Into the Wild

In the wild places of Terrinoth, beasts move fearlessly through the night once more, as isolated farmers and woodsmen bar their doors against the darkness. A blood-red moon is rising, and with its ascent, feral and vicious creatures grow even more bold. As chilling howls and horrific screams ring through the forests and mountains, Terrinoth’s greatest heroes venture into the wild. Only the most stalwart will return…

Take your place as a hero of Terrinoth and venture into the barren wilds with The Mountains Rise, a new Adventure Pack that invites you to enter the vibrant world of Runebound! Like The Gilded Blade Adventure Pack, The Mountains Rise can be integrated into any scenario, whether you’re playing an adventure from the Core Set or from one of the new Scenario Packs. Twenty new asset cards, ten new skills, and five new cards for each adventure deck offer a unique touch to any scenario, inviting you to customize your game and make every adventure completely unique. Finally, with a brand-new hero, you’ll find a new foundation for your adventures and experience the reckless exhilaration of battle no matter where you travel in Terrinoth. 

Today, we’ll take a closer look at The Mountains Rise Adventure Pack, starting with its new hero, Nanok of the Blade.

The Thrill of Battle

Enormous, fur-clad, and full of good-natured violence, Nanok of the Blade is a fearsome barbarian with a surprising past: he actually hails from a noble family in northern Terrinoth. Nanok’s refusal to wear any armor more comprehensive than bracers and a helm is a question of philosophy, not culture. He simply believes that by inviting death in battle, he lives more fully and fights more fiercely than anyone else. Some might disagree, but by now, most of them are dead.

When you experience a game of Runebound through playing Nanok of the Blade, your love of battle will drive you throughout the game. Not only are most of your abilities focused around combat, your combat tokens are uniquely designed to deal maximum damage to your foes. As just one example, you’ll find the newly introduced charge symbol on one of Nanok’s combat tokens. This symbol deals unblockable damage to your foe, but for the rest of the combat round, you can’t block any damage your opponent deals! Still, if you’re not planning on defending anyways, there are few more effective ways to cut through your opponent’s defenses.

Click the card above to see the reverse side!

You’ll also be able to start looking for a fight as soon as possible. As Nanok of the Blade’s setup bonus, you can move to any combat adventure gem within three hexes, giving you an early lead on battling enemies and reaping the rewards. Once you get into combat, your hero abilities also relate exclusively to combat. After you use a charge symbol, you can trigger Shatter to remove one of your foe’s tokens with a single enemy damage. Assault, on the other hand, allows you to spend any number of shields to deal an equal amount of physical damage—literally transforming a strong defense into the best offense.

Charge!

As Nanok of the Blade, your abilities are obviously most effective when you have plenty of charge symbols, and the new asset cards in The Mountains Rise certainly don’t disappoint. You may wield a Moonbeam Flail, which gives you another charge symbol and the potential to recast one of your unspent tokens whenever you deal charge damage! Alternatively, you may take up a Dragontooth Hammer, which guarantees charge damage and increases your body attribute during tests. Or, if you want to armor up, you can don the Fists of Iron, which deal charge damage, increase your body, and allow you to recast a spent combat token after you deal charge damage!

Though your primary skills as Nanok of the Blade are devoted to your body, you also have a strong spirit. The Mountains Rise offers ten new spirit skills, and many of them can give you just the edge that you need to customize your hero into a deadly fighting machine. Aria of War, for instance, can improve your health based on your spirit attribute, giving you a better chance of surviving without blocking enemy damage. 

Glory of Battle rewards you for victory on the field of battle by allowing you to move up to two hexes and draw two skill cards. In a game where your journeys never truly end, some extra movement can be crucial for launching you along the path to your next adventure. Finally, you may create a Cacophony, dealing every combatant a single damage that cannot be blocked, once per combat round. Since you have a higher health than many monsters, this tradeoff commonly works in your favor.

As the wild places of Terrinoth fill with dangerous creatures, you’ll find plenty of new enemies to fight in this Adventure Pack. You may test your might against a Troll, whose devastating Backswing can double the amount of damage you take in a single round. A Giant may cause an Avalanche and bury you beneath a mountain of rock, while the elusive Wendigo can tear a hero to shreds in mere moments. Of course, not every adventure will end in battle. You may hunt a rare beast in the Bitter Downs or listen to the mad words of a wild vagabond in the streets of the Free Cities. In every game of Runebound, a new adventure is always just around the corner, and there’s no end to what you may accomplish or what you may become.

A Ravening Beast

There’s danger rising in the forests and hills of Terrinoth, and as one of the realm’s mightiest heroes, it’s your responsibility to stop it. Gather your weapons, hunt down the beasts, and slaughter your prey! You can find The Mountains Rise Adventure Pack and the Fall of a Dark Star Scenario Pack at your local retailer on September 1st.