As I had had problems with the haunts in the Foul Misgivings scenario, on my next group I remembered to keep the ally Aldern Foxglove when I found him in an earlier adventure. So now I play Foul Misgivings with Seoni at the Academy holding the Aldern Foxglove ally card in her hand, while Seelah at the Prison encounters The Skinsaw Man; and suddenly the screen switches to Seoni, Aldern Foxglove disappears from her hand, and is replaced by the Stalker Mask, without me having done anything that could possibly cause that.

 

Did I overlook some rule here, or is this a bug? Not that the Stalker Mask is a bad item, but it felt weird for it to suddenly appear and Aldern to disappear. Furthermore I can't see the Aldern Foxglove ally card in the Vault / Gallery, and have no idea how to re-acquire him. Any ideas on that?

As I had had problems with the haunts in the Foul Misgivings scenario, on my next group I remembered to keep the ally Aldern Foxglove when I found him in an earlier adventure. So now I play Foul Misgivings with Seoni at the Academy holding the Aldern Foxglove ally card in her hand, while Seelah at the Prison encounters The Skinsaw Man; and suddenly the screen switches to Seoni, Aldern Foxglove disappears from her hand, and is replaced by the Stalker Mask, without me having done anything that could possibly cause that.

 

Did I overlook some rule here, or is this a bug? Not that the Stalker Mask is a bad item, but it felt weird for it to suddenly appear and Aldern to disappear. Furthermore I can't see the Aldern Foxglove ally card in the Vault / Gallery, and have no idea how to re-acquire him. Any ideas on that?

You may check out through the last couple of pages of the forum - turns out this is an Eastern egg from the devs (pretty cool, I must admit). Since the scenario says "if anyone encounters the Skinsaw Man you can't play Alder Foxglove for the rest of the scenario" - they replace the useless ally with a Loot.

 

I didn't know he disappears permanently however. In the card game, he's still a perfectly valid card to carry in your deck (though he can only be banished for its effects). But maybe the devs decided to remove him from the rest of the game for flavor reason (you might've figured it out, but Aldern is, in fact, the Skinsaw Man after all), in which case it makes sense not to see him in the Vault (though it should still be viewable in the Gallery and available for new parties)

Excellent explanation! I was at first confused about this as well, but it soon dawned on me what really happened, and I also think it's a pretty awesome easter egg!

Where do you get Aldern Foxglove?

He's an Ally 1.

So just random, not a reward?

Correct, just random.

I'm gonna have to track him down....must have easter eggs.

As far as I can remember, every single time I've beaten Local Heroes, I've gotten Aldern Foxglove as a reward. Now, I'll be the first to say that correlation != causation, small sample sizes, and all that. But given how the story plays out in AD1, it wouldn't surprise me if Aldern was indeed scripted to always appear as a reward for Local Heroes.

I Also have always get him in the Local heroes, so it seems to be scripted.

As far as I can remember, every single time I've beaten Local Heroes, I've gotten Aldern Foxglove as a reward. Now, I'll be the first to say that correlation != causation, small sample sizes, and all that. But given how the story plays out in AD1, it wouldn't surprise me if Aldern was indeed scripted to always appear as a reward for Local Heroes.

 

If it is a reward then I'll have to get him again with a new party, he isn't one of my current allies.

Out of interest, what are the abilities of the stalker helm? Sounds kinda cool and might have to try and acquire to sate my OCD-ness. 

Out of interest, what are the abilities of the stalker helm? Sounds kinda cool and might have to try and acquire to sate my OCD-ness. 

Pretty underwhelming. You can check it yourself. in the Gallery, Adventure 2 - Loot tab.

Ah yes, thought it might have been greyed out until you discovered it like the treasure cards. Hmm, kind of 'okayish' (looks great though).