Crawling Chaos Cult Board

This cult board is in the Blood Ceremony box. It is strange, almost formalized, with a unique feel – in some ways harsher than any other cult board, in other ways easier. It offers many ways to interfere with your opponents.

Azathoth Pool

Several of the Crawling Chaos board’s sites send a cultist to worship Azathoth, at a special pool in the middle of the map. Once a cultist lands in the Azathoth pool, he is no longer available for other use. You’ll need to retrieve this cultist somehow if you want to regain his services.

The Azathoth pool has two other effects (beyond acccumulating cultists). When an investigator attack is triggered, add +1 to the attack total (to a max. 18) for each acolyte worshiping Azathoth! Thus, if four Acolytes (of any colors) are worshiping Azathoth, and an investigator raid rolls a “7”, it would increased to “11”.

The Azathoth pool’s second effect is even worse. If the number of cultists worshiping Azathoth ever equals three times the number of players (e.g., 9 in a 3-player game), the game ends and all players lose!

This “Azathoth” feature is to represent Nyarlathotep’s duties as soul & mind & herald of the Outer Gods.

Avatars of Nyarlathotep

The slots on this board are subdivided into four main sections, each containing three elder signs. Each section also contains an avatar of Nyarlathotep. In order, these are the Howler, the Bloated Woman, the Dark Pharaoh, and the Haunter of the Dark. When an avatar’s Elder Sign is removed, all three sites of the next section are unlocked. In addition, the player gains that avatar, which gives him a benefit every single Preparation phase. The final avatar is the Haunter- acquiring him also unlocks the last site.

The first avatar is the Howler, who lets the controller pull any one acolyte away Azathoth. This also gives that player 1 Magic when when he does. He can choose his own acolyte (and typically does, until he has none left with Azathoth).

If you are the player who obtains the Howler, you will be able to retrieve one cultist every turn without needing to take an action to do so, plus gain a magic for the privilege. This is a significant advantage.

The second avatar of Nyarlathotep to make its appearance is the infamous Bloated Woman. She lets her owner place a cultist on a Ritual track. Because this happens in the Preparation phase, the owner won’t get rewards till the end of the next Action phase, but he does get to pick his track first, and block other players. Also, placing the cultist won’t cost him the normal 2 treasure. The advantages to this should be obvious.

The Third, The Dark Pharaoh sends other player’s acolytes to Azathoth, and earns you a reward for so doing. So they have fewer acolytes, and you get more money by doing it. In one game, I pulled off the double-whammy of owning both the Howler AND the Dark Pharaoh. That was sweet .

The last avatar, The Haunter of the Dark is quite simple – gain a monster if you don’t have one. Now, the Haunter’s site is usually one of the very last to be unlocked, so typically you only have access to its ability for 1-2 turns maximum, but this is useful, because he comes at a critical time in gameplay – the end-game, when attacks are coming fast and furious.

We have enjoyed the Crawling Chaos, and hope you do too.