Eldritch Horror - Azathoth Session Report

** WARNING - Possible Spoilers **
Due to the nature of the game, describing the full nature of a session will reveal detail about the Azathoth Ancient One as well as some details about a few mythos cards. Because the game has such an abundance of cards, each story is usually unique, but the information about Azathoth does not vary. As such, if you prefer not to know anything about this Ancient One in Eldritch Horror, please look away...

Prelude

Ultimate Sacrifice: People thought them foolish, troubled, or mad. However, they persisted. For all their efforts, they were the first to fall before the coming threat, and they will not be the last. You must finish the work they started, the world depends on it.

I enjoy the prelude cards, they add some flavor to the game’s story and occasionally influence the Ancient One, so I always use the cards. Before anything is set up, two random investigators are defeated. Rex Murphy and Thomas Muldoon (and their starting possessions) were placed on the board (coincidently on the same space - Anchorage). A Lucky Talisman and a Carbine Rifle await whichever investigator can get there first. The flip side (because there is always a flip side in EH) - the doom immediately advanced by two before the game even was started. I figured two ticks of the doom track were worth some free equipment on the board (plus, recovering it means a shot at getting those doom counts back).

Getting things set up

Set Up

• Three investigators (I grabbed six random and chose three I had never played before):
• Silas Marsh (aka Aquaman) - Silas has the awesome ability to move on a sea line and then take another action. This really lets him jet around the water connected areas. He has decent strength and his net (equipment) reduce the amount of damage he can take.
• Patrice Hathaway - she can spend a clue and focus to increase a skill of your choice. She can gain a clue and focus by closing gates. She has decent observation, will and lore.
• Lola Hayes - she can spend any number of improvements to improve another single skill. Let’s you set up for certain encounters or move unneeded advancements to needed areas.
• Ancient One: (random from base game) - Azathoth
• Expedition in Antarctica, gate in Rome (Mummy drawn, which moved to the Pyramids when drawn).

Early gates

1st Azathoth Mystery

The Green Flame

In response to the cult’s invocation, a jet of green flame emerged from the fissure, racing across the ceiling and walls as if a living thing.

The first mystery of the game is simple enough - defeat the Tulzscha Epic Monster. The stupid cultists have raised a threat, we have learned about it, and are out to defeat it.

Turn 1

• Lola moves from Tokyo to Shanghai and takes a focus token
• Silas takes a boat ticket then uses his special move ability/action and ticket to move from Sydney to the wilderness spot north of Tokyo. He’s on the hunt for the two investigators who started all this.
• Patrice moves to Antarctica and takes a focus token. She’s going to join the expedition there.

Encounters:

• Lola’s encounter improves her lore.
• Silas’ food went bad in the wilderness, but was able to hunt for more to avoid food poisoning from rancid food.
• On the Antarctic expedition, Patrice sees a vision of the future but is able to use her knowledge to prevent the unthinkable from passing. Doom retreated one space. (whoop) (Expedition moves to the Pyramids - home of the mummy no less).

Mythos Phase

Cold White Silence (blue)

Like a living thing, the cold has crept to parts of the globe that have not seen snow in eons. You fear the dreaded Ithaqua is transforming the world to free itself from its frozen prison.

This ongoing event is relatively mild - Must spend clues on space #1 after passing a test to rid myself of this. Meanwhile I might get a few hypothermia conditions coming.

Card racks and bits boxes help save space and the game is of course better with Cthulhu watching.

Turn 2

• Silas uses his special ability to move to Anchorage (magic space #1) AND get a boat ticket, then gets a focus token.
• Patrice has nothing better to do than head back to Sydney and grabs a boat ticket for next turn.
• Lola gets a train ticket and uses it with her move to get to Istanbul

Encounters

• Silas finds the insane Tommy Muldoon investigator and convinces him to give up his investigation. Tommy gives his carbine rifle (Becky) up as thanks.
• In Sydney, Patrice rescues trapped subway passengers
• Lola encounters an apparition in Istanbul, but discovers it wants revenge on cultists for all their victims (not her) and improves her influence.

Mythos Phase

You keep replaying the struggle in your mind. Just as you gained the upper hand, a smug expression crept over the monstrosity’s face, just for an instance. What did that abomination know you didn’t?

Nothing bad happens from the event on the card, but each investigator picked up Hypothermia from the ongoing event during the reckoning event that happened, and a new gate opened in San Francisco.

Turn 3

• Silas uses his special ability to move to San Fran and then try to acquire assets (no luck). He picks up a focus token in preparation for the monster and the gate that is there.
• Patrice uses a boat ticket to travel to South Africa to try and gain a clue token. She grabs a second focus token.
• Lola uses her amazing ability to spend her ability tokens to gain new abilities, moving influence to observation, then moves to Rome to deal with the gate there.

Encounters

• Silas (with the help of Becky) defeats the Skeleton at the entrance to the gate. His trip through the gate is not successful, though he does manage to avoid losing his mind as he came through the gate.
• Patrice follows what looks like a metal crate with legs back to the lair of some cultists and picks up a clue! She now has two, so can end the ongoing event if she can get there soon enough.
• With no monsters in her way, Lola is flung through the gate where she is horrified to learn the body she inhabits is alien. The thought threatens her sanity, but she recalls the knowledge of how to build a device that returns her to her own body and once done, she closes the gate down.

Mythos Phase

You can’t sleep and can’t stop shaking. Compulsively, you open your suitcase and count everything, gripping everything you own so tightly your hands bleed.

For the second round in a row, the omen changed, a reckoning effect happened, and a gate opened (in Arkham). The current mystery AND the current ongoing event are each putting a token on the green omen space during reckonings, which means there is now a stack of 4 eldritch tokens on the green omen space. When the omen token moves to the green space, doom advances by the number of tokens. i.e. I got a bad combo of crap going on. I need to stop at least one of them and soon.

Each investigator could give up items or take a wound for each they keep. I keep them all (Silas was the only one with items) - bwahahahahahaha.

Turn 4

• Silas rests (which he can’t really do) which means he mediates to try and shake his Hypothermia condition (he does not). He heads out to try and take out Tulzscha. Because the space is one sea trip away, he uses his AWESOME special ability to move AND gain focus.
• Patrice uses her banishment spell to easily banish the Warlock on the new gate that popped up in Arkham. It cost her a single sanity, but Lola can now take advantage to hit the gate. She then move up the coast of Africa.
• Lola grabs a trans-Atlantic ticket and arrives in Arkham.

Encounters

• I realize that Silas is about to go insane, but then use his focus token and get two 6s which allow him to hold a shred of his mental state. He manages only a meager two wounds on the Epic monster though and will have to move on or truly lose his mind.
• Patrice is having a grand time. In the wilderness of Africa, she rescues Halpin Chalmers the archeologist. He has a tome which essentially does what her banishment spell does, only better. As her ally, she can move along wilderness trails like Silas does on the water - sweet!
• Lola investigated green pyramids on the other side of the gate in Arkham. She found a Dragon Idol artifact, but then passed out and woke up with an amnesia condition with no clue what happened. Gate open, but cool artifact in hand.

Mythos Phase

Pulling the curtain back slightly you see that same suspicious man watching your hotel. You’re going to have to sneak out the back exit and try to lose him again.

Ongoing - I can’t perform a rest action until the next reckoning event.

Turn 5

• Patrice takes the lead. She moves to Rome and gets a boat ticket.
• Lola moves closer to the Epic monster by train ticket and moving to San Francisco. She’s going to use her new artifact to try and take out the green swirl epic monster.
• Silas needs rest, but can’t now. He heads out to try for a clue and gathers a focus token.

Encounters

• Patrice tries to defend some kids from a strix! She fails, fell down stairs and gained a head injury.
• Lola questioned a warrior in the City of the Great Race and though he didn’t trust her, a spell he cast said she could be trusted and so he helped her seal the gate closed.
• Silas found a report of stolen radium and tied it to cultists of Azathoth and gained a clue.

Mythos Phase

The scope of the tremor was so vast that the newspapers in every country reported on the damage done and the tragic destruction of ancient wonders.

The world shook and the omen track advanced which triggered a doom track movement up to 11. Then I had to add two more tokens to the pile. The next trigger is a jump of six! A new gate opened at the Pyramids, which coincidently were destroyed in the quake. The expedition moved to Tunguska. The reckoning triggered the end of the ongoing event by knocking out Lola and Patrice due to hypothermia. Two more dings on the doom track! Silas only has 1 sanity and 1 health left. The two new investigators are Lily Chen and Minh Thi Phan.

Turn 6

• Silas uses his special to move to San Fran (to find Lola), get a focus token, and rest. He still has hypothermia and still can’t get rid of it, but got a little sanity back.
• Minh moves to Shanghai and uses her special to get her and Lily a ticket.
• Lily moves and then uses her ticket to get to the last known location of Rex (one of the first two investigators to go down).

Encounters

• Silas encounters Lola and convinces her to go to the hospital to get her wounds looked at. She tells him everything and doom retreats one spot.
• Minh is unlucky and gets poisoned and is unable to counter the stuff.
• Lily finds Rex and gets his Lucky Talisman, but the next day a gas main explodes and leaves Rex burned and broken. No change to doom.

Mythos Phase

The disturbances occurred in such remote areas that they went largely unnoticed at first, but soon news spread to research outposts. These scientists reached out to you about strange lights in the sky and flocks of birds dying in flight and plummeting to the ground.

Omen advanced and doom advanced for the two blue gates still open. Monster surge at the two blue gates and some new clues came out. The main result of the mythos card? The expedition moved to the Himalayas.

Turn 7

• Silas uses a little of his remaining sanity to activate the Dragon Idol artifact and wound the Epic monster. He uses his special ability to move and rest and gets his sanity back and is finally able to warm up and lose the hypothermia.
• Ming moves to the Himalayas to check out the expedition, and rests to try and get rid of her poison - unfortunately, it turns out she needs medical assistance and needs to be in a city. Waste of an action.
• Lily grabs a boat ticket and makes the long haul to Tokyo.

Encounters

• Police were attacked by a Xiclotlan. Silas tried, but was not able to help and was attacked and defeated. Doom advances.
• Minh finds a cult that was trying to summon the Ogres of Ra-Sa, but she broke up the ritual and deciphered the ancient text given to her by the grateful monks she rescued. That gave her a couple of spells. Expedition moved to Arkham.
• Lily helps detective Kogoro Alcechi solve a case and he is so impressed he gives her some case files (a task and a unique tome).

Mythos Phase

Now that you truly grasp the significance of what you have learned, each scribbled note becomes unbearable to contemplate. All the books you have read and the icons you have scrutinized suddenly make sense as a single mind-shattering truth.

Omen advances - one red gate means doom advances. Reckoning! Lily loses a health as a result of poison. Spawned a new gate in Tunguska. Trish Scarbourough joins the team to replace Silas.

Turn 8

• Trish uses her ability to get a clue and then heads to Tunguska to try and close the gate.
• Minh uses her ticket to head to Istanbul then tries to decipher her ancient tome. She does and uses it to rid herself of the poison.
• Lily moves to San Fran - moving closer to Silas’ last location.

Encounters

• Trish first defeats a ghoul, the jumps through the gate where she finds herself in the near future in a camp full of plague victims. She tries to sneak out, but is attacked by the guards and left badly wounded (despite using her clue up).
• Minh sneaks into a lecture in Istanbul and improves her will as a result.
• Lily works with a forensic examiner and learns some observation skills and barely avoids being haunted by what she sees.

Mythos Phase

A cold bitter wind howls through the trees and people everywhere cling to their fires and blankets. The chill has settled into your bones, and there’s no warmth to be found.

Everyone lost two health and sanity from the Tide of Despair, except Minh, who used her glamour to avoid the health loss. Omen advanced and doom advanced two more spots. Reckoning throws another eldritch token on the board (I’m going to lose soon). Then a new Warlock manages to curse Lily. Succumbing to her internal injuries, Trish loses a bunch of health. Lily does however make her curse short lived and gets rid of it right after getting it.

Turn 9

• Trish generates herself a clue and rests. Try again for the gate.
• Minh goes to Rome and then rests. She’ll investigate Patrice.
• Lily heads out to find Silas and also rests.

Encounters

• Trish becomes the cat lady. She finds herself in a city where cats are sacred and communicates with them and gains two clues. She then feeds the cats her rations (starving herself in the process), but closes the gate.
• Patrice was badly wounded and Minh was unable to communicate with her, but the doctors gave her all Patrice’s things. Doom stays where it is.
• Like a pirate, Silas hid his treasures, which Lily found, but the man himself was nowhere and died alone. Again, doom stays where it is.

Mythos Phase

Madness from the Sea - Each night you dream of strange architecture built from massive green stones. When you awake, you find yourself walking towards the sea.

The ongoing rumor means that the investigators will go insane if this isn’t taken care of. But I get another turn because the omen didn’t advance to the crazy big stack of tokens that will decimate the doom track.

Turn 10

• Lily moves to San Fran and uses a little sanity to invoke the Dragon Totem and defeat Tulzscha (finally). First mystery solved.
• Trish moves and rests.
• Minh tries to use her tomes and spells to get rid of the monsters at the Pyramids to no avail.

Encounters

• Lily helps the San Fran police find a bomb (improving her observation and gaining a blessed condition).
• Trish dealt with undercover cops and gained a weapon. It cost her clues, but the alternative was going to be being detained.
• In Rome, Minh helps an old priest and gains a blessed condition.

Mythos Phase

The omen advances and hits the green omen, which causes doom to drop from 7 to 0.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions tear the Earth’s crust apart at a rate faster than the devastation can be recorded or comprehended...

Investigators lose the game

Sorry, we didn't save the world

Conclusion:

Some games are just like that. The random events conspire in odd ways to make things really bad. Having the first ongoing even AND the first mystery pile up tokens that decimated the doom track meant that a couple trips around the omen “clock” was all she wrote. The dice and events also conspired to keep me from just beating down the epic (Tulzscha) quickly. Silas was perfect for taking out monsters where strength was the concern but not so much in the will department. The few odd advantages I had early were overwhelmed by the doom track being taken apart so quickly. That’s not to say that the outcomes of the game are totally in the hands of fate. This game’s mechanics are about mitigating your risks and taking chances to try and overcome the odds, but the game itself is still about the story.