Playing Glimstone Grab

Set up the game by assembling the five-piece board (in any sequence) and filling each cavity with any two gems. Arrange the children standees in a line in random order on the path running from the outside to the inside of the board, and place Esmeralda and Wizard Widdershins in their starting positions, with their cards to collect gems to the side of the board. In the interior of the board, place the trolls, the trolls' chest, and the prison for captured children. Assemble your event card deck according to the difficulty level you'd like to play and make other adjustments as per the directions. Shuffle the event cards and place in a facedown draw pile. Roll the die four times and remove one gem of the corresponding color from the board, placing it in the trolls' chest. Shuffle the movement cards and deal three face up to each player. In future, these will be topped up at the beginning of players' turns. Considering their movement cards and knowing which child will be snatched first, players decide together who should take the first turn. Play will then proceed clockwise from that player.

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At the beginning of each player's turn, an event card is drawn (one player can be delegated to perform this task.) Action the event card, then the active player, in consultation with the other players, picks one or more movement cards to advance either the Wizard or Esmeralda around the board. The wizard flies clockwise around the perimeter of the board and is able to take gems from the sky; Esmeralda walks along the path, accessing the gems on the ground. Players must always play all their movement cards of one colour only and just on one hero, collecting one gem per card played.

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Over a series of turns, players attempt to maneuver the heroes so they are opposite each other. There are two meeting spots per board tile, where the gem cavities are opposite each other. When the characters meet, they can perform a banishment spell if they have the correct gems between them. For example, Hornald the blue troll, can be banished on his hard setting with two blue gems. The gems can come from one or both hero's sacks and are placed on the Hornald tile to keep him bedazzled and unable to find his way back to the clearing. (We've found players like to "excommunicate" the banished troll by removing the tile and gems from the centre of the board.) Only one banishment can be performed at a time, and one of the heroes must leave the meeting place on the next turn. Banish all the trolls to win.

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Since players can lose if all children are captured at the end of someone's turn, occasional rescues of captured children can be arranged. The gems are inherently magical, but blind. When three or more of them are in one of the hero’s sacks, they have enough magical power to fly to the trolls’ clearing and make a big flash of that colour in the hope of rescuing a child. If the trolls had captured a child of that colour, the gems bedazzle and distract the trolls (who don’t see well) enabling that child to escape and go to the back of the line. The trolls keep the gems either way, so players should be careful not to collect a third gem of the same colour unless there is a corresponding child to rescue.