter deck. It’s rare that this does all that much, as Haunted is usually somewhat avoidable and one point of horror is neither enough of a deterrent to stop me from investigating nor is it enough of a payoff when comboing with Realms of Death or Shadow Hound.

Threat level: Low.

Dealing with it: It’s a point of horror. Sometimes. Maybe. Soak it and move on.