How to play
Together, you are the old wardens of the Vale: a kestrel, a heron, a badger, an old hedge and more. The Gloom, a cold living fog, gathers on the Rim and comes down the passes. You win or lose as one team.
A turn has five parts
- Wardens wake. All of you choose at the same time. Each warden makes a renewal: it spreads its wards, takes back its charms, gains a charm or gains vigour. Then it plays charms with its vigour and its calls.
- Quick charms. Each warden uses its quick charms and quick natures, one charm at a time.
- The Gloom moves. Broken nerves turn, then the weather line acts: Smother, then Thicken, then Drift. The weather cards then slide one space.
- Slow charms. Each warden uses its slow charms and slow natures.
- Dusk. The played charms are spent. The elements go, and the damage heals.
The weather and the wither
The weather line shows where the Gloom will drift, thicken and smother. A land that takes 2 damage or more in a smother withers. Wither spreads to a next land that already has wither. The folk of the land strike back.
Dread and the end
Drive the Gloom back and break it. Each fog bank or storm-head you destroy gives dread. Dread breaks its nerve. At each new dread level, the win gets easier. You win together when the Gloom is gone by the rule of the dread level. You lose together if the wither runs out, a warden has no ward left, or the weather deck runs out.
At the online table
- Tap first. A brass ring marks each land you may choose. Your hand, your panel, the Gloom and your team are one tap away. On a keyboard, a digit key picks the choice with that number. The arrow keys move over the lands. Space is the main action.
- Every warden's hand and charms are open to the team, because the chat is preset phrases only.
- At a private table, you choose the kind of Gloom and its level. You also choose a tale, the rough side of the dales, the Vale card and a gentler start. The page shows the difficulty.
- A bot takes each empty seat, and it always shows that it is a bot.
Why it is fair
A secret seed decides the dales, the decks and every shuffle. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check it. Verify a game.