The idea
The deck in your hand is a ring-shaped temple, and the top card is where you're standing. Moving means counting cards from top to bottom. Number cards are trinkets and stepping-stones, face cards are traps, Aces are the four jewels and the joker is the exit. The first loop is all in the dark; after that you're timing your moves to land on treasure. Much easier to learn by doing than by reading.
Setup
- Shuffle the deck with one joker and hold it face down — this is the temple.
- Leave room on the table for up to 3 note cards and a score pile.
How to play
Do exactly one of these
- Look around (only if the top card is face down): turn the top two cards face up, keeping their order. If the second is already face up, just turn the top one. This is your only option at the start.
- Explore (if either of the top two cards is a face-up number card): pick one of those values and move that many cards, counting from the top, to the bottom. The new top card is where you land.
- Mark a path (if the top card is a face-up number card and you have fewer than 3 notes): take it off the deck and put it in your notes.
- Return to a path: put one of your note cards back on top of the deck, face up.
Where you land after exploring
- Face-down card: nothing happens.
- Face-up face card: a trap — you lose.
- Face-up Ace or number card: loot it into your score pile.
- Face-up joker: if you have all four Aces you escape and win; otherwise nothing happens.
Winning, losing and score
- You win
- Land on the face-up joker with all four Aces in your score pile.
- You lose
- You can't move, or every move would land on a trap.
- Score
- Every card in your score pile, trinkets included — so it can pay to stay a little longer.
Tips
- You may look at and count face-up cards in the deck any time, but never peek at face-down ones.
- Marking and returning notes is how you change what's on top, and so how you steer.
- Count the cards off with your thumb, then move the whole block at once.