DISCLAIMER: Solo Review

I don't really wanna talk down on this card, because I love the idea, but in solo it doesn't do what you think it does, at least not well.

Let me explain: When you are the only investigator most locations will exactly have 1 clue on them. That means you can use the move option to dive in, but then have to find another location to discover the last clue from and get rid of the doom. In multiplayer, you can usually discover the last clue more or less in the same turn, especially when you are not the only one investigating (which is probable if you are running this card).

Also, since there is no one else revealing locations for you, you often have to use the move option "blind". This can cause you to drop doom for the resulting location to have 0 clues, face unknown investigation restrictions or nasty effects that trigger when you investigate. Of course, you could just move to a location to check it out and come back later, but I feel in solo you have to be even more action-efficient.

Something I never considered but also cannot find anything against:

This card does require an enemy for option 1 at all. There is no "must" and no "then", you simply resolve as much of the effect as possible, which is discovering a clue.

I'm a little surprised that this never caught a review!

This card is -somewhat- nasty. -1 to all skills definitely sucks no matter who you are. But despite how evenly applied this looks, it definitely hits some investigators harder than others.

Investigators that don't mind this: -Investigators that are hyper focused on boosting and using one stat can potentially ignore this, at least until it's convenient to deal with. -Investigators that can reliably get extra actions have more room to clear it and not lose most of their turn. -Investigators that can do things without tests.

Investigators that do -not- like this.: -Investigators that rely on multiple stats (especially if they have add X stat to your stat for this test cards) get it way worse. They can't reliably stack their stats high enough to negate the haunted -1. -Investigators that don't have good action compression or extra actions will (as with any double action weakness) have less of a good time with this as well.

It's not the worst weakness in the world, but it's sure messing me up sometimes. And ultimately, a -1 to all stats will affect almost any investigator, unlike some of the more recent basic weaknesses that might as well barely be a weakness if you're the right investigator.

This card is an absolute powerhouse thanks to the Taboo list. The synergy it has with Blood Pact and Sin-Eater is downright absurd.

You can boost yourself with Blood Pact, place the first offering on Blood of Thoth, then activate Sin-Eater to capture the doom, which immediately triggers Blood of Thoth again.

The result is that you can consistently gain an additional action every single turn, and that action can be used either by yourself or even given to a teammate.

Might be kind of niche but I am building a Kymani Jones deck with this, Chuck Fergus and Bum's Rush. With the starting 5 xp you can take 2x Chuck and 3x Doppelgänger. For 4 resources and no action (or 2 resources and an action) you can discard any non-elite enemy by playing this in your room then Bum's Rush to push them out and trigger the second evade (you have to succeed 2 evades at 7 skill, but that's not too difficult and the 1 damage from Bum's Rush reduces the difficulty of Kymani's discard evade test). If you fail the first evade you still move them and get a second chance to evade from Doppelgänger.

Can also work nicely with "Where's the party?" to discard non-elites from the encounter deck. Drop a doppel in room, spawn an exhausted enemy and then evade them instantly to discard. 2 resources and an action, with Chuck able to reduce either the resources or actions needed to 0.

It's not overpowered by any means, but it is pretty neat that both of the crucial cards (Chuck is luxury here really) come from the same set, which matters as I have moved on to playing limited environment for extra challenge.