Drake the Great seeks answers with a friend

This deck is intended as the sole clue-gatherer in a duo, but one that can also get themselves out of a tight spot under their own power if need be.

All you really need to get rolling is one of (Clairvoyance/Rite of Seeking/Sixth Sense) and one of (Sword Cane/Ineffable Truth/Shrivelling).

Ideal starting hand, in order:

Clairvoyance >> Sword Cane >> Holy Rosary >> Uncage the Soul >> (Ward of Protection/Pickpocketing/Leo De Luca).

Aim to avoid enemies with the Sword Cane (remember to keep it on hand and unsheathe only when needed, to not waste the action) and/or Ineffable Truth to leverage Pickpocketing and ping those pesky 3-health enemies to soften them up for your Machete wielding partner later on. Save Shrivelling for when you need to kill something particularily nasty.

For investigating, if possible leave Sixth Sense for when you've exhausted all the other investigation spells as you want to avoid having to throw it away to make room. If you absolutely must play Sixth Sense early, then there's Familiar Spirit to help you hold on to it alongside the expendable spells.

You can use Molly Maxwell to fish for stuff like Sword Cane, Holy Rosary or Elusive, but you need Pickpocketing-fulled card draw when it comes to the investigating spells and cancels (Deny Existence, Ward of Protection), which you're going to need because willpower is all you have and you'll be taking all the other treacheries on your chin.

Liquid Courage works very well with Dexter, because he has high willpower and can play it actionless and for free. With two mental traumas from Arcane Studies and other horror from Shrivelling and Clairvoyance, you'll need to take a swig every now and then, or you can use it to get more mileage out of Molly Maxwell.

Remember that you can swap in assets without provoking attacks of opportunity, so it's not always best to play everything as soon as you can, rather wait until you run out of charges on something you don't need anymore.

This deck isn't cheap, and to that end, you have Lone Wolf, Uncage the Soul and Dexter's ability. Because' you're a (limited) rogue, later on you can solve your money issues with for Pickpocketing, Pay Day, Faustian Bargain or Hot Streak.

The eventual goal is to use the XP potential of Arcane Studies and Charon's Obol combined to reach insane levels of arcane power :-)

Optional adjusments:

• 2x Liquid Courage is not necessary, you shouldn't need more than the 8 sanity one gives you, and you can use Molly to fish for it (Illicit, 50/50 odds with Pickpocketing)
• the inclusion of Shrivelling depends mostly on your partner. If you're confident in their murderous capabilities, swap this out for a second Sixth Sense.
• if you really want to dedicate yourself to the ways of peace, swap Ineffable Truth for Mists of R'lyeh. Your partner better be a proper Terminator if you do this.
• Lone Wolf depends on playstyle, consider Emergency Cache if you like to stick together
• Familiar Spirit you could easily replace with Sign Magick because both Leo and Molly are much more important, but it is 2 resources more in an already costly deck. Consider a sidegrade later on using Adaptable.

Upgrade priority:

Charon's Obol, obviously. Don't leave home without it. Or is it don't leave home with it?

Adaptable is amazing if you know your scenarios as well as if you have no clue what you're doing.

Lone Wolf >> Pickpocketing as you'll be succeeding by two quite a lot and can thus leave it out to make room for...

Haste because a lot of your cards use triggered abilities. Whack someone with the cane, do some seeking and have a drink. Also, Dex is in the illustration.

Charisma: It's good to have friends, and you'll always want Leo as soon as your deck can afford it, but Molly Maxwell is also a great ally.

Holy Rosary >> Four of Cups: these two will actually coexist for some time, because it's nice to have 7 base willpower before your spells are upgraded. Once you get to upgrading them, however (they all add that +2 willpower), it's okay to eventually ditch Holy Rosary as that extra 2 sanity isn't too important when you're already running Liquid Courage

Use your judgement with Arcane Research - I would probably go for Ineffable Truth first to guarantee that +2 success for Pickpocketing, then move on to the seeking stuff.