The Red Dragon Inn: Allies – Melvyn vs. Marah
The Red Dragon Inn: Allies – Melvyn vs. Marah Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Melvyn, Collegium Archivist
The most bizarre area of the Greyport Mages' Collegium is the Arcane Archive: a vast extraplanar space storing all manner of powerful and dangerous items. The runemaster Melvyn has navigated the Archive for decades as its chief archivist, giving him plenty of experience with strange artifacts and arcane oddities!
Setup: Shuffle the 12-card Rune Deck and leave it near your player mat. Be sure to keep your Rune discard pile separate from your Character Deck discard pile.
If you discard Runes to power up a card and that card is Negated or Ignored, you do not get those Runes back.
If the Rune Deck runs out, shuffle the Rune discard pile and use that as the new Rune Deck. In the unlikely event that all of Melvyn's Runes are face up, he simply may not reveal more until some are spent.
Runes
Runes come in four different colors and allow Melvyn to "power up" some of his cards. At the beginning of your turn, or whenever a card says to reveal a Rune, reveal the top card of the Rune Deck and add it to the face up Runes near your player mat. There is no limit to the number of Runes Melvyn can have face up.
Many of Melvyn's cards have a better effect when they are powered up with Runes. The colored scroll icons indicate which color Rune is needed. The four-color scroll icon indicates that any Rune may be used. The five Rune types are: Fire Rune (red scroll), Shield Rune (orange scroll), Ice Rune (blue scroll), Chaos Rune (dark grey scroll), and Any Rune (four-color scroll).
Example: "You really want to run with the bulls?" allows Melvyn to hit someone back for 1 or 3 depending on whether he spends Runes. He may not play the card, then later decide to add Runes when he sees that his target can't Ignore it.
To use a Rune to power up a card, simply discard that Rune as you play the card.
Example: On Melvyn's Action Phase, he plays "Happy little runes!" and decides to discard a Fire Rune when he plays it. He chooses Fiona and Zot to each pay him 1 Gold. After they do so, Melvyn leaves "Happy little runes!" in front of him to act as a temporary shield.
If a power-up cost involves multiple Runes, you must discard all of the Runes listed for that ability. If a card has multiple power-up abilities, you may use as many of them as you want. However, each listed power-up ability may be used at most once, and each ability must be paid for separately.
Example: On Melvyn's Action Phase, he plays "I'm feeling bullish about this round!" to start a Round of Gambling. He decides to discard a Shield Rune and a Fire Rune to also lose 2 Alcohol Content. He may not discard another Shield Rune and another Rune to lose another 2 Alcohol Content, since each power-up ability may be used at most once.
When playing a card that can be powered up, you must decide which power-up costs you are paying before anything else happens. For example, you may not see whether a player responds and then decide to power up.
Card: I'm feeling bullish about this round! (Action - Gambling)
Start a Round of Gambling. (Each player, including you, must ante. You may not use this card to take control of a Round of Gambling which is already underway.)
Power-up: Discard a Shield Rune and a Rune of any color. Lose 2 Alcohol Content.
Card: Happy little runes! (Action)
Pick up to 2 other players. They each pay you 1 Gold.
Power-up (Fire Rune): Put this card in front of you. The next time you would lose Fortitude, discard this card. That Fortitude loss is reduced by 1.
Marah the Maledictor
As a long-time professor, Marah terrorized the most powerful graduates to come out of the Collegium with her harrowing assignments and barbed wit. After looting the Arcane Archive, she broke her ties with the Collegium and now torments her former students with baleful magic and enfeebling curses!
Setup: Shuffle the 15-card Malediction Deck and put it where everyone can reach it. Leave space next to it for a Malediction discard pile.
Maledictions
Many cards in Marah's deck cause a player to draw one or more Maledictions. Maledictions are detrimental cards that take up space in players' hands and are difficult to get rid of. Maledictions count against a player's hand size, thereby reducing the number of cards that player may draw during their Discard and Draw Phase.
Can't Be Discarded: Maledictions may not be discarded except by an effect that specifically allows a player to discard Maledictions. This means that you may not discard Maledictions during your Discard and Draw Phase, you may not discard them to an effect that makes you discard cards (such as The Disjunctionator), and you may not get rid of them through other means such as Nerodia's Petrify ability. In addition, if an effect makes you discard a card from your hand at random, you must choose a random non-Malediction card.
Playing Maledictions: The usual way of removing a Malediction from your hand is to play it. Maledictions have a card type and may be played like any other card of that type. Unfortunately, most Maledictions harm the player playing them! For example, the Malediction of Recklessness (above) causes a player to ante an extra Gold for no reason - except to get rid of the Malediction!
Maledictions may be Ignored, Negated, or otherwise affected just like other cards of their specified type.
Example: Melvyn plays Malediction of Sacrifice, discarding three other Maledictions. Normally, this would make him lose 3 Fortitude, but he plays "Leave me alone. These charts are... weird" to Ignore the Fortitude loss (and reveal a Rune).
Played or discarded Maledictions go to the Malediction discard pile. If the Malediction deck runs out, shuffle the Malediction discard pile and use that as the new Malediction Deck.
Card: Malediction of Recklessness (Malediction - Sometimes)
You may play this card during a Round of Gambling that you haven't left.
Ante 1 Gold. (You do not take control.)
Card: Malediction of Sacrifice (Malediction - Action)
As an additional cost to play this card, discard any number of Maledictions from your hand.
Lose 1 Fortitude for each Malediction discarded in this way.
Other Rules: If Marah is eliminated from the game, any Maledictions in players' hands stay where they are. Marah may never draw Maledictions herself. If she would somehow draw a Malediction, she instead doesn't.
Otto, Gizmos and Minions: Otto may never draw Maledictions. If Wrench's Gizmos or Torglesnarf's Minions would draw a Malediction, Wrench or Torg draws it instead. However, if this would cause Wrench or Torg to draw Maledictions more than once from the same effect, they only do so once.
Example: Marah plays "Fool-seeking missiles!" targeting two Gizmos. Each Gizmo loses 1 Fortitude and Wrench draws 1 Malediction (not 2).
If this happens in a team game and a teammate helps Wrench or Torg Ignore the effect, they don't gain any pass-through Maledictions.
Boss Battle
When playing Marah as the Boss in a Boss Battle, shuffle the 15 Boss Battle cards into her Character Deck and the 5 Boss Battle Maledictions into the Malediction Deck. Boss Battle cards have the "boss dragons" in the corners to indicate that they should be removed when playing Marah in a non-Boss game. For more information about the Boss Battle Variant, see the RDI 6 rules, at https://slugfestgames.com/rdi6resources/.
The Prize Variant
Some cards, including The Disjunctionator and Foyle's Codex of Cards in this product, have the type "Prize". The Prize Variant provides an optional way to spice up Rounds of Gambling. For more information about the Prize Variant, including card-specific interactions, visit https://slugfestgames.com/rdi-the-prize-variant/, or scan the QR code on the back of a Prize Card!
The Swozzled Sorcerer
The Swozzled Sorcerer is a new tavern for use in the Pub Crawl Variant introduced in The Red Dragon Inn 8. You will need a copy of RDI 8 to play this variant. See https://slugfestgames.com/rdi8-resources/ for the RDI 8 rules and a description of the Pub Crawl Variant.
Card-Specific Notes
Any bribes? I accept bribes!: A player "loses Gold" to this card if their Stash actually decreases as a result. If a player avoids paying or pays with Gold from the Inn, they did not lose Gold. Paying with one of Keet's Artifacts or a Lich King finger does count as losing Gold, but replacing the payment with one of Nitrel's Bombs via "Explosive gold piece" does not.
Card: Any bribes? I accept bribes! (Action)
(You extort the others!) Each other player pays you 1 Gold. Each player that loses Gold in this way discards 1 Malediction. Each player that doesn't lose Gold in this way draws 1 Malediction, even if they Ignore this card.
Calligraphic flourish: This card may be played as a single Rune to pay for a power-up ability. If a power-up ability costs more than one Rune, Calligraphic flourish only pays for one of the required Runes, not all of them. If the card has more than one power-up ability, Calligraphic flourish can help pay for one of those abilities, not all of them. Calligraphic flourish can't be Negated, but the card that it is powering up can be Negated or Ignored normally.
Curse you all!: This card counts all Sometimes Card responses, such as cards that Ignore, reduce or hit back. If a single player plays multiple such cards, they still only draw 1 Malediction.
The Disjunctionator: This card doesn't allow you to discard Maledictions, but it does allow you to draw 8 cards, regardless of how many Maledictions you may have.
Don't interrupt my game of Widdlytinks!: If you must ante from an effect that wasn't caused by a player, then the power-up ability has no effect. This can happen in the case of a Round of Gambling being started by a Drink or an Event.
Don't. Touch. The Scrolls.: If you power up this card and it is Negated, you do not return it to your hand.
Everlasting Malediction: This Malediction can't be played at all! You can only get rid of via an effect that specifically allows you to discard Maledictions.
Happy little runes!: If this card is in front of you, it waits for the next time you would actually lose Fortitude, and takes effect then. If, for example, you have "Happy little runes" in play and you Ignore Fortitude loss with "Leave me alone. These charts are... weird", then "Happy little runes" stays in front of you until the next time you would lose Fortitude.
Let's play an old classic!: This card may not be used to take control of a Round of Gambling already in progress. (Similar cards use reminder text to convey this, but there wasn't enough room in this case!)
Leviathan (Sea Event, RDI 4): Since this card allows you to play an Action Card, you may play Malediction of Sacrifice or Malediction of Absolution. In the latter case, you must discard fewer Maledictions than other cards. Remember, though, that all players Ignore Action Cards played to fight Leviathan, so no one will lose any Fortitude.
Malediction of Enfeeblement: You must add this effect to a card you play immediately. You may not wait to see if the target has a response.
Malediction of Rage: You must add this effect to a card you play immediately. You may not wait to see if the target has a response.
Malediction of Thirst: If you play this when you have no cards on your Drink Me! Pile, you will sober up!
Malediction of Torment: If you draw this from a card that made you lose Fortitude, you may play it immediately.
Misfortune favors the bold!: Since the Maledictions come from this card, the redirected target of the attack will still draw Maledictions, even if they Ignore the Fortitude loss.
Oh, poor thing...: Marah looks at the player's hand, other players do not.
Open your purses and I'll lift your curses!: If a player has no Gold remaining, they may not ante and therefore may not discard a Malediction.
Some books are more fun than others!: Melvyn looks at the player's hand, other players do not. If you choose to power up this card to get both effects, you resolve them in order. First, you look at the other player's hand, then they drink. So, for example, if they drink something like Gnomish Inspirational Ale which makes them draw cards, you don't get to see their new cards.
The Swozzled Sorcerer (Tavern Event): If all players Ignore the Event, nothing happens. If some players (but not all) Ignore the Event, those players don't drink the revealed Drink. If a Drink with a Chaser is revealed, don't reveal a Chaser, and don't crawl (unless the tavern deck is now empty).
There must have been a chaos rune in there!: If you Ignore this card (for example, with "Leave me alone. These charts are... weird"), then you do not reveal a Rune.
Two hands are better than one!: If multiple players in the Round have Maledictions, you still only draw 4 cards.
Well, this is a sobering development...: You may use both power-up abilities on this card, but you will generally not want to do so. The Drink cards you give away may be placed on any other players' Drink Me! Piles, in any combination. However, you may not give any Drinks to yourself.