Escape the Dark Castle: Adventure Pack 1 – Cult of the Death Knight
Escape the Dark Castle: Adventure Pack 1 – Cult of the Death Knight Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Rules
Cult of the Death Knight introduces a new class of card to the item deck – Curses.
While these are not actually items, they do lurk in the item deck to surprise and thwart escaping prisoners when they least expect it. As such, there are a few new rules to keep in mind...
Setting Up the Game
To play Cult of the Death Knight as a stand-alone adventure, set up the game as described in the Escape the Dark Castle rulebook, but replace Step 1 with the following:
1) Create the Castle
- Shuffle the 15 chapter cards contained in this pack and place them face-down to form the castle deck.
- Place The Death Knight boss card face-down underneath the castle deck.
- Place the Start Card on top of the castle deck, with the image of the castle face-up.
- Shuffle the item card deck, including the 5 curse cards contained in this pack, and place it face down to the right of the castle deck.
- Place the chapter dice in a pool above the castle deck.
Alternatively you can mix the contents of Cult of the Death Knight into the contents of Escape the Dark Castle and follow the standard setup, but do remember to use the new rules for drawing items described below.
Drawing Item Cards
When drawing item cards you must now choose which player will draw each one. Curse cards, just like chapter cards, can affect the player who draws them.
Curses which affect a player directly should be placed beside the character card of the affected player, and curses cannot be removed unless the curse card itself says otherwise.
Unless stated on the card itself, curses do not count as items and as such do not count towards the limit of 2 items per character.
If a normal item is drawn, it goes to the item pool as usual where any player may then choose to take it.
Marked for Death
When the curse card Marked for Death is drawn, keep in mind the following effects:
Extra Damage
Whenever a character marked for death takes damage from a cultist (identified by the cultist symbol shown on the source's Marked for Death illustration, which is an image and is not reproduced as text here), whether in combat or otherwise, they lose an additional 1HP.
Resting
A character marked for death cannot REST.
Joining The Cult
Whenever the marked character's health falls below half of its starting level (or if it is already below half of its starting level when they draw this curse) they begin to yield to the corrupting power of the cult! That player must immediately place their character die to one side and take up the cult die instead. From now on, they will roll the cult die during challenges until their health is restored to half its starting level or higher. The effect of the cult die is explained below. When the cursed character's health is restored to half of its starting level or higher, they must immediately place the cult die to one side and retrieve their character die to continue using as normal.
The Cult Dice
The black sides of the cult die have special significance during combat (see below). Outside of combat, resolve all results rolled on the cult die as normal, regardless of colour.
Attacking
When on less than half health, a character marked for death rolls to attack using the cult die instead of their character die. Resolve their attack before any other character's attack.
If the player marked for death rolls a white-sided result during combat, they have successfully resisted the corruption of the cult and may apply their attack as normal. However, if they roll a black-sided result during combat, for the remainder of the combat they will be working against their fellow prisoners! Immediately add the cult die, as rolled, to the row of chapter dice beneath the chapter card in play. This die must now be hit and removed (just like the other chapter dice in the row) before the enemy can be defeated. The character marked for death takes no further part in the combat, and takes no damage when their die is hit – they are simply roused to their senses.
After Combat
After combat, the player marked for death should retrieve the cult die and continue using it instead of their character die until their health rises to half its starting level or higher.