able-bodied men to push back the creeping edges of the map ......T he wild lands are growing restless. The king has called upon all able-bodied men to push back the creeping edges

The wild lands are growing restless. The king has called upon all able-bodied men to push back the creeping edges of the map.

As the leader of a fledgling adventurer’s guild, you are tasked with gathering resources, forging weapons and slaying epic monsters of the wilderness to earn riches and prestige with the king.

Players will spend rounds gathering metals and precious gems from the mines, which they will then use with designs purchased at the market to forge powerful weapons. These weapons will be wielded by a player’s personal pool of adventurers to complete quests, which earn prestige points, as well as more money and resources which can be invested back into the player’s expanding guild.

There are 2 main modes of play: the normal game, which consists of 7 rounds; and the epic game, which consists of 3 stages with 6 rounds each. There are 3 phases in a round (mine, market and quest). The game accommodates 1-4 players.

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37 double-sided interlocking mine pieces:

Stage I central hex grids (1 dot on corner mine)

Stage I hex borders (1 dot on center mine)

Stage II central hex grids (2 dots on corner mine)

Stage II hex borders (2 dots on center mine)

Stage III central hex grids (3 dots on corner mine)

Stage III hex borders (3 dots on center mine)

1 central hex tile

180 resources:

Copper ingots (orange) Iron ingots (black) Mithril ingots (blue)Game board

Emeralds (green) Rubies (red) Diamonds (white) Rule book

Quest tracker cubes Player mats (2-sided, normal / epic game)

Adventurer tiles Champion title & level tokens

Gold coins (value 5)

Game component amounts are not meant to limit gameplay. If you run out of something, use a suitable replacement.

COMPONENTS

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Market cards

82 quest cards:

Green stage I quests (including 2 removed for the normal game)

Purple stage I quests (normal game)

Grey stage II quests (epic game)

Purple stage II quests (variant)

Red stage III quests (epic game)

Purple stage III quests (epic game)

8 starting player cards:

“Copper Sword” designs “Copper Dagger” designs

Axe ( ) tokens Spear ( ) tokens Mace ( ) tokens

“+1” weapon power “Started Quest” tokens Bonus tiles “100/200 prestige” tokens

Round tracker

Silver coins (value 1)Gold coins (value 5) Overseers (3 per player color) Disk markers (5 per player color)

Worker pickaxes (10 per player color)

Claim cubes (7 per player color)

Starting wealth cards (16 normal, 16 variant)

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1 PLAYER ELEMENTS (p.6) PLACE DISK MARKERS (p.6)

PLACE ROUND TRACKER (p.6)

1 player mat of their color, correct side up (p.17).

1 of each of the 2 starting weapon designs

3 adventurer tiles with level 1 tokens

(4 adventurer tiles in epic game)

Epic game only: A set of 20 champion title tokens

3 overseer meeples of their color, set to the side

10 worker pickaxes of their color, set to the side

5 disk markers of their color, set to the side

7 claim cubes of their color, set to the side

5 quest tracker cubes

4 randomized stage 1 starting wealth cards

Players place one of the disk markers of their color on the 0 spot of the scoring track.

Randomly determine player order and place 1 disk marker of each player color in the corresponding spot.

Place 2 others on the merchant to keep track of buys and sells (p.17).

Place the round tracking cylinder on stage 1, round 1 of the round track.

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PREPARE THE QUEST DECK (p.7)BONUS TILES (OPTIONAL) (p.6)

STOCK THE MARKET (p.7)

STARTING WEALTH (p.8)

PLACE OVERSEERS (p.8)

STOCK THE SUPPLY (p.8)

BUILD THE MINE (p.8)

FILL THE QUEST OFFER (p.7)

In separate decks, shuffle the 18 green stage 1 quests and the 9 purple stage 1 quests. Place both decks on the quest draw space with the green deck on top.

Epic game only: Shuffle the 15 bonus tiles and randomly place one tile face-up on top of the rounds 4 and 5 of stage 1, place two tiles face-up covering rounds 1 and 2 and rounds 4 and 5 of stage 2 and do the same for stage 3. Note that bonus tiles are optional and should only be used by experienced players and only in the epic game. In addition, if bonus tiles are being used, players should start with one fewer adventurer (3 total).

Separate and place the weapon, bonus, and single-use market cards, revealing the top card of each stack (p.9). Place the 4 public starting weapon designs

All players select 2 of their 4 starting wealth cards and collect the bonuses on those 2 tiles.

In player order, take turns placing one overseer meeple on any available unoccupied hex of the mine until all 3 overseers for each player are placed.

Take all of the resources separated by color, as well as the extra adventurer tiles, level markers and coin tokens and place them to the sides of the board.

Randomly pick a side of each of the 6 stage 1 central hex grids and assemble them together with the single central hex to form a 4-length hexagonal array of hexes. Then, based on number of players, surround this assembly with a ring of 6 stage 1 hex borders alternating in length so that they lock together.

Draw 8 stage 1 quest cards off the top of the deck, placing the first 5 in top row of the quest offer and the next 3 in second row.

Epic game only: Don’t remove the quests from the green deck. Instead of including the purple stage 1 quests, include the grey stage 2, red stage 3 and purple stage 3 quests shuffled separately and stacked in the order of green, grey, red and purple.

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1 Players should collect the following in front of them:

• 1 of each of the 2 starting weapon designs

• 3 adventurer tiles with level 1 tokens

(4 adventurer tiles in epic game)

• Epic game only: A set of 20 champion title tokens

• 3 overseer meeples of their color, set to the side

• 10 worker pickaxes of their color, set to the side

• 5 disk markers of their color, set to the side

• 7 claim cubes of their color, set to the side

• 5 quest tracker cubes

• 4 randomized stage 1 starting wealth cards

• 1 player mat of their color, correct side up.

Players should place one of the disk markers of their color on the 0 spot of the scoring track.

Randomly determine player order and place 1 disk marker of each player color in the corresponding spot.

Place the round tracking cylinder on stage 1, round 1 of the round track.

SETUP

Setup and mechanics will be described for playing the normal game.

Extra mechanics for the epic game will be clearly marked as such.

Epic game only (optional): Shuffle the 15 bonus tiles and randomly place one tile face-up on top of the rounds 4 and 5 of stage 1, place two tiles face-up covering rounds 1 and 2 and rounds 4 and 5 of stage 2 and do the same for stage 3. Note that bonus tiles are optional and should only be used by experienced players and only in the epic game. In addition, if bonus tiles are being used, players should start with one fewer adventurer (3 total).

NORMAL GAME

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Find the 20 green stage 1 quest cards and remove the 2 quests marked with a (“Investigate the Kidnappings” and “The Cursed Keep”). Find the 9 purple stage 1 quest cards (different from the stage 3 purple quest cards). Shuffle both of these decks separately and then place both decks on the quest draw space with the green deck on top.

Epic game only: Don’t remove the quests from the green deck. Instead of including the purple stage 1 quests, include the grey stage 2, red stage 3 and purple stage 3 quests shuffled separately and stacked in the order of green, grey, red and purple.

Find the green stage 1 market cards and separate them by type (denoted on back) and shuffle each stack. Place the weapon deck on the weapon space. Separate the bonus deck into two equal stacks (six cards each) and place them on the two bonus spaces, then do the same for the single-use cards. In addition, place the 4 public starting weapon designs (copper spear, copper mace, copper axe and iron sword) in a row below the market section of the game board.

Draw 8 stage 1 quest cards off the top of the deck, placing the first 5 in top row of the quest offer and the next 3 in second row.

QUEST DRAW DECK

Starting Cards QUEST CARDS

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STARTING WEALTH CARDS MARKET CARDS

Bonus Single-UseWeapon

Stage I cards

Stage II cards

Stage III cards

End Game cards

The cards have different backs to ease organization and sorting. The backs are color-coded for each stage of the game and have icons and text identifying the card use.

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Going in player order, players take turns placing one of their overseer meeples on any available unoccupied hex of the mine until all 3 overseers for each player are placed.

At this point, all players should select 2 of their 4 starting wealth cards and collect the bonuses on those 2 tiles. Players place all resources, tokens and adventurers in front of them. This is their pool.

Randomly pick a side of each of the 6 stage 1 central hex grids and assemble them together with the single central hex to form a 4-length hexagonal array of hexes. Then surround this assembly with a ring of 6 stage 1 hex borders alternating in length so that they lock together. In a 4-player game, these border tiles should all be hex-side up. With 3 players, 3 contiguous border tiles (2 long and 1 short) should all be flipped to hex-side down. In a 2-player game, all border tiles should be flipped to hex-side down.

Take all of the resources separated by color, as well as the extra adventurer tiles, level markers and coin tokens and place them to the side of the board. This is the supply.

ICONS

Copper

Iron

Mithril

Emerald

Ruby

Diamond

Mace

Spear

Axe

Gold Coin

Green Coin

Prestige Points

Overseer movement

Worker movement

Quest

Quest Card

Market Card

Discard after useLevel adventurer up

Adventurer

Power

While two level-up bonuses can be used on a single adventurer, the maximum starting level for an adventurer is 3.

Possible wealth:

Coins Copper, iron and emeraldresources

Level 1adventurer

Level up 1adventurer

Place a claim token on the specified public design

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