Mansions of Madness: Season of the Witch Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Keeper Setup
  • Season of the Witch Expansion Icon
  • Story Choices
  • Component Setup
  • Seed Cards
  • Remaining Exploration Cards
  • Special Rules
  • Prologue
• Investigator Setup
  • Map Setup
• Card Text
  • Keeper Action Cards
  • Objective Cards
  • Event Cards

Keeper Setup

Season of the Witch Expansion Icon

All cards in this expansion are marked with the Season of the Witch expansion icon. When playing with this expansion, use only the Lock, Obstacle, and Exploration cards found in this expansion, not the ones found in the Mansions of Madness base game.

Story Choices

Answer the following questions and record your answers with story choice markers:

1. The reason Nola Mason has been acting strange is:
   • A. She has been marked by the witch, tasked with luring more souls into the house.
   • B. Her body is possessed by the spirit of Keziah Mason.
   • C. She is to be sacrificed in the Walpurgis ceremony.
2. Nola is being kept in:
   • A. The Ceremony Room
   • B. The Cave 1
3. The Gate can be found in:
   • A. The Storage Shed
   • B. The Attic Loft
4. The Alien Statue is in:
   • A. The Bathroom 1
   • B. The Kitchen Storage

Component Setup

Perform the following steps:

1. Clue Cards: Claim the story's clue Exploration cards matching your story choice markers.
2. Exploration, Obstacle (Obstacle icon shown as "?"), and Lock cards: Claim all the Exploration, Obstacle, and Lock cards marked with the Season of the Witch expansion icon.
3. Build Mythos Deck: Build the Mythos deck with cards containing the following icons: a bat, a birdcage, and a third icon (a stepped or staircase-like symbol) as printed on the sheet.
4. Claim Keeper Action Cards: Brown Jenkins, Command Minion, Evil Presence, Gate Flux, Summon Worshippers, Summoning.
5. Claim Objective Card: Take the card matching your story choice marker #1.
6. Starting Cards and Threat: Draw 2 Mythos cards and gain 2 threat.

Seed Cards

Place the following cards in the rooms listed. Exploration cards marked "(Obstacle)" are Obstacle cards and cards marked "(Lock)" are Lock cards, as the setup text marks them.

• Attic Loft
  • 3A: Shotgun, Nothing of Interest, Power Failure (Obstacle)
  • 3B: Otherworld Gate, Clue 2, Irregular Wall (Obstacle)
• Attic Storage
  • 3A: De Vermis Mysteriis, Puzzle Box (Obstacle)
  • 3B: Ceremonial Skull, Sorcerous Sphere (Obstacle)
• Bathroom 1
  • 4A: Clue 3, Alien Statue, Spectral Guard (Lock)
  • 4B: Nothing of Interest, Sedative, Jammed Door (Lock)
• Cave 1
  • 2A: Nothing of Interest, Nothing of Interest, Alien Gate (Lock)
  • 2B: Black Book, Clue 1, Guarded Passage (Lock)
• Ceremony Room
  • 2A: Black Book, Clue 1, Guarded Passage (Lock)
  • 2B: Nothing of Interest, Nothing of Interest, Alien Gate (Lock)
• Dining Room
  • 4A: Nola's Journal, Clue 4, Suitcase (Obstacle)
  • 4B: Nothing of Interest, Elder Sign, Lockbox (Obstacle)

Remaining Exploration Cards

Place 1 random card in each empty room of the Otherworld and the Witch House (except for the Front Porch).

Special Rules

This scenario uses two separate maps: the Witch House and the Otherworld. The Otherworld is accessible to investigators through story events. The keeper may move monsters between the maps by using the "Gate Flux" Keeper Action.

Prologue

After all players have finished setup, read the following aloud:

It's evening by the time you arrive at the boarding house, having spent most of the day chasing the few leads you gleaned from Frank's story – all to no avail. Darkness has fallen on Arkham and, like the locals, your mind begins to play tricks on you as you approach the ancient building. Fortunately, the residents of the Witch House have fled in fear of Walpurgis, leaving the house free for you to investigate.

4A) Frank's tale continues to nag at your mind as you make your way up the dirt path. You remember him telling you that Nola always kept a journal of her studies, and he last saw it during dinner the night before she disappeared...

4B) As you make your way up the dirt path, you remember Frank continually referencing a journal that Nola kept. He claimed he never caught a look at it, because she would only write in it before sleeping...

Investigator Setup

Map Setup

Place map tiles, room feature markers, and sealed door markers as shown below. The map image is the authority for placement; the positions below are read from the printed map.

Otherworld (tiles): Hallway 1, Cave 2, Cave 1, Study, Master Bedroom, Tower, Ceremony Room.

Witch House (tiles): Attic, Dining Room, Hallway 2, Corner Hall, Back Yard, Start / Front Porch, Guest Bedroom.

Markers, as shown on the map:

• Otherworld:
  • Barricade (green): in the Master Bedroom, at its top-left corner.
  • Hiding Spot (blue): in the Study, at its upper right; and in the Tower.
  • Ladder (red): in the Master Bedroom, at its bottom right.
  • Altar (yellow): in Cave 1, at its bottom right; and in the Ceremony Room, at its bottom right.
  • Sealed Door: on the wall between the Tower and the Ceremony Room.
• Witch House:
  • Barricade (green): in the Attic, at its top-left corner.

The marker key printed on the map: Barricade (green), Ladder (red), Altar (yellow), Hiding Spot (blue), Sealed Door.

Card Text

The following cards are the Season of the Witch Keeper Action, Objective, and Event cards, transcribed from the companion card scan. Printed card names are shown in capitals as on the card face.

Keeper Action Cards

GATE FLUX (corner symbol: "?")

Action: Move 1 monster from a room with an altar to any room not containing investigators by paying the corresponding threat:

• 2 Threat: Zombie or cultist
• 3 Threat: Hound of Tindalos
• 5 Threat: Shoggoth

BROWN JENKINS (corner symbol: "1")

Action: Once per investigator turn, choose a lone investigator to test Willpower –1.

Fail: Take 1 Mark of the Witch.

(Use darkness tokens to represent Marks of the Witch. Each Mark of the Witch is treated as 1 horror which cannot be healed.)

Objective Cards

Season of the Witch Objective 1A

The keeper wins if all investigators are insane.

"Your souls are mine!" screams the witch as you succumb to the crushing embrace of insanity...

The investigators win if they destroy the "Black Book."

The book sizzles as boiling blood floods from the pages. The old witch and her minions scream in horror and then fade from sight.

Season of the Witch Objective 1B

When revealed, place Keziah (named witch) in either:

• 2A: Ceremony Room; 2B: Cave 1.

Keziah is a named witch with +10 health and +1 damage value.

The keeper wins if Keziah escapes the map from the Front Path.

You hear the old witch cackling as she escapes in her new flesh...

Investigators win if they kill Keziah or an investigator with the "Black Book" and "Alien Statue" spends an action in a space containing an altar and passes a Lore –3 test.

Season of the Witch Objective 1C

When revealed, place Keziah (named witch) in either:

• 2A: Ceremony Room; 2B: Cave 1.

Keziah is a named witch with +5 health and +1 damage value.

The keeper wins if half of the investigators playing (rounded up) are killed during the finale.

In your final moments, you hear young Nola screaming in agony...

Investigators win if they kill Keziah.

The witch dies while croaking a final curse upon you.

Event Cards

THE VICTIM (Season of the Witch, V)

The Walpurgis Ceremony comes to a violent end...

• 1A: All investigators test Willpower (–1 for each Mark of the Witch). Fail: Take 3 horror.
• 1B: Keziah posesses Nola's body and vanishes in a flash of light. All players lose.
• 1C: At the start of each keeper turn, place 1 time marker on this card if an investigator is in Keziah's room. When the third time token is placed on this card, all players lose the game.

THE CEREMONY (Season of the Witch, IV)

A sense of overwhelming dread floods over you. Time is short and more than one soul may be at risk this Walpurgis eve. Throwing caution to the wind, you rush forward...

Each investigator may choose to let the keeper gain 2 threat in order to move up to 3 spaces, following normal movement rules.

THE WITCHLIGHT (Season of the Witch, III)

The keeper may resolve his choice of one of the following:

• Immediately use the Brown Jenkins card on each investigator as if he was alone. This does not cost any threat.
• Reveal objective. If clue 3 has not been found, reveal and resolve "Otherworld Gate," then move all investigators to the Study.
• The keeper may move any monster to the space containing the most investigators. In case of a tie, the keeper chooses.

TAINTED (Season of the Witch, II)

The sound of maniacal cackling echoes through the walls, as if taunting you to continue onward...

Each investigator that has at least 1 Mark of the Witch takes 1 horror.

Then, all investigators that do not currently have any Mark of the Witch tokens recieve 1 Mark of the Witch token.

(The card prints "recieve".)

RATS IN THE ATTIC (Season of the Witch, I)

The old house is full of eerie sounds: terrifying creaks and groans that once sounded like nothing more than rats in the ancient partitions. But in the growing darkness of the evening, the unnatural noises have begun to take on a whole new life...

Each investigator not in the Front Yard, Backyard, or Storage Shed must test Willpower –2.

Fail: Take 1 horror.

(The card names "Front Yard" and "Backyard"; the Investigator Setup map labels these spaces "Front Porch" and "Back Yard", and Objective 1B names "Front Path". The names are reproduced as printed.)