The Phantom Of Truth Review

Reaching the half way point of this cycle of mythos packs with a lovely weekend sojourn to Paris. As before, we give a short spoiler free overview, then explore the player cards before moving on to a full spoiler discussion of goings on and mechanics.

Non, Je ne regrette rien! It is off to the City of Lights: Paris! In search of The Phantom of Truth. Paris is rather large, however, and there is the very real chance the phantom might be searching for you…

This scenario continues the unusual Agenda deck behaviour of Echoes of the Past, but while that appeared to lead to some frustrating outcomes, this set is quite clever in its machinations (more details in the spoiler section). You will certainly be left feeling lost and confused, but in a good way.

Here your decisions across the campaign are really starting to come to a head. The conviction and doubt you have will greatly impact how the scenario plays out. How often you have chased and spoken to the stranger during the earlier scenarios might tweak things further. But ultimately you’ll have to wait for the next scenario to have a hope of pulling the disparate threads together.

The Phantom of Truth is a solid scenario. In fact, nearly two scenarios given how it plays out according to those doubt/conviction numbers. But while it makes for an exciting romp through the city, it still acts predominantly as filler and doesn’t reach the thematic heights of The Last King or The Unspeakable Oath.

Rating: The Phantom of Progress

Player Cards

The Phantom of Truth finally lets you discover the truth behind those Archaic Glyphs seekers found in the opening set of this cycle. If you’ve managed to translate them, the upgraded rewards here are extremely pleasant! Both make investigations that much more powerful, ideal for those clue obsessed seekers out there. Guiding Stones enables you to empty locations at a simply monumental rate with the right character and upgrade options, while Prophecy Foretold is a great card for just letting you flat out ignore monsters while you hoover up clues. Meanwhile, their 3rd card this set, Logical Reasoning, is also a handy support card for your low sanity bodyguard ally in multiplayer. Seekers rejoice! You’ve done very well this set.

Everyone else is getting quite a mixed bag. Quantum Flux for Mystics and, frankly, anyone else who can take it is an exceptional card, letting you reset your entire deck and pulling those super useful cards out of your discard pile. Whereas Recharge is… kind of risky for the benefit, even if comboed with a fully levelled up Shrivelling. Madame Labranche is a cool lady to have in your corner, especially if you are chasing a low resource build with Fire Axe and Dark Horse. The Snare Trap is a nicely thematic card, delaying a troublesome monster for a couple of turns, but at quite a high price.

Finally, both Rogues and Guardians are getting some earlier card upgrades. Pickpocketing makes a bad card moderately reasonable. .45 Automatic gets even more powerful, and very nicely ignores retaliating enemies. I find an automatic in my deck to be a comforting inclusion and more powerful ones are appreciated! The basic level cards for these classes are just stunningly thematic. I’ll See You In Hell lets you suicide to wipe out a big gang of monsters which is such good story but so bad in most circumstances! The 2 fight icons are pretty sweet though. Cheap Shot combines fight and agility to let you attack and evade an enemy in one go. A nice power!

Spoiler Discussion

I dreamed a dream of time gone by… The Phantom of Truth opens with a most unexpected interlude: a dream sequence! Jumping you around a page of the rulebook with gleeful abandon it is mostly theme but your exact path, and certain outcomes, will be changed according to what you have done during the campaign. It’s a cool introduction even though you don’t face too much threat nor many choices, kind of neutering their opening ‘don’t get lost’ instruction. It’s pretty clear though that the designers are just having fun with you at this point. The random ordering of the dreams makes you feel lost just trying to read them and dream 5, at the top of the page, just pokes fun at you for not reading carefully!

On to the scenario then. As has been a recurring theme in Path to Carcosa scenarios, whether you managed to interview a particular character in The Last King will tweak the current scenario, in this case, where you start. Your doubt/conviction balance is finally starting to have a more measurable impact too. A team with high conviction will seem to have a most generous Agenda deck: external doom subtracts from the total, preventing it advancing. A very interesting prospect for Mystic players. And such generosity for other players… right? Too good to be true more like! Or is that just my paranoia talking?

All will soon become clear. Once you advance the first act, which will happen very quickly, your true opponent will reveal himself… the organist. That is, someone who plays an organ, not a collector of… well, yes. This pasty looking chap has no discernable connection to events thus far, aside from the coincidence of time and place but he has certainly taken a dis/liking to you! Depending on doubt vs conviction you will be pursuing him in search of the truth, or he will be pursuing you. Neither of which is easy as, unlike your common or garden monster (there are plenty of those too, Paris has a real Byakhee infestation at the moment) the organist has no wounds!

If you are hunting him, a successful attack only allows you to place a clue on his card. Once you’ve thoroughly beaten him up with circumstantial evidence, he’ll submit. A challenging task as combat experts and clue gathers tend not to be the same people, and so the chase must be carefully coordinated around Paris’ streets. A very cool process.

If he is hunting you, however, the scenario is very different indeed! Your task becomes merely to survive to the end of the agenda deck, a process that can be accelerated by burning clues. This is the first time I’ve ever wanted to add doom to the agenda! Oh, what was all that about doom on enemies subtracting from the total? Damnit, game!

Either root culminates in your arrival at the house of director Nigel Engram, a man obsessed with the King in Yellow. Scattered papers allude to the final act of this maddening performance and, apparently, the next key scene will occur down in the dark of the catacombs. But most interestingly is what you find should you have seen Engram earlier in the campaign (by sneaking back into the house at the end of The Last King). Here it seems his restless spirit will be here to meet you, or perhaps a quirk in time, or perhaps merely your own imagination playing tricks upon you. Who knows?

Our copy of The Phantom Of Truth was provided for review by Asmodee UK. You can pick up a copy for £14.99 RRP from your local hobby store.

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