On our last episode of C-ARRR!-cosa, Roland went to a dinner party where he interviewed three people, instigated a Cover Up (which involved camping out on the only clue on the map), and then burned the entire party to the ground killing everyone in attendance. He was also able to acquire enough experience points to get himself Stick to the Plan! Now, Roland is off to cause more havoc somewhere else in Echoes of the Past.

—–

Stick to the Plan

Attached to Stick to the Plan, we have the following:

-On the Hunt

-Practice Makes Perfect

-Prepared for the Worst

We also immediately resolve 1 Astounding Revelation, and gain 2 additional resources.

—–

Opening Hand

For our opening hand, we draw

–Crack the Case

-Glory

-Crack the Case

-.45 Automatic

-Vicious Blow

Well, in my humble opinion, this opening hand is pretty bad. .45 Automatic is my worst weapon, but I might have to keep it anyway because I expect killing enemies is going to be primary way of discovering clues in this scenario. Vicious Blow will help me with the 3 health enemies in this scenario. I don’t know if I even need my Crack the Cases because I already have 7 resources. At the very least, I don’t need both of them. I also am going to mulligan Glory. I don’t really need card draw that badly given that I have a full Stick to the Plan going on. Also because I’m playing solo, I don’t have an enemy on spawn, so it could be a while before I even see an enemy.

I will mulligan Glory and one Crack the Case. After that, we have the following

–Crack the Case

-.45 Automatic

-Vicious Blow

-Prepared for the Worst

-Hallowed Mirror

Still not thrilled by this opening hand. I prefer Hallowed Mirror on Elli over going in the actual accessory slot. (I may actually branch into Relic Hunter at some point to address that.) But, we should be fine. I have access to 8 cards to play because of Stick to the Plan and 7 resources to begin. I should be just fine.

—–

Round 1

ROLAND:

Damage – 0/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 7; Clues – 0

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (5): .45 Automatic, Crack the Case, Hallowed Mirror, Prepared for the Worst, Vicious Blow

Action 1: Okay, so our Doom threshold is literally 2, so we want to get moving. The first thing I want to do is play this .45 Automatic so I don’t get caught without a weapon in hand.

Action 2: I move to a Ground Floor location. The location is the Historical Museum. It has 2 shroud and 1 clue, and my Intellect cannot be modified while I am at this location.

Action 3: I feel like since I’m trying to go fast, I should just attempt an investigate. I have Cultists in the bag right now, which will fail me, as it is going to be an unchangeable 3v2 test and Cultists are -2. However, there are also no enemies to add doom on to if I fail on a Cultist pull. So let’s just try this. It’s 3v2 and we draw a… -1! Hooray! We discovered our first clue. I could Crack here, but cracking for 2 resources is underwhelming so I will not.

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: I draw Disc of Itzamna and gain 1 resource.

—–

Round 2

ROLAND:

Damage – 0/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 4; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (5): Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Hallowed Mirror, Prepared for the Worst, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added (because this is Echoes of the Past). 0 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Hunting Shadow. Fun fact, Hunting Shadow is one of my most hated treachery cards in the whole game. Ask me about the time I drew all 3 Hunting Shadows on Rex, and that’ll explain why. Anyway, I’m not going to spend this clue. I have 9 health and Hallowed Mirror. I can heal myself if I need to. I take 2 damage.

Action 1: We’re going to keep running around. I move to the Entry Hall.

Action 2: I move to the other Historical Society location. It’s the Record Office, with 2 shroud again and 1 clue.

Action 3: I’m going to investigate here and this time, I want to commit. I’m going to commit my Prepared for the Worst from my hand, because I have one I can actually play on Stick to the Plan. That makes this test 4v2 and we draw a…-1 again. That gives me another clue! I have 2 clues now, which means I can advance to the second act. We refill the clues on this location and the Historical Museum location due to advancing the act.

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: We draw Perception and gain 1 resource. This is a good place to get Perception. I can just use it on this location to get another clue.

—–

Round 3

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 5; Clues – 0

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (5): Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Hallowed Mirror, Perception, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 0 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Mysterious Chanting. This is actually not that bad, because this gives me an opportunity to kill an enemy to pick up a clue. I draw an Acolyte and I spawn it at the Historical Museum on the ground floor. Now I should be able to just make my way back over there and kill it to get the next clue.

Action 1: So, first I will investigate this location using Perception. This test is 5v2 and I draw a… Skull, which is another -1. I pick up another clue, and I draw a card from Perception, which is Astounding Revelation. I’ve drawn into this so many times. Oh well!

Action 2: I move to the Entry Hall.

Action 3: I’m rethinking my earlier evaluation of Hallowed Mirror versus Disc of Itzamna. I don’t think enemies even spawn on top of me in this scenario. The enemies in this deck are all cultists and I’m sure like 99% of them spawn in locations other than where I am, right? I think Disc is kind of dead this game. I’ll put my Hallowed Mirror into play then. This puts Soothing Melody into my hand.

Enemy phase: Nothing happens.

Upkeep: I draw Glory and gain a resource.

—–

Round 4

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 4; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (6): Astounding Revelation, Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Glory, Soothing Melody, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 0 out of 2 doom. (1 doom on an enemy.)

Encounter card: Led Astray. The timing on this is really bad. I’m going to have to give up my clue, because the other option advances the agenda. So, I’m back to no clues.

Action 1: I move to the Historical Museum.

Action 2: I’m going to fight the Cultist, using an ammo from my .45 Automatic. Skulls are now -2, and also it’s just very important that I pass this test. The test is 5v3 and I draw a… +1! The Cultist is dead, so I discover a clue. I also am going to play my Glory to draw 2 cards. I draw Soothing Melody and On the Hunt.

Action 3: I move back to the Entry Hall. Since there are no more clues available on this floor, I’m going to have to finally move up a floor.

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: I draw Guts and gain 1 resource.

—–

Round 5

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 5; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (8): Astounding Revelation, Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Guts, On the Hunt, Soothing Melody, Soothing Melody, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 0 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Seeker of Carcosa. I spawn him on a room on the Second Floor, and he appears in the Historical Museum on the Second Floor. Normally, I’d be happy to see an enemy spawn, but Seeker deletes the clue from the location. This means I can’t get this clue either when I kill this enemy, which is the only exciting thing about enemies spawning for me.

Action 1: I move to the Quiet Halls on the Second Floor.

Action 2: I move to the Historical Museum with the Seeker. I can’t engage and fight it this round because I’ll be out of actions.

Action 3: With not much else to do of value, I play my Soothing Melody to heal 2 damage and draw 1 card. The card I draw is Vicious Blow.

Enemy phase: Nothing happens.

Upkeep: I draw Enchanted Blade and gain 1 resource. I have too many cards in hand, so I have to discard something. The obvious choice is Astounding Revelation.

—–

Round 6

ROLAND:

Damage – 0/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 6; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (8): Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Enchanted Blade, Guts, On the Hunt, Soothing Melody, Vicious Blow, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 0 out 2 doom. (1 doom on enemies.)

Encounter card: Locked Door. Well, there are no clues anywhere, so this doesn’t do anything. I’m going to attach it to the Entry Hall on the Ground Floor. Also, Seeker of Carcosa now has 2 doom on it, as it is the end of the Mythos phase.

Action 1: I engage the Seeker of Carcosa.

Action 2: I fight the Seeker of Carcosa, committing a Vicious Blow so I can defeat it in 1 action. This is now a 6v2 test, and I draw a… Skull (-2). Seeker of Carcosa is defeated, and we have no doom again. Just doing clean up duty on these doom enemies.

Action 3: I move to the Quiet Halls.

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: I draw Practice Makes Perfect and gain 1 resource.

—–

Round 7

ROLAND:

Damage – 0/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 7; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (8): Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Enchanted Blade, Guts, On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Soothing Melody, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 0 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Led Astray. Unfortunately, I have to add a doom to the agenda. There are no cultists. Because I murdered them.

Action 1: I move the other second floor Historical Society room, and it’s the Reading Room. This place has a shroud of 5. I’m not keen on passing a shroud of 5. However, I don’t have to, because I’m Roland. I can use my On the Hunt to spawn an enemy here next turn, murder it, and then pick up the clue here. So, that’s my plan.

Action 2: In the meantime, I play my Enchanted Blade to get another weapon. I have to use the cards in my hand so I’m not perpetually discarding as I go over my hand limit.

Action 3: I don’t want to draw a card, because I’m going to go over my hand limit during upkeep. I also have nothing else that I really want to play. If I play Disc, I lose my Mirror and therefore the Soothing Melody in my hand (which I may still get value out of.) So, I’m going to just gain 1 resource.

Enemy phase: Nothing happens.

Upkeep: I draw Disc of Itzamna and gain 1 resource.

—–

Round 8

ROLAND:

Damage – 0/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 6; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (3): On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (8): Crack the Case, Disc of Itzamna, Disc of Itzamna, Guts, On the Hunt, Practice Makes Perfect, Soothing Melody, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 1 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: I play my On the Hunt off of Stick to the Plan. The time has come! I find exactly what I’m looking for which is Agent of the King. With this, I can get some Victory Points!

Action 1: I spend a charge on my Enchanted Blade to fight 6v4. I draw a…. -3. That’s so sad.

Action 2: I do it again! I draw a… autofail! Oh no, now we’re in a spot of trouble because I can no longer kill this enemy during this round – and it’ll make me lose my precious clue when it attacks me. I’m being punished for my hubris.

Action 3: I will attempt to evade, which is an unusual thing to say as Roland, but I really don’t want to get hit. I’m also going to do something a little wacky and use the Practice Makes Perfect in my hand to search for Take the Initiative. Yes, this will give me only 1 icon, but I really need to evade. I commit my Soothing Melody first for 1 agility icon. Then, I use Practice Makes Perfect. I got what I was looking for! And I discovered my third copy of Astounding Revelation, giving me 2 resources. So, now this test is 4v2 to evade. I draw….a Cultist, which a -2! The Agent of the King is evaded! My 1 Wild icon Take the Initiative play saved the day! What a coup for Roland. The Take the Initiative returns to my hand for future shenanigans. (And who knew Hallowed Mirror was secretly evasion tech??)

Enemy phase: The Agent of the King is exhausted, to my great entertainment.

Upkeep: I draw Dr. Elli Horowitz and gain 1 resource. I must be drawing weaknesses super soon here. I now have too many cards. I’m going to discard my Crack the Case because I have so many resources.

—–

Round 9

ROLAND:

Damage – 0/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 7; Clues – 1

Stick to the Plan (2): Practice Makes Perfect, Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (7): Disc of Itzamna, Disc of Itzamna, Dr. Elli Horowitz, Guts, On the Hunt, Take the Initiative, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 1 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Hunting Shadow. Well, I’m just going to take 2 damage again of course.

Action 1: Time to try killing this thing again. This time I will commit my Take the Initiative and use an ammo from my gun. This make the test an 8v4. I draw a Cultist again, and I do 2 damage!

Action 2: Now, I’m going to swing with my Enchanted Blade again, for 6v4. Is my Enchanted Blade cursed? We’re about to find out! We draw a… -1! It’s not cursed after all! We defeat the Agent of the King, sending him to the Victory Display. We also discover the clue here. I immediately spend my clues to advance the act. All of the locations refill 1 clue, and I get control of Mr. Peabody. No space anymore for Elli I guess. The Hidden Library also enters play.

Action 3: I move back to the Quiet Halls. The reason is so that I’m in a more central location to deal with any enemies.

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep phase: I draw Guts and gain 1 resource.

—–

Round 10

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 9; Clues – 0

Stick to the Plan (2): Practice Makes Perfect,Prepared for the Worst 

Hand (7): Disc of Itzamna, Disc of Itzamna, Dr. Elli Horowitz, Guts, Guts, On the Hunt, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 1 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Locked Door.Well, this also doesn’t do much to me, because I have 4 locations to choose from and I don’t need the clues from any of them. I put it on the Reading Room, because I’m not going back there with its shroud of 5.

Action 1: Okay, so I really need to find a Passageway location. There are none on these first two floors, so I have to move to the third floor now. First, I move to the Quiet Halls on the Third Floor.

Action 2: I just have to pick one of these two rooms. I move to the right, hoping it’s a Passageway location. It is! It’s Peabody’s Office, with a shroud of 4 and 2 clues on it. However, because I have Peabody, it’s only a shroud of 2. I’m thinking if I ever have to resolve Cover Up, this might be a good place to go.

Action 3: I’ll move in to the Hidden Library next round, so for now I ought to set up. I don’t want to play anything in my hand, so I think my best choice is to play my Prepared for the Worst now. This is because my weapons are almost empty, and will need a refill. I also can’t play any of the assets in my hand, because I feel like they are less helpful than what I currently have. I play Prepared for the Worst and I find Roland’s .38 Special. Perfect!

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: I draw Glory and gain 1 resource. I swear I have three weaknesses in here, guys. I see them whenever I search my deck for things. They got to be coming any second now. Anyway, I now have 9 cards in hand. I’ll discard 1 Disc.

—–

Round 11

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 9; Clues – 0

Stick to the Plan (1): Practice Makes Perfect 

Hand (8): Disc of Itzamna, Dr. Elli Horowitz, Glory, Guts, Guts, On the Hunt, Roland’s .38 Special, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added.1 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Fanatic. Annoyingly, this has to spawn on me, because my room has 2 clues on it. I guess it’s kind of a good thing, since now I can clear the doom on the enemy before heading to the Hidden Library.

Action 1: I shoot with the last bullet on my .45 Automatic, and I also use my Practice Makes Perfect here. It’s very important that this attack connects so I don’t waste more time, and because it means I’m very likely to find my second Take the Initiative. My second Take the Initiative will help me get clues in the Hidden Library later. I find it and commit it. This test is now 8v3. I draw an Elder Sign! This Fanatic is very dead, and I pick up a clue. Take the Initiative returns to my hand.

Action 2: I use Mr. Peabody to give Hidden Library the Passageway trait.

Action 3: I move in to the Hidden Library. Yay, we finally made it! It only took, what, 11 rounds of running around to get here?? Phew!

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: I draw Dr. Elli Horowitz and gain 1 resource. I now have 10 cards. I discard both Dr. Elli’s, since I need Mr. Peabody in play. There are only 8 cards left in my deck and 3 of them are weaknesses, so I’m hoping this ends really soon.

—–

Round 12

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 9; Clues – 0

Stick to the Plan (1): Empty 

Hand (8): Disc of Itzamna, Glory, Guts, Guts, On the Hunt, Roland’s .38 Special, Take the Initiative, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added, 1 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: My question here is whether or not I want to On the Hunt. If I On the Hunt, I can look for a small enemy to kill and get 1 clue off of here in 1 action if I defeat it quickly. Actually, I think I do want to do that, and I think I want to find a Fanatic. The reason is a Fanatic will clear 1 clue from this room on spawn, making it easier for me to get the Victory Point (since I already have 1 extra clue from Peabody’s Office, I’ll still have enough clues to advance). So now, I play the On the Hunt from my hand. Unfortunately, all I get is an Acolyte. My wonderful plan didn’t quite work out, but I can make this work.

Action 1: I fight the Acolyte with my Enchanted Blade, 5v3. I draw a 0. It’s defeated, and I discover 1 clue.

Action 2: If I discover 2 more clues in the next two actions, I might be able to get out of here before I draw Cover Up, so that’s the ideal choice. The only problem with that is my odds of passing 2 more investigates against a 4 shroud are not great. I think rather than chance these difficult tests, I ought to go for one more round sitting here, use Take the Initiative next round, and just pray I don’t draw Cover Up during upkeep. So, I’m going to make this next test as safe as possible. I exhaust Dr. Peabody to give this room -1 shroud.

Action 3: Now I commit the Glory from my hand. That makes this a 5v3. I still don’t think that’s great. I’m going to commit my Roland’s .38 Special. I don’t think I need it anymore. That gives me a 6v3. Let’s see what we get… Elder Sign! We can leave now, but I want the victory point. One clue left. Let’s hope that we don’t draw Cover Up!

Enemy phase: No enemies.

Upkeep: I draw Enchanted Blade(!!!) and gain 1 resource. No Cover Up! Yay!

—–

Round 13

ROLAND:

Damage – 2/9; Horror – 0/5; Resources – 9; Clues – 2

Stick to the Plan (1): Empty 

Hand (6): Disc of Itzamna, Enchanted Blade, Guts, Guts, Take the Initiative, Vicious Blow

Mythos: No doom added. 1 out of 2 doom.

Encounter card: Hunting Shadow. Well, I’m not interested in spending this clue, so I take 2 more damage. Despite my earlier complaints about this card, Hunting Shadow hasn’t done much to slow my progress.

Action 1: Okay, this is it everyone. My best hope of getting this clue is committing Take the Initiative and running into this test at 6v4. If I fail this, well, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge on any future tests. Let’s see how it goes… I draw a…. Skull (0)!! We did it! We get the last clue off the Hidden Library and advance the act.

—–

So with that ARRR! breezes through Echoes of the Past, gaining 3 experience yet again. It helped a lot that I drew none of my 3 weaknesses. I checked my next card draw, and it was also not a weakness. Very lucky, but I guess it balances out for drawing all 3 weaknesses right away in The Last King.

Keeping with the thematic of ARRR Roland, you know he’s going to want to take the shiny black clasp. It’s more pirate-y treasure, after all, and Roland has to get as much treasure as he can. And most importantly, it’s another Relic! It’d be pretty funny to have this stick to Dr. Elli Horowitz. It would be a legal play since Dr. Elli does not specify non-weakness assets. I wonder if that’ll ever happen before this is all over.

Anyway, let’s check our updated campaign log.

—–

Campaign log:

-you tried to warn the police

-the Stranger is on to you

-VIPs interviewed: Constance Dumaine, Ishimaru Haruko, Ashleigh Clarke

-VIPs slain: ~*~all of them~*~

-you took the onyx clasp

-Chasing the Stranger: 2

-Conviction: 3, Doubt: 0

-Total Experience Earned: 9

—–

Upgrades

Now, I was going to take Segment of Onyx as my second upgrade. However, I’m going to pivot and pick up one copy of Enchanted Blade3 instead. The reason is that I really want to make use of the Courage asset provided by interviewing Constance Dumaine, and I don’t want to risk the Courage asset being one of the Segments. Unspeakable Oath also uses Corrosion which can potentially discard my Segments from my hand. I think it’s just safer to hold off on Segments until after Unspeakable Oath.

With that, I’ll see you next time when Roland makes his way through one of the most perilous scenarios for solo investigators ever devised!