Arkham Horror: The Card Game – Shattered Aeons: Mythos Pack
Arkham Horror: The Card Game – Shattered Aeons: Mythos Pack Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Scenario VIII: Shattered Aeons
Check Campaign Log. If the braziers are lit, proceed to Intro 1. If the braziers remain unlit, skip to Intro 2.
Intro 1
The silver-blue flames that have guided you through these passages are the only vestige of hope you have remaining. One by one, the braziers lead you onward. Someone or something placed these devices here. The technology is not unlike what you have seen in the caverns of K'n-yan, or in the Eztli ruins where the relic was first found. However, it seems whoever ventured this deep below the crust of the Earth must have turned and fled, for the final brazier has been toppled and broken, and you see no more of them ahead. Thankfully, you do not need to travel in the darkness for very long. Within minutes, you come upon a huge stone doorway: no doubt the entrance to the Nexus.
Skip to Intro 3.
Intro 2
Since you possess no light to guide you, you have spent every waking moment with part of your body pressed against the cavern wall, using the cold stone to navigate without losing course. As you travel, your fingers find warm, smooth grooves along the wall: the same dormant technology that existed in the Eztli ruins. You are clearly not the first to enter this abyssal place. However, whoever came here before you must have fled before their work was done, since the channels did not light to guide your way or glare with anger as you approached. Hours pass as you make your way gradually in the dark, until finally you come upon a huge stone doorway: no doubt the entrance to the Nexus.
Each investigator begins this scenario with 2 fewer cards in their opening hand. Proceed to Intro 3.
Intro 3
Your hand traces over the lines carved in the doorway. An inscription. A warning to turn back, for to open this passage is to invite doom. It is too dark to recognize the language, but you know it is not one spoken by humanity in this day and age. You have no idea how you can understand the engraving. Perhaps some last remnant of memory from your time in Pnakotus, lost city of the Yithians. Or perhaps you are truly mad, discerning meaning from natural indentations in the stone wall. After all, it has been almost a week since you have seen natural light.
If the investigators found the missing relic, proceed to Intro 4. If the relic is missing, skip to Intro 5.
Intro 4
The stone doorway is sealed shut when you arrive, but as soon as you approach, the artifact begins to shake and hum loudly. Grooves along the door flicker alight with a shimmering glow, and suddenly the door shifts open of its own accord. You grip the artifact tightly and enter.
Skip to Setup.
Intro 5
The stone doorway is already open when you arrive. Grooves along the door are lit with a shimmering glow. The Brotherhood must already be here. You have arrived with only moments to spare.
Proceed to Setup.
Setup
- Gather all cards from the following encounter sets: Shattered Aeons, Pnakotic Brotherhood, Temporal Flux, and Ancient Evils. These sets are indicated by the following icons (in the order listed):
- [Shattered Aeons set icon]
- [Pnakotic Brotherhood set icon]
- [Temporal Flux set icon]
- [Ancient Evils set icon]
- If there are more [Cultist token] tokens in the chaos bag than [Tablet token] tokens, also gather the Dark Cult encounter set, indicated by this icon: [Dark Cult set icon]
- If there are more [Tablet token] tokens in the chaos bag than [Cultist token] tokens, also gather the Agents of Yig encounter set, indicated by this icon: [Agents of Yig set icon]
- If there is an equal number of [Cultist token] and [Tablet token] tokens in the chaos bag, also gather both the Dark Cult and Agents of Yig encounter sets, indicated by these icons: [Dark Cult set icon] [Agents of Yig set icon]
- Put the Nexus of N'kai into play. Each investigator begins play in the Nexus of N'kai.
- Set the 2 enemy cards depicted here aside, out of play: Ichtaca (Scion of Yig) and Alejandro Vela (Or, Is He?).
- Note: These cards are double-sided and have story cards on their other side. For the best experience, do not look at the other side unless an effect instructs you to do so.
- Set the following cards aside, out of play: Formless Spawn, Relic of Ages (Unleash the Timestream), A Pocket in Time, Act 4a—"Paradise Lost," Act 4a—"Timelock," and the 6 single-sided Shattered locations.
- Create the exploration deck. This is done by taking the 3 remaining single-sided locations and shuffling them together, along with 1 copy each of the following encounter cards: Wracked by Time, Between Worlds, and Ancient Evils.
Transcriber note: the printed text identifies the chaos token icons only by picture. The hooded-figure token is named here as the Cultist token and the stone-tablet token as the Tablet token, by appearance, consistent with the Dark Side of the Moon Mythos Pack transcription.
Story Cards
Story cards are a new cardtype that appears in this scenario. These cards serve as an avenue for additional narrative and typically appear as the reverse side of another scenario card. When you are instructed to resolve a story card, simply read its story text and resolve its game text, if any.
Standalone Mode
If you are playing in Standalone Mode and do not wish to refer to any other setup/resolutions, you may use the information below when setting up and playing this scenario:
- Assemble the chaos bag using the following tokens: +1, 0, 0, 0, –1, –2, –2, –3, –4, –5, [Skull], [Skull], [Elder Thing], [unnamed icon token], [Elder Sign].
- Transcriber note: the printed list shows the seventh of these icons (a stylised "S" with a 2) without a name in the printed text, so it is left as an icon placeholder.
- The braziers are lit.
- The relic is missing.
- The investigators may decide (choose one):
- Ichtaca is set against you. Add 3 [Tablet token] tokens to the chaos bag.
- Alejandro is set against you. Add 3 [Cultist token] tokens to the chaos bag.
- Ichtaca is set against you. Alejandro is set against you. Add 2 [Elder Thing token] tokens to the chaos bag. Choose this option for the ultimate challenge.
- You have no supplies.
Do Not Read Until the End of the Scenario
If no resolution was reached (each investigator resigned or was defeated): Read Resolution 4.
Resolution 1
Thursday, December 17th, 1925
It is difficult for me to convey my unabridged thoughts on the events that occurred during the summer of 1925. Of course, I gave my full account to Harlan—whom I suspect is the only person willing to vouch for my story—but I have not sat down to record it on paper until now. Perhaps I would rather these events had been a figment of my imagination.
In truth, I have no idea how we made it out of the caverns beneath the jungle alive. Simply reaching the abyssal place was a hellish ordeal. My memory of our return trip is muddled and disarrayed. We scrambled in the dark for what seemed like ages. We were out of food, out of supplies, out of hope—but somehow, we found a way out.
Our reward for preventing calamity was scorn and ridicule. No upstanding paper or university would publish our findings, and of course we possessed no proof of our expedition save for our scars and nightmares. I wish I could say that my memory of these events has faded with each passing day, but I will never forget the alien city we explored in our conical bodies, the serpents that pursued us in red-litten Yoth, the formless abomination that lived in the depths of the Earth…
Perhaps that is why I fear making a written account of our findings—because these memories will crystallize and become etched in my mind, forever damning me to a life of terror and dismay. Still, the world needs to know what we saw. What we did.
- In your Campaign Log, record that the investigators mended the tear in the fabric of time.
- Each investigator suffers 2 physical trauma and 2 mental trauma, as they never fully recover from the expedition into N'kai.
- Each location attached to the Relic of Ages with Victory X is added to the victory display.
- Each investigator earns experience equal to the Victory X value of each card in the victory display. Each investigator earns 5 bonus experience, as they have mended the shattered timeline and saved the Earth from catastrophe.
- The investigators win the campaign!
- Do not read the Epilogue.
Resolution 2
Transposed to a different time, Valusia and the children of Yig live on. Preserved by the new timeline you have created, you and the Serpent People are safe from the events that caused their homeland's destruction long ago, in another time. All of your past transgressions against serpent-kind are forgiven, and you are given the chance to live in the paradise-kingdom of Valusia, remade in Yig's image. Although you may have turned your back on humanity, you take comfort in the fact that the Earth has been saved from complete ruin. Due to your actions, you are valued and respected among the Serpents and in the eyes of your new Father. Your new life is cozy and full of wonders you could never have predicted. And yet, from time to time, you look out into the wilds beyond Valusia and wonder if there is something else you could have done…
- In your Campaign Log, record that the investigators saved the civilization of the Serpents.
- The Earth is saved, and the investigators win the campaign…
- …But the investigators have reshaped the world, existing in another time altogether. These investigators cannot be transferred to a different campaign. (You must start fresh.)
- Do not read the Epilogue.
Resolution 3
Transposed to a different time, Pnakotus and the Great Race of Yith live on. Preserved by the new timeline you have created, you and the Yithians are safe from the extraterrestrials who ended their kind long ago, in another time. You are brought into the city and given freedoms other captive minds never received. Although at first, you long for your former life, the emotion fades the more time you spend in this strange new Earth. You roam the world on titan airships and delve into the collective knowledge of the Yithians, accumulated in their vast archives from centuries of research. Your studies unveil secrets that no other human will ever know. You experience technological advances that humanity would weep to discover. And you prepare for an accursed future that may yet come to pass.
- In your Campaign Log, record that the investigators saved the civilization of the Yithians.
- The Earth is saved, and the investigators win the campaign…
- …But the investigators have reshaped the world, existing in another time altogether. These investigators cannot be transferred to a different campaign. (You must start fresh.)
- Do not read the Epilogue.
Resolution 4
Reality as you know it will never be the same, but perhaps this is not the end of the world. After all, time is just one dimension: a dimension humanity barely understands. We experience time, but we cannot see it. We can measure it, but we cannot alter it. So what if the fourth dimension has split into hundreds of thousands of planes of existence? Our feeble human minds cannot comprehend the outcome, but the universe still survives, its ever-expanding boundaries no longer limited by the confines of time.
- In your Campaign Log, record that the fabric of time is unwoven.
- Each investigator is driven insane.
- The investigators lose the campaign.
Resolution 5
All of this was set into motion when the Eztli ruins were first intruded upon. Ichtaca's original warning was her last vestige of humanity speaking to you. She wanted you and the other explorers to turn back, but curiosity and greed got the better of you. Until that day, balance had been kept. Alejandro sought the relic for his own devices. Ichtaca heard the call of her master and obeyed. However, humanity is the true cause of this chaos. You know now what you must do. You know now how you can save everyone.
- In your Campaign Log, record that the investigators turned back time.
- Each location attached to the Relic of Ages with Victory X is added to the victory display.
- Each investigator earns experience equal to the Victory X value of each card in the victory display.
- Proceed to the Epilogue.
Transcriber note: Resolution 5 ends by directing players to the Epilogue, which is part of the campaign guide (page 37) and is not reproduced in this pack.
Additional Rules and Clarifications: Vengeance X
Some encounter cards are worth vengeance points. The text Vengeance X indicates that a card is worth X vengeance points. Like Victory X, when an encounter card with Vengeance X is overcome by the investigators, it is stored in the victory display until the end of the scenario. However, unlike victory points, vengeance represents the awareness and animosity of the Father of Serpents, and it is generally a good idea to avoid accruing vengeance points whenever possible.
Vengeance points in the victory display have no impact upon the game unless specifically referenced by another encounter card.
- As an enemy with Vengeance X is defeated, place the card in the victory display instead of in the discard pile.
- At the end of a scenario, take each location with Vengeance X that is in play, revealed, and has no clues on it, and place it in the victory display.
- As a treachery card with Vengeance X completes its resolution, place it in the victory display instead of in the discard pile.
- Cards worth vengeance points are not also worth victory points unless the card has both Victory X and Vengeance X.