Riftsworn
When the game begins
A fragment of the star has already fallen, and an extra rift opens before the first round. Doom starts at 13, lower than any other Ancient One. Vorr-Ahaz is the gentlest of the four to learn on, but it gives you the least time.
Vorr-Ahaz
The Burning Sky
- DifficultyLow
- Doom starts at13
- MysteriesSolve 3 of 5
- If it wakesFinal mystery
The lore
A new star appeared in October, and it has been growing brighter. Astronomers no longer publish its distance; they don’t want anyone to do the arithmetic. One of them has filled a notebook with frantic calculations, each one revised downward.
An orchard burns in a perfect circle, though no one saw a fire. A farmer keeps a glowing stone in a bucket of water that never stops boiling. A dealer sells a star chart dated 1650 that already shows the new star, labelled Return.
Where its light falls longest, plants wither and stone blackens. Crowds gather at noon to stare at it with naked eyes, and people begin to speak of welcoming the fire.
How it plays
What sets Vorr-Ahaz apart
Every Ancient One shares the same goal for the investigators: solve three mysteries before Doom reaches zero. This is how Vorr-Ahaz bends the rules.
At every reckoning
If three or more rifts are open on the board, Doom advances by 1. Keep the rifts in check and the sky stays where it is.
Its servants
Ashsworn Zealots burn anyone who shares their space at the reckoning. The Carrion Saint pushes Doom forward the moment it appears, while the Star-Eater Larva is worth 2 Clues to whoever brings it down.
If it awakens
The star fills half the sky and the final mystery begins: Turn the Burning Sky, the largest final mystery of the four. Investigators in Cities spend Clues to fill it. Each reckoning, every investigator must endure the glare with a hard Resolve test or lose 2 Body. Fallen investigators can no longer be replaced.
Mysteries
What the investigators must do
The mysteries are drawn in a random order, one at a time. Solve three and Vorr-Ahaz is sealed away before it can wake. The bigger the team, the more each mystery asks of it.
Fire Worshippers
Cults of the Burning Sky are rising. Every monster defeated while this mystery is active counts towards it.
Herald of Cinders
Summons the nemesis
A burning herald has fallen in the Atacama Salt Flats. Defeat it before its ash fills the board with monsters.
Calculating the Orbit
Observatories must pool their data. Investigators in a City spend Clues during the Encounter phase. It asks for more Clues than most mysteries.
Star-Iron
Fragments of the star have already fallen. Every Spell or Artifact gained while this mystery is active counts towards it.
Starless Nights
The star feeds on the open rifts. Starve it: at each reckoning, it moves forward by one for every rift fewer than four on the board.
Final mystery
Turn the Burning Sky
Only after it awakens. Investigators in Cities spend Clues to fill it. Fill it, and the star turns away.
Servants
What walks in its name
These horrors only appear while Vorr-Ahaz stirs, and they come in greater numbers than the wandering monsters of the world.
Minion
Ashsworn Zealot
Their eyes are burnt white from staring upward.
At the reckoning, investigators on its space lose 1 Body.
Nemesis
Herald of Cinders
Wherever it lands, the ash keeps falling for a week.
Tougher for every investigator in the game. At the reckoning, a new monster appears on its space.
Ember Jackal
Its pawprints smoulder for days afterwards, all of them pointing toward you.
Stalks the nearest investigator, one space each reckoning.
Lantern Moth Swarm
They do not seek the flame. They are the flame, looking for something to burn.
Star-Eater Larva
Pale and segmented, it has already eaten three constellations. It is still growing.
Defeat it and gain 2 Clues.
Carrion Saint
Gilded halo, rotting robes, and a congregation of flies that hum a liturgy.
Doom advances by 1 when it appears.
Spire Hunger
It descends from the steeples on a hundred hooked legs, and church bells go mute in its wake.
The other Ancient Ones
