I had a friend play this tonight when we were playing the second scenario of Forgotten Age, and he had a pretty clever use for it: he took the last clue off of a high shroud location (shroud 5) and put it on a slightly lower shroud location that had just been revealed (shroud 4). Why was this clever? Because the location we took the last clue from was worth a victory point.

Now, you can obviously use this card to lower the shroud of a location and make it easier to investigate for a turn, but I don't think that's terribly relevant. Why? Because, except for a few corner cases where people have extra actions, you are, at best, going to get two investigations with -1 shroud.

I think the best use of this card you are going to regularly get to use is taking clues from locations you don't want them and moving them somewhere else. And I don't just mean from high shroud locations. Some locations inflict a penalty for trying to move on to them or for trying to investigate on them. And I can think of three locations from that scenario alone that would fit the above description.

But the times you will be most proud of yourself will be the times when you spent one resource and net your team a victory point.

Hypothesis: Backpack is what's finally going to start pushing this card into relevance.

Analysis: There are two major issues with Relic Hunter that have always left it in the shadow of Charisma.

The first is that allies are just inherently more useful than most of the accessories. Holy Rosary sits alone atop it's throne for 0 XP accessories, whereas 0 XP allies includes powerful staples such as Dr. Milan Christopher, Peter Sylvestre, and even allies like Alyssa Graham or David Renfield that provide a flat stat boost along with a modest amount of damage/horror soak. Even Beat Cop (0) puts in big work, soaking one damage and one horror while providing the same +1 stat and while also having a useful sacrifice condition.

Those are just allies that provide at least one damage worth of soak and a +1 stat bonus too. That's not mentioning the more disposable ones like Art Student, Research Librarian, or even Arcane Initiate (0).

The second is that accessories haven't had quite the same support that allies have for a good while. Calling in Favors may not have been around for that long, but it's still a massive boon to Charisma decks. Again, even though we've had A Chance Encounter (both versions) for less time than Scavenging they're also just easier to use. The ally support also seems to consistently put the ally into play whereas item/accessory support doesn't.

Now however, we finally have Backpack. It doesn't dig as deep, nor does it put your accessories straight into play, but it does do something else important. It finds you multiple types of cards--and no, I don't just mean it finds you the types item and supply. It will help you dig up Flashlights, Lockpicks, or Magnifying Glasses so you can investigate, maybe help trigger that Scavenging easier? It can also help you dig up a weapon with which to defend yourself--and this is all in addition to helping dig for your accessories to put into play.

The only problem? We still don't quite have accessories on the same power level as we do allies. We don't have accessories with upgrade paths the way we do with allies. We don't even have anywhere close to the same pool of unique cards to choose from that aren't signature cards. There are only three accessories that offer any amount of horror soaking, and one of them costs a fair bit of XP. None of them offer damage soaking, which admittedly is fair from a flavour perspective (that's what body slot items should do). Even with how nuts Key of Ys is when powered up, you still defend it with allies. That card isn't that unfair compared to The Red-Gloved Man given the support that it has from the rest of the card pool.

Conclusion: We have the support we need for accessories in cards like Charles Ross, Esq., Backpack, Relic Hunter, and Scavenging. What we lack are the accessories that are worth supporting with these cards. Until that changes, accessories will be relegated to set and forget all-stars like Rabbit's Foot and Holy Rosary, with brief appearances from Cherished Keepsake or Elder Sign Amulet to help patch up the sanity of investigators vulnerable to horror.

Most grievously for Carolyn's deck, 'To Fight the Black Wind', presumably a metaphor for clinical depression [or for some convulsive disorder of the bowels?] makes many demands of her admirers in AH:TCG. Nestled furtively within lies power - to overwhelm and destroy!

Consider, first, "1 direct horror" discharged so stickily upon her when revealed [in such moments one imagines a sound as of a strained grunting] - the Forced is satisfied and the redheaded doctor is stricken with the "horror...assigned to an investigator this round" (that is to say, not to an asset). Doom is come. Absent an extravagantly drawful deck, the greater portion of investigators' draws dribble from upkeep. That is too late in the round for undoing Carolyn's distress. Were it an agenda's final round (by doom-allowance) no matter, but in likelihood Carolyn's bosom campaign-ions will submit to the indignity of an entire round per-scenario being taken from them, the price the woman charges for a grouping with her.

Little cost-effective remedy is to be had. Should it be the final horror necessary to defeat her, 'Cheat Death' would solve the problem - but what of that, unless it be thought a practical business to take a 5XP card to intentionally suffer 5 horror and hold your lingerings furtive on just 1 sanity remaining, until 'To Fight the Black Wind' is announced. Creative minds calling upon, say, 'Ancient Stone (Minds in Harmony)' or 'Key of Ys' will find no relief. Timing betrays the former, for that card's heal-on-draw reaction-trigger is realised "when" drawing; thus after the draw but before its' impact on the game-state resolves (that is to say, agenda-attachment and 1 direct horror to Carolyn) - and for the latter, the very distinction between assignment and placement that adjusts the destination of direct horror assigned to Carolyn to be placed on 'Key of Ys' ensures the Forced effect of 'To Fight the Black Wind' still dominates.

Some options:

• i) Extra draws each time you take a turn with her, reducing the risk of 'To Fight the Black Wind' coming when hardest. Suggested deck options might be: No Stone Unturned/Eureka (when ready to receive it, intentionally pull it into your hand); Lab Assistant/Preposterous Sketches.
• ii) Purpose to appoint when the card will come, swallowing slots of deck, of assets, of max. 15 Seeker/Mystic, and taking in resources, actions and cards in hand; and all of this for one task only and even that without surety. Say, of Carolyn, that she with 'Scrying' closely examines one's own deck; 'Alyssa Graham' goes down in play to keep looking at the top, riskily adding her own count of doom when the time comes. A mighty strain.
• iii) Forswear her fully.
• iv) Shrug the shoulders. Embrace damnation - and the doom-ation in whose company it travels. It's 1 doom.

Rounds yet to be played in the agenda bear the risk of additional doom; more serious, naturally, when attached earlier in its' doom-allowance. Obvious wisdom can be seen in keeping horror-heals ready [via assets in play / events in hand], especially multiple-target heals [e.g. 'Kerosene'/'"If it bleeds..."'] and/or action-conserving heals['Ancient Stone (Minds in Harmony)', 'Fearless'], but also there is prevention to consider - e.g. 'Brother Xavier' to be assigned horror suffered by team-mates; 'Dodge'/'Hypnotic Gaze' for cancellations of attacks, both against yourself and team-mates - and more importantly still that all investigators take account, action-to-action, the heightened consequences of choices that risk horror being dealt to them.

After running a Carcosa campaign with a friend on Leo Anderson, I'd have to say I quite enjoyed Sefina but I would not repeat the deck I ran. I tried to lean too hard into the Mystic side of things, and that's a mistake.

Early in the campaign, Shrivelling (0) and Rite of Seeking (0) powered by little more than a Holy Rosary will get there more often than it won't. However, around the 4th scenario when the bag has added an extra -# to it's roster and the special symbols are really starting to ramp up you'll find this is falling a bit short. This incidentally is after Mystics would have access to Shrivelling (3). They're going to manage better with a lower investment at every turn due to the buffs on the upgraded spells.

I used Relic Hunter to be able to run Holy Rosary along with St. Hubert's Key, and later Key of Ys. My spells managed to let me down unless I had at least +2 from my accessories and occasionally some support from Arcane Studies (which I should have replaced with Moxie, but that was just a strategic error on my part).

If I could do it again, I would still start with a Mystic focus, using said accessories combined with the level 0 spells. However, I would eventually pivot out of that package into Lockpicks with things like Double or Nothing, Quick Thinking, and Opportunist (2). You can also opt for Sneak Attack (2) as part of your replacement for your offensive spells.

At the start my event selection was Uncage the Soul x2, Backstab x1, Emergency Cache x2, Elusive x2, Storm of Spirits x2, Ward of Protection (0) x2 and Drawn to the Flame x2.

What it should have become was Sure Gamble x2, Hot Streak (4) x2, Ward of Protection (2) x2, Drawn to the Flame x2, Elusive x2, Backstab x2, Sneak Attack (2) x2, and Emergency Cache x1~2. Upgraded Wards are probably the lowest priority, but the stuff I did spend my XP on was not as good as what this would likely have been.

The Painted World however is everything I'd ever dreamed it would be. The flexibility of the card never let me down, and the ability to play multiple copies of Drawn to the Flame and Hot Streak (4) made me feel very powerful. Stars of Hyades was fairly low impact as far as weaknesses go--just don't hold onto your Painted Worlds too long. Use them to get ahead and stay ahead.

I think this card offers a more interesting opportunity than simply allowing you to defer one turn's worth of actions in their entirety, so your next turn can have six actions. You can certainly do that, but you can also build towards your six-action turn in a different way. This card can also be used to give you multiple (in theory) six action turns over the course of a scenario, or a few four (or five) action turns.

You may be forced to remove clicks off this card at the start of a turn, but if nothing during your turn is forcing you to lose actions, there's nothing stopping you from spending those bonus actions on clicks again, and continue deferring the action.

So if you have a turn with an action, but nothing optimal to use it on (the times when you're thinking of drawing a card, or gaining a resource anyway), you can use your action to put a single click on your Borrowed Time. Each turn after that you can decide if you want to use the fourth action, or put it back on the Borrowed Time. If you run into a second turn that's going to have another sub-optimal action, you can defer it to the future as well.

I don't think this card is going to have the same massive payoff that Ace in the Hole does, but I think the ability to consistently defer sub-optimal actions to a future turn when you may need a fourth (or fifth, or sixth) action is quite powerful. Is it worth 6xp? Not sure, but I'm looking forward to finding out!