Edge of Darkness: Emissaries of the Vale

Edge of Darkness: Emissaries of the Vale Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

Your game of Edge of Darkness Emissaries of the Vale should include the following. If it does not, visit www.alderac.com/customer-service for assistance.

13 Location boards
13 Randomizers
12 Gaia's Blessing tokens
20 Growth tokens
98 Card advancements
1 Player Handbook

Tale: War Blossoms

This Tale plays out over several games, called "Chapters", and offers a more thematic way to explore the Valley of Life over a series of consecutive varied setups.

Chapter 1: Fresh Growth

difficulty: low complexity: high

Use locations 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20, 26, 34, 63, and 72.

Chapter 2: Budding Relations

difficulty: low complexity: high

Use locations 21, 38, 46, 48, 52, 53, 56, 60, 66, and 68.

Chapter 3: The Fruit of Alliance

difficulty: moderate complexity: high

Use locations 6, 11, 15, 25, 49, 51, 54, 58, 65, and 73.

Chapter 4: The Heart of Desolation

difficulty: high complexity: high

Use locations 3, 28, 40, 43, 55, 57, 64, 67, 74, and 75.

Recommended Setups

This section includes a number of recommended setups if you are looking for already curated sets. That said, not all of these sets will necessarily be "balanced".

For example, some of them may cause a fairly tight game in regards to Coins while others may have the ability to get lots of Coins.

It will be up to the players to identify and determine the best way to exploit or deal with the imbalance.

Trade and Treasures

difficulty: moderate complexity: moderate

You may own Sands of Dunestar and Cliffs of Coldharbor to play this setup.

Locations: 2 Grand Senate, 8 College for Greatness, 18 City Treasury, 27 Livingbark Camp, 32 Courthouse, 35 Monument Park, 50 Rattlesnake Hideout, 59 Coldharbor Docks, 67 Mushroom Forest, 71 Ent Grove.

Wealth and War

difficulty: high complexity: moderate combative

You must own Sands of Dunestar to play this setup.

Locations: 1 Capitol Hall, 10 Guildmark University, 12 Blessed Stronghold, 16 Riverhollow, Fishing Town, 33 Grand Library, 37 Silent Temple, 39 Sandslayer Encampment, 42 Mahj Kennels, 69 Earth Cradle, 70 Stem of the Clans.

You may replace Silent Temple with Storm Valley if you do not want a Combative setup.

Prosperity and Pestilence

difficulty: low complexity: low combative

You must own Sands of Dunestar and Cliffs of Coldharbor to play this setup.

Locations: 4 Bureau of Investigation, 23 Millhollow, Farm Town, 29 Watchtowers, 36 Sewers, 44 Sun Vaults, 49 The Great River, 53 Northstone Academy, 54 Chasm Road, 68 Bog Town, 72 Eye of Gaia.

You may replace Sewers with Courthouse if you do not want a Combative setup.

Bravery and Blight

difficulty: high complexity: high combative

You must own Sands of Dunestar and Cliffs of Coldharbor to play this setup.

Locations: 5 Hunters' Guildhall, 22 Harbor, 34 Labor Exchange, 45 Altar of the Soulless God, 47 Debtors' Prison, 51 Coldharbor Citadel, 61 Coldhollow, Northmost Town, 65 Traveler's Path, 71 Ent Grove, 75 The Desolation.

You may replace Debtor's Prison with Storm Valley if you do not want a Combative setup.

Locations and Advancements Clarifications

This section contains all the locations and corresponding advancements in Emissaries of the Vale, with their abilities and effect(s) clarified. This expansion introduces Growth (Growth). Growth is a resource in the game that can be either on the Location boards (generally under Agents) or in your coffers. Pay attention to where you spend your Growth from as per the Location boards or effects over the course of the game.

Rite of Bonding

This location has two distinct abilities.

The first one is:

On your turn, once per turn, if you have 2 cards in your hand or Guild Hall that are owned by other players, you gain Growth.

The second one is:

Return 2 Agents from Rite of Bonding to your Trained Agents pool and pay 7 Coins to [black card-with-down-arrow icon; the printed text does not name it] of a Neutral card in your hand. This cost is reduced by the number of Growth you have.

For example, if you have 2 Agents at the Rite of Bonding and 3 Growth, you would need only to pay 4 Coins to be able to [black card-with-down-arrow icon] of a Neutral card in your hand.

Ambassador of the Vale

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, you dispatch up to 3 Agents to the Rite of Bonding at no cost.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Betrayer of the Vale

This threat contributes 2 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has two rewards. When you defeat it, you:

Gain 2 Growth,
AND Gain Battle Strength.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Untamed Forest

This location has a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met.

In the case of the Untamed Forest, the condition is:

When a threat attacks you.

When the condition is met, you gain Growth.

Druid of the Untamed

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, you must pay a Growth to [hunt icon: hunt threats].

You may choose to pay 2 Growth instead. In that case, you gain the rewards from defeating one threat this turn an additional time.

For example, if there is a Betrayer of the Vale in the tower and you defeat that threat, if you chose to pay 2 Growth tokens when you resolved the Druid of the Untamed, you will gain 4 Growth and 2 Battle Strength instead of 2 and 1 respectively.

There are 4 middle and 3 bottom advancements with this contact.

Dread Ent

This threat contributes 3 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 3 Battle Strength.

There are 4 middle and 3 bottom advancements with this threat.

Traveler's Path

This location has 3 distinct abilities:

The first one is a start of the round ability:

In the case of the Traveler's Path, it means that at the start of every round, you gain Growth.

The second one is:

Pay Growth to return an Agent from the Traveler's Path to your Trained Agents pool.

The third one is:

Pay Growth to place a card you own or that is Neutral in your hand or the Street at the bottom of the deck.

Traveler Guardian

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, you dispatch an Agent to the Traveler's Path at no cost. This may be untrained.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

End of Trails

This threat does not contribute Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in, nor does it give you a reward when it is defeated.

It does however have a reactive effect: when you reveal it, each player that has at least 1 untrained agent on the Traveler's Path may [black card-with-figure icon; the printed text does not name it] one of these agents.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Frosted Plain

This location has a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met.

In the case of the Frosted Plain, the condition is:

If you have 0 or 1 card in your hand at the end of the Assembly Phase.

When the condition is met, you gain Growth.

Centaur Warrior

This contact has two effects.

You may resolve either, or both:

Gain Battle Strength,
AND/OR pay 2 Growth to give each threat in the tower -1 Damage.

Remember, Battle Strength is only useful when you hunt threats. So, if you aren't hunting threats this turn, this effect will not be useful to you.

There are 3 middle, 3 bottom and 1 top advancements with this contact.

Black Ice Golem

This threat contributes [number not printed in the text; the card art shows 3] Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 2 Battle Strength.

This threat has an ongoing effect: If you defeated another threat this turn, this threat has -2 Damage this turn.

There are 3 middle, 3 bottom and 1 top advancements with this threat.

Mushroom Forest

This location has a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met.

In the case of the Mushroom Forest, the condition is:

When you sleeve an advancement into the last unfilled slot on a card.

When the condition is met, you gain Growth.

Note that top slots with Citizens or Patricians are considered filled. You do not need to replace them with a top advancement to be able to meet this condition. This condition can only be met once per card.

Fungal Champion

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, pay any number of Growth to gain the same number of Battle Strength.

Remember, Battle Strength is only useful when you hunt threats. So, if you aren't hunting threats this turn, this effect will not be useful to you.

There are 3 middle, 3 bottom and 1 top advancements with this contact.

Deadly Spores

This threat has a reactive effect. When you reveal it, the owner of the card this threat is on gains Growth.

This threat contributes 1 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 1 Battle Strength.

There are 3 middle, 3 bottom and 1 top advancements with this threat.

Earth Cradle

This location has an ongoing ability. These abilities are often powerful but generally very [Agent icon] intensive. [The printed handbook shows the Agent icon in this phrase; the same line on other locations reads "very intensive".]

In the case of the Earth Cradle, it means that anytime you may need to pay Coins, you can instead use Growth. When you do, Growth can be used as 1, 2 or 3 Coins.

Cradle Guardian

This contact has two effects.

You may resolve either but not both of them:

Dispatch up to 3 Agents to the Earth Cradle at no cost,
OR return an Agent from the Earth Cradle to your Trained Agents pool to gain 2 Growth.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Overgrowth

This threat has a reactive effect. When you reveal it, all players gain 1 Growth.

This threat contributes 2 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 2 Battle Strength.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Bog Town

This location uses a new layout and a new way to dispatch to it introduced with the Cliffs of Coldharbor expansion.

Once each turn, you may dispatch Agents to the Bog Town and assign them specifically to an ability slot. You may not assign Agents to an ability that already has Agents assigned to it or if you had Agents assigned there at the start of your turn. If you use an effect that lets you dispatch or move agents "anywhere" they may be moved to this location, but they are not placed on one of the 6 actions slots, they do not activate any of those actions, and do not block any of those slots; they are just on the location and do nothing.

This location has six abilities. Each ability can only be used once per turn:

Gain Growth,
Pay Growth to gain 4 Coins,
Pay Growth to gain 3 Coins,
Pay 2 Growth to [hunt icon: hunt threats],
Pay 3 Growth to defeat a threat,
Pay 3 Growth to move your Defense track up 1 space.

Note, you only get the ability the turn you place an Agent there.

For example, you do not get Growth at no cost every turn for having placed an agent on the first slot on a previous turn.

Bog Town Shaman

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, return all Agents from Bog Town to their owner's Trained Agents pool (including other players'). You gain Growth for each 2 Agents returned this way.

For example, 2 players have 6 Agents total at Bog Town. When you resolve the effect of Bog Town Shaman, each player returns their respective Agents to their Trained Agents pool and you gain 3 Growth.

There are 3 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Spiders of the Deepwood

This threat has a reactive effect. When you reveal it, the owner of the card this threat is on gains 3 Coins.

This threat contributes 2 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 2 Battle Strength.

There are 3 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Stem of the Clans

This location has two distinct abilities.

You may use the first one exactly once, during your Assembly Phase. For every 5 cards you drew, gain Growth.
The second one is a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met.

In the case of the Stem of the Clans, the condition is:

When a threat attacks you.

When the condition is met, (even if it is not your turn) you may discard a Growth under one of your Agents there. If you do, that threat gets -2 Damage.

You may also return an Agent. If you do, that threat gets -2 Damage but you discard all Growth under that Agent.

For example, if you have an Agent with 2 Growth under them and you are attacked by a threat with 3 Damage, you can first discard a Growth under your Agent to give the threat -2 Damage and then return this Agent, discarding the remaining Growth under them to give the threat another -2 Damage. You would then successfully defend against the threat and gain Battle Strength.

Clan Counselor

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, dispatch an Agent to the Stem of the Clans. You then place any number of Growth under the Agent you just dispatched there.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Gaia's Outcast

This threat has a reactive effect. When you reveal it, the owner of the card this threat is on gains Growth.

This threat contributes 1 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 1 Battle Strength.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Ent Grove

This location has 2 distinct abilities.

The first one is an End of Game ability. During the rest of game it cannot be used.

The player with the most Growth at the Ent Grove gains 2 Battle Strength.

[Note: the End of Game text printed on the Ent Grove card art reads "gains 3" with a shield icon (the Reputation icon used elsewhere in this handbook). The handbook text above is transcribed as printed.]

The second ability is an ongoing ability. These abilities are often powerful but generally very [Agent icon] intensive:

You may use Growth under your Agents at the Ent Grove as if it were in your coffers. When you spend Growth from the Ent Grove, you can consider it is 1 or 2 Growth, 1 or 2 [grey stone icon] or 1 or 2 Coins instead.

This means you can spend growth here to use other locations abilities or contacts effects, skip cards in the Street or pay for costs of abilities or effects.

Ent Elder

This contact has two effects.

You may resolve either, or both of them:

Dispatch an Agent to the Ent Grove,
AND/OR place up to 1 Growth under each of your Agents at Ent Grove.

Note that since each effect can be resolved, and effects are resolved in any order, you may dispatch an Agent and place Growth under this Agent as well as under your Agents you already have at Ent Grove.

There are 4 middle and 3 bottom advancements with this contact.

Curseborn Dryad

This threat has a reactive effect: when it is revealed, each player may pay Growth they have under their Agents at Ent Grove to gain 2 Coins.

This threat contributes 1 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 1 Battle Strength.

There are 4 middle and 3 bottom advancements with this threat.

[Note: the card name on the art is hard to read at print resolution; it is read here as "Curseborn Dryad".]

Eye of Gaia

This location has 2 distinct abilities.

The first one is a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met.

In the case of the Eye of Gaia, the condition is:

When you sleeve an advancement on a card you don't own (Neutral or another player's).

When the condition is met, you gain Growth.

The second one is an ongoing ability. These abilities are often powerful but generally very [Agent icon] intensive:

Pay Growth: choose an Agent with a [Gaia's Blessing token] under it. It may be counted as a 1 or 2 Agent for the rest of the round.

Learned Elder

This contact has one effect.

When you sleeve this contact, you must place a [Gaia's Blessing token] on one of your Agents. This Agent can be on any location board.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Betrayer of Gaia

This threat contributes 1 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has 2 rewards. When you defeat it, you may choose either, but not both:

Gain Battle Strength,
OR dispatch an Agent to the location of your choice.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Leyline of the Old Vale

This location has a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met.

In the case of the Leyline of the Old Vale, the condition is:

Whenever a threat attacks you.

When the condition is met, you must return all your Agents from the Leyline of the Old Vale to your Trained Agents pool.

This location uses a new layout and a new way to dispatch to it introduced with the Cliffs of Coldharbor expansion.

[The printed text for this location repeats the Bog Town paragraph and names "Bog Town"; it is transcribed as printed and applies to the Leyline of the Old Vale.]

This location has six abilities. Each ability can only be used once per turn:

Gain Growth,
Pay Growth to gain 3 Coins,
Pay 2 Growth to [black card-with-figure icon; the printed text does not name it],
Pay 2 Growth to [hunt icon: hunt threats],
Pay 3 Growth to claim Allegiance of a Neutral card in your hand,
Pay any amount of Growth to gain that amount of Battle Strength.

Note, you only get the ability the turn you place an Agent there. For example, if you have [the printed text has a gap here] on a previous turn dispatched an Agent to the 6th ability slot and spent 4 Growth to gain 4 Battle Strength, you do not have access to that Battle Strength on a later turn when you dispatch an Agent to the 4th slot and pay 2 Growth to [hunt icon: hunt threats].

Leyline Protector

This contact has one effect.

When you resolve it, you gain a number of Growth equal to the number of [card icon] on this card.

For Example, if the card the Leyline Protector is sleeved on has 6 total [card icon] on it, when you resolve the Leyline Protector, you gain 6 Growth.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Leyline Crusher

This threat contributes 6 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has 2 rewards. When you defeat it, you:

Gain 3 Battle Strength,
AND gain Growth.

This threat has an ongoing effect. For every 2 growth the player has, this threat contributes -1 Damage.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Storm Valley

This location has 3 distinct abilities.

The first one is a Setup ability. During the rest of the game it cannot be used.

If the Storm Valley is part of your setup, then select 1 additional location with Growth icon and add it to the game.

The second one is an ongoing ability. These abilities are often powerful but generally very [Agent icon] intensive:

At the end of the turn, if you have 3 or more Growth, add Growth here.

The last one is a reactive ability. This means that the ability can be used when one or more conditions are met. In the case of the Storm Valley the conditions are:

Once per turn, during your Assembly Phase.
AND if at least 1 Growth is on the Storm Valley.

When both conditions are met, exactly once, you may gain Growth from here.

This means that you move the Growth from the Location board to your coffers.

Master of Wind and Storms

This contact has 2 effects.

You may resolve either, or both of them:

Gain Growth,
AND/OR pay 2 [grey stone icon] to gain 2 Growth.

There are 3 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Storm Elemental

This threat does not contribute Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in, nor does it give you a reward when it is defeated.

It does however have an ongoing effect: all other threats on this card are duplicated. Only one such effect.

There are 3 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

The Desolation

This location has an End of Round ability. During the rest of the game it cannot be used.

If a threat in the middle tray in the tower was never defeated this round, the threat currently in the middle tray attacks now.

This means that if at least 1 threat that was in the middle tray got discarded, or removed in any other way from the tray, the threat that is in the middle tray at the end of the round attacks now.

Vanguard of the Vale

This contact has one effect.

When you sleeve this contact, you immediately defeat a threat in the tower. However, you only gain 1 of its rewards, no matter how many rewards the threat actually has on it.

You also successfully defend the next attack against you this round.

This means you will get 1 Reputation the next time you are attacked this round.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this contact.

Desolation Spawn

This threat contributes 8 Damage to the total Damage of the card it is sleeved in.

This threat has one reward. When you defeat it, you gain 6 Reputation.

This threat has ongoing effects:

You do not need to have the ability to [hunt icon: hunt threats] to attack this threat.
This threat cannot be defeated by the effect of Vanguard of the Vale. However, for each Vanguard of the Vale in your hand, this threat gets -2 Damage.

There are 4 middle and 4 bottom advancements with this threat.

Emissaries Locations in Voiceless Guild Games

Below is a table referencing all the locations available in Emissaries of the Vale and whether or not they can be used in Voiceless Guild games, as well as their Difficulty Rating were you to want to calculate your Success Score (see Voiceless Guild Rules). [The Voiceless Guild Rules referred to here are not reproduced in this handbook.]

Number	Location Name	Voiceless Guild Difficulty	Difficulty Rating
63	Rite of Bonding	Moderate	2
64	Untamed Forest	Easy	1
65	Traveler's Path	High	3
66	Frosted Plain	Moderate	2
67	Mushroom Forest	Moderate	2
68	Bog Town	Cannot use in Voiceless Guild games. Use a random advancement instead.	N/A