Flush with success over our easy(?) victory over Yig, we were more than ready to face the many faces of Nyalarthotep. More the fools were we.

Everyone showed up for this session, so I sat out and Game Mastered, hoping to make things run more quickly. It still ended up being one of our longest games ever clocking in at over 5 hours!

So it was the same six: Dexter, Jacqueline, Mark, Rita, Joe and Leo. The card turned up to start the game was South Side Strangler Suspected, and wouldn't you know it? A Cthonian showed up in the Southside Streets. This was great as it provided a sense of continuity from the last game: that bastard was still there.

Things started out well enough and by turn 5 we had two gates sealed. Then the Monster Surges started. The first one put 4 out of 6 Investigators into the Asylum, and the fifth was only saved by Leo's ability (which got used a LOT in this game). After that it was pretty consistent that one or another Investigator was always in Arkham Asylum. At one point 5 were in the Asylum and the sixth was LiTS!

It was that special rule that killed us, really. On at least three occasions someone would step through a gate with six Clues and before they could get back a Monster Surge would occur and 3-5 Masks, Cultists and Maniacs would come through. The helpless Investigator would go insane, get LiTS and lose half their Clues! That really killed our chances of a sealed victory.

Masks were on the board almost constantly. Mark had an encounter with the Dark Pharaoh that proved that a flamethrower can make up for a low Lore score. Leo and Jacqui both had successful encounters with the Black Man. Mark took on the Bloated Woman and a Fire Vamp in an interesting combination of the Flame Thrower, a Wither spell and Expert Occultist skill. Rita took inspiration from this fight and beat up a Witch and an Elder Thing on the same turn. No one dared face the God of The Bloody Tounge, so he hung out for a while until the Merchants March on Crime took him away. Jacki had a great turn 9, killing 2 Gugs, a Dark Young and a Ghoul, then was LiTS two turns later and lost all her nifty toys. Leo lost to a Hound, which meant that when it's movement came up at the end of the turn, the closest Investigator was Mark in the Asylum. We all got a laugh at the image of Mark using his flamethrower to torch the Hound with doctors scurrying for cover!

In the end, as I said the Monster Surges killed us and too many gates opened. In the final battle, Mark was our strongest and Dexter our weakest. Mark still had his flamethrower, had gotten Blessed and with a nifty Encounter trick had turned 1 Clue Token into 3 on the last round. Dexter only had his Wither spell, which meant a *chance* of 2 dice every round. Mark was rolling 9 Blessed dice, and everyone else was throwing in 3 or 4. Our Lore rolls went pretty well and most of us lasted 6 or 7 rounds. Then Mark ran out of Clues and went down. Then the rest of us ran out of Clues. Nyalarthotep was down to 2 hit points and it was him against... Dexter Drake! One last roll... if he gets two hits, we win, if not, we lose... he rolls... two 3's!

Ah, well. Everyone had a fun time.