Scrimshaw Charm
From Distant Shores

Asset. Accessory

Item. Charm. Cursed.

Cost: 1.

Rogue

Add 1-3 tokens to the chaos bag and exhaust Scrimshaw Charm: Gain 1 resource. For each token added, gain 1 additional resource.

"Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe." - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
Lale Ann
The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion #68.
Scrimshaw Charm

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Reviews

You can look at this card in three ways: as a resource-for-cost engine, as a mass curse generator, and as a precision curse generator.

As a pure resource generator, it feels awkwardly positioned. Rogues have lots and lots of level 0 cash options and if you don't actually want the curses there are much safer and easier ways to get a reasonable amount of setup down. If you play the charm and then activate it twice, you sink in 1 card, 3 actions, an item slot, and 6 curses to generate 7 resources. You can also get 7 resources in 3 actions with Bank Job + click or Faustian +2 click. Emergency Cache/"Watch this!"/Sneak By etc. also generate comparable value. And if you need fewer resources those are all better. So, in green, Scrimshaw only really shines if you intend to click for 12 resources or more. I think most level 0 decks struggle to make meaningful use of that cash or recover from sinking in that many actions. If you have Well Connected you're taking 3 curses for roughly +1 to 1 test each round going forward. With events like Small Favor or Intel report you're spending 2 actions and 3 curses to get 2 clues or damage. That's okay I guess but it's no Stirring Up Trouble, and building all your resource gen into one card risks bricking you if it doesn't appear, although at least items are easy to find these days.

It is more plausible an option for the off-class investigators with Cursed access. Even setting aside synergy considerations, they're mostly blue and purple characters with fewer native econ tools and more expensive level 0 toys. It does also plausibly seem worth swapping in with Adaptable later on if you're having trouble powering up The Black Fan.

On the other hand, this is the fastest and most reliable curse generator available at level 0. Justify the Means and Stirring Up Trouble are faster but one-shot and you may want to hold them for impact. If you actively want to flood the bag, this is a great way to do that while paying for the curse-matters assets you want to leverage with it. It is however a bit painful for most mystics to give up the accessory slot, and you may actually flood the bag so much that you stop being able to get resources from it. Still, this has obvious appeal to folks like Kohaku and especially Occult Reliquary Dexter who can milk it for resources and then swap it for a different accessory or hand item.

Kohaku, of course, also cares about the exact ratio of curses to blessing in the bag, as does anyone running Key of Solomon. Although, since the Key turns curses into resources, the benefit is arguably redundant, so I doubt other characters run both. But, Kohaku may appreciate having this on hand to force curse pulls off his book or to to turn blessings into money by spending an action on this and then buying it back with his passive.

This might also be worthwhile in skids because you can turn 1 action into 4 resources and 4 resources into 2 actions or just refund the action and put the resources toward his debts. It is slow though and False covenant alone doesn't really keep up with 3 curses per turn. — OrionAnderson · 60
I'd rather use Faustian Bargain if you run Kōhaku. He (and basically no one) needs that amount of curse token in the token bag to work. 2 actions to get 4 resources, 3 curse tokens and a valuable slot taken isn't the best option, when you can just play Faustian Bargain and get more by less action and no slot. It is still a good card if you don't have the Innsmouth pool, at least for the first scenarios of a campaign. — rodro · 195

I suspect Parallel Jim Culver is going to be a fan of this. When you need you can tap for four resources and some extra fuel for your shenanigans. That much compression also makes your economy elastic enough to install any of the Cursed spell suite (Armageddon, The Eye of Chaos, Shroud of Shadows) to your rig from near-poverty. Bonus points if you're Fast sealing them on Favor of the Moon for even more payout over time. You can afford to give up some of the usual -boosting accessories on Jim with allies like Granny Orne or David Renfield in your spirit deck.

Teag · 50