The Dark Arts Player

Learn how the opposing player advances along the Dark Arts Path and challenges the houses.

The opposing player

One player controls the Dark Arts. This is a declared role with a separate board, starter deck and objective; the publisher's rules do not describe a secret traitor who changes allegiance during play. Use the component index to distinguish the Dark Arts Starter, Acquire, Location and Event decks, and the setup lesson for the 4–7-pawn allowance by player count.

The printed rules give Dark Arts both disruption tools and a location objective: bumps obstruct House pawns, while victory requires all three Progress Tokens and the specified simultaneous pawn count at the Location Card's destination. These are different checks, rather than a prescribed sequence of tactics. Official victory: printed page 23.

Movement and encounters

Dark Arts pawns can pass ordinary obstacles, but cannot enter Protected Areas or pass castle walls. An encounter depends on which side finishes its move:

• A Dark Arts pawn landing on a house pawn causes a bump.
• A house pawn landing on a Dark Arts pawn causes stunning.

For the complete sequence, follow the bump case and stun/recovery case, sourced to printed pages 16–17 and 20–21. The bump returns the chosen House pawn to Great Hall and the Dark Arts pawn to its pool; a stun instead leaves both stunned after the House player relocates the Dark Arts pawn to an adjacent legal space.

Understand the clock

The Dark Arts Path advances when House players Replenish, through applicable events, and after Dark Arts collects every participating House Marker. Its white, orange and red zones unlock card effects. An ordinary Dark Arts Explore or Replenish does not itself advance the Path; follow any event or effect that separately instructs it.

Winning requires all three Progress Tokens and the required number of pawns simultaneously at the Location Card's destination. The printed red-zone event determines the requirement when that card is taken. Reaching the track's end initiates a limited final phase, rather than automatic victory. The rulebook does not clearly resolve whether a previously taken card's requirement changes there; our final-phase example uses a card first taken there, and clarifications records the open question.

A practical focus

Our editorial advice is to watch the nearest defender to a shield and compare delaying them with your own objective. Count legal movement before committing a card. Keep the tabletop reference beside you to compare both sides' Replenish order and encounter procedures.

The House refill-now or defer lesson shows the pressure created by a defender's Replenish: drawing, recovery and one path advance. It uses a checked non-Event destination and a fixed teaching draw order. This is the House procedure; ordinary Dark Arts Replenish does not spend that path step.

Compare Dark Arts choices

The Explore or Replenish comparison uses the same starting hand and known draw order to show the difference between moving now and recovering stunned pawns while refilling. The deploy or move comparison uses the no-effect four-point Conspire face to account for the one-point cost of normal deployment. The one pawn or two comparison keeps the printed multi-move allocation. These are controlled hypothetical lessons, not win-rate claims or verified board routes. Official movement and Replenish: printed pages 20–21.

Use the English–Chinese glossary to distinguish the single Dark Arts Marker from the three Progress Tokens. The three-point Conspire's effect deployment cost is recorded as an open rule question; it is not assumed free or assigned a fee in these lessons.

Sources

• Publisher rulebook — printed pages 16–17 and 20–23