Death Itself- Never Lose Track of The Exit

The latest designer challenge seemed like fun, and so I thought I'd give it a try and write up my deck and playthrough. The challenge is called "Death Itself", and you can find the rules here (https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/9/14/death-itself/).

Basically what it boils down to though is the Pallid Mask on hard with a randomly chosen starting location. The Specter of Death starts exhausted at the starting location and if you would defeat it, it heals , exhausts and doesn't ready in the subsequent upkeep phase. Finally Agenda 2 gets +6 doom threshold to compensate for the Specter having eaten Agenda 1.

To me , it seemed like the main thing was going to be moving through the scenario as quickly as possible and not getting slowed down by enemies or high shroud values. That seemed like it called for an investigator who was good at evasion and investigation above all else and that seemed like Finn, so he was the investigator I chose. When I was building the deck, I decided fairly quickly that my approach to the encounter deck was going to be to ignore it (the Pallid Mask encounter deck is not particularly mean as they go :) so the deck has pretty much nothing in the way of combat or treachery mitigation. What it does have is cards for investigating efficiently, evading efficiently and some resource and action economy cards to tie it all together. It also has three very apposite basic weaknesses, which inspired me to write a thematic introduction as well.

...

It seemed like an easy job. Get a crew together, take some gal from the university into the catacombs and take possession of a relic that had, let's say, fallen off the back of a ship.The relic was supposedly cursed by death itself, but you've never set much store by stories like that. Those are the kind of stories thieves tell as a prelude to doubling the asking price for whatever it is they're selling. You know this because you've told the exact same kind of lies yourself on other jobs. Still if the lady wanted to spend her hard earned cash on an overpriced cut-glass necklace, that's no concern of yours. After all she hired you to watch her back, not to appraise the relic.

Only it didn't turn out that way, did it? The smugglers thought they could have the money and the relic both , and so you walked into an ambush. Now everyone you bought with you is dead, you've been shot in the shoulder and you and the professor are hiding on a ledge in a narrow shaft while the smugglers hunt for you. The relic? It's in pieces at the bottom of the shaft. And that may be worse news than it sounds. Because you can hear an unearthly screaming coming down there , that puts you in mind of tales of banshees and worse things beside. Because the stories about that relic may not be all that far-fetched. Because it seems that one way or another, tonight death itself will have its due.

...

And here's the notes on my actual playthrough

Opening Hand: Pickpocketing x2, Lola, Hyperawareness, Sure Gamble Mulligan: Hyperawareness as I don't think I'll get any use out of it for a while yet Redraw: Slip Away. That's an improvement. If I can't get away from the spectre on turn 1, I'll be glad of that

Starting location: Narrow Shaft. That could be a lot worse. Unknown catacombs to the right

Random Chaos Token: Not great.

Turn 1

Action 1: Play Lola. No brainer, there

Action 2: Investigate. Let's save my resources for now since I have Slip Away to fall back on, and take a few early risks.

Cards committed: None

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 2 shroud

Chaos Token: In the Pallid Mask, the skull's modifier is - (the distance in locations from the starting location). I'm in the starting location, so that's 0 and the skill test passes

Action 3: Attempt to move right. This requires a skill test.

Cards committed: Pickpocketing. A bit of an opportunity cost to committing Pickpocketing like this, but I do still have the other one in hand and no amount of the things will help me if I'm getting mauled by the spectre because I can't get out of the narrow shaft.

Modified Difficulty: 7 vs 3 difficulty

Chaos Token: -2 And the risks pay off. Finn climbs out of the shaft and finds himself in.... some stone archways. That's nice. The more distance there is between him and the spectre the happier he'll be. Next catacombs to the right.

Enemy Phase: Nothing to report

Upkeep Phase: The spectre readies and Finn draws Cheap Shot

Turn 2:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 1/18 doom

Encounter: Poltergeist. Can't hurt it and parleying with it is risky and time-consuming so this looks like a solid candidate for Slip Away

Action 1: Finn finds the slaughtered body and tormented spirit of a member of his crew, and bravely opts to try and slink off deeper into the catacombs In other words, Slip Away from the poltergeist

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 10 + vs 4 evade

Chaos Token: -4 Be seeing you, pal.

Action 2: Move right, into the Labyrinth of Bones. New catacombs placed above, below and to the right

Action 3: Investigate

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 shroud

Chaos Token: Oh, what an excellent stroke of luck. Finn's elder sign ability is +(the # of exhausted enemies in play), if you pass by 2 or more discover a free clue. There's one exhausted enemy in play, so he passes by three and gets two clues for the price of one.

Action 4: Move down, to the Crypt of the Sepulchral Lamp. Now I'm even more pleased with that , because this place is investigated with . Normally I'd have to scramble for a way to work around this silly effect, but since I already have another clue I can just ignore it and move on. Excellent.

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the archways

Upkeep Phase: The poltergeist doesn't ready due to Slip Away and Finn draws Lucky Cigarette Case

Turn 3:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 2/18 doom

Encounter: Ghoul Minion

Action 1: Bravely run away. Before doing so, use the window to play Pickpocketing. This seems like a good opportunity to trigger its effect, and besides which more assets in play is always a good idea. Finn is a chivalrous sort and would hate to think of poor Lola suffering from the crypt chill.

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 2 evade

Chaos Token: 0 . Draw lock picks and gain a resource

Action 2: Move right, to the Candlelit Tunnels. So Finn isn't having anything to do with the Crypt of the Sepulchral Lamp , but he's fine with candlelit tunnels. Wonder what the difference is? New catacombs to the right

Action 3: Investigate

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 shroud

Chaos Token: 0 .

Action 4: : Investigate

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 shroud

Chaos Token: 0 . 2 clues safely in hand, ready to keep moving next turn.

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the labyrinth

Upkeep Phase: The poltergeist and ghoul ready and Finn draws Manual Dexterity

Turn 4:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 3/18 doom

Encounter: Grasping Hands

Cards committed: Manual Dexterity

Modified Difficulty: 7 vs 3 difficulty

Chaos Token: . Draw Lucky Cigarette Case 2 via Manual Dexerity

Action 1: Play Lucky Cigarette Case

Action 2: Move right, to the Shivering Pools. 5 shroud is a bit much, so let's use that other clue to keep moving. New catacombs to the right

Action 3: Move right again, to the Bone-Filled Caverns. Much better

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the Crypt OTSL

Upkeep Phase: Finn draws Peter Sylvestre

Turn 5:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 4/18 doom

Encounter Grasping Hands

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 difficulty

Chaos Token: . Take 3 damage. Teach me to think things are going well

Action 1: Investigate

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 shroud

Chaos Token: . Fail and gain a surprise ghoul or Geist for my trouble to boot. The specific form of surprise ghoul is a ravenous ghoul

Action 2: Become cognisant of surprise ghoul. Flee the wrath of surprise ghoul.

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 evade

Chaos Token: 0. Draw Working A Hunch and Watch This, and gain a resource. The surprise ghoul was a net benefit! It certainly seems to have woken Finn up

Action 3:Investigate

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5 vs 3 shroud

Chaos Token: -2 There we go

Action 4: Move down to Well of Souls. New catacombs to right.

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the Candlelit Tunnels

Upkeep Phase: The ravenous ghoul readies and Finn draws Slip Away

Turn 6:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 5/18 doom

Encounter: Eyes in the Walls. Finn's favourite sub-species of encounter! Still, I have Sure Gamble, Lucky Cigarette and Watch This in hand and there's no sense in taking horror I don't have to, so let's see if Finn's nerve holds.

Cards committed: Lucky Cigarette and Watch This )1 resource)

Modified Difficulty: 3vs 3 difficulty

Chaos Token: . See, it was just a trick of the light.

Action 1: Play Peter. Hello, lost stranger. You should definitely come with me for I am completely trustworthy and totally know where the way out is

Action 2: Investigate .Grr. I've run out of free clues and I can't now backtrack so I probably have to investigate here the proper way. Next turn I'll play working a hunch but for now let's try my luck

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5vs 4 shroud

Chaos Token: -2

Action 3: Investigate

Cards committed: none

Modified Difficulty: 5vs 4 shroud

Chaos Token: 0 Let's go that way

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the Shivering Pools

Upkeep Phase: Finn draws Smuggled Goods

Turn 7:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 6/18 doom

Encounter: Obscuring Fog. As everyone knows, hunches beat fog. Indeed, in the window after the encounter, I will play Working A Hunch as a hedge against the next place being the Blocked Passage and arriving with no clues or new catacombs and sticking me there for a turn to boot

Action 1: Move right, and it's the Blocked Passage! Everything is awesome, or at least as awesome as it can be when you've just been pelted by a torrent of human remains

Action 2: Can't move or investigate so I might as well try and assemble some cards and/or the resources for lock picks. First draw Elusive

Action 3: Gain a resource

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the Bone-Filled Tunnels

Upkeep Phase: Finn draws Manual Dexterity

Turn 8:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 7/18 doom

Encounter: The Shadow Behind You

Action 1: The natural thing to do would be to move to the remaining unknown location, but I'm a little worried about the possibility of it being the Tomb of Shadows. If it were the Tomb, then I could investigate once at most before I'd have to backtrack to avoid the spectre. However , if I stay here I can play Lockpicks, dispense safely with the Shadow and lead the Spectre round a corner. Let's do that. Gain a resource

Action 2: Play Lockpicks

Action 3: Gain a resource and immediately donate it to the Shadow, discarding it.

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the Well of Souls

Upkeep Phase: Finn draws Dr Christopher

Turn 9:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 8/18 doom

Encounter: The Shadow Behind You

Action 1: Move up into the Tomb of Shadows! My location anticipation game is On Point! The act advances, and The Man in the Pallid Mask arrives in the tomb. Is this the way out? It doesn't seem like it, but then again this guy had to have come from somewhere. Maybe he knows something. Haruko also arrives in the Narrow Shaft. Sorry, Haruko. You're a little late for the party this time.

Action 2: Investigate

Cards committed: Dr Christopher

Modified Difficulty: 11+vs 4 shroud

Chaos Token: -2 draw Trench Coat

Action 3: Draw Mob Enforcer

Action 4: Looks like Finn's not the only one who thinks there's a way out here Evade

Cards committed: Elusive, Smuggled Goods, Manual Dexterity

Modified Difficulty: 10vs 3 evade

Chaos Token: Skull. 7 locations away from the starting location. So while the Mob Enforcer is very sneaky , Finn's random collection of criminal wherewithal means he is sneakier still. Ha. draw Lola

Enemy Phase: The spectre hunts to the Blocked Passage and Haruko hunts to the Stone Archways

Upkeep Phase: Finn draws Haunted A hell of a lot of people have died in these catacombs, Finn. What makes you so special that you get to be the one to walk out of here alive.

Turn 10:

Mythos Phase:

Agenda: 9/18 doom

Encounter The Pit Below. Hahaha, don't care. There is an approximately 00.00% chance of me still being here next turn, even with +1 shroud and haunted

Action 1: Evade the Mob Enforcer

Cards committed: Cheap Shot , Slip Away

Modified Difficulty: 7 vs 3 evade

Chaos Token: . Oh, well. Don't even need to worry about investigating. The mysterious masked man and the mob enforcer don't seem too happy to see each other, and Finn scents an opportunity. An enemy of this guy's a friend of his, right? draw Internal Injury. Also Finn got shot a while back and he's just remembered that. Can we leave now? Please?

Action 2: Move to the tomb, wave hello to the specter that I haven't seen for the whole of the game and advance the act. Depart for resolution 2

....

Well, then. Assuming that last bit wasn't a very involved hallucination produced by Finn's broken mind as he bled out on the cold stone floor of the Blocked Passage, A definite possibility, all things considered I think I did rather well there. I didn't even need the +6 doom threshold on the agenda :) . I mean, I had an awful lot of luck with the starting location and the early investigation and the encounter deck was very very kind. But I still think I had a good deck and made sensible decisions. Let me know what you think. And now for a thematic epilogue.

...

Everything seems to have turned out for the best. I mean, sure, you didn't get the relic or get paid for the job you originally set out to do. Even so, though. Professor Santiago's found enough archaeology to last her a lifetime and the stray kid you found turned out to have rich parents who were grateful for the safe return of their son, so you came out ahead money-wise. They even paid your medical bills, which is nothing short of a miracle in your book. Still, you're being to get the feeling that there was something of a massacre in those catacombs and the cops might eventually get around to talking to the lone survivor of the slaughter. It's looking like time to leave Paris, and you've heard tell of a monastery on the coast with some valuable things locked up in its vaults. And more than that, leaving Paris might finally get you shot of that odd, distant but clear and inhuman screaming you hear whenever you close your eyes.

Thanks for reading :)