Elder Sign: Omens of the Pharaoh Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Using This Expansion
  • Omens of the Pharaoh Expansion Icon
• Playing Other Game Modes
• Lightless Pyramid Setup
• Lightless Pyramid Rules
  • Cairo and Dashur
  • Using The Entrance Card
  • Mask Monsters
  • The Expedition
  • Egyptian Adventure Cards
  • Special Adventure Cards
  • Dark Pharaoh Special Adventures
  • Hidden Chamber Special Adventures
• Additional Rules
  • Relics
  • The Exhibit
  • New Doom Icon
  • Midnight Icon on Monsters
  • New Rewards and Penalties
  • Split Rewards and Penalties
  • Entry Effects
  • New Mythos Cards
  • Expert Mythos Variant
  • Calvin Wright
• Midnight Effect Timing
• New Ancient Ones
  • Haunter of the Dark
  • Nephren-Ka
  • Nyarlathotep

Components

• 50 Egyptian Adventure Cards
• 8 Special Adventure Cards
• 3 Ancient One Cards
• 6 Investigator Cards
• 1 Cairo/Dashur Entrance Card
• 16 Relic Cards
• 4 Ally Cards
• 30 Egyptian Mythos Cards
• 8 Expedition Tokens
• 8 Monster Markers (including 7 Mask Monsters)
• 6 Investigator Markers
• 1 Double-Sided Scenario Sheet

Using This Expansion

Omens of the Pharaoh provides a new way in which to enjoy Elder Sign: the Lightless Pyramid game mode. The Lightless Pyramid game mode takes investigators away from Arkham and sends them to the Egyptian city of Cairo. It uses new Adventure cards and Mythos cards, as well as new mechanics exclusive to the sands of Egypt.

Omens of the Pharaoh Expansion Icon

Most components in this expansion are marked with the Omens of the Pharaoh expansion icon to distinguish them from the base game components.

Playing Other Game Modes

The Egyptian Adventure cards, the new Mythos cards, the Expedition side of the scenario sheet, and the "Cairo"/"Dashur" entrance card found in the Omens of the Pharaoh expansion are only used when playing the Lightless Pyramid game mode. All other content found in this expansion can be played with the base game or any other game mode.

Lightless Pyramid Setup

When playing the Lightless Pyramid game mode, perform the setup for a normal game, modified in the following manner:

1. Entrance: Replace the entrance sheet with the entrance card from Omens of the Pharaoh. Place it with the "Cairo" side faceup.
2. The Expedition: Place "The Expedition" scenario sheet near the play area. Then place the eight expedition tokens near "The Expedition" scenario sheet.
3. Choose Ancient One: Choose any Ancient One to challenge. It is recommended for your first Lightless Pyramid game that you play with one of the new Ancient Ones included in Omens of the Pharaoh.
4. New Cards: Combine the Ally cards from the Omens of the Pharaoh expansion with the Ally deck from Elder Sign and any other expansions that are in play. Shuffle the new Relic cards and place them near the other cards.
5. Add Monsters: Add the new standard monster marker to the monster cup. Then, add all mask monsters, including those from the base game of Elder Sign and any other expansions that are in play, to the monster cup. Important Note: If you are playing against the Omens of the Pharaoh version of Nyarlathotep, follow the instructions for mask monsters on Nyarlathotep's Ancient One card instead.
6. New Adventure Cards: Separate the new Egyptian Adventure cards by stage and shuffle each stage separately to form a Stage I "Cairo" deck and a Stage II "Dashur" deck. Then, replace the Adventure deck from Elder Sign with the two new decks made up of only the new Egyptian Adventure cards provided in this expansion. Make sure to include the Hidden Chamber special adventures in the Stage II "Dashur" deck.
7. Modify Setup: Replace Step 4 of the core game setup with the following:

Lightless Pyramid Rules

This section describes new rules for playing the Lightless Pyramid game mode.

Cairo and Dashur

The new "Cairo/Dashur" entrance card replaces all other entrance cards. The game begins with the "Cairo" side faceup. An investigator who starts their Clock phase on the entrance card may spend trophies for various effects, including flipping the entrance to travel to the other side.

During an investigator's Movement phase, they may remain on their current card, move to another Egyptian Adventure, Other World, or Special Adventure card in the play area, or move to the entrance card. When an Adventure card or Other World card is successfully resolved or otherwise discarded, all investigators on that card return to whichever side of the entrance card is faceup.

If a game effect refers to "the entrance," it refers to either side of the entrance card. For example, if an investigator must move to "the entrance," they move to either "Cairo" or "Dashur" (whichever side is faceup at that time).

If an investigator is on either side of the entrance card at the end of their Movement phase, they skip their Resolution phase and move directly to their Clock phase.

Using The Entrance Card

Each side of the entrance card is unique. During the Clock phase, an investigator on "Cairo" or "Dashur" may, instead of resolving another option, advance the clock to flip the entrance card to the other side. Additionally, each side of the entrance card has different options for spending trophies and also affects which deck Adventure cards are drawn from.

When an investigator successfully resolves or otherwise discards an Adventure card that is in play, they replace it with the top card of the Adventure deck that corresponds to whichever side of the entrance is faceup. Thus, if the "Cairo" side of the entrance is currently faceup, adventures are drawn from the Stage I "Cairo" Adventure deck. If the "Dashur" side of the entrance is faceup, adventures are drawn from the Stage II "Dashur" Adventure deck.

The investigators should gather supplies in Cairo, as supplies in Dashur are scarce. However, investigators cannot ignore Dashur for long—the elder signs needed to win the game are located in Dashur.

Mask Monsters

Mask monsters represent various aspects of Nyarlathotep and are often very difficult to defeat. Usually, during a game of Elder Sign, mask monsters are only added to the monster cup when playing against the original Nyarlathotep. However, when playing the Lightless Pyramid game mode, all mask monsters are always added to the monster cup during setup and can appear when drawn from the cup. Mask monsters can be identified by the mask icon on the right side of the back of the monster marker.

All mask monsters, including those from the base game and from any other expansions (13 total, if all expansions are used), are used in this way. When playing against the Omens of the Pharaoh version of the Nyarlathotep Ancient One, follow the setup instruction for mask monsters instead of adding them to the monster cup.

The Expedition

When playing the Lightless Pyramid game mode, the investigators have the power of the expedition at their disposal through the use of "The Expedition" scenario sheet that is put into play during setup.

Various game effects and rewards allow the investigators to gain expedition tokens. When an investigator gains an expedition token, they choose an empty space on "The Expedition" scenario sheet and place the expedition token on that space. While an expedition token occupies a space on "The Expedition" scenario sheet, the investigators gain access to the effect indicated by that space.

Some of the effects on "The Expedition" scenario sheet can only be triggered when their corresponding expedition tokens are optionally discarded to trigger the effect. Once an expedition token is discarded, its corresponding effect cannot be used until another expedition token is placed on that space.

No more than a single expedition token can exist on each space of "The Expedition" scenario sheet. Additionally, effects and penalties that cause an expedition token to be discarded do not trigger the effects of that space.

The spaces of "The Expedition" scenario sheet read as follows:

• Left column, top: "Do not return mask monster markers to the cup when you claim them. They now have a trophy value of 2."
• Left column, second: "You may add the yellow die for free when resolving a Dark Pharaoh special adventure."
• Left column, third: "At Midnight: One investigator regains 1 sanity. Discard this token when the Ancient One awakens."
• Left column, bottom: "At Midnight: One investigator regains 1 stamina. Discard this token when the Ancient One awakens."
• Right column, top: "Discard this token at the start of your turn to flip the entrance card to the other side."
• Right column, second: "Discard this token when the Ancient One would attack to cancel its entire attack."
• Right column, third: "Discard this token before rolling to defeat a mask monster on your adventure."
• Right column, bottom: "Discard this token at the start of your Resolution phase to ignore all die locks until the end of your Resolution phase."

Egyptian Adventure Cards

The Adventure cards provided in this expansion are referred to as "Egyptian Adventure" cards. Game effects that refer to "Adventure cards" can affect Egyptian Adventure cards, but game effects that refer to "Egyptian Adventures" only affect Egyptian Adventure cards. When a player is instructed to place an Egyptian Adventure card during the game, they place it facedown. (Other World cards are still placed faceup.)

Note: The back side of the top card of both the Stage I "Cairo" and Stage II "Dashur" Egyptian Adventure decks are always considered to be open information.

At the top of each Egyptian Adventure card back is a colored field with a skull and crossbones. The color denotes the card's estimated difficulty: green for an easy adventure, yellow for a normal adventure, and red for a hard adventure.

When an investigator moves to a facedown Egyptian Adventure card, they immediately resolve the effect printed on the back of the card. Then they flip the card faceup, resolve all "Entry" effects on the card, and end their Movement phase. "At Midnight" effects on the back of Egyptian Adventures are not triggered at this time, but are instead triggered if the card is facedown when midnight strikes.

When a monster appears, it may be placed on any faceup or facedown Adventure card, following normal rules. When a facedown Adventure card with a monster is flipped faceup, that monster is placed on any monster task at that adventure. If that adventure has no monster tasks or there are more monsters than monster tasks available, the monsters that cannot be placed on a monster task are placed below the card's bottom task as normal.

Special Adventure Cards

Omens of the Pharaoh introduces two new kinds of Special Adventure cards: Dark Pharaoh and Hidden Chamber special adventures.

Dark Pharaoh Special Adventures

Several game effects, including the new doom icon, can bring Dark Pharaoh special adventures into play facedown. Dark Pharaoh special adventures represent the evil machinations of the Dark Pharaoh and his attempts to destroy the expedition.

Dark Pharaoh special adventures cannot be taken as trophies. When a Dark Pharaoh special adventure is successfully resolved, it is discarded in a special discard pile next to the other Dark Pharaoh cards. Once all four Dark Pharaoh cards have been drawn or discarded, if another Dark Pharaoh card needs to be drawn, shuffle the Dark Pharaoh discard pile and draw from the new pile. If another Dark Pharaoh card needs to be drawn, but all four Dark Pharaoh adventures are already in play, fill the Ancient One's doom track with doom tokens; the Ancient One immediately awakens.

Markers and tokens, such as monster markers, cannot be placed on Dark Pharaoh Special Adventure cards.

Hidden Chamber Special Adventures

Hidden Chamber special adventures represent long-lost burial chambers located deep beneath the pyramids of Dashur, and are a rich source of elder signs.

Hidden Chamber special adventures are part of the Stage II Adventure deck, and are shuffled in with the rest of the Stage II adventures. Each Hidden Chamber special adventure can be easily identified by a single task on the lower part of the card.

In order to move to a chamber, an investigator must first succeed in unlocking it by completing the task on its back. To do this, before moving, a special roll must be made. The standard die pool an investigator can use to make this roll is six green dice. Items, clues, and other effects that manipulate and add dice can be used on these rolls. If the roll is not successful, the investigator must either move to a different adventure or stay on their current card. This is only a single roll—do not discard a die and roll again. Cursed and blessed dice from the Unseen Forces expansion are not used when unlocking chambers, and cannot be lost or discarded in this way.

Whether the chamber is successfully unlocked or not, any dice added to the roll to unlock the chamber are lost.

Each Hidden Chamber has a "Chamber" effect listed at the top of the adventure. These effects can only be resolved by the investigator who unlocked the chamber, and only when they first flip the card. Chambers cannot be flipped by game effects unless that game effect specifically states that a chamber is "unlocked," after which the unlocking investigator may perform its "Chamber" effect.

When a Hidden Chamber special adventure is completed, it is returned to the box. It cannot be claimed as a trophy.

Additional Rules

This section contains additional rules for Elder Sign introduced by Omens of the Pharaoh.

Relics

Relics are a new type of item. Relics display a die along with a refresh icon. This icon indicates that relics can be discarded before rolling dice to add the indicated dice to the dice pool, even if those dice have already been removed by a failed roll. This cannot be used to increase the number of dice beyond the available components (for example, you cannot use a relic to have two red dice or seven green dice in a single roll).

Some relics have special effects that trigger after they are used or if another relic that it is paired with is in play. Collecting these relics can dramatically increase the power of the investigators.

The Exhibit

If investigators wish to use relics in a game mode other than the Lightless Pyramid game mode, they may put "The Exhibit" scenario sheet into play. "The Exhibit" scenario sheet adds an additional effect to the current entrance—it is not a space that can be moved to on its own. This effect allows investigators to spend trophies to acquire relics, while also introducing the Dark Pharaoh special adventures and the deadly mask monsters into other game modes.

New Doom Icon

A new doom icon appears on each of the three Ancient Ones included in Omens of the Pharaoh. When a doom token is placed on one of these icons, draw a Dark Pharaoh special adventure and place it into play facedown. If all four Dark Pharaoh special adventures are already in play when doom reaches this icon, fill the Ancient One's doom track with doom tokens; the Ancient One immediately awakens.

Midnight Icon on Monsters

The Sand Dweller monster marker in Omens of the Pharaoh has a midnight icon on its task list. This icon indicates that the monster has a midnight effect printed on the back of the marker. At midnight, resolve all "At Midnight" effects printed on the back of monsters with this icon.

New Rewards and Penalties

There are 15 new icons that can appear on adventures. (Note: the printed rules sheet says "15 new icons," but the sheet lists 14 icons; all 14 are transcribed below as printed.) When receiving rewards or suffering penalties, the current player resolves the following effects (if able) for each icon that appears on the card:

• Healing: Any one investigator regains 1 stamina.
• Respite: Any one investigator regains 1 sanity.
• Clock: Advance the clock once.
• Expeditious: Do not advance the clock during the Clock phase this turn.
• Remove Monster: Return 1 monster on an adventure to the monster cup.
• Lost Common Item: Discard 1 common item.
• Lost Unique Item: Discard 1 unique item.
• Lost Spell: Discard 1 spell.
• Lost Ally: Discard 1 ally.
• Lost Elder Sign: Remove 1 Elder Sign from the Ancient One card. If there are no Elder Signs on the Ancient One card, add 1 doom token to the doom track instead.
• Gain Relic: Draw 1 card from the relic deck.
• Lost Relic: Discard 1 relic.
• Gain Expedition Token: Take 1 expedition token from the pile and place it on an empty space of the scenario sheet.

Split Rewards and Penalties

Some rewards and penalties in Omens of the Pharaoh are split into two groups by a diagonal line. When receiving rewards or suffering penalties that are split, an investigator must choose which group of rewards or penalties to receive or suffer.

An investigator cannot choose to suffer a penalty that they cannot fulfill. For example, an investigator cannot choose a penalty that causes them to lose a common item if they have zero common items.

Some split rewards and penalties include a blessing or a curse, which were introduced in the Unseen Forces expansion, or skills, which were introduced in Gates of Arkham and Omens of the Deep expansions. If not playing with those expansions, investigators must choose the reward or penalty which does not include a blessing, curse, or skill, respectively.

Entry Effects

Some Adventure cards in Omens of the Pharaoh feature Entry effects. Immediately after an investigator moves to a card with an "Entry" effect, they must resolve the "Entry" effect, if able. In addition, if an investigator flips over an Adventure or Other World card while at that adventure, they immediately resolve its "Entry" effect.

If an investigator fails an adventure with an "Entry" effect and stays there on their next turn, they do not resolve the "Entry" effect again. However, if a different investigator moves to the adventure, resolve the "Entry" effect for that investigator.

New Mythos Cards

Omens of the Pharaoh contains new Mythos cards which are used only when playing the Lightless Pyramid game mode and should not be combined with other Mythos cards.

When players draw and resolve a Mythos card, they are presented with a dilemma and must choose as a group between one of the two options listed on the card. Players may choose either option. If players cannot decide as a group, the investigator who took the last turn chooses an option.

Expert Mythos Variant

The Expert Mythos variant allows players to increase the challenge of the game. When using the Expert Mythos variant, each time the players resolve a Mythos card option that has a turquoise Expert Mythos watermark in the background, they add 1 additional doom to the doom track after resolving the effects of that Mythos card.

Calvin Wright

The Calvin Wright investigator is included with this expansion. Remove the Calvin Wright Ally card (Gates of Arkham expansion) from the Ally deck. It is no longer used.

Midnight Effect Timing

When resolving multiple effects that occur at midnight, use the following order:

1. Resolve all "At Midnight" effects on cards currently in play, in the following order:
   • a. "At Midnight" effects on the Ancient One.
   • b. "At Midnight" effects on monsters, in order of the investigators' choosing.
   • c. "At Midnight" effects on Adventure and Other World cards, in order of the investigators' choosing.
     • Note: Do not resolve the "At Midnight" effect on a Dark Pharaoh special adventure if it came into play during step a.
   • d. "At Midnight" effects on all other cards, in order of the investigators' choosing.
2. Draw and resolve a new Mythos card.
3. Refresh any "Once per day" abilities.

New Ancient Ones

The three new Ancient Ones are listed below with their printed difficulty and description. Their abilities are printed on the Ancient One cards themselves, which are not reproduced on the rules sheet.

Haunter of the Dark

Difficulty: Average

An aspect of Nyarlathotep also known as "The Father of Bats." A being that can exist only in pure darkness, he whispered into the ear of Nephren-Ka, the Dark Pharaoh, and drove him to madness.

Nephren-Ka

Difficulty: Hard

Nephren-Ka—the Dark Pharaoh—has been sealed inside the Lightless Pyramid for many centuries. His escape would spell doom for Egypt, and the rest of the world to follow.

Nyarlathotep

Difficulty: Insane

Harbinger of the Outer Gods, he sows chaos and madness into whatever—or whomever—falls under his sway. He inhabits a thousand masks, each more horrifying than the last.