17.11.2010 - Touched by Evil. Twice.

Today I played two games of Touch of Evil at friend's place.

First game we randomised the villain and got Necromancer up.

Heroes involved were Anne-Marie the Schoolteacher and Eliza the Witch Hunter.

All in all that game was incredibly brutal. Zombies were popping up from everywhere, which was most of the fun of course. It didn't actually help that Eliza couldn't win any fights but luckily Anne-Marie managed to get herself one book that made her able to beat zombies rather single-handedly. Their ears may have rotten off but still they dissolved at Anne-Maries words of wisdom.

However, there were just too many and Eliza lost way too many turns by getting Knocked Down during mystery phase.

The game was over almost before it even started. When Anne-Marie bit the dust while Eliza was lying there at the Town Hall there were twelve monsters on the board by then.

Because first game was so short we decided to play another against the same villain. We randomised heroes again though and this time we got Katarina the Outlaw and Isabella von Took.

That was an awesome game.

Again it was "zombies, zombies everywhere!" atmoshpere but this time the heroes fought back valiantly.

It did help that Isabella was able to ditch most of the random wounds the Living Dead gave her by losing Investigation Points. Also Katarina was blessed with plenty of wounds and good combat abilities.

However, Isabella had a bit too high opinion of Katarina because she was sure Katarina could take on all the zombies marching toward the Town Hall. By leaving the village and venturing off to monastery Katarina was left with around four or five zombies to take care off.

It should have been piece of cake for Katarina though but even zombies can roll triple sixes with four dice it seems.

But it was not all in vain, because Isabella found spiritual enlightenment from the monastery. She found an item that rised the Honor of her by +2, and earlier in the game Isabella had the courage to eat a really exotic meal with the Hanbrooks at their manor (roll 3 dice, 1 wound for every 1-2 rolled because it tastes so weird and for every 6 you gain one honor because you manage to eat it with a smile). Those together raised her Honor to equal Katarina's, which in turn managed her to train her skills so that Cunning and Spirit was equal to 8. (If they weren't 8 or more combined the villain would've been next to impossible to defeat).

However, because of nasty rolls from the zombies Katarina shared the fate of Eliza from earlier games. She lost quite a many turns because she got knocked down during mystery phase, but different from Eliza was the fact that she managed to kill her tormentors before she went down herself, giving her enough investigation points not to lose items when she got up.

When Isabella came back from Echo Lake things were looking nice on the zombie front, both had enough brawn to fend them off. But then a few mystery cards made things desperate.

First, came The Hour is Late, meaning it was guaranteed that the Shadow Track dropped every single turn. And once it's red you get two zombies every turn instead of one.

But once "Something Wicked" hit the board it was decided that there would be no other chance than to start Showdown as soon as we could. We had geared up nicely, though both were rolling only 5 dice on damage.

Well, Katarina had spent most of her game lying knocked down at Town Hall. It was a bit weird that she hadn't figured out already that villain was hiding exactly there.

Showdown started with Isabella with three investigation, four base wounds and 5 dice on damage and able to prevent 2. Katarina had four wounds too and no way to prevent them and 5 dice too.

Villain had 16 wounds and 7 damage dice (one of each being the "Good" Doctor)

Well, Villain rolled rather badly but we didn't exactly shine either.

First round Isabella gave Katarina a total of 13 dice to damage.

On third fight round Katarina died but Isabella was still saved but left with only one wound. Fourth fight round Isabella was dealt two wounds, both of which she prevented. Villain had two wounds and Doctor Manning with him, which still meant 7 fight dice.

Isabella had 5 fight dice and crossbow, which meant that as long as one of the dice she rolls is a 6, one additional wound is delivered.

Well, Isabella was splattered to the wall, but as her last effort she managed to... roll a 6. Only one 6. Which meant the villain was left with one wound that obviously was Doctor Manning.

So if a storyline is to be found, the Necromancer either fell and Doctor continued his reign of terror or if not, he healed Necromancer after the heroes were turned into hideous zombies...