Ebla Restored in the Convergence of Space-TimeA preview of the next Asylum Pack from the Revelations cycle for Call of Cthulhu
…that eldritch, hideous horror from outer space, that spawn of the blankness of primal time, that tentacled amorphous monster which was the lurker at the threshold, whose mask was as a congeries of iridescent globes, the noxious Yog-Sothoth, who froths as primal slime in nuclear chaos beyond the nethermost outposts of space and time!
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Lurker at the Threshold
Yog-Sothoth offers his followers tremendous new power over the flow of space and time with the upcoming release of Ebla Restored.
In H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction, Yog-Sothoth exists coterminous to all time and space. Though no mortal mind can safely hold too many of the all-knowing Outer God’s secrets, many still seek to gain his favor through sacrifices and servitude. The knowledge they gain can be disastrous, but it can also unlock the secrets to unfathomable power, even such power as to unlink the life-glow from the body, to travel through marvelous vistas of dreams made real, or to hold a world in stasis.
The Gate of the Silver Key
The Revelations cycle for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game draws the game’s attention to the power of dark knowledge, and The Gate of the Silver Key (Ebla Restored, 58) further enhances this theme. The Gate of the Silver Key provides Yog-Sothoth’s supplicants an interesting tool to thwart the machinations of other Ancient Ones and their cultists, as well as grinding to a halt the desperate efforts humanity’s investigators, who race to forestall their ultimate doom.
Before you can trigger The Gate of the Silver Key’s effect, you must first succeed at the story to which it is attached. However, you should already be looking for ways to succeed at stories, and the trigger shouldn’t appear like a condition that’s far out of reach. Meanwhile, because The Gate is cheap at only two cost, you could play it, along with two or more cheap characters, on the first turn to rush past your opponent’s initial resistance. Then, once you trigger The Gate’s effect, the chances dramatically increase that you’ll meet success in future turns.
In Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, though each faction has the means to accelerate its card draw, few make consistent use of them, other than Miskatonic University. In the absence of accelerated card draw, your knowledge of the next ten cards from the top of an opponent’s deck translates to knowledge of your opponent’s next five turns. That knowledge, in and of itself, is powerful. It limits the amount of surprises you’ll encounter. You’ll be less likely to stumble into the path of a Black Dog (Words of Power, 29) or have someone Intimidate (Secrets of Arkham, 16) one of your agents at an inopportune moment.
Theorem and Practicum
However, The Gate of the Silver Key does more than provide knowledge of the top ten cards of a player’s deck; it also allows you to manipulate those cards, returning them to the top of the deck in any order. You can bury your opponent’s most destructive tools, like the Khopesh of the Abyss (The Shifting Sands, 16), The Mage Known as Magnus (That Which Consumes, 111), or Azathoth (Secrets of Arkham, 46). Or you can use it to slow your opponent’s ability to bring cards into play, placing his most expensive cards on top of his deck and forcing him to draw them before he can afford them.
Because you can play The Gate as early as the first turn, you can take advantage of the stall strategy it promotes almost immediately. It can be particularly effective when paired with the domain destruction afforded by Torch the Joint! (Core Set, 18) and The Large Man (The Shifting Sands, 27). Then, if you can steer all your opponent’s characters down a narrow path to the conspiracy, Negotium Perambulans in Tenebris (Dunwich Denizens, 80), your mastery of your opponent’s fate becomes nearly complete.
That Which Takes Away Can Also Give
There’s yet another role The Gate can play. You are also a player in the game, with a deck of your own, and you can use your Gate to reorder the top ten cards of your own deck. If you’re trying to draw the parts of a key combination, or if you’re simply looking to build a hand that scales nicely with your resource acceleration, The Gate of the Silver Key may help guide you into the future with confidence. Yog-Sothoth exists in all time and space, so it’s natural that his followers can live with the knowledge of the options that will come to them several turns in advance.
As we draw near the release of Ebla Restored, the rival factions of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game seek the forbidden secrets of a forgotten city. Investigators, cultists, and monsters all hope to draw power from these secrets, but the most favored followers of Yog-Sothoth already know when and where the portal will open. The Gate of the Silver Key stands before them, beckoning them, promising even more power, more secrets, the answers to all the questions they dare not ask…
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Ebla Restored in the Convergence of Space-Time
