Abyss: Kraken — Rules Manual

How to play
All of the game’s rules remain unchanged. This book contains only the rules referring to specific elements of the expansion:
the new Allies
the Nebulis
the new Lords
the new Locations
In the deepest reaches of the kingdom of Abyss, the guild of Smugglers has taken up residence at the heart of a cemetery of gigantic sea creatures. Hidden among these terrible skeletons and with the support of the Kraken, they are trafficking in NEBULIS.
These superb black pearls are used as a parallel, unofficial, currency. Dirty money, in a way. While this money can allow you to speed up your political advancement, don’t get caught with them at the end of the game.
Carefully shuffle the new Allies together with the Exploration cards from the base game.
Carefully shuffle the new Lords together with those from the base game.
Carefully shuffle the new Locations together with those from the base game. Proceed with the same setup as described in the base game’s rulebook.
Pour the Nebulis into the cup and place it with the Kraken figure next to the cup containing the Pearls.
Place the 3 Sentinel tokens next to the deck of Lords.
Carefully shuffle the Loot cards and make a draw deck face-down next to the Location draw deck.
The game can begin.
Setup
5
4
3
2
1

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The new Allies
A new Race of Allies has appeared: the kraken.
At the end of an Exploration, if a kraken Ally
remains on the Exploration Track, it is the active
player who decides on which Council stack it is
placed. When you use a kraken Ally, you choose
the Race that it is treated as a member of. It doesn’t
matter whether that Race is already present or not
among the other Allies you are playing.
The active player wants to recruit the Seeker. The player has in hand the
following Allies: a kraken of value 4, a kraken of value 3, and a seahorse of
value 5. The player can:
• use their value 3 kraken Ally as if it was a crab Ally plus their seahorse
Ally. The player then gets two Nebulis, discards the 3 value kraken Ally
and affiliates the seahorse Ally
OR
• use their value 3 kraken Ally as if it was a crab Ally and use their value 4
kraken Ally as if it was a squid Ally. The player then gains five Nebulis,
discards the two kraken Allies and doesn’t affiliate anything.
The Kraken do not affiliate...
When you recruit a Lord using multiple Allies, including one or more kraken, first discard all of the kraken Allies used. Then Affiliate the lowest valued Ally remaining of the Allies used in this recruitment. Which means that if you decide to recruit using only kraken Allies, you will affiliate no Allies.
... but there are also drawbacks
When you use a kraken Ally to recruit, you immediately receive as many Nebulis as are indicated on the card.Before Influence Points are tallied, if you still have kraken Allies in your hand, you receive the number of Nebulis indicated on these cards. Then you discard your kraken Allies without affiliating any of them.

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The Nebulis
A dangerous currency…
These magnificent black pearls are a parallel currency, dirty money. Woe betide whoever has the most in their reserve at the end of the game!
During the game, you will probably receive Nebulis, whether by using kraken Allies, or because opponents paid you with them, or because of the powers of some Lords.
Important Note: At the end of the game, each Nebulis in your possession will cost you 1 Influence Point!
The player who has the most Nebulis (the most corrupt player) will lose 5 additional Influence Points.
The Kraken figure allows players to identify, during the game, the most corrupt player. The figure is given to the first player to receive any Nebulis. As soon as an opponent ties or gains more Nebulis than the most corrupt player, they get the Kraken figure (if multiple opponents are tied, the player currently owning the Kraken chooses who gets it). If the player who has the Kraken figure discards their last Nebulis and no opponents have any, then the Kraken is returned to its position next to the cup of Nebulis.

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… which you can spend
In order to avoid penalties, the best solution is to get rid of your Nebulis as
fast as you can. Each time you choose to use Pearls for a purchase (buying an
Ally during an opponent’s turn, or completing the required sum to recruit a
Lord), you can use ONE AND ONLY ONE Nebulis as long as you’ve also spent
all of your Pearls. You can therefore pay with one Nebulis if you no longer
have any Pearls, but you can also pay with the rest of your Pearls and one
Nebulis at one time.
In this example, the active player wants to recruit the Hypnotist, but is
missing three points to fulfill the required conditions. They choose to meet
the cost by spending their two remaining Pearls and one of the Nebulis in
their possession.
Important note: the Nebulis cannot be used to plot at the Court.
The other way to get rid of them is to call on the Smugglers…

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The new Locations
This expansion introduces six new Locations. Two work in a similar way to
those from the base game: the Gambling Den, and the Kraken’s Lair. You will
discover them when they enter play.
But four of them are played differently: the Cetaceous Cemetery, the Abandoned
Convoy, the Megalodon, and the Battlefield. These are Sanctuaries, dark and
disquieting marine animal cemeteries. Only the Smugglers dare enter those.
These Sanctuaries hide precious Loot which can become a profitable source of
victory points. But they are also extremely dangerous.
The new Lords
This expansion contains eighteen new Lords, whose powers you will discover as they make their way into play:
• 2 new Lords for each of the base game’s Guilds;
• 8 Lords belonging to a new Guild: the Smugglers.
Most of the Smugglers have a power which allows players to manipulate
differently (and to your advantage, of course…) the dangerous Nebulis.
But three of them also allow you to immediately take a Sentinel token.
The Sentinels
When you recruit the Watcher, the Vigil,
or the Lookout, take the corresponding
Sentinel token (it will have matching
artwork). This token belongs to you
until the end of the game. Using it on
your turn, it will allow you to:
• reserve a Lord from the Court. Place
the Sentinel token on that Lord. From now on, only you can recruit them.
• or reserve a stack at the Council. Place the Sentinel token on that stack, even
if it’s still empty. It’s always possible to add Allies to it, but only you will be
able to claim it.
• or reserve an available face-up Location. Place the Sentinel token on that
Location. From now on, only you will be able to take control of it once you
have met the required conditions.
Of course, even if you have reserved an element, nothing prevents you from
acquiring another element of the same area.
When you take possession of the reserved element (Lord, Council stack, or
Location), place your Sentinel token in front of you. On your next turn, you will
be able to use it to place a new reservation.
Important: there can only be one Sentinel token per area of the
board. Thus, if a Sentinel token is already present at the Court, you
will have to choose to reserve a Location or a Council stack.

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The active player takes control of the Megalodon. They draw the first Loot card and place it on the Megalodon. It’s a 3. They thus take a Key token. They then decide to continue searching, and get a 7. Confident, they draw another Loot card which is revealed to be another 3! They thus take another Key token but as there already was a 3 on the Megalodon, they discard the two 3 IP Loot cards and keep only the 7 IP loot and the two Key tokens.

Important note: in order to help you make your decisions, note that in the Loot deck, there are seven cards of a value of 7 IP, six cards of a value of 6 IP, five cards of a value of 5 IP, four cards of a value of 4 IP, and finally, three cards of a value of 3 IP. So, if you draw a 7 as a first card and then you keep drawing, you have higher odds of drawing another 7 and thus not winning anything!

You then have the choice to continue searching or stop there. If you stop there, you keep all of the cards and rewards obtained. If you decide to continue, draw the next Loot card. First, receive the reward (if there is one), then check to see if the Loot is of the same value as one of the other Loot cards previously drawn for this Location. If it is, your search ends and you must discard the Loot cards with the same value. Otherwise you again have the choice to either continue your search or stop…

Draw the first Loot card and place it face-up on the Sanctuary. The number written on this card determines its Influence Point value. The icon (if any) determines the reward which you immediately take: a 3 gives you a Key token; a 4 gives you 2 Pearls; a 5 allows you to draw a Monster token; a 6 allows you to draw the top card from the Exploration draw deck. If it’s an Ally, add this card to your hand. If it’s a Monster, move the Threat token up one space on the Threat track then discard the Monster. Perform this operation until you get an Ally. a 7… gives you nothing more. Place the Location in front of you. When you take control of a Sanctuary, proceed as follows:

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Credits
Authors: Bruno Cathala & Charles Chevallier
Artwork: Xavier Collette
Flavor text: Thomas Hervet
English translation: Eric Harlaux
English revision: Eric Franklin
Lexicon
Loot: a card which is gained through the Sanctuaries. This card allows you to gain Influence Points, Keys, Monster tokens, Pearls, and Allies.
Smuggler: name of a Guild of Lords. Their specialty is manipulating Nebulis.
Corrupted: the player who has the most Nebulis in their cup. This condition is represented by the presence of the Kraken figure in front of the player.
Search: action of turning over the Loot cards on the Sanctuaries.
Kraken
• Kraken figure: figure which moves from player to player depending on who has the most Nebulis in their cup. It indicates that the player who owns it is the most corrupted.
• Kraken Ally: name of the new Ally Race. These are wild cards for which players get to choose their color when they are used. The downside of this advantage is that the players must take Nebulis.
Nebulis: in all of the rules and material (base game and expansion), the word Pearl is to be understood as a white pearl (standard currency). The black pearls are always designated by the word Nebulis.
Sanctuaries: Locations which are played differently from the others via a push-your-luck system. There are four of them: the Cetaceous Cemetery, the Abandoned Convoy, the Megalodon, and the Battlefield.
Sentinel: token which the players can obtain by recruiting one of three specific characters from the Smugglers’ Guild: the Watcher, the Vigil, or the Lookout. These tokens allow players to reserve a stack from the Council, a Lord from the Court, or an available Location.

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