Strange Solution

By all accounts, it should not even exist.

Since its release, Arkham Horror: The Card Game has been undermining all that we had thought we had known, and the descent into madness is set only to accelerate with the upcoming release of The Dunwich Legacy deluxe expansion.

• We thought that card games and roleplaying were separate experiences, but the Arkham LCG® has—through some dark alchemy—managed to fuse the two together.
• We thought that our decks would always work for us, but we found that we could not escape our weaknesses. Our decks must include both our investigator's signature weakness and one basic weakness.
• We thought that our fellow investigators would try to help us. Then we learned that they might not just split the party, but they might Delve Too Deep (The Miskatonic Museum, 111) into the secrets you uncover and unleash new horrors upon your whole group.

The result is that the Arkham LCG has catapulted us into a universe of vast possibilities that we never knew existed. Some of us may feel the onrush of madness. Perhaps it comes first as a wash of awe or hysteria. Perhaps it's a feeling of being left adrift in a cold and unfathomable universe, one that doesn't care what we humans thought customizable card games were meant to be.

Perhaps we recognize with some gut feeling—a feeling not prompted by our five natural senses—the flicker of a pulse, or an intelligence. There is something lying within the game's design that rises against our expectations… and we shudder with fear. What if this nameless entity is invested with a malevolent spirit?

Whatever it is we feel—awe or excitement or dread—we are likely to feel even more of it when we open The Dunwich Legacy and find that it contains even more cards that simply do not fit any previous design.

The Card with No Recognizable Purpose

As it continues to shatter the old barriers and open doorways to other worlds, Arkham Horror: The Card Game gives us a card with no discernible purpose.

Strange Solution (The Dunwich Legacy, 21) is a Seeker class asset that costs one resource and enters play "Unidentified." As an action, you can attempt an Investigate test with a difficulty of four to identify the solution. This is manageable, but no easy task. Likely, you'll need a bookworm like Daisy Walker (Core Set, 2) to test the solution successfully, but if you do, what do you get? You get to draw two cards and discard the solution.

Perhaps, you might argue that Strange Solution is a card draw effect, but you would be wrong. It costs you one action to play it, and at least one more to test it successfully. For those actions, you could draw two cards with no risk of failure—nor any risk of encountering whatever terrible effect the chaos tokens may throw your way.

No, what Strange Solution offers you is a note in your Campaign Log: "Record in your Campaign Log that 'you have identified the solution.'"

But there's nothing that follows! At least, there's nothing currently within our understanding of the game that depends upon whether or not you have successfully identified the solution. And it's worth noting here that the Strange Solution isn't even an encounter card; it's a player card. No one in your campaign has to include the card in his or her deck.

Then again… what might you discover as you study the Strange Solution? What would you fail to uncover if you left it alone in some dimly lit Miskatonic University classroom? What secrets of the nature of the world would you fail to learn? Does the Strange Solution lead to any truth, or is it just the first step down the slippery slope to insanity?

Questions That Beg for Answers

Where did Dr. Armitage's colleagues go? What had they been doing? Had they uncovered more than they were meant to know? What secrets will you uncover as you pursue them through the darkened hallways of Miskatonic University and the bustling backrooms of The Clover Club?

There are questions that beg for answers, but will you be able to handle the truths you uncover? There are layers upon layers of mystery that await you in The Dunwich Legacy. Head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today!