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Starting team: Daisy Walker + Zoey Samaras (lead). Thanks to the prelude, they each spend a sanity to gain a clue, but Zoey (the lead) starts off with a blight (new condition from the Carcossa exp).
Setup: Expedition in Arkham, two gates (thanks KiY) - San Fran and Shanghai. Monsters seem to be nothing scary, but I need to kill the zombie in San Fran before the first reckoning or it becomes the epic Zombie Mob.
Mystery: I need 4 clues FROM Research Encounters to solve the mystery. Only one clue on the board. Guess I'll need to go to London and drum up some clues for the board.
Round 1
Daisy: move to Rome + special action to acquire tome (fail). Agatha Christie has disappeared, Daisy's investigation spawns clues on gate Cities (which I have a couple of)!
Zoey (lead): special action to gain a task + move to London. Helps a bishop uncover agents in the church. His prayers heal and improve will!
Ancient Guardians - An article on the back of a newspaper catches your attention...
** Things go south fast. Reckoning causes Zoey to lose her cross and impairs influence and will. Added a gate in the Himalayas. Event spawned two more monsters - on the expedition site. One causes the lead investigator to become cursed (right after she got rid of the blight she started with).
Round 2
Zoey(lead): moves twice to a clue spot. Finds a painting that has a clue. Gains Debt to gain the clue (spent towards the Mystery).
Daisy: moves twice to Bombay (heading to gates). Wanders through a library and finds a tome artifact! (good for her specials).
Relics of Old ongoing rumor - must go to the current expedition and pass observation test to end rumor. Seems reasonable.
Daisy (new lead): tries to use her artifact (failed) and moves to Himalayas. No strength, can't beat the cultist there :(
Zoey: Can't possibly fight the zombies while cursed - heads back to London. An archeaologist asks for help, but all she gets out of the deal is a haunted condition. Poor Zoey is not having a good game.
Lost Knowledge ongoing rumor - must defeat the Tick Tock men (who spawn in North Australia) or lose all clues on the board and any possesed clues. Sheesh. Like I wasn't clue poor enough...
Round 4
Daisy(lead): Successfully uses her artifact to improve her strength + gain focus token. Still can't beat the cultist.
Zoey: Move to Rome + gain focus token. Can't help Bast out and gains a disease. I think a reckoning is going to end her with all the crap in her life.
Rally the People - after the noise and violence is over, one of the shopkeepers peers out his window...
** Doom moved 2. A Byakhee ambushes Daisy. Zoey loses a bunch of sanity. Expedition moves to the pyramids. Zoey trades haunted for hallucinations, remains cursed, got rid of debt, and disease impaired her influence some more. New gate and cultist in Istanbul. Daisy gained an ally. I can't believe Zoey didn't go insane.
Round 5
(I suddenly realize you can't do any action twice (like moving) unless using a ticket - too bad my cheating hasn't helped me any.)
Daisy(lead): Her cat burglar ally tries to steal and fails (this is an action) + gains a focus. Finally beats the cultist. Gate: Lost Carcossa (how thematic). She closes the gate and saves a life back in the real world, gaining an ally (who ends up being a much needed bodyguard).
Zoey: Gains a focus token + moves to pyramids. Zoey manages to solve the Relics of Old rumor, which is nice, but not helpful really.
Hunter Becomes the Hunted - You keep replaying the struggle in your mind...
** Zoey is ambushed, thanks to a cultist, and goes insane. Akachi Onyele will take up her investigations. Daisy gains a blight and loses her cat burglar ally. New gate in London. The event itself does nothing to my investigators.
Daisy: gains a focus token + moves to Tanguska to try for a clue. Defeats Colour Out of Space, but is close to going insane.
Akachi (new lead): Boat ticket + moves to Rome. There she implores the pharohs to watch over her and becomes blessed.
Eyes Everywhere - Now that you know what to look for, you see them all around...
** Doom advances 2 more. Reckoning: Monsters move doom 1 more. Akachi is ambushed but only loses a touch of sanity. Daisy gets another blight. Tick Tock Men rumor concludes and kills all the clues on the board. Daisy's blight wounds her and she can't continue. New gate in Tunguska. Finally, a Gnoph-Keh ambushes Akachi. Monterey Jack the Archiologist joined the team. He starts with a bullwhip and a treasure map (and a porn-stache). Totally an Indiana Jones rip off, except the mustache. Actually, he kind of looks like the Disney character with the same name.
Akachi(lead): Grabs train ticket + moves to London. Akachi (despite being blessed) fails miserably at the gate and ends up injured.
Monterey: Grabs a focus token and sits tight. Monterey meets a recovering Daisy and collects her stuff and also retreats doom a little.
No Peace for the Fallen - You can feel the decay clinging to you...
** Doom charged right back. Cultist spawned in London. All the defeated investigators stuff goes back and they are gone. Akachi got cursed/lost blessed. At least Monterey got all of Daisy's stuff before this happened.
Round 8
Akachi(lead): Grabs focus + uses special to determine next gate. Through the gate she gains a madness condition, but closes the gate.
Monterey: Uses Daisy's Old Journal to advance the mystery one + tries (fails) to use the tome artifact. Successfully navigating the pyramids, he finds a relic and comes away unscathed. Completing the expedition, he finds another relic on the way out. This guy is awesome.
The Time Has Come - In the night sky, the planets and stars have aligned...
** Doom advances a couple ticks (at 2 now). New monster spawn in Antarctica (coincidentally, where the clue pops) sigh.
Round 9
Akachi(lead): rests in London and gets rid of her back injury + moves to Istanbul to hit the gate there. After beating the cultist, she goes through the gate, where mi-go scientists beam thoughts into her brain. She learns a spell.
Monterey: Also moves to Istanbul. Using an arcane insight spell, he gets Akachi a clue, but she loses sanity in the process. It costs Monterey a ton of clues (re-rolls), but he eventually closes the gate.
Omen of Good Fortune - You drop a penny into a particular mechanical device...
** Doom advances to 1. New Gate in Buenos Aires. The event lets me set the omen wherever I want, I set it in hopes of closing the red gate next turn (thus avoiding more doom).
Round 10
Monterey (new lead): Uses his artifact to increase Lore + trades some items to Akachi. Tries to use a clairvoyance spell, but doesn't pass the lore test, then in Istanbul he impresses someone with his lore (they are easily impressed apparently) and gains influence.
Akachi: Grabs a train ticket and moves to Shanghai. Akachi manages to close the gate, but becomes paranoid.
Cold Snap - Frostbite stings your ears and nose...
** Doom ran out anyway thanks to the monsters during the reckoning effects, so Hastur awakes. A gate opens in Arkham and eveybody gains hypothermia.
Montery (lead): Gain a focus token + rests but can't shake the hypothermia condition. Successfully uses his Clairvoyance spell and gains the clue in Antarctica to solve the active mystery.
Akachi: Boat ticket + moves to Tokyo. She tries to enlist the Japanese navy, but is detained instead of getting help.
Wonders of the World - the various things in the world are slowly making the investigators insane. Lead gained a relic but he also ended up delayed thanks to a monster spawn (a hunting Byakhee no less - interestingly a lot of the randomness has more or less stayed with the theme of King in Yellow)
Round 11
Monterey(lead): Was delayed, so did nothing. Fought the monster - no outcome, lost a health.
Akachi: was detained from last turn and couldn't get out of it. Her cruel captors couldn't drive her mad though.
We're All Going to Die - You anonymity was an illusion. The servants of the ancient one know exactly who you are. Insanity all around. The end.
Conclusion
Once again, I played with only investigators that I hadn't played with before. I was starting out all women, but Monterey and another guy came up, so I went with "fake Indiana Jones". If you can keep him at the expeditions, he is a relic generating machine.
I've been doing a better job of closing gates (I think in large part because the monsters I've pulled have been easier to deal with the last couple of games), but it hasn't made me more successful, partially because I keep having a string of good luck with one investigator while the other just takes all the lumps and doesn't do anything. By the time the bad luck one exists, things are spiraling out of control. It has been a while now since I enjoyed a victory over the forces of chaos.
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