Session Report for AH: TCG - Night of the Zealot: The Gathering

Fair warning! I plan to describe things that may be spoilers to the story so if you are interested in playing the game and want to be surprised, both of you should stop reading right now.

Ok, the base game box comes with a single three chapter campaign called Night of the Zealot. I have dug out my copy of the game and am planning to play it pure solo - one investigator only. I have decided to simply use Roland (one of the two suggested starter investigators). After putting together the suggested started set of cards for Roland, I went looking for a trusty phone app to use. Lo and behold there is an app on iOS (there may be on other platforms, I don't know) called Arkham Cards and the app is great! Not only will it help you with your deck composition, it will help you setup your campaign chapters, track your deck changes, and act as a draw bag - and it is free! Total score!

Ok, so I setup and played the game. I moved from the first location to the next, then to a third spot, a monster popped and killed me. The End.

Seriously.

Ok, I don't think I did it right. I didn't use the knife card I had correctly (though not sure that would have changed the result). Sometimes luck is not on your side. So I mulligan'd. So that is what we are going to report on.

The game starts out with Roland in his study, when suddenly the room warps and the door disappears.  What to do now? The obvious answer is get some cards in play and investigate this room. I put a knife in play (now that I know what I'm doing) and a guard dog - he returns 1 damage when he is hurt, so so that should help against the bad things that are going to appear (but didn't until the end).

The Mythos cards (you draw one each turn and it is basically, some kind of test or foe or some crap each time) for the first couple turns were tests and I eeked by them and got out of the study and was dumped into the hallway. Yeah, dumped - the house is all kinds of weird now and warped and crazy.

Since this was a replay, I figured I'd just stick to my original plan - see, there were three locations I could go to (sort of) from the hallway: basement, attic, or the parlor. Except that the parlor was blocked off, so I had originally picked the basement. So off to the basement I went again. Last game, I got popped by a bad monster right away. This time I was prepared.

No monsters...

Roland found two clues in the basement thanks to some card help and the Mythos cards only damaged his sanity a little and added threat the the villain's scheme (sorry wrong game) added doom to the agendas (which advanced me to the second part of the agenda very quickly). Now, I needed three clues to advance the act and since I only had two, Roland needed to go find somewhere else to get some more.

In AH: TCG, there are a series of ACT cards and AGENDA cards - you want to move the ACT along, it means your investigation is progressing; the AGENDA cards you don't want to advance, because it typically means that whatever bad is going on is progressing despite your efforts.

Ok, so Roland got out of the basement and headed to the attic, which was no big deal at all. He grabbed a clue up there and headed back to the hallway to remove whatever barrier was blocking the parlor. Things were going really well to this point, and about what I'd have expected from the first champter of the intro campaign. Apparently, removing the barrier was not a good idea. I mean, I had to do it story wise, but it was bad.

As I advanced the act into the third act (and last part), removing the barrier revealed that there was someone in my parlor and she had created the barrier. The barrier was keeping bad things out and keeping more bad things from escaping.

By removing the barrier, I gave this Ghoul Priest (who just suddenly appeared) access to the room. He showed up and we started fighting. He pummeled me (and my dog) and I realized that I couldn't last another turn, and might not have many options. I had to roll the dice (so to speak) and went for an evade (running away like Brave Sir Robin) - something Roland is not great at. SOMEHOW, I managed to actually dodge this crazy guy and ran into the parlor, leaving the Ghoul Priest in the hallway like a stupefied Wile E Coyote.

The reprieve gave me a chance to use the bandages I had and to get my buddy the beat cop into play. When the Ghoul Priest recovered and chased me down (I was only in the next room), I was ready for him. Between the damage the dog had given him, me throwing my knife at him (it must have been like a Crocodile Dundee sized knife), and the beat cop giving him a beating, I managed to defeat the Ghoul Priest, which ended the last act.

The crazy lady that had been in the parlor creating the barrier said we needed to burn my house down. I agreed and we did (and she joined my deck for our next adventure). A much more satisfying turn of events.

As a result of the game, I had earned a ton of experience, which means I was able to upgrade and replace a number of cards. Since I got a new ally and since you can only have one in play at a time, I dumped a beat cop (though I did decide to replace him with another dog). One of the research guys I had in my deck was really only decent for digging for TOMES in my deck (of which I have two iffy ones), so I dumped him to grab a shotgun card! I also decided to put another .45 in my deck and a spare ammo card to help with all the guns I have available. I upgrade my magnifying glass as well.

I'm going to have to keep an eye on the cards I get in play since you can only have so many in play of various types (ie I have two hands, I can't have a shotgun and a magnifying glass and a flashlight), but I like my upgrade choices. Since Roland is the only investigator, I aimed to make sure he could stomp bad guys AND find the clues. We'll see how the next game goes...

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