Some small Innsmouth spoilers below. For the context, it was three players going all-in on curse token plays.

I played this "can't move" Rot on turn one during Horror in High Gear, suddenly making the scenario a cakewalk. High chases aren't usually that thrilling when the chasers are several miles behind:) That felt pretty cheesy, especially as it was the fan-made Return to, which fixed some previously known cheesy plays like, for example, Luke+barricade, but could not handle the Rod. Previously in same campaign I've used the "can't attack" Rot on Deep One Bull in the Pit of Despair, which not only eliminated the threat, but also changed usually quite annoying Deep one assaults into very mild "choose and discard one card from your hand" - the Bull was never disengaged, so when the Assault was drawn, the Bull just disengaged and reengaged me. Still needed to clear the other enemies, of course, but all the other non-elites are much more reasonable for scenario 1. Now imagine the same "can't attack" Rot on any non-elite enemy in any campaign when playing alongside Trish. Even easier than the Handcuffs trick. Also, still in the same campaign, I felt like my Olive McBride underperformed, since her intended use was for Eye of Chaos/Armageddon tests, but tapping the Rod is much less risky, even when Olive was upgraded.

Now, my point is, in that campaign I tried the Rod for the first time and had no intentions of breaking or cheesing the game. After that experience I am afraid that there could be much more really broken stuff to be found with the Rod and its Rots.

Two interesting facts about this cards:

• you're picking up a clue from location but test is not against location shroud value, but it's just (1) (+ number of suspicions)
• you do not perform investigate action, but parley, so if locations can't be investigated (due to some Mythos cards, like Locked Door/Obscuring Fog) you can still pick a clue from it, ignoring obstacle.

For the F.A.Q.: How does it interact with cards like "Serpent Guardian" which have a condition that loses aloof? We used this card on it after it lost aloof, so it gained it back, but the Guardian is worded as a constant effect.

The Rod feels impossible to review, due to the complete disconnect between what the card says it does, and what it really does.

It says you get to apply Rot to non-elite enemies. In practice, it lets you trigger "whenever a symbol is revealed during a skill test" triggers on your cards far more often, and more reliably, than it ought to.

I have a feeling a taboo for this card is inevitable, what do we think it will be? I think the most elegant way to make sure the card is only used for its intended purpose would be to make it require an action to use - no more using it during skill tests.

How is there no review for this card?!

Absolute banger with the right setup.

The new line "If a symbol was revealed during this investigation, return Read the Signs to your hand at the end of your turn." changes friggin EVERYTHING.

Play it in blurse, play it with Olive, play it as Sister Mary or Jacqueline Fine, and consistently grab 2 clues per turn. Bonus points if the Signs say "TCU" - the haunter becomes the haunted!

Heck, the upgrade also boomerangs back if you fail, letting you say "um, okay, I'll just try again next round".

The only caveat: It costs you 2 resources every time, which can get expensive, so you better put on your Robes of Endless Night, which conveniently also only triggers once per round. Alternatively, checking out Prophetic could be worth it, although personally I don't like these kind of cards.

I battle-tested this in the last two Hemlock Vale scenarios and had a blast :)

Side Note: The same goes for Spectral Razor and Ethereal Form, but I think Read the Signs is the most viable overall. However, if you deck-build around symbols I'd probably run them too.