Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Getting Started
• Components
  • Models
  • Counters and Tokens
  • Books
  • Dice
  • Board Tiles, Gateways and Lychgates
  • Cards
  • Other
• Hero Models
• Hostile Models
• Combat Tutorials
  • Tutorial 1: Moving with Heroes
  • Tutorial 2: Attacking with Heroes
  • Tutorial 3: Hostiles
  • Tutorial 4: Recuperating
  • Tutorial 5: Lightning Assault
• Getting Ready to Play
  • 1. Pick the Leader
  • 2. Pick Journey
  • 3. Pick Heroes
  • 4. Pick Initiative Tokens
  • 5. Set Up the Skyvessel Board
  • 6. Set Up the Quest Card
  • 7. Build the Discovery Deck
  • 8. Place the Combat Track and Cards
  • 9. Place Dice
  • 10. Gather Board Tiles, Gateways and Lychgates
  • 11. Set Up the Drop Zone
  • 12. Place Counters and Tokens
  • 13. Prepare the Combat Map
• The Turn
  • Journey Phase
  • Destiny Phase
  • Initiative Phase
  • Activation Phase
  • Hero Activations
  • Basic Actions and Weapon Actions for Heroes
  • Weapon Actions
  • Attacks
  • Reactions
  • Inspiration Rolls
  • Inspiration Points
  • Inspired Heroes
  • Hostile Group Activations
  • Encounter Card is Face Up
  • Hostile Action Descriptions
  • Hostile Move Actions
  • Hostile Weapon Actions
  • Suffering Damage
  • Out of Action
  • Encounter Card is Face Down
  • Event Phase
  • Crises
  • Ailments
  • The Carried Item Space
• Journey's End
  • Determine Success
  • Resolve Extraction Event
  • Determine Survival
  • Remove Tokens and Counters
  • Resolve Consequences
  • Spend Realmstone
  • Pick a New Journey
• Journey Types
  • Hunt Journeys
  • Scavenge Journeys
  • Decapitation Journeys
  • Deliverance Journeys

Introduction

In the decaying city of Ulfenkarn, a group of heroes band together to cast down the undead tyrant Radukar the Wolf. This epic adventure is the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest – the first quest in the story of the Cursed City.

During this quest, the players control a band of heroes as they embark on journeys into the city from their base of operations, a Kharadron skyvessel called the Adamant. Their ultimate aim is to destroy Radukar, but attacking the vampire king at the zenith of his power is a death sentence, so they must first destabilise his tyrannical rule. Each journey they make into Ulfenkarn has its own objective, whether this is to give hope to the beleaguered populace, weaken the Wolf's hold on the city, or discover resources amongst the ruins to improve the heroes' chances in the battles that follow.

Every journey is a race against time. When night falls, anyone left in the city's streets will face the full fury of Radukar's undead servants, empowered by the potent magic of the Shyish Nadir, a deathly abyss that yawns just beyond Ulfenkarn's walls. To survive, the heroes must complete their journey swiftly and call for the Adamant to retrieve them before nightfall.

As the heroes grow in experience they will gain powerful traits and items, but the threats they face in the city will also escalate. If they are to defeat Radukar, the heroes will have to learn the secrets by which the Wolf King and his lieutenants are resurrected whenever they are destroyed. Armed with this knowledge, they can strike to permanently eliminate each of Radukar's dark champions, giving them a chance to face down the Wolf himself.

Getting Started

This book provides the core rules you will use in every game of Cursed City. As well as a description of all of the components in the box, it includes a series of tutorials (pg 12-15) that walk you through the basic rules. The rules for setting up and playing games begin on page 16. Some types of journey require additional rules – these are presented on pages 37-39.

The quest book provides the rules for the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest, including the different journeys the heroes can embark upon. It begins with a background section that describes the city's troubled history, the Wolf King and his nefarious forces, and the heroes who stand against them. This book will tell you when to refer to the quest book.

Objective of the Quest: To complete the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest, the heroes need to discover the secret of Radukar's invincibility, destroy each of his lieutenants in turn, and then slay the Wolf King himself.

While they work to achieve these ends, the heroes must also ensure the Cursed City's survival. If the citizenry succumb to fear, Ulfenkarn itself will be swallowed by the voracious Shyish Nadir. If Radukar's influence in the city grows too strong, the Wolf King will destroy the Adamant and put an end to the heroes' efforts. If either of these occur, or if too many heroes have been slain for you to embark on a journey, the quest will end in failure.

Components

In addition to this rulebook, Warhammer Quest: Cursed City includes the following.

Models

8 hero models, 36 hostile models, 10 mysterious objects, Gnawbone Strays, Diregoyles and gravestones.

Counters and Tokens

• 32 wound counters (wound/grievous wound)
• 40 level tokens
• 8 cursed/trapped tokens
• 8 diseased tokens
• 8 double-sided inspiration point counters
• 16 experience tokens (novice/veteran)
• 9 fear counters
• 9 influence counters
• 5 decapitation tokens
• 4 buried tokens
• 4 fatigued tokens
• 4 initiative tokens
• 3 oaken arrow counters
• 1 Black Rose token
• 1 nightfall token
• 1 quest token
• 1 Red Blade token
• 1 Tapestry of Ages token
• 1 Suffocating Gravetide token

Books

1 quest book, 1 warscrolls book (for using the miniatures in Warhammer Age of Sigmar), 1 assembly guide.

Dice

6 action dice, 16 activation dice, 5 destiny dice, 1 quest dice (a 12-sided die).

Board Tiles, Gateways and Lychgates

20 board tiles – each board tile has two sides, representing different rooms and streets in Ulfenkarn – plus 1 drop zone, 1 extraction zone, 18 gateways (open/closed), and 6 lychgates.

Cards

8 character cards. Each character card shows: an image of the hero; the hero's Move, Vitality, Agility and Defence values; a carried item space; armour and weapon empowerment slots; the hero's Path to Glory; the hero's unique abilities; activation dice spaces; the hero's weapon actions; the hero's name, keywords, class and size; a traits slot; and an inspired side on the reverse.

11 hostile reference cards. Each hostile reference card shows: an image of a hostile from the category; the hostile category's name; the hostiles' weapon actions; the hostiles' rules and abilities; the hostiles' Move and Wounds values, and their size; the hostiles' behaviour table; and an empowered side on the reverse.

• 8 initiative cards (4 hero and 4 hostile)
• 19 exploration cards
• 1 quest card (for the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest, showing the Fear and Influence tracks and gravestones for Radukar the Wolf, the von Alten triplets, Torgillius the Chamberlain, Gorslav the Gravekeeper, and Watch Captain Halgrim)
• 35 discovery cards (Treasure and Trap cards)
• 16 encounter cards
• 8 trait cards
• 24 empowerment cards (Weapon and Armour empowerments)
• 8 mortis cards

Other

1 skyvessel board, showing: daytime spaces; a nightfall space; a quest tracker; an available destiny dice space; and a discarded destiny dice space.

1 Ulfenkarn in Peril envelope.

2 Diregoyles and 2 Gnawbone Strays (additional plastic models).

1 leader token.

1 combat track, numbered 1-8, for tracking hero and hostile group initiative order.

Hero Models

The box contains 8 hero models: Emelda Braskov, Jelsen Darrock, Dagnai Holdenstock, Qulathis the Exile, Glaurio ven Alten III, Octren Glimscry, Cleona Zeitengale, and Brutogg Corpse-Eater.

Hostile Models

The box contains 36 hostile models, comprising: Radukar the Wolf; Torgillius the Chamberlain; Watch Captain Halgrim; a Vargskyr; Gorslav the Gravekeeper; three Vyrkos Blood-born; two Kosargi Nightguard; ten Deadwalker Zombies; three Corpse Rat swarms; ten Ulfenwatch (Skeletons, a Banner Bearer, and Sergeants); and three Bat Swarms (Direbats). The box also includes gravestones and mysterious object models (crows on plinths and gibbets).

Combat Tutorials

Combats form a significant part of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. A combat is where models and board tiles are used to display a section of the cursed city of Ulfenkarn, and dice and cards are used to determine the result of the deadly battles that occur there.

To learn the core combat rules for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, follow each tutorial in turn. The participants in a combat activate in turn. When they activate, they make actions, such as Move (1+) actions and weapon actions.

Tutorial 1: Moving with Heroes

If you haven't already, assemble the model for Glaurio ven Alten III (referred to hereafter as Glaurio) and a mysterious object model. Then take a board tile. Each board tile is made up of squares, each of which is called a space. Place the models in the indicated spaces.

Now take Glaurio's character card and four activation dice. Place Glaurio's character card so the 'Path to Glory' box is on the face-up side. This is called the character card's 'Path to Glory' side; the other side is called the 'Inspired' side. Roll the four activation dice and, keeping the scores the same, place one dice in each of the spaces on Glaurio's character card. This is called an activation roll.

To make a Move (1+) action with Glaurio, you must spend an activation dice with any score by removing it from his character card. This will allow you to move Glaurio up to his Move value in spaces, which is 3. Each space Glaurio moves into must be adjacent to the space he is in – this includes spaces that are connected diagonally.

Whenever you make an action, the score on the dice you remove must be equal to or higher than the number in brackets shown for that action. If the score on the dice you remove is a 3 or higher, Glaurio can move four spaces instead – this is called a Run (3+) action, and is based on his second Move value.

The tutorial is completed when you move Glaurio into a space adjacent to the mysterious object.

Tutorial 2: Attacking with Heroes

Set up the tutorial again, but instead of a mysterious object, assemble an Ulfenwatch Skeleton model and place it adjacent to Glaurio. In addition, place two wound counters within easy reach.

Make an activation roll for Glaurio. The attacks Glaurio can make are called 'weapon actions' and are shown on his character card. A character card's weapon action entry shows: the name of the weapon action; the cost of the weapon action; the type of the weapon action; the action dice rolled when the weapon action is made; and the damage the weapon action inflicts.

Each time Glaurio makes a weapon action, you must spend an activation dice, and the score on the activation dice must be equal to or higher than the cost of that weapon action. Glaurio's Gheistsever action has a cost of (1+), so he will have four chances to slay the Ulfenwatch in front of him – one for each dice.

Choose which activation dice to spend, and which weapon action you wish Glaurio to make. As Glaurio's blade Gheistsever is a Melee type weapon action, it can only be used against adjacent hostiles. Noblesse is a Dual type weapon action – it can be used against enemies that are adjacent, or enemies that are further away. Note that while Noblesse is more powerful and can be used from further away, it requires a higher dice score and has an extra rule called Reload. This rule shows that Noblesse can only be used once per activation.

The Ulfenwatch Skeleton has a Wounds value of 2, which means it will be slain upon suffering 2 damage.

Roll the action dice for the weapon action you chose – this is called an attack roll. If the roll contains any success or critical success symbols, the attack roll is successful and the Ulfenwatch will be damaged. If the roll contains neither symbol, the weapon action has failed and no damage is done to the Ulfenwatch Skeleton. Note that if you roll multiple action dice for a single weapon action, you only apply the best result that you roll, not all of them. To determine how much damage the Ulfenwatch Skeleton suffers, look at the weapon action's Damage values, which are 1/3 for Gheistsever, and 2/3 for Noblesse. When an attack roll is a success, the target suffers damage equal to the weapon action's first Damage value. When an attack roll includes any critical success symbols, the target suffers damage equal to the second Damage value.

If the Ulfenwatch Skeleton suffers only 1 damage from Glaurio's weapon action, place a wound counter next to it to represent the total damage it has suffered. Once a second wound counter is placed next to it, it is slain and removed from the battlefield.

If the Ulfenwatch Skeleton is not slain after four weapon actions, make another activation roll for Glaurio and try again.

The tutorial is completed when the Ulfenwatch Skeleton is slain.

Tutorial 3: Hostiles

Set up the tutorial again, but place the Ulfenwatch in the space shown for the mysterious object, instead of adjacent to Glaurio (do not place the mysterious object). You will also need the Ulfenwatch hostile reference card. Turn this to the side with the sun symbol in its top-right corner.

When a hostile group activates, roll the quest dice and consult the behaviour table on their hostile reference card to see what action(s) every hostile in that group makes – in this instance it is a 'group' of 1 hostile, which is not uncommon.

When the Ulfenwatch makes an Advance action, it makes a Move action towards Glaurio and then attacks Glaurio once.

When the Ulfenwatch makes a Charge action, it makes two Move actions towards Glaurio and attacks Glaurio once.

The Ulfenwatch's Move action will end once it enters a space adjacent to Glaurio. If it is adjacent to Glaurio when it would make a Move action, it does not move.

When required to do so, the Ulfenwatch will make Move actions and attack in the same way as Glaurio, moving a number of spaces equal to its Move value (3) and attacking in the same way using the weapon action listed on its hostile reference card.

If an Ulfenwatch Skeleton's attack roll contains any critical success or success symbols, the attack roll is successful and Glaurio will suffer damage, otherwise the Ulfenwatch misses. If the attack roll was a success then Glaurio will suffer 1 damage. If the attack roll was a critical success then Glaurio will suffer 2 damage instead.

Glaurio has a chance to block some or all of the damage he suffers by making a Defence roll. Defence rolls are unique to heroes.

The type of dice rolled for a Defence roll is determined by the hero's Defence value. Glaurio's Defence is the triangle die, so take that dice and roll it for each successful attack roll made by the Ulfenwatch, immediately after the attack roll.

If you roll a critical success symbol, the attack's damage is reduced by 3, meaning that Glaurio suffers no damage. If you roll a success then the damage is reduced by 1. If you roll no successes, Glaurio suffers damage equal to the Damage value of the weapon action.

Each point of damage allocated to a hero results in a wound counter being placed on their character card as follows.

• If there are no wound counters on a hero's character card when they are allocated a point of damage, place a wound counter on one of the activation dice spaces on that card, replacing any dice there.
• If there is already a wound counter on a hero's character card when they are allocated a point of damage, flip that counter over to its grievous wound side instead of adding another counter. A grievous wound is much more severe and will need serious care in order to remove it!

If a hero is allocated more than 1 point of damage at once, resolve each point separately, first placing a wound counter, then flipping it over, and so on.

Keep activating the hostile group by rolling the quest dice as described above.

The tutorial is completed when Glaurio has one grievous wound counter and one wound counter on his character card, or you feel comfortable that you understand how hostile behaviour works.

Leave this tutorial set up, as it'll be used in the next tutorial.

Tutorial 4: Recuperating

When this tutorial begins, Glaurio should have one grievous wound counter and one wound counter on his character card. The wound counters represent his injuries and, as a result, reduce his ability to make actions. When making an activation roll for a hero that has any wound or grievous wound counters on their character card, roll one dice for each available activation dice space on their character card – in this case, two.

Make an activation roll for Glaurio and place the activation dice on the remaining spaces on his character card. Spend each dice one at a time to make a Recuperate (1+) action by rolling the action dice indicated by Glaurio's Vitality (which is the square die). If the roll is a success, remove one wound counter from Glaurio's character card, or flip a grievous wound counter over so that it becomes a wound counter. If the roll is a critical success, then remove one grievous wound counter or two wound counters from Glaurio's character card. If, after spending both dice, there are still wound or grievous wound counters on Glaurio's card, make another activation roll as before, rolling one dice for each empty activation dice space on Glaurio's character card.

As Glaurio recovers from the damage, he effectively regains dice for you to roll. Using Recuperate (1+) actions at the right time is key to success in games of Cursed City – sometimes you will need to forgo healing in order to deal with immediate and present threats, and vice versa.

The tutorial is completed when there are no grievous wound counters or wound counters on Glaurio's character card.

Tutorial 5: Lightning Assault

Glaurio ven Alten III has returned to his family home years after its destruction to exact vengeance on Radukar for his family's downfall. No sooner does he arrive than he is ambushed by Radukar's skeletal minions and must fight for his life.

Take Glaurio and four Ulfenwatch Skeletons and place them on the board tile (you will need to assemble three more Ulfenwatch).

Using the rules you have learned in the previous tutorials, slay as many Ulfenwatch as you can. Make an activation roll for Glaurio. Glaurio activates first, after which the Ulfenwatch activate. Then make another activation roll for Glaurio, after which he will activate again, then the Ulfenwatch activate and so on. As there are now multiple Ulfenwatch on the battlefield, the following rules apply.

When Glaurio enters a space adjacent to an Ulfenwatch Skeleton, his Move (1+) or Run (3+) action ends.

When the Ulfenwatch activate, roll the quest dice for their behaviour once, and apply the result to all the Ulfenwatch.

Activate the Ulfenwatch nearest to Glaurio first, then the next nearest and so on. Distance is measured in spaces.

• If there are multiple Ulfenwatch that are equally near to Glaurio, including when they are adjacent to him, then you choose which order they activate in.
• If Glaurio has four grievous wound counters on his character card, and you would have to place another wound counter on his character card, he is out of action – remove him from the battlefield.

The tutorial is completed when Glaurio is out of action or the Ulfenwatch are all slain.

Final Preparations: At this point it is a good idea to assemble the remaining models included with the game, if you haven't already – see the assembly guide for instructions. This is also a good time to punch out the remaining elements from the punchboards. Then turn the page to get ready to play through your first journey.

Getting Ready to Play

The following pages contain the core rules you'll use for every game of Cursed City, explaining how to set up your playing area, populate the battlefield with hostiles, and fight furious combats in the streets of Ulfenkarn.

1. Pick the Leader

One player must be the leader – give them the leader token. If the players cannot decide who is the leader, the owner of the game is the leader. The player who is the leader changes at certain points during the game. If a situation ever occurs where several players are required to act at the same time, the leader decides the order in which the players act. This is sometimes referred to in the rules as doing things 'in leader order'. In addition, if a choice needs to be made and a specific player is not told to make that choice, the leader makes the choice.

2. Pick Journey

Each time you play Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, the heroes enter the city to achieve certain tasks that bring them closer to victory. These adventures are called 'journeys'. There are several different types of journey; turn to page 18 in the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest book to read about the quest and the different journey types you can undertake. The leader picks which journey the players undertake.

First Journey: For your first game, we recommend playing a Hunt journey, as presented on page 19 of the quest book. The rules that follow include advice to help you on your first journey, presented in boxes like this one.

Victory Conditions: Each journey has its own victory conditions, which explain what you need to do to succeed in that journey.

3. Pick Heroes

A journey is always undertaken by four heroes. The number of heroes each player controls is determined by the number of players taking part in the game:

• One Player: If there is only one player, they pick four heroes to control.
• Two Players: If there are two players, each player picks two heroes to control. First the leader picks one hero, then the other player picks one, after which the leader picks a second hero, and the other player picks their second hero.
• Three Players: If there are three players, then starting with the leader and proceeding to their left, each player picks one hero to control. Then the current leader picks a fourth hero. During the journey, that player controls that hero.
• Four Players: If there are four players, then starting with the leader and proceeding to their left, each player picks one hero to control.

After a player picks a hero, they take that hero's model and place the corresponding character card within easy reach, with its Path to Glory side face up. If the players are returning to a paused quest, the character cards (and other cards and tokens) may be stored in a bag (pg 36). Once the players have picked four heroes, put the remaining hero models and character cards back in the game box.

If the rules call for a hero to do something – for example, move, attack, make an action, roll a dice or draw a card – then the player who controls that hero carries out the activity, deciding how the move will be made and making any dice rolls for the hero.

If a player picks Qulathis the Exile, that player also takes the three oaken arrow counters.

4. Pick Initiative Tokens

In leader order, each player picks one initiative token for each hero they control and places the token next to that hero's character card. The symbol on the token will match an initiative card, which is used during combats to determine which order the heroes and hostiles act in. There are no differences between the symbols – the players should feel free to pick whichever one they like.

5. Set Up the Skyvessel Board

Put the skyvessel board on one side of the playing area. Take the nightfall token and place it on the first available daytime space on the skyvessel board. Then place the quest token on the space marked '0' on the quest tracker.

During a journey, the nightfall token tracks the countdown until night falls, and the quest token tracks the heroes' progress for the journey they are on.

6. Set Up the Quest Card

Place the quest card within easy reach of the players.

During the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest, the quest card represents the state of the city's populace – how fearful they are of the Wolf King and how much influence he has over them. It also keeps track of which evils the heroes have permanently vanquished.

The value of these counters are referred to as 'influence' and 'fear'. When fear or influence changes, subtract (shrink) or add (grow) the instructed amount from the value of the relevant counter and change the counter for one that shows the new value. Neither fear nor influence can shrink below 0 nor grow above 10.

First Journey: When setting up your first journey, place a fear counter of value 5 in the space of the tracker marked 'fear', and place an influence counter of value 6 in the space of the tracker marked 'influence'.

7. Build the Discovery Deck

Find the discovery cards. Unless the journey you have chosen specifies otherwise, place the realmstone cards of the following values back in the game box: two of value 1, three of value 2 and two of value 3. Shuffle the other discovery cards together face down to form the discovery deck, and place it face down next to the skyvessel board.

8. Place the Combat Track and Cards

Take the combat track and place it within easy reach of at least one player. Then take the hero initiative cards and place them next to the hostile group initiative cards. The hostile group initiative cards are numbered 1 to 4, shown by the white diamonds on each card. Place the two sets of four cards face up to the left of the combat track.

Take the encounter cards, shuffle them together face down and place them in a stack next to the initiative cards. This is called the encounter deck.

Take the hostile models and hostile reference cards and place them within easy reach of the players.

9. Place Dice

The dice used in Cursed City are split into the following types and placed as described below:

Destiny Dice: These six-sided dice are coloured black and are placed below the skyvessel board.

Activation Dice: These six-sided dice are coloured white. Each hero has four activation dice, which are placed on their character card.

Quest Dice: This twelve-sided dice is coloured black. Place it below the skyvessel board.

Action Dice: The six-sided, eight-sided and twelve-sided dice marked with special symbols are referred to as action dice. Place them below the skyvessel board.

Whenever you roll two or more action dice as part of the same roll, you apply the best result rolled on a single dice from that roll, not all of the results. A roll that includes any success results, but no critical success results, is said to be a success. A roll that includes any critical success results is said to be a critical success. In either case, the roll is said to be successful.

10. Gather Board Tiles, Gateways and Lychgates

The double-sided board sections that represent the landscape of the Cursed City are called 'board tiles'. Each board tile is divided into squares, which are referred to as 'spaces'. Place all of the board tiles near the skyvessel board.

Gateways and Lychgates: Gateways connect two or more board tiles so that heroes can move between them. An open gateway connects two or more tiles. All spaces that touch the same open gateway are considered to be adjacent.

A closed gateway is a gateway that only touches one board tile. Closed gateways cannot be moved through.

Cursed City combat maps also include lychgates. Lychgates are placed touching board tiles, and represent access routes that hostiles use to arrive on the battlefield.

Gateways and lychgates are not spaces and cannot have models placed on them.

When setting up the game, place the gateways and lychgates near the board tiles.

Adjacent Spaces: Spaces that touch, even by only a corner, are adjacent to each other and are referred to as adjacent spaces. A model is adjacent to models in spaces adjacent to that model's space.

The Battlefield: Any touching board tiles or board tiles that are connected by gateways are referred to as the battlefield.

Space Limits: A space can only contain one hero, one large hostile, one mysterious object or up to two small hostiles.

11. Set Up the Drop Zone

Find the drop zone board tile (referred to hereafter as the drop zone) and place it near the combat track. Place an open gateway as shown. Then, in leader order, each player deploys each hero they control in a space in the drop zone.

12. Place Counters and Tokens

Place all remaining counters and tokens within easy reach of the players.

Take any remaining cards, and bags, and place them back in the game box.

13. Prepare the Combat Map

The journey you have chosen will tell you how to set up the battlefield for combat – for a Hunt journey, for example, you would roll on the table on page 19 of the quest book to choose a combat map.

Draw Encounter Cards: The leader draws one encounter card for each mysterious object symbol on the combat map and places each card in the first empty space above the combat track in the order they are drawn.

Each encounter card lists several hostile groups, each of which has its own level. The hostile group you use will always be the same level as the highest level hero taking part in the journey.

First Journey: At the beginning of your first journey, the heroes start at level 0 – use the top line on each encounter card.

Deploy Hostiles: Starting with the hostile group listed on the first encounter card on the combat track, and proceeding to the right, the leader takes all the models listed for that hostile group and places them on the battlefield using the following rules. Placing a hostile model on the battlefield is called deploying it. Fully deploy one hostile group before deploying another.

1. Find the mysterious object nearest to the heroes that has no hostiles adjacent to it.
2. Deploy all the hostiles from the hostile group in spaces adjacent to that mysterious object. If there are not enough spaces, deploy the remaining hostiles in spaces adjacent to another hostile from their group. Where possible, deploy small hostiles in the same space as one other small hostile from their group. A hostile's size is shown on their hostile reference card.

Once you have deployed all the hostile models, you are ready to begin your first turn.

No More Models: When the leader is required to deploy models to the battlefield, but there are no more of that type of model, set up as many as possible (this might be none), and ignore any remainder. Do not add any further models to that hostile group unless specified otherwise, even if the missing models become available later in the journey.

If this rule results in a hostile group having no models, discard that hostile group's encounter card, replace it with a new one drawn from the top of the encounter deck and deploy the hostiles listed there.

Which Hostiles Do I Use? When there are multiple hostiles in a hostile group, the leader picks which hostile models are used. For example if a hostile group contained 3 Ulfenwatch, the leader could choose to have one Ulfenwatch Banner Bearer, one Ulfenwatch Sergeant and one Ulfenwatch Skeleton, or just three Ulfenwatch Skeletons. Some hostile reference cards specify which models must be chosen depending upon the group's size, but beyond those restrictions, the leader is free to choose whatever combination of models they like. For a Hunt journey, the leader will want to include one champion in each hostile group wherever they can (see page 19 of the quest book).

The Turn

Every journey takes place over a series of turns. Each turn is made up of a series of phases, played through in the order shown below. Once the players have followed the instructions for a specific phase, that phase ends and the next phase begins.

1. Journey phase
2. Destiny phase
3. Initiative phase
4. Activation phase
5. Event phase

After the event phase, unless the journey ends, there is a new turn. The players begin a fresh journey phase and the sequence repeats until the journey ends.

Journey Phase

Each journey phase follows the same sequence of steps.

• Nightfall step
• Quest step

Nightfall Step: In the nightfall step, the leader moves the nightfall token clockwise once. Once this is done the nightfall step ends.

Nightfall: When the nightfall token is moved to the nightfall space, indicated by the night symbol, night falls. If the nightfall token is in the space with the night symbol in the nightfall step, do not move the nightfall token any further clockwise.

If the nightfall token is on the space with the night symbol when a hostile group is activated, use the side of the hostile reference card with the moon symbol to see what action(s) that hostile group makes. This side of the hostile reference card is the 'Empowered' side.

Quest Step: The rules for the journey you are on will explain whether anything happens during the quest step. If nothing is specified, skip this step. If this step is skipped, or after any instructions are followed, the quest step ends.

Destiny Phase

In the destiny phase, the leader must make a destiny roll. To do so, they roll all the destiny dice, and then put any dice that show a unique number in the available destiny dice space of the skyvessel board. Any other dice (doubles, triples and so on) are put in the discarded destiny dice space of the skyvessel board. For example, if the roll was 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, then the two 3s would be placed in the discarded destiny dice space, and the 2, 4 and 6 placed on the available destiny dice space. Once this roll is made and the dice are placed in the relevant places, the destiny phase ends.

Initiative Phase

In the initiative phase, the order in which the heroes and the hostiles are activated in the subsequent activation phase is determined. The initiative phase is carried out in the following steps:

• Activation rolls step
• Initiative step
• Gambit step

Activation Rolls Step: First, the players make an activation roll for each of the heroes they control. To make an activation roll for a hero, the player rolls one activation dice for each empty activation dice space the hero has on their character card. An empty activation dice space is one that does not contain a wound counter, grievous wound counter or activation dice. After making the roll, each dice is placed in an empty activation dice space on the card, without changing the score of the roll.

Activation dice can be spent to perform gambits or make actions, as described in the rules that follow. Activation dice can only be spent once. Remove spent dice from the hero's character card so you can track which activation dice have been spent.

Initiative Step: The leader takes the four hero initiative cards and one hostile initiative card for each hostile group on the battlefield. The leader shuffles all the initiative cards together face down and then deals the cards face up from left to right, into the available spaces for them below the combat track. Once this is done the initiative step ends.

In the activation phase, the hero or hostile group whose initiative card is in the left-hand space of the track will activate first, then the hero or hostile group whose card is in the second space, and so on.

First Journey: In order to demonstrate the rules during your first game, do not shuffle the initiative cards together in the first turn as described above – instead, place them in the order shown in the example. In subsequent turns, shuffle and deal the initiative cards during this step as described above.

Gambit Step: In this step, the heroes can attempt one or more gambits. To attempt a gambit, the player who controls the hero must first spend one of the activation dice on the hero's character card. Then they make an Agility roll for that hero and look up the result below.

Agility Rolls: To make an Agility roll for a hero, the player takes the action dice shown on that hero's character card under 'Agility' and rolls it.

• Failure: The hero's initiative card stays in the same position on the combat track.
• Success: Swap the hero's initiative card with the closest hostile group initiative card to the hero's left or right (player's choice) on the combat track.
• Critical Success: Swap the hero's initiative card with any hostile group initiative card on the combat track.

Destiny dice cannot be used to attempt gambits, but a hero can attempt several gambits as long as an activation dice is spent for each gambit that they attempt. If several heroes want to perform a gambit at the same time, they do so in leader order.

Once the gambit step is over, the initiative phase ends.

Activation Phase

In the activation phase, each hero and hostile group is activated in the order determined by the initiative cards along the combat track. The hero or hostile group in the first space of the track is activated first. When they have completed their activation, their initiative card is turned face down, and then the next hero or hostile group is activated, and so on.

The way that players carry out activations for heroes and hostile groups is slightly different. The rules that follow explain how to carry out an activation for a hero, and then how to do so for a hostile group.

Once each hero and each hostile group has activated, the activation phase ends.

Hero Activations

When a hero is activated, they can make actions. Actions let a hero do things such as move, fight and search for treasure. Actions are made by spending one of the activation dice in an activation dice space on the hero's character card. When an activation dice is spent, it is removed from the hero's character card and placed to one side. A hero can make the same action multiple times, but must end each action before starting a new one.

Each action has a cost in brackets, specifying the activation dice that can be spent to make it. For example, to make an action with a cost of (4+), an activation dice with a score of 4 or more would need to be spent.

When a player does not want to make any more actions with a hero they control (or cannot do so), that hero's activation ends; any remaining activation dice are saved to make reaction attacks, and if the hero slew any hostiles, you can make an inspiration roll for the hero. Then the next hero or hostile group on the combat track is activated.

Unique Abilities: Heroes have unique abilities listed on their character card. Some unique abilities are actions and require activation dice to be spent to use them, just like other actions. Others do not require activation dice to be spent – these unique abilities will specify when and how often they can be used. The rules for each ability are on the relevant hero's character card.

Free Actions: Some rules allow heroes to make free actions. Heroes do not have to spend activation dice to make free actions. Each free action is treated as if an activation dice with a score of 6 was spent to make it.

Destiny Dice: The destiny dice in the available destiny dice space on the skyvessel board are treated as extra activation dice that are shared between the heroes. Whenever a hero makes an action that requires them to spend an activation dice, they can instead spend a destiny dice, following all of the same rules as though they were spending an activation dice. When a hero spends a destiny dice in this way, move it to the discarded destiny dice space on the skyvessel board. A hero cannot spend more than two destiny dice in the same turn except for the last hero to activate, who can spend any remaining destiny dice that are available.

Basic Actions and Weapon Actions for Heroes

There are five basic actions that any hero can make: Move (1+), Run (3+), Recuperate (1+), Search (4+) and Extract (4+). Heroes can also make the weapon actions on their character card that allow them to attack hostiles.

First Journey: During your first journey, you can read the rules for how to make Move (1+) actions, Run (3+) actions and weapon actions, and then get stuck into the fray. If you wish to search mysterious objects for treasure you'll need to read the rules for the Search (4+) action, and if your hero suffers damage you should read the rules for the Recuperate (1+) action. Read the rules for the Extract (4+) action when you are ready for the journey to end.

Basic Actions

Move (1+): When a hero makes this action, they can be moved up to as many spaces as the first number of their Move value on their character card. Each space they move into must be adjacent to the current space they are in or moving through. A space is adjacent if any part of that space (including a corner) is touching the space the hero is in. Heroes can move through spaces occupied by other heroes, and hostiles can move through spaces occupied by other hostiles, but models cannot move through spaces occupied by enemy models.

Enemy Models: Heroes treat hostiles as enemy models and vice versa.

A model cannot end its move in the same space as another model, with the exception that a small hostile can end its move in a space which contains one other small hostile.

If a model moves into an empty space that is adjacent to an enemy model, that Move (1+) action ends.

If a model starts a Move (1+) action in a space adjacent to an enemy model, it can leave the space, but that action ends if it enters another empty space that is adjacent to an enemy model.

Run (3+): When a hero makes this action, they make a Move action following the rules above, but can move a number of spaces equal to the second number of the Move value on their character card.

Recuperate (1+): When a hero makes this action, make a Vitality roll by rolling the action dice shown for 'Vitality' on their character card. If the roll is a success, remove one wound counter from that hero's character card, or turn one grievous wound counter over to its wound side. If the roll is a critical success, remove two wound counters from that hero's character card, or remove one grievous wound counter from that hero's character card.

Search (4+): A hero can make this action if they are adjacent to a space that contains a mysterious object and there are no hostiles adjacent to the hero. If they do, draw the top card from the discovery deck. The cards that can be drawn from this deck are treasure cards, trap cards, crisis cards and realmstone cards. Discovery cards that are discarded are placed face up next to the discovery card deck – this is the discovery discard pile.

Treasure Cards: When a treasure card is drawn it is given to the hero that made the Search (4+) action. A hero can only have one treasure card. If they already have an unused treasure card they must pick one of the two they have – they keep that card. The other treasure card is discarded. Treasure cards can be traded freely between adjacent heroes. Each treasure card will specify when it can be used and what effect it will have. After a treasure card is drawn, remove the mysterious object the Search (4+) action was made next to from the battlefield.

Trap Cards: Follow the instructions on the trap card.

Crisis Cards: When a crisis card is drawn, generate a crisis. The discovery card is then discarded.

Realmstone Cards: When a realmstone card is drawn, it is given to the hero that made the Search (4+) action. These cards represent precious magical material that can be used to empower armour and weapons in-between journeys. After a realmstone card is drawn, remove the mysterious object the Search (4+) action was made next to from the battlefield.

Extract (4+): A hero can make this action if they are in a space touching a closed gateway and there are no hostiles adjacent to that hero. When they do, place the extraction zone tile so that at least one space is touching the closed gateway and is not touching any other board tile. Then flip the closed gateway to its open side.

Weapon Actions

Each hero has one or more weapon actions listed on their character card. Weapon actions are used to attack hostiles. A hero can make a weapon action as described below by spending an appropriate activation dice.

Free Weapon Actions: Some rules refer to free weapon actions. When a hero is called on to make a free weapon action, their player picks any weapon action from that hero's character card, and then that hero makes that weapon action. That weapon action is treated as if an activation dice with a score of 6 was spent to make it.

At other times, a hero may be called upon to make a specific free weapon action (e.g. a free Winter's Call (1+) weapon action). Where this is the case, follow the rules above but only the weapon action specified can be picked.

Attacks

When a hero makes a weapon action, the player who controls the hero follows the attack sequence below to resolve the attack (additional rules apply when hostiles attack). While a model is making a weapon action they are referred to as the 'attacker'.

1. Pick target
2. Make attack roll
3. Inflict damage

Pick Target: If any enemy models are adjacent to the attacker and visible, the attacker can only target those models.

The player who controls the attacker must pick a visible enemy model as the target of their weapon action. Each weapon action has a type – Melee, Ranged or Dual. This determines which targets can be picked.

For Melee type weapon actions, the target must be adjacent to the attacker. For Ranged type weapon actions, the target cannot be adjacent to the attacker. Dual type weapon actions can target adjacent enemies or those further away.

Visibility: An enemy model is visible to the attacker if any of the following are true:

• The attacker is in the same board tile as the target.
• The target is in a space touching an open gateway that is touching the board tile the attacker is in.
• The attacker is in a space touching an open gateway that is touching the board tile the target is in.

How Can They See? Some board tiles may make it appear as if a target is impossible for the attacker to see, especially for Ranged type weapon actions. In these cases it is assumed that the attacker is shooting through a broken window, or a hole created by some crumbling masonry.

Make Attack Roll: To make an attack roll, roll the action dice shown beside the weapon action being used and look up the result below. This will usually be one or two dice but can sometimes be more.

• Failure: The attack roll fails – the target is unharmed and the attack sequence ends.
• Success: The attack roll is successful and the target suffers damage equal to the weapon action's first Damage value.
• Critical Success: The attack roll is successful and the target suffers damage equal to the weapon action's second Damage value.

Re-rolls: If you are instructed to re-roll a roll that uses action dice, you can pick any of the action dice that were rolled and roll them again (the dice you did not pick cannot be re-rolled afterwards).

If you are instructed to re-roll one or more activation or destiny dice, roll the required number of dice and use the new rolls.

Unless noted otherwise, you cannot re-roll any dice more than once.

Inflict Damage: When a hostile suffers damage, place wound counters equal to the value of the damage suffered next to that hostile's model. A wound counter has a value of 1 damage and a grievous wound counter has a value of 3 damage. Each hostile has a Wounds value on their reference card. When the value of the wound counters equals or exceeds that Wounds value, the hostile is slain and removed from the battlefield. When a hostile is removed from the battlefield, it is placed on its hostile group's encounter card. It remains part of that hostile group until that hostile group is driven off.

Reducing and Ignoring Damage: Some hostiles reduce damage and others ignore damage. When a hostile reduces damage, subtract the relevant amount from the total damage suffered by that hostile, after any other modifiers have been applied. The amount a hostile reduces damage by is written on its hostile reference card.

For example, Radukar the Wolf reduces damage he suffers by 1. If he is cursed and the attack roll for a Gheistsever weapon action made against him is a critical success, he would suffer 3 damage from the weapon action, plus an extra 2 for being cursed, bringing the total damage to 5. Then he reduces the damage by 1 for a final total of 4.

When a hostile ignores damage, they suffer no damage, regardless of modifiers. For example, a Vyrkos Blood-born ignores damage on a roll of 9+ on the quest dice. If one is cursed and the attack roll for a Gheistsever weapon action made against it is a critical success as described above, and the score on the quest dice is a 9+, the Vyrkos Blood-born would suffer no damage.

Reactions

A hero can end their activation with one or more unspent activation dice on their character card. They might choose to do this, or simply have nothing useful to do with those dice. When this happens, reduce the score of all remaining dice by 1 (so a 4 would become a 3, for example, a 6 a 5 and a 1 a 0). Any dice that would become 0 are discarded. The dice that remain are referred to as reaction dice.

A reaction dice can be used to make a weapon action when a hostile that is visible to the hero finishes a Move action or weapon action, or is deployed. The hostile that triggered the reaction must be the target of the weapon action. Make the hero's weapon action, and then carry on with the hostile activation.

A hero can make a maximum of one weapon action each time a hostile triggers a reaction. If several different heroes are in a position to carry out reactions, first declare which will do so and then make one weapon action with each of those heroes in leader order. If the hostile is slain before all of the heroes have attacked, the heroes that declared that they would make a reaction weapon action and have not yet done so must discard the reaction dice they would have spent.

At the end of the activation phase, remove any reaction dice remaining on the heroes' character cards.

Inspiration Rolls

If any hostiles are slain by a hero during that hero's activation, that hero's player can make an inspiration roll at the end of their activation to see if they gain an inspiration point.

To make an inspiration roll, roll the quest dice. If the roll is less than or equal to the combined Wounds values of the hostiles slain by that hero during their activation, that hero receives 1 inspiration point. For example, a hero that had slain a Deadwalker Zombie (Wounds value 3) and an Ulfenwatch Skeleton (Wounds value 2) would gain an inspiration point on a roll of 1 to 5. If the combined Wounds value of slain hostiles is 12 or more, the hero automatically gains 1 inspiration point without the dice having to be rolled.

Note that inspiration points can only be gained for hostiles slain during a hero's activation. Hostiles slain at any other time (by weapon actions made using reaction dice, for example) are not counted towards any inspiration rolls.

Note also that heroes only combine the Wounds values of hostiles they have slain, not those they have damaged but not slain.

Inspiration Points

Keep track of the inspiration points a hero has gained by placing an inspiration point counter next to the hero's character card, with the side with the number of inspiration points the hero has gained face up. A hero cannot have more than four inspiration points at a time, or less than zero – if they have four inspiration points, any further inspiration points they gain are lost. If a hero that has zero inspiration points would lose any, nothing happens.

Gaining Inspiration Points: Inspiration points can be gained in several ways. The most common are the inspiration roll, as described above, and achieving a hero's Path to Glory. A Path to Glory is a condition written on the bottom of each hero's character card that, when met, gains the hero inspiration points.

Spending Inspiration Points: Inspiration points can be spent by a hero to do any of the things outlined in the table below, at the cost indicated. When one or more inspiration points are spent, reduce that hero's inspiration points by the amount shown.

Cost	Effect
3	If that hero's character card is showing its Path to Glory side, flip the card to its Inspired side. This is called 'inspiring'. A hero must spend 3 inspiration points to inspire immediately upon reaching a total of 3 inspiration points. If a hero would gain 2 or more inspiration points, and while gaining them reaches 3, those 3 points are spent, the hero is inspired and then any remaining points are gained.
3	During that hero's activation, make a Search (4+) action when not adjacent to a mysterious object (the Search action still costs a 4+ activation dice and the hero cannot be adjacent to any hostiles). This does not remove any mysterious objects from the battlefield.
2	That hero can attempt a gambit without spending an activation dice.
1	Re-roll one action dice from a roll made by or for that hero.

Inspired Heroes

When a hero inspires, any wound or grievous wound counters, and any ailment tokens and item in the carried item space are transferred to the Inspired side of their character card, along with any unspent activation or reaction dice, each of which retains its current score. Heroes remain inspired until the end of the current journey. Unless specified otherwise, when a new journey begins, inspired heroes have their cards returned to their Path to Glory side.

Hostile Group Activations

When the initiative card for a hostile group is reached, that hostile group is activated. When a hostile group is activated, check its encounter card – it will be either face up (see below) or face down.

Encounter Card is Face Up

First check to see if the hostile group is driven off (see below). If the hostile group is not driven off, the leader makes behaviour rolls for the hostile group following the rules below.

Driven Off: To check if a hostile group is driven off, count the number of hostiles from that group that are on the battlefield. If that number is a third or fewer than the number of hostiles originally deployed from that hostile group, the hostile group is driven off. When a hostile group is driven off, first, each hostile from that group that is on the battlefield and is not stunned makes one weapon action. Then the leader removes any remaining miniatures from that hostile group from the battlefield, and then replaces that hostile group's encounter card on the combat track with the next card from the top of the encounter deck – this replacement card is kept face down. Then the hostile group's activation ends.

If there are no cards in the encounter deck when one would be drawn, shuffle the discarded encounter cards together face down and place them face down next to the combat track to form a new encounter deck.

Behaviour Rolls: To see what actions the hostile group makes, the leader makes one behaviour roll for each category of hostile in that group. In the same way as heroes, hostiles have unique rules on their reference cards – be sure to read the hostile reference card(s) for a hostile group before making a behaviour roll (or rolls) for them.

Hostile Categories: A hostile category is the title at the top of a hostile reference card. For example, Ulfenwatch, or Radukar the Wolf. Some hostile groups contain multiple categories – for example, 3 Corpse Rats and 3 Bat Swarms is two categories.

In addition, some hostile categories contain multiple different hostiles. Where this is the case, they are all considered to be from the same category. For example, Ulfenwatch Sergeants and Ulfenwatch Banner Bearers are considered to be Ulfenwatch. If a hostile group contained 1 Ulfenwatch Sergeant, 1 Ulfenwatch Banner Bearer and 4 other Ulfenwatch, one behaviour roll would be made and the result applied to all of them following the rules below.

To make a behaviour roll, follow the sequence below:

1. The leader picks a hostile category from the active hostile group (there will often only be one to choose). Hostiles from this category that are in the active hostile group are referred to as acting hostiles.
2. The leader rolls the quest dice and looks up the result on the hostile category's hostile reference card.
3. The leader makes any listed actions with each acting hostile, one at a time, starting with the acting hostile nearest to any hero. If several of the acting hostiles are equally near to a hero, the leader picks which of them is activated first.
4. Once step 3 is resolved, repeat this process for any remaining hostile categories.
5. Once this sequence has been resolved for each hostile category in the active hostile group, the active hostile group's activation ends.

Hostile Action Descriptions

When a behaviour roll is made, the result will specify a series of actions. Some of these actions are unique to specific hostiles; these are listed on the hostile reference card for that hostile.

There are two common hostile actions: Advance and Charge. These are described below. When measuring distances for an action (to the nearest hero, for example), always use the shortest route.

Hostile Advance Actions: When a hostile makes an Advance action it makes one Move action and then one weapon action, as explained below.

Hostile Charge Actions: When a hostile makes a Charge action it makes two Move actions and then one weapon action, as explained below.

Hostile Move Actions

When a hostile makes a Move action, they can move as many spaces as the Move value shown on their reference card. All of the rules that apply to moving a hero also apply to moving a hostile.

Unless the instructions say otherwise, when a hostile moves it will always take the most direct path that permits it to attack the nearest hero. If, by taking that path they would not be able to attack, but by taking another path (potentially to a different, more distant hero) they would be able to attack, the hostile will take the path that allows it to attack the more distant hero. If there is a choice, a hostile will move towards the next nearest hero. If it is possible for a hostile to attack, it will not move in a way that would prevent it from attacking.

If a hostile cannot move in a way that would allow it to make a weapon action then it will move in a way that will leave it as close as possible to the nearest hero.

Small hostiles will always end their move adjacent to a hero and in the same space as another small hostile where possible.

Hostile Weapon Actions

When a hostile makes a weapon action, all of the rules that apply to making a weapon action with a hero also apply.

If more than one target could be picked for the weapon action, the leader chooses which hero is attacked.

If no target can be picked for the weapon action, the attacking hostile does not attack.

Defence Rolls: When a hero suffers damage from a weapon action, the player controlling the hero must make a Defence roll. Note Defence rolls cannot be made when heroes suffer damage in other ways, unless specified otherwise. To make a Defence roll, look up the hero's Defence on their character card, roll the action dice shown there and look up the result below:

• Failure: The hero suffers damage equal to the appropriate Damage value of the hostile weapon action.
• Success: The hero reduces the damage suffered from the hostile weapon action by 1, to a minimum of 0.
• Critical Success: The hero reduces the damage suffered from the hostile weapon action by 3, to a minimum of 0.

After a Defence roll, if the damage has been reduced to 0, the attack is resolved and the attack sequence finishes.

Suffering Damage

When a hero suffers damage, it is converted to an equivalent amount of damage points. Each point of damage is then allocated individually to that hero. For example, if Jelsen Darrock suffered 2 damage, his player would allocate 2 damage points to him. When a point of damage is allocated to a hero:

• If there are no wound counters on their character card, apply one wound counter to that hero's character card. To apply a wound counter to a hero's character card, place it on an activation dice space that does not contain any wound or grievous wound counters. If a wound counter is placed on an activation dice space that contains an activation or reaction dice, that dice is discarded.
• If there are already one or more wound counters on their character card, turn one of those counters over to the grievous wound side instead of placing another wound counter.

When you must apply a wound counter to a hero's character card, if there are no activation dice spaces to place that wound counter on, that hero is taken out of action.

Out of Action

When a hero is taken out of action, remove the hero's model from the battlefield and their initiative card from the combat track, and put them beside the hero's character card. While the hero is out of action, none of the actions or rules on their character card can be used, and they do not take any part in crises.

Heroes Suffering Damage Example: In the first example, Jelsen Darrock is attacked by an Ulfenwatch Skeleton. Its attack roll is a success, and Jelsen Darrock fails his Defence roll. After consulting the Ulfenwatch's hostile reference card to see how much damage the attack does, Jelsen Darrock is allocated 1 damage point. One wound counter is applied to an activation dice space on his character card.

In the next example, Jelsen Darrock is attacked by a Bat Swarm before he can heal his earlier wound. This time however, the attack roll is a critical success, and again Jelsen Darrock fails his Defence roll. A critical success in the attack roll means that Jelsen Darrock is allocated 2 damage points, as the Bat Swarm's weapon action's Damage is 1/2. When the first damage point is allocated, as there is already a wound counter on Jelsen Darrock's character card, the wound counter is turned over into a grievous wound counter. Then the second point of damage is allocated. As there are no wound counters on the hero's character card, one is applied to an empty activation dice space.

Encounter Card is Face Down

When the initiative card for a hostile group is reached, but that hostile group's encounter card is face down on the combat track, the leader flips the encounter card face up and deploys the appropriate hostile group for the heroes' level on the battlefield as reinforcements. Once each hostile from that hostile group has been deployed, the hostile group's activation ends.

Deploying Reinforcements: Whenever a rule calls for reinforcements to be deployed, follow the sequence below.

1. Unless specified otherwise, the leader gathers the required hostiles from the available hostile models. If there are not enough, the rules for No More Models apply.
2. The leader picks any hostile model from those being deployed as reinforcements.
3. If the heroes are undertaking a Scavenge or Hunt journey, the leader deploys that hostile model by placing it in a space touching the lychgate that is furthest from the heroes, unless specified otherwise. If the heroes are undertaking a Deliverance journey, the leader deploys that hostile model in a space touching the lychgate that is nearest to any closed gateway, unless specified otherwise.
4. If the space a hostile would be deployed into contains a hero, then that hero suffers 2 damage and the hostile is not placed. If the model cannot be deployed in that space for any other reason, place it in the nearest empty space to that lychgate.
5. That hostile then makes an Advance action – do not make a behaviour roll for them.
6. Repeat this once for each hostile being deployed as reinforcements.

Nowhere to Place a Model: It is possible a rule may instruct you to deploy a model, but it will be completely impossible to place that model on the battlefield. When this is the case, it is slain if it is a hostile, or taken out of action if it is a hero.

'Ware the Gates of the Dead! Note that if a hero is standing in a space that hostiles might appear in, they are taking a big risk and may suffer a lot of damage if multiple hostiles try to deploy on that space.

Available Models: If a model is not part of a hostile group and is not on the battlefield, it is referred to as available.

Event Phase

In the event phase, the players must first determine if the journey ends or continues.

If all the heroes are dead or out of action, or if every hero that is not dead or out of action is in the extraction zone, the journey ends. In any other circumstances the journey continues, unless the rules for that journey specify otherwise.

If the journey continues, the leader must make an event roll by rolling the quest dice and looking up the result on the event table below, which is repeated on the back page of this book for convenience. Once the event has been resolved, the leader passes the leader token to the player on their left, who becomes the leader for the next turn. The turn is then complete, and a new turn begins.

When the journey ends, turn to Journey's End.

Event Table

Result	Event
1	A Destiny Denied: Do not make a destiny roll at the start of the next turn.
2-4	The Will of the Master: The hostile group with a model furthest from any hero makes a Move action. If there are equidistant hostile groups, the leader picks which one makes a Move action. If there are no hostile groups, nothing happens.
5-6	Crisis: Resolve one crisis for your journey from the quest book (see below for the rules on how to resolve a crisis).
7-8	Our Time Grows Short: Move the nightfall token clockwise one space (unless the nightfall token is on the space with the night symbol).
9-10	Born Hero: The leader picks one hero that is out of action. Place that hero on the battlefield in the nearest empty space to another hero. Then make a free Recuperate (1+) action for that hero, or remove one ailment from that hero. If there is no hero out of action, the leader picks one hero on the battlefield. Make a free Recuperate (1+) action for that hero or remove one ailment from that hero.
11	Inspiring Effort: The leader picks a hero. That hero gains 1 inspiration point.
12	A Destiny Fulfilled: After the destiny roll is made, move all discarded destiny dice to the available destiny dice section of the skyvessel board.

Crises

During a journey crises can occur, each of which must be resolved (for good or for ill). While the heroes are resolving a crisis, the game is paused. Then play through the following steps. After the crisis ends, the game is unpaused.

1. If there is only one hero on the battlefield, the crisis does not occur – the heroes have enough to deal with! The game is unpaused and continues. Otherwise, go to step 2.
2. The leader turns to the page in the quest book for the journey the group are undertaking, rolls the quest dice, and looks up the result on the crises table for that journey. If night has fallen, roll on the Night column of the table for that journey instead.
3. The table will give a page number in the quest book and an entry number. The leader turns to the relevant page and reads aloud the relevant entry.
4. The leader then picks one hero to resolve that crisis. The player controlling that hero is the acting player and that hero is the acting hero until the crisis ends.
5. Remove the acting hero from the battlefield (they leave to deal with the crisis).
6. Then the acting player follows the instructions listed in the entry for that crisis.
7. After the crisis ends, the game is unpaused. The acting hero is returned to the battlefield when they would next activate. When the acting hero returns to the battlefield, they are deployed in an empty space as close as possible to another hero on the battlefield.
8. Once the acting hero is deployed, that hero is then activated as normal.

Stretched Too Thin: Most crises require the acting hero to be removed from the battlefield while they deal with it in a nearby part of the city. If the other heroes are taken out of action before an acting hero returns to the battlefield, the journey is failed immediately.

Ailments

During your journeys, models can become stunned, diseased, cursed, trapped, buried or fatigued. These are referred to collectively as ailments. Ailments are negative effects that can be inflicted on the heroes by their foes, or vice versa.

Buried: Sometimes a rule will say that a hero is buried. If a hero is buried, place a buried token in the same space as that hero and remove that hero from the battlefield. No model can be moved into or be placed in the same space as a buried token. While that buried token is on the battlefield, the buried hero cannot make actions or use unique abilities. When a buried hero ends their activation, they suffer 2 damage. If a buried hero is taken out of action, they have died.

To dig free, the buried hero or a hero adjacent to the space with the buried token must spend two activation dice with a score of 6. When this happens, remove the buried token and place the buried hero back on the battlefield in the same space the buried token was in.

Cursed: Sometimes a rule will say that a hero or hostile is cursed. While a hero or hostile is cursed, place a cursed token beside the relevant model.

While a hero or hostile is cursed, increase the Damage value of all weapon actions that target it by +1/+2.

Diseased: Sometimes a rule will say that a hero or hostile is diseased. When a hero is diseased, place a diseased token on an activation dice space on that hero's character card that does not contain any wound or grievous wound counters unless there is no other choice. If there is a reaction dice or activation dice in that space, reduce its score to 1. When an activation dice would be placed on that space, change its score to 1. A wound counter cannot be placed on an activation dice space that contains a diseased token unless there is no other choice.

While a hostile is diseased, place a diseased token beside that model. When a diseased hostile is attacked, if the result of an attack roll is a success, change the result to a critical success.

Fatigued: Sometimes a rule will say that a hero is fatigued. When a hero is fatigued, place a fatigued token next to their model.

After a hero with a fatigued token activates, before they make any actions, change all their activation dice scores to 1. Then remove the fatigued token that is next to that hero's model.

Stunned: Sometimes a rule will say that a hero or hostile is stunned. If this happens, place the hero or hostile on their side in their space. When a stunned hero is next activated, they must discard an activation or destiny dice of their choice; stand the hero back up to show they are no longer stunned. When a stunned hostile's group next activates, stand the stunned hostile back up instead of making any actions with that hostile; they are no longer stunned. If a hero or hostile that is already stunned would be stunned again, they suffer 1 damage instead.

Trapped: Sometimes a rule will say that a hero or hostile is trapped. When a hero is trapped, place a trapped token next to their model. Heroes that are trapped cannot make Move (1+) or Run (3+) actions until the trapped token is removed. To remove a trapped token a hero that is trapped or a hero adjacent to the trapped hero must spend an activation dice with a score of 4+.

While a hostile is trapped, if it would make a Move action it does not. Remove all trapped tokens from hostiles after the event roll is made in the event phase.

The Carried Item Space

All heroes have a carried item space on their character card. Tokens are placed in this space or removed from it when a rule instructs the player to do so – usually as a result of crises. If a hero already has a token in their carried item space, and would have to place a second or subsequent token in that space, they must choose which to keep. The other token is discarded.

Journey's End

After a journey ends, the heroes are picked up by the Adamant and can tend to their wounds, gain experience and make plans for the future. Players follow the sequence below to see what occurs next.

1. Determine success
2. Resolve extraction event
3. Determine survival
4. Remove tokens and counters
5. Resolve consequences
6. Spend realmstone
7. Pick a new journey

Determine Success

To determine whether or not the heroes were successful in their journey, consult the victory conditions in the quest book for that journey.

Resolve Extraction Event

The leader rolls the quest dice and looks up the result on the extraction event table. Add 1 to the roll if the heroes were successful in their journey and add 1 to the roll if the nightfall token was in a daytime space when the journey ended.

In all cases, it is recommended that any tokens or counters placed in a bag as a result of a roll on this table are placed in the same bag as the quest card when pausing the quest.

Extraction Event Table

Result	Event	Effect
1	The Adamant suffers significant damage to its aether-endrins as it leaves, forcing it to land in the dark of night for emergency repairs.	When getting ready to play the next journey, place the nightfall token in the nightfall space of the skyvessel board. If you are pausing the quest in the meantime, place the nightfall token in a bag to remind you.
2	The Adamant is forced to perform high-speed evasive manoeuvres to escape, causing valuable items to fall overboard.	Discard each treasure card each hero has, including those in bags.
3	The Wolf King has caught the heroes' scent and is on the hunt for them.	During set up for the next journey the heroes undertake, in the Deploy Hostiles step, replace all the models listed on the encounter card for hostile group 2 with 1 Radukar the Wolf (unless he is already in a hostile group). If you are pausing the quest in the meantime, place his hostile reference card in a bag to remind you, and remove it after the journey begins.
4	The Adamant is slow to climb into the skies, and the heroes are badly hurt while clearing the decks of undead.	During the next journey the heroes undertake, before making their first activation roll, each hero suffers 1 damage. If you are pausing the quest in the meantime, place four wound tokens in a bag to remind you, and remove them after the journey begins.
5	The Adamant rescues a number of desperate townsfolk. Unfortunately, several of them have the ashen skin and bleeding eyes of those afflicted by the dreaded Carrion Flux.	During the next journey the heroes undertake, before making their first activation roll, each hero becomes diseased. If you are pausing the quest in the meantime, place four diseased tokens in a bag to remind you and remove them after the journey begins.
6	The Adamant extracts with little difficulty.	No effect – the heroes have escaped further calamity... for now!
7	Kolgo Nugsson has scrounged some spare resources from the Adamant.	Lower the cost of the first empowerment the heroes purchase during the following Spend Realmstone step by 1, to a minimum of 1.
8	An apothecary that is being relocated within the city helps tend the heroes' wounds.	You can re-roll the result of the quest dice to determine survival for any heroes that are out of action in the following Determine Survival step. In addition, the leader searches the discovery deck for the 'Potion of Coagulated Vitality' treasure card and gives it to a hero. If there are no such treasure cards remaining in the discovery deck, there is no further effect.
9	The Adamant aims an opportunistic salvo at a large congregation of undead as it is leaving, and sets a swathe of the Wolf's territory aflame.	Shrink influence by 1 (to a minimum of 5).
10	The sight of the Adamant taking the fight to Radukar does wonders for the morale of the city.	Shrink fear by 1 (to a minimum of 5).
11	A grateful citizen of Ulfenkarn escapes on board the Adamant, and regales the heroes with tales of how their defiance of Radukar has inspired the populace.	Each hero starts the next journey with 1 inspiration point, instead of 0. If you are pausing the quest, place 4 inspiration point counters in a bag to remind you, and remove them after the journey begins.
12	The Adamant has picked up an opportunistic merchant willing to trade a few precious shards of realmstone – for a fair price, of course.	Each hero can discard any treasure cards they have. For each treasure card discarded in this way that hero gains a realmstone card of value 1, if there is one available – if there is not one available, there is no effect.

Determine Survival

If a hero is out of action, their player rolls the quest dice. Subtract 1 from the roll if the hero has an ailment. If the result is 1 or less, the hero has died from their wounds.

A dead hero is no longer available to use in future journeys. Place that hero's character card in a bag with a mortis card as a reminder of their fate. Their empowerment cards, treasure cards, realmstone cards, trait cards, and any tokens or counters they have are returned to the relevant deck or the game box. If five or more heroes die, the quest is over – the heroes have failed and the players must restart the quest.

Remove Tokens and Counters

Remove all ailment tokens, inspiration point counters, wound counters and grievous wound counters from each surviving hero. Each character card is also returned to its Path to Glory side. Note that heroes keep any treasure or empowerment cards they have.

Heroes can freely trade realmstone cards, treasure cards and carried items at this point.

Resolve Consequences

Resolve the consequences for the heroes' journey, as presented under its victory conditions. This will often result in fear and/or influence changing, which is recorded on the quest card. Note that some consequences apply regardless of whether the heroes were successful in their journey – while the heroes are dealing with one challenge, Radukar's minions will be enacting his will elsewhere.

Increasing a Hero's Level: Each hero starts the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest on level 0. As the heroes succeed in their journeys, they will gain experience, as explained in each journey's consequences. When a hero gains experience, their level may increase. When a hero's level increases, they gain powerful traits. These traits are permanent – they will remain until the quest is over, that hero dies, or the players decide to restart the quest, either for fun or because they failed that quest. Some expansions that follow will allow the heroes to keep the experience and levels they have gained – consult the quest book of that quest for full details.

Experience: Heroes gain experience each time they are successful in a journey. When a hero gains experience, give that hero a novice experience token. If a hero gains experience and they already have a novice experience token, replace it with a veteran experience token. If a hero with a veteran experience token gains experience, the token is discarded and that hero's level increases – give them the token for their new level, replacing any level token they already have.

Quick Learners: If a hero takes part in a successful journey with another hero of a higher level, the lower level hero gains experience twice in this step. For example, if a level 0 hero accompanied a level 1 hero on a journey in which they were successful, the level 0 hero would gain experience, and then gain experience again.

Traits: When a hero's level increases they permanently gain a powerful trait. The trait they gain is based on their level and their class. A hero's class is presented on their character card under their name; a description of each class can be found below.

To see which trait a hero gains, take the trait card for their class. There is a slot for this on their character card. The traits a hero gains at each level are presented on this card. Each time a hero's level increases, they keep all the traits gained at previous levels. For example, after a journey Emelda Braskov (a Blade) increases her level to 2. The Blade trait card shows that she gains the Strategist trait; she also retains the Quick Thinker trait from level 1.

Classes:

Stalwarts typify rugged endurance and belligerence, and are often doughty in the extreme. At higher levels they can absorb damage and become unstoppable juggernauts.

Blades are experts in all fields of battle and can stand toe to toe against all comers. As they reach higher levels they become excellent tacticians as well as better fighters.

Executioners are exceptionally mobile killers. As they reach higher levels they deal damage more reliably and can quickly evade retaliation.

Loremasters can slay and debilitate their enemies, or enhance and boost their allies' abilities. At higher levels they can even manipulate activation and destiny dice.

Spend Realmstone

After a journey the heroes may have some realmstone, represented by realmstone cards. The different values on the realmstone cards translate into realmstone points.

Empowerments: The Kharadron Overlords on the skyvessel can use realmstone to empower the heroes' equipment. If a hero has the requisite number of realmstone points, they can purchase an empowerment of their choice – each empowerment has a realmstone cost on its card. Take the appropriate empowerment card and place it beneath the relevant slot on their character card. There is one slot for armour and one slot for weapons. The empowerment is permanent and will remain until that hero dies, unless it is replaced with a different empowerment. A hero cannot have more than one empowerment per slot. If a second empowerment is purchased for that slot, then they must discard the previous one. A discarded empowerment can subsequently be purchased again.

Finally, each empowerment can be used by two heroes at most – you cannot have three or more heroes with the same empowerment. Note that empowerment cards cannot be exchanged once assigned to a hero.

A Team Effort: Players will often have to combine their resources to be able to purchase the most expensive empowerments. In particular, the best empowerments are only available after a Scavenge journey where the group has made a lot of effort to get hold of the most valuable stacks of realmstone!

The Price of Resistance: After the Spend Realmstone step, all remaining realmstone cards are discarded – these are given to the endrineer aboard the Adamant both as payment for their services and to keep the skyvessel repaired and afloat.

Pick a New Journey

When the players are ready to undertake the next journey in their quest, return to step 1 of Getting Ready to Play and follow the instructions there.

First Journey: If you have just finished your first journey, continue reading to discover the other types of journey you can undertake. Each of these is explained in the quest book (pages 19-27).

Pausing a Quest: If the players decide to undertake the next journey of a quest at a future date rather than immediately, each hero's character card and their empowerment cards, treasure cards, carried item, experience token and level token can be stored in one of the plastic bags provided.

In addition, place the quest card and the tokens and counters on it in a separate bag. During the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest, this allows you to return to the quest at a later date retaining the current fear and influence levels, and your progress through the quest itself – simply set up the quest card using the contents of this bag.

At the start of a journey, if a player picks a hero to take part in the journey whose character card is in a bag, they take all the cards and tokens out of the bag and set them up beside the hero's character card.

Additional rules for pausing a quest part-way through a Decapitation journey can be found on page 27 of the quest book.

Journey Types

There are four types of journey that you can pick from in Warhammer Quest: Cursed City – Hunt, Scavenge, Deliverance and Decapitation. Where the rules for a journey differ from those presented so far, they are noted below. Other rules specific to each journey (the combat maps, victory conditions, consequences and crises) are found in the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest book.

For example, the players are taking part in the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest. During the Pick a Journey step of Getting Ready to Play, they choose to go on a Deliverance journey. They use the rules below to set up the journey, and find the victory conditions, consequences and crises for that journey in the quest book.

Hunt Journeys

Other than the journey rules on page 19 of the quest book, no additional rules apply to Hunt journeys.

Scavenge Journeys

See the journey rules on pages 22-23 of the quest book for Scavenge journeys.

When deploying hostiles during the Prepare the Combat Map step, if there are more than four mysterious objects on the battlefield, deploy the hostile groups adjacent to the mysterious objects marked with a 1 symbol (beginning with the mysterious object nearest to the heroes).

Decapitation Journeys

Decapitation journeys represent unique missions the heroes must undertake during the quest, as they attempt to bring a permanent end to one of the greatest evils threatening the city.

Each Decapitation journey has special rules that also affect how the journey is played. The rules for Decapitation journeys are on page 27 of the quest book.

Deliverance Journeys

The victory conditions, consequences and crises for Deliverance journeys are on page 26 of the quest book.

Deliverance journeys represent desperate times when the heroes are rushing through city streets and buildings alike, sprinting to stay ahead of a fearsome endless spell – a Suffocating Gravetide – as it devours all before it.

Unlike Hunt and Scavenge journeys, where there is a static combat map that does not change, the leader will be drawing cards from the exploration deck to randomly determine what section of the city appears next. This means every Deliverance journey is different.

Set Up: To set up a Deliverance journey, follow the instructions for Getting Ready to Play (pg 16-20). When you set up the drop zone, place a closed gateway touching the drop zone instead of an open gateway.

When you reach the Prepare the Combat Map step (step 13), the leader will need to build an exploration deck.

Exploration Deck: To build the exploration deck, the leader takes the exploration cards and shuffles them face down. This exploration deck is then placed next to the skyvessel board.

Adding Board Tiles to the Battlefield: To begin a Deliverance journey, the leader adds two board tiles to the battlefield, one at a time, following the four steps on the following pages. Once both board tiles are added to the battlefield, the journey begins.

In subsequent turns, to reveal more board tiles, a hero must make an Explore (4+) action. They may only do this if they are in a space touching a closed gateway and have no adjacent hostiles. After making this action the leader adds two more board tiles to the battlefield, following the same four steps.

The Explore (4+) action is unique to Deliverance journeys and cannot be made in other journeys unless specified otherwise.

Step 1: Draw Exploration Card: The leader draws the top card of the exploration deck, and places it face up where everyone can see it.

When an exploration card is drawn it will show the players the following information: potential gateway locations; a lychgate; a mysterious object; a symbol showing the number of hostile groups present on this board tile; and a symbol used during certain journeys – the rules for the journey itself will explain what effect it has.

No More Cards: If there are no more exploration cards in the exploration deck when one must be drawn, the heroes have run into a dead end and must use the rules under Step 2: Set Up Board Tiles to add the extraction zone to the battlefield. If this is impossible, each hero is immediately taken out of action and the journey is a failure.

Step 2: Set Up Board Tiles: The leader takes the board tile shown on the exploration card and places it so that one of the gateway locations shown on the exploration card lines up with a closed gateway on the battlefield. Once this is done, flip the closed gateway over whilst keeping it in the same place so that it becomes an open gateway. There are some additional rules the leader must follow when placing a board tile:

• The board tile cannot be placed if any lychgate already on the battlefield would be touching it.
• The board tile must be placed so that any lychgates shown on the exploration card can be placed without touching any other board tile.

Next the leader places a closed gateway in the gateway location shown on the exploration card that is furthest from the gateway that has just become open. To determine which gateway location on the card is furthest, count the spaces from this open gateway, counting from one adjacent space to the next. Where there is a choice, the leader chooses in which gateway location the closed gateway is placed. Finally, add any lychgates and mysterious objects to the board tile as shown on the exploration card.

Step 3: Deploy Hostiles: The leader draws one encounter card for each hostile-group symbol on the exploration card and places that card in the earliest available empty space above the combat track. Hostile groups are determined using the rules under Draw Encounter Cards. If there is no more room for encounter cards on the combat track, no encounter card is drawn. Deploy each hostile group to the board tile in the order they were drawn using the following rules.

First the leader gathers the required hostiles from the available hostile models. If there are not enough available models, the No More Models rule applies.

If there is a mysterious object on the board tile with no adjacent hostiles, deploy as many hostiles as possible from the new hostile group in spaces adjacent to that mysterious object. Where possible, deploy small hostiles in the same space as one other small hostile from their group. Any remaining hostiles are deployed in spaces adjacent to a hostile that is itself adjacent to the mysterious object.

If there are two or more mysterious objects on the board tile, the first hostile group must be deployed adjacent to whichever of those mysterious objects is nearest to any hero.

If there is no mysterious object on the exploration card, use the rules above but replace all instances of 'mysterious object' with 'closed gateway'.

Driven Off: When a hostile group is driven off, the leader does not draw a new encounter card and place it above the combat track. During Deliverance journeys, fresh hostiles are added to the battlefield as the heroes add new board tiles, as explained above.

Step 4: New Hostile Group Initiative: When new hostile groups are deployed to the battlefield, you will need to add the corresponding initiative cards to the end of the combat track in the order the hostile groups were deployed. This means that they will be activated later on in this turn.