Roald Ellsworth
Intrepid Explorer

Asset

Ally. Miskatonic. Wayfarer.

Cost: –.

Neutral
Health: 4. Sanity: 2.

Partner. Uses (5 supplies).

During an investigator's turn, exhaust Roald Ellsworth and spend 1 supply: Choose a treachery attached to any location. Treat that treachery's text box as if it were blank until the end of this turn.

"I have been all over the world. Please, just trust me."
David Chen
Edge of the Earth Campaign Expansion #221. Expedition Team #8.
Roald Ellsworth

FAQs

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Reviews

TLDR: Ellsworth is a very good for a support partner in the early scenarios that throw many sticky location treacheries at you, but gets generally less valuable as the campaign progresses.

Ellsworth was extremely useful in my group's run of Edge of the Earth, much more useful than I anticipated! Ellsworth can blank several infuriating cards, such as Polar Mirage, Antarctic Wind, and Through the Ice. He can trivialize these sticky treacheries at fast speed , simply costing a supply and exhausting. During and after To the Forbidden Peaks, I maybe used 3 supplies off him at most in a scenario, because sometimes we were already moving from the location or we weren't investigating that round. In this sense, I really enjoyed the flexibility of using it during any investigator's turn, such as if you didn't have anything else to do and your seeker was trying to save their cards, you're able to use Ellsworth to thwart Polar Mirage. Especially since Polar Mirage and Through the Ice care about you being at that location or moving to or from it, if you don't care about going back to that location, then you've relegated that card to an icy crevasse, never to be dealt with again!

Although extremely useful in the majority of the campaign, Ellsworth was just not used in either of the Heart of Madness scenarios. Often, there were few to no targets for his ability, and he was just relegated to a damage soak and target for Miasmatic Torment (Sorry, bud).

Overall, I found Roald Ellsworth to be a solid overall choice for a support partner asset. Man, he is a great choice in Ice and Death and Fatal Mirage, and a decent pick in To the Forbidden Peaks and City of the Elder Things.

I definitely agree, Roald doesn't look like much at first glance, but once you realize just how much of the encounter deck is made up of these "stick to location" treacheries, his worth quickly becomes apparent. A Big Hand Seeker might consider bringing Roald specifically to counter Polar Mirage, while a low agility investigator may consider him to blunt Through the Ice. Overall a great general-purpose pick for the first half of the campaign if you aren't particularly in need of another companion. — Soul_Turtle · 434
Question about his ability - if a treachary card on a location says "discard at end of round" and Roald blanks it with his ability, does it stay around until the end of the next round? — Chappykinz · 1
Roald only blanks the treachery for one investigator's turn, that is, until their portion of the investigator phase is over. It will be active during other investigators' turns and during the end of the round check. — dscarpac · 937