“He was a slender man, and his face was as white as his coat was black.”
Robert W. Chambers,In the Court of the Dragon

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release ofA Phantom of Truth, the third Mythos Pack inThe Path to Carcosacycle forArkham Horror: The Card Game!

Months afterThe Yellow Kingplayed at the Ward Theatre, your investigation into the strange events surrounding the play has left you with more questions than answers. You’ve encounteredCultists,Lunatics, andMonsters. You’ve uncovered horrificSchemesof untold scope. And you’ve witnessedTerrorsthat may or may not have beenOmensof greater perils.

All these things brought you, recently, to pay a short visit to Arkham’s asylum. And now you’ve walked out, wondering what to make of everything that you’ve seen. So where do you go for answers when your world’s tilting into madness?

The answer: Paris.

InA Phantom of Truth, you and your fellow investigators make your way across the Atlantic. Tormented every night by vivid dreams of an alien worldwith black stars, twin suns, shattered moons, and twisted spiresyou decide not to grapple with yourDoubtsandConvictionsin Arkham, but to pursue whatever truth might lie behind the play.

This is why you head to Paris; you hope to gain some answers from the play’s director, Nigel Engram.

Doubt and Conviction

As we mentioned in our announcement ofThe Path to Carcosa, your investigations intoThe King in Yellowwill eventually lead you into the sort of madness and confusion that force you to wonder what’s reality and what’s delusion. You may even find yourself wondering if the definitions of madness and sanity are as clear as you previously thought.

With that in mind,The Path to Carcosacampaign makes use of the new mechanics forDoubtandConvictionthat we previewed in“A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Lose,”our look at the new scenarios fromThe Path to Carcosa.

But what does yourDoubtorConvictiondo for you? Apart from check marks on yourcampaign log(pdf, 1.8 MB), what are they? These questionsand their answersbegin to emerge more fully throughoutA Phantom of Truth.

The first thing you’ll learn is that it’s still not clear whether it’s better to operate like a skeptic rooted inDoubtor to trust your instincts and move forward withConviction. Nor is it certain that yourDoubtis always the sign of a curious mind; there may be times yourDoubtis strictly a form of uncertainty rooted in madnessyour inability to distinguish the real from the unreal, or the truth of things from their illusions.

It’s almost as if there’s some terrible, malevolent force at workguiding you, beckoning you, pulling you forward. And it’s possible that your search for Nigel Engram may take a backseat to your desperate scramble to hold onto whatever shreds of sanity remain to you. And, here, is yourDoubtyour salvation? Or are you better off following yourConviction?

InA Phantom of Truth, these questions matter immensely, and you’ll need to find the right answers, lest you end up aLost Soul(A Phantom of Truth, 227) in a very foreign land.

Focus on the Familiar

In addition to its scenario,A Phantom of Truthsupplies you with twenty-two player cards (two copies each of eleven different player cards) designed to help you stay grounded and make progress in your campaign. Among these, you’ll find a handful of higher-level cards that recall the familiar, including a couple of fan favorites from theCore Set.

One of these is the.45 Automatic(A Phantom of Truth, 190)a wonderfulWeaponto have in hand when you’re beset on all sides by fear and foes.

While this powerful handgun has been a Guardian staple since the game’s debut, the two experience points you’ll pay for the upgraded version inA Phantom of Truthare well rewarded by an extra Combat icon, the ability to ignore the retaliate keyword, and by an invaluable one-point boost to your Combat with every shot you fire. All of which may be handy should you find yourself stalked by strange, wingedMonstersin theGardens of Luxembourg.

Similarly, fans of the Rogue class will find theirPickpocketing(A Phantom of Truth, 195) more powerful and profitable than ever. Like the .45 Automatic, Pickpocketing reappears as a Level 2 card that gains several advantages over its Level 0 counterpart.

For your experience points, you are rewarded with the Fast keyword, which immediately gives you an action for your troubles. Next, you gain an extra Agility icon. While this Agility icon won’t likely benefit you much the first time you draw your Pickpocketingsince you’ll most likely want to put theTalentinto playthe extra icon on your second copy of Pickpocketing could easily prove the difference between the success or failure of a critical evade attempt.

That extra icon might even prove the difference between a standard success or a success by two or more that allows you to trigger the full benefits of your upgraded Pickpocketing. Instead of merely granting you an extra card draw when you evade an enemy, Pickpocketing now allows you to choose between a card draw or a resourceor, if you succeed by two or more, allows you to gain both a card draw and a resource.

Together,these newly upgraded cards represent just one of the many different ways you might spend the experience you gain duringThe Path to Carcosacampaign, but it’s one that might appeal to those investigators who are either already meeting with great successas well as those who have been severely terrified and traumatized by all they have seen.

In this latter case, sticking with the familiar may provide you the opportunity you need to increase your chances of success, without the unnecessary complications associated with the development of all-new tactics.

Draped in Mystery

Is this, at last, the path that will lead you to the truths behindThe King in Yellow?

Your trip to Paris is fated to be eventful, but will you find the man for whom you’re looking? Or will someoneor somethingfind you instead?