Buried Secrets

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Mystery.

Нейтральний

Revelation - Put Buried Secrets into play in your threat area.

If your location can be investigated, you cannot move except by scenario card effects.

: Investigate. If you succeed, instead of discovering clues, discard Buried Secrets. If you fail, you may take 2 horror to shuffle it into your deck.

Raymond Bonilla
Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion #9.
Buried Secrets

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: There's an old ruling that says if you use Mind Wipe on Swamp Leech and attempt to evade it, the evade value of '-' is treated as 0. If another card, like Sharpshooter or Delilah O'Rourke, references the evade value of something with a '-', like Swamp Leech or Vulnerable Heart, is it treated as 0 for those purposes as well? Or is the ability just unable to fire? What about investigating the Hidden Tunnel in City of the Elder Things (for something like Searching for Izzie, Call of the Unknown, or Buried Secrets)? A: After re-examining these cards and the direction our game has taken, we are going to override the previous ruling. Even if Swamp Leech were blanked with Mind Wipe, its Evade value would still be a “-“, which can be thought of as “null” or a “non-number.” You could not use this non-number as the basis for a skill test with Sharpshooter. It’s, as you said, unable to fire. This also means that you could not investigate at Hidden Tunnel.
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Reviews

Buried Secrets is, in most cases, a mild weakness. Resolving it takes a single by testing a stat that Monterey is inherently good at. Even if you fail, you get to decide if you want to try the test again or take 2 horror and shuffle the weakness back into your deck. You know it's a generous weakness when even the worst case scenario isn't all that bad.

Let's break it down:

  • Buried Secrets has a revelation effect, so it goes into your threat area immediately after being drawn.
  • The ongoing effect is that you, the Monterey Jack player, can no longer move if your current location can be investigated. If it can't, (Locked Doors for example) you can move but the no movement-clause will kick in as soon as you reach a location that can be investigated.
  • To make Buried Secrets go away, you have to spend an action and pass a single investigation test. If you pass, the weakness is discarded and that's that. Remember that you can investigate locations without clues on them.
  • If you fail, you may take 2 Horror and shuffle the weakness back into your deck. Or you can let it be and just try again. That's mighty generous for Arkham Horror.
  • Buried Secrets is your threat area, so any other investigator can activate the . If they fail the test, they get to decide if they'll take the horror damage or not. If they do, the weakness will be shuffled into your deck (not theirs). Having friends around will milden Buried Secrets even more.

In almost every case, you will draw this weakness while unegaged and on a 2, 3 or 4 shroud location. Then you can simply pass a single test with the odds highly in your favor, and be on your merry way. (Or you get get a friend to help you out, either a smart one one with a decent chance to pass the test - or a dumb one with two spare Sanity).

But if you're unlucky, there'll be an enemy engaged to you, one that needs to be evaded first. The guardian is three locations away. You'll fail the first evade, pass the second but then you have to spend your last action on getting rid of Buried Secrets. You're stuck and the enemy will re-engage in the enemy phase, so you'll need to spend yet another action evading it before you can move on. And you'll be muttering "Man, this weakness sucks!". But the very next round, your friend playing Marie Lambeau draws Baron Samedi. And you'll think "Okay, Buried Secrets is really not that bad."

olahren · 3364
Buried Secrets is mild, but Thrice-Damned is probably milder. — SSW · 209
The real problem with Thrice-Damned Curiosity isn't the actual effect it has while you're playing, it's the chilling effect it has on Harvey by punishing him heavily for what everything else about him wants you to do. This weakness, on the other hand, just makes you waste one successful investigate action on a 4 intellect character, which doesn't really stop your gameplan as a seeker-rogue at all. — Thatwasademo · 57
You know you can just use cards in your hand, right? Drawing cards does not equal keeping them in your hand. — SSW · 209
Telling Harvey to play cards is like asking Preston to spend money. — SGPrometheus · 809
Picking Thrice-Damned Secrets as my example of a nasty weakness was stupid. It's only bad if you're playing the big-hand version of him (which I was heavily implying but still). I've editet the review and changed the example to Baron Samedi. — olahren · 3364

There’s a subtle trap in this card. Notice it takes effect “If your location can be investigated.” At first glance, it seems that this is referring to locations with clues on it. But the rule is that you can perform an investigate if it has the potential to change the game stage. So other scenario cards may permit you to investigate a location, and then you’d be stuck. But some player cards—and I’m looking at you, Archive of Conduits—allow you to investigate some locations without clues. So this weakness would cause you to be stuck until you discovered that pesky ley line.

togetic271 · 4
You can investigate a location even with no clues on it. — toastsushi · 74
What toastsushi says. The text referrs to cards like "Locked Doors", which prohibits investigating, but not discovering clues with "Working a Hunch", "Drawn to the Flame" and many other cards. So it is completely unrelated to the presence of clues at the location. — Susumu · 363
Susumu: So temporary/conditional blockers to investigating would permit you to still move, like Locked Doors? You wouldn't be forced to beat down the door & then investigate that location? — HanoverFist · 712
HanoverFist: The text certainly only refers to the current state of your location, not all possible future states later in play. The fact that you can remove the locked door by taking a test is irrelevant; it currently prevents investigating, so the limitation on this weakness is not in effect. — tessarji · 1
As another example, some locations might state an additional cost (consider https://arkhamdb.com/card/02050). If you are unable to pay the cost, Buried Secrets's move limitation is still in effect for you. In this case, the location is able to be investigated but you are simply unable to initiate that action. — tessarji · 1
Ah that checks out, thanks for the explanation! — HanoverFist · 712