Arkham - 8 investigators devoured by Ithaqua

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:09 am

Remus West wrote:
El Guapo wrote:Also I have my marksman skill to exhaust to re-roll a combat check. I assume that exhausted skills don't replenish at any point during this combat? If so then I'll use that whenever I fail my first combat check.
They refresh every round.

Some good news! Then I guess I'll use it every time I fail, then.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:36 am

Well Fight 3 will 1.

Anyone want the Saber? It's better than nothing and my Fight 3 is not the best?

I can also heal once a round, so if I survive I can heal one wound...

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:32 am

RMC wrote:Well Fight 3 will 1.

Anyone want the Saber? It's better than nothing and my Fight 3 is not the best?

I can also heal once a round, so if I survive I can heal one wound...

You can actually do that now as this pre-battle counts as an upkeep phase with all of you in the same location.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:18 am

RMC wrote:Well Fight 3 will 1.

Anyone want the Saber? It's better than nothing and my Fight 3 is not the best?

I can also heal once a round, so if I survive I can heal one wound...

I might be a logical choice, since my Fight is 6 (4 + 1 for ally +1 for skill) and since I can re-roll one combat check per round thanks to my marksman skill.

Also - who is blessed at this point? That person would also be a sensible choice since they hit on 4-6, not just 5-6.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:19 am

El Guapo wrote:Well, I (and probably we) are pretty boned then. I'll make my fight 4/1. For what it's worth my fight is 5 with my ally.

Just want to correct myself - as I just realized (and noted in my above post) my fight is 6, not 5. 4 +1 for my ally +1 for my skill.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:20 am

Seriously though, I do think the best idea would be to set up rules for our combat (use a clue under X circumstances, heal under Y circumstances, re-roll under Z circumstances) and then basically auto-resolve. Otherwise I think this will take awhile, which is silly when the outcome is pretty clear.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:51 am

I seriously doubt we even have enough rolls to have any chance at this. We have at least 2 people with 3 for fight, they wont even get an attack due to the -3 effect. Several of us only have 3 stam and will likely be devoured in a round or 2. The odds of us getting the rolls needed to survive this are pretty much non existant.

One of the things we can do to improve our odds is to give the saber to someone with survivability. Otherwise we will lose its benefits quickly. Since stam loss is based on fight rolls it probably needs to go to whoever has a high stam and fight combination. Of course, we need to pump the fight of whomever has the blessing so they get as many rolls as possible.
We may not have a chance at this but if Im going to be devoured, Im going to go down swinging and hope on my way down his maw, I give him the worst case of indigestion in recorded history!

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:52 am

Oh and for my turn Id like to evade please and take the first bus out of town!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:00 am

I have 5 stamina, 6 fight, and the marksman skill, so I'm the most likely candidate unless the person who is blessed also has a high stamina and fight.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:02 am

I will put on my fried breading tuxedo, strap on a bucket of ranch dressing, and go insane. Max out fight.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:45 am

I will give Saber to El Guapo.

I will also heal El Guapo first, and if he does not need it, then down the list. So maybe I should adjust my sliders down to max my protection? Not sure if there is a way.

But since I get no dice with a 3 fight, maybe I should just lower that to as low as possible..and max out will? (Can't see sheet at work.)

Does that make sense?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:02 am

I have max stamina, and so don't need healing (yet). The healing is once per round, right? Otherwise maybe save it.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:43 am

Healing is once per round. Everyone should be maxing Fight as that is the skill you will need to use to survive. All the others are meaningless unless you are casting a spell and then Lore can be considered too.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:49 am

Okay I will keep Fight at 3, and heal as needed. Also, use clue tokens to keep myself alive if at all possible. (use on rerolls to avoid damage/sanity loss and not worry about fighting, as I think it is impossible for me to actually hit anything.)

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:03 pm

RMC wrote:Okay I will keep Fight at 3, and heal as needed. Also, use clue tokens to keep myself alive if at all possible. (use on rerolls to avoid damage/sanity loss and not worry about fighting, as I think it is impossible for me to actually hit anything.)

Ithaqua does not do sanity damage, so there's no worry about that (kind of odd that his various horrors do sanity damage, but that the ELDER GOD himself does not, but I'm not going to argue).

I think the only way to use clue tokens to keep yourself alive is to use them on the initial fight check. So you auto-lose the first round since you can't raise your fight above 3, but then you can spend a clue token to add a die. So basically the first round you'd use your clue tokens until you either get a success or run out of them.

I'm not aware of any use for your clue tokens other than that, so might as well do that.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:09 pm

Remus West wrote:Healing is once per round. Everyone should be maxing Fight as that is the skill you will need to use to survive. All the others are meaningless unless you are casting a spell and then Lore can be considered too.

Ohhh thats right I did get the save roll on the find gate spell!

Ill try to find us a gate to get us the hell outta here!

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:12 pm

rshetts2 wrote:
Remus West wrote:Healing is once per round. Everyone should be maxing Fight as that is the skill you will need to use to survive. All the others are meaningless unless you are casting a spell and then Lore can be considered too.

Ohhh thats right I did get the save roll on the find gate spell! Ill try to find us a gate to get us the hell outta here!

I was actually talking about Isgrimnur's Heal spell which could buy you guys a tiny bit of time. Not enough I'd bet but a round or 3.

Gryndyl · Post by **Gryndyl** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:37 pm

Move fight up to 3, use holy water the first round and then pound on him with my wee little fists thereafter. I'd been hoping that the blessing would protect my stuff more

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:41 pm

I think that next game should be without the herald variant.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:44 pm

Is there a list of who is rolling how many dice?

Newcastle · Post by **Newcastle** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:47 pm

Gryndyl wrote:Move fight up to 3, use holy water the first round and then pound on him with my wee little fists thereafter. I'd been hoping that the blessing would protect my stuff more

I think remus has rigged the dice personally. I been getting zero dice love this whole round, in fact i'd even qualify it as dice hate!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:41 pm

Chaosraven wrote:Is there a list of who is rolling how many dice?

FWIW at the moment I appear to be rolling five dice in the first round:

4 fight + 2 from saber + 1 from skill + 1 from ally - 3 from Ithaqua's combat penalty

Gryndyl · Post by **Gryndyl** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:28 pm

El Guapo wrote:I think that next game should be without the herald variant.

There are pro-player Guardians also. If we add a Herald in we usually add a guardian also to try and offset the pain a little bit.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:40 pm

Gryndyl wrote:
El Guapo wrote:I think that next game should be without the herald variant.
There are pro-player Guardians also. If we add a Herald in we usually add a guardian also to try and offset the pain a little bit.

Those come from a different expansion.

Honestly I think you guys would have been fine had you not had so many Monster surges early. You made it to 4 seals as it was and had enough clues for the last 2 you needed to win. You just had a ton of surges instead of open gates.

Qantaga · Post by **Qantaga** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:42 pm

Mandy will not be any help in the fight (3 is as high as her Fight can go).

Hopefully, she'll be able to stay alive, with the help of Sir William and (as Remus said earlier) maybe her re-roll ability will help a bit.

Qantaga · Post by **Qantaga** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:46 pm

Remus West wrote:Honestly I think you guys would have been fine had you not had so many Monster surges early. You made it to 4 seals as it was and had enough clues for the last 2 you needed to win. You just had a ton of surges instead of open gates.

Stupid monster surges.

Aaaaaarrrrgggghhh!

Just had to vent.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:00 pm

So anyway, if you guys want me to run the combat I will do that tonight (hopefully) if you want to run each round yourselves I have no problem with it and will get it started tonight but expect it to take a week + to finish.

Qantaga · Post by **Qantaga** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:05 pm

I'm happy with you running the combat Remus.

However, I have no problem with round by round, if the majority of players prefer that method.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:15 pm

Let Remus run it. For the most part we shall heal who and when we can and fight when we can..Not sure we even have any good spells out there to use.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:00 pm

Yeah, I think it's best if Remus runs it. In any event, what I'll do in the combat is pretty simple: re-roll the first combat failure with marksman, then if I still fail, keep adding clues until I succeed (noting that I get two additional dice per clue due to my fight skill) or until I run out of clues.

This would be easy if we could rewrite the Flute of the Outer Gods item to effect Elder Gods.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:43 pm

Round 1. Vincent Lee heals Joe Diamond. Jenny Barnes casts Heal on Joe Diamond (4,4,4,5,6 +2 Stamina).
Amanda Sharpe uses Saber.

Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 5,1 = 1 success
Dexter Drake - 1 die 4
Harvey Walters - (Holy Water and 2 Clue Tokens) - 8 dice - 6,5,5,2,3,1,1,2 - re-roll from Marksman - 2,2,6,6,6,5,4,6 = 6 (7 total)
Vincent Lee - 0 dice
Mandy Thompson - 0 dice
Amanda Sharpe - (Saber, 6 fight, + 4 clue tokens w/ Fight skill) - 13 dice - 2,3,4,6,4,3,1,1,5,5,5,1,2 - re-roll misses via Mandy - 6,2,5,4,1,1,3,6,5 = 8 (15 total)
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice - 1,3,5,5,5,2 = 3 (18 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice - 6,6 = 2 (20 total)

-2 Doom tokens from Ithaqua. (9/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight(+1)
Darrell Simmons - 6 dice - 4,4,6,5,1,6 = success
Dexter Drake - 5 dice - 1,3,1,3,5 = success
Harvey Walters - 4 dice - 4,5,5,2 = success
Vincent Lee - 4 dice - 5,3,4,2 = success
Mandy Thompson - 4 dice - 6,6,2,3 = success
Amanda Sharpe - 7 dice - 1,6,4,3,5,3,1 = success
Jenny Barnes - 5 dice - 5,1,1,5,3 = success
Joe Diamond - 6 dice - 3,3,4,5,1,4 = success

No Stamina losses

Stats - Stamina/Sanity
Darrell Simmons - 5/2
Dexter Drake - 3/3
Harvey Walters - 3/7
Vincent Lee - 5/5
Mandy Thompson - 6/5
Amanda Sharpe - 5/2
Jenny Barnes - 3/5
Joe Diamond - 6/3

Round 2
Jenny pays to refresh Magnum
Vincent Lee Heals Jenny Barnes +1 Stamina
Harvey Walters Blessing roll - 4 Blessing Kept
Darrell Simmons gives Holy Water to Harvey Walters

Dexter Drake - 1 die - 2
Harvey Walters - (Holy Water) 6 dice - 1,2,2,3,4,6 marksman re-roll 5,5,4,3,3,2 Mandy re-roll misses 1,3,4 = 4 successes
Vincent Lee - 0
Mandy Thompson - 0
Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice - 5,6,6,4,2 - 3 (7 total)
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice - 6,5,2,2,1,4 - 2 (9 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice - 3,1
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice - 5,2 - 1 success (10 total)

-1 Doom token to Ithaqua (8/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight (+0)
Dexter Drake - 4,6,2,1 = success
Harvey Walters - 3 dice 4,2,1 = success due to Blessing
Vincent Lee - 3 dice 5,3,3 = success
Mandy Thompson - 3 dice 4,1,1 = Fail -2 Stamina
Amanda Sharpe - 6 dice 1,1,3,3,5,5 = success
Jenny Barnes - 4 dice = 1,2,3,4 = Fail -2 Stamina
Joe Diamond - 5 dice = 5,1,4,4,3 = Success
Darrell Simmons - 5,3,3,6,3 = success

Stats Stamina/Sanity
Dexter Drake - 3/3
Harvey Walters - 3/7
Vincent Lee - 5/5
Mandy Thompson - 4/5
Amanda Sharpe - 5/2
Jenny Barnes - 2/5
Joe Diamond - 6/3
Darrell Simmons - 5/2

Round 3
Vincent Lee Heals Jenny Barnes
Harvey Walters Blessing Roll 6 kept
Jenny Barnes Casts Heal on Mandy Thompson 5 dice = 1,2,6,2,3 +1 Stamina
Jenny pays to refresh gun

Harvey Walters - 0
Vincent Lee - 0
Mandy Thompson - 0
Amanda Sharpe - 6,3,3,3,4 - marksman - 4,4,3,2,2 - Mandy - 2,2,4,4,3 = 0 (Wow, that sucked ass)
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice 5,5,3,3,2,1 = 2
Joe Diamond - 2 dice 1,4 = 0
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 3,6 = 1 (3 total)
Dexter Drake - 1die 1 = 0

No damage to Ithaqua

Ithaqua attacks Fight (-1)

Harvey Walters - 2 dice 4,4 success
Vincent Lee - 2 dice 2,3 Fail -2 Stamina
Mandy Thompson - 2 dice 1,6 Success
Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice 3,6,6,5,4 success
Jenny Barnes - 3 dice 6,6,3 success
Joe Diamond - 4 dice 6,4,1,1 success
Darrell Simmons - 4 dice 5,3,1,1 success
Dexter Drake - 3 dice 6,4,4 success

Stats Stamina/Sanity

Harvey Walters - 3/7
Vincent Lee - 3/5
Mandy Thompson - 5/5
Amanda Sharpe - 5/2
Jenny Barnes - 3/4
Joe Diamond - 6/3
Darrell Simmons - 5/2
Dexter Drake - 3/3

Round 4
Vincent Lee Heals Dexter Drake
Jenny Barnes refreshes Gun and Casts Heal on Vincent Lee 5 dice - 6,5,2,2,1 = +2 Stamina
Harvey Walters Blessing 5 kept

Vincent Lee - 0
Mandy Thompson - 0
Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice 5,5,3,3,1 = 2 successes
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice 3,3,1,6,6,5 = 3 successes (5 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice 5,5 = 1 success (6 total)
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 2,2 Clue Tokens spent 4 - 5,1,2,6 = 2 successes (8 total)
Dexter Drake - 1 die 4
Harvey Walters - 0

-1 Doom token from Ithaqua (7/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight (-2)

Vincent Lee - 1 die 6 success
Mandy Thompson - 1 die 4 Fail - 2 Stamina
Amanda Sharpe - 4 dice 6,6,6,5 success
Jenny Barnes - 2 dice 5,2 success
Joe Diamond - 3 dice 4,2,6 success
Darrell Simmons - 3 dice 6,5,3 success
Dexter Drake - 2 dice 1,2 Fail -2 Stamina
Harvey Walters - 1 die 4 success

Stats Stamina/Sanity
Vincent Lee - 5/5
Mandy Thompson - 3/5
Amanda Sharpe - 5/2
Jenny Barnes - 3/3
Joe Diamond - 6/3
Darrell Simmons - 5/2
Dexter Drake - 2/3
Harvey Walters - 3/7

Round 5
Vincent Lee heals Dexter Drake
Jenny Refreshes her gun

Mandy Thompson - 0
Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice 6,6,5,2,1 = 3 successes
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice 5,2,3,4,5,3 = 2 successes (5 total) Mandy re-roll 4,4,5,1 = 1 success (6 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice 1,5 = 1 success (7 total)
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 5,3 = 1 success (8 total)
Dexter Drake - 1 die 3
Harvey Walters - 0
Vincent Lee - 0

-1 Doom Token to Ithaqua (6/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight(-3)

Mandy Thompson - Fail
Amanda Sharpe - 3 dice 5,5,4 success
Jenny Barnes - 1 die 5 success
Joe Diamond - 2 dice 6,6 success
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 1,5 success
Dexter Drake - 1 die 3 Fail - Devoured
Harvey Walters - Fail
Vincent Lee -Fail

Stats Stamina/Sanity
Mandy Thompson - 1/5
Amanda Sharpe - 5/2
Jenny Barnes - 3/3
Joe Diamond - 6/3
Darrell Simmons - 5/2
Dexter Drake - 1/3
Harvey Walters - 1/7
Vincent Lee - 3/5

Round 6
Jenny Barnes refreshes her gun and Heals Mandy Thompson 5 dice 6,4,4,1,1 +1 Stamina
Vincent Lee Heals Mandy Thompson

Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice 5,2,2,3,1 marksman 5,6,4,4,2 = 2 successes
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice 2,4,5,3,3,1 = 1 success Mandy re-roll 5,6,1,1,4 = 2 successes (5 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice 3,3
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 5,3 Clue spent 6 = 2 successes (7 total)
Dexter Drake - 1 die 6 = 1 success (8 total)
Harvey Walters - 0
Vincent Lee - 0
Mandy Thompson -0

-1 Doom token to Ithaqua (5/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight (-4)

Amanda Sharpe - 2 dice 3,5 success
Jenny Barnes - Fail -2 Stamina
Joe Diamond - 1 die 2 Fail -2 Stamina
Darrell Simmons - 1 die 1 Fail -2 Stamina
Dexter Drake - Fail Devoured
Harvey Walters - Fail Devoured
Vincent Lee - Fail -2 Stamina
Mandy Thompson - Fail -2 Stamina

Stats Stamina/Sanity

Amanda Sharpe - 5/2
Jenny Barnes - 1/3
Joe Diamond - 4/3
Darrell Simmons - 3/2
Vincent Lee - 1/5
Mandy Thompson - 1/5

Round 6
Jenny refreshes gun and Heals herself 5 dice 5,3,1,4,6 +2 Stamina
Mandy discards William Brinton +4 Stamina (full)
Vincent Lee Heals himself

Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice - 4,5,5,2,6 = 3 success (3 total)
Jenny Barnes - 6 dice - 2,3,6,6,6,5 = 4 successes (7 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice - 6,1 = 1 success (8 total)
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 6,2 = 1 success (9 total)
Vincent Lee - 0
Mandy Thompson - 0

-1 Doom token to Ithaqua (4/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight (-5)

Amanda Sharpe - 1 die 3 fail -2 Stamina
Jenny Barnes - fail -2 Stamina
Joe Diamond - fail -2 Stamina
Darrell Simmons - fail -2 stamina
Vincent Lee - Clue Tokens spent 4,5 success
Mandy Thompson - Fail -2 Stamina

Stats

Amanda Sharpe - 3/2
Jenny Barnes - 1/2
Joe Diamond - 2/3
Darrell Simmons - 1/2
Vincent Lee - 2/5
Mandy Thompson - 3/5

Round 7
Jenny refreshes Gun and Casts Heal on herself 5 dice 5,1,2,4,4 +1 Stamina
Vincent Lee Heals Jenny +1 Stamina

Jenny Barnes - 6 dice 4,3,3,2,1,6 = 1 success - Mandy re-roll 5 dice 6,4,3,3,1 = 1 success (2 total)
Joe Diamond - 2 dice 3,4
Darrell Simmons - 2 dice 5,3 Clue token spent 2 = 1 success (3 total)
Vincent Lee - Clue tokens spent 6,6,4 = 2 successes (5 total)
Mandy Thompson - Clue tokens spent 3,6,4,1 = 1 success (6 total)
Amanda Sharpe - 5 dice 5,5,2,1,3 = 2 successes (8 total)

-1 Doom Token to Ithaqua (3/11)

Ithaqua attacks Fight (-6)
Everyone autofails

Jenny Barnes, Mandy Thompson, Amanda Sharpe are left with not enough dice to wipe him out this next round and all getting Devoured at the end of the round.

Investigators Lose.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:45 pm

Had you not gotten fully hosed by the items being discarded when Ithaqua awoke I think you would have kicked his ass given how close you came with almost nothing to work with.

theohall · Post by **theohall** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:08 am

And the Overlords finally give the Investigators what was coming to them. Amazing they got Ithaqua down to 3 with basically no items to help.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:14 am

I was intending to add flavor to the writeup but I'm to tired and doing the fight itself was long enough for me. Sorry folks.

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:48 am

So is this game any fun, or is it just sort of random and bizarre?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:50 am

It's really fun. The weird and bizarre just make it moreso. The coop nature makes for a much different dynamic than your usual
PvP games.

Newcastle · Post by **Newcastle** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:00 am

this wasnt pvp....i thought the ithaqua was grund all along.....huh, i think i might need to read the rule books.

Overall fun, but dissapointed at hte turnout, wish we could have delayed it a few turns. Ah well, life goes on.

Thanks Remus for running it!

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:49 am

I have this game with the King in yellow expansion, and my gaming group played it like 3 times and refuses to be in the same room as the box anymore.

We actually lost one game on turn 3...Bad rolls, and gates opening from events, and then monsters spawning that had the powers of "You are dead".

So I can not get any of them to play anymore..<sigh> We have a few new people, but they have newer board games they want to play, so I hope to sneak this in again.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:48 am

Good game everyone, with the exception of the Evil Randomizer. It would have been nice to actually have had a chance at the end but thats one of the hallmarks of this game, bad luck on a single turn can completely end you. That being said, I dont really take a moral victory for getting him down to 3 because with the built in diminishing odds, there was no way we were ever going to be able to knock off the rest. Basically we would have needed to have perfect rolls every round, from the start. IF Im going to get that kind of luck Id rather it would be when I play the lottery

I also think if we had been able to hold him off another turn, we would have had a great shot at him. Many of us were one turn from beefing ourselves up.

Thanks for running the game Remus, in spite of the major nut kick at the end it was a fun game. And remember people, When someone asks you if you want the herald variant, SAY NO!

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:58 am

Actually we quite possibly could have slaughtered him with a small collection of equipment that stuck around... I love this game