Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine

high Nature Incarnate
Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine spirit panel

Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine

Growth (Pick One)

1
Reclaim All Reclaim All + Gain Power Card Gain Power Card + Move Presence Move Breath Incarnation + Reclaim All Darkness: Escape All
2
Gain Power Card Gain Power Card + Add Presence 3 Range Add Presence at Range 3 + Reclaim One Darkness: Escape 2
3
Add Presence 1 Range Add Presence at Range 1 + Move Presence Add/Move Breath Incarnation + Reclaim One Darkness: Escape 1 + Gain Energy Gain Energy equal to Card Plays

Presence

Energy
1 Energy
1
2 Energy
2
moon element
moon
3 Energy
3
Empower Incarna
Empower
4 Energy + animal 4
4 +animal
5 Energy + air 5
5 +air
Cards
2 Card Plays
2
Move Presence 1
Move Pres 1
3 Card Plays
3
moon element
moon
Reclaim One
Reclaim
4 Card Plays + air
4 +air

Special Rules

TERROR STALKS THE LAND
You have an Incarna (Breath of Darkness Incarna). Empower Breath of Darkness Incarna after uncovering Empower. You may Abduct 1 Explorer/Town at empowered Breath of Darkness Incarna each Fast speed phase.

To Abduct a piece, Move it to The Endless Dark (Endless Dark). When pieces Escape, Move them to non-Ocean lands with your Presence/Breath of Darkness Incarna; 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. Endless Dark is not a land.)

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

Rules for The Endless Dark

Innate Powers

fast LEAVE A TRAIL OF DEATHLY SILENCE
Speed fast | Target Yourself
2 moon
1 Damage at Breath of Darkness Incarna. You may Push Breath of Darkness Incarna.
3 moon 1 air
1 Damage at Breath of Darkness Incarna. You may Push Breath of Darkness Incarna.
4 moon 2 air
1 Damage at Breath of Darkness Incarna. You may Push Breath of Darkness Incarna.
5 moon 2 air
Move Breath of Darkness Incarna to Endless Dark. It Brings 1 Invader (from its land).
slow LOST IN THE ENDLESS DARK
Speed slow | Target endlessdark
2 moon 1 air
1 Fear per Invader (max. 4). Downgrade up to 1 Invader. (Downgrading Removes Explorer.)
4 moon 3 air
1 Fear per Invader (max. 4). Downgrade any number of Invaders.
3 moon
Add 1 Beast.

Setup

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

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

Play Style

Abducts lone Invaders to gain Fear 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.

Power Summary

2
offense
4
control
5
fear
1
defense
2
utility

Unique Power Cards

Strategy

Lore

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.)