Encountering the Wendigo in the Cabin in the Snow *RotR Spoilers*

[elcoderdude]

I have a question about timing when encountering the Wendigo villain in the RotR scenario Cabin in the Snow. I am surprised it hasn't been asked before, although perhaps I overlooked it.

In our six-character party, when we encounted the Wendigo, three characters had previously encountered a Cannibal Haunt each. Each haunt had been placed next to each character's card, increasing the difficulty of the character's checks by 1.

The scenario has this power:

Cabin in the Snow wrote:

When the Wendigo is encountered, anyone may banish any number of Haunts from in front of his character. Until the end of the turn, the difficulty of any check to defeat the Wendigo is decreased by 2 for each banished Haunt.

The Wendigo has this power:

Wendigo wrote:

Before the encounter, each character must succeed at a Wisdom 12 check or the difficulty of that character's checks is increased by 2 for the rest of the turn.

When we encountered the Wendigo, each character was in position to temp close the remaining open locations. (We had scouted the Wendigo). The question is, in what order do we apply the effects, relative to temp closing?

Because the rules say each character may immediately attempt to temp close their locations, I think temp closing attempts should take place prior to the banishing of haunts and prior to the Wendigo's before-the-encounter check.

So the order should be:
1) Attempt temp closings, with haunts increasing the difficulty by 1 for characters that have them
2) Banish haunts
3) Attempt the Wisdom 12 check

This order makes the Wisdom 12 check irrelevant for any character except the one encountering the Wendigo, except for checks to recharge cards, as far as I can tell.

Does this sound correct?

[Andrew L Klein]

That's how I would, and probably did, play it. It isn't going to affect temp closes, and is mostly for the combat and recharges.

Of course, you could always fail to defeat him, keep exploring, and find him in your deck again, so I supposed there is a slim chance of it affecting temp closes!

[Vic Wertz]

It took a year and a half to get this working the way we wanted. Added to FAQ.

[Mike Selinker]

Seriously. We spent literally every minute of those eighteen months working on this.

[Vic Wertz]

The title Mike gave this issue in our tracking system is "When does the Wendigo go?"

Other fun issue titles:

Jolly Roger, or "Where You Display a Card Matters."
Playing Cards that Don't Do Anything
Damiel, Jack, and the Bomb
Endurance's Endurance
The Deviltry of Imps
Did You Know?—Summoned Copies
Defining "box"
Chuffy, or "can you do a thing you can't do?"
What happens after you die?
"Or"
Should Mendevian Crusader be Mendevian?
must I give my teammate a ride?
Cleanup on Aisle "Attempting a Check..."
Owner ownership
Are dead characters "characters"?
infinite everything
What "you" means
Dinosaurs are Animals too!
Barl Breakbones and You
Soulshear, but not really
Can examining your deck kill you?
Moving in mid-encounter really screws things up.

[Frencois]

I guess the answer was blowing in the wind my friends...

[Mike Selinker]

Vic Wertz wrote:

The title Mike gave this issue in our tracking system is "When does the Wendigo go?"

My two favorites of our bug-tracking issue titles are "Timing of Rage" and "Man's Promise when wrecked," which when taken together basically summarize my life.

[elcoderdude]

I'm bummed that I started this thread, and did not remember it when Mike asked the what-other-card-gets-a-FAQ question. I'm getting old.

But now it does make sense.