Dark Relics

Item, Altar of Despair

I - Rules

(see AOD, p. 7)

A few items are even more dangerous than mere cursed items. These are the legendary dark relics, and their only purpose is to bring misery wherever they appear. In order to use them, the overlord must spend treachery to swap at least one copy of the Dark Relic overlord card into his deck. Then, when he plays the card, he can substitute any dark relic of his choice from the deck of dark relics for one of the treasure cards the heroes were about to receive.

The hero who receives a dark relic must immediately equip it, un-equipping other items to do so if necessary. Worse, the hero cannot unequip or drop the dark relic. In fact, the only way to get rid of a dark relic normally is to die, at which point any dark relics the hero is carrying are discarded.

Dark relic cards have a threat cost listed in the green gem in the upper left corner. In addition to this cost, the overlord must spend extra threat depending on what kind of treasure card the Dark Relic is replacing (as described on the Dark Relic trap card).

Example: the Black Ring card has a threat cost of 11. The Overlord would pay an extra 4 threat if the ring was replacing a copper treasure (for a total of 15 threat), 8 extra threat for a silver treasure (19 threat total), or 12 extra threat for a gold treasure (23 threat total).

II - References

Here is the complete list of the 5 Dark Relics in Descent. Sort by clicking on any header or sort multiple columns simultaneously by holding down the shift key and clicking a second, third or even fourth column header.