Investigator Duke Learns to Fight

A Duke deck built around Investigate and Fight actions that is intended to be resource starved. Use the mulligan to aggressively go after Dark Horse, and Arcane Studies and/or Hard Knocks.

Fire Axe, Kukri, and Baseball Bat are all in the deck to be discarded or committed. Then using Scavenging to put them back in hand if needed.

Example Turn

• Have 1 resource from previous round's Upkeep phase.

• Spend 1 resource to boast skill test stat by +1, then having no resources triggers Dark Horse, for another +1 (total of +2); commit any cards as needed. Don't forget to trigger Scavenging or Rabbit's Foot.

• Discard a card to ready Duke and go again with a +1 due to Dark Horse. Don't forget to trigger Scavenging or Rabbit's Foot.

Diary

1. We decide to head after Dr. Francis Morgan at the The Clover Club. We are able to rescue him in the nick of time as a conglomeration of spheres begins to rip the club apart. We escaped before learning too much, but a couple of us did cheat the casino. (xp: 2?)

2. We look for Professor Warren Rice, but are unable to find him before The Experiment shows up. We save the students, but decide to try to get one more clue to the doctor's whereabouts in the Dormitories (tried to get the final clue off of the dorms so we could get the XP, but to do that we would have to survive one more Mythos phase), however two Ancient Evils have other plans for us. "Ashcan" Pete and Jenny Barnes were eliminated due to the horrors of the beast. (xp: 0?)

3. We head to The Miskatonic Museum to find Harold Walsted and recover the Necronomicon for safe keeping. We eventually find it in the last exhibit hall. Against my urging, we decide to take possession of the foul tome. (xp: 7?)

4. We catch the Essex County Express to meet up with Zebulon Whateley near Dunwich. While on the journey, we are very nearly caught on a train car as it is sucked into the void, however we rescue a passenger before moving to the next car. Again, the tear in reality threatens to destroy the train car we are in, but we are once again able to move to the next car with another passenger. We then are able to make quick progress through the remaining cars (rescuing an additional passenger) and arrive at the engine just as two more train cars are ripped into the void. Before the train loses any additional cars, we are able to get the train moving. (xp: 3)

5. We meet up with Zebulon Whateley and Earl Sawyer and head to Dunwich. After we awaken we discover that Zeb and Earl are missing. After spreading out to search for the missing men, we stumble upon a hidden chamber. However, it is locked! As we attempt to find the key we are stymied by mobsters, whippoorwills, and strange cultist followers. We enter the chamber and are horrified by the creature we uncover. Unfortunately, Daisy Walker is forced to resign. Jenny Barnes makes a daring move and evades the beast. "Ashcan" Pete and Agnes Baker use the time to destroy the abomination. Unfortunately, we did lose Dr. Henry Armitage in a gruesome sacrifice to the dreadful beast. (xp: 4)

6. After the terrible events, we learn that the beast or beasts that we dealt with previously are still in Dunwich. We decide to warn the villagers to flee the cursed town while we attempt to deal with the abominations of Yog-Sothoth once and for all. We have difficulty dealing with the creatures due to the incessant Whippoorwills. I focus on ridding the area of these accursed creatures and the other thralls, while the rest of the investigators focus on defeating the Broods. (xp: 3)

7. We are awakened to screaming. We quickly learn that our work in Dunwich is not done, we have to stop a terrible ritual taking place atop nearby Sentinel Peak. As we begin to head up from the base of the hill, we realize to our horror that the remains of Silas Bishop have mutated and have grown into a conglomeration of spheres, the likes of which we saw at the Clover Club. We slowly make our way of the diverging paths, to find that they begin to become altered due to the ritual. Things grow desperate for us. Jenny Barnes believes she has located her missing sister Izzie, and heads back down the hill to search for her. Just has we are discovering how to deal with the portal, Daisy Walker is overcome by the physical exertion and collapses. However, Duke is able to point out to "Ashcan" Pete and Agnes Baker how to enter the gate. They bring along their friends in a likely futile attempt to stop Yog-Sothoth from entering this realm. (xp: 6)

8. The Mythos really had it's way with us in this final encounter. On four separate phases we had our path to our goal literally removed from below our feet. We eventually had to begin sacrificing ourselves for the greater good. First, Jenny Barnes engaged several fiends so that the rest of us could make our way across the galaxy. Next, it was "Ashcan" Pete's turn. Daisy Walker and Agnes Baker were able to advance to Act 4 before being defeated. (xp: 2?)

Epilogue

We were able to successfully win the campaign on Standard play with a single play-through. The dread of the Mythos very real for us. While we mostly got the best resolutions, most happened at the last possible moment. I really wish I kept better notes around what Act and doom threshold we were at. And exactly which resolution we achieved, but honestly I was having way too much fun to worry about those details until days later. Great campaign.

Overall, I really liked my Duke deck. Having 6 cards for the sole purpose of discarding worked well. Scavenging didn't work as well in the later games. And I was exceptionally lucky that I was able to get Dark Horse in my starting hand all but one game.