Objective of the Game

Explore the Tacora Cave with careful steps, guided by the light coming from your torches. Each time you go deeper, discover a new room and gather the diamonds found in your path. Then decide if you want to return to camp to store your treasures, or if you prefer to continue your expedition towards the depths of the cave... and unknown perils! If you fall into a trap, you will flee towards the exit, leaving all of your treasures behind you, and return to camp empty-handed. and with shaking knees! Venture deep into the Tacora Cave and gather as many diamonds as possible. Be clever enough either to return to camp before falling into a trap, or to gather all the diamonds that are left on the path. Whoever has the most diamonds in their chest at the end of the game wins!

Setup

Shuffle all the Expedition cards and make a deck, face-down, on the deck space on the game board. Then give each player their 'Continue' and 'Exit' cards For a different variant of the game, set aside the Relic cards and add of 1 to the Expedition deck each round.

Gameplay

The game plays over 5 rounds corresponding to the 5 cave entrances. Each round consist of each player deciding to either advance into the cave or return to camp. Advance Into The Cave Flip the top Expedition card of the deck and put it in the middle of the table face-up. Treasure Card Take as many Precious Stones from the reserve as there are Rubies on the card. Share these Rubies equally with all players still in the cave. Put the remaining Rubies on the Treasure card. Example: In a 5-player game, you reveal a Treasure card with 9 Rubies. Each player puts 1 of these Rubies next to their Chest, and the 4 remaining Rubies are put on the Treasure card. Rubies that you gather during the Expedition are put next to your Chest and can be lost. It's only when you return prudently (or shamefully) to camp that you can put your Precious Stones safely in your Chest. Trap Card If a trap appears for the first time since you entered the cave, nothing happens and the expedition continues. However, if the same trap is revealed a second time, all players in the cave immediately return to camp empty- handed. One of the two identical Trap cards is removed from the game, and the other is put back in the Expedition card deck. The expedition ends immediately. Example: When the first Trap card - a Snake - is revealed, nothing happens and the expedition continues. Later in the same round, when a second Snake card is revealed, all explorers in the cave take off running, abandoning their treasures, and the expedition ends. Relic Cards The Relic card stays on the cave path and nothing happens. Go directly to the 'Players' Decision' Phase. The card isn't worth any points until a player leaves the cave with the card in their possession. Players' Decision Before a new Expedition card is revealed, each player still in the cave must decide to continue the expedition and delve deeper into the cave, or to return to camp to put their Precious Stones safely in their Chest. To do this, take your two Decision cards: Continue and Exit. Choose one and place it in front of yourself face-down. When everyone is ready, simultaneously reveal your cards. Continue: you continue the expedition to try to gather more treasure. Exit: you return to camp and proceed as follows: - Put your Explorer figure on the camp to remind other players you returned. - On the path out of the cave, gather all Rubies that were left on Treasure Cards. If multiple players are leaving at the same time, they equally share all remaining Rubies. If there are any Rubies left after this, leave them in the cave on any Treasure card. - If multiple players are leaving at the same time, no one takes the Relic cards. However, if only one player leaves, they take all Relics in the cave, which give them Diamonds as follows: - The first 3 Relics to leave the cave are worth 5 Rubies (1 Diamond) each, - The following Relics are worth 10 Rubies (2 Diamonds) each. - Place the Relics that you have brought back next to your Chest, and put a number of Diamonds on each card corresponding to their value. The Relics are safe until the end of the game, as if they were in the player's Chest. - Put all of the Rubies you gathered during the expedition in your Chest. Everything in your Chest is safe until the end of the game. Note: you can exchange 5 Rubies for 1 Diamond Once all players have made a decision, reveal a new Expedition card and lengthen the path into the cave. End of a Round An expedition ends when all players return to camp or when the same Trap appears twice in the cave. If there are still Rubies on Treasure cards, put them back into the reserve. Remove all Relic cards from the game that are still in the cave at the end of the expedition. Remove the second identical Trap card from the game if the expedition fell into its trap. Shuffle all revealed Expedition cards into the deck to make a new deck. A new round begins by flipping over the top card of the Expedition deck. End of the Game The game ends after the 5th round. Each player counts the Precious Stones they put in their Chest, as well as those on the Relic cards they gathered, and converts them into victory points The player with the highest score is declared the winner. In case of tie, the tied players share the victory.

Rules Source: UltraBoardGames