Combat

• No piece can ever be landed on. Minions have 1 HP, Heroes 4.
• Adjacent = the 8 surrounding squares; range counts king-steps, and "within 2" means "range 2". Blocked = off board, Ruin, or occupied. A step is one king-step onto an unblocked square; steps never jump.
• LoS: a straight row, column, or diagonal, blocked by Ruins and pieces.
• Push moves a piece directly away from the attacker, pull directly toward it, as far as it can go. You may pull an already-adjacent piece; it has nowhere to go. A push or pull that moves its target 0 squares crushes it for 1 damage instead, which damage prevention stops as usual.
• Damage resolves before the push and stacks with a crush, so a 1-damage attack whose push is blocked deals 2. If the target dies, no push is made.
• Gamble attacks roll the Gamble d6.

The Relic

• A piece that ends an effect on the enemy Relic, or any dropped Relic, picks it up. That means wherever a piece comes to rest: a card move, an escort or lunge step, the end of a push or pull, a swap, a faction's step.
• A carrier keeps the Relic however it moves, may carry only one, never its own, and can still attack normally.
• Push or pull a carrier and it drops the Relic on the square it left, however far it travels. A carrier that is only crushed keeps it. A slain carrier drops the Relic where it died.
• You may stand a piece on a Relic to guard it.
• A carrier can be targeted ignoring Ruins for LoS, but bodies still block. Range and adjacency still apply.

Winning

Slay the enemy Hero, or Steal: end a turn in your own back row carrying the enemy Relic, however you got there.

The Vigil: Each full round with no HP lost and no Relic picked up or dropped lowers the die by 1; anything else resets it to 6. Any HP loss counts, including your own pieces'. At 0 the game ends. Each player scores +1 for a carrier in the enemy half, −1 for one in their own half. Higher score wins, then less Hero damage, then more Minions, then a draw.

Setup

1. Take a sigil, Key or Skull. The row nearest you is your back row; your half is every row on your side of the middle. On odd boards the centre row belongs to neither player.
2. Mark the Ruin squares: players alternate placing pairs (a square and its 180° rotation about the centre), Key first. Never a back row, never the exact centre.
3. Secretly pick a Faction card, reveal together, and both pick again if you matched. It gives your Faction Attack, and for some factions a Passive.
4. Deal 7 cards: 3 face-up to each player, 1 aside as the waiting card. Its stamp takes the first turn. Box the rest. Set the Vigil die to 6.
5. Draft Rites: second player first, each pick 1 of the 3 Rite cards. The last is set aside face-down, out of the game.
6. Deploy: first player first, alternate placing one piece at a time, into the rows nearest you; the table says how many. Hero last.
7. Place your Relic, first player first, on an empty square in your half. Not your back row, not a Ruin.

Your turn

Play 1 of your 3 cards in one mode, then set it aside as the new waiting card and take the old one. The card you played reaches your opponent next turn.

• MOVE (top): move one piece exactly as the diagram shows (top of diagram = toward your opponent). Pieces jump, but never end on an occupied square, a Ruin, or off the board. If the card bears the Escort mark, one other friendly piece (the Hero counts) may then step 1 square.
• ATTACK (bottom): choose an attacker and do what the card says: the Hero: line for your Hero, Minion: for a Minion. An adjacent attack lets the attacker step 1 square first (the lunge), and need only be legal from the square it steps to. Faction Attack means use the attack on your Faction card. You make no MOVE this turn.
• RALLY: forgo the card's move and attack. Return one of your slain Minions to any empty square in your back row. A Rally is quiet: it never resets the Vigil, though the returned Minion losing HP later resets it as usual.
• RITE: once per game, with any card: forgo its move and attack and do what your Rite card says instead. Every Rite sets the Vigil to 6. The played Rite is discarded, out of the game.

If any card offers a legal play you must make one, and an ATTACK or a RITE is legal only if its effect can be carried out in full. If nothing is legal, pass any card and take the waiting one. Neither player may ATTACK on their own first turn.