Chaostle [kā’ os ̒l] Three-Dimensional Castle Fantasy Board Game www.chaostle.com Table of Contents The Land of Zirconyx........................... 2 Jumping..................................................... 13 Chapter One – Wages of War............ 4 Battle Cards............................................ 14 Game Objective..................................... 6 Upgrading Battle Cards........................ 17 Included Game Pieces........................... 6 Battles....................................................... 18 Castle Assembly...................................... 6 Battling the Castle................................. 20 Getting Started....................................... 7 Sample Battle.......................................... 20 Selecting Characters.............................. 7 Special Skills............................................ 22 Selecting Starting Positions................... 8 Faction Descriptions............................. 32 Two Player Alternative........................... 9 Character Descriptions........................ 33 Starting the Game................................... 9 Territories of Zirconyx........................ 37 Board Levels............................................. 11 Credits...................................................... 40 Character Movement............................. 11 ©© 20122012 Chivalry Chivalry Games, Games, Inc. Inc. Version Version 2.0 2.0 1 THE LAND OF ZIRCONYX he land of Zirconyx has a history. Plagued by migraines during the day and TStrange, wonderful, and very very long, terrible nightmares at night, there was no safe as histories get. Most of it is unwritten, passed place for his mind to hide. The sickness left on in songs and legends rather than books, him a jittering, paranoid wreck. His eyes saw changing by the season. shadows and knives in every corner. Public executions of the ‘traitors’ became a daily oc- However, singers and scribes all agree currence. Napadori’s once-loyal subjects took that the world used to be far larger than it their lessons to heart. is today. Its many climates offered life to thousands of different species, man and beast, Soon enough, Napadori was insist- plant and animal, even rock brought to life by ing that entire armies were being rallied just the magic coursing through the earth. There beyond his borders by Zirconyx’s neighbors. are still old maps that show some of those He ordered his court wizards to scry to the places, but they are lost to us now. Lost in the very Edge of the World, searching for his mist. enemies. But the closer they got to the Edge, the more their magical visions clouded over. It started under the rule of King Napa- Their scrying glasses would crack, and their dori the Fair. Life was decent. Hard-working crystal balls would shatter. That had never peasant farmed the fields and hauled in the happened before. crops, knights and paladins fought in colorful tournaments, and powerful garrisons served Napadori cursed them for oathbreakers to placate the more unruly of King Napadori’s and incompetents, and dismissed all the wiz- subjects. ards from court, banishing them back to their great library in the Glow Mountains. In his thirty-sixth year, King Napadori was unhorsed in a tourney by some nameless Entire armies of explorers surged forth hedge knight, struck in the head by his oppo- from Napadori’s ancestral castle, but only nent’s lance; after that, he was a changed man. 2 © 2012 Chivalry Games, Inc. Version 2.0 a handful ever returned. Scarred men, and down there, it was said, and a great door- broken, half-mad with fear. The stories blew way between dimensions hidden somewhere across Zirconyx like a cold wind. A thick, below. terrible mist had swallowed the neighboring kingdoms and empires, all helpless to stop it. The wiz- It was said to flay the flesh right off a man’s ards fled back to bones; armored or naked, it made no differ- the Glow Moun- ence. Cold shapes moved through the haze, tains to consult killing as they faded in and out of sight. the Archmage, leaving Zirconyx When the stories reached them, the in chaos. The banished wizards came running back to court. kingdom was The fog they called Erebus was closing in on without a king. Zirconyx like a tightening noose. The King With the royal ignored them, calling his entire army to the family gone, field, all but the outlying garrisons made up that left no one of ‘unreliable’ local troops. He rode out with to succeed to the crown, and the people had a column of his best knights, out past the bor- no one to turn to for protection. Leaderless ders of the kingdom, and wasn’t heard from armies fell apart or pledged their swords to for three hundred years. The crown passed to the lords and ladies of Zirconyx, rising to fill his heir, a more decent man, but the banished the power vacuum. They each raised their wizards chose to remain in exile. banners and put forth their diluted claims to the crown. Slowly, Erebus covered Zirconyx’s outlying provinces, driving hordes of refugees The Archmage intervened before a civil before it -- peasants and foreigners and war could erupt, declaring a truce for as long creatures and worse. As a last resort, the as it took to investigate the mystery at the wizards, the scholars, the necromancers and royal castle. In that, at least, the lords could the spellweavers of Zirconyx all set aside their agree. Then they uncovered the Seal Stone. differences for one great purpose, joining their The legendary doorway was there, blocked power together to weave the greatest magical up by Napadori, and the Seal Stone bore one spell in history. Day and night they worked, mad inscription scribbled into the rock by the forging raw magic into a great shimmering old king himself. “The power is mine -- Napa- dome of protection surrounding what was left dori, master of dimensions -- to open the Seal of the kingdom. A spell powerful enough to is to open the gates of Death.” hold the mist at bay. That decided the issue. It was worth When they were done, the wizards going to war over this ‘Chaostle’. The first to returned to court to bring their news before secure the doorway would control the castle, the royal family, only to be stymied by what the kingdom, and -- perhaps -- power beyond they found. The entire royal family had disap- their wildest dreams. peared. The serving staff had run off in terror. Once turned up, they claimed that King It’s up to you to decide. Who will rule? Napadori had returned at the head of a host of Who will claim the mysterious power of the dead men, and gone down, deep into the bow- Chaostle? els of the castle. There were things lurking © 2012 Chivalry Games, Inc. Version 2.0 3 belongs to me, that pile of old stones, and ev- CHAPTER ONE erything beneath it. This . this ‘Chaostle’.” WAGES OF WAR He spat on the great octagonal table. “Who in the thirteen hells came up with that name, ryst winced as Fenroth, leader of the anyway?” TTartari, slammed a mailed fist on the “Your only right is banishment to Tar- table. His great steel helmet in the shape tarus for oathbreaking, torture and murder,” of a screeching raven toppled off the side, spat Lord Commander Redheart, captain of clattering to the floor with an unholy racket. the Order of Paladins. He sat at the side of the Fenroth didn’t even notice. Over the back- table reserved for Vespers, the Holy Lands, ground shouting, Tryst leaned close to me and and he’d told it true. Fenroth had been a pala- whispered, “This won’t end well.” din once, a long time ago. “You belong in that Listening to Fenroth’s ranting and shadowy pit you rule now, and I’ll die before I raving, I couldn’t help but agree. He and the let the Portal fall into your hands.” other lords were High Priestess Skei echoed his senti- no closer to ment, as did a few others around the table, but choosing a suc- then there was a cry of unfair prejudice and cessor than they they erupted into a screaming fit again. had been a week I nudged Tryst, silently telling him to ago. They never join me as I headed outside. really discussed “I’ll be a minotaur’s uncle if these fools the possibility of ever bend the knee to anyone,” Tryst mut- uniting behind tered between hard, steaming breaths. A bitter a new king, just breeze reddened his cheeks, probably a sign blustered at of things to come. It was depressing. Even the Tryst each other until common camp was subdued, full of scattered they were hoarse, and every night they retired men-at-arms drinking and dicing with each to their bright silk pavilions frustrated and other, but their hearts weren’t in it. I couldn’t angry. It was getting to be about that time. even hear any fighting, from men who’d been Crickets chirped outside, and the meeting tent at each other’s throats since the day they ar- was lit by torches and candlelight alone. rived. A cold wind blew down my back from I shook my head slowly. “I like some the mouth of the tent, a sharp chill that cut of them well enough. Redheart’s a good man, clear through my oiled ringmail. The hairs I know that, but to hear him tell it, everyone on the back of my neck stood up. Fenroth not on his side is the Red Devil of Tempernile was going on about his birthright now, his reborn.” bodyguards standing like steel gargoyles at his The old dwarf turned out of the wind shoulders, their giant flamberges worn peace- to light up his clay pipe, a ratty old thing, bonded across their backs. It didn’t make the probably more ancient than he was. He took a blades any less intimidating. puff, then turned back around to the meeting “I am cousin to the King’s own father, tent. “I’ve said my piece, for all the good it did.