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The Card Files: Zenig of Aphorat

by Guy Hail and divers hands from the Mythos Digest
Zenig of Aphorat

THE CARD

Special Effect Box: Play only at an Exotic Location. May serve as any one card required to complete an Adventure. Bury when the Adventure card is played.

THE SOURCE

When Barzai the Wise climbed Hatheg-Kla to see the Great Ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. The Other Gods were there, and they did what was expected. Zenig of Aphorat sought to reach unknown Kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom I need not name.The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H.P. Lovecraft

CLARIFICATIONS

Zenig of Aphorat is buried when it is used to fulfill an Adventure requirement. It is shuffled into your Mythos Deck along with your Story Deck when your Adventure is compleated.

QUESTIONS

Q: May I use Discover Secret Cache to play Zenig of Aphorat at a non-Exotic Location?

A: No.This whole issue is clarified in the New Æon rules which says something to the effect of certain Allies, Tomes, and Artifacts may only be found at Exotic Locations; no other means may be used to play those cards.

Mythos Digest 1:65
Q: May I play Zenig of Aphorat at Lost Temple of Atlantis (or any Exotic Location without the Artifact attribute)?

A: No. Buy you may use Discover Secret Cache while your current Location is Lost Temple of Atlantis (or Celæno, R'lyeh, Tycho Base, or Y'ha-Nthlei), to play Zenig of Aphorat.

Q: Is it possible to play Zenig of Aphorat in any location featuring the artifact attribute while Hastur is active ?

A: No. Although all Locations belong to the same Region, they do not belong to any specific region. That is, your Arkham Police Station may be in the same Region as Celæno, but they're not both in the Exotic Location Region.

To be more specific about Hastur's effect:

Mythos Digest 1:4
Q: Can you use Zenig of Aphorat to fill the requirement for something like Knee Deep in Doom20 points of monsters. Or would it be illegal, since Zenig of Aphorat says that it is only good for 1 card in an adventure.

A: Zenig of Aphorat cannot be used to fulfill the requirement of Knee Deep in Doom. There are several things it thus can't meet the requirement for, like Cthulhu being out when the adventure is played (Summon Great Cthulhu) and Summoning a Cultist from the Past (Seeking Everlasting Life 2).

Mythos Digest 1:56
Q: May Zenig of Aphorat be played to fulfill the secret society requirement?

A:The secret society requirement is something a card provides, so it can be replaced by a Zenig of Aphorat. The thing a Zenig of Aphorat can't replace is actions, which are honestly very scant (There's one about summoning a Cultist on Seeking Everlasting Life 2).

Mythos Digest 1:62
Q: If you stow Zenig of Aphorat in a Bank Vault, can you retrieve it any time as per the special effect on Bank Vault, or do you have to be in an Exotic Location to bury the Vault and retrieve it?

A: You can retrieve it whenever you bury the vault. But that only returns the cards to your hand. You still have to be at an Exotic Location to actually play it.

Mythos Digest 1:207
Q: An opponent buried my Zenig of Aphorat with a Mi-Go. Can I recover Zenig of Aphorat at The Docks by paying 2 points of Sanity?

A: Yes. Zenig of Aphorat may also be recovered at Harbor of Celephais and Porta Portese.

STRATEGIES

Playing Zenig of Aphorat

You may play Zenig of Aphorat at any Exotic Location with the Artifact attribute.

You may play Zenig of Aphorat at an Exotic Location after playing Discover Secret Cache or at an Exotic Location by using the special effect of an Ally: Miss Anna Tilton, Crawford Tillinghast, Faraz Najir, or Nikola Tesla. Note you then also bury Wandering Peddler to avoid paying the Sanity cost.

While your Current Location is a Travel Event, you possess the Region Color Bar and Dimensional Indicator of the Location you just left. You are never in a Subregion while upon a Travel Event. (Mythos Digest 1:62).The requirement for playing Zenig of Aphorat is an Exotic Location. If a player plays a Tramp Steamer to leave R'lyeh, Zenig of Aphorat may be played while on the Tramp Steamer. Tramp Steamer is outside in the region of the previous Current Location and it is an artifact Location, therefore a Tramp Steamer leaving R'lyeh is an Exotic, Artifact location.

Substitute for Difficult or Impossible Cards

Build Your Own Cathedral: Use Zenig of Aphorat as the Church requirement (of The Gathering, Lost in the Catacombs, and Yuggoth Attacks!) for decks set in Europe.

It's the King, baby! The play of Randolph Carter is a signal as to one's intent, so in Moon-Quest use Zenig of Aphorat to fulfill the requirement for King of Ilek-Vad, who normally may be played only by burying Randolph Carter.

It's My Membership Ring: Use Zenig of Aphorat as the membership in a secret society for Summon Great Cthulhu. If the special effect of an Adventure (for example, Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah) is used to fulfill that requirement, then the game is over when Summon Great Cthulhu is played. But when Zenig of Aphorat is used as the membership in a secret society, then the special effect of Summon Great CthulhuFrom this moment on, discard or bury the Cthulhu card as a result of card play only.) will apply as the game continues.

I've Made My Stand: Use Zenig of Aphorat to substitute for Stand Against the Order in Assault on Y'ha-Nthlei.

I'll Trade My Ring for a Ticket: The Cruise is playable in the Dreamlands if you use Zenig of Aphorat for the South Pacific Location and the Zoog Chieftan instead of Wakalea.


Subscribing to the Mythos Digest

The Mythos Digest is regularly reposted to rec.games.trading-cards.misc.To receive the Digest directly, send a subscribe command (subscribe mythos-digest) to Majordomo@chaosium.com.

Majordomo has an archive function that anyone can use to retrieve back issues of the Mythos Digest. To get a listing of all the files available,send the command "index listname" in the body of a message to majordomo@chaosium.com. If you send the command index mythos-digest, you'll get the following results:

index mythos-digest

total 70

-rw-rw---- 1 domo daemon 19501 Jun 30 19:34 v01.n001

-rw-rw---- 1 domo daemon 10351 Jul 4 00:35 v01.n002

-rw-rw---- 1 domo daemon 14648 Jul 7 02:28 v01.n003

-rw-rw---- 1 domo daemon 20876 Jul 7 12:28 v01.n004

You can then retrieve individual messages with the get command. The syntaxis get listname filename. To retrieve the first two files, send the following two commands to majordomo@chaosium.com, in the body of a message:

get mythos-digest v01.n001

get mythos-digest v01.n002

Each file will arrive as an individual message.

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