altarofdespair_rules.pdf

Blood Ape

Found in the densest jungles in the most forgotten cor-

ners of the world, blood apes can be differentiated from

their gentler cousins by their savage disposition, extraor-

dinary leaping ability, and their taste for human flesh.

The most fearsome blood apes are called

“Crimsonbacks,” due to the red stripe of fur that grows

down their backs. Crimsonbacks fly into a savage fury

when wounded, so it is best to defeat them quickly when

confronted by them.

Troll

A relative of ogres, trolls are brutish creatures possessing

incredible strength and size. Unlike their cousins, howev-

er, trolls are extremely clumsy, having difficulty control-

ling their vast power. Even a single blow from a troll can

be lethal, on the other hand, so wise adventurers are

always cautious around them. The strongest trolls can

take down several adventurers at a time, and often have

elaborate tattoos on their arms.

Chaos Beast

Horrible creatures that were old before mankind ever

existed, chaos beasts slumber in isolated temples and

caverns. Once awakened for combat, they can change

their shape and attacks in an instant to deal with any situ-

ation. As with the dark priests, anyone who defeats one

of the more powerful chaos beasts is sure to be stricken

with a powerful curse.

Dark Priest

Some priests offer their prayers to alien creatures best left

forgotten. This ill-advised worship twists their minds in

odd ways. Overlords find these warped men useful due to

the unnatural powers they can channel. The dark priests

most favored by their strange gods have powerful protec-

tions, and defeating one of them is sure to bring down a

terrible curse upon the victor.

Deep Elf

Far beneath the earth lives a society of elves that have

turned their backs on their fellows. They have become

an elite order of assassins, hiring their knives and their

skills out to the highest bidder. The best assassins are

given ice daggers that cover their victims in a thin sheet

of frost, making their weapons and armor extremely

brittle.

The Altar of Despair

28 Effect Tokens

14 Curse Tokens

14 Frost Tokens

18 Treasure Markers

9 Invulnerability Potion Markers

9 Money Tokens

15 Progress Tokens

4 Prolonged Action Hero Order Tokens

7 Miscellaneous Markers

1 Sharr the Brightwing Marker

1 Shadow Soul Marker

1 Bottle Imp Marker

1 Eyes of Thara Marker

3 Monkey Markers

New Props

The new props included with this expansion are listed

below.

Thank you for purchasing this expansion to Descent:

Journeys in the Dark. This expansion includes new

game components, new rules, and new quests.

Fog

Fog blocks line of sight, but not

movement.

Using This Book

This rulebook contains new rules for use in Descent:

Journeys in the Dark. These include changes to or clari-

fications of the original Descent: Journeys in the Dark

rules, entirely new rules for the expansion, and answers to

frequently asked questions about the game. While this

expansion is designed to be used in its entirety, it is possi-

ble to play using only some of the new elements, such as

the new heroes, new monsters, or new overlord cards.

Corrupted

If heroes on corrupted terrain are wound-

ed or spend fatigue, the overlord gains

threat.

All cards from The Altar of Despair expan-

sion are marked with a small altar symbol on

their fronts, to allow you to separate them from your

Descent: Journeys in the Dark cards.

Dark Glyphs

Dark glyphs have been corrupted by the Overlord and

have some negative effect each time the heroes use

them. There are three different types of dark glyph, and

they must be purchased with treachery at the start of the

game.

The Quest Guide section of this rulebook begins on

page 12.

Components

The Replacement “Leadership” Card

One “Leadership” replacement card for Descent:

Journeys in the Dark has been included in this expan-

sion. This card was changed to better work with the new

prolonged action rules. To use it, simply remove the old

card from your Descent: Journeys in the Dark game

and replace it with this revised card.

This Rulebook (the second half of which is a Quest Guide)

6 Hero Sheets

6 Plastic Heroes

21 Plastic Monsters

6 Plastic Blood Apes

6 Plastic Dark Priests

3 Plastic Deep Elves

3 Plastic Trolls

3 Plastic Chaos Beasts

110 Cards

10 Monster Reference Cards

49 Overlord Cards

4 Subterfuge Skill Cards

4 Fighting Skill Cards

4 Wizardry Skill Cards

5 Town Store Cards

12 Copper Treasure Cards

10 Silver Treasure Cards

6 Gold Treasure Cards

5 Dark Relic Cards

1 Replacement Descent: Journeys in the Dark Card

8 Map Pieces

2 Corrupted Room Pieces

2 Corrupted Corridor Pieces

1 Corrupted Intersection Piece

3 Corrupted Dead End Pieces

48 Prop Markers

30 Obstacle Markers

2 Glyph Markers

6 Dark Glyph Markers

6 Altar Markers

1 Large Pit Marker

2 Encounter Markers

3 Crushing Wall Markers

4 Crushing Wall Plastic Stands

Glyph of

Summoning

Component Overview

Below are summary descriptions of the various compo-

nents included in The Altar of Despair. They should

help you identify the components and introduce you to

how they are used.

Altars

Altars are places for the heroes and monsters to interact

with their gods, calling down great and powerful forces

to aid themselves or hinder their foes. One side of the

altar marker shows a good altar, while the other side

shows an evil altar. The Quest Guide will specify which

type of altar to use.

New Heroes

These new heroes can be easily incorporated into

Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Simply shuffle the new

heroes in with the others when choosing heroes at the

start of the game.

New Monsters

The new monsters in this expansion appear in the new

quests in this rulebook. Additionally, the overlord can

spawn them in any of the quests from Descent:

Journeys in the Dark through the use of the spawn

cards included with this expansion. The overlord may

use all of the monsters from this expansion in addition

to all of the monsters from the base game.

Altar of Evil

Crushing Walls

Crushing walls stand vertically on plastic stands, like

doors. Once triggered in a quest, these walls slowly

move together, crushing anyone caught between them.

New Map Pieces

The extra map pieces provided allow the boards for the

new quests to be constructed. The new pieces are all

corrupted terrain (see page 7).

New Effect Tokens

New Cards

This expansion includes new cards for the skill, shop,

and treasure decks. These cards can simply be shuffled

in with their respective decks before the game begins.

However, some of the new treasure cards have the

Cursed trait. These are referred to as cursed items and

are described in detail on page 7.

Expansion Rules

This section contains rules for the new game elements

included with this expansion.

Curse

Frost

Treachery

With this expansion, the overlord player has the ability

to customize the overlord deck from the base game

using treachery.

These tokens are used to track two new lingering effects

– Curse and Frost. See page 8 for further details.

Dark Relic Cards

Dark relics are terrifying items

that the overlord can sneak in

among the treasure that the

heroes find. They are triggered

by the “Dark Relic” trap card.

See page 7 for further details.

New Order Tokens and

Progress Markers

Most of the new overlord cards have a hexagonal, col-

ored gem between the gems for their threat value and

their threat cost – this is their treachery cost. At the

start of each quest, before the game begins (step 6B), the

overlord receives a certain amount of treachery with

which he can customize his base overlord deck.

New Overlord Cards

Six of the new overlord cards are intended to be added

to the overlord deck (1 copy each of “Danger,” “Dark

Balm,” “Crushing Block,” “Paralyzing Gas,” “Blood

Ape Tribe,” and “Black Order”). The other overlord

cards have a colored gem between their threat cost and

threat value. This gem contains the card’s treachery

cost. Treachery is explained on pages 4-5.

Prolonged

Order

Token

Progress

Marker

The overlord’s base deck consists of all his cards that have

no treachery gem: This includes all the cards from the

original Descent: Journeys in the Dark, as well as 1

copy each of “Danger,” “Dark Balm,” “Crushing

Block,” “Paralyzing Gas,” “Blood Ape Tribe,” and

“Black Order,” which are new to this expansion.

These tokens and markers are used for making pro-

longed actions (see page 6).

New Treasure Markers

New Monster Reference Cards

The new monster reference cards provide the game rules

and statistics for the new monsters featured in this

expansion. See New Special Abilities on pages 8-9 for a

full description of each new ability listed on these cards.

When customizing his deck, the overlord player swaps

out cards from his base deck for cards that have a

treachery cost. Each quest states how much treachery the

overlord receives when playing that quest. This informa-

tion is found above the chest contents chart for that

quest. (Treachery for quests from Descent: Journeys in

the Dark can be found in the “Treachery for the

Original Quests” sidebar.)

Invulnerability

Potion

Treachery comes in three types: Events (green), Traps

(purple), and Monsters (red). Power cards are paid for

with event, trap, or monster treachery as well, depending

on the color of their treachery gem. In order for the

overlord to add a card that has a treachery cost to his

deck, he simply spends the listed amount of treachery

(making sure to spend the proper type), then he adds the

card to his overlord deck, removing any one other card

of his choice from the deck. The overlord may swap out

as many cards from the overlord deck as he wants in this

manner as long as he has enough treachery to pay for

them all.

These markers represent the new invulnerability potions

(see page 8) introduced in this expansion.

New Miscellaneous Markers

Sharr

the Brightwing

Shadow Soul

The Bottle Imp

The Eyes of

Thara

The Sharr the Brightwing and Shadow Soul markers

represent new familiars available to heroes with the

proper Wizardry or Subterfuge skill, respectively. The

Bottle Imp, on the other hand, is a familiar available to

a hero with the proper silver treasure card. The Eyes of

Thara marker is used by the “Eyes of Thara” silver

treasure card. This expansion also includes extra mon-

key tokens so that there are now enough for the entire

party to be transformed at once.

Example: Evan, the overlord for this game, receives 2

event treachery, 6 trap treachery, and 2 monster treach-

ery at the start of a quest. He finds this information by

looking on the quest map, above the chest contents

chart. He decides that he wants to add “Dance of the

Monkey God” (3 trap treachery), “Dark Power” (1

event treachery), and “Time Slips Away” (1 Event

treachery) to his deck. This leaves him with 0 event

treachery, 3 trap treachery, and 2 monster treachery,

which he chooses not to spend. He then adds the 3 cards

he has chosen to his overlord deck and chooses 3 other

cards to remove from it (in this case, an “Aim,” a “Gust

of Wind,” and a “Hordes of the Things” card).

The specific effects of each glyph are listed below:

The Treachery Gem

Summoning (Red): When this glyph is

activated, as well as each time a hero

uses it to move to or from town, the over-

lord may spawn 2 monsters (any combi-

nation of beastmen, skeletons, bane spi-

ders, razorwings, hellhounds, and/or sor-

cerers), following the normal spawning rules. Otherwise,

this glyph functions as a normal glyph.

Sundered (Green): This glyph only pro-

vides 1 conquest token when activated,

and cannot be used to move to or from

town like a normal glyph.

The treachery gem on the new overlord cards

may be either green (for Events), purple (for

Traps), or red (for Monsters). The number in the

hexagon indicates the card’s treachery cost.

Power (Purple): When this glyph is acti-

vated, as well as each time a hero uses it

to move to or from town, the overlord

may draw two cards and look at them. He

then keeps one and discards the other for

threat. Otherwise, this glyph functions as

a normal glyph.

Dark Glyphs

In addition to spending treachery on customizing his

overlord deck, the overlord can also purchase dark

glyphs. These glyphs have been corrupted by the over-

lord and typically have an unpleasant side effect for the

heroes when used or activated. Each dark glyph costs 2

treachery of the appropriate color (see below). At the

start of the game, if the overlord purchases any dark

glyphs, he mixes them in with the normal glyph mark-

ers, turning all the glyphs so that their red (unactivated)

side is faceup.

When a new glyph is placed on the map (usually as the

result of a new area being revealed), the overlord choos-

es the glyph from his pool of glyphs. He is allowed to

look at their facedown sides to select exactly the glyph

he wants.

The Ready Action (Revised)

The Ready action has been slightly redefined for clarity

and to better interact with prolonged actions, which are

explained below. Now, when a hero readies, he receives

two different half actions, one of which must be an

order half action. The two actions can be taken in any

order.

Unspent Treachery

For every 2 points of leftover treachery (of any type),

the overlord draws 1 extra overlord card to start the

game, up to a maximum of 8 cards.

Example: Evan has 3 total points of unspent treachery

left. He draws 1 extra overlord card to start the game

(giving him 4 cards total), and the final point of treach-

ery is wasted.

Example: Evan has 3 unspent trap treachery and 2

unspent monster treachery, for a total of 5 unspent

treachery points. He decides to purchase 1 dark glyph of

the Sundered (green) type.

The different half actions are:

Move: The hero may move up to a number of spaces

equal to his speed. The hero may interrupt his movement

with his other half action and then continue moving as

desired.

Resetting the Overlord Deck

At the end of the game, the overlord deck is restored to

its original condition, removing all cards that have

treachery costs from it and returning the original cards

to it.

Note: Glyphs that are activated at the start of the quest

may not be dark glyphs.

Attack: The hero may make one attack.

Treachery for the Original Quests

The overlord should receive the treachery listed

below when playing the nine quests from Descent:

Journeys in the Dark.

Order: The hero may place one hero order token faceup

next to his figure. If the order is a prolonged action

order (see below), the hero may also roll power dice.

Concentrate: A hero with a prolonged order token on

him may take a concentrate half action to roll power

dice, as described under “Prolonged Actions.” He may

spend fatigue to bring this roll up to a maximum of 5

power dice, as normal. This gives the possibility of mak-

ing two rolls a turn to work on a prolonged action as

long as the hero does nothing else.

Event Trap Monster

(green) (purple) (red)

Into the Dark

The Brothers Durnog

Problems of Life and Death 3

Spoiled Brat

Last Wishes

Stunned Heroes and Half Actions

A stunned hero now effectively receives one half action

instead of his normal action, so he could choose to con-

centrate instead of moving, attacking, or placing an

order.

The Eternal Guardian

The Black Blade

The Trapped Ruins

Old Friends

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