Pete & Duke: Playing through Night of the Zealot Part 3

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

The Devourer Below on Standard difficulty, solo. Continuation of Part 2.

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

So, Midnight Masks didn't go great. I opted for two Fire Extinguisher because they are better than Survival Instinct (since its the last scenario anyway) and I need something to get through the remaining cultists.

Oh, and a note on resolutions: while I could try to force R3 by drawing until I draw Lita Chantler and stopping anything the Encounter Deck throws my way, I figured that would be rather boring to read. So I'm going to try for R1, with no guarantees I'm going to get even close.

Opening Hand: Fire Axe, Lita Chantler, Dig Deep, Vicious Blow, Lucky!.

• So I didn't get the Fire Extinguisher yet, but I know enemies will be a problem sooner rather than later, so I'm okay with this hand. Could be better.

Start at Main Path. Agenda is The Arkham Woods with 3 doom on it. Act is Investigating the Trail. Take one horror from Mental Trauma.

T1

Investigation Phase:

PLAY Fire Axe.

PLAY Lita Chantler.

PLAY Dig Deep.

• Not the most exciting first turn, but I need health and sanity buffers as well as something to swing with.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw Wracked by Nightmares. Gain 1 resource (total of 3).

• While I'd normally be happy just to get it out of the way, I know an enemy will spawn next turn. Glad I played that Fire Axe.

  ---

  T2

Mythos Phase: Place one doom on The Arkham Woods. Advances into The Ritual Begins. A Ghoul Minion spawns off the backside of The Arkham Woods.

Draw a Young Deep One. Take one horror.

• Two monsters for the price of one. And they both have +1 and +1 .

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT the Ghoul Minion with Fire Axe. Spend 1 resource for +2. (-3, Failure). Play Lucky!, Success, do two damage to the Ghoul Minion thanks to Lita Chantler.

• Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you can use the Fire Axe while it's exhausted because of Wracked by Nightmares, right?

FIGHT the Young Deep One with Fire Axe, spend 1 resource (now at 0). (-4, Failure).

FIGHT the Young Deep One with Fire Axe. (-3, Failure)

• Considering my options are "waste an action or take an opportunity attack, I'd rather swing for the fences. There's a 2/17 chance I kill it.

Enemy Phase: Young Deep One deals 1 damage and horror, place both on Lita Chantler.

Upkeep Phase: Draw an Overpower and gain 1 resource.

T3

Mythos Phase: One doom on The Ritual Begins (1/5). Draw a Dreams of R'lyeh.

Investigation Phase:

FIGHT the Young Deep One with Fire Axe. Commit Overpower. Pay 1 resource for +2. (+1, Success.) Deal 3 damage to Young Deep One, killing it. Draw a Fire Axe from Overpower.

• Well, there's the token I needed the last turn, but better late than never?

Discard Wracked by Nightmares.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw a Fire Extinguisher. Gain 1 resource.

T4

Mythos Phase: Second doom on the Agenda. Draw a Frozen in Fear.

• Huh. I don't think that does anything this turn since I'll be using Duke to move around. But with the Dreams of R'lyeh already in play, succeeding at the check could be tricky.

Investigation Phase:

INVESTIGATE using Duke. Move to Arkham Woods. (-3, Success) Discover no clues because there aren't any.

• Welp. That's... less great. Was really hoping to get a clue here.

Heal 1 horror.

• If we're here anyway...

Test Dreams of R'lyeh. Spend 1 resource with Dig Deep. (0, Success). Discard Dreams of R'lyeh.

Test for Frozen in Fear.(, Success). Discard Frozen in Fear.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw a Perception. Gain 1 resource.

T5

Mythos Phase: Third doom on the Agenda (out of five). Draw a Ghoul Minion.

Investigator Phase:

FIGHT the Ghoul Minion with Duke. (, Failure).

Discard Fire Axe. Ready Duke.

FIGHT the Ghoul Minion with Duke. (0, Success) deal 3 damage to the Ghoul Minion, killing it.

MOVE to Main Path.

• I'd have loved to get more horror healed, but I have precious little time now.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw a "Look what I found!". Gain 1 resource.

T6

Mythos Phase: Another doom. (4/5). Draw a Mysterious Chanting. Place an Acolyte at the Arkham Woods.

Investigator Phase:

INVESTIGATE using Duke. Move to Arkham Woods. Test 4. (, Success). Commit Perception to the investigate action. (-1, Success) Draw a Emergency Cache from the Perception.

PLAY Fire Extinguisher.

MOVE to Main Path.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Draw a Peter Sylvestre. Gain 1 resource.

Current board state: Duke, Lita Chantler with a damage and a horror, Fire Extinguisher, Fire Axe, Dig Deep. "Ashcan" Pete has 1 resource, 1 horror and 1 clue.

Current hand: Peter Sylvestre, Emergency Cache, Vicious Blow and "Look what I found!".

T7

Mythos Phase: Agenda The Ritual Begins advances into Vengeance Awaits. Test 6, (-2, Failure), draw Amnesia. Discard all but "Look what I found!".

• My logic is that Peter Sylvestre and Vicious Blow won't do much, and Emergency Cache doesn't have any skill icons. Even though I think "Look what I found!" is the most narrow card, it's also one of the few that might mean we get to R1. Also, out of the Madnesses I could've gotten, I would've loved Paranoia because I only have 1 resource.

Draw an Ancient Evils.

• We now have 4 turns to get to Ritual Site and disrupt it.

Investigator Phase:

GAIN 1 resource.

• I hate that I am one short, but if the location I'm going to has two clues and I get them both with "Look what I found!", I can still win this. I think. EDIT: upon looking there is no location with two clues on it. I didn't know that at the time.

INVESTIGATE with Duke. Move to Arkham Woods. (, Success)

• Good news and bad news: the good news is that I got the clue. The bad news is that pulling the cost me another turn, because there is no way to kill the Acolyte in less than 3 actions, making it a waste of time.

MOVE to Main Path.

• Okay, math time. If I use Duke next turn to investigate the final location and succeed, I can advance immediately. Sadly, that leaves me one action short of moving into the Ritual Site, as I'll need to evade the cultists. Which means I have to wait another turn, which costs too much time. However, I think I might be able to move from the final clue location to the location with the Acolyte. Meaning I might be able to use that "wasted" turn to buy myself 1 more turn. We'll see.

Enemy Phase: -

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

T8

Mythos Phase: Add one doom. 2 out of 5 on the agenda +1 from the Acolyte.

Draw a Young Deep One. Take 1 horror.

• Well, that creates a problem. Sadly, this means more math. In order to do everything I need to do this turn, I'll have to take 3 attacks (2 attacks of opportunity + one regular one). I haven't taken an incredible amount of damage yet, and I have two assets in play that can soak some damage. In addition, if I get to the main path with the cultists and use Fire Extinguisher, I don't have to worry about the Young Deep One either. However, this might mean I take so much damage I can't go for R3 anymore. We'll see.

Investigator Phase:

INVESTIGATE with Duke. Move to Arkham Woods. Attack of Opportunity, both damage and horror go on Lita Chantler. (-2, Failure).

• And that was the moment my heart sank...

PLAY "Look what I found!".

• Until I remembered I had that card.

MOVE to Arkham Woods, Cultist engages me. Take 1 damage and 1 horror from Young Deep One, which go on Duke.

FIGHT the Acolyte with Fire Axe. Pay 1 resource for +2 (no resources left). (, Failure)

• Well, I'm out of get-out-of-jail-free cards. Can I still make it if I kill the cultist next turn? Quick math says no. And not kill the cultist also doesn't work So... we can't get R1. And because we just took three attacks, R3 is looking difficult too.

Enemy Phase: Grand total of 2 damage and 1 horror. "Ashcan" Pete takes everything, leaving him with 3 sanity and 4 health.

Upkeep Phase: Draw Rise to the Occasion, gain 1 resource.

T9

Mythos Phase: One more doom, next turn the agenda will advance, which I'm actually counting on now.

Draw a Grasping Hands. Test 3. Commit a Dig Deep from hand, pay 1 resource to the Dig Deep in play. (, Success).

Investigator Phase:

EXILE Fire Extinguisher. (-1, Success). Evade both the Young Deep One and Acolyte.

Heal 1 Horror at Arkham Woods.

MOVE to Main Path.

Enemy Phase: -

Upkeep Phase: Enemies ready. Draw Dark Horse, gain 1 resource.

T10

Mythos Phase: Last doom goes on Vengeance Awaits. Advances, placing the Ritual Site and Umôrdhoth into play.

• Okay, one time, don't draw anything that does damage. Like an enemy. Or any encounter card... I guess the odds aren't with me here.

Ancient Evils.

• YES!

Investigator Phase:

MOVE to the Ritual Site.

Sacrifice Lita Chantler. Take 3 damage and 3 horror from the opportunity attack that provokes. >R3.

Wow, that was a rollercoaster. I'm glad to have gotten a resolution rather than simply dying. Hopefully, I'm getting that >R1 sometime.

I don't think I did a lot wrong in this scenario, I basically had no room for error and lost the chance for >R1 on the draw. There were a bunch of mistakes in my The Midnight Masks run, though.

I was pleasantly surprised by "Ashcan" Pete. I didn't really enjoyed early, but running around with Duke was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did making it.

If I had a complete collection, I think I would've put Madame Labranche in over Peter Sylvestre and I think I would prefer Stunning Blow to Vicious Blow, though I might be wrong on that. I feel like freeing up those two non- slots for others cards is pretty nice and since Duke already does +1 damage I think the impact of Vicious Blow is diminished. Of course, this completely changes your XP path, but that's for someone else to figure out.

"Ashcan" Pete survived, and even Duke didn't die. I'd like to think they retire to the beach?