To Carcosa and Back-Solo Expert TPTC [The Unspeakable Oath]

~ Part 3: Echoes of the Past ~

Warning: Massive spoilers for The Path to Carcosa campaign follows

This commentary assumes that the player is familiar with all story elements of the campaign. This series of decks use 2 core sets, The Dunwich Legacy cycle, and The Path to Carcosa cycle.

This series of decks is designed for playing The Path to Carcosa campaign solo on Expert difficulty. This deck focuses on the fourth scenario, The Unspeakable Oath.

==================== [Introduction] ====================

The first "gate" scenario of the campaign that threatens to straight up kill each investigator that fails to complete it. While we are used to the pressure of defeat equals death (thanks to Charon's Obol), this scenario is deadlier than the previous two both because there is no easy way to resign, and that running out of time counts as a defeat (and death). When playing this scenario, our goal should be to complete the scenario first and foremost, with gathering xp at a distant second.

The biggest challenge of this scenario is the ever ticking clock. The treacheries in this scenario seldom deal enough horror (and no damage) to be dangerous, and the enemies don't hunt. At least, not until the monsters come crawling out the walls. What the encounter deck is very good at, however, is slowing us down. With this in mind, we will build our deck to focus on speed instead of wasting time on mitigating encounters and dealing with enemies.

===================== [Upgrades] =====================

To recap, we should have 7xp from the last scenario. This is how we will spend them:

In:

1x Close Call (2xp): This card is useful throughout the campaign. For this scenario in particular, it lets us remove an inconvenient enemy at a location we are not done investigating, or one we must pass again later. It is one of the few ways we have of removing enemies since we will not focus on combat this scenario. If we already purchased a second copy of Close Call last scenario, add a second copy of Elusive instead.

1x Lockpicks (1xp): Though less useful in the previous scenario, Lockpicks is an excellent pick for this scenario since all but one location only have one clue, so the once-per-turn restriction is less of a disadvantage. There is also no locations where it won't work. Finally, it is just another copy of an investigation tool, which is vital in this scenario.

1x Flashlight (0xp): Instrumental for investigating quickly. Many locations in this scenario have 1-2 shroud, which Flashlight will clear with little effort. If we purchased a second copy of Close Call last scenario, consider purchasing another copy of Lockpicks instead to free an Adaptable slot for Elusive.

2x Survival Instinct (4xp): The ability to bypass multiple enemies at once is important for moving through this scenario quickly. We will go to the specifics later, but there are points in this scenario where we expect multiple enemies to be at a location which we must cross. Survival Instinct will make passing them much easier.

2x Perception (0xp): Even with investigation tools, a few locations are difficult without extra help, which Perception provides. We are also not against pitching them in an easy investigation check if we desperately need to draw through our deck.

1x "I'm outta here!" (0xp): A rather late addition in my testing. As I played through this scenario several times, a common play pattern emerged at the end where I would find Daniel's Cell with 4 conditions for Planning the Escape already met and the Garden revealed. I would then play Elusive to get to the Garden and resign. "I'm outta here!" lets us cut out the middle man, which also means we can use our Elusives more freely. Worst case, it can be committed for when evading enemies.

Out:

2x Fire Axe: Fighting through enemies just takes too much time and resources in this scenario, and we prefer to evade or avoid them instead. We have no need for weapons.

1x "Look what I found!": This card is extremely useful for Mess Hall. Instead of spending two investigations (probably using Flashlight or Lockpicks) and discarding two cards, we can fail one investigation check and get both clues for 2 resources! Unfortunately, it is much less useful elsewhere. As Mess Hall is one of the first locations we intend to clear and we cannot count on having it at the start, we will replace it with cards that are more generally useful.

1x Waylay: Similar to Fire Axe, since our plan is not to defeat enemies, we won't need Waylay. While we have a few cards that remove enemies, they all do so with one action. Spending two actions on one enemy is just more than we can afford.

2x Double or Nothing: A very scenario specific card. In the first scenario, it was useful for killing the Royal Emissary. In the second, for parleying with Fine Clothes on. In the third, for killing Possessed Oathspeaker. In this scenario, it simply doesn't do enough.

1x Backstab: The most useful piece of our combat package. For no setup and one action, we can kill an inconveniently placed enemy. It also uses , which our deck is chock full of. However, the fact is we don't often need to remove an enemy, so we are taking out one of two copies.

1x Quick Thinking: Taking extra actions is great in theory. However, it's hard to make Quick Thinking fire outside of a Will to Survive turn. In comparison, Survival Instinct gives us very good chances to evade a group of enemies, and saves an action otherwise spend by moving. Quick Thinking's synergy with Will to Survive nevertheless warrants it one slot in our deck.

Stretch:

As some of our upgrades in this scenario overlap with the stretch upgrades from previous scenarios, we may have up to 3 additional xp to spend. These are some ways we can use the extras:

Flashlight Lockpicks (1xp): See explanation above. If we have xp left over, it is probably a good idea to take a second copy of Lockpicks before considering less immediately powerful options.

Lucky! Lucky! (2xp): A humble yet effective upgrade that lets us go through our deck faster while doing useful things. In this scenario, we will play Lucky! more often than Emergency Cache, so this upgrade is preferable to Emergency Cache.

Leo De Luca Leo De Luca (1xp): Another humble upgrade that can be very effective this scenario. If we intend to play Leo De Luca on our first turn, we are bound to spend 1 action taking a resource. The upgraded Leo De Luca saves us this action. If we have 2xp spare, we can also consider upgrading both copies.

Quick Thinking Stroke of Luck (2xp): Normally I would not recommend taking exile cards this early in a campaign - our deck has a lot of room to grow yet. However, as this is a "must succeed" scenario, we can consider a copy of Stroke of Luck to squeeze out every last bit of advantage we can get.

================ [The Unspeakable Oath] ================

There are probably many ways to win this scenario, but I've had the most success following a strict path through the asylum. I'll detail that path below, but first let's go through the mulligan.

An interesting thing when starting a game is that players draw their opening hands (and mulligan) before the setup of a scenario. This rarely matters, since there are seldom any decisions to be made during the setup. However, there is here - whether we start at the Western or Eastern patient wings. And our decision can indeed be affected by our opening hand. The cards we are looking for in our opening hands are:

Leo De Luca, often the entire margin of victory when played early, and useful even if played late since we have a tendency of stockpiling resources.

At least one of Lockpicks or Flashlight will speed up our early game a great deal.

At least one of Elusive or Survival Instinct. If we have Elusive, we want to start the game at the Eastern Patient Wing. If we have Survival Instinct, the western. If neither, we should start in the Eastern Patient Wing just to be safe.

Lone Wolf lets us save up resources to play our expensive events later into the game.

The Path:

Mess Hall Yard Garden Infirmary Basement Hall Patient Confinement Resign

Alright, so that probably doesn't help much. Let's briefly go through why we are taking this path. There are 4 acts in this scenario, each corresponding to a distinct task. The first is to gather 3 clues which must be done first. The second and third are to find Daniel Chesterfield and complete 4 of 6 objectives for the escape - which can be done in no particular order. The last, of course, is to resign. By following this path, we can minimize the number of moves we need to make, and avoid the Asylum Halls as much as possible, where Mad Patients tend to gather.

Our first stop is the Mess Hall, which we can clear easily in 2 turns with a Flashlight or Lockpicks. From there, it's 2 short steps away from the Yard, which is trivial to investigate early if we have not taken any horror. Remember to incite a fight among the patients! This very quickly gives us the 3 clues needed for Act 1 and clears a victory location.

At this point, ideally we would have a Will to Survive in hand. If we do, we can play it, then advance Act 1 to get a free pass on the skill test on its back side, then move into the Garden, investigate it, and distract the guards all in one Will to Survive turn. Having a copy early makes this stage much easier, which is why we wanted to look for it in our mulligan. This leaves us with 1 clue and 2/4 escape objectives completed.

By now the Western Patient Wing probably has an enemy or two. This is where our Survival Instinct comes in handy by allowing us to bypass any number of enemies that have congregated at Western Patient Wing in one action. If we have Elusive instead, well, that is why we took care to start in the Eastern Patient Wing, which is now revealed and cleared of enemies for our Elusive.

We can then swing by the Infirmary, which is just a clue at a location not too far out of the way with victory 1 attached. This is a greedy play, and if we are running out of time, it's preferable to pick up the required clue in Patient Confinement or Asylum Halls instead. Regardless, this gets us to the Basement Hall where we can start looking for Daniel Chesterfield while fulfilling the last 2 escape objectives. If we find Daniel early, we can always evade him and keep looking in other cells. It's usually not worth our time to kill him.

Finally, once we've found Daniel and finished our escape objectives, since Garden is already revealed and hopefully clear of enemies, we can simply Elusive there and resign. If it is somehow occupied by an enemy, we can still use "I'm outta here!" to resign, which only cares that a scenario card has a Resign ability, not whether or not you can resign using it.

===================== [The Future] =====================

If we are fortunate enough to escape with our sanity intact, we are faced with the choice of whether or not to heed Daniel's warning. As we are focusing on conviction, we should heed the warning, which also grants us an extra xp. Unless one has a propensity to talk to oneself, the horror penalty for speaking "Hastur" out loud should not be an issue in a solo playthrough.

In my tests at the time writing, this build completed the scenario in 6 out of 7 trials, and finished with 3 xp in 4 of the victories, and 2 xp in the other 2 victories. Added with the 2 xp from Charon's Obol, and the 1xp from heeding the warning, we will assume that we have at least 5xp going forward.

~ Part 5: A Phantom of Truth ~