The Vanishing of Elina Harper

Other encounter sets in this scenario: Chilling Cold, Locked Doors, Midnight Masks Treacheries, Nightgaunts, Agents of Dagon, Fog over Innsmouth, The Locals

My take on this encounter deck: I don’t know about you, but i do get excited whenever i see that i get to put the Midnight Mask treacheries and the Nightgaunts into an encounter deck. That is usually a sign that i am going to like that scenario, and Vanishing of Elina Harper is no exception. Once per campaign, we get a sprawling map with tons of clues, Hunter enemies and a non-binary win condition. Threads of Fate perfected this template, Vanishing of Elina Harper is the latest attempt to dethrone it. While it doesn’t quite get that far, it’s still an excellent scenario that adds a few new wrinkles to the proceedings. The map isn’t quite as large as we’ve seen before, but depending on what you pull from the lead deck, additional locations do enter play.
Instead of our basic Dark Cult, we get to meet the Agents of Dagon for the first time here, and they add a significant presence, asking for some timing in how and when to deal with them and just generally being a bigger pain than other cultists.
In addition to the Nightgaunts, there’s the Winged One and the Innsmouth Troublemaker around, for a total of 7 Hunter enemies that pack a punch. Anyone who suffered an attack or two by one of those will be particularly vulnerable to the damage treacheries in this deck. Between Hunting Shadow, Wings of Darkness and Furtive Locals, there’s enough damage going around to finish someone off.
The rest of the deck mostly consists of things to stall out the investigations. Obscuring Fog, Locked Door, Fog over Innsmouth, Innsmouth Look, Furtive Locals, both of the Midnight Masks cards… it’s all stuff that messes with the ability to grab clues.
The composition of the encounter deck isn’t anything too special, as mentioned it follows similar lines as the ones for Midnight Masks, Threads of Fate, Blood on the Altar or Clutches of Chaos. It is well executed though and the trappings around the special scenario rules elevate this scenario into one of the best around.
Cancel these: False Lead. There is no real standout in this deck, but False Lead does have some potential to screw someone over. The ability on the act card does encourage spending a lot of clues at once, so you might accumulate a pile of them on a single investigator. If that one draws False Lead, that can hurt a lot. Especially if they aren’t high intellect and acquired their clues through cards like Look What I Found or Intel Report, consider banking a cancel to protect their investment.