Escape the Dark Castle: Adventure Pack 3 – Blight of the Plague Lord
Escape the Dark Castle: Adventure Pack 3 – Blight of the Plague Lord Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
How To Use This Pack
Blight of the Plague Lord is an expansion pack for Escape the Dark Castle, introducing new content to expand and deepen your adventures. You will need a copy of Escape the Dark Castle to use this pack.
The chapter cards contained in this pack can be played as an adventure in their own right. Alternatively, you can mix together everything in your Escape the Dark Castle collection for maximum variety - the choice is yours!
Components
The Components list in the source is an image and is not reproduced as text here.
Setting Up the Game
The first time you play using this pack, and if you choose to play it as a standalone adventure, we recommend playing with the chapter cards in number order – right out of the box. Once you have played it a few times you might want to shuffle the chapter cards so you never know what is coming next.
Whichever method you choose, simply set up the game as described in the Escape the Dark Castle rule book, replacing Step 1 with the following:
1) Create the Castle
- Take the 15 chapter cards contained in this pack and place them face-down to form the castle deck (either in number order or shuffled, as explained above)
- Place The Plague Lord boss card face-down underneath the castle deck
- Shuffle the item card deck, including the 4 plague cards and 4 new item 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
- Place the PLAGUE die to one side until called for
And remember, alternatively, all cards and rules in the Escape the Dark Castle range can be mixed together for maximum variety.
Drawing Item Cards
When drawing item cards, you must now choose which player will draw each one. If a plague card is drawn, apply its affect to the player who drew it. If a normal item is drawn, it goes to the item pool as usual where any player may then choose to take it.
Plague
This pack introduces a new kind of danger, a threat more terrifying than any creature – PLAGUE.
Each player begins the game free of PLAGUE but can become infected during play. Once infected, a player will soon start to suffer the steadily worsening effects of PLAGUE described below. As such, each character must keep track of PLAGUE on their character sheet, and we recommend using tally marks to do so (the source shows an example tally on the character sheet as an image).
Plague Thresholds
PLAGUE is a slow and steady killer. Each time a player reaches a new PLAGUE threshold, they immediately lose the amount of HP shown below.
The source's threshold table is an image of tally marks, where each tally group represents five PLAGUE:
- 5 PLAGUE (one tally group): lose 1 HP
- 10 PLAGUE (two tally groups): lose 1 HP
- 15 PLAGUE (three tally groups): lose 2 HP
- For every further group of five PLAGUE after that (20, 25, 30 and so on): lose 2 HP
Roll for Plague
Whenever a player is instructed to roll for PLAGUE, they must roll the PLAGUE die once and gain that amount of PLAGUE. The PLAGUE die can never be re-rolled or modified. The player must record the new total on their character sheet and check to see if a new PLAGUE threshold has been reached.
Carriers
Enemies marked with the Carrier symbol (a black splat icon, shown as an image in the source) are infected with PLAGUE and are known as Carriers. If a prisoner has any amount of PLAGUE they are also considered to be a carrier.
The following rules apply to carriers:
Combat against a Carrier
When fighting a round of combat against a carrier, a player gains one PLAGUE each time they take damage from the carrier (regardless of the amount of damage taken). The player must record the new total on their character sheet and check to see if a new PLAGUE threshold has been reached. Remember, any HP lost to PLAGUE takes place immediately - even mid-combat.
If a player rests or blocks during a round of combat against a carrier, they do not gain any PLAGUE from that carrier.
Taking items from Carriers
If a player is free of PLAGUE and chooses to take an item from a carrier (whether that is by taking an item card drawn after surviving combat against a carrier, or by trading with a fellow prisoner who is a carrier) they must roll for PLAGUE.
If a player is already infected with PLAGUE, taking items from a carrier does not affect them.
New Characters
All three of the characters contained in this pack have a new kind of symbol on their character dice – the split DOUBLE.
The source illustrates the split DOUBLE as an image, which is not reproduced here.
Even though it is made up of two different traits, this result still counts as a DOUBLES and both traits should be applied.
A split DOUBLE can be applied to two different chapter dice belonging to the same enemy, but not to two different enemies.
If a game effect causes DOUBLES to count as SINGLES, you may choose which of the two single traits to apply.
Knapsack
Normally, a player can only carry two items (one in each hand). The knapsack itself does not count towards this limit (since it goes over the shoulder), meaning a player may carry two items (or one two-handed item) in addition to the knapsack.
While in possession of the knapsack, a player may store two additional items in it, meaning that player can carry a maximum of four items in total (plus the knapsack itself).
These two additional item cards are considered to be stored in the knapsack. To help indicate this we recommend tucking stored items underneath the knapsack card.
Items stored in the knapsack cannot be accessed or used in any way during the events of a chapter card.
At the end of each chapter (and before the next chapter card is turned) the player with the knapsack may rearrange the items stored there, choosing which items to get out to have 'at the ready' for the next chapter (subject to the two-item limit) and which to store in the knapsack for later use.