Hearth-Vigil

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SETUP

Put 3 on your starting board: 1 in the highest-numbered land with and 2 in the lowest-numbered land with at least 2 . Add 1 in each of those lands (additional survivors of the Invaders' diseases).

You start with your 4 Unique Power Cards and 1 Energy.

PLAY STYLE

Very good at protecting in its lands, not so great at stopping . In keeping with its nature, largely brings to its (or vice versa); getting elsewhere may require a bit of forethought with Keep Watch for New Incursions.

Very reactive, with reliable ways to deal with Invaders as they Ravage and Build, but has trouble handling established that aren't Ravaging.

COMPLEXITY

MODERATE

Hearth-Vigil Official FAQ Entries

Part of the Nature Incarnate Expansion.

GROWTH (PICK ONE)

Reclaim Cards

+

0

Add a Presence

Gain Power Card

+

3

Add a Presence to land with Dahan

+

2

Add a Presence

Gain 3 Energy

PRESENCE

Gather 1 Dahan into 1 of Your Lands
Energy/Turn 1, Sun 2 3, Animal 4 5, Sun
Card Plays 2 Air 3 Animal 4

SPECIAL RULES

ROOTED IN THE COMMUNITY
added in your lands does not Destroy your if are present. (Ravage Actions Destroy before added destroys and cascades.)

FORTIFY HEART AND HEARTH
have +4 Health (each) while in your lands. Event and Blight Card Actions don't damage, destroy, or replace in your lands. (Ravages are not Event Actions even if caused by Events.)

LOYAL GUARDIAN
When all leave one of your lands, your may Move with those . (Each can Bring any number of .)

WARN OF IMPENDING CONFLICT

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

YOURSELF

2

1

In one of your lands, 1

deals Damage before Invaders during Ravages. (Choose a land when Invaders Ravage there.)

3

1

In that land, another

deals Damage before Invaders during Ravages.

4

2

In that land, all

deal Damage before Invaders during Ravages.

5

3

Instead, all

in all of your lands deal Damage before Invaders during Ravages.

KEEP WATCH FOR NEW INCURSIONS

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

1

Gather up to 2

, from your lands only.

1

2

3

Once this turn after Invaders are added or moved into target land, 1 Damage per

in target land, to those added/moved Invaders only.

2

3

4

Repeat this Power.

SUMMARY OF POWERS

Offense	Control	Fear	Defense	Utility

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From the Spirit Panel

Hearth-Vigil is a Spirit of neither fire nor cooking - it is a watcher and guardian, a protector who keeps vigil over common-hearths. In the dry season, it smothers rogue blazes; in the wet season, it fortifies the health of older Dahan suffering from wheezelung; in all season, it intensifies the hearth's powers of wellness and community-strength. It's friendly to speak to, though most grown Dahan don't usually distract it without cause.

Historically, its aid was first sought during the bloody conflicts of the Servant Cults, due to the threat of mass poisonings. As those agreements affected its nature, it became able to offer more than simple vigilance.

Design Lore

A game of Spirit Island does not open at the very instant the Invaders show up: the first tall ship landed at the island around 8 to 10 years before game start, the first colonists arrived maybe 4 to 6 years back. The opening acts of the eventual conflict are presumed to play out similarly each time, so are left invisible: the initial settlements, the Dahan reaching out to the colonizers, the Invaders failing to heed Dahan warnings about proper behavior, the first Blight, larger Spirits being caught by surprise at the speed of the Invaders… and Invader-borne diseases ripping through the interconnected Dahan population.

It is horrifying that the mortality rate among the Dahan - around 20 to 30 percent - is substantially less than what was historically suffered by many Indigenous communities in the face of such pathogenic onslaughts. Most Dahan communities benefited from close relationships with some smaller Spirits able to provide quick palliative assistance, and perhaps blunt the severity of an illness.

However, most Spirits capable of more dramatic aid were unable to react in time or to bring their full power to bear - events unfolded extremely quickly, from their perspective, and these illnesses were novel, unfamiliar.

Hearth-Vigil, however, was able to help a great deal more, being a Spirit both of vigilance and of health, already existing among the Dahan. Communities with a close relationship to Hearth-Vigil are accustomed to bringing their ill or poisoned to it for aid, and this allowed many to survive who otherwise would not have.

(A side note on language: Spirit names attempt to capture feel in addition to literal meaning. “Hearth” is the closest English word in meaning + connotation to the Dahan word for the shared communal space around common pit ovens over which Hearth-Vigil watches - just like Shroud of Silent Mist uses “shroud” due to its connotations in the English language, even though the Dahan don’t generally use burial-shrouds and their name for the Spirit doesn’t reference fabric at all.)

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Important note: If playing as Hearth-Vigil, you start the game with these Unique Power Cards in your hand.