A dangerous treachery, with an interesting twist.

Like all cards in the "small encounter sets" for this scenario, it is added to the encounter deck upon reaching Act 2, but only in 4 out of 10 possible outcomes.

The first part adds a doom to a specific boss enemy, which can only happen during "The True Culprit" endgame agenda, and only in 2 of the 10 outcomes (so only 50% of the time ; because when this treachery is present, 2 out of 4 possible endings will feature a different boss). But when it does matter, it stings, and adds insult to the injury of the second part.

The second part is a hard Willpower test for either 2 horror or 2 damage (ouch), with the possibility of dealing the damage to another investigator instead of your own. Or, you can deal the damage to a Humanoid enemy, which is generally a bad idea in this scenario if the enemy is Innocent or if the police are present (they will intervene and attack you).

But ! on occasion, this treachery will come as a boon, giving you 2 testless damage against an enemy that you want to defeat... There are 4 such enemies in the basic encounter deck (including a mini-boss), plus 3 other bad guys in 50% of the possibilities when this treachery is present.

I mean, what are the odds of drawing this treachery twice in one Mythos phase while being engaged with the evil concierge, and almost killing him with it ? Apparently, not zero, as it just happened !

Chapter 2 Trish Scarborough is Chapter 1 Finn Edwards with a facelift, with everything good and bad that implies. They might have the same card pool, but they operate in very different ways.

On the upside, if you enjoy Finn Edwards, Trish Scarborough is functionally identical. In exchange for a slightly worse Elder Sign that provides free movement rather than free clues, Trish Scarborough gets a better signature than Finn's Trusty .38 and a joke of a weakness than joke of a weakness compared to Caught Red-Handed that actively punishes you for evading enemies. Her card pool is also much better than Finn's --- an illicit card pool outside of Rogue never materialized during Chapter 1, whereas new Trish Scarborough still retains access to Seeker 0-2. I'd be hard pressed to justify playing Finn when new Trish exists.

On the downside, new Trish occupies a slightly different niche than old Trish in ways that might provoke some frustration. Old Trish Scarborough can take advantage of enemies to discover additional clues each turn and use clues to automatically evade enemies. Her signature lets her disengage from enemies at fast speed and her elder sign lets her investigate any revealed location, giving her a lot of opportunities for creative applications of her abilities. By contrast, New Trish Scarborough is an Evasion Matters Rogue with extremely powerful fundamentals, a free evasion action each turn, and a free copy of Pickpocketing as her signature. Her ability is more restrictive and less creative, but a free action paired with cards that trigger on evasion can add value rapidly. New Trish takes better advantage of the Rogue card pool, but old Trish is better at using the Seeker card pool. It depends on what flavor of Trish you plan on building.

I ran this recently in a Trish (2026) deck through The Forgotten Age, and I was shocked at how much extra money it was printing compared to the level zero version. It probably helped that I was stacking static boosts. The synergies for Item, Tool, and Illicit are appreciated.

If this is in your deckbuilding options and you're playing a or character and you need more money, this is a reasonable pick.

As of the release of Chapter 2, Jim Culver is the default ally in for Level 0 Mystic decks.

First, Jim is the only Level 0 Mystic Ally since David Renfield) to provide a passive bonus to Will. That alone makes Jim playable. There are only a couple of situations where a pure Mystic would not want to run him:

• You plan on doing a lot of basic Investigate actions and want to know the top card of the Encounter deck (e.g. Alyssa Graham)
• If actively benefit from Token Manipulation (e.g., Katarina Sojka or Olive McBride)
• If you built around the Doom mechanic (e.g., Arcane Initiate or David Renfield)

Second, Jim Culver draws cards. A LOT of cards. At a minimum. Jim replaces himself the first time you take damage or horror. If you get him in play early enough, you can expect to 4-5 cards across the scenario.

My partner and I just beat Carcosa for the first time yesterday. In Dim Carcosa, my partner's Akachi picked up the first 4 clues and a pair of fanatics spawned to pick up 2 more. I (as Minh) got to pick up the other 15 clues with this and deduction and wipe the entire board in one go.

I didn't draw my keycards for quite some time so it was in fact already act 3 with Hastur Lord of Carcosa on the board before we got anything going, so I can't quite recommend this as like. Optimized playing. But it is the most satisfying single action I have ever taken in this game.

Especially cause the two locations that didn't start on their damage version got got by me playing deciphered reality and deduction again on my second cycle through the deck. Truly a beautiful, beautiful scenario to take this into.

Edit: still think this is a good scenario to take this into but this is my reminder to myself that if I am not reading the FAQs on a card before playing it, I should not subsequently post about the experience before reading said FAQ.