The Infected

The day wears on…

Towards noon, the marsh grows too deep and stinking even to wade. Seeing a boat tied between two willows, we commandeer it and push on, now rowing our way through the sunken field of scum.

Into the silence, one of our party coughs quietly. We pay them no heed. Why would we? But then the sneezing starts, followed by the gurgling of phlegm in their throat. Before we know it, watery blood is trickling from our companions’s eyes.

Panic-stricken, we realise that some pestilence has seized our fellow traveller. Desperate to escape the sickness ourselves, we leap from the boat.


The Challenge

Don’t be caught holding the Infected!

  • The Reader takes the Infected’s card.

  • Set a timer for twenty seconds. Start it.

  • The Reader proffers the Infected as quickly as possible to the traveller to their left. The receiving traveller must take the Infected’s card within two seconds, or be eliminated. The receiving traveller then immediately proffers the card — in turn — to their left. In this way, the Infected passes quickly around the circle.

  • The Infected must go from hand to hand and cannot be thrown. Travellers are not permitted to hold onto the card between receiving it and proffering it to the next traveller. Equally, receiving travellers cannot hesitate for more than two seconds before taking a proffered card. If any of these rules are broken, the offending traveller is eliminated.

  • When the timer runs out, the traveller who last fully held the card is eliminated.

  • Begin a new round and start a new timer. This time, the Infected’s card starts with the traveller to the eliminated traveller’s left.

  • The game ends when all travellers but one have been eliminated.

HELP FROM AN ITEM

If any traveller carries a MASK and is
eliminated, they may re-enter the game once.

Success. If the timer ends the game, the Challenge is passed.

Failure. If a traveller hesitates for more than a second before passing on the card, the Challenge is failed. 

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If the Challenge is passed, the last traveller standing survives the plague, and wins the Blessing of the Infected.

If the Challenge is failed, the party suffers the Curse of the Infected. If this is the party's third Curse, click here. 

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  • When a spirit is displeased by the party, it will lay its Curse upon them. Curses have dire consequences. The more Curses a party gathers, the more lives will be claimed in the Heart of the Wood. Furthermore, if a party incurs three Curses, the Wood's spirits will reject them and they will be forced to flee for their lives, ending the game.

    When you incur a Curse, place it in a designated area of the table so that all travellers are aware of it.

Swimming to safety, we spend the rest of the day in solitude. As dusk falls, we regroup. To our surprise, our companions look hale and hearty; there is no sign of the phantom sickness.