This is the deck I piloted through The Circle Undone on Drawn to the Flame, a podcast for fans of Arkham Horror. My live play series, entitled Think on your Feet, has me play through a campaign, talking through my piloting decisions and upgrade choices. This is the final deck, with 10xp to spare after wrestling with Before the Black Throne. For this series, I also introduced 'Think on our Feet', in which patrons of the cast used the same deck and played the same scenarios. We tabulated the results to track how Norman plays against the same scenarios with different pilots.

If you'd like to listen to the episodes in which this deck features, they're here:

• 1) Prologue and deck discussion: here
• 2) The Witching Hour and At Death's Doorstep: here
• 3) The Secret Name and The Wages of Sin: here
• 4) For the Greater Good and Union & Disillusion: here
• 5) In the Clutches of Chaos and Before the Black Throne: here

I loved the challenge of playing Norman Withers solo. He's a somewhat unconventional solo choice, as his physical statistics are so low and his deckbuilding (at the time of writing) is unique in its progression style. At level 0 he can feel quite defenceless, a Mystic without access to the range of Mystic tools Mystics needs to do Mystic things: he can pack Shrivelling or Spectral Razor if he wants to, but it eats into those precious level 0 Mystic slots. And then, as he upgrades, those precious, potent higher-level Seeker cards are out of his grasp. So he's an odd duck, but a delightful one.

In terms of this specific deck, I'd heartily recommend you listen to the first episode, linked above. I present a draft of the deck to Peter on Drawn to the Flame and we discuss some of the intricacies and challenges of Norman solo. Likewise throughout the campaign I discuss the cards as I play. The hinge point for this deck comes after The Wages of Sin, where again I discuss the deck with Peter as we stare down some of the challenges facing Norman and the original plan for the deck takes quite a turn.

MVP in the campaign? I am very fond of Crystalline Elder Sign in solo. It shores up the weaker stats for Norman and takes his and to decent heights. The Hawk-Eye Folding Camera and The Black Book felt like CES-lite in turn, but both were valuable too. The other star? Knowledge is Power. This card takes Norman from 'quite muscular' to 'utter spell-casting powerhouse'. It's a support piece, for sure, but it allows him to do some wicked things and works so well with a Shrivelling in hand as protection from Vengeful Hound or to extend what seem like time-pressed turns into mighty swirls of eldritch magic!

Here's the campaign log. Beware, spoilers for the episodes!

The Circle Undone:

Physical trauma: 4 | Mental trauma: 2 Mementos: Mesmerizing Flute | Scrap of Torn Shadow | Gilman's Journal | Wisp of Spectral Mist

Norman is on Penny's trail

• 0) Disappearance at the Twilight Estate Penny White was pulled into the spectral realm | 2 pieces of evidence were left behind.

• 1) The Witching Hour R2 Norman has rejected his fate | +2 | The witches' spell was broken | 9xp.

• 2) At Death's Doorstep R1 Norman escaped the spectral realm | Norman rescued Josef Meiger | Norman is a member of the Lodge | +1 | Norman is deceiving the Lodge | 7xp.

• 3) The Secret Name nr Norman told the Lodge about the coven | +1 | +1 | 5xp.

• 4) The Wages of Sin nr Norman survived the watcher's embrace | 3 heretics were unleashed unto Arkham | 4xp.

• 5) For the Greater Good R1 Norman discovered how to open the puzzle box | Norman was inducted into the Inner Circle | 5xp.

• 6) Union & Disillusion R4 Norman sided with the coven | Anette Mason is possessed by evil | -2 | 4xp.

• 7) In the Clutches of Chaos R1 Anette taught Norman the spells of old | The path winds before Norman: 1 | 5xp.

• 8) Before the Black Throne R4 Norman signed his name in the Black Book | Humanity is saved | 10xp.