| Set Size | 3 |
| Number of unique Cards | 1 |
| Role | Impairment |
| Threat Level | Low |
| # of scenarios | 4 |
| Variants | – |
My take on this set: Hypnos, the god of sleep, is apparently able to whisper even to the investigators who are awake, as evidenced by this being the only encounter set that is used on both sides of the Dream-Eaters campaign. This set consists only of three copies of a single card, the Whispers of Hypnos which affects each investigator in play instead of just the one that drew it. Personally, i think it’s a fine card but i don’t see why out of all the ones in the deluxe expansion, this card is the one that applies to both campaigns. It doesn’t really connect the two halves mechanically or thematically. I would have wished for something with a little more … oomph … behind it, something with a bit more gameplay impact than increasing the difficulty of a test or two for a round.
What it does: The investigator has to choose one of the four skills. That skill is lowered by 2 for a round, affecting all investigators. If multiples of this card are drawn in the same turn, the same skill can not be chosen twice.
My take: I don’t think this is a particularly scary card. Reminiscent of “A Baleful Welcome” from the Return to Dunwich Legacy, it’s often easy to predict which skill will be least used this round. Unlike the Baleful Welcome, this only asks to choose a single skill and it also applies a malus instead of outright forbidding some actions. In more than half of the cases, agility is going to be the answer here. Aside from maybe impacting a test or two and thus asking for another card to commit to that test, this just doesn’t do a lot. To be honest, i think this card could have Surge and i still wouldn’t think too much about it.
Threat level: Low. A minor nuisance.
Dealing with it: Unless you expect having to evade some swarmers, taking the penalty to agility is going to satisfy this card in most situations. In any case, the board state should let one of the choices appear as fairly obvious. Peril can come in here and cause some trouble by having the player choose something really inconvenient for another player, but even in the worst case this card’s effect can be offset by committing an extra card to whatever important test that can not wait a round.