SSSSSS: DTTF The Return to Carcosa competition. September 19

Actual title: Studious Scholar Skims Secrets of Script Surreptitiously = SSSSSS

Note: this deck was built for the Drawn to the Flame competition September 2019, where the card pool was limited to the Core Set, The Path to Carcosa, The Return to The Path to Carcosa and The Circle Undone cycles. It was created before Taboo list 2019/09/27 which does take it to 40exp.

Totem Recall

Minh re-positioned her glasses with a concerted effort. In front of her was the relic her professor had recovered from one if his digs. It looked like some malformed rock-candy wrapped in crow feathers. Grasping it seemed to restrain the veil of tiredness, like a good cup of Colombian ground. Once held she found it difficult to release her grip, not that it was sticky, just her fingers needed some effort to let it go. Out of habit, force of will or perhaps curiosity, she tapped the relic, testing the odd link it seemed to require from her.

Before he'd disappeared she would never have believed the amount of junk the professor had squirrelled away. Along with the King In Yellow, the totem was the only object that seemed to haunt her day and night. In some ways this warped stick helped distract from that damnable book. After her professor had disappeared the book had pretty much consumed her. With effort brought on by desperation she had regained some semi-balance of will, enough to look for clues elsewhere than those alluring pages.

Focusing on the totem had brought further discoveries. After several days in its proximity, the hand of the spectre appeared. She'd thought her glasses were smeared or misted at first, but even without them, the hand remained, just resting ephemeral on her shoulder, linked to something unknowable behind her. Once she accepted it as an actual experience, however logically she could reason at this point, she noted how the pressure on her shoulder would change, ever so lightly depending on the focus of her attention.

Becoming accustomed to the embrace, it became clear the pressure was related to suggestion, guiding her thoughts as if she were aligning to some kind of magnetic field. Following the pressure ultimately led her to dust off an old fingerprint kit burred under papers and other paraphernalia in the professors expedition supplies.

So it came back to the totem. As Minh dusted it for prints without even thinking, the tremor in her hands betrayed her exhaustion. She was sure with just a bit more effort she could glimpse the answer, but for now she would have to get some sleep.

Morning brought irritating birds song to her hiding place in the dark back-office. With renewed vigour, she made contact with Mr 'Rook', a dealer in blackmarket secrets. She was sure he could trace the prints at least.

"Ah Minh Thi Phan, a pleasure as always!" He eyed her satchel with a uncomfortable hunger. "Still carrying the professors book around? I'm sure I could take that off your hands; it seems to be weighing you down somewhat"

"Just give me what I need and I'll get out of here Rook, the book is too dangerous to leave my side" With effort she changed the subject, but he had a soft spot for her she knew. She passed him the prints "Can you find out whose these belong to?"

"Of course, of course my damsel in distress" His eyebrows seemed to semaphore his desire to ask more as he took them from her gingerly. Minh's expectant silence left him noticeably crestfallen. "When do you need them?"

"Call me as soon as you know more" She turned to leave half exiting the doorway before leaning back in. She flashed the frowning man a smile that made her look like a school girl again. "And thank you Rookie!" He waved her off grinning despite still feeling the pang of her cold shoulder of moments ago. He worried for her as he looked at the prints. 'Not her usual remit' he thought, she must be drawing thin.

Rook and Minh had been close before, plutonic perhaps. They shared a love, although not purposefully directed at each other, of mystery. They also had a knack of solving each others problems. More than once the efforts of Minh had helped him crack a case or two and he of all people had to keep up to return the favours. He had never expected her to be as resourceful and courageous as she was. Were Arkham a different place, were her time not consumed by that accursed play she carried everywhere, perhaps there might be more they could share. A fleeting thought.

The next morning Minh found an envelope under her door. Rook had been faster than usual, worryingly efficient that man. He didn't call her despite her request. The prints belonged to one Virgil Gray, an occult author Minh had ignored for the best part of a decade, suspiciously under the advice of her very own professor. The hand on her shoulder became firmer as she thought this and she new then Virgil Gray had to be found. Grasping the totem she called forth each memory she could of that horrid Mr Gray.... she saw him with a shovel and a lantern, descending a flight of stairs. The path!

Minh re-positioned her glasses with a concerted effort. In front of her was the relic her professor had recovered from one if his digs.

Afterword

So this deck started off as a "what would Minh look like with the card pool restricted for the competition?" with a view to making her playable. Then it switched focus to lets just make sure she can deal with The King in Yellow. This involved picking double icons where available, taking some juicy triple icons and having a nice spread of abilities. The Grisly Totem is a natural fit for her to do this, plus Studious and Curiosity gives her such a strong opening hand. The draw tech here is perhaps over the top but I figure Minh is just going to throw cards all over the place and draw like a beast. While not tested I think this covers my remit of dealing with the The King in Yellow almost whenever she likes, especially with the aid of Mr. "Rook".

The story formed naturally out of the deck, and I felt the fingerprint kit needed to be added in the first instance for the story, but in the second because of the synergy with Act of Desperation.

Cards out of the competition pool that would certainly be making their way into this deck include Charisma or possibly Death • XIII instead of the Guiding Spirit. Changes would likely lean more on cards that react to draw effects, namely Ancient Stone and its upgrades (swapping them in for the lanterns and shovels.) Other family favourites include Deduction and Inquiring Mind that are arguably at home in any seeker deck.

Also the random weakness... I swear blind I didn't choose that one, and it was selected randomly after I finished the story!