Chaos Highlander Wendy Returns to the Midnight Masks (Solo)

My attempt to win Return to the Night of the Zealot with three Ultimatums active (Finality, Chaos, and Highlander) continues. Let's see how the resilient Wendy Adams fares against the Cult of Umôrdhoth under these circumstances!

SESSION REPORT

SCENARIO II - RETURN TO THE MIDNIGHT MASKS

• Opening Hand: Sleight of Hand, Elusive, Stunning Blow, "Look what I found!", Think on Your Feet
• Kept: None
• Replacements: Perception, Lantern, Lucky!, Bait and Switch, Lone Wolf
• Starting Location: Rivertown

A decent investigative start but I'm missing key tools for handling enemies. I'll head to Southside first and hope I can pull an ally from my deck to assist.

R1 (0D, 1H, 5$, 0C): 0/6 doom

• Encounter: None
• Move to Southside (fortunately, it's the version that lets me...)
• Use Southside: Draw Leo De Luca (...do this. I need the extra actions, I'm thinking.)
• Play Leo De Luca [-5$]
• Take a resource [+1$]
• Draw Think on Your Feet [+1$]

I thought about investigating, but better I think to get my Lantern in play and leverage its help rather than waste time potentially failing to find clues.

R2 (0D, 1H, 2$, 0C): 1/6 doom

• Encounter: False Lead [surge]
• Encounter: Hunting Shadow [1D, 1D on Leo De Luca]
• Play Lantern [-2$]
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 1 ( is -2): pass [+1C]
• Move to St. Mary's Hospital
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 1 (-3): fail
• Draw Opportunist [+1$]

Turns out I can fail to find clues just fine even with the Lantern in play! I thought about discarding to re-test but decided I'd rather hang onto that for an emergency.

R3 (1D, 1H, 1$, 1C): 2/6 doom

• Encounter: Hunting Shadow [2D]
• Play Lone Wolf [-1$]
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 1 (0): pass [+1C]
• Use Act 1a [-2C]: Herman Collins spawns in Graveyard
• Use St. Mary's Hospital: heal 3D
• Draw Elusive [+1$]

Taking a lot of Hunting Shadow damage early isn't so bad when you're at St. Mary's Hospital to cure it. Herman Collins is a welcome sight as he's one of the unique cultists I can conceivably parley... and I'll likely want those shroud 1 Graveyard clues and victory point later on.

R4 (0D, 1H, 1$, 0C): 3/6 doom

• Encounter: Locked Door attaches to Rivertown
• Lone Wolf [+1$]
• Move to Miskatonic University
• Use Lantern: Investigate, commit Perception, 5 vs. 2 (-2): pass [+1C], draw Stubborn Detective [play Think on Your Feet [-1$], move to Northside], spawns in Miskatonic University (gahh. I perceive a detective barreling down on me!)
• Move to Downtown
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 2 (, discard Opportunist to re-test, 0): pass [+1C]
• Stubborn Detective moves to Northside
• Draw Run For Your Life [+1$]

With a hunting enemy in play I now need to play ring-around-the-rosie unless and until I draw a tool for handling it.

R5 (0D, 1H, 2$, 2C): 4/6 doom

• Encounter: Disciple of the Devourer spawns at Southside [drop 1C on Southside] (More tempo loss. I'd rather lose the clue than eat the doom at this point.)
• Lone Wolf [+1$]
• Use Downtown [+3$] (I want to be able to circle back around to Northside and spend these resources for clues later)
• Move to Easttown
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 3 (-1), play Lucky! [-1$]: pass [+1C]
• Use Act 1a [-2C]: Billy Cooper spawns and engages (dang it, 1-out-of-7 chance this cultist would spawn on my head)
• Billy Cooper attacks [2D]
• Stubborn Detective moves to Downtown
• Draw Waylay [+1$] (ooh!)

Waylay is a clutch draw there for dealing with Billy Cooper. Turns out, it'll actually let me deal with him and the next encounter threat all in one fell swoop.

R6 (2D, 1H, 6$, 0C): 5/6 doom

• Encounter: Hunting Nightgaunt spawns and engages
• Lone Wolf [+1$]
• Evade Hunting Nightgaunt, 4 vs. 1 (0): pass [evaded]
• Play Waylay [-3$] on Hunting Nightgaunt, 4 vs. 1 (-1): pass [defeated], Billy Cooper added to display [+1 Victory]
• Draw Rise to the Occasion
• Draw Hard Knocks
• Stubborn Detective moves to Easttown, engages and attacks [1D]
• Draw Abandoned and Alone [2H, discards removed from game, +1$]

I paused to draw cards on the off chance I'd get something to deal with the Agenda 1b hunter... and to let the Stubborn Detective catch up, so that they'd both be in the same location when I get away from that. My tool for getting away, of course, is Elusive.

R7 (3D, 3H, 5$, 0C): 6/6 doom

• Agenda advances to 1b: Narôgath spawns and engages, advances to 2a
• Encounter: Hunting Shadow [2D] (good thing I healed earlier)
• Lone Wolf [+1$]
• Play Elusive [-2$]: disengage enemies and move to Northside
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 2 (+1): pass [+1C]
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 2 ( is -3, discard Hard Knocks to retest, is -2) [+1 doom on Disciple of the Devourer]: fail (arrgh)
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 2 (-1): pass [+1C, +1 Victory]
• Use Act 1a [-2C]: Ruth Turner spawns at St. Mary's Hospital
• Stubborn Detective and Narôgath move to Downtown
• Draw Resourceful [+1$]

Well. Ruth Turner is someone I can actually "defeat," so that's good. But the extra doom isn't good. Starting to think I'll need to cut my losses soon. If I can at least get Ruth, Herman Collins, and the Graveyard victory point, I'll be satisfied.

R8 (5D, 3H, 5$, 0C): 1/8 doom [+1 on Disciple of the Devourer]

• Encounter: Corpse-Taker spawns at Easttown (arrrRRRrrrgh)
• Corpse-Taker gets +1 doom
• Lone Wolf [+1$]
• Move to Miskatonic University
• Use Miskatonic University [1H, 1H on Leo De Luca]: [+1C] (I do this for the horror, so that I can use Run For Your Life on Ruth Turner)
• Move to St. Mary's Hospital, Ruth Turner engages
• Evade Ruth Turner, commit Run For Your Life, 8 vs. 5 (-2): pass [evaded, placed in display, +1 Victory]
• Stubborn Detective and Narôgath move to Northside
• Corpse-Taker moves to Rivertown
• Draw Manual Dexterity [+1$]

The Corpse-Taker is going to accelerate things incredibly. I don't have a means of dealing with it. I could Bait and Switch it away from Rivertown for a turn, but it'll just bounce right back there despite being evaded. Thinking for a while, I decide to beeline for the Graveyard and get everything I can get there, then resign. Not ideal, but I was prepared to take that approach anyway.

R9 (5D, 4H, 7$, 1C): 2/8 doom [+1 on Disciple of the Devourer, +1 on Corpse-Taker]

• Encounter: On Wings of Darkness, 4 vs. 4 ( is -1): fail [1D/1H, move to Rivertown, Corpse-Taker engages] (this just speeds things up! Very close to defeat now though.)
• Corpse-Taker gets +1 doom
• Lone Wolf [+1$]
• Evade Corpse-Taker, commit Manual Dexterity, 6 vs. 3 (-1): pass [evaded], draw Wendy's Amulet
• Move to Graveyard, 4 vs. 3 (-4): fail [1H, 1H discards Leo De Luca], Herman Collins engages
• Parley Herman Collins [discard Resourceful, Wendy's Amulet, Rise to the Occasion, Bait and Switch]: placed in display [+1 Victory]
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 0 (0): pass [+1C]
• Stubborn Detective and Narôgath move to Miskatonic University
• Corpse-Taker places 2 doom on Agenda 2a
• Draw Sleight of Hand [+1$]

Really cutting it close here as I'm 1 damage or horror away from defeat!

R10 (6D, 6H, 9$, 2C): 5/8 doom [+1 on Disciple of the Devourer]

• Encounter: Crypt Chill, 4 vs. 4 (): fail [discard Lone Wolf] (whew!)
• Corpse-Taker gets +1 doom
• Use Lantern: Investigate, 3 vs. 0 (-2): pass [+1C, +1 Victory]
• Use Agenda 2a: Resign

No resolution = Resolution 1

• Cultists Wendy Interrogated: Billy Cooper, Ruth Turner, Herman Collins
• Cultists Who Got Away: Narôgath, "Wolf-Man" Drew, Alma Hill
• 5 experience [5 Victory]

In retrospect I got greedy there at the end for the Graveyard victory point. A bad draw would have ended things right there. Still though, Wendy Adams just barely managed to pull through with a decent result going into the final scenario. I need some kind of plan for Narôgath there... but that's a tale for another session!