Arkham Horror LCG Session Report: The Secret Name (The Circle Undone Part 3)

By Chris Renshaw

Disclaimer: If you haven't heard about Arkham Horror: The Card Game, you might have trouble with this post. Also, potential spoilers ahead. 

Last Time...

Last time, we returned to the Silver Twilight Lodge and found out some more information about the Spectral Watcher, and made some enemies of the Lodge. Now, we are on the hunt for some more witch information, so we venture to the old house of an infamous witch in Arkham’s past. That doesn’t sound ominous at all doesn’t it?

Just as a reminder of what investigators we are playing as again:

Myself: Calvin Baker
Cory: Rex Murphy
Jimmy: Mark Harrigan
Mike: Tony Morgan

Bring on the creepy text…

I think I might just leave this heading. It’s the perfect transition to explain how each scenario starts off terrible. Although, this scenario leans heavy into the “investigation” aspects, since in the story we are trying to find out “clues” about the history of witches in Arkham. So getting a lot of clues was necessary, and having a way to gather clues that wasn’t through investigating (through killing Brown Jenkin or Nehab), is always a plus.

Speaking of Brown Jenkin…

I hate this guy. He kept coming out so many times during our game, thanks to an encounter card called “Meddlesome Familiar” which kept bringing him back out of the discard pile. But Chris, you say, he doesn’t look like much of a threat? Remember the Agenda card? Non-weakness monsters gained +1 health. And, as the Agendas continue to advance, that number keeps going up towards +4 health. At 5 total health, Brown is a full on nuisance. The only positive is that at least you get clues when he dies.

Relative Dimensions In Space

This scenario goes from a normal “hey let’s investigate for more info” type of scenario that is typical for the 3rd scenario in a campaign to an acid trip adventure through space. We unlock some kind of ritual that sends us tumbling throughout various places. We have to find clues and search through a stack of random locations to find our way back to the Witch’s House. Some of these locations were pretty wild:

Moldy Halls, which when I drew it was like “wait, didn’t we have a Moldy Hall location back at the Witch House” only to look at the card and go “oh wow that’s pretty cool” (we did not end up meddling with the past). Then you have even more ominous cards like the Court of the Great Old Ones. These types of cards remind me of the end of the Dunwich cycle. Although, the text of “a not too distant future” in the description has me really worried about this location coming up in a future scenario.

What can Brown do for you?

Eventually, Brown’s boss Nahab comes into play, and as is typical for a “final” boss, makes things extra difficult and has us questioning if we are going to survive. Nahab keeps getting doom on her, so you have to work quickly as the longer you take to defeat her, the harder it gets, and the closer you get to the scenario ending. Luckily, I had a helper in my back pocket to assist in getting me some clues: Miss Doyle! I finally got a chance to play her, and of course I picked Augur to be the cat to assist me.

Due to Calvin’s base stats being zero and getting boosted with damage/horror, this meant that thanks to Augur, I got those bonuses added on to 5 instead of zero. This meant I was doing very well at succeeding at investigations, although I was still limited to getting only 1 clue at a time (really need to see if there’s a card that can help with that). Was so excited to finally play these crazy cats, which allowed us to gather clues and seal away Nahab (for now?).

So we appear back in the Witch’s House, with some more information about the types of witches and rituals in Arkham’s past. Are these related to our current magical situation? Obviously so, but we’ll find out how in weeks to come?

What did you think of this Battle Report? What card have you been most excited to play in Arkham? Let me know in the comments, or you can hit me up on twitter or facebook. Also, did you know we have a Patreon? Go check it out if you want to join our slack community or get cool dice!