Welcome to the Game Rules for Cthulhu: Death May Die!

Hey there! I’m here to guide you through the thrilling world of Cthulhu: Death May Die. Get ready to dive into a world of madness and horror as we explore this exciting game.

Now, let’s jump right in and take a look at how to play!

Game Setup

First, let’s set up the game. Find a table with enough space to lay out the game board. Place the game board in the center of the table and shuffle the Mystery cards. Choose one Mystery card and place it face-up on the game board. This will determine your objective for the game.

Next, shuffle the Discovery cards and place them face-down next to the game board. Place the Doom track tokens, Sanity tokens, and Health tokens within reach of all players. Lastly, choose Investigators, gather their Investigator cards, miniatures, and the Cold Storage Investigator token.

Game Flow

The game is played over a series of rounds, which are divided into three phases – Mythos, Investigator, and Shoggoth. Let’s go through each phase:

Mythos Phase

In this phase, the Mythos cards dictate what horrors befall you. Draw a Mythos card, resolve its effects, and move the Doom track accordingly. These cards can unleash all sorts of monsters, events, and other chaos, so beware!

Investigator Phase

During the Investigator phase, each Investigator takes turns to perform actions. You’ll have two actions available, such as moving, searching, attacking, or using special abilities. Use these actions wisely to gather clues, defeat monsters, and stay alive!

Shoggoth Phase

In the Shoggoth phase, the ancient and horrifying Shoggoth rises to challenge the Investigators. Its actions are determined by the Shoggoth card, so be prepared for a deadly encounter with this monstrous entity.

Victory or Defeat

Your goal in Cthulhu: Death May Die is to solve the Mystery card before it’s too late. Work together with your fellow Investigators to gather clues, defeat monsters, and face the final battle against the Ancient One. If you succeed, you win the game! However, if you fail to solve the Mystery card or all Investigators are eliminated, you all face defeat at the hands of the supernatural forces.

So, are you ready to face the horrors that await you in Cthulhu: Death May Die? Gather your courage and wits, trust in your fellow Investigators, and embark on a thrilling journey into the unknown. Good luck!

• The game includes 17 double-sided tiles
• There are 12 Insanity Cards
• 5 Bonus Dice are provided
• A Story Board is included
• There are 5 Colored Bases
• 30 Tentacle Markers are provided
• 3 Standard Dice are included
• A Starting Space Token is provided
• There are 26 Wounds Tokens
• 3 Gate Tokens are included
• There is a Progression Token
• 2 Staircase Tokens are provided
• 2 Tunnel Tokens are included
• There are 6 Level 1 Skill Tokens
• 8 Fire Tokens are provided
• 2 Elder One Boxes included
• 6 Episode boxes are provided
• There are 10 Investigators and their Boards
• There are 10 Cultists
• 18 Monsters are included
• A Rulebook is provided

Here’s What You Get in the Box:

An Introduction to the Game

1. First, gather all the necessary materials: the Story Board, tokens, and dice.
2. Next, select an Elder One. Find the Elder One figure in its box and place it on the starting space of the summoning track. Don’t forget to place the Minions reference card on the Story Board. Arrange the 8 Mythos cards and any tokens nearby. Finally, place the Elder One Stage cards faceup on the Story Board, in order with Stage 1 on top.
3. Now, choose an episode. Open its box and take out the 8 Mythos cards, 15 Discovery cards, Episode card, and tokens. Set the Monsters reference cards on the Story Board.
4. Finally, gather all the enemy figures shown on the reference cards. Leave out any other monsters that won’t be used in this game.

To begin, follow the instructions on the back of the episode card to set up the map board. This includes arranging the map tiles and placing enemy figures and tokens on the designated spaces. Then, flip over the episode card and place it on the Story board.

Next, shuffle the 16 Mythos cards together and place them facedown.

After that, shuffle the episode Discovery deck and place it facedown.

Now, each player needs to choose an investigator board and its figure. Attach a colored base to the figure to help you remember which one is yours. Place the figures on the starting space for the episode. If you’re playing alone, choose 2 investigators to control and take turns with them.

When setting up the game, follow these steps:

1. Firstly, place 6 markers of your color on your investigator board. Put 3 of them on the first level of your investigator’s skills, and the remaining 3 in the leftmost space of the wound, stress, and sanity tracks.

2. Next, shuffle the insanity cards and give each player 1 card. Put away the rest of the cards. Each player should place their card face-up near their investigator boards.

3. After that, randomly determine the starting player. The starting player takes the Mythos deck and will take the first turn.

Now you’re ready to begin playing!

Dice and Checks

Let’s talk about a couple of important concepts in games and role-playing: dice and checks. These two elements are vital in determining success or failure in various situations.

First, let’s discuss dice. These little tools come in various shapes and sizes. Some have four sides, some have six, some even have ten or more! Each side of a dice has a number, and these numbers are used to determine outcomes in the game. When it’s time to make a decision or take an action, you roll the dice and the number that lands face-up will determine what happens next. It can feel quite mysterious sometimes, not knowing what fate has in store for you.

Now, let’s move on to checks. A check is a way to measure how successful you are at a certain task. It can be anything from picking a lock to persuading someone to change their mind. Checks usually involve rolling the dice and adding a modifier to the result. The modifier represents your character’s skills, strengths, and other factors that could influence the outcome. The higher the number, the better your chances of success. It’s like stacking the odds in your favor, giving you a glimmer of hope that your efforts will pay off.

But, as with most things in life, there’s always a chance of failure. No matter how skilled or lucky you are, there’s always that possibility that the dice will land on an unfavorable number. It can be frustrating and discouraging, but it’s also what makes the game exciting. Without that element of risk, success wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding. So, while failure can be disheartening, it’s also an opportunity for growth and learning.

Dice and checks are the lifeblood of games and role-playing, adding excitement and unpredictability to the experience. They provide a sense of wonder and possibility, taking you on an unpredictable journey where anything can happen. So, next time you roll the dice or make a check, remember that success and failure are two sides of the same coin. And embrace the uncertainty, for it’s what makes the game truly captivating.

When you play the game, there are some cards that tell you to “make a roll.” What this means is that you will need to roll 3 standard black dice. Sometimes, you might also be allowed to roll some bonus green dice.

Enemies in the game also roll dice for their attacks. The number and type of dice they roll is specified on their reference cards.

Each die has 4 possible outcomes:

• Success: This means that you or the enemy succeeded in what they were trying to do, although it may not have been a complete success. For example, if you were attacking, it means you hit the enemy. If an enemy is attacking, it means they hit you. Sometimes, you will need to roll a certain number of successes in a single roll. Maybe you need at least 2 successes to loot a body.
• 
  What’s an Elder Sign? You might be wondering what these symbols actually do. Well, the answer is simple – nothing! They only come into play when you have a skill or card that requires them.
• 
  The Dreaded Tentacle: Brace yourself for madness! Each time you encounter one of these tentacles, you lose 1 sanity point. This causes your sanity tracker to move one space to the right, closer to the edge of sanity.

A Crucial Point to Remember: Every time you roll the dice, whether you’re attacking, defending, or simply making a roll, any tentacles that appear will cost you precious sanity. So beware!

Blank: When I roll a blank, it usually doesn’t make a difference.

Extra Dice

When it comes to playing the game, there are certain skills and cards that can give you extra green dice. These bonus dice are mentioned in the descriptions of those skills and cards. In addition, some checks may also give you bonus dice if you have a related ability. And here’s an interesting fact – when you reach certain Insanity Thresholds, you’ll permanently gain bonus dice for all your rolls.

Here’s the cool thing: there’s no limit to how many bonus dice you can add to a roll. So, if you ever run out of dice, just make a note of the results and roll the same dice again.

One important thing to remember: the bonus dice don’t have a tentacle icon. So, keep an eye out for that.

Rerolls

Once I roll dice, I can choose to reroll one of them, even if I don’t like the result. But it comes at a cost – I have to take one stress. This means that I’m putting extra pressure on myself by rerolling, which can be a bit risky.

I have the freedom to do this as many times as I want, on any roll I make, until I reach my maximum stress level. So I can keep rerolling until I’m feeling overwhelmed and can’t handle any more stress.

When it’s the enemies’ turn to attack me, I can also roll their dice. And just like with my own rolls, I have the option to spend stress and reroll their dice if I’m not happy with the result. I have to decide if it’s worth taking on extra stress to potentially improve their outcome.

How Does It Apply?

So, once I’m all out of rerolls, I need to figure out how many of each result I got. It’s important to remember that some of the faces on the die can give me two different results. And, of course, I have to keep in mind any symbol changes from my abilities that might affect the count.

Next, I’ll Take Any Successes:

When I’m attacking, any successes I have are wounds that I apply to my target. The same goes for when an enemy is attacking me – their successes are wounds they apply to me. If I’m instructed to “make a roll” during an action, I need to get at least the number of successes specified on the card to succeed. This episode gives me the chance to perform a special action. If I’m on a space with a Cultist body, I can make a roll. If I get 2 or more successes, I successfully loot the Cultist body.

Here’s what happens next:

Deal with any Tentacles:

When you roll a tentacle, it means you have to lose 1 sanity. This will move your sanity marker one space to the right on your sanity track. If you reach a space on your sanity track, even if you didn’t lose the full amount of sanity, you stop moving the marker. This is when your insanity is activated and you level up a skill.

Game Play

1. Take 3 Actions
2. Draw Mythos Card
3. Investigate Or Fight!
4. Resolve End Of Turn

1. Take 3 Actions

On your turn, you have the opportunity to take 3 actions. You can repeat the same action more than once if you wish. Each episode offers 4 actions that are available to everyone, as well as 2 unique actions specific to that episode.

However, it’s important to note that certain actions can only be performed when you are on a Safe space. A Safe space is a space that is free from enemies.

Run

You know what? Let’s shake things up a little. Here’s the deal: I can move up to 3 spaces. It’s kind of like stepping through doorways. But here’s the catch – I can only move if there’s a path on both sides, indicated by arrows. Oh, and get this, I can even pass between 2 spaces that both have a staircase or tunnel token.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. Brace yourself. When I leave a space with enemies, guess what? They all come with me to my new space. Yep, you heard that right. It doesn’t matter if there were other investigators with me. Those enemies are sticking to me like glue.

But wait, there’s more! When I leave a space with Fire tokens, things can get a little heated. For every token on that space, I take one Fire token and place it on my investigator board. And those Fire tokens? Well, they stay right where they are, untouched.

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine this, Ian, this brave investigator, decides to use a Run action. He takes a leap and moves up to 3 spaces. His first stop? A space with a Cultist. Exciting, huh?

I am constantly on the move, and the Cultist is right behind me, incessantly chasing me as I find a new hiding spot. It’s like a game of hide-and-seek that never ends. I enter the next space, and to my surprise, there are two Fire tokens waiting for me. The enemies are nowhere to be seen this time, though. I feel a sense of relief, but the challenge is far from over.

So here’s what happened. I was wrapping up my Run when I entered this third space, right? And guess what? There was a Fire Vampire waiting for me. And wouldn’t you know it, that pesky Cultist followed me too. What a party!

Anyway, the kicker is that this space had not one, but two Fire tokens. So I grabbed both of them from the reserve and added them to my investigator board. Just what I needed – extra Fire in my life, you know?

Attack

When you want to defeat an enemy in your space, you can perform an attack. First, roll the dice. Each success you roll will inflict 1 wound on your target. Place wound tokens next to the figure you attacked to keep track.

If the total number of wounds equals or exceeds the enemy’s health, you successfully kill them. This means you can remove their figure from the game board. Just remember, if the Elder One is present, you can only attack it once you’ve disrupted the ritual.

Let’s look at an example: imagine I’m playing as Ian. I decide to use my action to attack a Cultist and a Fire Vampire. Normally, I would have to choose one enemy to target. But because I have a level 2 Brawling skill, I can target all enemies in my space at once. Pretty cool, right?

When I want to “make a roll” in a game, I grab three regular dice and an extra die for my Brawling skill. It’s important to remember that I always use three standard dice and one bonus die for Brawling.

When I roll the dice, I find a mixture of results – a blank, a success, a success along with a tentacle, and even an elder sign. But what do these symbols mean exactly? Well, let me break it down for you.

First off, the elder sign doesn’t do anything for me because I don’t have a skill that utilizes it. So, it’s like it doesn’t exist to me.

However, the blank result is not what I’m looking for. I decide to use a stress point to reroll it, hoping for a better outcome. And lo and behold, I get another success! Sometimes, taking a risk pays off.

But I still have one more stress point left, so I figure why not take my chances and reroll that elder sign? And guess what? I get another elder sign. At this point, I decide to call it quits and not push my luck any further. It’s better to be cautious than to risk getting a worse result.

When I go up against the Cultist and the Fire Vampire, I know I have to be careful. The Cultist can take 2 wounds, while the Fire Vampire can take 4. It’s a tough decision to make when it comes to dividing my successes. Luckily, I have 3 of them. I think I’ll use 2 to finish off the Cultist first. Once I’ve taken care of the Cultist, I’ll use my last success, thanks to my Brawling skill, to give the Fire Vampire a hit.

Before I move on, let me point out that if I didn’t have the Brawling skill, I would have had to use all my wounds on a single enemy. It doesn’t matter if there were any excess wounds left over. They would have gone to waste. Thankfully, I have the skill and can distribute my hits more effectively.

Now, onto the consequences of my actions. After dealing with the enemies, I roll the dice to see what happens next. Uh-oh, it’s a tentacle. That means I lose 1 sanity. Another step closer to losing my mind. It’s a risky business, this monster hunting.

R&R in a Safe Zone

If you find yourself in a safe space, where there are no enemies around, you have the opportunity to recover and replenish your energy. You can choose to restore up to three points of either stress or health, or a combination of both. The total number of spaces healed cannot exceed three. And the best part is, you can take advantage of the Rest action multiple times in a single turn.

Remember: Unfortunately, resting is not effective for healing your sanity. It’s best to find other ways to address any mental strain you may be experiencing.

For instance: Let’s say Sister Beth is dealing with a full load of stress and a minor wound. She decides to take a moment to Rest. While she could choose to heal the wound and two points of stress, she opts to focus on reducing all three points of stress instead. She leaves her wound as is.

Let’s Make a Deal

When you’re in the same location as other investigators, you have the option to engage in some trading. You can exchange any number of Items or Companions with your fellow investigators. Just keep in mind that if a Discovery card has Items or Companions depicted on both sides, a traded card must remain on the same side it started on.

I cannot exchange conditions with others.

Making Choices in the Story

Every episode presents you with 2 special actions, displayed on the episode card. These actions function similarly to regular actions but serve to either interrupt the ritual or support your survival.

Step 2: Draw a Mythos Card

Now, I’m going to draw a card from the Mythos deck and see what fate has in store for me. Once I’ve drawn the card, I’ll resolve it. After that, I’ll place it faceup on the discard pile.

Note: There’s a unique insanity called “Recurring Trauma” that requires me to keep a Mythos card I’ve previously drawn in front of me.

These Mythos cards can have different steps, and they fall into three categories. It’s important to follow the steps in order, from top to bottom, and complete each one before moving on to the next. If I come across a step that I can’t do, I simply skip it and move on to the next step.

Summoning an Elder One

When I draw this card, it doesn’t have an immediate impact, but it may cause the Elder One to advance at the end of my turn.

If the card has this symbol, I need to make sure I keep it visible when I discard it.

Special Effects

Mythos cards come with a variety of special effects that can make life really difficult. These effects usually only affect the active player and don’t impact the other investigators.

When there are choices to be made, it’s up to me to decide. For example, if I need to move the “closest” figure, I get to choose which one.

If an effect moves an enemy towards a space, I should move it using the shortest possible path. I count how many spaces the enemy could potentially move along all possible paths and then choose the shortest one.

When there’s a tie, you get to choose what happens next. The enemy always moves as close to its target as possible, but stops once it reaches its destination.

Invoking Enemies

Sometimes, the bottom of certain cards will show a Gate color and a specific enemy that needs to be summoned there. If you have the corresponding figure available, place it on the given space.

If you don’t have the figure, you can just ignore this step. If there are multiple Gates and enemies specified, summon them in the order they appear. If you don’t have any more figures left, skip the remaining Gates.

3. Investigate or Fight

This part changes depending on whether there are enemies in your space or not.

If you’re in a safe space, investigate your surroundings:

Take the top card from the Discovery deck and read aloud what’s written in the middle.

Hey there! Let me tell you about these special cards I found. They’re pretty cool and they have some rules you need to follow if you have a Condition or a certain Companion. You know what’s even cooler? They give you options! You can choose what you want to do.

But that’s not all! Some cards let you claim a Companion, Item, or Condition. When you claim something, you slide the card under your investigator board. It becomes part of your inventory. And hey, if it’s a Condition, it might even change how you’re feeling mentally.

Hey there! When you get a Discovery card, make sure to read the main part out loud because it’s got a quote from the Assistant Janitor. Oh, and watch out for the Guilty Conscience Condition – it might make you take 1 stress.

Next, you have a decision to make: you can either take 2 stress and Claim the Janitor or just take 1 stress and Claim the Bleach.

Companions:

If you have any Companions with you, any wounds you get can be applied to them instead of you. But here’s the catch – when they take wounds, it still affects you with card effects. Also, keep in mind that Companions can’t be healed. If the number of wounds they have matches the number on their card, they’ll be discarded and you lose any benefits they give you.

Oh, and one more thing – Companions can also give you a skill level. If you don’t have that skill, you’ll automatically gain level 1 in that skill as long as you have that Companion with you. Just grab the corresponding token and you’re good to go!

If you already have the skill, move the skill level marker 1 level forward. If you lose the Companion, move the marker back 1 level.

Here’s how it works: If you’re already good at something, you improve by moving the skill level marker 1 level up. But if you lose your companion, you take a step back by moving the marker down 1 level. It’s a way to measure progress and keep track of your abilities.

Imagine you’re climbing a ladder. Every time you get better at something, you climb up a rung. But if you lose your companion, you slip back down. The marker helps you keep track of where you are on the ladder of skill levels.

So, let’s say you’re playing a game and you’re really good at it. You move the skill level marker up. But, if you make a mistake or lose your companion in the game, you move the marker back down. It’s a simple way to know how well you’re doing and to keep improving.

Remember, it’s all about getting better and having fun. The marker helps you see your progress and reminds you to keep practicing. Whether you’re playing a game or learning a new skill, keeping track of your skill level can help motivate you to keep going.

So, keep moving that skill level marker forward and enjoy the journey of getting better and better!

Hey there! I’m Jerome, the Assistant Janitor. Hanging out with me gives you a cool boost – I’ll give you 1 level in Stealth. Pretty neat, huh?

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. Sad to say, I can take a hit. In fact, just one blow and I’m a goner. It’s a risky business, but that’s how it goes.

Now, here’s something to remember. If you happen to find yourself caught in a not-so-safe spot, brace yourself. The enemies won’t be sending invitations for a chat. Nope, they’ll just come right at you. No worries though, we got a plan.

We skip the Discovery card this time. Instead, all the enemies in your space team up against you. But guess what? You’re the boss here. You get to choose the order in which they attack you. They won’t bother with the other investigators – it’s all about you, my friend.

Now, here’s something important. If an effect makes you end up face-to-face with an enemy, or an enemy waltzes into your space during this phase, well, they attack you. Easy as that. Even if they weren’t there at the start, that’s fair game. Oh, and if one of those enemies decides to take a hike out of your space, they can’t attack you anymore. Phew!

Shielding Yourself

When an enemy comes after you, you’ll need to roll the dice mentioned on their reference card. If you roll successfully, you’ll inflict 1 wound on them. But the catch is that each tentacle you roll will cost you 1 sanity.

Elder signs can only be used by enemies who actually have that ability. And if they do, those signs can have an effect on you. To increase your chances, you can choose to reroll the dice using stress. Additionally, you can use any of your skills to try and avoid or reduce the enemy’s attack.

4. Dealing with the End of Turn

Effects at the End of the Turn

Facing Fire!

Hey, you might find yourself in a blazing situation. That can happen if you accidentally step on a space with Fire tokens. Or maybe a pesky monster decided to light you up. Either way, it’s not the best position to be in, right?

Now, when your turn comes to an end, you gotta roll a standard die for every Fire token on your investigator board. Don’t worry, you can spend some stress points to reroll those dice if you’re feeling lucky. Brace yourself, because here’s what happens next:

For every successful roll, you’ll take a wound. Ouch! And for every tentacle roll, you’ll lose a bit of sanity. It’s a double whammy! To add insult to injury, all the Fire tokens on your investigator board are discarded.

Note: Don’t fret, the enemy monsters don’t catch fire when they step on a space with Fire tokens. It’s just a human thing, I guess.

Running Out Of Fire: If you need to add a Fire token to the game board, but there aren’t any left, no worries. The effect is ignored in that case. And if you need a Fire token for your investigator board, but there are none left, just use a wound token instead. Talk about improvising, right?

Time for a Mythos Discard Pile Check

If there are 3 cards in the discard pile with the Elder One Summoning symbol, the Elder One gets closer to ultimate power! If there are 3 Elder One Summoning symbols: Move the Elder One along the Summoning track. If the Elder One is already on the board, move the Progression token along the track instead. The Elder One Stage cards and the Episode card will tell you what happens when the Elder One moves. Deal with the effects of the Elder One first. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Elder One figure or the Progression token moving on the Summoning track, the effects are the same.

Check the Elder One Summoning

• The Elder One reached the first red space on the track; OR
• The ritual was disrupted this turn.

So, here’s what happens. When the Elder One is called upon to come to our world, I move the Stage 1 card to the side. Doing this reveals the Stage 2 card that was hiding underneath. Now, I have to resolve the effects of the Stage 2 card. You see, the effects will tell me exactly where the Elder One needs to be summoned. But hey, don’t forget that the Stage 1 effects are still in play until the game is over. They don’t just disappear!

I’m going to place the Progression token on the Summoning track where the Elder One figure used to be. This token will help me keep track of the Elder One’s progress throughout the game.

The Elder One has some effects that occur at the end of each turn. These effects are important to keep in mind as I play the game.

Effects at the End of the Turn

Death of an Investigator

If one of the investigators is killed or goes mad, the game is immediately lost if the Elder One is still on the Summoning track. However, if the Elder One has already been summoned to the board, the other investigators can keep playing and try to win.

When an investigator dies, I need to discard any Discovery cards and tokens they had. The episode might have special instructions for any tokens the investigator was holding.

If the investigator died during their turn, I can skip all the following turn phases, except for the phase where I check the Mythos Discard Pile.

So, imagine this: there are these symbols called Elder One Summoning symbols. If there are 3 of them, something big happens. Brace yourself! The Elder One advances and its effects come into play. Woah! And get this: if we need to figure out where a dead investigator was, we just use the space where they died. Easy peasy.

But wait, there’s more. Once all that craziness is out of the way, we have to deal with the fact that the player who caused all this mayhem has to skip their turn. Yep, you heard me right. Their turn is officially skipped. Talk about a bummer.

Disrupting the Ritual

Let me tell you about what we need to do to disrupt the Cultists’ ritual and make the Elder One mortal, even if just for a little while.

Now, here’s the thing – the Elder One cannot be attacked or hurt until we disrupt the ritual. But, just so you know, it can still attack us if it’s already on the board!

But don’t worry! If we manage to disrupt the ritual, the Elder One will be summoned at the end of the turn.

Fighting the Elder One

Once the Elder One is summoned to the board, it behaves like any other enemy. It will attack any investigators that end their turn in its space. The number and type of dice it rolls depends on the total of all dice displayed on its revealed Stage cards.

Remember, until we disrupt the ritual, we cannot attack or hurt the Elder One, even if it’s already on the board because it reached the red space on the summoning track!

When the ritual gets disrupted, the Elder One becomes vulnerable and can be attacked just like any other enemy. The Elder One is made up of different Stages, each with its own health, and you have to defeat them one by one until the Elder One is completely destroyed.

Starting from Stage 2, each card will show:

• A one-time effect that happens when the card is revealed.
• An ongoing effect that stays in play until the game ends.
• The health of the Stage, which shows how many wounds it can take.
• The number and type of dice that the Stage can add to the Elder One’s attacks.

Once a Stage has wounds equal to or greater than its health, that Stage is defeated. You move the card to the side and reveal the next one, resolving its “When Revealed” effect.

Okay, so here’s the deal: your excess wounds won’t stick around for the next Stage. It’s like a clean slate every time. But hold up, there’s a catch! Everything that happened in the previous Stages still has an impact until we finish the whole game. So, those effects and dice? They’re hanging around until the very end. Pretty cool, huh?

Example: Here’s what happened – I bravely attacked Hastur while he was at Stage 2. He was already hurt from previous attacks, with 9 wounds. Can you believe it? I did 5 more wounds to him!

Now, with a total of 14 wounds, I was able to defeat Stage 2, which only had 12 health. I moved the Stage card to the side, right next to Stage 1. Guess what? Stage 3 was revealed, but the extra 2 wounds I dealt didn’t carry over. Bummer!

Hastur was then sent to the Red Gate, and anyone with at least 2 Yellow Signs took 1 wound. But wait, there’s more! Now Hastur gets to roll 3 bonus dice AND 3 standard dice when attacking. Talk about a challenge!

Now, let’s talk about the end of the game. We all win when we finally defeat the Elder One by defeating its Final Stage. That’s the ultimate goal, and we can do it together!

Oh, and one more thing. If multiple end-game triggers happen at the same time, the winning conditions take precedence. It’s important to remember that.

Once upon a time… There were two characters, The Elder One and the last investigator. They had a fateful encounter, and their story ended simultaneously. These two brave individuals managed to save the world and emerge victorious.

But beware, for you can lose the game in several ways:

• If an investigator is killed or consumed by madness before the Elder One is summoned to the board (Stage 1 card).
• If all investigators are killed or consumed by madness after the Elder One is summoned (Stages 2 onward).
• If the Progression token reaches the last (8th) space of the Summoning track.