How come no one is wondering about that rose? A person in a suit getting shrivelled to nothingness with a rose in their hands? Is it a Mafia threat thing getting an emphatic answer? Some weird burial? WHAT IS GOING ON? Well, at least the flower is not affected.

This is my favourite card for this expansion.

About the card itself, it has a lot of text but doesn't seem to do much: decrease the amount of XP to upgrade the card or check one of its own boxes. Sure, m'kay...

So what is there to unpack in level 0?

1. I love the idea of using a powerful feather to write tomes and spell parchments and give them magical traits.
2. The art is sick, and they know it: it was selected to be on some of the playmats of Arkham Nights 2022.
3. It is the 2nd event typed item in the game (the first being the Telescopic Sight) and so opens the door for all types of recursion
4. On top of being a Scavengeable item, it is the first level 0 item that commits for 2 . The only options after are level 2 and more. To emphasize how sick this is, there is no other level 0 item that offers 2 of the same icons (including ) in the game as of the Scarlet Keys release, except for Signatures and Campaign specific cards.
   • Note: since it is not an asset, Schoffner's Catalogue cannot pay for it, despite the ravens on the art...

Alright, that is already something for the base card, but I'm not 100% sold yet.

So what are the hidden secrets in the customizable options of The Raven Quill?

Let's review each option and see all the doors it opens.

□ Living Quill. Using attached asset's abilities does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

• Since the Prophesiae Profana and its immediate taboo, we all understand now the power of not having AoO. It is not always super important, but in some cases, it can really make a difference. Think about Trish Scarborough attaching this to Grim Memoir or Divination, for instance, and you can now use it with an enemy at your location and evade that enemy while getting a clue.
• Another good use is on Encyclopedia to boost your or and have a better chance to evade.
• Finally, the Forbidden Tome, Gray's Anatomy, and De Vermis Mysteriis (used on combat spells) are all tomes that you would like to use with an enemy at your location and therefore could appreciate it.

□ Spectral Binding. Attached asset does not take up any slots.

• Some tomes and spells happen to use more than an arcane slot, and this can then become very interesting. The first to come to mind is Enchanted Bow, which uses both hands and an arcane slot. With 1xp, you then save 3 slots. True Magick doesn't take both hands but is also hard to manage because of the heavy slot usage. No more for Luke Robinson. Finally, Mind's Eye though I wouldn't see which investigator would benefit from it yet.
• I personally use it as a replacement for Arcane Enlightenment simply to have a 3rd Hand Slot when holding a tome, which is great for 1xp.

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□□ Mystic Vane. You get +2 skill value while performing skill tests on attached asset.

• Very self-explanatory, it works amazingly with the Spells and Tomes that require a test. There are surprisingly few tomes offering a test: Abyssal Tome, Grim Memoir, Medical Texts and Research Notes. The latter can be really strong for Darrell Simmons and Minh Thi Phan.
• When it comes to Spells, we all know them, and +2 is worth 2 to 3xp on them (see Shrivelling (3) for the reference), so it's a heavy bargain here!

□□ Endless Inkwell. Name two more Tome or Spell assets

This gives more flexibility. I personally never use it because I know exactly what I want the Quill to do in my deck, so I build around it.

Note: the The Raven Quill is unique so you cannot name multiple assets and have 2 on the board at the same time.

□□ Energy Sap. The Raven Quill gains: " Exhaust The Raven Quill: Move 1 secret or charge from an asset you control to attached asset."

• This, my friend, is where the jank starts. Just see the use of the Eldritch Sophist by @chirubime in their Ursula Deck to have an understanding of the power of secret/charge transfer.
• Some notable sources are:
  • The The Red Clock (2) and (5) are a source of infinite charges for other assets. That allows you to leave the clock in the place that interests you the most while providing an asset with 1 charge each turn.
  • The new Runic Axe, but you decrease the strength of the Axe itself.
  • Finally, True Magick replenishes too, but I doubt it's a good idea and you probably actually want to use that charge.
• Besides these endless sources, good charges/secrets supplies are:
  • for charges: Bangle of Jinxes (also unlimited charges if you can handle the attacks), Living Ink, Brand of Cthugha
  • for secrets: Forbidden Tome: Untranslated, Encyclopedia (0)
• The good recipients for that power load are:
  • for charges: Archaic Glyphs, expensive investigation spells like Clairvoyance (5), Arcane Insight, Enchanted Bow, True Magick and obviously the Pendant of the Queen
  • for secrets: Grim Memoir, Old Book of Lore (3), Pnakotic Manuscripts, The Necronomicon

The best users of this upgrade seem to be Daisy Walker, Luke Robinson, Minh Thi Phan and Darrell Simmons because of their interesting synergies. Here's an example of a Minh deck that abuses this secret refill on [Arcane Insight](/card/03266) to bring the shroud to 0 every turn.

□□□ Interwoven Ink. After you resolve an ability on attached asset, you may exhaust The Raven Quill to ready another asset you control.

My favourite part of the Quill. This brings so many options. There are about 300 player cards that exhaust, so I couldn't possibly list them all. Here are just a few of my favourites, sorted by class:

• : Beat Cop (2), Boxing Gloves, Butterfly Swords, Enchant Weapon, Quickdraw Holster, Well Prepared
• : Abigail Foreman, Ariadne's Twine, Eon Chart, Fieldwork, Fingerprint Kit, Grisly Totem, Hiking Boots, Old Book of Lore, Pathfinder, Press Pass, tabooed Dr. Milan Christopher and Whitton Greene.
• Chuck Fergus, Damning Testimony, Delilah O'Rourke, Lola Santiago, Double, Double, Haste Henry Wan (the one and only), High Roller, Well Connected, Lockpicks, Lucky Cigarette Case, Trigger Man
• Arcane Initiate, Ceremonial Sickle Dowsing Rod, David Renfield, Sign Magick, Sin-Eater, Summoned Hound
• Ancient Covenant, Drawing Thin, Miss Doyle's cats, Madame Labranche, Mariner's Compass, Rabbit's Foot, Track Shoes,
• A lot of signatures

I am sure that while reading this list, there are at least a couple of cards that made you think, "wow, this would be sick in a [insert_investigator_name]!"

My experience so far is: 90% of the decks that could use The Raven Quill have an asset that exhausts and would benefit from Interwoven Ink.

I am currently working on a deck that uses this Interwoven Ink and the Eldritch Sophist for double use of one asset each turn. Stay tuned ;)

□□□□ Supernatural Record. When you play The Raven Quill, instead of attaching it to a named asset you control, you may search your deck, discard pile, and hand for a copy of a named asset and play it (paying its cost). Then, attach The Raven Quill to it.

This last upgrade is more straightforward than the 2 previous ones.

A few things to point out:

• you have a full tutor for 2xp per copy (Research Librarian feels betrayed)
• you gain 1 play action since the librarian just adds it to your hand (upgraded librarian, when?)
• very importantly, you can also search your discard pile. Use all the charges of a tome or spell, discard it and then get it back with the Quill attached for even more uses!

If you are main , this is a no brainer. The downside is that it costs a lot of resources: the price of your asset + 3.

Conclusion: while the first 3 upgrades are gravy, Endless Sap and Interwoven Ink are jank factories making this card one of the most complex but also the most fun of the game IMO. Every new release will come with a new set of jank made available by the Quill, and I love that idea.

The best of this all is that if you do not plan on upgrading your Asset, the The Raven Quill checks its mark by itself, so it doesn't even cost you experience!! So let's all thank the ravens and start creating the craziest decks!

This isn't a tool you'd want to use on high- mystics - they have more efficient ways of getting solid hits in. However, this can shine in the hands of characters who want to occasionally help do some damage without committing a bunch of resources, and don't otherwise have the stats to back up a more normal attack.

The fact that it's a level 0 card means it can slot in a lot of characters with little effort, and it can quickly be dropped once you have a better tool for the job. I don't think this works well as a build-around, but it slots well for character who want access to a testless nudge of damage. Spectral Razor is a more flexible tool, but there are definitely characters with low-level mystic access who can make more reliable use of this.

For reference, as of writing, the list of characters who have access to Mystic 0 cards and have total Combat+Willpower of 5 or less (to compare with Spectral Razor include Carolyn Fern, Mystic Carson Sinclair, Mystic Charlie Kane, Daisy Walker, Mystic Mandy Thompson, and Rex Murphy. I don't think this would go in all of their decks, but I think the card is efficient enough to be worth considering in such a place.

Q: With thrice spoken, does the second and third enemies need to be in the same location with me? The ability says "also give command to each other enemy with power word" and it does not specify that those other enemies need to be at the same location?

So... this thing does some pretty funny things.

It's hard to go into much detail without some spoilers, but among other things your whole party can probably ignore a particularly annoying encounter mechanic in Dunwich as long as the fastest-cycling deck has ONE copy of this card. And when searching for dream cities in the dreamlands there's another trap you can just waltz through. When this card works, it tends to be the key to your Locked Door.

It's very likely you're going to blank the discard condition for the card, so it is a stall unless you can push the game state to the point where something is either less relevant or irrelevant. That happens a lot though. And its cheap as dirt if you don't need the slot.