Level 1
Dice
<Rolling for player resources>
<Rolling for player resources>
Objective: Explore a 5×5 labyrinth of face-down cards, defeat the monsters guarding it, and survive three levels to reach and defeat the Dragon.
You begin with randomly rolled resources: Strength (white), Money (red), Food (black), and Dexterity (blue) chips. Strength lets you fight harder, Money pays the Gatekeeper to advance a level, Food restores exhausted Strength, and Dexterity lets you flee or search for secret passages.
Click a highlighted (gold-bordered) space to move there. Moving onto a hidden space flips it over, revealing a Monster card on top and a Treasure card beneath it — you see both before deciding what to do.
Roll dice equal to (1 + your level), plus a flat bonus of +1 point per level. You may also add Strength chips to your total (1 chip = 1 point) — any Strength chips you commit are spent whether you win or lose. You defeat the monster if your total is greater than the Monster's number multiplied by your level.
Win: collect the Treasure chips shown (or trigger a Special if the Treasure is a face card) and occupy the space. Lose: surrender Strength chips equal to the Monster's number, and one chip matching the Monster's suit; the space is destroyed and can never be occupied.
Matching cards: if the Monster and Treasure cards show the same number (e.g. a 5 and a 5), there's no monster at all — you've found a surprise! Roll straight for a Special with no fight required.
Instead of fighting, you may forfeit 5 Dexterity chips per level to flee (success on a roll of 4-6). A successful escape destroys that space — it collapses behind you and can never be occupied again. If you run out of Strength chips, you are Exhausted — trade 1 Food chip for 1 Strength chip to keep going. Run out of both and you have expired.
A face-card Monster is a Gatekeeper — pay Money (the Treasure card's value × level, face cards = 10) to prepare the next level. Paying the Gatekeeper on Level 3 is how you reach the Dragon. If you can't move to any adjacent space, search for a Secret Passage for 5 Dexterity chips per level per attempt; fail every attempt and you are trapped.
Clear the Gatekeeper on Level 3 and face the Dragon. Defeat it to win the game.