Cthulhu: Death May Die – Unknowable Box
Cthulhu: Death May Die – Unknowable Box Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Investigator Tokens and Components
Some investigators in this box have special tokens and components, limited to the number available in the box. Their unique skills explain how they are utilized.
The components printed in the box insert are:
- Amir: Lifted tokens
- Charles: Inspiration tokens
- Taylor: Song tokens
- James: Hunted token
- Antonio: Aeon tokens
- Robert: Slaughter track, Slaughter token
- Michelle: Barricade tokens
- Anita: Command Spell Discovery card
- Tom: Equipment tokens (the insert shows a First Aid Kit among them)
Investigator Tokens: Death of the Investigator
As an overall rule, when an investigator dies, if they had any tokens, remove their tokens from the board. That investigator's skill has no effect anymore.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule: If the token or component has an inherent effect that is specified on it, it continues to work even after the investigator's death.
This is true for the following investigators from this box:
- Amir: If Amir dies, other investigators that still have Lifted tokens may keep them and later discard them to perform extra actions.
- Charles: If Charles dies, other investigators that still have Inspiration tokens may keep them and later discard them to add icons to their rolls.
- Tom: If Tom dies, other investigators that still have Equipment tokens may keep them and later discard them to use the corresponding effect.
- Anita: If Anita dies, if the Command Spell is in possession of another investigator, that investigator may keep and use the card. However, any special effects from Anita's Beast Tutor skill are disregarded from now on.
For clarity, here is a list of tokens that must be removed from the board once the investigator dies, since they no longer have an effect:
- Michelle's Barricade tokens
- Taylor's Song tokens
- James' Hunted token
New Investigators – Skill Clarifications
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Amelie: If the skill Gate Influence is at level 4 and, for some reason, Amelie cannot reroll a die, she also cannot set that die to any face. For example, if attacking or being attacked by a Spider of Leng, Amelie cannot use a reroll to set a die with [die-face symbol] to any face, as the Spider of Leng's ability prevents dice with [die-face symbol] from being rerolled.
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Anita: Both the Command Spell item and the Monster Ally companion can be traded and are affected by any effects that affect items/companions as usual. If the card is discarded for any reason, Anita can get the Command Spell item back by Resting.
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Eve: "When you Trade" refers to when YOU perform a Trade action, even if you don't actually trade any items/companions. Note that you CAN perform a Trade even if there are no other investigators in your space, which means you can perform a Trade while alone in a space to trigger Eve's Therapist effect.
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Isadora: If Isadora neutralizes an Elder One and later in the round, it is defeated, it is not considered neutralized anymore for the next Stages.
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James: When an Elder One is defeated, if it had the Hunted token, the token may be placed on another enemy or on the next Stage of the Elder One.
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Michelle: Barricade tokens may be placed on tunnels and staircases since they are passages. They cannot be placed on blocked passages. For example, Lock tokens from Isle of the Damned (Season 3 – Episode 2) or the Fog side of Fog tokens from Hypnos (Lost Episode 4).
If multiple enemies would pass at the same time through a Barricade, all of them are blocked and the token is discarded instead. For example, if an effect says "Each enemy moves 1 space towards you." and there are multiple enemies in the same space that by moving 1 space would pass through the same Barricade, all of them stay in their space and the Barricade is discarded.
New Relics Clarifications
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Pumpkin: After the Pumpkin takes 3 wounds, it is not destroyed, however, wounds cannot be applied anymore.
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Skull: The extra investigator board is selected before players select their Relics.
Lost Episodes Clarifications
Lost Episode 4: Hypnos
For any effects that would affect an investigator, for example, making them move, treat Fog tokens as walls. That means they cannot move through Fog tokens, not even if they would be moved by other effects. Investigators that have Marksman or other similar effects also cannot attack through Fog tokens.
For any effects that do not affect investigators, treat Fog tokens as passages. Including also effects that check the nearest or furthest objects. For example, if you need to move the nearest monster, or summon an enemy at the nearest Gate, treat the Fog tokens as passages.
After using the "Check for Passage" action, if the Fog token is not a Passage, it stays on the board and can be checked again later, even if it will have the same result.
Lost Episode 7: Horror in the Museum
The Episode comes with "+2 Health" tokens that can be placed on the Elder One card as a reminder of Rhan-Tegoth's ability. When playing with Nug & Yeb, Rhan-Tegoth's ability affects both Elder Ones, hence the 2 tokens.
Unknown Monsters Clarifications
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Keziah Mason: When playing with Keziah Mason as an Unknown Monster, use the Dark Magic tokens that come with Lost Episode 5.
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Rhan-Tegoth: When playing with Rhan-Tegoth as an Unknown Monster, use the "+2 Health" tokens that come with Lost Episode 7. As usual, when applying any effect that affects an Elder One, if playing with Nug & Yeb, you apply the effect on both of them. Rhan-Tegoth's effect that moves the Elder One moves both Nug and Yeb. And if Rhan-Tegoth would be summoned at the Elder One space and both Nug and Yeb are on the board in different spaces, players choose in which of the spaces it is summoned.
Nug & Yeb
When playing with Nug & Yeb as Elder Ones, you can choose either one of them to be the main Elder One. Each one affects the game in a different way.
According to the one you choose, setup the Influence Dashboard, Elder One cards and Minion card. Perform the Elder One setup as usual, with the following modifications: Place the Influence Dashboard on the playing area, with the corresponding Elder One side faceup (Nug Influence if you choose Nug, Yeb Influence if you choose Yeb). Then, place the Minions card with the unchosen Elder One side faceup on the Story Board.
Both Nug and Yeb count as Elder Ones for ALL purposes. You only defeat a stage if you defeat both. If an effect affects the Elder One, it affects both.
Special Influence Board Effects
Each space in the Influence track of the Influence Board has 2 types of effect associated with them: Move effects and Trigger effects.
Move effects are listed inside the spaces, and they are resolved when the Elder One (or the Influence token) moves into that space.
Trigger effects are listed outside the spaces. Whenever the Influence trigger symbol (a blue icon) appears on a Mythos card, resolve the effect corresponding to the space in the track the Elder One (or the Influence token) currently occupies. Resolve the effect for each trigger symbol on the card.
Losing a Level from the Final Stage
When the Final Stage card of either Nug or Yeb is revealed, each investigator must lose 1 Level in 1 of their skills.
Some Discovery cards grant a level in a Skill. Investigators cannot choose to lose a level that is being granted by a Discovery card.
- Example 1: Julien currently has Silent Witness at level 1, Stealth at level 2 and Arcane Mastery at level 4. Two levels of Arcane Mastery were increased by reaching a [red sanity-track symbol] in the sanity track. The Stealth level and the other level in Arcane Mastery are being granted by Discovery cards that say "While you have him, gain 1 level in Stealth." and "While you have her, gain 1 level in Arcane Mastery." When the Final Stage is revealed, Julien cannot choose to lose a level in Silent Witness because it's on level 1, and cannot choose Stealth because it is only on level 2 due to the Discovery card granting it the 2nd level. So, he must lose a level in Arcane Mastery.
Also, if an investigator loses a level in a skill that grants a free or extra action (like Swiftness level 2 or 4) in the middle of their turn, if they have already used that type of action, consider it as their free/extra action. This means the investigator still has all their regular actions to perform.
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Example 2: Ruth currently has Swiftness at level 2 and Stealth at level 3. She starts her turn by performing a Run action and sneaking past Nug using Stealth, which deals enough wounds to kill it. This causes the Final Stage of Nug to be revealed. She then chooses to lose a level in Swiftness. Since she had only performed 1 Run action, she considers it to be her free action. Ruth still has her 3 regular actions to perform.
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Example 3: Sally currently has Avid Photographer at level 4. She starts her turn by performing an attack action on Yeb, killing it. This causes the Final Stage of Yeb to be revealed. She then chooses to lose a level in Avid Photographer. Since she had only performed 1 action, she considers it to be her free action. Sally still has her 3 regular actions to perform.
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Example 4: Peters currently has Swiftness at level 4. He starts his turn by discarding a card that deals 3 wounds to Nug, killing it. This causes the Final Stage of Nug to be revealed. He then chooses to lose a level in Swiftness. Since he hasn't performed an action yet, he loses the extra action from Swiftness level 4. From now on, he only has his 3 regular actions and 1 free Run action left (provided by Swiftness level 2).
Random Elder One Summoning – Rule Interaction
When using the "Random Elder One Summoning" rule (core rulebook, P. 23) with Nug & Yeb, apply the following rules:
- When Stage III of the Elder One is revealed, instead of summoning Nug & Yeb on the specified spaces, randomly select 1 of the Random Location tokens and summon Nug in that space. Remove that token from the game. Then, do the same for Yeb.
- When the Final Stage of the Elder One is revealed, instead of summoning Nug & Yeb on the specified spaces, reveal 1 of the 2 remaining Random Location tokens and summon Nug in that space. Remove that token from the game. Then, summon Yeb in the remaining token space.
Gaps
- Lost Episodes 4–7 setup and rules: the box insert covers only their lore and clarifications. Their own setup, maps and rules text are not in the sources available for this transcription (they are presumably printed in the box's own booklets), so they are not transcribed here.
- Nug & Yeb Influence Board effects: the leaflet describes how the Move and Trigger effects work, but the effect text printed in each track space is on the physical Influence Board and is not in the leaflet. Check the printed board for the per-space effects.
- Icons rendered as text: the Amelie die-face symbol (shown twice in the Amelie clarification), the Influence trigger symbol, and the red sanity-track symbol in Julien's example are image-only in the source. They are written in brackets or described rather than named, because the printed text does not name them.
- Components without rules text: Antonio's Aeon tokens, Robert's Slaughter track and Slaughter token, and Tom's Equipment tokens (other than the First Aid Kit) appear in the box insert's component list, but the insert gives no rules text for them beyond the clarifications above. Their investigator skill text is printed on the investigator boards, not in this sheet.
- Lore and flavour text: the Episode Lore paragraphs are omitted per house convention.
- Spelling fixes: the text layer of the insert prints "Slaugther" for Robert's component names. The rendered page shows "Slaughter", so that spelling is used. In Julien's example, the printed "iit" is transcribed as "it".