KeyForge Adventures: Abyssal Conspiracy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Preparing the Print-and-Play Components
• Game Setup
• Fundamental Concepts
  • The Conspiracy
  • Seals
  • Team Play
  • Locations
  • Winning and Losing
• How to Play
  • Player Turns
  • Conspiracy Turns
• Additional Rules
  • Conspiracy Archives and Hand of Cards
  • Engaged Creatures
  • Prey Keyword
  • Enrage Tokens
  • Reading Adventure Cards
  • Moving Between Locations
• Card Reference
  • Seal Cards
  • The Vaultbinder
  • Locations
  • Tide Card
• The Tide
• Optional Difficulties

Overview

KeyForge: Adventures is a unique cooperative game mode in which one to three players work together to uncover a dark conspiracy and prevent it from opening seals to an evil dimension. Each player uses a 36-card KeyForge deck from their collection, a set of keys, and sufficient tokens and counters, while the Conspiracy of Evil Twins is represented by a special adventure deck.

Players follow all of the standard rules of KeyForge with the modifications described in this document.

The game continues either until the Conspiracy of Evil Twins opens five seals and releases more of their kind onto the Crucible, at which point the players lose, or until the players find the Vaultbinder and use it at the ocean's depths to permanently close those seals.

Preparing the Print-and-Play Components

KeyForge: Adventures is a free game mode available through the Fantasy Flight Games website. To play the Into the Depths adventure, a player must download and prepare both the cards and the seal tableau token. This rulebook can be printed for reference or viewed digitally.

To prepare the seal tableau token, print it on an 8.5" by 11" sheet of white printer paper and cut it out. This token is placed on the table during setup and does not move during gameplay.

To prepare the cards, print them out, cut out each card individually, and insert each one into a card sleeve in front of any single KeyForge or LCG-sized card. This adventure requires 58 card sleeves, or 59 if two sleeves are used for the High Tide and Low Tide card (see below).

An efficient way to print the cards is to use Adobe Reader, which can be downloaded for free at https://get.adobe.com/reader/. When printing the PDF, use the option to print multiple pages per sheet and set the number of pages per sheet to 9. This will print nine cards per sheet of paper, organized in a three-by-three grid, which can then be cut out with a paper slicer or scissors.

One card in this adventure is a double-sided card (High Tide and Low Tide). This can be assembled by inserting both sides into the same clear sleeve, so that the card can be flipped over to reveal the other side, or by sleeving both sides into separate opaque card sleeves and exchanging one for the other during gameplay.

Game Setup

To set up the game, perform the following steps, in order:

1. Prepare the seals. Shuffle the five seal cards into a facedown deck, set them within reach of any player, and place the five-sided seal tableau token next to them.

2. Randomize the locations. Place the locations in a three-by-three grid within reach of all players in the following positions:

   • Place the SLRS Vortexilon in the center of the top row, faceup.
   • Shuffle the two remaining depth-1 locations and place one each facedown on either side of the SLRS Vortexilon location.
   • Shuffle the three depth-2 locations and place them in a facedown row below the depth 1 locations.
   • Shuffle the three depth-3 locations and place them in a facedown row below the depth 2 locations.

3. Prepare out-of-play cards. Set the Vaultbinder artifact aside, within reach of any player but outside of the play space. Place the double-sided tide card beside the locations, with the Low Tide side faceup.

4. Shuffle adventure deck. Shuffle all remaining adventure cards into a single adventure deck and place it beside the location grid and the tide card.

5. Create common supply. Put all tokens and counters used in a standard KeyForge game within easy reach of all players to create the common supply.

6. Players set up their decks. Each player shuffles an Archon deck chosen from their collection and draws a six-card starting hand. Each player may mulligan their starting hand once as in a standard KeyForge game. Set aside all key tokens. They will not be used in this adventure.

Fundamental Concepts

This section contains the fundamental concepts for Into the Depths that provide context for players who are learning how to play the game.

The Conspiracy

During a game, the players are working to defeat the Conspiracy of Evil Twins before it can open five seals. The Conspiracy, which takes the place of an opponent, is represented by an adventure deck and has its own Æmber pool.

Seals

The five seal cards represent the seals that the Conspiracy is attempting to open; seal cards are a new KeyForge card type. Just as players spend Æmber to forge keys, the Conspiracy spends Æmber during its turn to open seals and place them on the seal tableau token. Opening seals is described in greater depth below.

Team Play

In KeyForge: Adventures, all players work together as a team. In this adventure, the team shares a single Æmber pool. Any time a player gains, loses, or spends Æmber, that Æmber is placed in or taken from the shared Æmber pool.

Locations

The nine locations in Into the Depths are distributed among three depth levels. Each player begins the game at the SLRS Vortexilon and can move between locations when they would normally forge a key. Only the text on the active player's current location is active. The text on all other locations is ignored.

When a player resolves a card ability, only the creatures, upgrades, and artifacts at the same location are considered to be in play. Any cards controlled by a player at a different location, and any creatures engaged with a player at a different location (see "Engaged Creatures"), are not considered to be in play and cannot be affected by the cards played or drawn by the active player.

Winning and Losing

Players win this adventure by stopping the Conspiracy of Evil Twins. This is done by collaboratively searching the upper six locations for the Vaultbinder artifact, using it at the Titan's Gate location at the bottom of the Crucible's ocean, and spending Æmber to permanently put an end to the Conspiracy's plot. Players do not forge keys in this adventure.

The Conspiracy does not sit idly by while the players undertake their search, however. During the game, the Conspiracy gains Æmber by reaping with creatures and resolving card abilities. Each time the Conspiracy takes a turn, it attempts to open a seal, spending its Æmber and resolving a dangerous seal effect. Should all five seals be opened, the players lose the game.

How to Play

When playing a game of KeyForge: Adventures, players take turns in sequence, each taking a turn for the Conspiracy after taking their own turn. During each of the Conspiracy's turns, the player who is taking the Conspiracy's turn is the active player.

After drawing their opening hands, the players select a turn order: who will play first and, if applicable, who will play second and who will play third. After the turn order is established, it cannot change.

Player Turns

During a player's turn, they follow all of the rules described in the KeyForge Rulebook regarding choosing a house, playing/discarding/using cards, readying cards, and drawing up to a six-card hand. However, players ignore the First Turn Rule, which restricts the first player from playing more than one card during their turn, and the "forge a key" step operates differently, because forging a key is replaced with moving between locations in this adventure.

Players may use their cards and abilities as normal during their turn. If a creature is used to fight, any creature in a conspiracy battleline at the same location, even if that creature is engaged with a different player. Engaged creatures are described in greater depth in "Engaged Creatures" on the following page.

Conspiracy Turns

During the Conspiracy's turn, it performs several steps that mirror the steps of a player's turn. It attempts to open a seal, and then the active player draws and uses adventure cards. To resolve the Conspiracy's turn, the active player follows these steps:

1. The Conspiracy opens a seal, if able. At the start of the Conspiracy's turn, it attempts to open a seal by spending Æmber from its Æmber pool. Each seal has a unique cost as indicated on the seal tableau token, beginning at 2 Æmber per player for the first seal and scaling up to 6 Æmber per player for the fifth seal. This cost is modified by card effects that modify key costs. If the Conspiracy does not have enough Æmber to open a seal, it does not do so and none of its Æmber is spent. The Conspiracy can open only one seal during each of its turns. When a seal is opened, the active player draws the top card of the seal deck, puts it on the tableau, and resolves that seal's effect.

If all five seals are opened, the players lose the game.

To open its second seal, the Conspiracy must spend 3 Æmber per player from its Æmber pool, as indicated by the seal tableau token. The third seal opened will cost 4 Æmber per player, and the card will be put in the appropriate space on the tableau.

2. The active player draws adventure cards. During the Conspiracy's turn, the active player draws each card in the Conspiracy's archives (see "Conspiracy Archives and Hand of Cards"), and then draws the top two cards from the adventure deck. Each time a player draws an adventure card, they play that card immediately before drawing the next card. These cards are considered to be played by the Conspiracy (the opponent) for the purposes of card abilities. If cards are added to the archives during this step, they are not drawn at this time. The following explains how a drawn adventure card is played, by type:

• Creature: Each creature enters play engaged with the active player. It enters play exhausted on the right flank of that player's enemy battleline (see "Engaged Creatures").
• Artifact: Each artifact enters play ready at the active player's location.
• Action: Each action card has a play effect, which the active player resolves. The action card is then placed in the adventure discard pile.

Any bonus icons on adventure cards cause the Conspiracy to gain that much Æmber, which is placed in the Conspiracy's Æmber pool from the common supply.

If the adventure deck has no cards in it when a card must be drawn or archived, shuffle the adventure discard pile to form a new adventure deck and draw or archive the top card of that new adventure deck.

3. Each creature engaged with the active player is used. During this step, each ready creature engaged with the active player is used, starting with the creature on the left flank and proceeding to the right until each creature engaged with that player is exhausted.

When one of the Conspiracy's creatures is used, the creature reaps unless it has the prey keyword (see "Prey Keyword").

4. Each enemy artifact at the active player's location is used. After engaged creatures are used, each artifact at the active player's location is used. Exhaust those artifacts and resolve their "Action:" abilities, one at a time.

If a player uses a card ability to give one or more of their artifacts to the Conspiracy, those artifacts are at the active player's location. If they have "Omni:" abilities, those abilities resolve one at a time during this step.

5. Ready each creature engaged with the active player and all enemy artifacts at the active player's location. The Conspiracy readies each creature engaged with the active player and all enemy artifacts at the active player's location.

Additional Rules

Because no player controls the Conspiracy and its cards, the following additional rules explain how to use them during cooperative gameplay.

Conspiracy Archives and Hand of Cards

The Conspiracy has an archives, which are a facedown game area where adventure cards may be put during the game. Each time the Conspiracy takes a turn, the active player draws each card from the Conspiracy's archives before drawing two cards from the adventure deck. Only cards that were in the Conspiracy's archives as the step began are drawn. Any cards added to its archives while the active player is drawing adventure cards stay in its archives to be drawn by the next active player.

If a card effect instructs a player to archive a number of adventure cards, that number of cards are taken from the top of the adventure deck and added to the Conspiracy's archives. If the deck has no cards in it when an adventure card must be archived, reshuffle the adventure discard pile to form a new adventure deck and archive the top card of the new adventure deck.

If a card effect would cause the Conspiracy to draw cards, those cards are archived from the top of the adventure deck instead.

If a player's card effect instructs that player to look at and/or discard cards from the opponent's hand, the appropriate cards are looked at and/or discarded from the Conspiracy's archives instead. If a card effect would return an adventure card to the Conspiracy's hand, archive that card instead. A player's card effect that interacts with the opponent's archives also interacts with the Conspiracy's archives.

Engaged Creatures

Unlike in standard KeyForge, in this adventure, each player has a distinct enemy battleline that exists above their normal battleline. When a player draws a creature card from the adventure deck, that creature is played on the right flank of that player's enemy battleline.

Any creature that is in a player's enemy battleline is engaged with that player. Each of the Conspiracy's creatures is engaged with a single player and cannot change which player they are engaged with during gameplay.

Each creature engaged with a player is considered to be in play at that player's location. When a player moves to a new location, the creatures engaged with that player also move to the new location.

A creature engaged with a player only fights creatures in that player's battleline, even if another player is at the same location.

Prey Keyword

Some of the Conspiracy's creatures feature the new prey keyword. A creature that has this keyword fights when it is used if the active player controls a creature described by the keyword. If a creature has the prey keyword but no eligible creature exists for it to fight against, the creature reaps instead of fighting. If multiple eligible creatures exist in the active player's battleline, that player chooses which of their creatures is fought.

Taunt Keyword. When a creature that has the prey keyword is used to fight a creature that does not have taunt, and one of that creature's neighbors has taunt, the creature with taunt is fought instead.

Enrage Tokens

An enraged creature not controlled by a player gains "prey – the least powerful creature" if it does not already have the prey keyword. It only gains this keyword while it is enraged.

Reading Adventure Cards

Abilities on adventure cards are written such that the player drawing the card or using the creature reads and resolves the text against themself. Any time the word you appears, it refers to the person reading the card and resolving the ability.

Any time a card ability refers to the Conspiracy, it refers to the opponent represented by the adventure. When resolving effects on a player's cards that refer to that player's opponent, the Conspiracy is that opponent and performs the actions indicated by that player's card effect. Any card ability that affects "each player" also affects the Conspiracy.

On a player's cards, only creatures controlled by the active player are considered friendly. Teammates' creatures are considered neither friendly creatures nor enemy creatures.

All adventure cards in this adventure belong to House Conspiracy.

Moving Between Locations

When a player would forge a key during their "forge a key" step, as well as any time a card effect instructs that player to "forge a key," they may move to another location instead. That player may move to the location directly above or below their current location or to one of the other two locations at their current depth. To move to a location of the same depth or deeper, a player must spend Æmber. If they cannot spend the requisite Æmber to move to the desired location, no Æmber is spent and they do not move to that location. This cost is modified by card effects that modify key costs. Forging a key "at cost" requires the player to spend the requisite Æmber to move to the desired location, but when a player would forge a key "at no cost," they can move to any eligible location without spending Æmber.

• Moving to a shallower location costs 0 Æmber.
• Moving to a location of the same depth costs 2 Æmber.
• Moving to a deeper location costs 4 Æmber. When a player descends to a deeper location, lower the tide.

Artifacts drawn from the adventure deck are played at the active player's current location. The artifacts stay at that location until moved or destroyed by a card effect, and they only affect players who are at that location.

Card Reference

Seal Cards

The five seal cards and their printed effects are listed below. Card numbers are as printed on each card.

• Burning Seal (010): After this seal is opened, lower the tide and deal 1 damage to each of your team's creatures for each opened seal.
• Primal Seal (011): After this seal is opened, lower the tide and give a +1 power counter to each creature engaged with a player for each opened seal.
• Arcane Seal (012): After this seal is opened, lower the tide and each player discards 1 random card from their hand for each opened seal.
• Frigid Seal (013): After this seal is opened, lower the tide and each player stuns 1 of their creatures that is not already stunned for each opened seal. The only thing that can close an opened seal is the sonic power of The Vaultbinder.
• Entropic Seal (014): After this seal is opened, lower the tide and each player purges a random card from their discard pile for each opened seal. Your team loses Æmber equal to the total number of bonus icons on the cards purged this way.

The Vaultbinder

Artifact. Relic. The Vaultbinder cannot leave play.

Omni: Exhaust a friendly creature of the active house. If you do, raise the tide.

Locations

Only the text on the active player's current location is active (see "Locations" under Fundamental Concepts). The location texts printed in this rulebook are reproduced below. The rest of the location cards are part of the print-and-play download and their text is not printed in this document.

Krillgarden

While the tide is high, your creatures gain, "Reap: Gain 1 Æmber."

Shellmarket

While the tide is high, resolve each of your bonus icons an additional time.

While the tide is low, each card the Conspiracy plays gains an Æmber bonus icon.

Tide Card

The tide card is double-sided.

High Tide side (The tide is high.): After a player descends to a lower depth, lower the tide.

Low Tide side (The tide is low.): Omni: Raise the tide. Gain 3 chains.

The Tide

This adventure makes significant use of the tide mechanic featured in Dark Tidings. In Into the Depths, the tide carries additional rules. The tide is represented with a new double-sided card included in this adventure instead of with the single-sided tide card included in Dark Tidings decks.

Card abilities can raise or lower the tide during the game. The tide is always either high for all players or low for all players, as indicated by the faceup side of the tide card. If any player raises the tide while the Low Tide side is faceup, flip the tide card over. If a card effect lowers the tide while the High Tide side is faceup, flip the tide card over. The tide cannot be raised if it is already high and cannot be lowered if it is already low. If an effect would "reset the tide," place the tide card with its Low Tide side faceup.

During any player's turn, that player may gain three chains as an "Omni:" ability to raise the tide. If a player raises the tide, the tide is also raised for each of their teammates.

There are two ways by which the tide can be lowered:

1. Each time a player descends to a new location at a lower depth, lower the tide.
2. Each time the Conspiracy opens a seal, lower the tide.

Abilities that refer to the tide are indicated by a tide icon.

Optional Difficulties

KeyForge: Adventures is intended to offer a meaningful challenge for most archon decks. However, the game's difficulty can be easily modified for a more personalized experience.

For those interested in an easier experience, draw only one adventure card during the Conspiracy's turn.

For those interested in a more challenging experience, draw three adventure cards during the Conspiracy's turn.