October Horror Fest - 26/31 -Book Review - Wrath of N'kai - Josh Reynolds

Well, this was a fast read (to me) only a 4 sips and that was it. What to tell abou this...

In this story we follow Alessandra (the countess thief) as she is in her new quest to steal a mummy. Yeah.

After the first 40 or 50 pages this novel turns more mystery focus and only at some parts (very brief) it has something akin to Lovecraftian horror. I have to mention that the last 40 pages of the book are the real Lovecraftian lore (although a bit underachieve to be honest).

Of course there are mentions of the boardgames all over the place... be that be Silver Twilight Lodge; O'Bannon; same places in Arkham and several characters. The only one that really had any impact was Muldoon. (The police officer).

If you didn't play any kind of boardgames like Arkham Horror; Elder Sign, Eldritch Horror; New Arkham Horror 3edition; Arkham Horror LCG or Mansion of Madness (in all of these games the characters are the same - I cannot confirm in 100% for Mansion since it's the only one I didn't play) you will not be at lost. They don't focus heavily on those but give us hints to us that play like the beforementioned Muldoon; Harvey; Daisy Walker and small others that appear also in Lovecraft like Armitage.

It was not fast paced, bear in mind that this is more on board with Arkham Horror 3dition OR more LCG because Eldritch you go all over the world; Mansion of Madness it's always inside a mansion(or adjacents parts) and Elder Sign it's just a lite version with no plot. Just dice rolling.

Overall I enjoy it and will buy the next ones; to new people it would be a good read; but it's not the best lovecraftian horror story more... Whodunit? It's the term I believe for this..

October Horror Fest - 25/31 Book Review: Cthulhu Wars: In the Belly of the Beast - Ben Monroe

 Well, I bought this book and started reading right away. The reason is that I enjoy lovecraftian tales and since this was based on Cthulhu Wars I started to read and thought that this makes no sense being labed as Cthulhu Wars.

Cthulhu Wars is a game where 2 or more players battle for victory. Each faction has it's own weakness and strengths. I knew this could not be done since it would be impossible to make a book on Cthulhu perspective or other any other Old Ones... Well it could be done via the cultists but it would be hard. What I found was 9 tales, each one with 3/5 pages. Each page focused on one Faction available in Cthulhu Wars (interesting none was about Cthulhu). Each one is non-connected to the other.

In the other tale takes almost 300 pages and we follow three survivors in a post-apocalytic environment where several Old Ones come to be... Unfortunately the author doesn't spent that much time in this focusing on our 3 protagonists.  There are a couple of chapters dedicated to other beings (including Wendigo). But what disappoint me it was the lack of connection between the novel and Cthulhu Wars. There was no battles between old ones (although there were a couple of pages where we see some cultists fighting other faction.

But that was it...

I wrote this in when I was at 250 pages or so but in the last 40 pages there are some action between two Old Ones (Cthulhu vs Ithaqua) but it's so brief and just a note that it was insufficient for me.

It's a book that can be read very fast no doubt about it but bear in mind that it doesn't do justice to the Cthulhu Wars franchise. I would prefer a Planet Apocalpyse novel since it would be better suited because since the world is burning and daemons are appearing there are survivors and they are fighting. Novels could be written by it. Let us see... 

Beautiful cover

October Horror Fest - 12/31 Book Review: Best of Weird Tales

 I cannot give more than two stars because I didn't enjoy the majority of the stories.

Well, first of all I expect more on the vein of HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard or Clark Ashton Smith and the likes but true be told some didn't really hook me.

The only one that really go full Lovecraftian (an I am talking half-full) was Brian's Lumley story.

The best story by far was Tanith's Lee Death Dances. So much that I immediately grab some of her other titles and made into my to be read list (not now, but near future). As I read I was transported to Conan's world and my mind went full Sword and Sorcery.

The second best was Karl Edward Edgar. It seems he could not give up on Kane and now Kane is in London and a mystery/adventure stories unfolds. If you have read his fantasy stories and you want to visit Kane again go here.

Kudos also to Brunner and Ian R Macleod.

Then others were just plain boring like Gene Wolfe's , Harry Turtledove, Tad Williams etc... Maybe it was just me but they didn't captivate me.

Book Review: Cthulhu's Reign by Anthology

Cthulhu's Reign by Darrell Schweitzer
My rating: 4 of 10 stars

It all comes to... Meh!
Some of this stories are good but most are just average to poor.

Lovecraftian theme is about a cosmic horror that is looming over our heads but it's never fulfilled. It's like in those movies that say... "We escaped" and someones replies "For now...". Hopelessness of it all. The not understanding of what's happening and the toll on our usual main character because it's to impossible to bear and insanity takes hold.

Well with that said a book about Cthulhu winning and/or other old ones arrive to conquer our world is against the Lovecraftian theme. BUT I am not so closed minded so let us see... because after all...


I must say the best are the ones that stick to the theme. I am sorry but some of them are quite frankly too... unlovecraftian to my liking. Some of them if you would change the name of the beast/god or whatever is assailing our world to BLARGHT and it should suffice to enter another anthology of great beasts like Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous but I am afraid that they would be between the worse of the lot. I won't be reviewing them all because as I said they are not that good.

"Walker in the Cemetery" by Ian Watson is one of the best of the lot. It has lovecraftian theme and the ending was good (it means it ends badly as most stories within). I enjoy the plot and as they thought that the CERN could be involved in it.

"Spherical Trigonometry" by Japanese writer Ken Asamatsu - This was one odd tale that ended... well even poorly than the tale itself. Angles or curves. This tale idea is from Frank Belknap Long that said that Tindalos come from angles and humankind comes from curves. So what better way to escape them? Built a curve house where everything has curves and not angles. Good idea but not so good execution.

Will Murry - "What brings the void" is a good tale in its own. Shub-Nigurath machines are burning humans. But Why? A man sets his mind to discover (a supposedly govermnent guy). The ending was good. The talking between the being and the human was... not so interesting. Why would Shub talk to him? We are not even rats but parasites infestnig a world. That's why most these stories failed to achieve what lovecraft created. We are worms. We don't talk to worms do we? We barely acknoledge they exist. But okay story nevertheless.

"The new Pauline Corpus" by Matt Cardin is a good theolgican piece of fiction about Christianity and Cthulhu. After all Christ was Cthulhu? Is Jerusalem R'lyeh?

Ghost Dancing by Darrell Schweitzer is another of those tales that make you think how humankind would process with the information about the coming of an unspeakable evil.

The Seals of new R'lyeh by Gregory Frost is good tale with a good twist in the end.

Now we arrive at the best tale of the lot. Brian Stableford's The Holocaust of Ecstasy is very good lovecraftian tale. He is one of my favourite writers out there and once again it prooves why. It's almost a theological / biological debate about the coming of Cthulhu.

But believe me when I say... there are a lot of good anthologies out there. These themed theme was a fiasco in my opinion. The idea behind of lovecraft is what we all know. I am sorry but this anthology didn't convinced. Most stories were simple and futile. Even some that I mention above are weak. I only mention because if I had not I would have a review with two or three tales.

In my opinion - Lovecraft wouldn't have enjoy this anthology.

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Book Review: Cthulhu's Dark Cults - Anthology

Cthulhu's Dark Cults by David Conyers
My rating: 7 of 10 stars

After reading Cthulhu's Dark Cults my interest in Lovecraftian horror changed... Before all I must say that Lovecraftian Horror is my favourite type/kind of horror. With other kinds of horror you feel fright, disgust but in the end, most of the times it ends well. And most of the time our "hero" surpasses everything with nothing but scratches and such.

In lovecraftian horror there is a sense of hopelessness and something more great than our puny little lives. It's a cosmic reality that transcends everything and we cannot thwart it.

Now for the the stories.

The Eternal Chinaman by John Sunseri 4/5
Location: San Francisco 1920
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult/Characters: Dagon and Lang-Fu
Cthulhu's Mythos: The manuscripts of Alhazred and Sharinza; Liver of Nephren-Ka (The reason that Gomorrah and Pompeii were destroyed)
Favourite phrase: "You can die," said Lang-Fu plainly. "I cannot".

Synopsis: In this first story we follow the story of an italian that has been traveling/working around the world and now just wants some fun in his hometown. Coincidentally he meets his cousin, a magician, that needs a bodyguard for one day because he is being threatened by some Chinese that want something he have.

The story unfolds and we meet another side of San Francisco. The bar of Mama Tropos, the chase and the final show of the Magician. I would be interested in reading more of Lang-Fu and Mama Tropos. Unfortunately it failed to deliver an horror element.


Captains of Industry by John Goodrich 2/5
Location: Boston 1921
Perspective: Third Person
Evil Cult/Characters: Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight, Carl Stanford and John Scott
Cthulhu's Mythos: Mention of some books on the stands.

Synopsis: One thing I must say. Goodrich really capture the feeling of the strikes and the trade unions. I didn't enjoy much of this story. János and Dimitri were good characters nevertheless


Perfect Skin by David Witteveen 3/5
Location: Instabul, Turkey 1922
Perspective: Third Person
Evil Cult/Characters: Brotherhood of the Skin
Cthulhu's Mythos: This tale is told in the third person view and for that it failed to achieve one of the fundamentals, in my opinion, of lovecraftian horror. The story itself could have been written outside the Lovecraft Mythos after changing one or references.

Favourite phrase: "Her eyes... her eyes were black now. Not blue. Phelps touched her face. The skin is loose, like a mask made of flesh. Then she

Synopsis: There's some cult that after skins/flay someone and uses the skin to his own machinations. The ending was the best part but it could be only a horror story. Phelps was a good character. I think this story could have been written differently from his own perspective.


Covenant of Darkness by William Jones 4/5
Location: New York 1923
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult: Ghouls
Cthulhu's Mythos: This short story connects with a book written by the same author "The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson".
Favourite phrase: "Right or wrong are becoming difficult for me to distinguish of late." / "We see what we want to see," I opined.

Synopsis: This story had a noir setting in my opinion and probably one of the best even if a bit short. A policeman (Leahy) and a professor (Miss Gabriel) have an encounter from a pack of deformed beings (ghouls) that want something back. Here again we have the feeling that there is something out there but it's best not to reveal to the public.

The Whisper of Ancient Secrets by Penelope Love 2/5
Location: Buchan, Victoria, Australia 1925
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult/Characters: Cult of the Sand Bat / Robert Huston
Cthulhu's Mythos: Some references like Haunter of the Dark and some ramblings in the language of the old gods.
Favourite phrase: "I feel rather shaken. I think I might made a mistake."

Synopsis:
This was a confusing story about a troubled inventor who wants to go the Mad Court and the only way to reach it's through the intercession of the Haunter of the Dark. I am afraid I couldn't understand most of the story. It felt really confusing. I won't rate it for it.

Old Ghost by Peter A Worthy 2/5
Location: Shangai, 1926
Perspective: First Person (Letters)
Evil Cult/Characters: Order of the Bloated Woman / Ho Fong
Cthulhu's Mythos:
Favourite phrase: "Goodbye, my friend. You have done your kaptein proud. I'll carry the torch from here. We won't meet again this side of Heaven."

Synopsis: A nice mystery tale about a man who is going to Shangai to live after the dead of his love one (the person who he is writing letters). Interesting tale that really flow but unfortunally I didn't understood the ending.

The Nature of Faith by Oscar Rios 3/5
Location: Dunwich 1927
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult /Characters: Not so evil Believers / Mother Bishop.
Cthulhu's Mythos:
Favourite phrase: "Faith, my dear professor Malcolm, is belief without proof." She smiled. " Ya can't prove love exists, but it does. Ya know such a thing. Ya feel it with every bit of your soul. Come to think of it, ya can't really prove there's a soul either. Et's all a matter of faith."

Synopsis: An history professor comes across a Manx (celtic) coin that appears to be coined in the New World. He traces it back to Dunwich. Interesting tale, Gerdy was a good character, the only one that I enjoy for that matter. The ending had a good revelation, worth the reading.

The Devil's Diamonds by Cody Goodfellows 2/5
Location: Galla Tribal lands Kenya 1930
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult /Characters: Cult of the Bloody Tongue / Nyarlathotep
Favourite phrase:

Synopsis:
I really couldn't connect with this tale. It's about a diamond mine that his being held hostage from a cult who plans to summon their god. When you think that's over thing again. Okay tale.


Requiem for the Burning God by Shane Jiraiya Cummings 1/5
Location: Calhao, Peru 1932
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult/Characters: New World Industries
Favourite phrase: "... waiting with the patience of aeons to be picked up and played once again."

Synopsis:
Like the previous one but with a couple of differences. It is a bigger tale but not so much interesting. I really skip parts. At times I really think that this story went nowhere. The ending was the best part... because it ended.

Sister of the Sands by David Conyers 5/5
Location: White Desert, Egypt 1933
Perspective: First Person
Evil Cult / Characters: Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh / Omar Shakti.
Cthulhu's Mythos: Masked Messenger. Black Pharaoh is know by many names. The eternal Chinaman calls him Nephren-Ka, Turkey he is the Skinless one, Kenya is Bloated Tongue, Morroco is Masked Messenger or in Congo is Spiraling Worm and Australia is Sand Bat or aka Nyarlathotep (page229)
Favourite phrase: (Explaining love to woman, the child of the Masked Messenger) "At these words the black cat leapt from my arms, disappearing off my balcony into a tree, and was gone. "Why did it do that?" - I shrugged. "He'll be back. Part of loving someone, is allowing them to be themselves."

Synopsis:
The best tale no doubt. Interconnected with almost every tale but mostly with Perfect Skin. The beginning, the quest, the mystery and mainly the pseudo-history lesson about the mythos was great.


Overall, besides a couple of stories I learn didn't enjoy. First of all, the lovecraftian tales of horror must be told in the first person perspective (in my opinion of course) and second some of them didn't had neither horror or that eerie feeling Lovecraft had. Inevitable doom was not upon me.

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Book Review: The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper

The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper
My rating: 1 of 10 stars

I will give one star because the book is funny at times, but everything else is plain ridicoulous. the main character is a pervert, adventurous, mind-scarred individual who saved a lesbiam female fbi agent from a coven/sonority of vampires and together they are trying to thwart the plans of a group of Cthulhu's cultists. So far so good... from this moment the book went downhill to pure cr*p. 

SPOILER ALERT all characters are comedians. all characters are fervously against every type of descrimination. the author also think that too. Every white character is like a racist or behave like a black... and descrimate womans. 

Conservators are also christians fanatics and so on and on... each page a description of someone being a white supremacist (inclunding HP Lovecraft... hahaha.. another times another mentalities.. this writer probably is one of those that wanted hucklebarry finn banned from schools BUT are of favour of a Black History Month. This is why the minorities will never grow up or evolve. 

They are only saying to everyone "you can't stand on your own so let us give you this..." Moving forward on the writer political and racial agenda. The rest of the story is boring and it seems to be written by a college boy/girl. The funny parts continue but that. didnt help. The best part is when he was in Ryleh and the meaning of time there.

I would advice this book to a political communist with an interest on Lovecraft... but being a "racist" probably wont help... Or else I am mistaken and this entire book is a weak pastiche/satyrical book about hp lovecraft himself... 

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Book Review: The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
My rating: 6 of 10 stars

This is a hard book to give a rating.

There are more things that made me wanna stop the book than to continue. But I stand firm and continue my path unfortunally the last two stories were too much for me. I read and skipped several paragraphs at time because it was too damn boring without any purpose or interest. But there are some cool stories.

First of all, if you would like to try reading Robert W Chambers start with the first four short stories/novellas. These are the beginning of Weird Fiction as later Lord Dunsany, HP Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson, Robert E Howard, Arthur Mchen or Clark Ashton Smith made it so popular.

That's no coincidence that HP Lovecraft used some elements in it's Mythos and he said about Robert Chambers:

"Very genuine, though not without the typical mannered extravagance of the eighteen-nineties, is the strain of horror in the early work of Robert W. Chambers, since renowned for products of a very different quality. The King in Yellow, a series of vaguely connected short stories having as a background a monstrous and suppressed book whose perusal brings fright, madness, and spectral tragedy, really achieves notable heights of cosmic fear in spite of uneven interest and a somewhat trivial and affected cultivation of the Gallic studio atmosphere made popular by Du Maurier’s Trilby. The most powerful of its tales, perhaps, is "The Yellow Sign," in which is introduced a silent and terrible churchyard watchman with a face like a puffy grave-worm's. A boy, describing a tussle he has had with this creature, shivers and sickens as he relates a certain detail. "Well, sir, it's Gawd's truth that when I 'it 'im 'e grabbed me wrists, sir, and when I twisted 'is soft, mushy fist one of 'is fingers come off in me 'and." An artist, who after seeing him has shared with another a strange dream of a nocturnal hearse, is shocked by the voice with which the watchman accosts him. The fellow emits a muttering sound that fills the head like thick oily smoke from a fat-rendering vat or an odour of noisome decay. What he mumbles is merely this: "Have you found the Yellow Sign?"
A weirdly hieroglyphed onyx talisman, picked up in the street by the sharer of his dream, is shortly given the artist; and after stumbling queerly upon the hellish and forbidden book of horrors the two learn, among other hideous things which no sane mortal should know, that this talisman is indeed the nameless Yellow Sign handed down from the accursed cult of Hastur—from primordial Carcosa, whereof the volume treats, and some nightmare memory of which seems to lurk latent and ominous at the back of all men's minds. Soon they hear the rumbling of the black-plumed hearse driven by the flabby and corpse-faced watchman. He enters the night-shrouded house in quest of the Yellow Sign, all bolts and bars rotting at his touch. And when the people rush in, drawn by a scream that no human throat could utter, they find three forms on the floor—two dead and one dying. One of the dead shapes is far gone in decay. It is the churchyard watchman, and the doctor exclaims, "That man must have been dead for months." It is worth observing that the author derives most of the names and allusions connected with his eldritch land of primal memory from the tales of Ambrose Bierce. Other early works of Mr. Chambers displaying the outré and macabre element are The Maker of Moons and In Search of the Unknown. One cannot help regretting that he did not further develop a vein in which he could so easily have become a recognised master."

In my opinion, the four first stories are excelent linked horror stories as Lovecraft said before. The rest are not that interesting nowadays. To me they are boring(with the exception of The Demoiselle d'Ys).

Imagine this to understand what I think of the stories.... A man is walking and finds a woman in a house where he talks with her. As the day/night advances he fell in love with her but it's late he got to get home and promise to return (At least five or six pages of talks/images and such). As he passes a church he talks to a priest and the priest says that there is no-one alive in that house. It existed a family there but they died "insert method of choice". The man frights himself and died. The end. In my experience this is the typical gothic story.

There are similar story arcs in epic fantasy. A boy (usually), orphan, is found by a powerful magician/knight/seer or such and says that he is destiny to save the world/country/woman from a powerful evil, that no-one can defeat. But this boy who had no training in magic/war turns to a warleader/best magician, and fights an undefeated evil lord/magician and lives to tell the tale, unscathed. He and his powerful, beautiful, amazing wife.

Oh well, I am getting sidetracked here.

Review

So, the four stories are linked to a book called The King in Yellow (try imagining Necronomicon). There exists also a powerful evil entity and a terrible Yellow Sign. Two of the stories are in a nearby alternative future America (Circus 1920) and two other stories are set in Paris.

The first story "The Repairer of Reputations" Hildred, our main character in the first tale is one of the first attempts of an unnreliable narrator and as the story progress we get hints that he is delusional and had a broken mind. And this is what interests me, because the plot itself is not important. He thinks that he is the last Heir to the The Imperial Dynasty of America but his cousin is the way.

The main protagonist reads a book called The King In Yellow, which is represented as a universally censored play which deeply disturbs him. This supposedly book makes people going insane and noone can read from end to end. It's legal and exist the Government Lethal Chambers in each city, were people can commit suicide, after reading part of this play.

The second story The Mask is also connected to the first (the damned book and the land of Carcossa) and its straightforward with 10 pages. Maybe Yeovil Genevieve comes from this tale.

In the Court of the Dragon is a fast paced story about a man who has been followed by an church organ player. As he tries to escape through Paris he awakes in the church all began. Suddendly it seems, a dream upon a dream, he awakes in Carcossa dying... "And now I heard his voice, rising, swelling, thundering through the flaring light, and as I fell, the radiance increasing, increasing, poured over me in waves of flame. Then I sank into the depths, and I heard the King in Yellow whispering to my soul: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!"

The Yellow Sign is the last tale and what a tale it is. A tale about a painter and his muse. As the story progress we see the interaction between those two characters and a man by the churchyard that spooks them. As she gives him something she discovers (the Yellow sign) it seems that all come to light...

"I am sure I wished to do so, but Tessie pleaded with me in vain. Night fell and the hours dragged on, but still we murmured to each other of the King and the Pallid Mask, and midnight sounded from the misty spires in the fog-wrapped city. We spoke of Hastur and of Cassilda, while outside the fog rolled against the blank window-panes as the cloud waves roll and break on the shores of Hali. The house was very silent now and not a sound from the misty streets broke the silence. Tessie lay among the cushions, her face a gray blot in the gloom, but her hands were clasped in mine and I knew that she knew and read my thoughts as I read hers, for we had understood the mystery of the Hyades and the Phantom of Truth was laid.Then as we answered each other, swiftly, silently, thought on thought, the shadows stirred in the gloom about us, and far in the distant streets we heard a sound. Nearer and nearer it came, the dull crunching of wheels, nearer, nearer and yet nearer, and now, outside the door it ceased, and I dragged myself to the window and saw a black-plumed hearse. The gate below opened and shut, and I crept shaking to my door and bolted it, but I knew no bolts, no locks, could keep that creature out who was coming for the Yellow Sign. And now I heard him moving very softly along the hall. Now he was at the door, and the bolts rotted at his touch. Now he had entered. With eyes starting from my head I peered into the darkness, but when he came into the room I did not see him. It was only when I felt him envelop me in his cold soft grasp that I cried out and struggled with deadly fury,but my hands were useless and he tore the onyx clasp from my coat and struck me full in the face.Then,as I fell,I heard Tessie's soft cry and her spirit fled to God,and even while falling I longed to follow her,for I knew that the King in Yellow had opened his tattered mantle and there was only Christ to cry. I could tell more, but I cannot see what help it will be to the world. As for me I am past human help or hope. As I lie here, writing, careless even whether or not I die before I finish, I can see the doctor gathering up his powders and phials with a vague gesture to the good priest beside me, which I understand."


Conclusion
The four first stories are worthwhile but the rest are not that good. They are romantic stories with some supernatural/horror elements... IF you can call that horror. Since all these stories are free try reading them for yourselves. If you enjoy weird fiction, lovecraft and the rest of the gang try reading them. As I said, the book "Necronomicon" was based on "King of Yellow" no doubt about it.

Now an excerpt from it...
Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!

He mentioned the establishment of the Dynasty in Carcosa, the lakes which connected Hastur, Aldebaran and the mystery of the Hyades. He spoke of Cassilda and Camilla, and sounded the cloudy depths of Demhe, and the Lake of Hali. "The scolloped tatters of the King in Yellow must hide Yhtill forever," he muttered, but I do not believe Vance heard him. Then by degrees he led Vance along the ramifications of the Imperial family, to Uoht and Thale, from Naotalba and Phantom of Truth, to Aldones, and then tossing aside his manuscript and notes, he began the wonderful story of the Last King.

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Shadows of Brimstone: Playthrough 2 - Chronicles of Jurgen West & Herbert Herring

Chronicles of Jurgen West & Herbert Herring

As Jurgen and Herbert arrive at the city they saw some of the buildings destroyed. As they went to the Salloon several faces throughout the town turn to them in surprise. In there the salloon girl Jane embraced Jurgen and asked where have they been. All other heads turn to face them. Jurgen and Herbert told her that they had been on the mines and they had battle strange beings and even collected several of the dark stones. When Jane ask them why they had been out for a fortnight they were shocked. 

"We left yesterday in the morning." said Jurgen "I said fairwell to you. Don't you remember?"
"Yes I remember" said Jane " but it was not yesterday. It was two weeks ago."
"That can be true" interrupted Herbert.
"Everybody here knows that to be true Jurg. It was a fortnight that you left... what happened to you?"
"I... I don't know." 



"Maybe I can help." said a voice coming from the darkness of the Saloon. A tall indian with a great axe came forward.
"And who might you be friend?" said Jurgen

"He is Lane the Tracker" interrupted Jane. "He came about ten days ago with a warning. He and his friend Juanito, a mexican, came to warn us that something strange was happening. Several towns had been destroy and the trail lead back to Brimstone. We didn't believe him in the begining but some people took precautions and that's what save us. The beasts attack us. They weren't wolves or coyotes but beasts from hell. Some had more than two arms and others had shells that protect them from shots. But we hold our ground. If it wasn't for Lane, Juanito and the Gunslinger we would all be dead. His marksmanship was flawless."
" Gunslinger?" ask Herbert"
"Yes It is I Herring."

Herbert Herring took out his shotgun and point it to the Gunslinger. 
"At long last I found you"
"No. I found you." Said the gunslinger cockily.
"What are you doing" Ask Jane "He help us. If it wasn't for him we would all be dead"
"I don't care. I've been searching for him for two years. Pass every town from the east coast through here." he step closer to the gunslinger
"I won't you do that" said Jane vehemently stepping and putting her between the US Marshall and the Gunslinger.
"Neither will I" said another voice in the crowd
"Or I" said several other voices.

Herbert Herring stop moving towards the Gunslinger and address the people.
"He is a fugitive and a killer and I am US Marshall sent to capture and judge him. That is the law."

Some people voice their opinion that the Gunslinger help them and it was wrong for him to arrested him now. Herbert knowing he was outnumbered and outgunned withdrawn but vow to the Gunslinger he would still be captured when all of this was over. The Gunslinger just smiled. His dark cloak and hair blending with the darkness of the saloon.

The Indian then told them that he had heard stories of people being on places and for them only a day had passed but it was far longer to the rest of the world. He gave to both the Lawman and the US Marshall some trinkets from his tribe that would prevent that to happen. He had given as well to the Gunslinger, the Mexican and to the saloon girl.

They also learn that a lot had changed and they head to the frontier post where they sold the dark stone because some wanderer was buying them and he warn them that they should carry many of the stones because it could corrupt and mutate them. 

They purchase one pickaxe and a cavalry sabre and they went again to the mines to solve what was happening. The indian said that there was a ancient being that his tribe called The Darkness. It was trap there but the miners had free it. He also said that heir minds twist the information they had previously so every time they went to the mines it would feel that the layout of the mine had change. He also said that sometimes portal open and could lead them to other worlds...

Shadows of Brimstone: Playthrough 1 - Chronicles of Jurgen West & Herbert Herring

Chronicles of Jurgen West & Herbert Herring

The first time I knew about Jurgen and Herbert was in the Town of Brimstone. They were the Law and Order of that small town. One was a Lawman and the other was a passing US Marshall. They were both investigating on strange things happening around the new city of Brimstone. It all began after some miners disappeared.

Jurgen and Herbert went to the mines to investigate what was happening. One of the oldest miner was outside and told them that the problem had began after they encountered some strange minerals. Beasts appear from out of nowhere shortly after they vanish in smoke. Some miners disappear there was no way out. Jurgen, the lawman asked why he wasn't informed and the miners shrugged saying that life in the mines of west were pretty cheap. Some chinese or indians were of no importance to anyone. Even other people leaving wasn't that strange. There were no contracts and people work and were pay per day, per work.

They had request and some people had appeared and left in fright. First was a priest to bless the mine and vanish the demons but to no avail. Then they had request the help of other people but none appear.

Jurgen cocked his pistol and Herbert unslung his shotgun and entered the mines...

They traveled through the mines shoulder to shoulder. Jurgen with only a peacemaker pistol had a lantern and herbert was protecting with his shotgun. One thing they start to feel after the light from the entryway dissapear was that something was there with them. Something ominous was messing with their heads and senses. Eerie light was coming from some passages just to find nothing... There was strange sounds indeed.

Stranglers

Night Terrors

The first thing that ambush them was some strange tentacles coming out from the ground. Neither of them had fighting nothing like it. They suffered but banished them. Just after kiling them and trying to get their wits together undead appear. Some of them were miners some were Indians and other skeleton with no discernible cloth. They both were very shaken by them but they were slow. But it seems the US Marshall Herbert was not so shaken and kill most of them.

After discovering some of the strange stones that they amassed to get to the city they met something they were not able to tell afterwards. Something from the dark - bluish thing that was akin to what the indians called a Windigo. But that was not all. Something that afterwards they would called stranglers attack them. Stranglers because they had two arms as a human but also two other things that would grab them. Their mouth was huge fill of teeth. There was also two beasts akin to crab but with two big claws they later called Slashers. 

After some cuts and bruises they shot them all. Afterwards they left the town but to find something strange had happened. It seems that
they were on the mines for only a day but the town of Brimstone had been attacked...

Arkham Horror vs Eldritch Horror - Part 3 - Ancient Ones & Winning Methods

So, part three of this review...

So, how to win against a old one in Arkham Horror?

Well there are a couple of ways
First - Seal 6 Gates - This is most "easy" way; but with the expansion Lurker in the Threshold it is a bit more difficult due to the bursts of gates
Second - Banish the Ancient One - Or as to say, you fight the old one after he has awaken and defeat him. This is hard as steel....
Third - Close the Gates - This one means that you've closed or seal every gate on the board and the number of gate throphies are equal or greater than the number of the investigators. This is not an easy condition because if you do not seal them another gate can open on the same spot. So...
Fourth - For the greater good (unique item of the Dunwich expansion) - In this task you must go to the Abyss (2nd Area); Yuggoth (2nd Area); The Dreamlands (2nd Area) and R'lyeh (2nd Area) and sacrifice in each one 4 clue tokens. If you achieve this task you are devoured but all investigators win the game (including you) - I watch some excel with games played by people (boardgamegeek) and in 13416 games submitted this happend 10 times so as you can see it is not that easy or possible.

Now about losing conditions?
Final combat - This is the more common one... You fight the ancient one and die... We shall talk about this a bit more about combat the ancient one..
King in Yellow Act III - When you play with the expansion cards from King in Yellow you can die if you have drawn the third Act. There is no battle nothing. You die!
Shudde M'ell - When you battle this ancient one (dunwich horror) he as a power that says that everytime a monster surge occurs you draw a rubble token and it's put on that location closing it for the duration of the game. When you drawn 7 rubble (everyone of them) you lose.
Joining the Winning Team - Well this is one of the most interesting ways to win(lose) the game...
So, this is a mission where  you must go to St Mary Hospital; Arkham Asylum; South Church and Lost in time and Space and sacrifice 1 ally in each location... If you do that you win the game and everybody else loses. Suffice to say in the 13416 games played only 11 bastards done it.

Every one of them is different and that's the reason I really enjoy the game. Btw, as a curiosity the most played is Nyarlathotep, Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth. The least played is Daoloth (I think it was a free card) and from the 24 old ones is Rhan-Tegoth and Atlach-Nacha and Cthugha.

The Hardest one and Easiest one... 
I never played against them all but from the same site look at this...
This graphic is to percentage of lost games against a particular ancient one

Atlach-Nacha	49%
Zhar	49%
Rhan-Tegoth	47%
Cthulhu (Arkham Nights)	42%
Abhoth	41%
Yibb-Tstll	41%
Chaugnar Faugn	41%
Quachil Uttaus	40%
Tsathoggua	40%
Yog-Sothoth	40%

...

Shub-Niggurath	29%
Azathoth	28%
Hastur	27%
Yig	24%
Nyarlathotep	21%
Ithaqua	19%

This graphic is to percentage of lost games when fighting an old one...

Ancient One	Lose
Azathoth	100%
Tsathoggua	98%
Quachil Uttaus	96%
Cthugha	94%
Chaugnar Faugn	91%
Zhar	91%
Hastur (Arkham Nights)	89%
Yog-Sothoth	89%
Cthulhu	86%
Ghatanothoa	86%
Yibb-Tstll	82%
Eihort	82%
Nyogtha	78%
Y'Golonac	77%
Atlach-Nacha	77%
Daoloth	76%
Rhan-Tegoth	72%
Shub-Niggurath	68%
Abhoth	67%
Bokrug	62%
Glaaki	60%
Shudde M'ell	59%
Yig (Arkham Nights)	58%
Hastur	46%
Nyarlathotep	42%
Ithaqua	38%
Yig	37%

Well, Azathoth is impossible to win if you fight him (basicaly there is no fight you lose). And as you can see fighting an old one is not easy. Half of them have a percentage of over 80%. Tsathoggua is 98%... DAMN... So what's so hard about him you ask? Well... 

So lets start of how to defeat an old one.. This particular old one has 13 on the doom track so for each investigator you have to have one success. So if you are playing with four investgators you have to deal 13*4 .... so as you can see it's not good... But let imagine we have to fight him.

First of all we lose all clues - so no rerolls. OK that's not hard. Then I attack and deals some wounds... Then he attacks.. and how does he attack?

I have to discard 2 monster trophies and 1 gate trophy! Each one!!

So, in normal games of cooperation one investigator is good to close gates and others are good to buy and help others, some are good at killing monsters
and so on. And the gates and monster trophies are very useful to gain allies, becoming bless, clues and so on.

Thank you for existing in your life! Praise Cthulhu!

So as you can see - to fight this beast we have to change the gameplay. Well first we try to seal the gates but sometimes you know, you have the feeling that you are not going to do it, so you change your tactic and start amassing weapons, spells and clues to battle the ancient one. With this one you don't do that but you focus on killing monsters and closing gates. 

Lets talk about two other ancient ones... Ithaqua (one of the "easiest" ones with 37% losing probability) and Cthulhu with 86%

Cthulhu - In this case as you atta ck  you must lower the maximum sanity or stamina by one. After he attacks 1 doom token is placed in back. So, basicaly you battling with 4 investigators. Total you did 7 damage. You remove one doom token and the other one is one success away to being remove. After he attacks he receives his doom token so this turn was useless to the investagors. Ah, about sanity and stamina loss. Each investigator starts with some stamina (per exemple 3) and  sanity (per example 7) so each investigator is losing one this per turn... This is not that hard but combining with his regenaration is pretty hard. Ah don't forget that your investigator starts the game with less 1 stamina and 1 sanity so, that example should be 2 stamina and 6 sanity. It's hard, believe me. Now about Ithaqua, one of the easiest ones..

So this guy steals your items in the beginning of the battle. Imagine you have two weapons, you have to roll a die for each one so if you are unlucky you may lose everything.. But how does it attack. Each investigator must pass a fight (+1) check or lose two stamina. Each turn this decrease one. So, second turn it's a fight check (0) then fight check (-1). So imagine you have a fight check of 4 and that weapon you had was stolen... First turn you attack with 2 dice 4+1-3. The second turn you attack with one die and then you are taking damage until you lose. If you didn't lost that might weapon you may begin with 7 attacks, then 6 and so on... But this guy has a life of 11. So unless you have something you are going to lose the game. And this guy is the easiest eheh

Now what about Eldritch Horror

Well, as you know I only have the main game and with four investigators they made them pretty the same. As I said - you only have two winning conditions. Either solve all three mysteries before the doom track gets to zero or after the old one awakes defeat him and I don't think it's that hard to solve the mysteries. In all my games only Shub-Niggurath have awaken (and I lost). And one of the things they should fix in the expansions (don't know if they did); each old one has only four mysteries and eight encounter cards unique to each one. This made me a little upset because after playing against them all I knew 3/4 of the cards. So after playing two games I will know every card which is kind of stupid. BUT  I must say that each mystery is the same. collect some clue tokens and put it on the card (the way to adquire the clues is the only thing that changes).

So guess which one I prefer?

Well I don't know how to answer that. For once I like that I have 24 ancient ones and each one has a battle and conditions that differ from other. Against X ancient one I must do Y but against W that won't work. And that's nice. In eldrich those clues and mystery cards unique to those ancient ones are a sure delight that give me more thematic feel but after playing two games against an old one it's been spoiled...