Rod of Carnamagos
Scepter of the Mad Seer

Supporto. Hand

Item. Relic. Occult. Cursed.

Costi: 2. XP: 2.

Mistico

Choose a non-Elite enemy at any location and exhaust Rod of Carnamagos: Reveal 5 random chaos tokens from the chaos bag. For each token revealed, you may search your bonded cards for a Rot event and attach it to that enemy.

Borja Pindado
The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion #98.
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FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Does using Rod of Carnamagos during the investigation when using Eye of Chaos count as "revealing a during the investigation". A: Yes; if you use Eye of Chaos to initiate an investigation, and then use the ability on Rod of Carnamagos during a player window in that skill test, those tokens are considered “revealed during this investigation” and you can resolve the effect on Eye of Chaos. (April 2024)
Last updated

Reviews

Since nobody wrote a review of it yet: This card (and to a lesser, but not very low degree it's downgrade) is freaking nuts! Not only because of it's obviously useful ability to make all kind of debuffs to non-Elite enemies, gives a great toy with Abyssal Rot to fellow Alessandra or Trish players and even a nice econ option for yourself with Aember Rot, but it can be triggered in any player window, including during tests (before or after committing cards). This makes for a bonkers combo piece with the Innsmouth set of Spell assets, as the tokens revealed will count for the effect, and you put them back into the bag before the "actual" reveal token step of the test, so you might draw them again. Just notice, that there must be a non-Elite enemy to be targeted on the board.

You can soup up this cheeky trick with Olive McBride. Reveal 4 tokens normal, then for your fifth, with the new level 2 version, reveal 4 and cancel 2 of them. Note, that in case you draw 3 or 4 tokens with Olive, you can only count 2 of them, the cancelled ones are not considered to be drawn for the later effect on your Eye of Chaos or Armageddon. I repeatedly managed to first charge up my spells with enough charges to last an entire scenario, then used the reveals for extra damage or clues. Since you can't discover additional clues on a on your (only a connecting) location, I was less conservative with charges on the Eye than on Armageddon, because I would get extra charges later on, when there were no clues on connecting locations anyway. Obviously, Shroud of Shadows should be similar good in this combo. I did not take it, as I rather used Occult Reliquary for a hand slot for the Rod and did not have the deck slot for another card with additional arcane slot.

Of course, this can be abused for other skill tests as well. Like on the new set of upgrades of DreamEaters Spell events, which I'm pretty sure will foreshadow other Spell upgrades, based on the return on succeed by x design pattern we've seen in . Probably even Song of the Dead might be build around, though I would rather not. Just as I wrote this review, I noticed another one suggesting .35 Winchester as combo piece. As I mentioned in another review, it is a fantastic enabler for macabre depiction on Living Ink. Revealing the token you want on a test has never being easier than with this card.

Susumu · 363
Bring curses of aeons along if you want to play song of the dead to convert the curses to a skull. — Tharzax · 1
Haha, that is cool tech! Though, the longevity of 5 charges of SotD will likely be shorter than 3 on Armageddon, which can easily pull you through a scenario. — Susumu · 363
Nkosi will also work if you draw any other symbol with the rod. But someone other need to do the math if he is better than the olives — Tharzax · 1
Yes, I did consider him, but prefered taking Gabriel instead. And as a third ally with second Charisma, he seemed too expensive. Olive I could upgrade on discound, thanks to DtRH. In retrospect, he would have been worth it as final upgrade for "Fate of the Vale", where replacing Cultist, Tablet and Elder Thing would get additional value, and I would have had the XP for that, but this we did not know on our blind run, and we've won the campaign anyway. — Susumu · 363
With this ruling also the mediocre cards miracle wish and seal of the elders starts getting interesting. I think I need to build a kohaku deck around this. — Tharzax · 1
I think, they gave the Rod it's unrestricted free trigger to enable these cards. But making the Innsmouth spell suite de facto unrestricted by charges is where it becomes busted. EoC (4) becomes basically 6thS (4) PLUS RoS (2) combined in only 1 arcane slot and activated in 1 action, without ever fearing to run out of RoS charges. — Susumu · 363
I'm pretty sure this doesn't work, I'm afraid. See the FAQ section reproduced at https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Resolving_Multiple_Revealed_Chaos_Tokens — tjm · 1
"Additionally, when resolving multiple chaos tokens, any game or card effects which trigger if a certain chaos token is revealed - such as the text "If the named chaos token is revealed during this skill test..." on Recall the Future - will trigger if any of the resolved chaos tokens meet the specified conditions." - In other words, effects that are written to care about tokens "revealed" during the skill test actually care about tokens **resolved** during the skill test. Rod's tokens are revealed, but they're not resolved. (If it didn't work like this, you could get Ritual Candles triggers off cancelled Dark Prophecy tokens, for example.) — tjm · 1
Edit: Never mind my last two answers, apparently there has been an email ruling that isn't posted on this page that reverses the old FAQ rules and allows this combo to work. So go nuts (at least until they change their minds again). — tjm · 1

This is completely nuts with parallel Jim Culver. The more I play with it, the more I think it's the best card in the set.

Beyond the synergy previous mention about using the player window for a Eye of Chaos, Armageddon, & Shroud of Shadows:

  • It can choose a non-elite enemy anywhere!

  • It's , so as long as there is an enemy, there is no reason not to use it.

  • It's easy to trigger & triggers often!

  • You choose the rot & they have amazing utility.

  • You can apply multiple rots with a single use.

  • Abyssal Rot - MVP. Removes the main threat of most enemies. Choose wisely, there is only one.

  • Virescent Rot - locks down hunters, patrollers, & elusive enemies often neutralizing them.

  • Scarlet Rot - Helps rid monsters that spawn far away, are aloof, or ones with doom on them.

  • Putrescent Rot - Helps other Investigators with monsters engaged on them.

  • Aember Rot - Least used, but free resources! Pair with scarlet rot.

Two must includes are Favor of the Moon & Dawn Star! Favor can get a guaranteed trigger & dawn star can kill additional monsters when swarmed.

My personal best is 17 damage in a single attack, killing 3 enemies.

  • Fight with Armageddon.
  • use Rod of Carnamagos during skill test (revealed 2 curses)
  • used both Favor of the Moon to reveal 2 more curses + 1 curse pulled from the chaos bag after.
  • Spend both Dawn Star to negate the modifiers & deal +5 damage each.
  • 17 damage = 7 Armageddon + 5 per Dawn star + 2 rots!
Calprinicus · 5788
I think, Dawn Star would not work with the tokens revealed by the Rod. It does not count the curse tokens revealed during the test, it counts the ones, where it ignores their modifier. The tokens from the Rod are revealed, so they count for Armageddon and other cards, that care about tokens being revealed, but they have no modifier, and hence imho, their modifier can't be ignored by "Dawn Star". — Susumu · 363
Favor of the Moon is unique — OrionAnderson · 66
I second both Susumu (rod tokens dont trigger Dawn Star) and OrionAnderson (Favor of the Moon is unique) but its still a 10 damage action. Nice ! — drfrigof · 1