Enemy

Creature.

Mythos
Fight: 2. Health: 1. Evade: 4.
Damage: –. Horror: 1.

Aloof. Hunter.

Each investigator at Whippoorwill's location gets -1 , -1 , -1 , and -1 .

"It is vowed that the birds are psychopomps lying in wait for the souls of the dying…"
- H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror"
Maggie Ivy
Union and Disillusion #266. Union and Disillusion #29-31.
Whippoorwill

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Reviews

The humble Whippoorwill, a bird whose sole purpose is to annoy you as much as possible. Hunter + lowering all your stats by 1 while it's near you means you want to kill it, but it having aloof (and lowering your combat slightly) motivates you to maybe just ignore it or run from it. And that core conflict this card presents has inevitably lead to many groups being chased around the map before reluctantly taking up a round or two stabbing these birds to death. But the annoyance of this card transcends gameplay. First off, it's kind of a pain to spell it out: W H I P P O O R W I L L. Why two P's, two O's, and two L's? Why do I always seem to forget one of the P's or the O's every single time? Second, it's in the ArkhamDB twice. Here, check this page if you don't believe me: Whippoorwill. See? They couldn't even be contained in one set, let alone one campaign.

Anyway, there are certainly good tools to help deal with these now. Tony Morgan can put a bounty on them, which is hilarious and incredibly satisfying. You can get their attention with a makeshift bird call. Or you can just go full Mystic overkill and Spectral Razor or Storm of Spirits them to death. In one scenario, our Carolyn Fern chose to Dynamite Blast a room full of Whippoorwills, which is probably a triumph for the field of psychology, as it certainly relieved a lot of our anxiety that day.

Side note: Please describe to me exactly the situation in which you would ever evade one of these. Seriously, I doubt anyone has ever evaded a Whippoorwill in the history of this game. Not one person. I really want to know what situation would arise where someone would try to evade it instead of just punch it when they've presumably already purposefully engaged with it.

StyxTBeuford · 12917
I you are Rita with Peter Sylvestre and Track Shoes in play evading is 6 vs 4 while punching is 2 vs 2 and it also kills the Bird. — PowLee · 20
I saw Rita evade and kill 3 whippoorwills with excessive (but satisfying) card shenanigans. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1021
An Im done runnin Rita, fair enough. — StyxTBeuford · 12917
I must admit to considering it (and being frustrated by the high evade value) after taking hits from it when attacks had failed and sanity had suffered. — Yenreb · 15
Did a Caro/Agnes run. These were a funny joke! — MrGoldbee · 1388