Maiden's Quest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Summary of Play
• Basic Concepts
  • Upgrading and Downgrading
  • Base and Special Icons
  • Health and Damage Icons
  • Other Icons
  • Other Important Concepts
• Components
  • Cards
  • Rest Cards
  • Helpful Cards
• Enemy Cards
• Set-Up
• How to Play
  • Exploring the Dungeon/Tower
  • Running
  • Challenging
  • Defeating an Obstacle
  • Failing a Challenge: Downgrades
  • Excess Damage
  • Encountering Your Maiden
  • Challenging Captors
  • Challenging Exits
  • Rest Cards
• Co-Operative Play
  • Standard Co-Op Mode (2 players)
  • Large Party Co-Op Mode (3-4 Players)
• Competitive Play (2+ Players)
• Team Ups, Skirmishes, and Team Games (2-4+ Players)
• Serendipity
• Advanced Modes (Hard and Extreme)
• Credits
• Quick Game Setup
• Upgrade / Downgrade Order
• Epic Treasure

Summary of Play

During play, you will encounter Obstacles and Captors, who have a series of icon requirements to defeat. You will Fan 5 cards behind them and see if you can get the icons you need to defeat them. If you do, you defeat them. If you fail, you lose and generally take damage. Finally, if you think you can't defeat them yet, you can always Run, which generally damages you less than Challenging them. If you defeat your Captor (or find an Exit), you Win! If you lose all your Health (Health icon) you are knocked out and placed back in your room, defeated.

Basic Concepts

Upgrading and Downgrading

Most cards in the deck can be flipped or rotated 180° to show that they have taken damage, been discovered, become broken, repaired, enhanced from their starting state, or you've replaced it with something else entirely. This is called Upgrading (Upgrade icon) and Downgrading (Downgrade icon) and they are primary mechanisms in the game. Follow the diagram to know how each card upgrades or downgrades. For example, normal cards are rotated 180° by Upgrading to become enhanced, but when Downgrading, they must flip over to become damaged. All cards flip horizontally. A card can only be altered ONCE per Encounter, either up or down. Note that the banners degrade and improve as you go from dangerous up to enhanced to further assist you in knowing which side you're on. Downgrading a card might not make a card less powerful, but it is closer to breaking or failing, and in some rare cases, it may help you find a way out in your most desperate hour.

Upgrade/Downgrade order (left to right, Upgrading moves right, Downgrading moves left):

Enhanced — Item / Health — Damaged — Dangerous — Gone / Exit

Base and Special Icons

What Icons do you need to match and what do they do? Your Reference Card will list most of them. Each helpful card can have up to 3 icons and up to 3 Health/Damage/Shields. These icons are what are used to defeat Obstacles, Exits and Captors.

Basic Set Icons: These Icons have no special abilities.

• Melee
• Key
• Magic
• Piety
• Charisma
• Cunning

Special Icons: Special icons do something when in your Fan. Special icons also count for defeating "Any X" Obstacles (such as the Medusa). Special icon types are surrounded in silver. In all cases, you can use their abilities only once per Fan.

• Fan Size (+X): Increase the number of cards in your Fan by the number listed. These are cumulative.
• Distract: Cellar any card in your Fan.
• Foresight (5): Collapse your Fan and look at the next 5 cards – you may Cellar any of these 5 cards behind your active Fan and reorder the remainder.
• Haste: You do not have to Downgrade due to Running. If in a Fan, you may swap an Add for the Encountered Obstacle.
• Wild: The Unicorn is a "Wild" icon. Its tapestry is always edged in gold. It acts as any basic set icon, including Keys!

Health and Damage Icons

These icons represent your Health, Defense, and Damage taken from Obstacles. They do not help you defeat Obstacles.

• Health: One point of Health. If you need to take a single point of damage and you only have a card with 2 or more Health icons, then you still must Downgrade that card. (You don't get change on Downgrades!)
• Damage: Damage is just like Downgrade but requires that you Downgrade cards with a Health icon. Damage only happens if you fail. If you do not have enough Health in your Fan for the damage, Explore the deck (past the Rest card if necessary), downgrading the first Health you find and repeat until you have absorbed all the damage. If you don't have enough Health in your deck to Downgrade, you lose the game. If you pass the Rest card after dealing all damage, Rest as normal (shuffle and progress your Rest card).
• Shield: Every Shield in your Fan reduces damage by 1. Shields have no effect when searching through your deck to absorb additional damage.

Other Icons

• Treasure: Explore for the first undiscovered Treasure found and flip it over. If you pass the Rest card, shuffle afterwards as normal, but DO NOT change the Level. After you've gained your Treasure, continue play as normal unless you reached a Rest. No More Treasure: If you have no more undiscovered Treasure and gain a Treasure, you may choose ANY card in your deck (even Gone cards) and put them in their Enhanced (gold) position. Then reshuffle your deck without progressing the Rest level.
• Tower Level: This represents the intensity of the opposition in the Tower, Dungeon or other Encampment your Maiden has been trapped in. It does not represent the floor you're on, just how close and alert the Captor and his Minions are to your escape. The Tower Level of Rest cards increase each time you reshuffle, from 1 to 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 3c, and the final level 4. Obstacles of a higher Level than your Rest card are Cellared from your Fan.
• Ability: Flip over this card and read its special text. In the case of Captors and Obstacles, it also occurs before players can use any other icon abilities.

Other Important Concepts

Fan/Fanning: Spreading the 5 cards behind the top card of your deck so that you can see the icons on the left side of them. The top card (usually an Obstacle or your Maiden) never counts as one of the 5.

Cellar/Cellaring: Moving a card or group of cards to the back of the deck, keeping the same orientation. If multiple cards are Cellared (most commonly after completing an Encounter) their order does not matter.

Adds: These are Obstacles, Captors, and Exits in your Fan.

Scouting: It is important to note that you can always look at the front and back of the cards in your Fan to help you decide what to alter.

Down The Hall: In solo games, the next card beyond your Fan is always considered "Down the Hall" and you are not cheating if you see its front.

Components

Cards

There are a few types of cards in the game but they can be split into three primary types, Four-sided and Two-sided cards, helpful cards, and then the Two-sided enemy cards, Obstacles, and Captors.

Rest Cards

Rest cards represent how powerful the opposition you're facing as you move through the Tower/Dungeon, etc. Whenever you find a Rest card in your Fan or while Exploring, immediately stop, place the Rest cards aside and then reshuffle your deck, being careful to keep cards in the same orientation they were. Then spin or flip the current Rest card up to the next step in their progression (called progressing).

They start at Tower level 1 and progress to 2a, then 2b, 3a, 3b, 3c, and finally 4. Note they are split into two cards. The first has 1, 2a, 2b and a gray Gone side. Place the second card (starting with Tower Level 3a in the front) and move to it once the first card has become Gone. Note the gray side and 3a are effectively the same level (level 3a).

The four Rest cards read, in order of Tower Level: "1 – Halt!", "2a/2b – Cease!" (Going up to tower level 3), "3a/3b – Desist!", and "3c/4 – Desist!/Last level!"

Helpful Cards

Four-sided cards, cards which have four "sides" two per face, include Health (light blue front left), Items (dark blue front Left) and the Rest cards.

Four-sided Card Example (Health Card): A Health card shows, on its Front, a Normal side and an Enhanced side, and on its Back, a Damaged side and a Dangerous side. Each side carries a Banner for Icons at the top, a Health/Damage/Shields area, and a flavor Quote at the bottom. A crown denotes the starting side of the card and each side carries its card number. The Dangerous side of this example (the lowest before Gone) is called a Broken Glass Slipper, and shows the Damage taken for failing an Encounter in its Banner with Icons.

Four-sided cards start the (crown) in the bottom left corner. They are Upgraded to their gold side. A Broken Glass Slipper (or similarly-named lowest side) denotes the lowest a card can get. It cannot be further Downgraded. In addition, the Damaged and Dangerous sides can be replaced instead with the "Gone" state and Exits on some cards. Items and Health cards operate the same, but Item cards sometimes have Exits and a few are Heirlooms for specific Maidens.

Exit and Gone example: An Exit card (such as the "Wardrobe Portal", Tower Level 4) shows its Tower Level in the top corner, the Requirements to match (a Key and either the top or bottom three icons), and the Damage if failed at the bottom, below the two lines, next to the word "EXIT!". A Gone card (such as "Determined"/"Broken Heart") shows a Health icon on its colored (Determined) side and a Broken Heart on its gray (Gone) side; a Broken Glass Slipper again denotes the lowest side of the card, and Gone cards cannot normally be upgraded.

Exits are a way to win. You will need a Key and either the top or bottom three icons to win. If you fail you take the damage listed below the two lines.

Gone cards cannot be Upgraded or Downgraded, except in special cases denoted by other cards.

The other helpful card type are Two-sided cards (front and back), which include Maidens, Saviors, Dresses, Treasures, and Gifts. You can read their specifics below, but in general, Two-sided cards are flipped over to get to their other state. Maidens can never be flipped. Their flip side is to help build your deck.

Two-sided Card Example (Maiden Card): Gwendolyn of Baile Crua's Front shows a Melee icon banner, an Ability flip icon, and an Upgrade arrow paired with a Melee icon — meaning Gwendolyn can Upgrade Melee cards — plus a crown denoting the starting side of the card and the card number (74/160). Her Back repeats the Melee banner and Ability icon, then lists the cards she adds to the deck: Starting Health – Untapped Rage (x2), 6 Random; Heirloom – Longsword; Random Items – 14; Dresses – 1 of your choice; and her Special Ability: "Berserker: When in a Fan, Cellar all Adds."

Maidens: Maidens found during Exploring can be Encountered. Maidens in a Fan contribute icons and special abilities (described on the card back) to an Encounter. When a Maiden Upgrades icon-specific cards, the necessary icon must be on the active (showing) side of the Upgraded card.

Health, Items, Discovered Treasures, and Dresses: These cards will contribute any icons printed on their left side. Some Damaged or Dangerous Items harm you if you fail the Encounter. As a reminder, Downgrades on cards must occur before you check if you win or lose the Encounter.

Treasures: When in their starting, undiscovered state, they are simply Cellared from the Fan. But, when discovered (via defeating Obstacles) they grant icons and often special abilities.

Epic Reward Treasures: Some Treasures have requirements (listed in a Red Bar above their ability text) that you must meet before you can shuffle them into the Treasure options available to be randomly placed in your deck. These and Gifts are the only cards which require you to remember past events between games. All other cards always reset to their starting (crown) side after a game.

Example: Philosopher's Stone cannot be a random Treasure placed in a deck unless you have defeated Firemouth the Dragon.

Defeated Obstacles: When an Obstacle is defeated, flip it over. Now gray, it can always be Cellared from your Fan. Often, a defeated Obstacle will show icons in the upper left-hand corner. In this case, you can choose to have it stay in your Fan and contribute those icons to an Encounter in your favor or Cellar them and have them replaced as per any other Gone card.

Saviors: Savior cards represent the heroes and heroines that have come to try and rescue you from the tower. As such they can be both helpful and hurtful, but will always fight for you and add one or more icons to your Encounter total. Many cards in your deck can be altered but Saviors are unique. They have just two states – either Left Behind (green) or Saved (orange). While they begin in your deck as Left Behind, they can flip to Saved and back again several times in a game and are never Destroyed. During an Encounter, a Savior in your Fan can be chosen to flip in place of an Upgrade, a Downgrade, or even from Damage. Like other cards, its state can still only be changed once per turn – it just doesn't matter which state that is. However, when searching your deck to take additional Damage, Saviors cannot be Downgraded at that point unless they have a Health icon. When on the Saved side, Saviors will also immediately Downgrade a specific type of card in your Fan as denoted by the icon type in the Downgrade area. (Note: Kaster Downgrades any card, including itself).

Gifts: Gifts can be kept separately from the decks you have built, or if in a deck, are Cellared from Fans on their Gone side. Once per co-op, competitive or Serendipity meeting, you may choose to use one (and only one) of the Gifts to help the other players. Each line of a Gift needs to be filled out by a different person for it to increase its power. Gift effects are described on their cards.

Gift Card Example — The Brooch: "When assisting another during a Serendipity, choose a card from your deck (max 4) for each signature on the back and place them on top of your deck. After the Encounter, place this card in your deck as an extra DISCOVERED Treasure."

Enemy Cards

Enemy cards are two sided. A Captor's flipped side denotes how to build the rest of your deck. An Obstacle's flipped sides denote the rewards you receive for their defeat. To defeat Captors, Exits, and Obstacles you must match or exceed the number of Icons they list in their gray Encounter bar.

Captor Example: Jeliasta Jones's Front shows her Tower Level (2) and her Requirements to defeat (an Ability flip icon plus a Distract icon, "+ Any 7") along with the Effects if failed Encounter (two Damage icons). Her Back lists the cards she adds to the deck: Obstacles – 11 (Level 0: 1, Level 1: 5, Level 2: 3, Level 3: 2, Level 4: 0), Treasures – 2, Saviors – 2, and her Special Ability: "If a Dress is ever in your Fan when Encountering Jeliasta, you automatically lose the Encounter."

If you defeat a Captor, you win the game. Obstacles are just like Captors, but instead give you rewards when you defeat them.

The gold bar denotes what you receive when you defeat them. The icons in the banner denote what you get later when they show up in your Fan.

Undefeated Obstacles and Captors: Undefeated Obstacles and Captors in your Fan are called Adds. Those that have a Tower Level greater than the current Level on your front-most Rest card may be Cellared. Those equal or lower level to the Tower Level take up valuable spots where more beneficial cards could go. These Obstacles can also impact your Fan:

1. Some Captors and High level Obstacles have an Ability icon. Flip them over to read their special effects.
2. When in a Fan, any Damage on the top left side of an Obstacle occurs in addition to the Encountered Obstacle's Damage only if you lose the Challenge. Any Downgrading icon on the top left side of an Obstacle occurs before the challenge win/loss is decided.

Set-Up

When playing with multiple players, do each step in order, together. Always choose specific cards for all players before random cards are selected. Choose any Maiden and Captor (Dim da Troll and Jeliasta are the two easiest Captors) to form one play deck. Note: Co-Op and Competitive players. You will play solo while Exploring Level 1 and Level 2 before interacting.

Maiden (Health and Items): Flip over your Maiden. On it are the Health and Items she will start with in her deck.

Health: Light blue on their starting side, most Maidens have 2 Health cards which they always start with and 4-6 other random Health cards. Collect these 6-8 cards and place them aside to begin your deck.

Heirloom: This is an Item card (dark blue on front). Your Maiden almost always starts with a special Item from their family (the Longsword for Gwendolyn and Fairy Wings for Marianna for example).

Random Items: Deal out the other random Items (dark blue). Each Maiden in the base set gets 14 random Items to start.

Dress: You choose your dress. (For your first game, use the Ballroom Gown and/or the Armored Attire.) Take your Maiden and her equipment and add them to your deck. Take any remaining Items/Maidens/Dresses and Health and place them in the box.

Captor and Dungeon/Tower: Next you will choose a Captor and flip them over to build the dungeon/tower.

Obstacles: These are sorted by level (look at the top left of each Obstacle to determine Tower level). Deal the listed number of Obstacles from each level into your deck. Note that both Dim and Jeliasta do not have level 4 Obstacles.

Treasures: Remove all Epic Treasures (those with a red requirements box below their name), they will not be used until you earn them. Deal the listed number of random Treasures onto your deck.

Saviors: Deal the listed number of Saviors into your deck.

Add the Captor to your deck. Merge the Captor and Maiden decks together, ensuring that all cards in your deck have the icon face up on the bottom left side. Then shuffle thoroughly without changing the orientation of any cards.

Finally, place both Rest cards at the back of the deck, with Rest 1 in front of the other Rest card. You are now ready to play.

Keep your Reference card easily accessible until you learn all the icons of the game. When you are ready for a break, place your reference card on top of your deck to let you know which way is "up" when playing the game on the go.

How to Play

You will be Exploring the dungeon/tower and Encountering Obstacles or running away from them, until you are out of Health, escape via an Exit, or defeat a Captor.

Exploring the Dungeon/Tower

Whenever the top card of your deck is NOT your Maiden (pink), an Obstacle (white), the Captor (black), an Exit, or a Rest card – Cellar it to the bottom of the deck without changing its orientation. Keep doing this until you reveal one of these cards. (Note that Exits are all Tower Level 4 and will not be encountered early in the game.)

Once you find one of these cards, stop Cellaring and follow the directions based on which you Encounter:

Obstacles, Captors, and Exits: When you Encounter one of these, first check its Tower Level. If the Obstacle's Tower Level is higher than your current Tower Level (on your Rest card), Cellar it and continue Exploring. If it is equal to or lower than your current Tower Level, you must choose to either Run from it or Challenge it before revealing your Fan. Note that you begin the game at Tower Level 1.

Running

Instead of Challenging Obstacles, Exits, and Captors of your current Tower Level or lower, you can always Run.

Running from level 0 Obstacles: If the Obstacle's Tower Level is 0, Cellar it without Fanning anything behind it. It does nothing to you! (Most often these are locked doors.)

Running from level 1+ Obstacles, Captors, and all Exits: Fan (reveal the 5 cards behind the Obstacle you are escaping from) and Downgrade one card of your choice in the Fan. Then Cellar the card you escaped from and all cards in the Fan. (Note: Level 4 Obstacles cause an additional Damage or Downgrade when you run from them, so watch out!) If you have a Haste icon in your Fan, you take no damage from the run. No other special abilities from your icons, or extra Damage or Downgrade from Adds in your Fan occur.

Challenging

First, level 4 Obstacles and Captors have a Flip icon (Ability) in their top left corner. If Challenged, flip the card to see the special effect that applies to the Encounter. Then Fan (again always 5 cards) so that you can see all the icons on the left half of each Fanned card. Your goal is to match (equal or exceed) the number of different icons in your Fan with those in the gray box on the Challenged card. If you do, you win, otherwise, you lose. However, there are several rules and icons which are used to alter your Fan.

Encounter Rules:

1. You may use each special icon and ability only once an Encounter.
2. Obstacles of the same or lower Tower Level remain in your Fan, taking up precious space! These are called Adds.
3. You may Cellar any Obstacles in your Fan that are of higher Tower Level than your current Tower Level. If they have a special ability, you can Cellar them before it goes off.
4. You may also Cellar any gray cards you choose which include: Gone Item cards, defeated Obstacles, undiscovered Treasures, and Gifts. Add cards to the Fan from the front of the deck to replace Cellared cards.
5. For each Distract Symbol you can Cellar and replace any card in your Fan.
6. The +X Fan cards can be used to increase the size of your Fan by a number of cards equal to X.
7. The Upgrade icon can be used to Upgrade a card in your Fan. Note that Maidens can generally only Upgrade one type of card.
8. The Downgrade icon on cards in your Fan MUST be used to Downgrade a card BEFORE the Encounter is over and you check your icons against the Obstacle's requirements. Downgrade for the fail effect of an Obstacle does not occur unless you fail.
9. You may only Upgrade or Downgrade a given card once an Encounter. For example, you may not Upgrade a card then choose it as a Downgrade from failing an Encounter later.
10. Negative things (Downgrades) and special effects from high-level enemies and Captors must be applied before the Encounter is checked to see if you win or lose.
11. Damage Is NEVER applied until after losing the Encounter. It is not considered an icon in your Fan.
12. Some Obstacles require a given number of any icon to defeat. Upgrade, Downgrade, Damage, and Ability icons do not count towards the total number needed for these Obstacles.

Defeating an Obstacle

When you defeat an Obstacle, flip the card over to its defeated (Gone) side and look in the orange/gold Rewards Bar to see what bonuses you gain instantly. If you are unable to Upgrade a card in the Fan, you lose that portion of the reward. In the example below, the Maiden has defeated a Goblin and has flipped its card over. With the reward, she Upgrades her Normal Hand Mirror to an Enhanced Magic Mirror.

End the Encounter by Cellaring the Obstacle (regardless of if it was defeated or not) and all the cards in the Fan. Their order does not matter; you'll shuffle your deck before seeing them again. Take care to keep your card orientations correct throughout all Fanning, Cellaring, and shuffling actions.

Example Encounter: A Maiden has Encountered a Goblin. The Goblin requires any 3 Melee or Cunning icons to defeat. With two Melee icons from her Longsword and a Wild icon from her Working Dress, the Maiden handily dispatches the Goblin. As a reward, she upgrades the Hand Mirror by rotating it 180 degrees. In this case the Defeated Goblin grants a single upgrade and forever grants a Cunning.

Failing a Challenge: Downgrades

If you cannot meet the requirements of an Obstacle, you suffer any Downgrading and Damage as listed on the bottom of the Obstacle/Captor/Exit card. Some Obstacles in your Fan can also add Downgrade or Damage to the failure tally, as listed in the top left-hand corner of their card. For each Downgrade you must Downgrade any non-Obstacles in your Fan. If there are not enough cards to Downgrade in your Fan, ignore the extra Downgrade.

Excess Damage

If it is damage, then the card you Downgrade must have a Health icon on it. (Note: Savior cards are unique and may always be chosen for a single Downgrade or Damage in your Fan.) Some cards have more than one Health icon on them. If so, they absorb Damage equal to the number of Health icons on them for a single Downgrade of the card. For each Shield in your Fan, decrease Damage by 1. For each Damage on the left of any Add, Damaged or Dangerous cards in your Fan, increase Downgrade by 1. If you need to Downgrade Health cards and there aren't any eligible ones in your Fan, Cellar cards until you can Downgrade Health cards equal to the Damage you could not account for in your Fan. Cards with multiple hearts still absorb an amount of Damage equal to the hearts on them. If you reveal a Rest card this way, place it aside and keep cycling until you find an eligible card, Downgrade it and then shuffle the deck, progressing the Rest card level and placing them at the bottom like a normal Rest.

If there are not enough eligible cards left in your deck to meet the Health Downgrade requirements, you lose the game.

Encountering Your Maiden

Fan the 5 cards behind your Maiden card. You may Upgrade a card with at least one of the icons denoted on the bottom left hand side of the Maiden card. Cellar the Maiden and all cards in the Fan afterwards. You may use icon abilities during this Fan but Downgrade, Damage, Adds, and negative effects from Captors and high-level Obstacles do not occur.

Challenging Captors

Captors are Encountered in the same manner as Obstacles, except they usually have special rules on the backside of their cards. If you defeat your Captor, you win the game.

Challenging Exits

Exits have a Tower Level of 4, and like other Obstacles, you may choose to Challenge or Run from an Exit. Challenging Exits resolve exactly as other Obstacles do, by comparing icons in your Fan against icons in the Exit victory conditions. Exit victory conditions always require a Key and one set of icons listed one above the other with each row containing a set of 3 icons. You can escape and win if you have a Key AND match either set; you do not have to match both sets of icons. Exits deal the damage shown on the bottom of their card when you fail to complete them.

Exit Card Example — Crypt Escape (Tower Level 4): requires a Key and, ("and" / "or"), either row of 3 icons shown, to EXIT!; if not, deals the Damage shown at the bottom.

Rest Cards

As soon as a non-Gone Rest card appears, immediately end any Encounter, even if in the middle of it, and follow the rules for Resting as found in the description of the Rest cards.

Co-Operative Play

Standard Co-Op Mode (2 players)

When you play Co-Op, everyone builds their own deck as normal, simultaneously.

The Prelude: All players then enter the Prelude, each separately playing through Tower Level 1 and Level 2 solo. This represents the time between when they escaped their room till they meet up. This time is used to allow players to learn and develop their decks before coming together to work as a team.

Team Questing: Once completed, players then take turns leading Encounters. Choose a starting player, who then starts Exploring their deck until they hit a card to Encounter. After resolving the Encounter, the next player will Explore their deck until they hit an Encounter, and so on. The goal is to work together for both players to each escape or defeat their Captors.

• Before Fanning any cards, discuss how many cards of the 5 each player will contribute. A player may use only their own deck, only their partner's deck or a combination of the two. But in total you are not initially Fanning more than 5 cards. Note that you can see the top card of the other player's deck, which will be used in their portion of the Fan.
• When players combine for a Fan, they DO NOT remove or change the orientation of their cards. You are just using the number of cards agreed upon from each player's deck; you never combine decks.
• Work together to complete the Encounter. For each Fan Size icon choose who will gain a card. Decide which card in the total Fan will receive Upgrade and Downgrade when they appear. (For example, your Maiden can Upgrade your partner's card.) Foresight will work similarly; decide how many cards from each deck to look at, totaling 5.
• It is up to you how to divide any rewards or damage. If one player has no Health icons in their deck to absorb Damage then you must go through the other player's deck for the excess. When all players have lost all their Health icons you have lost the game. You must each defeat your Captor or Escape to win.
• If a Rest is revealed during an Encounter, it ends the Encounter for both players. Only the Resting player reshuffles their deck and increases their Tower Level, while the other player just Cellars their active cards. The Resting player skips the next player's Encounter (while they shuffle).
• Once one player Escapes or Defeats their Captor, they can no longer take Damage: continue playing until the other player has Escaped or Defeated their Captor. If the second player dies however, you have both still lost the game.
• Once you have defeated your Captor, you no longer can take Damage, forcing others to absorb it instead. You can also not Explore your deck for Encounters. However, you can still help with the Fans of your partner. You can still Upgrade and Downgrade your cards and you also unlock the ability to Upgrade Obstacles.
• Upgrade an Obstacle: Any Upgrade icon can be used to Upgrade an undefeated Obstacle in an escaped player's Fan, regardless of icon requirements on the Upgrade. Flip the undefeated Obstacle to its defeated side. You do not receive any rewards.
• Note that there is no option to Run during Co-Op play.

Example: You and an Ally are playing a Co-Op game. After the Prelude, you Explore till you find yourself fighting a Vampire! What a hard-starting turn! Your Ally's top card of their deck is the Ballroom Dress, which you don't want to downgrade, but at least helps get you 2 icons. In your Prelude you had lots of Charisma-based icons and your Maiden is Sarah, so you feel you have a pretty good deck against the Vampire. Your Ally is Gwen and she mentions her deck is very melee combat heavy. You decide to split the fan thusly: 3 from you and 2 from her. You reveal a Classic Gown (Wild, Haste, +1 Fan), a Broadsword, and a War Paint (Melee, Charisma, Cunning). Your ally reveals a Ballroom Dress and a Tough Health Card. Realizing your Ally is likely going heavy (Melee), you downgrade the War Paint to a Make-up Kit. And even without using the +1 Fan, you have one. You give the +1 Fan to your Ally, so there are more choices for you two to upgrade. Flipping over the Vampire, you find there is an Upgrade and a Treasure! Your Ally suggests you upgrade her Tough to give you all more health, and you get the Treasure. You both Cellar all cards in the Encounter and you go Searching for a Treasure (wow it's a Staff of Power!) and Your Ally then becomes the active player and continues on. She encounters her Maiden next and has you Fan 2 and her 3 to see what you can both upgrade. Good luck!

Large Party Co-Op Mode (3-4 Players)

Note: Playing with 3+ players will require additional game boxes. 1 game box per 2 players.

Use the Standard Co-Op Mode with the following changes:

1. Active player moves around the players/table clockwise.
2. When your Allies Fan, Allies non-adjacent to you must ALWAYS Cellar the top card of their deck before adding to the Fan (i.e. you don't know what they are contributing, since it is not openly seen).
3. Only players that participate in the Fan receive Upgrades/Downgrades, rewards, and Damage.
4. Note that there is no option to Run during Skirmish play.

Competitive Play (2+ Players)

When you play Competitive Play, everyone builds their own deck as normal, simultaneously.

The Prelude: Players then enter the Prelude, each separately playing through Tower Level 1 and Level 2 solo. This represents the time between when they escaped their room till they meet up. This time is used to allow players to learn and develop their decks before coming together.

Race to Win: After this, starting with one player, then proceeding clockwise, alternate Exploring. When the active player Encounters an Obstacle, players will bid on the Fan size needed to defeat that Encounter. The active player begins the bidding with any number, 5 or less, and subsequent bids must be lower. This continues until all players but one have passed. The lowest bid now challenges the Obstacle with that Fan size from their own deck, receiving all rewards, Damages, Upgrades, and Downgrades. When a player dies, they are removed from the game. The first person to kill a Captor or to Exit wins. Alternately, the last player left alive wins automatically. There is no option to Run during Competitive play. Note you can choose to Serendipity (see below) once per game.

Example: It's your turn and during your Prelude you realize you're actually very cunning and key-heavy compared to what you think most players can get in their first two levels. As you Explore you encounter an Ettin! Hard and worse if you lose. You really don't want to take it on as you have more powerful icons and less total icons. You bid 5 cards, hoping your adversary will go lower. Which they do, bidding 4. They have not seen your deck, but if you bid 3, its going to take some major courage for them to go to 2. You decide to pass and let them try it. They go for it, but even with a Fan +1, they fail. Ha! Hope they enjoy the damage. As they flip through to apply excess damage you see they are very charisma-heavy in their cards and already have lots of health loss. A good thing to remember when bidding in the future.

Team Ups, Skirmishes, and Team Games (2-4+ Players)

A Team-Up is when two players who did not start their games together decide to sit down for a few minutes and play Co-Op (as though you meet while Exploring the tower). You can do this for as long as you wish, each going their separate ways whenever you'd like. A Skirmish is the exact same thing but playing Competitively.

For Team games, play competitively (i.e. bidding) but players divide into teams. The team which wins the bid then chooses how many each of them Fans to match their total bid amount. Note only the player who won the bid, keeps their top card. All other team players must first Cellar a card before Fanning. A team wins if it defeats a Captor or Exit, or a player on the other team dies. You may each Serendipity once with a player on another team.

Serendipity

Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the game is this mode. Whenever you see someone else playing the game, JUMP IN! Simply ask them if they'd like to team up for 1-2 Encounters.

1. Once both decks are out, one player (denoted as the active player) looks through their deck for an Encounter and their Rest cards. They then shuffle their deck and place the Encounter on top, and their Rest Cards on the bottom (do not Progress the Rest cards).
2. The other player shuffles their deck (without increasing their Tower Level) and places their Rest cards on the bottom. Note that the Brooch Gift can allow the helping player to select some cards from their deck to place on the top.
3. Take on the Encounter, choosing how many cards of the Fan each of you will reveal (5 cards split as per Co-Op rules).
4. If you lose, only the active player takes the Damage. If you win, choose who gets what rewards.
5. Now if you have time, allow the other player to do the same with an Encounter from their deck.
6. If using Gifts, you may exchange them or have people write on yours now.
7. You can use Serendipity any number of times, but each player can only help you through one pass through of a given deck. So if you lose against a given deck, you can get help again the next time you try it.

Example: You find yourself in a shop and notice someone else playing the game. You walk over to them and pull out your deck, asking if they need any help in their current game. Mentioning they have no keys, they ask if you can help out with a Trapped Door. They search for the door, while you pull out two cards using your Brooch, which has two signatures on it. You grab your Ballroom Gown and your Maiden, Min, and place them on the top of your deck. They have your Fan of 3 and them 2. And as your top two cards are in fact able to win it, the victory is swift! The other player thanks you and gives you the upgrade since they just gained a Wish ring (Wild)! They happily sign your card. They then ask you if they can help, and you ask if they can assist with your Captor Dim! That is going to be a big challenge. Good luck!

Advanced Modes (Hard and Extreme)

After you have played a few times, you may find the decks a bit too easy. At this point, it is time to take on the Advanced Modes, Hard and Extreme! Hard mode uses your choice of one of these changes. Extreme mode uses both.

1. When you Rest, progress twice instead of once (ie. Tower Level goes 1, 2b, 3b, 4).
2. Exits require ALL 6 icons and a Key to Escape.

Credits

Designer: Ken Shannon

Graphic Designer: Brigette Indelicato

Art Director: Hal Greenberg

Illustrator: Lindsay Archer

Chief Editors: Jae Malloy and Patricia Crebase

Additional Editing: Min Nemoy

Developer: Victoria Mann

Lead Playtester: Charlene Francis

Playtesters: Ada Gomez, Ann Losito, Haley Avery, Molly Malcolm, Amber Lynn Savoie, Heather Mann, Kyle Platte, Matt Koza, Don Riddle, Danny Lott, Kari Lott, Nicole Perry, Jill Finlayson, Kyle Forsythe, Gab Dias, Grace Gabrielle, Bri Buckler, Jen Shannon, Ken Shannon IV, Eric Shannon, Walter Brian Ortiz, Anastasia Freeman, Rob Yates, John De Francisco, JB Howell, Camden Clutter, Patrick Seibert, Brian Fiore, Andrew Baumgartner, Matt Holden, Victoria Holden, Adam Savoie, Patrick Barley, David Moorehead, Scott Horn, Joseph Rose, Kristin Moorehead, Steve Avery, Andrew Russell Birkett, Rob Bristow, Mayra Matos, Jared Johnson and Marina Freeman.

Special Thanks to Melissa "Kind of a Big Deal" Johnson.

Quick Game Setup

Each player chooses a Maiden and Captor. Do each step at the same time (so you always get your Heirlooms)

1. Look on the back of your Maiden. Form a deck with the listed Health, Heirloom, Items chosen Dress and your Maiden.
2. Look on the back of your Captor. Add the listed Obstacles, Saviors, Treasures, and the Captor to your deck.
3. Shuffle all cards together with the crown at the bottom left. Place your Rest cards at the back.
4. Have your Reference Card handy to put at the top in case you stow the game to play later!

Upgrade / Downgrade Order

Enhanced — Item / Health — Damaged — Dangerous — Gone / Exit

(Upgrading moves a card right along this order; Downgrading moves it left.)

Epic Treasure

• Friendship Bracelet: Assist someone in a Serendipity.
• Maiden's Fair: Win a game with 8 different Maidens.
• Philosopher's Stone: Defeat Firemouth the Dragon.
• Everflowing Wineskin: Win a game in which you save all Saviors (minimum 3 Saviors).
• Tiara of Triumph: Defeat 9 different Captors.