Pete & Duke: Playing through Night of the Zealot Part 2

Warning: this will contain spoilers for the Night of the Zealot campaign. You have been warned.

The Midnight Masks on Standard difficulty, solo. Continuation of Part 1.

This playthrough was inspired by Leo's Doomed Adventure by Magnificate.

A quick note about my purchases: as I only have Core set and the Dunwich Legacy expansion and its Mythos Packs, my options were rather limited. In general, I think Survivors have really poor upgrade possibilities. Upgrading Peter Sylvestre was an easy call (we have a mental trauma now). With the remaining two XP I considered Survival Instinct but ultimately landed on Lucky!.

The problem with Lucky! to me is that it only does something when you are failing a check, and I'd rather not rely on failing my checks for my cards to do something. In the previous part we only failed three checks, and one of those was a .

Opening Hand: Overpower, Unexpected Courage, Emergency Cache, Peter Sylvestre, Vicious Blow.

Start at Rivertown. Agenda is Predator or Prey. Act is Uncovering the Conspiracy. Take one horror from Mental Trauma.

T1

Investigation Phase:

PLAY Peter Sylvestre.

INVESTIGATE using Duke. Move to Southside. (, Success, no Cultist in play to put Doom on).

• Sadly, the only Ally in my deck is already in play, so the ability here does nothing.

DRAW a Perception.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw a "Look what I found!". Gain 1 resource (3 total now).

T2

Mythos Phase: 1 doom on Predator or Prey. Draw False Lead. Commit Perception and "Look what I found!". (, Failure. Put one clue on Southside).

• In hindsight, I realize I should've just failed the check without committing anything. I was counting on drawing a card with Perception to make it worthwhile, but with only 1 clue it wasn't worth risking two cards.

Investigation Phase:

INVESTIGATE using Duke. Move to St. Mary's Hospital. (-1, Success).

Discard Emergency Cache, Ready Duke.

INVESTIGATE using Duke. Move to Southside. (-3, Failure).

DRAW an Unexpected Courage.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw Perception, gain 1 resource.

T3

Mythos Phase: Add a doom (2/6). Draw a Hunting Nightgaunt.

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT using Duke. Commit Overpower. (-1, Success) Deal 2 damage to Hunting Nightgaunt. Draw a Dark Horse.

Discard Unexpected Courage. Ready Duke.

FIGHT using Duke. Commit Unexpected Courage. (-4, Failure)

• Well, that went sideways in a hurry.

EVADE the Hunting Nightgaunt. (, Success)

• This was the only action I could take that had a reasonable chance of success and would not provoke an Attack of Opportunity. I'll still have to deal with it, but at least I'm not suffering any damage for a bit.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw a Dig Deep. Gain 1 resource (5 now). Hunting Nightgaunt readies and engages.

T4

Mythos Phase: Add a doom (3/6). Draw a Mysterious Chanting. Search the deck for an Acolyte and put it in Rivertown.

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT using Duke. (-3, Failure).

Discard Perception. Ready Duke.

• I'm feeling rather bad about discarding all these good cards to make multiple attacks, but I can't do anything with this Hunting Nightgaunt on me, and with only 2 I can't exactly swing at it.

FIGHT using Duke. (+1, Success). Deal two damage to Hunting Nightgaunt, killing it.

PLAY Dig Deep.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep: Draw Magnifying Glass. Gain 1 resource (4 total).

Current Hand: Dark Horse, Magnifying Glass, Vicious Blow.

T5

Mythos Phase: Add one doom (4/6 on the Agenda +1 from the Acolyte). Draw Locked Door. Attach Locked Door to Southside.

Investigation Phase:

PLAY Magnifying Glass.

PLAY Dark Horse. Now at 0 resources.

DRAW a Rise to the Occasion.

INVESTIGATE using Duke. (+1, Success). The Acolyte engages me.

• So, according to the FAQ moving into a location with an enemy using Duke's ability doesn't provoke Attacks of Opportunity.

Enemy Phase: Acolyte deals 1 damage to "Ashcan" Pete.

Upkeep: Draw a Leather Coat, gain 1 resource.

• This is the point I realize I didn't pay attention to the doom threshold. I should've killed the cultist last turn, now the Agenda is going to advance and we all know what that means...

T6

Mythos Phase: Add a doom to Predator or Prey. Predator or Prey advances to Time Is Running Short. The The Masked Hunter engages. Draw a Obscuring Fog and attach it to Rivertown.

• Well, at least the Encounter Deck didn't throw a third enemy at me. Still, plenty of challenges to go around.

Investigation Phase:

EVADE the The Masked Hunter. Spend 1 resource to Dig Deep, gaining +1 and turning Dark Horse back on. (, Success, put one doom on the Acolyte).

FIGHT using Duke against the Acolyte. (, Failure, drop one clue in Rivertown).

• I don't know what I did, but the Chaos bag is out for my blood.

FIGHT the The Masked Hunter. Commit Rise to the Occasion and Vicious Blow. (-2, Success). Deal 2 damage to the The Masked Hunter.

• So, taking stock: we haven't revealed any cultists from the deck yet, we're halfway through killing the The Masked Hunter. We have one clue, one damage, and one horror. No resources.

Enemy Phase: Acolyte hits us for one damage, which goes on Duke.

Upkeep: The Masked Hunter readies and engages us. Draw a Fire Axe. Do not gain a resource.

• At this point I re-read the The Masked Hunter and realize that they have 6 health, not 4, as I was assuming.

T7

Mythos Phase: add a doom to Time Is Running Short. Draw Mysterious Chanting. Add two doom to Acolyte.

• Change of plans. We're killing the acolyte first, then going to evade The Masked Hunter and get some better tools.

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT using Duke against the Acolyte. (, Failure).

• At this point, my only hope seems to be to kill this Acolyte before the Agenda advances. So, try try again.

Discard Leather Coat. Ready Duke.

FIGHT using Duke against the Acolyte. (0, Success). Kill the Acolyte.

EVADE The Masked Hunter. (-4, Failure)

• Wow. Just... wow.

Enemy Phase: The Masked Hunter deals 2 damage and 1 horror. The horror goes on Peter Sylvestre, the damage on "Ashcan" Pete.

Upkeep Phase: Draw a Dig Deep. Gain a resource.

T8

Mythos Phase: one doom on the agenda (2/8). Draw a Acolyte. Place the Acolyte in the Graveyard.

• Guess who's back?

Investigation Phase:

EVADE The Masked Hunter. (, Success)

PLAY Fire Axe.

FIGHT using Duke. (, Success).

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep: The Masked Hunter readies and engages. Draw a Mob Enforcer. Gain a resource.

• Aww, man. Things were just looking up.

T9

Mythos Phase: Add a doom to the agenda. With the doom on the Acolyte in the Graveyard, that's halfway there.

• A reminder that there are currently zero things in the Victory Display.

Draw a Hunting Shadow. Spend a clue.

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT using Fire Axe against The Masked Hunter, spending one resource for +2. (-2, Failure)

FIGHT using Duke against The Masked Hunter. (-2, Failure).

• ... There's literally nothing I can do The only card in my hand is a second copy of Dig Deep, I have no resources and I can't take both opportunity attacks from The Masked Hunter and Mob Enforcer.

Discard Dig Deep. Ready Duke.

FIGHT using Duke against The Masked Hunter. (-2, Failure).

• I've now made three 5 v 4 checks and failed all three. Well then.

Peter Sylvestre heals 1 horror.

Enemy Phase: A total of 3 damage and 1 horror is coming "Ashcan" Pete's way. Peter Sylvestre dies to soak 1 damage and 1 horror, and "Ashcan" Pete takes the rest.

Upkeep: Draw Vicious Blow, gain 1 resource.

T10

Mythos Phase: add one doom. Draw Wizard of the Order.

Place one doom on Wizard of the Order.

• I find myself not caring. The best outcome at this point is killing The Masked Hunter and resigning, so drawing something that doesn't kill "Ashcan" Pete outright is fine.

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT using Fire Axe against The Masked Hunter, spending 1 resource for +2. (, Success). Deal two damage to The Masked Hunter, killing them.

• Finally! Sadly, with the amount of damage "Ashcan" Pete has taken, drawing Hunting Shadow would be deadly. So, resigning is really the only option.

RESIGN.

Some misplays early on and some terrible luck with the Chaos Bag meant that this went terribly. While I'd like to say Lucky! would've been useful here, having no way to draw more cards meant it was stuck halfway through my deck. Something like Madame Labranche would've been great: both in drawing cards and allowing slightly more effect with the Fire Axe.

In any event, I gain 2 XP and head into The Devourer Below with five cultists left unaccounted for.