Well Connected Jenny who Won Scarlet Keys (Solo, Highlander)

This is the true solo deck I used to win The Scarlet Keys on my first blind playthrough.

I cheated three times in ways that seemed fair while playing true solo.

1. Instead of randomly picking a basic weakness, I chose the thematic Indebted. This made it more exciting to survive with 3 until she could use an Unscrupulous Loan to fuel being Well Connected.

2. I house ruled that the Pocket Telescope could Search for Izzie from a connecting location, and did that once. (It turns out this mattered. At the very end 2 mental trauma is unavoidable when winning the campaign, and Jenny suffered 1 more for ignoring her crazed hunch that perhaps Izzie was atop the Towering Vortex. At that point having gained 1 more mental trauma at any time earlier in the campaign would have meant Jenny went insane just before the epilogue.)

3. Jenny finally met up with Inspector Flint in her second-to-last scenario. I allowed Jenny to start with him in play as the final scenario began, because to me it made sense story-wise that they were still together.

(I may have also cheated by deciding that during Act 3 of the final scenario you-know-who was too physically distant to attack me when I shifted a Key.)

A few memorable highlights...

During her first two scenarios, Jenny behaved like a traditional greenhorn investigator. She used a flashlight and some cheap lockpicks to look for clues, along with two other non-rogue cards from her five "Dunwich Splash" options. (Those two cards eventually got replaced by upgrades).

During scenarios where The Claret Knight helps you, the combination of his ability and Eon Chart (4) is insane.

On the final turn of her adventures in Havana, Jenny was about to lose that scenario during a tense battle in Los Jardines de la Tropical. But she tried a slightly risky attack while using Double or Nothing to deal four damage to an enemy, and fate vindicated her with the elder sign token. Too bad she also accidentally killed her friend. :-(

Marrakesh is brutal when playing true solo. Visiting there at time 17 caused Jenny to suffer 2 mental trauma (probably unavoidably). It made sense given what she saw, but was a harsh reminder that sometimes life is not fair and you suffer even when you manage to redeem and rescue a cursed villain.

Jenny visited Kuala Lumpur at time 27, eager to meet with an old ally but aware that by then her detective work had become much more difficult. She only saw part of that location's scenario before giving up and fleeing.

During the final scenario Jenny was about to die. She was not only fighting a climactic foe but also two lesser monsters (Apocalyptic Presage and Paradigm Effacer) that had recently arrived at her location and consumed a sweet friend from Istanbul. Jenny could neither evade so many foes nor survive the attacks of those two lesser monsters, so she knew this was her last turn of the campaign. Jenny attempted two switchblade attacks against that climactic foe, for each using the Eye of the Raven to boost her base skill at the cost of drawing an Encounter card. Then she swung wildly through the swirling clouds with The Mirroring Blade, repeatedly suffering its accursed damage in a frantic and ultimately successful attempt to finish off that climactic foe before she ran out of health. (With Leo at her side she could have used her switchblade twice more, but she felt that using the Eye of the Raven two more times would tempt fate excessively, a desperate act she was saving as a last resort if The Mirroring Blade proved insufficient.)

Photo of the final board state here.