by Wolfpack48
Well, we had an epic (8-hour!) session this Sunday playing Tibs' Show Must Go On Scenario. I'm still trying to pin down exactly why it took so long -- part of it was the 13 spot doom track, but I also think we were introducing new rules, our characters and stories, and getting into a bit of the roleplay of it all. Although we were exhausted by the end of it, the three of us had a blast -- the time actually flew by pretty fast, and we were amazed when we looked up at the clock.
Rules in Play:GOO: Hastur
Arkham only board
King in Yellow expansion
Tattered King Herald
Blight cards
Replaced Yuggoth with Carcosa
Act cards (using Miskatonic Overture)
Personal Story cards
Relationship cards
Injury and Madness cards
Epic Battle cards (Hastur)
Dunwich Gate cards (for Carcosa only)
House Rules in Effect:Hidden gates
Gate does not fill entire location
Investgators play one beginning turn at starting location before first Mythos card/doom
With 3 investigators, roll a die on Mythos phase; a 6 results in no Mythos that turn
Investigators may pool clue tokens to close gates IF they both travel through the same OW (explored state) and are at the gate location on close. Only one investigator may close the gate, and once closed, clues can be combined to seal
One horror check for duplicate monsters encountered in the same location
Items may be sold at the originating location at half value (rounded down)
Investigators were:Minh Thi Fan, Lola Hayes and Norman Withers
Things started off easily enough, with Norman heading over to team up with Minh, and Lola heading straight for clues and the first gate. It went well enough, but we decided to try out our first house rule of two investigators going through the same gate since Minh had that nice bonus for pairing up, and Norman the better lore for closing. The problem, of
course, was with two investigators traveling, Norman couldn't use his Find Gate and strand Minh. So trudging forward the long way, not to mention not covering as many gates as we should. The gate was closed in short order though, and with Lola taking care of hers, two gates sealed without too much trouble. Without any Elder Signs in our pockets, we were most definitely feeling the 8-token cost. Doom track at just 5 and Terror at 2, the Overture in play.
Norman was on to the 3rd gate, this time through Celeano without much ado at all, and Minh switched over to helping Lola and decided to team up on another gate, Lola was were having good luck in The Great City -- OW in general had been peaceful almost! She returned to Arkham with a successful close of the third gate, only to deal with a monster surge and streets thick with monsters. Norman returned just in time to close a gate and pick off a pesky Chthonian at the doorstep of the Unnamable.
Trouble did begin in short order when Norman decided to go for the forth gate (his third) and take on his second Crawling One. He'd dispatched his first CO earlier without too much trouble, but when the rolled negative combat modifier was a 6, things went south pretty quickly -- he had a single die roll as a result, and when it failed, followed by 2 clue token fails, he earned his first Injury card, Ankle Sprain. His already low speed of 3 now became a hobbling 2 at St. Mary's, and with precious few movement items turning up, our best gate closer would be crippled for the rest of the game.
Norman's problem now was that all the gates were in the north part of the city and a Wraith and a Star Vampire flitting above waiting to pounce from the Sky. He decided to try to push forward to get to the closest one possible, risking an attack. And of course, the Wraith did - twice - during the trip. His Evade rolls were golden though, and Norman managed to duck into a couple locations to escape further injury, cursing his bum foot, and his inability to get to a simple gate. He did, however, make it to the Asylum for some much needed sanity.
Minh and Lola decided to team up on the 4th gate, Carcosa, with Minh carrying 4 clues and Lola 1. Minh actually got another clue token along the way, and both of them wading through a number of close calls, made it back to Arkham for the fourth seal. Along the way, Minh was using Storm of Sprits to great effect racking up 2 Ghosts other assorted beasties.
All this time the Tattered King was doing his evil work, and 3 more dooms added to the track as a result of Mythos and monster surges to bring it to 11. Act I was in full effect and the Terror track had crept up to 5, and now the outskirts emptied a couple more times and it was decided to switch from dooms to Blights. Joe Osborn ensured exhuasted common and unique items had to be discarded without a success, and we promptly lost 2 of them, and then Oliver Thomas ensured we needed 9(!) clues to seal a gate.
And then Act II... Yep, it wasn't looking good for a gate seal win. We could remove our 4th seal to stave off Act III, but at the time we held Arcane Insight, and thought it was probably the right time to use it. Our seance was held as Norman cast the spell successfully. The forecast was bleak: no breaks from Mythos over the next 3 turns with Intermission, The Tattered King and New Miskatonic U Curriculum being drawn. So basically we had two turns to prepare as we decided to go with Misk U first then bring on Hastur with the Tattered King and the -5 modifier for Terror.
Norman had one last shot at redemption after all his limping. Independence Square was within reach, and the coming Witch House gate draw from Misk U had been sealed, so no new monsters or doom -- the way was clear! He moved through the Independence Square gate to the Abyss. A survivable encounter, and the Misk U Mythos draw. It was down to a Find Gate spell roll which went off without a hitch, and a close gate during encounters, also successful. Norman had his third gate
trophy which fulfilled his personal story The Path Is Lit right as Hastur came through with the Tattered King and 2 doom tokens...
Norman's victory proved slight, however, when he only threw one success on 4 dice, knocking only one doomer off the track.
He'd been Blessed however, as part of an OW encounter, and he was definitely praying at this point.
The mistakes in the final battle were pretty brutal. Both Lola and Norman had selected either spells for weapons (Storm of Spirits/+1 Lore Skill) or had selected spells to augment weapons (Enchant Weapon/Shotgun) rather than hunting down plain 'ol magic weapons. At a sanity point per cast, it really wasn't a great strategy against Hastur. Not to mention that he attacks Luck, which forced both to lower their Lore... That said, both fought valiantly (with relatively low dice) for a good half the battle until they were unceremoniously devoured.
Minh, on the other hand, was much more magically equipped (Gladius of Carcosa) and had picked up an Ally who also helped out with Combat. Sadly, the epic battle card that allowed 6s to increase the success by 1 but 1s to reduce successes by 1 was not working out well in the dice rolling. That said, Minh held on, down to a Sanity of 1 (3 to 1 on a successful Hastur attack) and avoding just before that the Hastur effect of devouring all characters with 2 or less Sanity. Still, Hastur had 2 doom tokens left. The next round was going to be it. Minh still had 5 dice though, and managed to roll three 6s, one 5 and no 1s for a total of 7 damage with the epic condition rule.
I think it may have been the closest beating of the Old One we've ever played (really a draw). It certainly felt epic.
And yeah, it was worth the 8 hours too.
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