You rub your tired eyes. The horrors and atrocities you have witnessed in the jungle have only fed your doubts of the divine. Suddenly, you have a realization. The power to endure is within each and every one of us. Instead of waiting for an all-powerful hand’s direction, you can help to awaken this strength in others. You will champion those around you, and you will guide them out of the darkness.

Presenting the return of Father Mateo as the latest parallel investigator for Arkham Horror: The Card Game!

Guidance from Within

Originally appearing as a beacon of hope in The Forgotten Age, Father Mateo (Parallel Investigators, 81) returns just when Arkham needs him most! By empowering those to find their own internal strength, Father Mateo is able to seal a bless token on an investigator at his location. The next time that investigator would reveal a token, they can resolve the bless token on their investigator card instead. The bless token is then released back into the bag, where it may continue to affect other tests throughout the game.

And Father Mateo does not return alone. An improved The Codex of Ages (Parallel Investigators, 82) now may now either seal the elder sign or up to 3 bless tokens, allowing Father Mateo to release blesses on command. The benefit of sealing a token on The Codex is improved as well. Instead of providing just +1 willpower, all of Father Mateo’s skills will receive a +1 as long as a token is sealed on The Codex of Ages.

Unfortunately, with such powerful tools and abilities within Mateo’s reach, the power of the mythos has also risen to match his new strength. Serpents of Yig (Parallel Investigators, 83) are back, but with an improved overall stat line. In addition, their Revelation effect now targets each in-play bless token, as well as the elder sign token. When Serpents of Yig are in play, there will be a far more limited amount of bless tokens, so defeating them should always be priority. No hope can last while Yig stirs.

The last and final change to Father Mateo is his deckbuilding requirements. He is now able to take Blessed cards between levels 0-5, as well as cards that “seal” between levels 0-5. This allows him to take on a new role as a support character for other investigators, or to just grant himself greater control over the chaos of the Mythos. Mateo’s new ability is uniquely suited to power cards like Ofuda (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion, 22) and Evanescent Ascension (The Feast of Hemlock Vale IE, 39), especially when paired with Favor of the Sun (The Innsmouth Conspiracy Investigator Expansion, 272). With new access to cards like Blessed Blade (The Feast of Hemlock Vale IE, 34) and Unrelenting (The Innsmouth Conspiracy IE, 196), Father Mateo becomes a force to be reckoned with!

In the Face of Despair

Father Mateo is ready to guide lost souls with his brand new parallel and advanced cards. And remember, you can mix and match his parallel front and backs with his original front and backs, giving you a ton of versatility in how you create a deck for him. If you want to try out the parallel version of Father Mateo, you can download the cards (21 MB) and the rules insert (5 MB) today.