Arkham Horror: The Card Game – The Boundary Beyond: Mythos Pack
Arkham Horror: The Card Game – The Boundary Beyond: Mythos Pack Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Additional Rules and Clarifications
The following rules apply across the whole Forgotten Age cycle, including The Boundary Beyond.
Seal
As an additional cost for a card with the seal keyword to enter play, its controller must search the chaos bag for the specified chaos token and place it on top of the card, thereby sealing it. If there is a choice of which token to seal, the card's controller chooses. If the specified token is not in the chaos bag, the card cannot enter play.
A sealed chaos token is not considered to be in the chaos bag, and therefore cannot be revealed from the chaos bag as part of a skill test or ability.
When a chaos token is "released," it is returned to the chaos bag and is no longer considered sealed. If a card with one or more chaos tokens sealed on it leaves play for any reason, any chaos tokens sealed on it are immediately released.
Some cards (with or without the seal keyword) may also have abilities that seal one or more chaos tokens as part of their effect. This is done following the same process as above: searching the chaos bag for the specified token, removing it from the chaos bag, and placing it on the card. If the specified token is not in the chaos bag, the effect fails.
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.
New Weaknesses
This expansion contains two new basic weaknesses—Dark Pact and Doomed—with the text "Campaign Mode only." These weaknesses should only be added to the pool of available basic weaknesses when the investigators are playing in Campaign Mode.
Additionally, this expansion contains three new weaknesses—The Price of Failure, Accursed Fate, and The Bell Tolls—which are neither basic weaknesses nor scenario-specific weaknesses. These weaknesses are not added to the pool of available basic weaknesses, and should only be added to an investigator's deck if another card instructs the players to do so.
Transcriber note: the rules text of the weakness cards themselves is printed on the card faces, which are image-based in this source and are not transcribed here. The page only states the rules above.
Alert
Each time an investigator fails a skill test while attempting to evade an enemy with the alert keyword, after applying all results for that skill test, that enemy performs an attack against the evading investigator. An enemy does not exhaust after performing an alert attack. This attack occurs whether the enemy is engaged with the evading investigator or not.
Supplies
At certain points throughout The Forgotten Age campaign, investigators are given the opportunity to choose supplies to bring on their expeditions into the wilds. These supplies are recorded in the Campaign Log, under each investigator's "Supplies" section.
Supplies are purchased with supply points, which are granted to investigators whenever they are given the opportunity to purchase supplies. Leftover supply points are not recorded, and are lost.
An investigator's supplies will determine the possible options available during gameplay and throughout the story of this campaign. Each supply has no effect on its own. Some card effects, story options, and resolutions may change or become available depending on the supplies carried by the investigator(s).
Explore
Some abilities in this campaign are identified with an Explore action designator. Such abilities are generally used to find new locations to put into play, and are initiated using the "activate" action.
Explore abilities instruct you to draw the top card of the "exploration deck," which is a separate deck that is constructed during the setup of some scenarios. This deck consists of several single-sided locations and treachery cards.
- Each Explore ability indicates a particular type of location that you are seeking to draw. If a location of that type is drawn, it is put into play, and you move to that location. This is considered a "successful" exploration.
- If any other location is drawn, place it next to the exploration deck, and draw the next card from the exploration deck. Repeat this process until a location of the indicated type is drawn, or a treachery is drawn. After this action has ended, shuffle each location next to the exploration deck back into the exploration deck.
- If a treachery card is drawn, it is resolved as normal. If it is discarded, place it in the encounter discard pile as you would normally. There is no discard pile for the exploration deck. This is considered an "unsuccessful" exploration.
- As a single-sided location is put into play from the exploration deck, place clues on that location equal to its clue value.
Example: Agenda 1a—"Expedition into the Wild" has the following ability: "Activate: Explore. Draw the top card of the exploration deck. If it is a connecting location, put it into play and move to it." Ursula Downs is at the Expedition Camp and wishes to find a new location to travel to. She spends her first action to explore, drawing the top card of the exploration deck. The card she draws is Circuitous Trail. Because Circuitous Trail is a location that is not connected to the Expedition Camp, it is placed next to the exploration deck, and Ursula draws the next card in the exploration deck. This time, she draws the Low on Supplies treachery card, which she resolves as normal and places in the encounter discard pile. Her exploration is unsuccessful, and she must shuffle the Circuitous Trail that she drew previously back into the exploration deck. Ursula decides to explore one more time, spending a second action. This time, she draws Path of Thorns, which is connected to the Expedition Camp. Her exploration is successful. Path of Thorns is put into play with clues on it equal to its clue value, and Ursula immediately moves from the Expedition Camp to the Path of Thorns.
Scenario IV: The Boundary Beyond
Rays of hot yellow sunlight beat down on you from above as your car speeds down the dusty highways of southern Texas, just outside of San Antonio. It has been several days since you hit the road from Arkham on your way to Mexico City, where you may be able to get answers from some of Alejandro's associates—or even better, from his adversaries in academia. The "Brotherhood" that you exposed in Arkham has all but vanished from the city. Its members left behind little information as to their next objective, other than the name "The Nexus of N'kai," a place of power that Ichtaca believes is the Brotherhood's ultimate destination.
[Narrative flavour prose omitted from this scenario introduction.]
In order, read each of the following sections:
Check Campaign Log. If the investigators forged a bond with Ichtaca, the lead investigator reads Ichtaca's Quest. If Ichtaca is in the dark, the lead investigator reads Silent Journey instead.
- Ichtaca's Quest: [flavour omitted] You suffer no ill effects.
- Silent Journey: [flavour omitted]
Each investigator begins this scenario with 2 fewer cards in his or her hand.
Check Campaign Log. If the investigators found the missing relic, the lead investigator reads Arcane Thrumming. If the relic is missing, the lead investigator reads Growing Concern instead.
- Arcane Thrumming: [flavour omitted] The investigator with Relic of Ages (…A Device, of Some Sort) in his or her deck swaps it with the new version of Relic of Ages included in this Mythos Pack: Relic of Ages (Forestalling the Future).
- Growing Concern: [flavour omitted] Remove Relic of Ages (Forestalling the Future) from the game.
Check Campaign Log. If the investigators rescued Alejandro, the lead investigator reads Alejandro's Thoughts. If Alejandro is missing, the lead investigator reads An Empty Seat instead.
- Alejandro's Thoughts: [flavour omitted]
- An Empty Seat: [flavour omitted] You suffer no ill effects.
Each investigator begins this scenario with 2 additional resources.
Check your supplies. Any one investigator must cross off one gasoline from his or her supplies. If no gasoline was crossed off, read Out of Gas.
- Out of Gas: [flavour omitted] When drawing opening hands during this scenario, investigators cannot take a mulligan.
[Narrative flavour prose omitted: arrival in Mexico City and the meeting with Padma Amrita.]
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, –5, Skull, Skull, Cultist, Tablet, Elder Thing, [unnamed icon: a stylised "S" with a 2; not named in the printed text], Autofail.
- Skip each of the "Check Campaign Log" and "Check your supplies" sections in this scenario's introduction.
- You have no supplies.
Transcriber note: the printed page shows the token list as icons only. Skull, Cultist, Tablet, Elder Thing and Autofail are assigned by appearance. The seventh icon after –5 is left as an unnamed placeholder, following the convention used for this icon in the other Arkham Horror rulebooks in this repository.
Setup
- Gather all cards from the following encounter sets: The Boundary Beyond, Temporal Flux, and Poison. These sets are indicated by the following icons: [set icons]
- If there are 2 or more Cultist tokens in the chaos bag, also gather the Pnakotic Brotherhood and Dark Cult encounter sets, indicated by these icons: [set icons]
- If there are 2 or more Tablet tokens in the chaos bag, also gather the Yig's Venom and Guardians of Time encounter sets, indicated by these icons: [set icons]
- If neither of the above are true, also gather the Pnakotic Brotherhood and Guardians of Time encounter sets, indicated by these icons: [set icons]
- Put Metropolitan Cathedral, Zócalo, Temple Ruins, Xochimilco, Chapultepec Park, and Coyoacán into play. Each investigator begins play in either Zócalo or Coyoacán (his or her choice).
- Create the exploration deck. This is done by taking the 12 single-sided Ancient locations and shuffling them together, along with 1 copy each of the following encounter cards: Window to Another Time, Timeline Destabilization, A Tear in Time, and Lost in Time.
- Set the Padma Amrita enemy aside, out of play.
- Set act 3a and agenda 3a aside, out of play. They are not part of the act or agenda decks, for now…
- Set aside each Poisoned weakness that is not already in an investigator's deck.
- Shuffle the remainder of the encounter cards to build the encounter deck.
Transcriber note: the set and token icons above are image-only in the source. The set names and the token conditions are given as printed; the icon glyphs are identified by appearance.
[Narrative flavour prose omitted: Ichtaca's incantation and the approach to Mexico City.]
Replacing Locations
Throughout this scenario, you may be instructed to place new locations on top of existing ones. When a location is placed on top of a location that is already in play, it takes its place. All tokens, attachments, investigators, enemies, and other cards at the former location are considered to now be at the new location (they have not "moved"—the location simply changed). If a location leaves play and there is another location underneath it, that location takes its place. All tokens, attachments, investigators, enemies, and other cards at the location leaving play are considered to now be at the former location.
Suggested Location Placement
The printed placement diagram shows the following locations, all Mexico City, Present-Day: Temple Ruins, Chapultepec Park, Coyoacán, Zócalo, Metropolitan Cathedral, and Xochimilco.
DO NOT READ until the end of the scenario. If no resolution was reached (each investigator was defeated): [Narrative flavour prose omitted. The printed passage is read only when no resolution was reached.]
The ending of this scenario is set out in two columns on PDF page 24 and continues on page 25. The bullet lists are reproduced below in the order they are printed, with the resolution headings kept as printed.
- If it was act 2 when the game ended, add each Tenochtitlán location in play that has no clues on it to the victory display.
- In your Campaign Log, record that X paths are known to you. X is the number of Tenochtitlán locations in the victory display.
- If the Harbinger of Valusia entered play during this scenario:
- If it is in the victory display, cross out "the Harbinger is still alive" in your Campaign Log.
- If it is still in play or is set aside, next to "the Harbinger is still alive" in your Campaign Log, record in parentheses how much damage is on the Harbinger of Valusia, replacing the number that was previously in parentheses.
- For each vengeance point in the victory display, record one tally mark under "Yig's Fury" in your Campaign Log.
- Each investigator earns experience equal to the Victory X value of each card in the victory display. Each investigator earns 1 additional experience for each Tenochtitlán location in the victory display.
Resolution 1: [Narrative flavour prose omitted.]
[Narrative flavour prose omitted.]
- In your Campaign Log, record that X paths are known to you. X is the number of Tenochtitlán locations in the victory display. If X is 3 or more, also record that Ichtaca has confidence in you.
- If the Harbinger of Valusia entered play during this scenario:
- If it is in the victory display, cross out "the Harbinger is still alive" in your Campaign Log.
- If it is still in play or is set aside, next to "the Harbinger is still alive" in your Campaign Log, record in parentheses how much damage is on the Harbinger of Valusia, replacing the number that was previously in parentheses.
- For each vengeance point in the victory display, record one tally mark under "Yig's Fury" in your Campaign Log.
- Each investigator earns experience equal to the Victory X value of each card in the victory display. Each investigator earns 1 additional experience for each Tenochtitlán location in the victory display.
Resolution 2: [Narrative flavour prose omitted.]
[Narrative flavour prose omitted. The Resolution 2 narrative continues on PDF page 25.]
- If it was act 2 when the game ended, add each Tenochtitlán location in play that has no clues on it to the victory display.
- In your Campaign Log, record that X paths are known to you. X is the number of Tenochtitlán locations in the victory display.
- If the Harbinger of Valusia entered play during this scenario:
- If it is in the victory display, cross out "the Harbinger is still alive" in your Campaign Log.
- If it is still in play or is set aside, next to "the Harbinger is still alive" in your Campaign Log, record in parentheses how much damage is on the Harbinger of Valusia, replacing the number that was previously in parentheses.
- For each vengeance point in the victory display, record one tally mark under "Yig's Fury" in your Campaign Log.
- Each investigator earns experience equal to the Victory X value of each card in the victory display. Each investigator earns 1 additional experience for each Tenochtitlán location in the victory display.
Transcriber note: the printed pages carry the act 2 / X paths / Harbinger / vengeance / experience bullets in two places, one before Resolution 1 and one after Resolution 2, and a second variant with the Ichtaca confidence clause between the two resolutions. Each is kept where it is printed; the source does not restate which list applies to which branch beyond that position.
Interlude III: The Jungle Beckons
[Narrative flavour prose omitted.]
In order, read each of the following sections:
- Check your supplies. Any one investigator must cross off one gasoline from his or her supplies. If no gasoline was crossed off, read Out of Gas.
- Out of Gas: [Flavour omitted.] When drawing opening hands during the next scenario, investigators cannot take a mulligan.
- Check your supplies. If any investigator has a map, he or she reads A Path Discovered.
- A Path Discovered: [Flavour omitted.] In your Campaign Log, record that the investigators mapped out the way forward.
- Check your supplies. The investigators, as a group, must cross off one provisions per investigator from their supplies. For each provisions they cannot cross off, choose an investigator to read Low on Rations.
- Low on Rations: [Flavour omitted.] You begin the next scenario with 3 fewer resources.
- [Narrative flavour prose omitted.]
- Check your supplies. If any investigator has a canteen, he or she reads Patterns in the Stone. Otherwise, read Secrets in the Stone.
- Patterns in the Stone: Each investigator who has a canteen begins the next scenario with 1 clue (from the token bank).
Transcriber note: the Cultist and Tablet names in this interlude and in the setup are assigned by appearance of the printed icons, as elsewhere in this file.