Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine

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SETUP

Put 2 and your Incarna (), Unempowered (), on your starting board: 1 and in the lowest-numbered Jungle and 1 in the highest-numbered Jungle. Set The Endless Dark () tile next to the island with 1 on it.

You start with your 4 Unique Power Cards and 0 Energy.

PLAY STYLE

Abducts lone Invaders to gain and keep them off the board for a time; its mobile Incarna is particularly useful for this. Reclaiming permits the Invaders to escape its void en masse, so can be quite painful.

Has trouble with built-up lands, and may need to scatter Invaders or take a Major Power to deal with them.

COMPLEXITY

HIGH

Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine Official FAQ Entries

Part of the Nature Incarnate Expansion.

Unempowered Incarna
Empowered Incarna

GROWTH (PICK ONE)

Reclaim Cards Gain Power Card ANY Move Incarna to Any Land All Pieces Escape	Gain Power Card + 3 Add a Presence Two Pieces Escape
+ 1 Add a Presence + / Add/Move Incarna to Land with Your Presence One Piece Escapes Gain Energy Equal to Card Plays^[1]

PRESENCE

Energy/Turn 2 Moon 3 Empower Incarna 4, Animal 5, Air
Card Plays Move a Presence 1 3 Moon Reclaim One 4, Air

SPECIAL RULES

TERROR STALKS THE LAND
You have an Incarna (). Empower after uncovering . You may Abduct 1 / at empowered each phase.

To Abduct a piece, Move it to The Endless Dark (). When pieces Escape, Move them to non-Ocean lands with your /; if they have no legal land to move to, you lose.

When your Powers would directly damage or directly destroy the only Invader in a land, instead Abduct it. (Check if it is alone at the start of the damage/destroy instruction. is not a land.)

SHADOW-TOUCHED REALM
Your land-targeting Powers can target as if it were a land, ignoring Range. ( is Inland and has no terrain.)

Rules for The Endless Dark

A SPACE OF STRANGE AND INFINITE DARKNESS

The Endless Dark () is on the island, but isn't a land and isn't on any board.

This can't be a .
Spirits can't target this even if they have here.
Adding here doesn't destroy .
Special rules that affect lands do nothing here.
Invaders can't take Actions here.
Pieces here are on the island when checking for Victory/Defeat.

TRAPPED IN THE ENDLESS DARK

Fear Cards and Token Events affect pieces here as if this were an Inland land, but can't remove Invaders here - when they would, instead 1

per Invader they would have removed.

LEAVE A TRAIL OF DEATHLY SILENCE

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

YOURSELF

2

1

1 Damage at

. You may Push

.

3

1

1 Damage at

. You may Push

.

4

2

1 Damage at

. You may Push

.

5

2

3

Move

to

. It Brings 1 Invader (from its land).

LOST IN THE ENDLESS DARK

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

2

1

per Invader (max. 4). Downgrade up to 1 Invader. (Downgrading Removes .)

4

3

1

per Invader (max. 4). Downgrade any number of Invaders.

3

2

Add 1

.

SUMMARY OF POWERS

Offense	Control	Fear	Defense	Utility

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From the Spirit Panel

In the open spaces of Spirit Island, the night sky, when clear, blazes with light from the moon and stars - but not all of this light reaches the earth. From time to time an ever-shifting shadow writhes across the land, bringing a darkness deeper than found under any jungle canopy. It seeks out those who are isolated and alone, and swallows compatriots and communities alike into its lightless void. Some return, others do not.

Many Dahan suspect this may be another form of Shadows Flicker Like Flame - its whispery voice crackles like fire, among other signs - but keep cautiously clear of it, as it has made no requests of them.

Design Lore

Fear of the dark - and of being alone in the dark - is something really primal. On Spirit Island, it’s also really sensible: not just because there are things in the dark that might hurt you, but because the dark itself might swallow you, never to return. It is not a mere absence of light, but an actual thing unto itself.

Or, perhaps, multiple things, but here we’re discussing just one: Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine.

Breath of Darkness is an Incarna Spirit, its tangled locus a fearsome creature of living shadow that is not exactly physical, but not exactly intangible - it can rend and tear, but also slip through tiny openings, suddenly unfurl itself to a vaster shape, or evaporate away altogether. This may be because it is not entirely here - there is a realm of shadows that may exist inside of it, or on the other side of it, or which it partially exists in, or to which it is connected?… even the Dahan aren’t sure, and have little desire to try and find out. What they do know is that some of those trapped by darkness return - eventually - while others never do.

(The Dahan have few troubles with Breath of Darkness these days. Perhaps this is because the Dahan are correct in their beliefs about certain patterns the Spirit is thought to dislike, allowing travelers caught out alone a much better chance of avoiding an encounter with it. Perhaps it is because the Dahan are correct in other beliefs about the nature of the island, and have resided there long enough to be better-anchored against being pulled into another realm against their will. Perhaps it is simply because Breath of Darkness has some agenda of its own, or because some other Spirit is intervening in one fashion or another, or because it is actually an alternate form of Shadows Flicker Like Flame. Regardless, most Dahan remain cautious - though if it started speaking to them, they’d hear what it had to say; part of their deep wariness is that it doesn’t communicate with them much.)

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Important note: If playing as Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine, you start the game with these Unique Power Cards in your hand.