Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) – Ariad Lieutenant Pack Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Lieutenant Pack Rules
  • Introduction
  • Plot Cards
  • Gaining Threat Tokens
  • Purchasing and Triggering Plot Cards
    • Plot Card Anatomy
  • Threat and Fortune
  • Spending Threat Tokens
  • Spending Fortune Tokens
  • Agents
    • Agent Card Anatomy
  • Monster Sizes and Traits
• Ariad Lieutenant Pack Cards
  • Ariad Plot Cards
    • Misdirection
    • Tainted Blood
    • Intricate Schemes
    • Malediction
    • Mirage
    • Enthrall
    • Phantasm
    • Darkness Falls
    • The Ritual Continues
    • Summon - Ariad
  • Ariad Agent Cards

Lieutenant Pack Rules

Introduction

Lieutenant packs expand Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition by providing unique plastic figures that can be used to replace lieutenant tokens in quests. In addition, these packs introduce a new layer of strategy and progression for overlord players with the introduction of Plot and Agent cards.

Plot Cards

After hero players choose their classes at the start of a campaign, the overlord may choose one Plot deck. He will use his chosen deck for the duration of the campaign. After the overlord chooses his Plot deck, he takes the basic card (the Plot card with no purchase cost) and places it faceup in his play area. Then, he takes all remaining Plot cards that have the same deck name and places them facedown in his play area. He may look at his facedown Plot cards at any time.

Plot cards are upgrades the overlord player may purchase throughout the course of a campaign. They provide the overlord with special abilities that are available to him when the card is faceup in his play area. Plot cards are different from Overlord cards; the overlord does not add them to his Overlord deck, and he purchases them in a different way.

Important: The overlord player can only use Plot and Agent cards when playing a campaign.

Gaining Threat Tokens

Each time a hero is defeated during an encounter, instead of drawing one Overlord card, the overlord may choose to gain one threat token. The overlord can only gain threat tokens in this way once per hero per quest. If he chooses to gain a threat token, the overlord takes one hero token belonging to the hero and places it near his Plot deck as a reminder that he has gained a threat token for defeating that hero. In addition, there are a number of other ways in which the overlord may gain threat tokens:

• At the end of each quest, the overlord receives one threat token. If the overlord wins the quest, he receives one additional threat token.
• During the Spend Experience Points step of any Campaign phase, the overlord may spend any number of his experience points to gain three threat tokens for each experience point he spends.
• Each time the overlord plays a Rumor card featuring a quest, he gains one threat token. Rumor cards and applicable rules are included in some Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition expansions.

Each time the overlord gains one threat token, he takes one token from the threat and fortune supply and places it in his play area with the threat side faceup. Each threat token the overlord gains during a campaign remains in his play area until he spends it. Between quests, the overlord player records the amount of unspent threat tokens in the Campaign log. He may spend this threat at a future point during the campaign.

Purchasing and Triggering Plot Cards

Each Plot card has a purchase cost that indicates the number of threat tokens the overlord must spend to purchase the card. During the Spend Experience Points step of each Campaign phase, the overlord player may purchase any of his facedown Plot cards by spending threat tokens equal to the Plot card's purchase cost (see "Plot Card Anatomy"). He places purchased Plot cards faceup in his play area and can use them in all future quests during the campaign.

The overlord can trigger abilities on a faceup Plot card as specified on the card. Each time he triggers a Plot card ability that requires him to "exhaust this card" or "use this card", he must spend a number of threat tokens equal to the Plot card's trigger cost (see "Plot Card Anatomy").

Plot Card Anatomy

1. Name: This area displays the name of the Plot card.
2. Purchase Cost: This area displays the number of threat tokens it costs to purchase the card. The overlord begins play with his basic Plot card. These basic cards have no purchase cost.
3. Ability: This area describes all rules for the Plot card, including when the card can be triggered.
4. Deck Name: This area displays the Plot deck to which the card belongs.
5. Trigger Cost: This area displays the number of threat tokens it costs to trigger this card's effect.

Threat and Fortune

Threat and fortune are represented by different sides of the same token. The red side of the token represents threat, and the white side represents fortune. During setup, place these tokens in a supply within easy reach of all players.

The overlord player may spend threat tokens he has gained (see "Gaining Threat Tokens") to purchase or trigger abilities described on Plot cards. A hero may spend fortune tokens to receive certain benefits (see "Spending Fortune Tokens").

Spending Threat Tokens

When the overlord spends threat tokens, they are either returned to the supply or placed on Hero sheets as follows:

• Purchasing Plot cards: During the Spend Experience Points step of the Campaign phase, each threat token spent to purchase Plot cards is returned to the supply.
• Triggering Plot cards: Each time the overlord spends a threat token to trigger a Plot card, he must flip the token to its fortune side and place it on the Hero sheet which currently possesses the lowest number of fortune tokens.

If there is a tie, the heroes choose which hero among the tied heroes gains the token. If the overlord spends more than one threat token, he follows this process once for each token spent.

Spending Fortune Tokens

Heroes may spend fortune tokens to trigger any of the following abilities:

• 1 fortune token: During his turn, a hero may recover 1 [black drop icon].
• 1 fortune token: After dice are rolled, a hero may reroll 1 of his dice.
• 2 fortune tokens: After performing his two normal actions, a hero may immediately perform one additional action. Limit once per round per hero.
• 2 fortune tokens: During the Shopping step of the Campaign phase, heroes may collectively spend their fortune tokens to draw 1 additional Shop Item card.

When a hero spends a fortune token, he returns it to the threat and fortune supply. Heroes cannot trade their fortune tokens to other heroes. After the Shopping step of each Campaign phase, heroes return all fortune tokens on their Hero sheets to the threat and fortune supply.

Transcription note: The leaflet's text layer contains a glyph that does not extract as text. Rendered from the printed page, it is a single solid black drop icon with no name printed beside it, so it is shown above as "[black drop icon]". Check the printed leaflet if the exact icon name is needed.

Agents

Some Plot cards allow the overlord to use a lieutenant figure as an agent in an open monster group. The Agent card corresponding to the current act lists the agent's characteristics, abilities, and attack dice. An agent is treated as a master monster within its open monster group with the following exceptions:

• Regardless of quest rules, an agent cannot be placed as a reinforcement.
• When an agent is defeated, the overlord must return the Plot card that summoned the agent back to his Plot deck. The card may be purchased again.
• As described on the Plot card, the overlord cannot use an agent in any quest that features the lieutenant version of that agent. Additionally, the overlord cannot use some agents in specific campaigns. For example, the overlord cannot use Baron Zachareth as an agent while playing "The Shadow Rune" campaign because it features Baron Zachareth as an important lieutenant in that campaign.

Plot cards that allow the overlord to summon an agent often require him to replace master and minion monsters of an open group after setup of an encounter. If the overlord cannot meet the replacement requirements, he replaces the entire open group.

When an agent is placed in a monster group, that agent and the monsters in that group are treated as if they are part of the same monster group. While the agent is on the map, the overlord cannot use the monster figures it replaced as reinforcements, regardless of quest rules.

The overlord cannot summon an agent during an Interlude or a Finale. Unlike lieutenants, an agent cannot wield a relic.

Agent Card Anatomy

Agent card front and back.

1. Name: This area displays the name of the agent.
2. Abilities: This area lists all the abilities for the agent.
3. Characteristics: This area lists the characteristics (Speed, Health, and Defense) of the agent. The agent's characteristics differ depending on the number of heroes playing (represented by the gray silhouettes).
4. Attack Type Icon: This icon shows the type of attack (Melee or Ranged) the agent has.
5. Dice: This area lists the dice used by the agent when performing an attack.
6. Ability Rules: This area explains the full details of the agent's abilities.
7. Deck Name: This area displays the Plot deck to which the Agent card belongs.

Monster Sizes and Traits

Many Plot cards have effects that interact with monsters that have specific monster traits or sizes. Monster size is defined by the number of spaces the monster's base occupies:

• Small monsters occupy one space (e.g., goblin archers and zombies).
• Medium monsters occupy two spaces (e.g., barghests).
• Huge monsters occupy four spaces (e.g., ettins and merriods).
• Massive monsters occupy six spaces (e.g., shadow dragons).

Note: medium, huge, and massive monsters are still large monsters for the purposes of movement and quest rules.

Ariad Lieutenant Pack Cards

Each Plot card shows its purchase cost as the small red number at the top right of the card face, and its trigger cost as the large red number at the bottom right. The Dark Illusions deck name and card number (for example "2/12") are printed in the footer. The pack has 10 Plot cards, whose footers run from 1/12 to 10/12, and 2 Agent cards; the Agent face on the scan is numbered 12/12.

Missing from the card scan: Plot card 1/12 (Misdirection) and Plot card 4/12 (Malediction) are not on the scan that this transcription was made from. Their text is not included below and has not been reconstructed. The scan also contains no Act I Agent card face (the Agent faces that were found both read Act II); that face is not transcribed either.

Ariad Plot Cards

Icons on the card faces are rendered as words: the heart icon as damage, the wedge icon as surge, the shield icon as shield, and the arrow icon as [arrow icon]. The black drop icon is shown as [black drop icon], the same icon used in the leaflet's Spending Fortune Tokens section. The spiked-burst test icon is shown as [spiked-burst icon]. The card does not print the names of these icons, so the bracketed names are transcriber's renderings of the icons, not printed names.

Misdirection

Dark Illusions 1/12 · Purchase cost: not available · Trigger cost: not available

Missing: the card scan for this card was not available, so its text is not transcribed here.

Tainted Blood

Dark Illusions 2/12 · Purchase cost: 1 · Trigger cost: 1

Use this card after setup of an encounter to choose one of your monster groups. During this encounter, that monster group gains the Cursed monster trait.

Place 1 threat token from the supply on that group's Monster card as a reminder.

Intricate Schemes

Dark Illusions 3/12 · Purchase cost: 1 · Trigger cost: 0

During the Choose Next Quest step of the Campaign Phase, each time you would choose the next quest to be played, you may force the heroes to choose which quest will be played next. If you do, gain 3 threat tokens.

Malediction

Dark Illusions 4/12 · Purchase cost: not available · Trigger cost: not available

Missing: the card scan for this card was not available, so its text is not transcribed here.

Mirage

Dark Illusions 5/12 · Purchase cost: 2 · Trigger cost: 1

Exhaust this card when a hero resolves an attack that does not deal at least 1 damage (after the defense roll). Remove 1 monster affected by this attack from the map and place it in an empty space within 3 spaces of its original space.

If that monster has the Cursed monster trait, the attacking hero suffers 1 [black drop icon].

Enthrall

Dark Illusions 6/12 · Purchase cost: 2 · Trigger cost: 1

Exhaust this card at the start of your turn to choose 1 monster. Each hero in that monster's line of sight tests [spiked-burst icon]. If that monster has the Cursed monster trait, add 1 shield to the results of each test. You may move each hero who fails 2 spaces.

Phantasm

Dark Illusions 7/12 · Purchase cost: 3 · Trigger cost: 1

Exhaust this card when a hero attacks a master monster with the Cursed monster trait, before dice are rolled. While this card is exhausted, each attack that targets that monster must roll 3 range in addition to any other range requirements, or the attack is a miss.

Darkness Falls

Dark Illusions 8/12 · Purchase cost: 3 · Trigger cost: 1

Exhaust this card at the start of your turn. Until the start of your next turn, line of sight for Ranged attacks can only be measured up to a range of 2. Monsters with the Cursed monster trait, lieutenants, and agents are not affected by this card.

This card does not refresh as normal. Refresh this card at the end of each encounter.

The Ritual Continues

Dark Illusions 9/12 · Purchase cost: 4 · Trigger cost: 0

At the start of each encounter, place fatigue tokens on this card equal to the number of heroes. Each of your master monsters gains:

[arrow icon]: Discard 1 fatigue token from "The Ritual Continues."

At the end of each encounter, if there are no fatigue tokens on this card, gain 2 threat tokens. Then, discard all tokens from this card.

Summon - Ariad

Dark Illusions 10/12 · Purchase cost: 3 · Trigger cost: 2

Exhaust this card after setup of an encounter to choose an open monster group. Replace 1 master and 1 minion monster in that group with the Ariad agent.

If the Ariad agent is defeated, return this card to your Plot deck.

You cannot use this card in any quest that uses the Ariad or Queen Ariad lieutenant.

Ariad Agent Cards

The Ariad agent card is printed on two faces: a front with the agent's abilities (card 12/12) and a back with its characteristics and attack bar (the back also carries the act numeral, II, in the bottom-right corner). Both faces read Act II. The arrow icon printed before an ability name is shown as [arrow icon], as above; the card does not name it.

Ariad Agent, Front (12/12)

Agent · Dark Illusions 12/12

Contempt: Each time Ariad performs an attack that targets a hero with a Condition card, that attack gains +1 damage.

[arrow icon] Despair: Each hero within 3 spaces of Ariad tests [spiked-burst icon]. Each hero that fails suffers 2 [black drop icon].

[arrow icon] Cursed Assault: Perform an attack that targets each hero in Ariad's line of sight. If insufficient range is rolled for any one target, the entire attack is a miss.

Ariad Agent, Back (Act II)

Agent · Dark Illusions · Act II

• Abilities listed: "Contempt" (no icon), "Despair" and "Cursed Assault" (both with the arrow icon).
• Attack bar: two surge icons, followed by +3 damage.
• Attack type: ranged (bow icon).
• Dice: blue, yellow and yellow.

Heroes	Speed	Health	Defense
2	4	14	one dark grey defense die face
3	4	16	one dark grey and one brown defense die face
4	4	18	one dark grey and one brown defense die face

Transcription note: The Agent card rows are read by hero count from the silhouettes printed beside each row (two, three and four silhouettes). Defense faces are read from the coloured hexagons on the card face; the card does not name the die types, so they are given by colour as printed. The attack-bar surge and damage icons are rendered as words from the printed icons. The Act I Agent face is not on the scan (see above).