There's a tradition in the Lovecraft Mythos that nightgaunts, frightening monsters that they are, are at times helpful and benevolent. Keeping with that tradition, under the right circumstances, this encounter is a godsend. How's that? At a modest fare of 1 damage and 1 horror, the "Nightgaunt Express" (as my group has come to call it) offers two very valuable services:

1) Saving you actions if you need to move across town. I don't know about you, but out of every action you can take on your turn, Move is my least favorite. It's slow, it does nothing on its own, and depending on the board state, moving toward a location often means moving away from a location you'll need to go to later, costing you even more actions. There's a reason cards like Shortcut, Elusive, and (sometimes) Astral Travel are so highly valued. Actions are precious--far more precious than the health and sanity you lose from failing the test for this encounter. Actions you don't need to spend moving can be spent gathering clues, doing damage to enemies, playing cards, and completing Act objectives. Why walk when you can fly?

2) Rescuing you from danger. This is a fantastic encounter to draw for investigators who are waylaid by (non-Nightgaunt) enemies and are either ill-prepared to fight/evade or whose actions are better spent on other things--seekers mainly, but anyone who just doesn't have the right cards in hand or in play can appreciate a helping claw from our favorite blank-faced tickle monsters.

About the third or fourth time my group drew this during our first playthrough of the Midnight Masks, we learned to love it. It allowed us to budget our actions to do just enough damage to take down a very tough enemy at a crucial moment. It reminded us of the many, many times--playing the 2nd edition of the board game--nightgaunts helped our investigators get across town and past tough monsters on their way to explore a gate. All aboard the Nightgaunt Express!

Slap it in -nearly- any deck and you wont regret it.

A huge +3 to get 1 or 2 clues with is quite good. It can help finish a high difficulty location or speed you up through a medium/low difficulty one. It's so simple and so good.

Keep in mind that on every success, even the one's that dont net you an extra clue, the card saves you an action that is the equivalent of one successful investigate, here's why:

• On a success by 2, earning you a bonus clue, you've basicly gotten 2 successful investigates in one action.
• On a success by less than 2, the bonus will have been the difference between a total failure and any success in general, turning a failed investigation for 1 clue into a successful one.

Only on a complete failure is the card wasted, but what test-based card is'nt wasted when youre drawing such big negative tokens that 5+ value tests fail?

Even if you're not playing a clue dude give this thing a fair consideration in multiplayer, if there's a running around with a 4+ base then you can bring this to chuck at them, it is a non-binary way to contribute clues but an effective one nontheless.

TL:DR. A main weapon for characters that have high as well as high .

• The Mauser C96 has extra ammo compared to other weapons but suffers the unique drawback of exhausting to fire and unexhausting conditionally. In the hands of a fighter type character (for example Tony Morgan or Leo Anderson) If this gun exhausts on you and you're not geared to finish the fight without it, well that sucks then.

• The point to Mauser C96 is to score that "beat by 2", when the gun exhausts on you you use a different ability to disable or delay the threat, generally this means using to evade, this makes Mauser C96 the pistol of choice for "Skids" O'Toole and Finn Edwards, Winifred Habbamock and possibly Jenny Barnes. For these characters a Mauser C96 can be their main or only weapon. Tony Morgan can make good use of it but it cannot be his only way to fight since an untimely exhausted Mauser C96 leaves him completely dead in the water, he definitely needs other weapons and/or combat events.

• Mauser C96 is a key card in making "beat by 2" a viable and interesting archtype right from the start. Other "beat by 2"'s are natural co-includes (Lucky Cigarette Case, Quick Thinking) and finally there is a static reason to awaken this sleeper card which has only been waiting for a reason to become usable.

If you do the math then Mauser C96 is obviously "better" than comparable one-handed weapons, perhaps even the Enchanted Blade, but its downside relegates it to a niche that's actually pretty cool.

When you start upgrading then Delilah O'Rourke is a natural combo that both strengthens Mauser and mitigates its weaknesses.

A reprinted Flashlight? What gives FFG? Well.... Not quite!

Old Keyring actually differentiates itself dramatically from Flashlight with several key details that completely turn this classic mechanic on its head.

• First off, an Old Keyring only spends charges on successful tests. A Flashlight is best used to automatically beat low difficulty locations, a great way for low- characters to get clues in any difficulty, especially with low player counts. However the risk of failure when you turn a Flashlight at a high-shroud location is great and often not worth it, an all-too familiar issue for a 3- character trying to tackle a 4-shroud location.

• Old Keyring shares the Flashlight's ability to beat a low shroud location, but the fact that charges are only spent on successes means that you can MUCH more fearlessly blast a 3-5 shroud location with repeated investigate checks until you eventually hit all the clues, Old Keyring basicly reads "+2 until you've discovered 2 clues", a rather terrific ability.

• Finally, this card self-discards right after success. Self discarding means that cards like Resourceful can recover the Old Keyring, more importantly, Old Keyring + Scavenging are a natural combo! It's actually ridiculous if you consider the upgraded Scavenging, investigate a location, finish the Key, immediately replay it! This is now one of the go-to combos for clue strategies.

Right now I think the toughest thing about this card is not immediately committing it to the first test you see. 6 icons (+ icons from whatever other card you will no doubt add to this test to benefit from Wini’s draw) is enough to put you outside most token’s malus range outside any difficulty save expert. Then, since you will be oversucceeding by some amount, you reap the benefits of All In/Nimble/“Watch This”/whatever else.

It’s a stellar card. Learning to save it for when it’s the most effective can make it transcendent