Return to the Night of the Zealot - The Devourer Below – Solo play

So, here I am, finally at the end of my mini campaign and my experience so far has been a little jaded. The limitations of 3 actions a turn is constricting at best and with barely a fast action to his name, I felt the pinch every turn when I couldn’t get a set asset out or couldn’t move to the location I wanted to.

This time I remembered to start with a mental trauma so that’s a good start and my final starting hand was 2x Dr Milan Christopher, 1x 45 Automatic, an Overpower and a Vicious Blow. I start play on the “Main Path” and due to having 3 cultists who got a way.

Turn 1

1.       Hunch deck shows me a “Scene of the Crime”, good way to start the game off... not, as the Main Path had no damn clues on it.

2.       My first action sees my good friend “Dr Milan Christopher” enter the game

3.       I move into m 1^st “Arkham Woods” location which is revealed to be “Unhallowed Ground” which forces me to take a willpower test of 4, which despite drawing the Elder sign from the chaos bag, I fail due to my low willpower stat. So I take 1 damage and Dr Milan is nice enough to take the horror.

4.       My final action sees me investigate the “Unhallowed Ground”, drawing a -1 token which gives me 1 clue and a shiny resource.

5.       Upkeep sees me get a “shortcut”

Not a bad start, got the good doctor into play, got a clue and got a nice free action to kick me off next turn. So far so good.

Turn 2

1.       Encounter deck draws a “Chill from Below” which asks me to test 3 willpower, I draw a skull token which at this stage is 0, however still causes me to fail as I only have 2 willpower and I have to discard a random card. My “45 Automatic” is the random card sadly.

2.       Hunch deck gives me a “Preposterous Sketches”

3.       I use the fast action “Shortcut” which I drew last turn to move me back to the “Main Path”.

4.       My first action was to then move into the next “Arkham Woods” location, the “Wooden Bridge”

5.       I then decided I needed some more cards in my hand so I used the hunch deck to draw 3 cards via the “Preposterous Sketches” as action 2.

6.       Final action is to investigate the “Wooden Bridge” , I committed “Perception” to the skill check to get a +2 bonus, the chaos bag gives me a – 4, which allows me to draw the test which gets the pass, a clue, a resource and the card I draw for the effect of “Perception” is “Magnifying Glass”

7.       Fast action time, I play the “Magnifying glass” no reason not to, I have the resources and I had a feeling I would need the asset.

8.       Upkeep phase sees me draw another “Vicious Blow”

So another reasonable turn, I managed to get a couple of free actions in there, to increase my productivity this round. Seekers could do with having more fast cards, or at least cards that give them extra actions, hell even Guardians could do with them.

Turn 3

1.       The agenda sadly advances, seeing a “Corpse Taker” spawning into the main path, then add a doom to cultist enemy

2.       Encounter deck then provides me another enemy in the form of “Grave Eater” who spawns with me.

3.       Another doom then gets added to the “Corpse Taker”

4.       Hunch deck shows me a “Scene of the Crime”

5.       1^st thing is to fight the “Grave Eater”,  I commit a “Vicious Blow” to give me +2 to my fight, I pull a -3 from the chaos bag and win the fight, thanks to the +1 damage from the skill card, the enemy is defeated.

6.       2^nd action is to move to the “Main Path”, which causes the “Corpse Taker” to engage with me.

7.       3^rd action is to fight the bad guy here, this time I commited not only an “Overpower” but a “Vicious Blow” too to give me a +4 bonus. I pull the cultist token from the bag which gives me -2 and slaps a doom on the “Corpse Taker”. However this doesn’t matter as due to the bonuses I kill him in one attack and I draw “Fieldwork” from the “Overpower”.

8.       I draw “Perception” during the upkeep phase

First time I’ve really been able to fight and have a good scrap in this campaign with actual success in a short space. The Midnight Masks saw me battle some bad guys but just poking them to get the win, this felt like a more dominant fight. Shame I still haven’t got any weapons out in any of these games, considering I went with the “Bandolier” so I could play multiple weapons and tools........

Turn 4

1.       “Ancient Evils” adds a doom to the agenda.

2.       Hunch deck shows me “Working a Hunch”

3.       1^st action sees me move into the “Arkham Woods” location “Tangled Thicket”

4.       Used my Hunch deck to play the fast action “Working a Hunch” to nab the clue from the location

5.       I use this player window to advance the act deck. Sadly this results in the 3 remaining cultists spawn into the “Main Path”

6.       Siding with caution, I pay 2 resources to play “Fieldwork”

7.       My final action is to draw and by a stroke of luck I get “Lita Chantler”

8.       The upkeep phase gets me a “Bandolier”

Major mistakes made during this game starting with turn 3 and it only gets worse really the longer the game went on. However, at the same time this mistake made the game a lot longer than it needed to be. So swings and roundabouts really HA.

Turn 5

1.       Encounter deck threw “Chill from Below” at me, I pulled a 0 from the chaos bag which still is a loss for me, and caused me to randomly discard “Overpower”.

2.       Hunch deck shows me “Scene of the Crime”... yet again

3.       Its go time, so I play “Lita Chantler” to replace the doctor

4.       I draw which gives me “Prepared for the Worst”

5.       Which then play to get my “Survival Knife”

6.       Upkeep phase comes round quick and I see a copy of “Dynamite Blast”

So I am preparing for a huge fight here, to try and get some bad guys in the victory display. Not realising the game should really be over or nearly over by now. However, mistakes made because of my lack of desire to read cards. 

Turn 6

1.       The encounter deck threw a “Mask of Umordoth” at me, which was attached to “Peter Warren” and he gains a doom

2.       Hunch deck gave me “Preposterous Sketches”

3.       So action 1 saw me “Dynamite Blast” the “Main Path”

4.       2^nd action was a move into the “Main Path” causing Peter and Ruth to engage with me

5.       I also triggered the reaction on “Field work” to increase my fight by 2

6.       Final action saw me fight poor “Ruth Turner”, I drew a -1 from the chaos bag which saw me win the combat and defeat the cultist.

7.       During my upkeep step, I drew another “Bandolier”

As I’m writing this I have realised I either didn’t note it down or I forgot about it completely, that’s Peter’s attack against me in the enemy phase.... Note to self, in the future, don’t rush these games as I’m clearly making simple mistakes when I’m rushing.

Turn 7

1.       1 doom advances the agenda deck, forcing me to test, sadly the chaos bag pulls me a 0 token and this causes me to grab a random weakness, “Hypochondria” to go into my threat area

2.       The encounter deck then gives me “frozen in Fear”... not what I needed

3.       Hunch deck shows me a “No Stone Unturned”, useless to me at this point too.

4.       Thanks to “Frozen in Fear” my first two actions are used fighting Peter, I pull another 0 token to get me the win and I deal him 1 damage

5.       My last action is to fight again, I discard “Bandolier” to give me a +1 boost however the chaos bag gives me the dreaded autofail token. Peter has retaliate, so I take a damage, which I put onto “Lita Chantler” and thanks to the “Hypochondria” weakness I take a horror also.

6.       Upkeep phase sees me draw a “Dynamite Blast”

7.       Enemy phase sees me take another horror and damage.... this is not looking good.

Now you may be thinking, “Tom, where is Umordoth? Shouldn’t he have already been spawned?”.... Yes is the answer to that question, and again as noted, I clearly need to start reading cards properly and taking my time when playing these games. So I have now realised my mistake and I had dropped “Umordhoth” into the “Ritual Site”

Turn 8

1.       Encounter deck has me testing willpower for “Rotting Remains”, I pull a -3 token, so I fail and take 3 horror. I put 1 of these on Joe and the other 2 on “Lita”

2.       Hunch deck gives me “Scene of the Crime”

3.       1^st action is to fight Peter, I pull a -2 token which still allows me to win the fight and defeat Peter.

4.       I move into “Ritual Site” as my 2^nd action

5.       Upon moving into the “Ritual Site” I activate the reaction on “Fieldwork” to give me +2 to my combat value

6.       I advance the act deck, resulting in an “Acolyte of Umordhoth” being spawned with me

7.       I opt at this point to simply sacrifice “Lita Chantler” to “Umordhoth” instead of trying to fight off both these enemies. This ends the scenario with RESOLUTION 3.

The Campaign Log

1.       Investigators sacrificed “Lita Chantler”

2.       I suffer 2 mental and physical trauma

3.       I gain 3 experience points

4.       The Investigator survived

5.       The weakness “Hypochondria” would be added to my deck permanently

Thoughts, feelings and emotions

1.       I would change the hunch deck to include “Emergency Aid”, I felt like I really needed some healing power in the build

2.       Due to not using “Higher Education” once during that scenario, I wouldn’t bother with it unless it was a longer campaign or maybe it was a multi man campaign

3.       I think Seekers / Guardians need more fast of free actions as I felt a real pinch in these games

4.       On a personal note I need to take my time when playing, so many silly mistakes made during these play throughs that could have been so easily avoided had I been paying closer attention and not in such a rush.

5.       I enjoy multi man games more, playing solo just didn’t have that level of fun for me.

Thanks for reading.

I’m Big Boss.... I’m Out.... Peace

Return to the Night of the Zealot – Midnight Masks – Solo play

So going into the 2^nd scenario or the 3 scenario campaign was a confident investigator, I mean, I wasn’t worrying about the “Ghoul Priest” because he was dead and that’s a big plus right? I didn’t spend any of my experience points before this chapter as I wanted to save them for the “Stick to the Plan” card, however I didn’t realise until after playing this scenario, that Joe cannot pack it as its a level 3 Guardian card and he is restricted to up to level 2 cards.

My starting hand was not too bad; I had 2 copies of “Dr Milan Christopher”, “Deduction”, “Vicious Blow” and a “45 Automatic”. So I was feeling confident that I had a good range of tools off the bat to tackle this scenario as I am aware from previously playing the normal variant of it that there are plenty of bad guys to fight, so away we go. I started play at “Rivertown” as sadly, I burnt my house down in the previous scenario.

Turn 1

1.       Hunch deck revealed “No Stone Unturned”

2.       Spent 4 resources to play “Dr Milan Christopher” as my 1^st action

3.       I then investigated “Rivertown”, pulling a skull token which equated to a 0 at this point allowing me to not only gain a clue but trigger the good doctors ability to gain a resource

4.       My final action saw me move into the “Miskatonic University”

5.       During my upkeep phase I drew “Fingerprint Kit” J

Already feeling that action pinch, essentially did nothing major but used all my actions and my only firearm is stuck in my hand.

Turn 2

1.       The encounter deck threw a bad guy at me straight away sadly, the “Hunting Nightgaunt” enemy spawned with me.

2.       The hunch deck then revealed “Preposterous Sketches”

3.       So I knew I needed to get away from the bad guy, so I ditched my “45 Automatic” to up my evasion by 1 and attempted to evade the Nightgaunt. The chaos bag came through and I drew another skull, again equating to 0. This allowed me to lose the Nightgaunt, for now anyway.

4.       I then investigated the “Miskatonic University” as my 2^nd action; I managed to pull a +1 token this time allowing me to again gain a resource and a clue.  So far, so good....

5.       My last action saw me move into “Northside”

6.       “Emergency Cache” was my upkeep phase draw

7.       Sadly the “Haunting Nightgaunt” readies up

Again, still certain if this was a multi man game, even just a 2 player game, this would be different and I feel like more ground could be covered to get these clues and I would have a little more luxury time to play my handgun.

Turn 3

1.       My old friend the “Disciple of the Devourer” spawned into the “Southside” location and I was fighting against the clock I opted to just give up one of my clue tokens

2.       Hunch deck gave me a “Working a Hunch”, which was so needed

3.       I opted to use this straight away to clear the clue from “Northside”  as a fast action

4.       My 1^st proper action was to then jump into “Downtown”

5.       I then investigated, discarding “Deduction” to increase my skill by 1. Chaos bag gave me a -1 token, which saw me succeed the test, grab 2 clues thanks to “Deductiion”, gain a resource from the good doctor’s reaction and by clearing the location, gain a victory point too.

6.       I paid 4 resources to play the “Fingerprint Kit” asset to finish my turn

7.       I drew my “Survival Knife” as my upkeep draw

8.       Due to its Hunter ability the “Hunting Nightgaunt” moved into the “Northside”

Going into the next turn I gave myself 2 options, activate the act deck to get my 1^st cultist or start tooling up to fight bad guys I would face. If you hadn’t already noted from my detailed account of this game, I had not given myself 1 mental trauma from burning my house down. A mistake I wouldn’t pick up until after I had finished playing sadly and this would be the theme of my playing during this game.

Turn 4

1.       The encounter deck gave me “Mask of Umordhoth” which I eqiuipped to my pal the Disciple in “Southside” and this also added a doom to him.

2.       Hunch deck revealed “No Stone Unturned”, could have used this... should have used this.

3.       I spent 2 clues to activate the act deck as my 1^st action to reveal the top card of my shuffled cultist deck. The cultist revealed was “Wolf-man Drew”, who spawns in “Downtown”... yay!

4.       Leaving me no choice I decided to fight the cultist, discarding a “Vicious Blow” to up my skill by 1, with a -1 token being pulled I managed to succeed and do 2 damage to the cultist.

5.       With 2 health left and me needing to get him gone ASAP, I carried out another fight action and fate smiled this time and the elder sign was pulled, giving me +1 and allowing me to move the “Working a Hunch” to the bottom of my insight deck

6.       Upkeep saw me pull another “Emergency Cache”, not what I needed, not what I needed at all.

7.       “Hunting Nightgaunt” moves in to team up with our cultist friend to beat me for 3 damage and 1 horror

Survival knife is in my hand, where it probably should have been out on the field at this point. I am beating DP’d by two monsters which I don’t have a defence against at this stage and the doom is piling up now.

Turn 5

1.       Encounter deck gives me “Hunting Shadow” which sees me spending one of my clues

2.       Back to the matter at hand. My 1^st action is to keep fighting, I committed the “Survival Knife” to give me a +1 and the chaos bag gave me another Elder symbol. Which is great as I beat the “Wolfman – Drew” into the floor, but sadly don’t have any insight cards in my discard pile to put back into the hunch deck

3.       So, feeling confident I tried to again evade the “Hunting Nightgaunt” but my luck had clearly ran out as I drew the auto fail tentacles token L

4.       Not disheartened, I tried again, this time managed to grab the 0 token, thankfully allowing me to evade the Nightgaunt

5.       Upkeep phase saw me get a “Deduction” J

6.       Sadly though the Nightgaunt readies and engages with me ready for next turn

God I want these bad guys to just go away and leave me alone now. I now have no weapons in hand and still having to tackle these pesky baddies. That doom is still piling up and im feeling the action pinch once again. Where is Leo De Luca when you need him.. oh yeah, I can’t play him.... L

Turn 6

1.       Sadly the doom causes the Agenda to advance, revealing a new cultist enemy “Narogath” which of course spawns with me and engages with me...........

2.       The encounter deck gives me a copy of “Masked Horrors” which adds a doom to the agenda

3.       The hunch deck gives me another “No Stone Unturned”

4.       I have to get rid of this cultist and this Nightgaunt, so I start with the cultist, chaos bag gives me a 0 which allows me to poke “Narogath” for one

5.       I rinse and repeat for the rest of the turn, 1^st getting another 0 token and then getting a +1 in my 3^rd attempt. Giving me a total of 3 damage on the cultist, leaving him with 4 health

6.       Sadly though, not enough done to get rid of them, so I take the hit of 2 damage and 3 horror

7.       Upkeep phase sees me draw “Lita Chantler” and not a MOMENT TOO SOON!!!!

Should have dumped 1 of the horror on Dr Milan here to get him gone, but didn’t think, so sadly I knew I was about to lose him anyway to play Lita and just another learning curve sent my way.

Turn 7

1.       The encounter card “False Lead” has me do an intellect test, which I pass when drawing the +1 token.

2.       “Working a Hunch” appears on top of the hunch deck

3.       Play “Lita Chantler” as my 1^st action causing my engaged enemies to attack me for 2 damage and 3 horror, the bulk gets dumped right onto Lita, I take 1 of the horror myself

4.       I fight again with “Narogath”, drawing the skull token, still at a 0 at this point so I win dealing 2 damage to the cultist

5.       Rinse and repeat for action 3, drawing a -1 token, adding the cultist to the victory display with the Wolf-Man

6.       I take one horror and one damage from the Nightgaunt to close the turn, for some reason I haven’t noted what I drew for the upkeep phase. L

Feeling more confident now I have Lita in play, seems like I can investigate just fine for now, so its combat where I need help and boy does Lita help.

Turn 8

1.       Another “Masked Horrors” causes another doom to be added to the agenda

2.       “Preposterous Sketches” its the top card of the Hunch deck

3.       So, time to get rid of this damn Nightgaunt, so Fight time, I pitch an Overpower to the test.... I feel this may have been my draw from last turn.... I pull a -1 token to win the exchange and draw “Bandolier” from the “Overpower”

4.       I just go in for the kill without any skill increases and I get a -2 from the bag which still gets me the big W and finishes off the “Hunting Nightgaunt”

5.       My final action is to activate the ability on “Downtown” to heal 3 horror from me, in the nick of time too, I only had 1 horror left due to my error with Dr Milan earlier

6.       Upkeep phase gets me a “Magnifying Glass”

Ok, so no enemies to worry about for now, so I have a minute to breath and get some more assets into play. With losing the good doctor, I am down an intellect stat and the magnifying glass as a free action will help get me back to a good stat.

Turn 9

1.       Encounter deck sends me “On the Wings of Darkness” which I sadly fail by pulling a -4 token, this deals me 1 horror and 1 damage. However, like an idiot, I don’t move to a central location as the card instructs me too. This actually would have made my turn so much easier, but again, I’m an indiot.

2.       Hunch deck throws us “Scene of the Crime”, wow, this deck has been USELESS this game

3.       So I move into “Eastown” as my 1^st action

4.       Play the fast action “Magnifying Glass” to get me back up to a good intellect stat

5.       I investigate using the “Fingerprint Kit” , pulling a -1 token I gain 2 clues, clearing the location giving me another victory point

6.       I pay 2 clues as my final action to active the act deck to get another cultist enemy. I draw “Alma Hill” into the “Southside” location

7.       Upkeep gets me what I’ve been salivating for, “Dynamite Blast”

 Alma only has 3 health, so these explosives will sort her out with little to no effort. Just need to get over there now which of course would have been easier had I moved due to “On the Wings of Darkness”, as I should have.

Turn 10

1.       Encounter deck throws me another enemy, the “Corpse Taker” which spawns at “St Mary’s Hospital”. I think I may have played this wrong through, as I didn’t add the doom to it, I think I probably should have.  I will have to check.

2.       Hunch deck got me “Preposterous Sketches”, another useless reveal sadly

3.       I use two actions to move to “Downtown” and then to “Rivertown”

4.       My last action sees me spending 5 resources to play “Dynamite Blast”, killing not only Alma and the Disciple which has been sat there since like turn 2 HA HA

5.       “Corpse Taker” moves into the “Miskatonic University”

6.       Upkeep phase gets a “Fieldwork” for me, a little too late by this stage

I had pretty much decided at this point that I would be resigning this turn; I wasn’t going to get enough clues to get another cultist or defeat them before the doom stacked up and the game ended anyway. 

Turn 11

1.       A “Locked Door” came from the encounter desk, this was attached to “Southside” due to it being the only location with a clue, thanks to the efforts of the Disciple earlier

2.       1 doom gets added to the “Corpse Taker”, I know this was right, but I’m pretty certain now on review that he should have had one last turn......

3.       Hunch deck flips a “No Stone Unturned” which really doesn’t bother me now

4.       I move into “Southside” to see what the deal is in there

5.       I quickly realise I am not going to get anymore victory points in this scenario. So I opted to resign. This option gets me scenario resolution 1.

Campaign Log

1.       Alma Hill, Narogath and Wolf-Man Drew have been interrogated

2.       Ruth Turner, Peter Warren and Jeremiah Pierce got away, but I will get them.....

3.       I gained 6 victory points for my efforts though.

Upgrading

1.       11 XP in total and I’m heading into the final part of the campaign

2.       So I took out 2 “Vicious Blows” and 2 “Dynamite Blasts” to replace them both for their level 2 versions

3.       I used my last 3 XP to buy “Higher Education”, little unsure about this one, was tempted by “Charisma” but opted to go this way with it instead as I only have 3 ally cards in the whole deck, so feel I need to make sure I’m getting the most of all the XP at this point.

So next chapter is Return to the Devourer Below, should be interesting. I know the cultists will all be back, but with there only being 3 of them, they should be easy to kill off. Then its just tackling the Devourer himself and if push comes to shove, I will throw Lita at him to get rid of him. Ha!

Thanks for reading.

I’m Big Boss..... I’m Out..... Peace!!!

Return to the Night of the Zealot - The Gathering - Solo play

Part 1: Return to “The Gathering”

So I opted to take out the latest Seeker investigator Joe Diamond for my solo adventure. I really wanted to play as Joe as I like the concept of his “Hunch” deck. This contains 11 “Insight” cards, one of which is my signature weakness card and one of these is revealed each turn and can be played at a 2 cost reduction. Also Joe can play a splash of Guardian class cards in his deck too, so we have some tools to fight off enemies when they pop up, as they do.

I tried to keep the deck focused on getting clues and being able to defend itself when needed. Sadly I am low on tools to help with Evasion or Willpower checks. However I am hoping that my clue gathering and monster fighting prowess will mitigate that.

So I got the game set up and ready to go, using the set up instructions from the Return to The Gathering instructions. My final post mulligan starting hand contained Perception, Overpower, Deduction, Shortcut and Fingerprint Kit.

Turn 1

1.       Revealed “Logical Reasoning” from my Hunch deck

2.       Action 1 I play “Fingerprint Kit” for 4 resources

3.       Action 2 was to investigate the “Study”, I pulled a -1 from the chaos bag to succeed the test and gain 1 clue

4.       I then played a Fast action “Shortcut” to move into the “Guest Hall”

5.       My 3^rd action saw me move into the “Bedroom”

Didn’t think to make a note of the card I drew for my draw this game, so I will remember that for the next game, so I added a doom to the agenda and continued from there.

Turn 2

1.       Encounter deck spawned “Disciple of the Devourer” into the “study” and due to its effect, I moved a clue from my investigator back to the study.

2.       Revealed Logical Reasoning from the Hunch deck

3.       Action 1 saw me investigate the “Bedroom”, the chaos bag gave me a -2 which luckily saw me obtaining a clue

4.       I then used Action 2 to move to the “Guest Hall”

5.       Quickly using Action 3 to move to the “Bathroom”

Really need to make a note of what I’m drawing each turn.

Turn 3

1.       Encounter deck threw an “Obscuring Fog” at me, which sadly was attached to the “Bathroom” increasing its shroud by 2. L

2.       The Hunch deck revealed “No Stone Unturned”

3.       I use my 1^st action to investigate the bathroom, increasing my investigation sat by 1 by committing “Deduction” to the test. The chaos bag once again gave me a -2 which was enough to successfully gain the clue

4.       I used my 2^nd action to play the “No Stone Unturned” to look at the top 6 cards of my deck, from the cards revealed I grabbed a copy of Dr. Milan Christopher.

5.       My last action was used to move back to the “Guest Hall”

Really feeling the pressure working on my own and not having any back up to assist me, every single move matters and you can really waste an action. Movement feels like it’s taking up all my action slots and poor Joe doesn’t have any ways of upping my action numbers.  In my current group campaign, I am playing as Finn Edwards, between the free evade action he comes with, Leo De Luca as my ally, Fence making my Illict cards Fast and other Fast cards in the deck, I feel like I have loads of actions to use. This is a huge contrast in comparison.

Turn 4

1.       After the doom is added, the Agenda advances. The result of this was to discard a random card from my hand, which sadly saw me lose my “45 Automatic” L

2.       My hunch deck saw a “Preposterous Sketches” on top

3.       Action 1 saw “Dr Milan Christopher” enter play, needed this turn one really, as my resources were stretched enough

4.       I then moved to the “Study” for my second action to engage with the “Disciple of the Devourer”

5.       My last action saw me fight the enemy, I committed my “Overpower” to give me a +2 boost, the chaos bag gave me a 0 token, allowing me to defeat the enemy and draw a card

This lack of actions is killing me, I mean I feel like I’ve done nothing so far as I only need 3 clues and I’m on turn 4. As it took me so long to get the good Dr into play, I haven’t had the extra resources that I would usually expect by now too.

Turn 5

1.       The encounter deck threw out a “Flesh Eater” enemy, which luckily spawns in the attic. Now, thanks to the updated text on the “study” this meant I needed to get the set aside “Attic” and put it into play, so the creature could spawn there.

2.       Hunch deck shows me “Preposterous Sketches” yet again, giving me serious concerns about my shuffling.

3.       This time though I decided to play it from the top of the Hunch deck as my 1^st action

4.       Sadly I drew the random basic weakness “Internal Injury” which goes into my threat area until I spend 2 actions to get rid of it and will deal me 1 direct damage at the end of each of my turns.

5.       Action 2 saw me investigating, I pulled a -1 token which saw me bag that 3^rd clue

6.       With that done I moved into the “Guest Hall”

7.       I then advanced the Act deck at the end of the turn. This resulted in me moving into the newly revealed “hallway” and forcing me to take a Willpower 4 test. Sadly I drew the tablet token which in this scenario was a -2. Causing me to lose all but 1 card from my hand due to my willpower only being 2.

8.       I also take 1 damage from the weakness I drew this turn

So that turn left me bare, I’ve got bugger all resources and I’ve now got two cards in my hand thanks to the upkeep step.

Turn 6

1.       I drew the “Mask of Umordhoth” encounter card, which respawned the “Disciple of the Devourer” from the discard pile, spawning again in the “Study”. With no clues to put a clue on the location, a Doom was added to the cultist.

2.       The Hunch deck threw out yet another “Preposterous Sketches”

3.       Action 1 saw me move to the cellar

4.       Played the “Preposterous Sketches” from the top of the Hunch deck as action 2

5.       A Fast action saw me play my “Magnifying Glass”

6.       My 3^rd action was to investigate the “Cellar”, chaos bag netted me a +1 allowing me to get the clue.

7.       Again, another damage by the pesky weakness, I still haven’t got rid of....... L

Although this all seems to be going well, I have little to no fighting power other than my standard 4 stat and I only seem to be getting the Seeker stuff.

Turn 7

1.       Encounter card was the “Cryptic Chill”, making test 4 willpower, I nearly didn’t bother drawing and just took the hit, but I figured I would give it a go. Chaos bag drew a 0 token, which was of course a fail and I had to chose an asset to discard, I opted to throw the “Fingerprint Kit” away.

2.       My Hunch deck gave me another Logical reasoning, L, did not need that.

3.       Decided to start taking the offensive, so my 1^st action was to play “Fieldwork”

4.       I then moved into the “Ghoul Pits”, which forced me to do an Evasion skill test of 3, in response to this, I tapped my “Fieldwork” to give my evasion a +2 boost, I then did the skill test and the chaos bag gave me a -1, which allowed me to pass by the skin of my teeth

5.       Due to the sheer lack of resources I had, I gained a resource to end the turn

6.       Thats right.... another damage!!! Damn weakness!!

So, got 3 damage now, lost my “Fingerprint Kit” not that I had even used it and I am feeling the burn. The doom is stacking and I know the “Ghoul Priest” is getting closer.

Turn 8

1.       Encounter deck threw me the “Zealots Seal” making me test 2 willpower, chaos bag finally hit me hard with a -5. Forcing me to discard 2 cards, don’t ask me what they were, I didn’t note it down. Like an idiot.

2.       Hunch deck gave me “Working a Hunch”

3.       Action 1 was to play “Scene of the Crime” to get a clue from the “Ghoul Pits” adding 1 to the victory display

4.       I used my last 2 actions to move to the “Cellar” and then onto the “Hallway”

5.       1 direct damage once again, still not got rid of that weakness

I made a HUGE mistake by not playing “Working a Hunch” here, which would have been a 0 cost Fast action which would have got me the clue on the “Ghoul Pits” and not wasted 1 action and or resources when I didn’t need to with “Scene of the Crime”. Considering I mentioned earlier how valuable actions were when playing solo, this was a ROOKIE mistake.

Turn 9

1.       “Rotting Remains” was the encounter card this round, once again asking me to do a willpower test of 3, drew a -1 token for this test and resulted in me taking 2 horror, I assigned one onto “Dr Milan Christopher” and took the hit for the other.

2.       “Working a Hunch” makes it second appearance as the top card of the Hunch Deck

3.       I moved into the “Attic” as my 1^st action, tapped “Fieldwork” to give my evasion stat a +2 boost and engaged with the “Flesh Eater”.

4.       Action 2 saw me evading the creature, puling the “Skull” token from the chaos bag, which was a -1 in this instance, allowing me to successfully evade the monster

5.       I was smarter this round, I played the “Working a Hunch” from the top of my Hunch deck for 0 cost as a Fast action allowing me to scoop up the clue on the “Attic”.

6.       My 3^rd and final action had me moving back to the “Hallway”

7.       With enough clues on my side, I advanced the Act deck, to face my impending doom. The “Ghoul Priest” spawned with me and engaged poor Joe. “Lita Chantler” stood stoic in the “Parlour” not helping me the slightest

8.       And of course..... took 1 direct damage

Turn 10

1.       The agenda advanced once more as I reached the Doom threshold, spawning an “Icy Ghoul” in the “Cellar”, luckily miles away from me

2.       Action 1, fight time, I pitched “Bandolier” to the test to give me a +1, hoping for the best here at this stage, I pulled a -1 from the chaos bag allowing me to poke the “Ghoul Priest” for 1 Damage

3.       Action 2, could lightning strike 2 times? Well it did, I pulled the 0 token from the bag enabling me to do 1 more damage to the scenario’s Boss monster

4.       Action 3, “Dynamite Blast” deals the killing blow to the “Ghoul Priest”, kills “Dr Milan Christopher” and hit Joe for 2 damage, leaving Joe with 1 health point left.

5.       With the “Ghoul Priest” dead and in bits, we are able to advance the act deck.

6.       Two choices are then offered to me, I could burn the house down to contain the evil inside or simply run away leaving the house standing. Being the paranoid person I am, I chose to burn the house down, leading me to Resolution 1.

Well, huge mistake made in that turn, I forgot to draw an encounter card!! Could have sent the game either way but what’s done is done! Really felt like the game kept me moving, I didn’t have the freedom of wasting some actions  to get myself set up for next turn or to do something else and this really impacted me. Feel the single player environment is cool, but having partners to help shoulder the burdens gives you a lot of breathing space.

In the Campaign Log I have noted that “The house was burned down”. I suffered 1 mental trauma due to burning my own house down and I left with 5xp points in total, plus “Lita Chantler” in my deck for the rest of the campaign. 

The next chapter is the "Return to the Midnight Masks", I can imagine that will be as merciless times wise as this chapter was. Thanks for reading. 

I'm Big Boss, I'm out..... Peace!!