November 4th, 2004 |
Sam, Jill, Dan, and baby May showed up tonight. We talked a lot about politics and the utter disgustingness that is the Bush administration. We ate a lot of pizza - much of which May chewed on and then spit up. Then we played Betrayal at the House on the Hill.
| Betrayal at House on the Hill |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | Killed Everyone | 1 | |
| Mike | Gave up | 2 (Tie) | |
| Dan | Killed by Spider | 2 (Tie) | |
| Sam & Jill | Killed by Mantis | 2 (Tie) | |
Notes: Dan was Jasper, Sam and Jill shared the Zoe Ingstrom character, I was Madame Zostra, and Karla was Prof. Longfellow.
We started roaming around, and poor little Jasper kept getting caught in spider-webs, and he also was poisoned by some disgusting dirt that clung to his lungs. Mme Zostra managed okay, as she found a dog in the Junk Room that helped her out. Zoe checked out the top floor and eventually unleashed the haunt on the 5th omen.
It was kind of an early trigger of the haunt, and, unfortunately, it was the type of haunt where we needed more rooms explored. It was haunt #17 - BUGS!, and Prof. Longfellow betrayed us to lead a bug army against us, including a huge spider, a praying mantis, a beetle, a cockroach, a wasp, and a centipede.
Jasper, Zoe, and I needed to gather up some ingredients - and fast! for some bug spray. Unfortunately, Prof. Longfellow quickly picked up one of the ingredients and dumped it in the underground lake. That left only one ingredient out there (which Jasper quickly scooped up), but 4 rooms undiscovered. The centipede came after Madame Zostra, but she stunned it with the heel of her boot and quickly found another ingredient. That made two!
Unfortunately, little Zoe was worse than useless, as she was cornered by the Spider and the Praying Mantis, and the mantis had the honor of crushing her little head between its vice-like fuzzy limbs. CRACK!
Jasper and Zostra made a heroic effort, as Jasper managed to escape a three creature ambush on the second floor, then stun them all with some dynamite. Madame Zostra had two ingredients, as did little Jasper, but he was killed the next turn by Prof. Longfellow, who grabbed the ingredients and tossed them into the underground lake. Zostra's last chance was to find the research lab - and she did, but it was impossible to place in the section she entered, so it was discarded. With only despair, Madame Zostra gave up.
The game was fun, and it's cool to brainstorm and use as many techniques as you can to escape, but we had rotten luck in getting such a location dependent haunt with hardly any locations opened up. We also made some mistakes. I should have used the dog more often to have him fetch ingredients that Jasper had, but I kept forgetting. But the big problem was that the kitchen was in the middle of the house and easy to get to for the bugs (plus the Cockroach doesn't leave it), and the research lab didn't appear until late, and then in an impossible position.
I'll also note that Sam and Jill and May didn't stay to see the rest of us get killed.