Conan: The Hidden Chambers
Conan: The Hidden Chambers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Optional Scenarios
Scenarios from the Hidden Chambers and Shadow Kingdom expansions are included in this campaign. These scenarios are optional, and included here for completion. Although they are not required for this campaign, they provide an additional challenge and additional rewards. Optional scenarios are indicated by .5 behind their campaign number.
Scenario 3.5: On the Edge
Hidden Chambers. Dawn sees distance between you and the spider haunted signal tower as you wind your way along the foggy coast. A steady incline draws you up and away from the bloody bay. Before long, the slope leading back toward the beach shears off into a steep, rocky cliff. The crashing surf below fades and the silence of the forest presses in on your ears. Too silent.
Ahead, you see a wisp of smoke and the outline of a crude wooden palisade. You approach cautiously and find yourselves in the midst of three ramshackle huts at the edge of the cliff. Broken crockery and fish bones lay scattered around a smoldering campfire.
The hair on your neck stands up as you realize someone... or some thing...is watching you from the tattered huts.
Suddenly, an abomination bearing aspects of both fish and man trundles from the stone hut pointing accusingly and blaring a distorted shriek. You stare at its bulbous eyes, covered in grey-green scales, its webbed digits, and protruding fins. As it approaches, a fetid smell, of fish, death, and decay washes over you.
You quickly find yourselves surrounded. The degenerate creatures poke and prod you with crude fishing implements, herding you until your backs press up against a crumbling well. Suddenly, a rumble of primal curiosity... and hunger emits from the well...
Objective
The Heroes win the game once the Servant of Ahriman has been thrown over the edge.
Setup
The game starts with the Overlord's turn. The Heroes start in the area marked with the Well token. The Deep One Champion is placed in the area marked with the number 1. Be sure to add the Hidden Chamber near the map.
After setup, each Hero moves 2 gems from their Reserve zone to their Fatigue zone.
Asset Deck
There is no Asset Deck in this scenario. However, set the Zamorian Chain and Anchor equipment cards near the Player area, since they will be used in the scenario. Also, set aside Dagon's Circlet as the reward for success.
Event
Complete both steps in order:
- Break the Chains: If the Servant of Ahriman is chained to the wall in the Hidden Chamber, it attempts to break free. Place a red gem on its base. Once there are 4 red gems on its base, the Servant of Ahriman breaks free. Move it to the Well token. Place the Zamorian Chain in the Hidden Chamber.
- Surrounded! 2 Reinforcement points.
Special Rules
Map Notes: Standard map rules apply. Only one half of the map is required for this scenario and the rest may be ignored. Units may not cross, or use Wall Wrecker on, a wooden barricade. The door on the center hut counts as a hut flap. There is Line of Sight from the Hidden Chamber to the area with the Well token.
Hidden Chamber: It costs 1 extra Movement Point to move between the area with the Well token and the Hidden Chamber.
Reach Skill: Deep Ones will always stop in an adjacent space to benefit from their Reach Skill if possible. The Reach skill may be used to attack into the Hidden Chamber from the area with the Well token.
On the Edge: For all attacks in the area with the Well token, when a character's attack power is determined, if any die shows 2 or more symbols, the defender is moved into the Hidden Chamber after the attack is completed.
Deep One Champion: The Deep One Champion is considered a Deep One. It targets the Strongest Hero. When it is killed, place the Anchor equipment card in its area.
Poison Skill: The Deep One's stench is over powering! Each time a Hero attempts to perform a Melee, Range, or Manipulation action, before completing the action add or remove Poison tokens on their dashboard to match the number of Deep Ones (or their corpses) in their area. The Hero's maximum Encumbrance Value and Encumbrance limits for each skill are immediately reduced by 1 for each Poison token on their dashboard.
Lingering Stench: If a Deep One is killed, place a red gem in the area to represent its corpse. A Hero in an area adjacent to the cliff may perform a simple Manipulation (or use Telekinesis) to remove 1 red gem from the map.
Zamorian Chain: A Hero with the Zamorian chain that starts his turn in the Hidden Chamber does not pay the extra movement point to exit the Hidden Chamber. The Hero with the Zamorian Chain is also immune to Blocking until he exits the Hidden Chamber.
The Servant of Ahriman: acts in the following order while chained:
- Attempt to break free. Roll 1 die (no rerolls). If the result is 2 or more symbols place a red gem on its base. (See Break the Chains Event.)
- Attack Target Hero, if possible. While chained, the Servant of Ahriman does not move.
Once freed, the Servant of Ahriman moves and targets normally. When the Servant of Ahriman reaches 5 Life points, reduce its attack dice by 1. At 0 Life Points, reduce its attack dice by 1 additional. After that, the Servant of Ahriman cannot be wounded any more.
Killing the Beast: The only way to kill the Servant of Ahriman is to knock it off the cliff. If the Servant of Ahriman is in an area adjacent to the cliff, the Heroes may attempt to knock it over the edge by constricting it with the Zamorian Chain and giving it at least 1 wound with the Anchor in the same turn. If successful, the Servant of Ahriman is dragged to a watery death. Discard the Anchor and Zamorian Chain, they are not carried over to the next scenario.
Options
Non-Campaign Mode
Cache: Akbitanan Sword, Bossonian Bow, Buckler, Cutlass, Dagger, Leather Armor, Shield, Spiked Shield, Sword, Throwing Knives, Tribal Mace
Spells: Bori's Rage, Set's Halo, Telekinesis, Ymir's Retribution
Four Player Mode
- The Deep One Champion has 12 Life Points.
- The Surrounded! Event has 4 Reinforcement points.
Substitutions
- The Dragon may substitute for the Servant of Ahriman.
- Hard Mode: Substitute Children of Gullah for Deep Ones and Haunter of the Pits for Deep One Champion. Consider them to have the Poison skill for this scenario.
Hero Victory: If the Heroes win, they are awarded 1 Victory Point as a group. In addition, they find Dagon's Circlet hidden in the Servant of Ahriman's prison.
Hero Defeat: If this scenario results in a Defeat, lose one Victory Point. Lose any equipment that they have found.
Scenario 5.5: Citadel of Horrors
Hidden Chamber. As the earth heaves and the Pictish village crumbles into the sea, ancient stones poke through the dirt at the bottom of the newly formed crevasse. Tales spoke of an ancient city in these parts, long since buried by the same doom that sank Atlantis. What ancient treasures could be buried in this abandoned citadel, lost for millennia in the heart of the jungle?
Hideous shrieks and noises that freeze hot blood echo from the forest. No doubt the creatures of the wild, disturbed by the earthquake, coming to investigate this newest disturbance to their abode. Or perhaps those are the sounds of long buried demons, released once more to torment the earth?
Gathering your courage, you make the long climb down into the crevasse. It will take more than the echoes of a few frightened beasts to keep you from those ancient wonders. And if they are demons? There is nothing steel can't slay.
Objective
Recover the treasure and escape before the citadel is overrun at the end of turn 15. At least one Hero must leave the Citadel through the exit in the starting area in order to keep any loot recovered during the scenario.
Setup
The game starts with the Heroes' turn. The Heroes start in the area marked with the red X.
Shuffle these 5 Trap Door tokens face down and randomly place them on the map as indicated.
Shuffle 12 Treasure tokens face down and randomly place them on the map as indicated. (Setup diagram labels: x12 (Front), x8 with the number 1, x4 with the number 2.)
Shuffle the extra numbered tokens 1 through 4 and place them on the map as indicated. (Setup diagram labels: the tokens numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4, x4 (Front).)
Shuffle 8 Fire Trap tokens and set them aside, the 1 side up. (Setup diagram labels: x8 with the 1 side, x4 with the 2 side, x4 with the 3 side.)
Set aside 3 Pit Trap tokens, 3 Water tokens, and the Key.
After setup, each Hero moves 4 gems from their Reserve zone to their Fatigue zone.
Asset Deck
Chests require the Key and a simple Manipulation to open. The Asset Deck contains a Lockpick, Mantle of Gullah, and Spellbook (Summon Demon - Outer Dark Demon). Chests have a weight of 2 but cannot be carried out of the Citadel.
Special Rules
This scenario works differently than most scenarios. Activation tokens are not used to activate units, but rather to randomly choose which units spawn. The number of activations does not depend on how many Heroes are on the board. The Overlord turn always goes as follows:
Overlord Turn Sequence
- Advance the Turn marker.
- Activate all revealed enemy units. Players choose the order in which to activate these units.
- Spawn a monster in one of the areas with a reinforcement token. The location alternates each turn, so place the monster at location 1 at the ends of turn 1, 3, 5, etc. and at location 2 at the ends of turn 2, 4, 6, etc.
Trap Door: Heroes may spend one Movement Point to explore a Trap Door token and flip it. If the back of the token has an X, it is a dead end. If the Trap Door token has a number, place the Hero in the Hidden Chamber with the corresponding Trap Door number and spawn a random monster in the chamber. The monster will interrupt the Heroes' turn and activate. Once the monster has finished with its activation, the Heroes will continue their turn. Units may spend 1 Movement Point to move between a room and its corresponding Hidden Chamber, but they do not have line of sight to each other.
Monster Spawns: When you need to spawn a random monster, follow the rules for drawing an Activation token from the Book of Skelos, but instead of activating the corresponding unit, place its miniature in the intended location. If the monster is already on the board, draw another token. If all monsters are on the board, do not spawn another monster. Once all Activation tokens are in the Fatigue zone in the Book of Skelos, flip them face down, shuffle them, and place them back in the Reserve.
Doors: Doors require a Complex manipulation of 3 or Wall Wrecker to open.
Barricade: The barricade acts as a wall that cannot be crossed or destroyed.
Traps: The first time a Hero enters an area with a Treasure token, flip the token. If it's a 1, discard the token and nothing happens. If it is a 2, the Hero has triggered a trap. Roll 1 die (no rerolls allowed) to determine the type of trap. If the result is blank, place a Pit Trap (max 3) in the area. If it's not blank, place a random Fire Trap in the area with the 1 side up. The Hero that triggered the trap immediately suffers the effect but does not lose any remaining free Movement Points.
Pit Trap: When a unit enters an area with a Pit Trap, roll 1 die (no rerolls allowed) and suffer unblockable damage equal to the result. Leaving this area costs 1 additional movement point for Heroes without Climb. In addition, Heroes with Climb may choose to spend 1 extra movement point when entering the area to take no damage. Heroes with flying, and all Overlord units, are unaffected by Pit Traps.
Fire Trap: Heroes take unblockable damage equal to the value on a Fire Trap token whenever they:
- enter an area with a Fire Trap token, or
- start their turn in an area with a Fire Trap token.
Overlord units are unaffected by Fire Traps.
Wells: Heroes may use a simple Manipulation to investigate a face down number token to search for a secret well. Flip the token. If it is a 1, place the Well token in the room. Spawn the Deep One Champion in the room and activate it.
Sunken Key: A Hero in the same area as the Well may retrieve the Key by performing a complex Manipulation with a difficulty of 4.
Water Buckets: A Hero in the same area as the Well may fill a water bucket by performing a complex Manipulation with a difficulty of 2. Use a Water token to represent the bucket with a weight of 2.
Dousing the Fire: A Hero with a Water token may perform a simple Manipulation and discard the Water token to remove a Fire Trap token from their area, or an adjacent area if they have line of sight.
Nameless Horror: At the end of the Overlord's turn 10, spawn the Nameless Horror at spawn location 2 instead of a random spawn. In addition, flip all Fire Trap tokens on the board to the side with the higher number. From now on, whenever spawning a Fire Trap token, flip it to the side with the higher number after randomly drawing it.
Options
Non-Campaign Mode
Heroes may choose one Boon from the options listed in the Hero Victory section on page 32. (Page 32 of the Tome is not part of this extract.)
Cache: Akbitanan Sword, Atlantean Axe, Bossonian Bow, Buckler, Chain Mail, Cutlass, Dagger, Heavy Spear, Leather Armor, Parrying Dagger, Shield, Sorcerer's Scepter (see page 22), Spiked Shield, Sword, Throwing Knives, Tribal Mace
(Page 22 of the Tome is not part of this extract.)
Spells: Bori's Rage, Born by the Wind, Mitra's Healing, Pestilential Swarm, Set's Halo, Telekinesis, Ymir's Retribution, Yog's Hunger
Four Player Mode
- After setup, each Hero removes 5 gems from their Reserve zone to their Fatigue zone.
- Increase the Life Points of each monster by 1.
Substitutions
- Giant Snake may substitute for the Son of Set.
- Giant Spider may substitute for the Zamorian Spider.
- Demon of the Earth may substitute for Deep One Champion.
- Manifestation of Yog may substitute for Nameless Horror.
- Servant of Ahriman may substitute for Scourge of Set.
- Hard Mode: When a door is opened, spawn 2 Ghouls in the room. The Ghouls will interrupt the Heroes' turn and activate. Once the Ghouls have finished their activation, the Heroes will continue their turn.
Discard the Key equipment card. It does not carry over to the next scenario.
Hero Victory: If the Heroes win, they are awarded 1 Victory Point as a group and the items from the Asset Deck they recovered.
Hero Defeat: If this scenario results in a Defeat, lose one Victory Point. Lose any equipment that they have found.
Depths of the Lost Citadel
Player count shown in the scenario header: 3-4.
The siren song of ancient treasure lured the crew of the Tigress into a fog shrouded cove. The fabled Citadel of Dagon brooded above, built into the jagged cliffs. The ship suddenly struck a reef. Belit cursed. Obviously, a trap. She should have been more cautious.
The crew worked into the night to free the ship. Suddenly, a hideous screech bellowed out from above followed by a terrible flapping of wings. A hapless crewman cried out and disappeared aloft, into the fog.
Belit and Conan quickly made for shore with a small, terrified crew. They tracked the winged horror to a cliff side cave. A smooth, algae covered stairway led down and opened up into a sprawling gallery. A foul temple of Dagon, reeking of sea creatures and leaking pungent water from every crack in the ceiling. Oily torchlight flickered, reflecting off the hijacked treasure of centuries of ships wrecked on the reefs. Forgetting the danger, the crew gasped in astonishment and started toward the treasures.
"Caution fools!" Conan hissed, but it was too late. The crew wandered into the depths of the lost citadel, filling their pouches with loot. It was then Conan noticed the bulbous fish eyes peering at them from the dank corners of the temple. Then the screech of the Winged One filled the gallery.
Conan turned to flee the gallery. Belit shook off his hand clutching her wrist. The madness of greed burned in the Pirate queen's eyes. She would not leave until she had enough gold to pay her crew...or replace them.
Winning the Game
Heroes win if they bring 9 points of treasure to their starting area or if Baal-pteor is killed.
The Overlord wins if 6 Pirates are sacrificed or 1 Hero is Constricted and killed by Baal-pteor.
If both heroes are killed and none of the above conditions are met, the game ends in a tie.
The game starts with the Heroes' turn. The Heroes start in the areas indicated by the setup diagram.
Suggestions for 2 Heroes:
- Conan the Pirate (Cutlass, Net, Stygian Cloak)
- Belit (Zamorian Chain, Leather Armor, Dagon's Circlet)
After setup, the Heroes move 4 gems from their Reserve to their Fatigue zone.
Substitutions: For thematic reasons you may wish to use the Heroes and Equipment cards from the Brom Box. In that case, use the substitution suggestions below. In addition, both Heroes are considered to have the Leadership skill.
- Conan the Thief (Short Sword, Net, Stygian Cloak)
- Belit, Queen of the Back Coast (Zamorian Chain, Leather Armor, Dagon's Circlet)
The Overlord starts with 3 gems in their Reserve zone and 3 in their Fatigue zone, and places the recovery token showing a recovery value of 3 in the Book of Skelos.
When the Event tile is activated, the Overlord may choose 1 action.
- Lurkers: Reinforce 2 Deep Ones or 1 Deep One Champion.
- Waters Rise: Place a Water token in an area adjacent to another Water token. Tokens are not limited to what is available, choose a suitable substitute.
- The Strangler: Activate Baal-pteor.
Dark Hero: The Winged One is controlled by either the Overlord or a fourth player. The Winged One starts in the area indicated by the setup diagram. The Winged One follows the normal rules for a Hero but activates at any point during the Overlord's turn. The Winged One is considered an Overlord unit and cannot attack Overlord Minions or pick up Treasure tokens.
- Winged One (Caestus)
After setup, the Winged One moves 4 gems from its Reserve zone to its Fatigue zone.
Special Rules
Treasure: During setup, the Overlord shuffles together four Treasure tokens with the number 1 and four Treasure tokens with the number 2 and randomly places the Treasure tokens as indicated on the setup diagram. A Hero must use a simple Manipulation to pick up a Treasure token. A Treasure token's weight and point value are the number printed on them. A Treasure token may be dropped at any time and is placed in the area if a character is killed.
Map Rules: Normal map rules apply. A unit may move between an area with a numbered Trap Door token and the corresponding Hidden Chamber as if it were a normal border. A unit may move between the area with the yellow-bordered trap door and ANY Hidden Chamber. These areas are considered adjacent and have line of sight to each other. Leaving an area with a Water token costs 2 extra Movement Points to leave, 1 extra for a character with Swimming. Overlord units are not affected by Water areas.
Alchemy: The Winged One may move 1 gem from its Reserve zone to its Wound zone to gain Evasive until the end of the Overlord's turn.
Door: To open the door, a Hero must use the Wall Wrecker skill on it. A Hero with Flying may cross the border with the Door token, but do not remove the token.
Water Traps: When a Treasure token with the number 2 is flipped over, place a Water token in the area.
Greedy Pirates: The Pirates are entranced by the piles of treasure. They cannot activate or move, and do not count for hindering. Heroes may only use Leadership for Guard actions, and only on pirates who are NOT already poisoned.
Poison Skill: When a Deep One or a Deep One Champion kills a Pirate, do not remove it from the game. Instead, place a Poison token on it. Only a Pirate with a Poison token may be picked up and carried by the Winged One.
Demented Devotion: All Overlord units are determined to sacrifice to Dagon. They cannot attack a Hero until all the Pirates have Poison tokens. If the Winged One is killed, the Overlord no longer has to poison the Pirates and may attack the Heroes normally.
Sacrifice of Dagon: The Winged One must bring victims to the temple Strangler, Baal-pteor, for sacrifice. The Winged One may use a simple Manipulation to pick up a Pirate with a Poison token. Each Pirate weighs 3.
Altar of Dagon: The area marked with a red X is the Altar of Dagon. Baal-pteor has the Fascination skill while in the area with the Altar of Dagon. (The source prints "Alter of Dagon" in this sentence; it is read here as "Altar", matching the rule heading.)
Temple Strangler: To sacrifice a Pirate, Baal-pteor must attack a Pirate with a Poison token on the Altar of Dagon and trigger the Constricted skill. If successful, remove the Pirate from the game and count them toward the Overlord victory. If Baal-pteor kills a Pirate in any other manner, or fails to trigger the Constricted skill, do not count them toward the Overlord victory. If the Winged One is killed, Baal-pteor may sacrifice Pirates with a Poison token outside of the altar room.