To Carcosa and Back - Solo Expert TPTC [The Pallid Mask]

~ Part 5: A Phantom of Truth ~

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 sixth scenario, The Pallid Mask.

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

There are two main threats in this scenario - the horror (and to a lesser extent, the damage) it deals, and the doom clock. While this is technically the case for almost all scenarios, The Pallid Mask applies pressure on both fronts in equal measure. Luckily, it does not apply much on either.

Out of the 30 cards encounter deck, 6 threaten to deal damage/horror directly. However, this is considerably less dangerous than the previous scenario, since damage and horror are applied equally instead of horror being focused (which we are more vulnerable to). As well, we are not at risk of taking horror from the agenda deck, and the enemies are more manageable.

The scenario has 9 non hunter enemies that can spawn on their own. Since the catacombs is an open area, we can often ignore these enemies. There are an additional 3 Corpse Dwellers which can only spawn if a humanoid enemy is already in play, but the open area plus our tendency to leave enemies behind means we usually have enough space to run away from Corpse Dwellers when they arrive.

However, plenty of other treacheries threaten to slow us down. Obscuring Fog and The Pit Below make it difficult to investigate our location, while Spirit's Torment forces us to lose action or suffer additional horror. The Shadow Behind You and Crypt Chill further attacks our resources directly, forcing us to lose resources, actions, cards, or assets. While the scenario has a generous 18 turn doom clock, the Specter of Death spawns after only 6 and can pose a large threat if we have not ventured far from the starting location or have a way to readily deal with it. So while we have enough time finish the scenario, we should keep pace with our investigations.

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

Even though we have 6xp to spend from the previous scenario, we are at the point in the campaign where we have all of our most important upgrades. That said, we can still take advantage of Adaptable and swap in a few cards useful for this specific scenario. The xp left over can also be spent in a few ways.

In:

1x Lockpicks (1xp): A good upgrade from Flashlight. We should pick this up first if we do not have the second copy yet.

2x Newspaper (0xp): This card does double duty in The Pallid Mask. Since we are spending our clues as we go, we often have 0 clues on hand, which makes Newspaper almost a permanent +2 while investigating. Also, it is a cheap asset we can pitch to Crypt Chill.

1x Backstab (0xp) -and- 1x Double or Nothing (0xp): These cards are half for this scenario and half preparation for Dim Carcosa. Backstab + Double or Nothing is the easiest we have to deal large chunks of damage to Hastur, and we must take care to have them available. For this scenario, a second copy of Backstab can deal with some static enemies and the Double or Nothing lets us get greedy and kill Specter of Death.

Out:

2x Flashlight: Between Newspaper and Lockpicks, we don't need another set of investigation tools.

2x Cherished Keepsake: While it deals some horror, this scenario does not pressure our sanity enough to keep Cherished Keepsake in our deck. Our Leo De Luca and Cat Burglar should give us more than enough horror buffer.

1x Think on Your Feet: A useful card if an enemy spawns on us when we already have the clues to proceed to the next location. Unfortunately, this situation just doesn't come up often enough for a second copy.

Stretch:

Like we've discussed in the previous chapter, we have several different directions we can go with our remaining xp:

Generic Upgrades:

Consistent, if somewhat boring, upgrades. This guide will continue assuming some of these upgrades are taken.

2x Leo De Luca 2x Leo De Luca (2xp)

2x Lucky! 2x Lucky! (4xp)

2x Emergency Cache 2x Emergency Cache (4xp)

We prioritize Lucky! over Emergency Cache because it is easier to find a situation where Lucky! would be useful than Emergency Cache.

Exile Package:

Very powerful but one-use. Notably, we will want to walk into Dim Carcosa with a full set of Exile cards, so any such cards not expended in this scenario will be saving us xp later.

2x Unexpected Courage 2x Stroke of Luck(4xp) -or- 2x A Test of Will (2xp):

1x Think on Your Feet -and- 1x Elusive 2x Flare (2xp):

The Key of Ys:

If we are packing Key of Ys from the previous scenario, now is a great time to pick up a second copy.

1x Newspaper 1x Key of Ys (5xp):

Even without additional upgrades, this is not a difficult scenario to overcome. It is perfectly reasonable to save some xp for future scenarios.

=================== [The Pallid Mask] ===================

Piloting through this scenario is relatively straight forward. As long as we keep pace with our investigations, enemies will seldom be a threat. With this in mind, we should mulligan for the following:

Lockpicks is our most important investigation tool, and Newspaper is a reasonable substitute.

Leo De Luca and Lone Wolf are always good played early. Lone Wolf is also a cheap asset to pitch to Crypt Chill.

A copy of Lucky! in our opening hand can smooth our first few turns. If upgraded, it also does so without setting us back in cards.

From here, there are 2 cadences we would follow, depending on which investigation tool we have access to. If we have neither, we should draw cards at our starting location while we look for one. Investigating without any aid is untenable.

If we have Lockpicks, we should aim to spend 1 action each turn investigating and another action moving. This leaves us with 1 action (2 with Leo De Luca) each turn to do our choice of taking resources, drawing cards, or playing other assets. When doing this, we should try to end our turn with a clue in hand. This allows us to easily escape from an enemy spawning on us with Think on Your Feet or Cat Burglar, and makes The Pit Below and Obscuring Fog much easier to handle. The exception to this rule is if our location actively hurts us like Well of Souls and Shivering Pools. As well, we may pause a turn at locations with 2 clues to clear it, especially if it has victory like Bone-Filled Caverns. When investigating the toughest locations, remember that we can use Fight or Flight to boost our investigation with Lockpicks.

Life is considerably harder if we have Newspaper instead. Nevertheless, we should be able to investigate The Gate to Hell with the +2 from Newspaper. Our top priority should be to get a clue on us so we can escape from enemies and other dangers. This means we'll probably spend our first turn playing Newspaper and investigating. Once we have a clue, we can move ahead to the next location. If the next location has a low shroud, we can spend a few actions investigating it. Otherwise, we can move back to The Gate to Hell and investigate there instead. Regardless, once we have a few locations open to run around in, we should be looking for our Lockpicks. So if we have spare actions, it's a good idea to be drawing cards.

If all goes well, we should be 3-4 locations away from our starting location when Specter of Death spawns. We should ignore it for the time being, but keep in mind we can defeat it easily with Will to Survive + Double or Nothing + Backstab. If we intend to claim its 2xp, we should take care to keep those cards in hand.

Once we reach Tomb of Shadows,The Man in the Pallid Mask will spawn and we will be faced with a choice for the next act. Here we should choose to spend 2 clues to advance as it gives us a chance to clear the Tomb of Shadows for its xp and get 2 marks under Chasing the Stranger in our campaign log. The 2 tally marks is important since it should bring us up to 6 marks for this campaign (2 from Curtain Call, 1 from Echoes of the Past, 1 from A Phantom of Truth, and 2 here). Having 6 tally marks saves us 1 doom at the start of Dim Carcosa.

Finally, we must find Blocked Passage, which should be easy once we've found Tomb of Shadows and are almost through the catacombs deck. Optionally, if we have enough time and resources, we can kill the Specter of Death with the combo described above. However, never do this if there is any uncertainty about being able to finish the scenario. 2xp is simply not worth the risk this late in the campaign.

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

In my tests, this deck was able to complete the scenario 5 out of 5 times, with 3xp, 5xp, 5xp, 6xp, and 7xp respectively before Charon's Obol. As is tradition for this guide, we will go forward assuming we've achieved the lowest xp out of my trials. This gives us a solid but not impressive 5xp for the following scenario after Charon's Obol.

~ Part 7: Black Stars Rise (Coming Soon) ~