Rules reference (condensed)
Turn. Reveal the top Journey card. A ♥ is a Refuge: take actions equal to its value (faces 10faces 10, Ace 11); each is Forage (draw), Recover (slide any discard under the Supply), or Cache: hide one card from your satchel at the location, out of use until the journey home. Only one card per location, and your refuge there ends at once, so what you hide cannot be replaced. A ♠ is an Adversary: health = 2× rank index, attack = rank index (J/Q/K = 11/12/13)health = 3× its value, attack = its value (J/Q/K = 10, Ace = 11).
Hide. Against any adversary but the Nemesis, you may Hide rather than Fight or Flee. Reveal the top Supply card: if its rank is lower than the adversary's (an Ace always is) (true rank here, so J/Q/K/A rank 11/12/13/14 — an Ace never is), you slip past and keep it in your satchel — it is your reward, and can later cover an ambush or a counter. No counter this time; then choose again — hide once more, fight, or flee. Each further attempt must reveal a card lower than the one before, so hide attempts get progressively harder, and you may hide only while below your satchel limit. A failed reveal is an Ambush: the adversary strikes the front at once and the attempt ends; then you fight or flee. A kept card stays in hand; a failed reveal is spent to the Discard.
Fighting. Each round, Strike with one card: a ♦ deals Damage double its value (Bombardment), a ♣ its value. Or Regroup: play a ♣ to the Discard and take any other discard into your satchel, dealing no damage. Or Flee: discard one card, and the adversary is reshuffled into the Journey deck. The adversary's counter strikes every traveller for its full value. Damage exactly equal to the remaining health scores a direct hit: bank Wreckage worth its attack. If it survives, cover its attack with card values and Wreckage, or you fall.
The Aces. A♥ the Destination, Primrose Hill: set aside, and turned when the Journey deck empties — you have arrived. A♠ the Nemesis, the Fighting Machine: 40 health (+10 per traveller beyond the first), 20 attack; you can flee but you cannot hide from it. A♣ the Reckoning, Terrestrial Bacteria: a free action in any fight, halving the remaining health, once. A♦ the Revelation, HMS Thunder Child: strike for 20 damage flat, and that round's counter −10. A♣/A♦ take no satchel room and count 1 if discarded.
The Aces. No Ace has a power of its own. A♥ the Destination, Sentinel Hill: the last Journey card, and an 11-action Refuge — the only chance to stock up before the journey home. A♠ the Nemesis, Yog-Sothoth: 33 health, 11 attack — the hardest adversary, but you may hide from it and flee it like any other, and fleeing only returns it to the deck, so it must be faced in the end. A♣ and A♦ are ordinary cards worth 11 (a ♦ strikes for 22), take satchel room like any other, and may be Cached and dug up on the way home.
Allies (optional). ♦/♣ faces trigger when played as your Strike: Jacks retrieve one same-suit card from the Discard; Queens also reduce that round's counter by 5; Kings may rally as any rank 2–10 of their suit (♦ doubled).
The Return Journey (optional). Can you make it back home? Remove the two spendable Aces, shuffle the Discard and one Joker back into the Supply, then forage until every satchel is full and set the Supply aside. Head back through the ♥ you passed, in reverse, with Woking last. Each stop requires a toll equal to its rank, per traveller, from one shared purse; overpayment is lost. Pay and score the stop; fail, and that traveller’s journey ends there. Wreckage seeds face-down Ruins: pay half to strip one and bank it. The Joker steals a card at every stop until you shed a face card. Companions travel as before, and Q/K may be spent as a 10.
The Return Journey. Can you make it back home? Make full use of Destination’s 11-action Refuge to stock-up. Head back through the ♥ you passed, in reverse, with The Orne Library last. Each stop requires a forfeit equal to its rank, per traveller, from one shared purse; overpayment is lost. Pay and score the stop; fail, and that traveller’s journey ends there. Your banked Findings are shuffled into the return Journey deck as face-down Shadows: pay half to dispel one and bank it, or pass it by. One Joker is also shuffled into the return Journey deck. When encountered, he takes a card at every stop until you buy him off with a face card or with your companion. Companions travel as before, and Q/K may be spent as a 10.
Companions (optional). One at a time: a ♥ face joins after its refuge-10. Q the Partner: +1 satchel limit. K the Witness: peek at the top Journey card. J the Burden: −1 limit, and the group can neither flee nor hide. Be rid of him via an adversary (not the Nemesis) — every traveller discards one card, plus one further card from any one traveller — or discard the Deliverance (10♣) free at any time. Q/K may be spent as value 10 when covering. Any companion who leaves is removed from the game, and anything hidden with them is lost.