Arkham Chronicles S3E4: Jumping on trains

In the last episode, Jim and Zoey recovered the Necronomicon from the restricted area of the Miskatonic Museum. They are now ready to embark on a train journey from Arkham to Dunwich. This is the fourth part of the community challenge Hunters of the Mythos, where we revisit the Dunwich Legacy campaign with a few extra challenges.

If you missed the last episode, you can read it here:

Story

What the team saw in the museum, this wild abomination attracted by the Necronomicon, made them reconsider parts of the Dr. Armitage story. As much as it sounds like complete fantasy, there must be some truth to it. People do not disappear randomly. Wild beasts just don't simply manifest out of existence. Jim and Zoey considered for a moment telling the Massachusetts State Police, but stopped short from doing it. They would look terrible telling the police they were in an illegal speakeasy and trespassed in the museum while chasing... Chasing what again?

Determined to find the root of the situation, the investigators packed and hopped on a train for the station closest to Dunwich. There, an Armitage acquaintance, a man called Zebulon Whateley will pick them up. This man's family seems to have a troubled past, but Armitage has assured the team Zebulon is a good person. Before they could get to their destination, the train suddenly shook loudly and stopped. Something seems to be coming from behind!

Mechanics

The locations in this scenario are lined up left to right, each representing a train car. The objective is to get to the engine car at the front as quickly as possible; however, the next train car cannot be entered as long as there are clues left on the current car. There are multiple possible engine cars, making the mission finale different each time you do this scenario.

Tension is built up by a series of low-doom agendas, and, you guessed it, each time it advances, at least one car from the left derails, bringing doom, pun intended, to everything inside.

This scenario is also the first time the game bluntly tells us to add a token to the chaos bag in the setup, making this scenario and all subsequent ones more challenging. As I played on standard, a -3 token was added.

Mission challenges

The Performer's mission was intriguing. Jim would start on top of the first train car and could jump to the next one by attempting, once per round, an all-attributes test of difficulty 16. No clue gathering? I'm intrigued. There are two downsides. First, the top of the train car is slippery; each round a strength plus agility test, difficulty 3, is needed to avoid losing an action. Second, this doesn't unlock the next car for the investigator inside them. Points are awarded according to how quickly the performer can get to the engine, even if they voluntarily choose to enter the train car in any turn.

Turns out Zoey had a bit of extra money and could afford a first-class ticket, as any other Hunter could have. This means she would start in the rightmost train car. Her luggage would still be in the leftmost one. 😆 To represent them, the hunter has to blindly draw five cards and spread them under the first three leftmost locations. Points are awarded for each piece of luggage saved. The previous rule about being able to enter the next location only if your current location has no clue still applies, right to left in this case.

You see a pattern here? I certainly did! By choosing to do both missions, I could avoid focusing on clue gathering, still a major pain point for Jim. Maybe both my investigators could meet somewhere in the middle and then run to the engine car.

Performance

Luck was on my side, a welcome change. Zoey started on a 1-shroud location; therefore, she was able to move quickly to her left. She was stuck for most of the scenario, but meanwhile, Jim showed everyone how agile he is. He never once lost his footing and jumped to the next train on each turn! Huzzah! All I did was draw cards and commit them to the jump test; no event or asset was played. It also means drawing weakness was not as impactful as in a standard game. It took five rounds for Jim to reach Zoey and climb down. From there, the team had to get the clues on this train to move right and onto the engine car. Zoey drew her trusty Crowbar while Jim... Yeah, you know how his deck is not efficient, right? More card draws hoping to find something useful, which resulted in using the Necronomicon for basic investigations.

At this point, the whole train was littered with Acolytes cultists, but the Agenda advanced nicely to send them to the void, along with Zoey's luggage. I recovered none of them and, quite frankly, didn't care. Taking on the mission was just a way to get around my deck limitations.

There are three possible engine locations, and I got probably the most boring one: high shroud, many clues. Jim used Scrounge for Supplies to get Eye of Chaos from his discard pile and started working. Zoey was slowed down by dealing with a monster, but nothing to worry about.

Only 10 rounds, and the scenario was completed successfully. I usually don't write down how many rounds were played, but Jim's mission required me to note how quickly he could get to the engine car. It took him 9 rounds, which translated into 6 points out of a possible 9. Plus 1.5 bonus points for taking an additional mission. On the XP side it was miserable. A single XP. Yikes!

Draft

There are no 1 XP cards I would like to add to Zoey's deck, so I saved this point. Let's see how annoying the draft can be again for Jim.

I guess I can upgrade Rite to save XP and hope for a good second draft. Let's do that.

I don't feel like I can get spell with charges reliably enough in play to use Winds of Power. It would certainly help investigate by lengthening Rite of Seeking, but I remain unconvinced. Upgrading Olive doesn't seem necessary, so the choice is really between more evasion or fighting. More damage it is! Brand also seems a good future option to be upgraded with Down the Rabbit Hole.

This scenario was played early in October; I, however, didn't have an opportunity earlier to sit and write the episode. Good thing I'm taking notes during play! The information has been shared by the organizer for the two November scenarios, so you can expect a new episode soon!