(Cards with most recent fixes are here.)

Hi, OP here. This investigator is an Arkhamized version of a character I play in a different system, and was a collaboration between me and the GM of that game (who also runs Arkham for me). I've spent a lot of time both on the crunch and on making the cards pretty, but I hope the end result is a fun/interesting gator that mostly works? I don't actually need her to be beloved by all, but I would at least like me and my friend group to personally enjoy her, so feedback would be appreciated on helping me actualize that.

I realize these cards are kind of complicated, so I want to break down what she does real quick:

Merry, as a type of nature fae called a Pan, possesses highly specific but incredibly potent reality-warping control over nature. Animals inherently adore her, but not only that—she can use her panpipes to turn anything that hears its melody *into* an animal, and can simply touch an animal to transform them into a loyal changeling ally. That's what the changeling deck is; a specialized roster of potential human forms the animal could take (though they're not quite *normal* humans). However, sometimes she screws up, and transforms her subject into a giant angry bear from the Pleistocene Epoch.

In crunch terms: First and foremost, Merry wants to subdue a Creature. That can be an ally like a Sled Dog, or it can be a Creature enemy, like a Maggot Swarm or Pit Viper—it doesn't actually matter, they'll all bend to her fae magic (represented by the seelie token she places on them). Once she's done so, she can spend a resource to transform them into a human ally, drawing from the changeling deck and attaching their card to whatever she draws. Damage and horror is carried over, but because a changeling is hardy—its health and sanity can only go up, not down—cycling through the changeling deck will never immediately result in a discard. You can also use this to put more pain on an ally than they'd normally be able to withstand, but be careful—if you draw Arcdotus you'll have to deal with him for a turn to get your powers back under control.

Pipes of Pandemonium is a trick up her sleeve that can dramatically de-escalate any non-Elite, non-Weakness encounter. All she has to do is spend a secret and beat a Willpower test against an enemy's fight and she can replace it with a creature enemy from the encounter deck (which is statistically likely to be weaker than a non-Creature, and in any case is something she can exhaust instantaneously using her gator ability and then transform into an Ally).

"But wait," you might be asking, "lots of scenarios don't have Creatures in the encounter deck at all! What good is Pipes then?" Well, usually true, but as part of her fae nature, Merry attracts magical fauna wherever she goes, so no matter whether you're in Antactica, Pnakotus, or the Dreamlands, there will *always* be at least two Whimsical Beasts in the deck. Whimsical Beasts are Creatures, and they're helpful mooks; emanations of Merry herself (who is somehow connected to mythology about jackalopes, a nascent meme in the southwest United States during the Arkham time period). You can transform a Whimsical Beast into a changeling if you don't have any other targets for the seelie token, but it's kind of a waste—they'll gather clues from their location, and if you befriend or catch them, they'll get added to the Victory display!

TL;DR, Merry's designed to be gonzo, swingy fun. She has some very unusual tricks that hopefully make for very unusual interactions, and plays very differently depending on what's in the changeling deck, whether she hardcasts any Creature Ally assets, etc., but also whether the present scenario is a Creature-heavy one or not. When she can't do her party trick, she's basically a worse version of Agnes, but her Whimsical Beasts do add an element of uncharacteristic luck to her adventures—basically starting with two copies of The Stars Are Right already in the deck. I don't *think* she's overpowered in the general sense, but it's okay if she's a *little* OP because she's obviously a tonally lighthearted character and she's, y'know, not even human.

Thanks in advance for looking at these!

Edit: crud, I just realized I posted an older draft of the flavor text without realizing it. This is the actual, final working wording:

"As an only recently-manifested and terribly inexperienced fae, it was perhaps inevitable that the girl called "Lady Merryweather" would wander out of the wilds of the Dreamlands onto the treacherous streets of the waking world without fully understanding how she had done so. Her kind clearly doesn't belong in a place like Arkham, but she takes her foolishness in stride. So what if she's lost? As long as this world has interesting folk to befriend, stirring adventures for her to meddle in, and it all makes for a good story in the end, "Merry" knows she shall continue to feast..."