Soul Raiders Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
  • Preliminary Remarks
• Heroes
  • The Hero Board
  • Action Card Bonuses
    • Example
• Game Setup
  • Game Board
    • Example
  • End of Game Indicators
• Locations
  • Entering a Location that has not been revealed
    • Example
  • Timing of the Location effects
  • Entering a Location where one or more Heroes are already present
    • Example
  • Entering a Revealed Location without Heroes present
    • Example
  • Flipping a Location to side B
    • Example
  • Description of Location Effects
  • Location Reaction Effects
    • Example
  • Conditional Effects
  • Scripted Actions Proposed
    • Examples
  • Random Enemy Cards
• Round of Play
  • Preparation Phase
  • Heroes' Action Phase
    • Example
• Movement
  • Flee
    • Example
• Scripted Actions
  • • Example
• Combat
  • • Example
  • Combat Resolution
    • Example
  • Enemy Abilities
    • Example
    • Example
    • Example
• Spells
  • Timing of Spells
  • Single Use Spells
  • Special Aptitudes
  • Spell Effects
  • Consequences of Invisibility
    • Example
• Reaction Phase
  • Enemy Attacks
  • End of the Round
• Chapter-Specific Cards
  • Stories
    • Example
  • Scripted Enemies
  • Events
• Quest-Specific Components
  • Quest Cards
  • Artifacts
• Heroism and Hero Improvement
  • • Example
    • Example
• Potions
  • Potion Descriptions
• End of the Chapter
  • Victory
  • Save
  • End of the Quest
  • Defeat
• Glossary
• Icon Overview

Game Components

For each of the 4 Heroes (6 in the Grimoire version):

• 2 or 4 figurines (depending on the Hero being played)
• 1 Hero board
• 24 Action cards
• 1 Separator card
• 12 Heroic Action cards

Components used in all chapters:

• 1 Game board
• 1 Vitae marker
• 1 Action marker
• A "3 Action" token for solo games
• 1 Threat marker
• 41 Random Enemy cards
• 23 Quest cards
• 20 Potion cards
• 10 Poison tokens
• 10 Fear tokens
• 10 Fracture tokens
• 6 Control tokens
• 10 Hourglass tokens
• 10 Wound tokens
• 2 Story tokens
• 30 Heroism tokens
• 6 Teleportation Portals
• Campaign Notebook
• Familiar (Grimoire version)

Chapter-Specific Components:

Prologue (in the same box as Chapter 1):

• 12 Location sheets
• 15 Story cards
• 12 Scripted Enemy cards
• 2 Event cards

Chapter 1:

• 42 Location sheets
• 104 Story cards
• 46 Scripted Enemy cards
• 2 Event cards
• 2 envelopes containing 4 Alternative Location sheets each

Chapter 2:

• 42 Location sheets
• 134 Story cards
• 60 Scripted Enemy cards
• 2 Event cards
• 4 envelopes containing 4 Alternative Location sheets each

Chapter 3:

• 43 Location sheets
• 111 Story cards
• 59 Scripted Enemy cards
• 2 Event cards

Preliminary Remarks

Game components are often referred to by their type and function, such as "Story card" or "Hourglass token". To simplify things, when it is not confusing, only the function will be referred to. For example, "Draw 1 Story" instead of "Draw 1 Story Card".

Game elements marked with the Grimoire icon are only included in the Grimoire version.

Heroes

Your Hero is a young warrior mage, a Soul Raider. They are represented by:

• 2 miniatures, one in Invisible mode (see Spells)
• One Hero board
• 24 Action cards that define their abilities
• 12 Heroic Action cards that can be acquired later

Note: some Heroes, who are able to clone themselves, are represented by 4 miniatures.

The Hero Board

The Hero board has spaces for the Action card draw pile, the Action card discard pile, reserved and saved cards, an area for penalty tokens (Poison, Fear, Fracture), and an area for Heroism tokens.

Your Hero's Action cards form a draw pile that is placed on your Hero board.

At the beginning of each round, you draw 4 Action cards (or 2 or 3, depending on the group's Exhaustion level; see Game Setup). Each card represents 1 simple action, but several cards may be combined to perform a complex or more difficult action. This means you can perform anywhere between 1 to 4 actions per round.

An Action may be completed if the total value of the cards played (including bonuses) equals or exceeds its difficulty level. After the Action is completed, you discard the cards.

In Soul Raiders, you may complete an Action or not. There is no notion of success or failure.

When you have no more cards in your hand, your Hero cannot complete any other actions until the next round.

Action cards allow you to carry out 4 kinds of Actions:

• Fight one or more Enemies: Add up the values of the cards played and activate any potential combat bonuses. See Combat.
• Move your Hero to a new Location: Add the values of the cards played and activate any potential movement bonuses. See Movement.
• Perform a Strength/Observation/Precision/Persuasion Scripted Action or any other action specified in a Location (in a scroll) or on a Story card: Add up the card values and add any potential Hero bonuses. For this action, you can be helped by another Hero. See Scripted Actions.
• Cast a spell: Only spell cards can be used to cast spells. The card's value is not counted. Only the effect of the card is applied. Some spells are Single Use spells and are removed from the game for the rest of the chapter after they are used. See Spells.

Each Action card has three parts: a value at the top, an icon in the middle depicting the type of bonus or spell, and a combat bonus, movement bonus, or spell at the bottom.

Action Card Bonuses

Don't forget: The bonuses on Action cards apply ONLY if the action that is done is the one depicted in the center of the card (red icon for combat, green for movement).

Combat and movement bonuses are described on the Action cards. Here is the list:

• +X: The value of the card increases by X.
• +X / Action card: The value of the card increases by X for each Action card used (including the card itself).
• +2 / Combat card: The value of the card increases by X for each card with a combat symbol (in red) used (including the card itself).
• +2 / Movement card: The value of the card increases by X for each card with a movement symbol (in green) used (including the card itself).
• x2: The card doubles the total value of the action (after adding up the value of the card and any other cards and their bonuses).
• +X / Enemy: The value of the card increases by X for each Enemy Engaged by either you or a Hero you are assisting in combat (see Combat).

Some Action cards allow you to perform any Action, up to a certain difficulty, except for casting a spell, and gain a combat value if used for combat instead. If two such cards are combined, the difficulty and combined value they allow increase further.

Some cards let a Hero throw a fireball or perform an Action of low difficulty, or combine with other cards to add to the total value of an Action.

Example

After sneaking around the enemy fortress, Zia is currently in Location 5. She is alone and can choose from the following 3 options: backtrack to where she came from (Movement 5), climb the wall (Movement 20), or pick the lock on the little hidden door (Precision 8).

She has 4 cards in hand: Card A (value 2, allows any Action of difficulty 2 or less, value 3 if used for combat), Card B (value 4, +2/Movement card), Card C (value 3, +2/Action card), and Card D (value 3, a Single Use Fireball spell that inflicts 1 Wound on all Enemies with a Combat value of 4 or less in this Location, or a face value of 1).

She decides to climb the wall by combining cards B, C and D. This takes advantage of the movement bonuses on cards B and C and uses card D for its face value, not for the spell. Card B gives 5 for its Action Value plus 4 as a bonus (+2 for each card used that has the Movement icon: B and C), for 9. Card C gives 3 for its Action Value plus 6 bonus points (+2 for each card used: B, C, and D), for 9. Card D gives 3. Total: 9 + 9 + 3 = 21. She has more than the 20 points needed to complete an action with a difficulty of 20. What's more, she's able to save Card A, which is a good idea in case she runs into trouble on the other side of the wall! She moves to Location 3.

Game Setup

If you have the Grimoire version, when you open the game for the first time: take out the Quest and Potion cards and place them in their respective boxes. Group the cards by Hero, separating the Action cards and Heroic Action cards using the Separator card, and place them in their dedicated Hero boxes. Place all of the tokens and Random Enemy cards in the two boxes with dividers.

You must start with the first chapter. After each player has chosen their Hero and taken their Hero's components, place the rest of the game components on the table.

Hero setup: Shuffle your Hero's 24 Action cards (and any Heroic Action cards won in previous chapters) and place them face-down on the Action card deck space on your Hero board. Place your remaining Heroic Action cards next to your Hero board. Place your Hero figurines (either plastic and/or cardboard, depending on your version of the game) next to your Hero board.

If you are continuing your adventure from a previous chapter (after a victory), place your unused Heroism tokens, unused Potion cards (as well as newly acquired ones) and Quest cards won in previous chapters next to your Hero board. Poison, Fear, and Fracture tokens are not carried over from one chapter to the next.

For All Chapters:

• Place the game board on the table.
• For single-player games, place the "3 Action" token on the 2 Action space in the Action track.
• Place the starting position of the Action, Vitae, and Threat markers on their tracks.
• Place the Random Enemy cards face down in a draw pile.
• Place the Heroism, Hourglass, Poison, Fear, Fracture and Wound tokens where they are accessible, as well as the Quest card deck.

Chapter-Specific Components:

• The Location sheets, Story and Scripted Enemy cards are specific to the chapter being played. They must be arranged in numerical order. Do not mix them up. Place them on the table so that all of the players can reach them.
• Alternative Locations: To play with the Alternative Locations, choose one envelope and swap the Location sheets with the Alternative Location sheets from the same chapter, matching their respective numbers. You cannot combine multiple envelopes per chapter.
• Place the two Event cards face down in their dedicated area on the game board.
• Take the Setup and Victory Conditions card from the top of the Location draw pile.

The Setup side shows: the starting position of the Action, Vitae, and Threat markers on their tracks; if an Event Card should be revealed; if any Story tokens must be placed on the Threat track.

The Victory Conditions side shows the number of stars needed to successfully complete the chapter, depending on the number of Heroes who are playing.

After the setup is over, the players read the Introduction sheet together, which describes the starting situation, as well as any Location(s) that have been revealed or are accessible. Each player decides on a path for their Hero to take and places their figurine in the corresponding Location.

If several players decide to go to the same Location, one of them is always the First Entrant in the Location (see Locations). Starting with the first round of the game, any effects on the Locations that have been revealed must be immediately resolved. Set the Introduction sheet aside.

Game Board

The game board consists of a Vitae track with 30 spaces, an Action track with 3 spaces, two spaces for Event cards, and a Threat track with 11 spaces, divided into 3 tiers.

Action Track: This track represents the group's weakened state. This number varies between 4 and 2 (between 4 and 3 for solo games), and reflects the Heroes' Exhaustion level:

• 4 Cards - Energized: The Heroes draw 4 Action cards at the beginning of the round, as usual.
• 3 Cards - Tired: The Heroes only draw 3 Action cards at the beginning of the round.
• 2 Cards (3 Cards in solo play) - Drained: Heroes draw only 2 Action cards (3 in solo play) at the start of their turn.

If the Action marker reaches the space marked "The End", the game is over at the end of the round, after the Reaction phase.

Example

The group has only 4 Vitae left, but still has a good level of energy (Exhaustion level 1). Following an Enemy attack, the group loses 8 Vitae: their Vitae drops to 26, and their Exhaustion increases! The Heroes will now draw only 3 Action cards at the beginning of the round. A bit later, the group gains 10 Vitae. However, they aren't able to take full advantage of it, as they only get 4 Vitae back when their Vitae returns to 30. Their Exhaustion level stays the same.

Vitae Track: This numbered track indicates the Heroes' collective vitae level. Soul Raiders do not have individual vitae. This increases the cooperative aspect of the game. Each time the Vitae marker makes its way all the way around the track, move the Action marker one square to the left on the Action track.

Note: There are many things that can decrease the group's Vitae. No matter what Heroes do, their vitae will inevitably decrease at the end of each round. This is due to the Heroes' exhaustion caused by the stress of the situation.

If the Heroes gain Vitae during the game, it cannot exceed a value of 30, and it has no effect on the Action marker, which stays in the same position.

Threat Track: This track is divided into 3 tiers. It indicates the danger level and alertness of enemies more generally. Location and or card effects can increase or decrease the Threat level. To increase the Threat level, the marker is moved towards the space marked "The End" at the end of the track. To decrease the threat level, the marker is moved towards the bottom of the track. Soul Raiders is an adventure, and danger is present from the very start. The first space at the bottom of the track is called space 1 of the Threat track.

The marker's position on the track indicates the current Threat tier. When the marker moves to a different tier (whether it's the tier above or below), the indications for the new tier apply immediately.

If the Threat marker reaches the top of the Threat track, in the space marked "The End," the game is over at the end of the round, after the Reaction phase.

Threat Tier Indications: There are three colors that correspond to the Threat tier: blue (moderate), yellow (high), red (extreme). Each tier has a number, the Threat value, as well as a reminder of the effects it applies to.

The Threat value applies to the following effects:

• Stress: Indicates how much Vitae the group loses during the Reaction phase due to stress (see Reaction Phase).
• Random Enemy deck: Indicates how many Random Enemies to draw when the icon is applied (may appear in several colors). Example: If the Threat value is 3, the effect means "draw 5 random Enemies" (3+2).
• Damage: Indicates how much Vitae the group loses when the icon is applied (may appear in several colors).

On some Locations or cards, these icons may appear along with a bonus. In this case, add this bonus to the Threat value to get the final result.

End of Game Indicators

The Victory Condition Card and the Threat and Action markers indicate when the end of the game is approaching.

Once one of the following situations occurs, the players finish the current round, including the Reaction phase, and the game ends:

• The Action marker reaches the space marked "The End."
• The Threat marker reaches the space marked "The End."

In this case:

• If the Heroes have completed the main goal(s) (red stars): the players read the "Victory" card together.
• If not all of the main goal(s) have been completed: the players read the "Defeat" card.

Note: The space marked "The End" doesn't mean the Heroes have died. It simply indicates the end of the story for this chapter. The next phase of your adventure depends on whether you have completed the main goal(s).

Note: If, at the end of a round, the main goal(s) have been completed before one of the markers reaches the space marked "The End," players can decide to stop the game and read the "Victory" card together, or they can decide to start a new round in search of new secondary goals (black stars). Black stars generally correspond to advantages you have earned, or important discoveries you have made. Like the Heroic tokens, Potions, and Heroic Action cards your characters have acquired during this chapter, black stars are assets that will allow you to continue your adventure in the best possible conditions.

Locations

The Locations draw pile contains all the possible settings for the adventure. When you reveal a new Location, remove the corresponding sheet from the pile and place it on the table. If the Location is revealed by a Hero's movement, you must place the Hero's figurine in the Location.

When there are no more Heroes in a Location, it remains visible on the table. If there is not enough room or you want to prioritize the information, you can overlap empty Locations, leaving the banner at the top visible. You may consult these Locations at any time without flipping them over.

Note: Some Locations may have Hourglasses and/or Teleportation Portals that remain on them even if there are no Heroes in that Location. It is best not to cover these Locations.

Note: The Locations do not fit together like a puzzle and do not form a game board. Two connected Locations are not necessarily adjacent. For example, if a door on the right side of Location 1 leads to a door on the left side of Location 2, it is not necessarily the same door. The two Locations may be separated by a hallway, or even by several uninteresting rooms (which do not appear in the game).

"Bis" or 00 Locations: Some Locations are too big to fit on a single sheet. This is solved by using a second sheet placed side by side with the first one.

Each Location sheet is identified by a Location number and a Location side (A or B), and shows: a Lock symbol (if present); Location Entrance effects; a banner with a description of the scene in the Location and a picture; possible movements, with the difficulty indicated in the arrow that points toward the destination Location number (see Movement); a specific action that can be done by a Hero who is not Engaged by an enemy (often requires aptitudes; see Scripted Actions); and Location Reaction effects, applied if at least one Hero is in that Location at the end of the round.

Entering a Location that has not been revealed

Locations have a side A and a side B. Unless otherwise indicated, a newly revealed Location is placed on side A, and players may not look at side B.

The Hero who moves to the Location first is called the First Entrant. Even if several Heroes move to a Location "at the same time," one of them must be chosen to be the First Entrant.

The First Entrant will apply the Location's Entrance effects in order (top left corner of the Location), from left to right. These effects may be on a red or blue background (see Icon Overview).

Example

After climbing over the wall, Zia enters a courtyard in ruins. Her arrival causes quite a stir! She applies the Location's effects, keeping in mind that the current Threat value is 3: the Threat increases by 1 (fortunately, the Threat marker does not move to a new tier, and the Threat value remains at 3); 3 Random Enemies are drawn; Scripted Enemy 6 is drawn; all 4 Enemies attack, and the group of Heroes immediately loses as many Vitae as the number of shields that are shown (see Combat).

Timing of the Location effects

The First Entrant must resolve the effects, from left to right, at a normal game pace (e.g., a Hero cannot wait for other Heroes to play their actions before applying a Threat effect). The effects of a Story card must be completely resolved (even if they cause you to draw other Stories, which must also be resolved), before moving to the next effect in this Location.

If a Hero enters a Location while the First Entrant is still addressing the Location's effects and these effects affect all Heroes present in a Location (such as a trap), the second Hero will also suffer the consequences.

Entering a Location where one or more Heroes are already present

Heroes who enter a location where another Hero is already present only apply the effects that have the "every Hero" symbol.

Example

Eneko joins Zia in the fortress courtyard. Only one Location effect has the "every Hero" symbol and is activated again: the Threat increases by 1. The marker is now in the last space of the tier! The other effects are not activated (they only affect the First Entrant).

Entering a Revealed Location without Heroes present

This happens when a Hero moves to a Location that has already been visited (by them or another Hero), or when they move to a Revealed Location due to a special effect.

Important note: Before placing the miniature on the Location, check to see if there is a Lock symbol on the banner.

• If there is no Lock: You must flip the Location over to side B.
• If there is a Lock: The Location must remain on its current side. Side B can only be accessed under certain conditions (which are different for each Location).

The Hero who moves to the Location is considered the First Entrant (even if other Heroes had previously entered and exited the Location), so they apply the Location Entrance effects in order, from left to right.

Example

Maïder moves to Location 4, which Eneko has previously visited. This Location is already revealed but currently does not have any Heroes in it. The banner of the Location does not contain a Lock: Maïder must immediately flip the Location to side B. Then she enters Location 4 and applies the Location's effects: she draws Scripted Enemy cards 23 and 24.

Flipping a Location to side B

All Locations have a side B. This side reveals new information, but sometimes there are secret passages or, on the contrary, gates that have been lowered to close off passage, etc.

All of the physical components present on side A are systematically moved to side B (Hourglass tokens, Teleportation Portals, miniatures, etc.). Unless otherwise indicated, a Location that has been turned to side B will stay on side B until the end of the chapter.

There are two reasons a Location can be flipped from side A to side B:

• As explained above, by entering a Location previously revealed on side A, without a lock and with no Hero present.
• If a specific instruction tells you to flip a Location to side B: under various conditions indicated in the Location, due to a Location's Reaction effect, in a box linked to a Scripted Action, on an Enemy card, in a Story, on a Movement arrow.

In this second case, if there are Heroes present in the Location:

• Apply the blue Entrance effects (not the red ones). Any Enemy cards that are drawn as a result of these effects are distributed among the Heroes, after they are revealed, at the players' discretion. If a Story card must be drawn, choose one player to reveal it.
• Enemies who were already Engaged with the Heroes on side A are still Engaged with the same Heroes.

Example

Meanwhile, back in the courtyard, Zia has defeated most of her Enemies. Eneko, who is not Engaged in combat, activates a lever that tells him to immediately flip the Location to side B. The Location is immediately flipped over, and Zia and Eneko discover that a trap door has just opened. But before they can do anything about it, they must apply the two blue Location effects: the Threat increases by 2 (the Threat marker moves to the next tier, so the Threat value is 4 instead of 3), and they draw Scripted Enemy 32 (once the card is revealed, they decide to have Zia Engage with it). A third, red effect does not apply (it will only apply to a future First Entrant).

Description of Location Effects

Some Locations have written instructions. They must be applied before any other effects. After that, the effects of the icons, described below, are addressed in order, from left to right. Once all the effects have been addressed, the Heroes can act.

Effects with the Visible icon only apply to visible Heroes (they do not apply to Invisible Heroes, even if you would like them to). The Entrance Effect icons below, in red, also exist in blue.

Location Entrance Effects: Important note: These effects only apply to the First Entrant, unless they are accompanied by the "every Hero" symbol. In that case, they apply to every Hero who enters the Location.

• Random Enemies: Draw as many Random Enemy cards as the Threat value (see below).
• Scripted Enemy: Draw the indicated Scripted Enemy card. If it is no longer in the deck (because the Enemy was previously defeated, for example), there is no effect.
• Threat: Increase the Threat by 1.
• Ambush: The Enemies present in the Location attack immediately. For more details, see Reaction Phase.
• Damage: The group loses as much Vitae as the Threat value.
• Story: Draw the indicated Story card. If it is no longer in the deck, there is no effect.
• Extended Visibility: If the Location indicated has not yet been revealed, place it on the table. It is considered to be revealed (so if it does not have a lock on it, when moving to this Location, it will be flipped to side B).
• Anti-Magic: This effect is permanent. Heroes may not cast any type of spell in this Location (including using potions). The effects of previously cast spells, such as "invisibility," are cancelled for any Hero in this Location.
• Teleportation Portal: Place a Teleportation Portal on the Location. If all 6 have already been placed, move one to this Location.
• Special Icons: You may discover other icons. Apply their effect if you have the cards that explain them. Otherwise ignore them.
• Hourglass: Place an Hourglass token on the Location.

Location Reaction Effects

At the end of each round, apply the Reaction Effects of all Locations where at least one Hero is present. Unlike Entrance effects, these effects are therefore recurrent. The effects that apply in the Reaction phase (see Reaction Phase) are indicated at the bottom of the sheet. They are orange in order to distinguish them from other effects. The effects are addressed in order, from left to right.

If the Heroes are spread over several Locations, the players decide what order to resolve the Locations in, and fully resolve the effects of one Location before moving on to the next.

In addition to the effects already described, some are specific:

• Random Enemies and Scripted Enemies: After revealing the Enemies that have been drawn, players may distribute them as they see fit among the different Heroes present in the Location.
• Story: Decide which Hero will draw the card.
• Alert: If at least one Enemy is in the Location, the alert is given, and the Threat increases by 1.
• Flip to side B: The Location is automatically flipped to side B. Resolve any effects in blue immediately, followed by any orange effects.
• Drowning: The group loses as much Vitae as indicated if at least one Enemy present in the Location has an Aquatic ability (see Enemy Abilities).

Example

All the Heroes have finished their actions. In Zia and Eneko's location, the following effects apply: an Enemy is in the Location, he raises the alarm, and the Threat increases by 1; one Hourglass is placed on the Location; 6 Enemies are drawn (the Threat value is 4, +2 for the Hourglass), and the Heroes agree to have Zia Engage 2 Enemies and Eneko Engage 4 Enemies; since there is only one Hourglass in the Location, not 2, a further effect that requires 2 Hourglasses is ignored.

Conditional Effects

Threat tier: The effect only applies if the current Threat tier is the same as the one indicated. Example: If the current Threat tier is red (which corresponds to Threat value 4), draw Story 45. Otherwise, ignore this instruction.

Hourglass: There is no limit to the number of Hourglass tokens that can be placed. They stay in the Location permanently, unless otherwise indicated. An Hourglass can be a quantity or a trigger, depending on the case.

Quantity example: The Threat value is 4, and there are 3 Hourglasses in the Location. This gives the effect: draw 10 Random Enemy cards (4 for the Threat value and 2 x 3 for the Hourglasses).

Trigger example: Two Hourglasses are present in this Location, so the following effects must still be applied: place an Hourglass on the Location. Now that there are 3 Hourglasses on the Location, you must flip the Location over to side B.

Scripted Actions Proposed

Some Locations include special actions that are written on scrolls. They can only be done by a Hero who is not Engaged in combat (see Combat).

When the action is performed, it causes a Story card to be drawn or the Location to be flipped to the other side.

Examples

"Pick the lock on the gate": You must perform an Action with a difficulty of 7 (counting any possible Precision bonus you may have) in order to draw Story 6.

"Unlock the door": You must perform an Action with a difficulty of 3 (counting any possible Strength bonus you may have) in order to flip the Location to side B.

"Talk to the innkeeper": This option, which allows you to draw Story 16, does not require an Action, but you must not be Engaged.

Random Enemy Cards

The Random Enemy card pile includes 5 types of Enemies as well as Threat cards. The number of cards to draw depends on the Threat value and thus increases as the game goes on.

The Enemies drawn are placed in front of the Hero who triggered the effect, or are distributed among the Heroes as the players see fit, if there are several Heroes in the Location and none of them triggered the effect specifically (Reaction, flipping a Location from side A to side B, etc.).

If a Threat card is drawn: immediately increase the Threat by 1, then discard the card.

When there are no more cards in the Random Enemy pile, shuffle the discarded cards and create a new draw pile.

Round of Play

Each round of play consists of:

• A Preparation phase
• An Action phase
• A Reaction phase

Preparation Phase

Temporary spells cast during the previous round are discarded (or removed from the game, depending on the Spell).

During this phase, each player draws the number of Action cards corresponding to the group's Exhaustion level. When there are no more Action cards in the draw pile, shuffle the discard pile to make a new draw pile.

Heroes' Action Phase

In Soul Raiders, players perform their Actions freely without having to take turns. A Hero can perform one or more Actions, then another Hero can take over, or even perform an action at the same time, with or without coordinating their Actions with the others.

There are 4 types of actions: Movement, Scripted action, Combat, Spell.

You may not combine the Heroes' Action cards to perform a Combat or Movement Action. On the other hand, to perform Strength, Observation, Precision or Persuasion actions, Heroes can combine their Action cards, under the conditions indicated in Scripted Actions.

You can also: set aside one card (a reserved card cannot be discarded); add the card from your reserve to your hand; discard one or more cards from your hand to bring the round to an end more quickly.

The round ends when all the cards in each player's hand have been discarded or set aside in their reserve. Then the Reaction phase begins.

Pace of the game: Pay attention to what everyone is doing. Players should talk and coordinate their actions to be as effective as possible. Don't wait until each player has completed their turn before the others take their turns, otherwise the pace of the game may be too slow.

To reduce the leader effect (having one dominant player who leads the others), you may not reveal the Action cards you have in your hand. However, you may tell the others that you are able to perform one action or another.

Timing of Actions: The players' Heroes act independently, but their Actions never take place at the same time. There will always be one Hero who is First Entrant in a location, who may be followed by others.

When a Hero triggers an effect that impacts the entire group (such as moving into a new Threat tier, revealing an Event, etc.), they must immediately warn the other players, who now face the consequences.

Example

One of the Heroes enters a Location. They draw 3 Enemy cards. One is a Threat card that immediately increases the Threat to the next tier. Almost simultaneously, another Hero enters a Location where they take as much damage as the Threat value that has just increased!

Movement

The Heroes' miniatures move from Location to Location through passages such as doors, passageways, stairs, ladders, ropes, hanging chains, bridges, precipices, hallways, etc.

If there is nothing to hinder your progress, you can move to several Locations during the same round by combining a series of Movements. However, one Action cannot be used to make several Movements in a row.

When you arrive in a Location, depending on whether or not you are the First Entrant, you must immediately apply the effects as described in Locations.

Possible movements are indicated by arrows in each Location with the following features:

• Difficulty: The number inside the arrow indicates the score needed to move in this direction. This reflects the effort needed, which may be due to the accessibility of the passage or the distance to be traveled (or both). The difficulty is not necessarily the same in both directions. For example, it is easier to go down a staircase than to climb up it.
• Destination: The number at the end of the arrow indicates the Location the Movement will take the Hero to. Sometimes, the Movement will take the side of the Location to side B of the Location. Very rarely, a Movement action instructs you to draw a Story.
• Elusive: This symbol indicates that the Movement can only be done by an Elusive Hero who pays the Movement cost.
• Color and shape of the arrow: Pay attention to the color and shape of the arrow only if you want to flee (see below).
• Damage: Some Movements have an additional impact on your Vitae. Example: To go through this passage, a Hero must perform a Movement with a difficulty of 2, and, in addition, the group loses 2 Vitae.

Flee

If you are Engaged in a fight with Enemies (see Combat) and wish to leave a Location, you must flee.

The difficulty of your Movement is increased by 1 for each Enemy you are Engaged with.

Next, check the color of the Movement arrow:

• Arrow with pursuit: If the Movement has a neutral arrow with a V-shaped tail, all the Enemies you are Engaged with chase you to the new Location.
• Arrow without pursuit: If the Movement has a green arrow, only the Enemies you are Engaged with that have the Pursuit ability can follow you.

Some Spells, such as Teleportation or Teleportation Portal, prevent Enemies from pursuing you, even if they have the Pursuit ability.

Note: Some Enemies have the Guardian ability, which prevents Heroes from fleeing (including through a portal), except for Heroes with the Elusive aptitude.

All the Enemies that are not able to follow the Hero are:

• distributed among the Heroes still present in the Location. The players may decide how to divide up the Enemies, but no Enemy is discarded.
• if there are no more Heroes present in the Location, the Random Enemies are discarded and the Scripted Enemies are put back into their draw pile.

Example

Zia and Eneko are in the same Location, and both are Engaged with Enemies. Zia is Engaged with 3 Enemies, including a particularly powerful Bugbear. Since she has no cards with Combat bonuses, she decides to flee. She can choose to go down the stairs (Movement with a difficulty of 5, arrow with pursuit) or to go through the trapdoor (Movement with a difficulty of 8, arrow without pursuit). The stairs are not a good choice for her, because her Enemies will follow her, and she wants to get rid of them. She chooses to go through the trapdoor by performing a Movement Action of at least 11 (8 + 3, because she is Engaged with 3 Enemies), to go to another Location.

An Enemy with the Pursuit ability follows Zia to the new Location. The two other Enemies turn to fight Eneko and are added to the Enemies he is already fighting with. Eneko is now in the grip of 6 Enemies. One of them has the Guardian ability, so Eneko can't flee... in theory! But he has a trump card up his sleeve: he plays an Invisibility spell. He is now Elusive and takes the stairs without any penalties and without being followed.

The Enemies present in the Location are now alone, so they are discarded (the Scripted Enemy is put back into its draw pile). Zia and Eneko have coordinated their actions well, because if Eneko had fled first, Zia would have been in dire straits, faced with 7 Enemies, including one with the Guardian ability...

Scripted Actions

Scripted actions are indicated in scrolls. They can only be done by a Hero who is not Engaged in Combat.

They usually indicate a difficulty to be reached or exceeded to perform the action, and most of them are Strength, Observation, Precision, and Persuasion actions:

• Strength Actions: They allow you to lift, carry, move aside, push, destroy, etc.
• Observation Actions: They allow you to search, listen, see, smell, detect, etc.
• Precision Actions: They allow you to repair, pick a lock, steal, activate/deactivate, etc.
• Persuasion Actions: They allow you to charm, threaten, convince, argue, etc.

These four actions can be done as a group. This means that several Heroes who are not Engaged and who are in the same Location can combine their Action cards. However, the players must choose one Hero who follows the instructions and completes the task.

Each Hero benefits from the bonuses indicated on their Hero board. Note that an Action card must always be played, even if the bonus is enough to perform the action in itself. Bonuses also apply to group actions.

Example

In one Location, one Hero is Engaged in a combat, but two others are not. They work together to activate a strange mechanism. They must perform a Precision action with a difficulty of 9. One Hero plays an Action card with a value of 3. Another plays an Action card with a value of 2 and another with a value of 3; that Hero also has a +1 bonus for Precision Actions, making 6 in total. Together, the Heroes have a total of 9 and successfully complete the Action. They agree that the second Hero is the one who successfully completes the action and applies the effect, drawing a Story that moves them to a new Location, while the other Hero stays behind.

Combat

When Enemies are assigned to a Hero, the Hero engages in combat with them. It is then said that the Hero is Engaged, and the Enemies are Engaged with them.

The only options for an Engaged Hero are to fight their Enemies, Flee, or cast a Spell.

Helping another Hero: A Hero who is not Engaged may choose to help another Hero fight the Enemies they are Engaged with. In this case, they are not considered Engaged.

Example

A Hero moves to a Location where another Hero is already Engaged with 3 Enemies. No Location effect is triggered when the newcomer arrives (none of them have the "every Hero" symbol). A Hero who is not Engaged may choose to help another Hero fight the Enemies they are Engaged with. In this case, they are not considered Engaged.

Combat Resolution

Each Enemy is characterized by a number (for Scripted Enemies), one or more Shields indicating a Combat Value, Abilities, and one or more effects that are applied immediately by the Hero after defeating the Enemy.

The Combat value of an Enemy is the value shown in the leftmost shield. Note that some Enemies have only one Shield.

The player performs a Combat action (one or more cards together) and distributes the result as desired among the Enemies (except for the Priority Target ability, described below). The Hero must match the Enemy's Combat value to inflict a wound.

Important note: One attack cannot inflict multiple wounds on the same Enemy (it is not possible to defeat an Enemy who has multiple Shields in a single blow).

Wounding and defeating an Enemy: If an Enemy has more than one visible Shield, place a Wound token on the leftmost Shield. This shield is no longer counted (so it is no longer visible). The Enemy's new Combat value shifts to the next Shield. If an Enemy has only one visible Shield, a single wound suffices to defeat it.

Defeated Enemies are discarded, after applying the effects at the bottom of the card.

Example

A Hero is Engaged with a Gobtroll that has 3 Shields, with Combat values of 6, 5, and 4. The Hero must inflict three wounds on this Enemy in order to defeat him. Luckily, it's easier and easier to wound him as the fight goes on. Since the Hero cannot wound an Enemy multiple times with a single action, she must perform 3 different Combat actions: the first with a difficulty of 6, the second with a difficulty of 5, and the last with a difficulty of 4. A second Hero in the same Location who is not Engaged can help wound the Gobtroll as well.

If the wounded Enemy's card is discarded or returned to the draw pile (after a Hero flees, for example), remove the Wound tokens. The Enemy will be fully healed if it reappears during the game.

Effects in case of victory: Some Enemies have effects in the bottom right corner of their card. These effects are applied when the Enemy is defeated. The most common effect is earning one or more Heroism tokens. Some Scripted Enemies have special effects, which use the same icons as the Locations, such as drawing the indicated Story, or flipping the Location to side B.

Enemy Abilities

There are 9 Abilities, indicated in the upper left corner of some Enemy cards.

Common Abilities (Random Enemies can have these 5 Abilities):

• Priority Target: In combat, they must be the first to fall. Until they are all defeated, you cannot wound Enemies that do not have this ability. However, with a single attack, it is possible to wound Priority Targets and defeat them while also inflicting Wounds on other Enemies.
• Guardian: This Ability prevents an Engaged Hero from fleeing until that Enemy is defeated.
• Pursuit: The Enemy will chase a Hero even when they use an arrow without pursuit.
• Rage: As long as at least one Enemy with this Ability is Engaged with a Hero, the damage inflicted by the Shields of all the Enemies who are Engaged with the Hero is 2 instead of 1. This Ability is not cumulative (two Enemies with Rage do not quadruple the damage, for example).
• Anti-Magic: This Ability prevents any type of Spell from being cast (including Potions) and negates the effects of previously cast spells, such as "invisibility," for all Heroes in the Location.

Rare Abilities (some Scripted Enemies can have these):

• Poison: As soon as this Enemy is Engaged with a Hero, the Hero is poisoned. Take a Poison token and place it on the bottom of your Hero board. During the Reaction phase, the group loses 1 Vitae per Poison token.
• Brutality: During each Reaction phase, when the Enemies attack, the Hero takes a severe hit. Take a Fracture token and place it on the bottom of your Hero board. The difficulty level of your Hero's Movements increases by 1 for each Fracture token at the bottom of your board. During the Reaction phase, the group loses 1 Vitae per Fracture token.
• Fear: When the Enemy is revealed, ALL of the Heroes in the Location, even if they are Invisible, take a Fear token and place it at the bottom of their Hero board. The result of your Hero's Combat actions decreases by 1 for each Fear token at the bottom of your board. During the Reaction phase, the group loses 1 Vitae per Fear token.
• Block: As soon as the Enemy is Engaged with a Hero, the Hero immediately loses a card from their hand (of their choice).
• Formidable: Each time the Enemy inflicts Damage, the group also loses as much Vitae as indicated in the Ability.
• Shock: When the Enemy is revealed, all of the Enemies in the Location attack immediately (see Reaction Phase).
• Aquatic: During the Reaction phase, an Enemy with this Ability activates the Drowning Location Reaction effect, if any (see Locations).
• Scent: Enemies with this ability can Engage an Invisible Hero and inflict damage according to the usual rules (although the Hero does not lose their invisibility).

Example

A Hero with the Fear Ability's Enemy Engaged is joined by two Heroes total, both of whom place 1 Fear token at the bottom of their board upon Engaging. A third Hero then enters the Location to assist them and does not receive a Fear token, as the Engaged Enemy has already used its Ability. From now until the end of the chapter, all of the affected Heroes' attacks will have a penalty of 1 point on their Combat Action.

Example

A Hero is fighting 7 Enemies. Most of them are weak, and she could easily defeat them with the Lightning spell she has in her arsenal. But one Enemy's Anti-Magic Ability stops her from using it. Furthermore, one of the Enemies has the Priority Target Ability.

She performs a Combat action with a value of 11 with her 4+1/Enemy card. She is forced to eliminate the Priority Target Enemy first (2 points), who is then discarded. She can then wound another Enemy (5 points): a Wound token is placed on its leftmost shield. She still has 4 points to distribute. Unfortunately, she cannot use the same action to wound the same Enemy multiple times, so she cannot target it again. She wounds a Wraith instead, who is then discarded.

Next, she performs a second Combat action with a value of 5. This is enough to wound the first Enemy again (a 4 would have sufficed), and it is defeated. She earns a Heroism token, and the Enemy is discarded, which ends its Anti-Magic ability. She can now use her Lightning Spell and defeat all remaining Enemies!

Example

A Hero is Engaged with 4 Enemies. She counts up their number of Shields (a total of 6) and their possible effects: Rage (from one of the Enemies) doubles the damage of the Shields, increasing it to 12 instead of 6, and Formidable 5 means the group loses 5 more Vitae. The total amount of Vitae lost by the group is 17.

A second Hero in the same Location is Engaged with 3 different Enemies, counted separately (total Shields: 4). The Rage effect must be accounted for, but it is only applied once per combat (even if two Enemies have this Ability). The total amount of Vitae lost by the group from this Hero's Enemies is 8.

A third Hero, Invisible in another Location, has 3 Enemies present as well, but they do not cause any damage.

Spells

The players are all warrior-mages. The spells they cast are automatically successful, as the only requirement is to have one among the Action cards in their hand.

Timing of Spells

Spells can have one of three possible durations:

• Instant: immediate effect. The card is discarded as soon as it is played.
• Temporary: the effect applies immediately but lasts at most until the next Preparation phase, in addition to any other conditions indicated on the spell card. Place this card face up near your Hero board, then discard it when its effect ends.
• Persistent: the effect applies immediately and lasts until the end of the chapter. The card is discarded as soon as it is played, and a specific physical component represents the effect of each persistent spell.

Heroes can undo a persistent or temporary spell at any time. However, this action is irreversible. For example, an Invisible Hero cannot decide to become visible again just for a short time.

Reminder: when a Hero is faced with an Anti-Magic effect, they cannot cast Spells. Their Temporary Spells are immediately discarded, as are the physical components of the Spells that remain in the Location, such as a Teleportation Portal or a clone.

Single Use Spells

All spells that are indicated as being Single Use, such as Invisibility, are not discarded. Instead, they are removed from the deck after use until the end of the chapter, by placing the card back in the box.

The Single Use symbol only applies to the Spell. If the player uses the Action card for its numerical value, the card is simply discarded, just like any other Action card.

Special Aptitudes

Some Spells allow you to acquire the Special Aptitudes Elusive or Invulnerable.

Elusive: An Elusive Hero is not affected by the following Enemy Abilities: Guardian, Priority Target and Pursuit. When they flee, they do not receive the penalty of 1 point per Engaged Enemy. No matter which direction they move, they are never pursued by Enemies. Some Movements require you to be Elusive.

Invulnerable: The Hero does not cause the group to lose any Vitae, except for any Fear tokens they may have. Enemies the Hero is Engaged with do not cause the group to lose Vitae. The Hero does not suffer Damage from a Location. The Hero is not impacted by Vitae losses in a Story card instruction. If there is a Vitae cost for a Movement, it is not taken into account. Even if a Hero is Invulnerable, the group will lose Vitae due to Stress at the end of the round.

Spell Effects

• Lightning (instant): All of the Enemies present in the same Location as your Hero (including those not Engaged with you) and whose Combat value is 1, 2 or 3 receive a Wound token. This Spell does not take the Priority Target ability into account.
• Teleportation Portal (persistent): Place a Teleportation portal on the Location. Once several portals have been created, all of the Heroes can move from one portal to another with a Movement action (difficulty 1). The Entrance effects of the Location apply as usual. Enemies cannot use Teleportation portals, even those with the Pursuit ability. There cannot be more than six Teleportation Portals in play, but any Hero can remove a Teleportation Portal, no matter where it is.
• Fireball (instant, single use): All of the Enemies present in the same Location as your Hero (including those not Engaged with you) and whose Combat value is 1, 2, 3, or 4 receive a Wound token. This Spell does not take the Priority Target ability into account.
• Teleport (instant): The Hero automatically goes to a Location of their choice that has already been revealed by the group without being followed. The Entrance effects of the Location apply as usual.
• Fury (temporary, single use): All Movement bonuses from your Action cards also become Combat bonuses.
• Enthrall (temporary, single use): Decreases the Threat by 1. The Enemies that are Engaged with the Hero lose their Abilities for the duration of the Spell (except for Anti-Magic, which cancels this Spell if an Enemy with that Ability appears).
• Force Field (temporary, single use): The Hero acquires the Invulnerability aptitude for the duration of the Spell.
• Arcane Healing (instant, single use): Heal 10 Vitae, then remove all Fracture tokens from your Hero board.
• Control (persistent, single use): Choose an Enemy that is Engaged with you that does not have a Story or side B effect. Place as many Control tokens on its card as its Combat Value (6 Control tokens maximum). As long as it is controlled, it is no longer considered an Enemy. You gain a +1 Combat bonus per visible Shield on this Enemy. When you lose Vitae, you can discard Control tokens to disregard the same number of Vitae lost. When you remove the last Control token from this Enemy, it takes one Wound and engages you in combat immediately (if it is not defeated). An Anti-Magic effect cancels the spell and removes the tokens without inflicting any wounds.
• Weakness (temporary): The Combat value of the Enemies present in the Location decreases by 1 (including those not Engaged with the Hero). This can be cumulative, but the Combat value of an Enemy cannot be less than 1. Additional ending condition: the spell ends if the Hero leaves this Location.

Consequences of Invisibility

Invisible Hero Engaged with Enemies:

• If an Invisible Hero is Engaged with Enemies, they remain engaged with the Hero as long as there are no other visible Heroes on the Location. If one or more visible Heroes are present, the Enemies are divided among them, at the players' discretion.
• Enemies Engaged with an Invisible Hero do not cause any damage, nor do they produce any of the following effects: Poison, Fracture or Block.
• As the Hero is Elusive, they are not affected by Guardian, Pursuit or Priority Target Abilities. When the Hero flees, they do not suffer a penalty of 1 per Enemy Engaged and are not pursued by the Enemies.

Invisible Heroes and Location effects:

• The Hero may ignore all of the Location's effects and Scripted Actions that have the Visible symbol. However, they must apply all the other effects.
• If an Invisible Hero is the First Entrant in a Location, the next visible Hero to join them in the Location will activate the Entrance effects with the visible symbol. This can also be the Hero themself, if they become visible again in the Location.

End of Invisibility: This spell fades immediately upon the appearance of an Anti-Magic effect: the Hero loses all the benefits of invisibility. Place the standard Hero miniature in the Location.

Example

A Hero moves to a Location. She is the First Entrant and applies the Location's effect: she is Engaged with 4 Random Enemies. Next, another Hero enters the same Location.

The first Hero casts the Invisibility Spell: as it is a Single Use Spell, the card is removed from the game and her miniature is replaced by the Invisible version. The 4 Enemies who were Engaged with her turn away to engage the second Hero instead.

Then the first Hero decides to fight. Her attack has a value of 6: 4 with one card, plus a bonus of 2, due to her invisibility. As she is Elusive, she can ignore an Enemy's Priority Target Ability and directly attacks two other Enemies, who are defeated.

During the Reaction phase: Enemy attacks against the Invisible Hero's Enemies do not cause any damage. The Location's Alert effect is not given, because it has the Visible symbol (only applies to visible Heroes). The Location's Reinforcements effect reveals 4 Random Enemies; one of them has the Anti-Magic Ability, which puts an end to the first Hero's invisibility, and she becomes visible again (her miniature is replaced). The Location's Damage effect then applies to her, since it only applies to visible Heroes (which is unfortunately her case once again!).

Meanwhile, the second Hero has an Invisibility Potion, which he uses: the card is placed near his board until the next Preparation phase and his figurine is replaced by the Invisible version. The Enemies who are Engaged with him stay with him because there are no other visible Heroes in the Location. He decides to flee. Since he is Invisible, he ignores the Guardian ability of any of the Enemies engaged with him and he is not penalized for his movement.

Reaction Phase

During this phase, several effects will be triggered in a specific order:

• Stress: the group loses as much Vitae as the Threat value. Regardless of the number of Heroes, Stress is only applied once per round.
• The group loses 1 Vitae for each Poison, Fracture and Fear token at the bottom of the Hero boards.
• Enemy reactions: The Enemies attack (see below).
• Location reactions: For each Location that has a Hero in it, activate the effects of the orange icons at the bottom of the Location, resolving them in order from left to right (see Locations). Each effect must be fully resolved before dealing with the next one. Players may choose the order in which they want to deal with the Locations, but they must resolve all the effects of one Location before moving on to the next one.

Enemy Attacks

For each Engaged Hero who is neither Invisible nor Invulnerable: the group loses as much Vitae as there are visible Shields on its Enemies (no matter what their Combat value is).

Don't forget: For each combat, the Enemy Abilities Rage and Formidable increase the damages (see Enemy Abilities).

End of the Round

If the End of Game conditions are not met (one of the markers reaches the space marked "The End"), a new round starts with a new Preparation phase.

Chapter-Specific Cards

There are three types of cards that are specific to each chapter: Stories, Scripted Enemies, and Events. Once they are discarded, these cards do not come back into play.

Stories

Story cards are specific to each chapter and are numbered. Each Story card shows the Story number, narrative text describing the scene, and playing instructions for what to do with the card.

The Stories contain important information, precious objects, treacherous traps, and most importantly, the Goals to be achieved. You may not ignore a Story's instructions for any reason.

The most common Story instructions are represented as icons, such as: the group loses Vitae; draw an indicated Scripted Enemy (if it is still in the draw pile); draw an indicated Story (if it is still in the draw pile); discard an indicated Story (wherever it is, even in the draw pile); discard an indicated Scripted Enemy (wherever it is, even in the draw pile); flip an indicated Location to side B (if the Location is not revealed, reveal it); earn 1 Heroism token; increase the Threat by 1; draw an indicated Quest card (if it is still in the draw pile); or, if you complete a Persuasion Action of a given value or higher, draw the indicated Story (if it is still in the draw pile).

The Stories that are drawn can be revealed to the group, but only the player who drew the card places it in front of them when indicated (this may have consequences during the game). Only Story cards that are marked as Exchangeable may be exchanged between Heroes, as long as the Heroes are in the same Location.

Example

A Hero has just defeated a Scripted Enemy. She earns 1 Heroism token and must reveal the indicated Story, which turns out to be a key. She keeps this Story card until the end of the chapter.

Scripted Enemies

Scripted Enemy cards are specific to each chapter and are numbered. Effects that draw a Scripted Enemy cause the Scripted Enemy with the indicated number to be drawn.

If you are instructed to draw a Scripted Enemy that is not in the draw pile, ignore the effect. This may happen if the Scripted Enemy is already Engaged in another Location or has already been defeated.

If you flee or the Scripted Enemy escapes you, return the card to the draw pile in numerical order. You will be able to draw this Enemy again, in this Location or in another one.

Events

As indicated in Game Setup, the 2 Events in each chapter are placed on the game board at the beginning of the game. Follow the instructions on the Setup sheet to see if they are revealed or not.

An Event's effects are applied as soon as it is revealed and apply throughout the rest of the chapter. These effects can sometimes be beneficial, but more often they are harmful.

An Event can only be discarded if a Story instructs you to do so.

Quest-Specific Components

Like the Heroism tokens, some special components are earned and kept from chapter to chapter, throughout the entire quest.

Quest Cards

The Quest cards you earn represent the Heroes' adventure journal in sketch form.

During a chapter, a Hero who draws a Quest card keeps it with them. They may only give it to another Hero if it is indicated on the card.

In the following chapters, this Quest card is not assigned to a Hero in advance. The first Hero to encounter an instruction that mentions this Quest card takes the card and holds it for the rest of the chapter.

Only Quest cards that are marked as Exchangeable may be exchanged between Heroes, as long as the Heroes are in the same Location.

Artifacts

In each chapter, the Heroes may discover a powerful Artifact. These major magical items give the Hero a permanent power for the current chapter and all subsequent chapters.

Only Artifacts that are marked as Exchangeable may be exchanged between Heroes, as long as the Heroes are in the same Location.

Heroism and Hero Improvement

During the quest, a Hero can gain experience in the form of Heroism tokens. They can be earned by defeating certain Enemies or through certain Stories.

These tokens are kept by the player concerned and cannot be given to another Hero.

Heroism tokens can be spent during an Action phase in three different ways:

Permanently Improve Your Hero: Each Hero has 12 Heroic Action cards, placed in a face-up pile in numerical order from 1 to 12 next to the individual Hero board. By spending 3 Heroism tokens, you draw the Heroic Action card at the top of the deck (the one with the lowest number). The chosen card is immediately added to your hand. Once played, it is discarded like any other Action card and becomes a permanent part of your Action deck, from chapter to chapter.

Draw an Action card: Spend 2 Heroism tokens to add the top card in the Action draw pile to your hand. Note: Spending Heroism tokens allows the Hero to perform heroic actions by playing more Action Cards than allowed during the round. You may add more than one card to your hand during the same round if you have enough Heroism tokens to spend.

Example

Your Hero is caught in a never-ending Combat, and you hear reinforcements approaching. You have only one Action card left to play. You must flee! Unfortunately, if you don't want to be followed, your Hero must climb a crumbling wall whose stones have become slippery smooth: the difficulty is 8, plus 1 per Enemy. Spend 2 Heroism tokens previously acquired, draw the top Action card, and add it to your hand. Lucky draw! With your Movement bonus, your Hero manages to push back his enemies and uses his cat-like reflexes to scale the high wall.

Performing a special action from a Story that requires you to spend Heroism tokens.

Example

A Story card indicates that the ground shifts beneath the Hero's feet. But if he spends 1 Heroism token, he can avoid the trap. Otherwise: the group loses 3 Vitae, and the Hero is moved to another Location.

Potions

Starting in chapter 2, during Setup, place the Potion draw pile where all players can reach it. Each player takes as many Potion cards as there are Potion symbols on the Heroic Action cards in their deck. As the number of Potions is limited, the players must agree on how to divide them among themselves. The remaining cards in the Potion deck are not used during this chapter.

Using Potions: A Potion can be used for free during the Action phase by the Hero who holds it. It is possible to use several Potions during the same round, and their effects are cumulative (unless otherwise specified).

Potions are considered to be a type of spell, with the same duration (instant, temporary, and persistent). Keep your Potion card face up near your Hero board, then discard it when its effect ends. Once its effect ends, the Potion is returned to the Potion deck.

Like spells, Potions cannot be used if an Anti-Magic symbol is present. The Anti-Magic ability also cancels any Potion effects that are in progress.

Unused Potions are saved for the next chapter, in addition to newly acquired Potions.

Potion Descriptions

• Strength Potion (instant): It doubles the value of an Action card during a Strength or Combat action. You cannot apply more than one Strength Potion to the same card.
• Healing Potion (instant): The group immediately gains 10 Vitae. In addition, discard your Hero's Fracture tokens.
• Invisibility Potion (temporary): The effect is similar to the spell with the same name.
• Luck Potion (temporary): All of the Actions in your hand have a value of 5.
• Heroism Potion (temporary): Immediately discard your hero's Fear tokens. While the effect lasts, the Hero will not receive any Fear tokens and gains a +3 bonus for each Combat action.
• Enthrall Potion (temporary): The effect is similar to the spell with the same name.
• Haste Potion (temporary): Immediately draw 2 Action cards. The Hero earns the Elusive Aptitude and a +2 bonus per Movement action.
• Mist Shape Potion (temporary): The Hero earns the "Invulnerable" and "Elusive" aptitudes, and the value of the Hero's Action cards are doubled, but they can only perform Movement actions.
• Antidote Potion (persistent): Discard your hero's Poison tokens. As long as the effect lasts, the Hero will not receive any new Poison tokens.
• Weakness Potion (temporary): The effect is similar to the spell with the same name.

End of the Chapter

If one of the Action or Threat markers reaches the space marked "The End," players finish the current round, including the Reaction phase, and the game ends.

In this case:

• If the Heroes have completed the main goal(s) (red stars): the players read the "Victory" card together.
• If not all of the main goal(s) have been completed: the players read the "Defeat" card.

Note: If, at the end of a round, the main goal(s) have been completed before one of the markers reaches the space marked "The End," players can decide to stop the game and read the "Victory" card together, or they can decide to start a new round in search of new secondary goals (black stars). The black stars generally correspond to advantages you have earned, or important discoveries you have made. Just like the Heroism Tokens, Potions, and Heroic Action Cards your characters acquire over the course of their adventures, black stars are boons that will allow you to pursue your adventure under favorable conditions.

Victory

The players can continue to the next chapter. Creating a Save is recommended.

Only the following items are kept from one chapter to the next:

• The Action deck with the Heroic Action cards that have been added
• Unspent Heroism tokens
• Unused Potion cards
• Quest cards
• Artifacts

All other items are put away, including Poison tokens, Fracture tokens, Story cards, etc.

Save

If the game ends with a Victory, completing a Save page is highly recommended. This will allow you to start over from that Save, but also to be able to play with different groups.

Quick Cleanup (if you plan to play with the same group again): Each player places in their box: their unspent Heroism tokens; their unused Potion cards; any Artifacts in their possession; the Action deck with the Heroic Action cards that have been added, keeping the additional cards separate from the other Heroic Action cards.

Quest cards can be stored with any Hero. They will be available to all players at the beginning of the chapter.

A paper Save records the date, group name, and chapter, and for each Hero: name, player, XP, added cards (numbers), Potions (number), Artifact, and the number of Quest cards.

Note: If you want to save a game in progress, in addition to doing the Quick Cleanup, collect all the revealed Locations and arrange them in numerical order without changing the side that is facing up. Separate these Locations from the unrevealed Locations using the chapter's Setup and Introduction cards.

End of the Quest

When the group of Heroes successfully completes the Victory Conditions of the third chapter, they have completed their quest and the players win together. But succeeding on the first try is a master stroke!

Defeat

You must either:

• Play the chapter again, giving back everything you earned. Refer to your Save to go back to the situation at the start of the chapter (not applicable for the first chapter).
• Start from a previous Save.
• Start the quest over from the first chapter, possibly with other Heroes, and with no other benefit than your knowledge of the Locations, which will be deemed to be your Hero's intuition.

Glossary

Action: During the game the Heroes will move, fight, cast Spells... These actions are performed by discarding one or more Action cards to reach an indicated difficulty level or cast a Spell.

Shield: On the Enemy cards, values appear on small shields. This represents the difficulty of a Combat action. It takes as many Combat actions as there are shields to defeat an Enemy. For each wound inflicted on an Enemy, place a Wound marker on the leftmost shield on the Enemy card.

Lock: This icon appears on side A of some Location sheets. For these cards, the general rule (a Location is flipped to side B when a Hero enters an empty Location that has already been revealed) does not apply. Instead, a specific condition must be met to flip the Location to side B.

Recurrent cards: These are Story cards that are often used during the game. Once revealed, a recurrent card is placed face up next to the Story card pile, to avoid unnecessary handling, until you are instructed to discard it.

Engaged: A Hero is considered to be Engaged in combat when they do not have the Elusive aptitude and when Enemies represented by cards are placed next to their Hero board. Only Heroes who are not Engaged are free to do any of the possible actions in the Location. An Engaged Hero may only fight, cast a spell, or flee.

Enemy: The Enemies that must be fought are represented as cards, and their force is represented by shields. An Enemy card is referred to as ONE Enemy, even if there are multiple enemies depicted on the card. Some enemies are random, while others are numbered and specific to each chapter.

Exhaustion: This track indicates how many Action cards the players may draw during each Preparation phase. This track is directly linked to the Vitae track. When the Vitae marker makes it all the way around the board once, the Exhaustion marker must immediately be moved one notch closer to the space marked "The End."

Heroes: These are the characters that are played. They are represented by miniatures, individual Hero boards, a deck of Action cards, and a deck of Heroic Action cards.

Elusive: Some Spells, such as Invisibility, give Heroes this aptitude. Elusive Heroes may ignore the Enemy's Priority Target, Guardian and Pursuit Abilities. They may flee without a penalty and are never followed.

Invisible: Heroes can become Invisible by casting a spell or using a potion. Immediately replace your Hero's miniature with the translucent version. An Invisible Hero acquires the Elusive aptitude and adds +2 to their Combat actions. They cannot perform Scripted Actions that are only possible for visible Heroes and are not affected by the icons with the Visible symbol.

Invulnerable: The Hero does not cause the group to lose any Vitae, except for any Fear tokens they may have. Even if the whole group is Invulnerable, it will lose Vitae due to Stress at the end of the round.

Location: The Heroes' miniatures are placed on numbered sheets called Locations that are specific to each chapter. In each Location, arrows indicate the number of the other Locations that can be accessed from there, as well as the difficulty of the Movement action required to go to them. When a Hero moves to a new Location, that Location is revealed to the group. An empty Location is a Revealed Location that has no Hero miniatures on it. To avoid spreading these sheets out all over the playing area, we recommend placing empty Locations on top of each other, leaving the banner at the top visible. Unless otherwise indicated, when a Location is revealed, its side A is revealed, and players may not look at side B.

First Entrant: When a Hero enters a Location where there are no other Heroes present, they are automatically designated as the First Entrant. When more than one Hero decides to enter the same Location at the same time, the players decide who is the First Entrant. The player designated as the First Entrant will apply the Location's effects and their Hero will suffer any consequences that do not apply to all of the Heroes present in the Location.

Threat: This indicates the Heroes' Enemies state of alert. It is represented by a track that is divided into 3 tiers. Each tier corresponds to a Threat value indicating the number of Random Enemies to be drawn, the Heroes' Stress and the damage the group suffers in certain Locations. There are 3 Threat cards in the Random Enemies deck, as well as Threat icons on certain Locations and on Story cards that automatically increase the Threat marker. The Enthrall spell and some Story cards can lower the Threat marker.

Reaction: This is the phase that ends each round, during which the group suffers, in order: their Stress, the effects of the tokens (Poison, Fracture, and Fear), attacks from their Enemies, and the Reaction effects of Locations that have Heroes in them (icons at the bottom of the Location sheets).

Story: These cards contain the chapter's scripted story. They may indicate a narrative situation, give playing instructions, or depict an object. Some of these will be kept during the chapter (and may be needed to unlock certain effects), but never from one chapter to the next.

Stress: The group of Heroes faces perilous situations. The stress this causes them is represented by a systematic loss of Vitae equal to the Threat value at the start of each Reaction phase.

Vitae: This is a track that goes all the way around the game board. It represents the Heroes' collective physical and mental health. When the Vitae marker makes it all the way around the board once, the group's exhaustion level increases. Vitae can be recovered through (magical) healing, but it cannot be more than 30, and this healing does not impact the Exhaustion level.

Goals: The Main Goals are represented by red stars and Secondary Goals are represented by black stars on the Story Cards. The number of Goals required for each chapter is listed on the Victory Conditions card and may depend on the number of players. Once the players have earned the required number of red stars at the end of a round, the players may decide to end the game or keep exploring to find additional black stars.

Icon Overview

Heroes' Actions: Movement, Combat, Strength, Observation, Precision, Persuasion.

Locations: Side A, Side B, Lock, Arrow with pursuit, Arrow without pursuit, Elusive Arrow, Scripted Action.

Location Effects:

• Red background: Applies to the First Entrant or all entrants if it has the "Every Hero" symbol.
• Blue background: Applies to the First Entrant and the Heroes present in a Location when it is flipped to side B.
• Orange background: Applies during the Reaction phase if at least one Hero is in the Location.

The Location effect icons are: Random Enemies (draw as many Random Enemy cards as the Threat Value), Story (draw the indicated Story card, if it is no longer in the deck there is no effect), Hourglass (place an Hourglass token on the Location), Scripted Enemy (draw the indicated Scripted Enemy card, if it is still in the deck), Extended Visibility (if the Location indicated has not yet been revealed, place it on the table; it is considered to be revealed), Alert (if at least one Enemy is in the Location, the alert is given, and the Threat increases by 1), Threat (increase the Threat by 1), Anti-Magic (Heroes cannot cast spells in the Location and their spell effects are cancelled), Flip to side B (the Location is automatically flipped to side B; resolve any effects that apply), Ambush (the Enemies present in the Location attack immediately), Teleportation Portal (place a Teleportation portal on the Location), Drowning (the group loses as much Vitae as the number indicated if at least one Enemy present in the Location has the Aquatic Ability), Damage (the group loses as much Vitae as the Threat Value), Special Icons (apply their effect if you have the cards that explain them, otherwise ignore them), and Visible (this applies only to visible Heroes).

Enemy Abilities: Priority Target (they must be eliminated first in a Combat), Poison (when the Enemy is revealed, take a Poison token; during the Reaction phase, the group loses 1 Vitae per Fracture, Poison, and Fear token), Fear (when the Enemy is revealed, ALL of the Heroes in the Location take a Fear token; the result of your Hero's Combat actions decreases by 1 for each Fear token), Guardian (this Ability prevents an Engaged Hero from fleeing until that Enemy is eliminated), Brutality (in the Reaction phase, take a Fracture token; the difficulty of your Hero's Movements increases by 1 for each Fracture token), Shock (when the Enemy is revealed, all of the Enemies in the Location attack immediately), Pursuit (the Enemy will pursue a Hero who flees through an arrow without pursuit), Block (when the Enemy is revealed, the Engaged Hero immediately loses a card from their hand), Aquatic (during the Reaction phase, the Enemy activates the Drowning Location Reaction effect, if any), Rage (the damage inflicted by the shields of all the enemies Engaged with the Hero increases to 2 instead of 1), Formidable (each time the Enemy inflicts Damage, the group also loses as much Vitae as indicated in the Ability), Scent (Enemies with this Ability remain Engaged with an invisible Hero and inflict damage according to the usual rules), and Anti-Magic (Heroes cannot cast spells in the Location and their spell effects are cancelled).