Nemesis

In short: when an ordinary monster kills you on a hunt, it does not just wander off with your gold. It keeps it, grows a level stronger, earns a name of its own ("Greymaw, Taker of Maren's Purse") and prowls the place where you fell for a few days. Your chronicle and your rumour board remind you. Go back, slay it and win your gold back, with a trophy for your bestiary; but any hero who finds it first may claim it.

How it works

How a nemesis is born

Only a hunt makes one: a boss, a quest's foe and a duel never do (a duel cannot kill you anyway). When a monster you hunted kills you:

• it keeps the gold you dropped, 15% of what you carried (gold in the bank is safe, as ever). That gold used to vanish; now it is on the monster, to be won back.
• it becomes 1 level stronger than it was, and keeps its trait.
• it takes a name of its own and an epithet with yours. Its name is never a hero's, a quest foe's or a boss's.
• it prowls the tile where you fell, beside your cairn, for the rest of that day and 3 more. You wake at the next dawn with those 3 days to settle the score.

The fight's result tells you what it has become.

Where you see it

• At dawn, your chronicle reminds you of it and where it waits, and the day's list starts with it: where, how much of your gold it holds, and how long it stays.
• In the Daily Happenings, the next morning's paper may tell the whole realm that the beast that felled you has a name now, and later who slew it (see The Daily Happenings). The paper prints its name, never its epithet, which carries yours, and if you keep out of the paper you are "a traveller" there.
• On the rumour board, it comes first, marked as your nemesis, above the day's rumours. It takes none of their places, and it stays there until it is slain or gone.
• On its tile, it takes the place of the step's encounter: no random encounter, no other hero on the road. The place card shows its name, level and trait, what it holds, how long it stays, and the honest reading of the fight as you stand, in your stance (the same reading a lair gives; see Bosses). While it prowls, nothing else is hunted there: the Hunt button becomes Face, with its name under it.

Fighting it

Facing it is a hunt: it costs a turn (or one of Quiet Roads' free hunts), your stance counts, a wary hero may slip away from it, and losing means death. It fights as an ordinary monster of its level, with its trait, at full health every time; the day's omen does not change it.

• Win, and you take the fight's usual gold and experience, and all the gold it holds on top. It goes into your bestiary as a trophy.
• Beat it but let it run, and it lives. A cowardly nemesis (a goblin, a bandit, a witch…) breaks and flees when badly hurt, as any cowardly monster does, unless you fight it boldly. It gets away with all it holds and still prowls its tile; you take 50% of the fight's pay, as from any monster that flees, and no trophy.
• Lose, and it takes the gold you drop too, and grows another level, up to 3 above the monster it was. A death to a nemesis never makes a second one.

Another hero's nemesis

Any hero who comes to its tile sees whose nemesis it is and whose gold it carries. Hunting there means facing it; slay it and its gold is yours, and the glory with it. Its victim reads in their journal, and in their next chronicle, who got there first. If it kills you instead, it takes your gold and grows, but it stays the other hero's nemesis: it carries their name, not yours.

When it leaves

After its days it slips away into the wild, unslain, and its gold with it, as the gold of a death always went before. Your chronicle tells you it has gone. If you begin again after the dragon (see Bosses), your nemeses still prowling leave at once: they belonged to the old climb.

Trophies

The bestiary keeps a Trophies list: every nemesis you slew, with its name and epithet, what it was, and whether it was revenge (it had killed you) or a claim. A trophy is a record of the tale, not an item: it gives no attack, defence or gold.

Tips

• Read the place card before you face it. It is a level stronger than the monster that beat you and fights at full health; if it outmatches you, come back with full health, a potion, a blessing, a level or the stance that counters its trait.
• Face a cowardly nemesis boldly, or it will run with your gold when it is nearly beaten.
• You wake at the inn nearest where you fell, so your nemesis is usually a short walk from your bed.
• Bank your gold before a risky hunt: a nemesis can only take what you carry.
• Another hero's nemesis is gold for the taking, but remember it has already killed someone.