Retreating

Avoiding the sunk cost fallacy is a virtue. If the adventurers choose to cut their losses and retreat, use this procedure.

Begin by determining whether or not the guild can actually run away.

• If the monster is particularly fast or has a magical form of locomotion, the monster can probably just automatically hunt the guild down.

• For example, a guild scurrying over open fields has no hope of outpacing a flying dragon.

• If the monster is slow or awkward or is tied to its lair, it probably won’t pursue the guild in the first place.

• For example, a fire elemental bound to a magical hearth has no ability to pursue the guild. The guild merely needs to leave the zone to end this Challenge.

• If the enemy’s mobility is about equivalent to the guild’s, or if the guild has the opportunity to shake off pursuit by utilizing difficult terrain, they can attempt to flee using a group test.

To successfully escape, the guild needs to make a group test of Pentacles (Tests of Fate). If this attempt takes place during a Challenge, each adventurer needs to play a card as a miscellaneous action. Then, following the rules for group tests, the player with the highest Pentacles and the player with the lowest Pentacles each test fate. If any adventurers do something clever, like pushing over a bookcase as they run past, they give favor to one of these tests.

• If the guild gets 2 hits, they get away cleanly.

• If the guild only gets 1 hit, the GM introduces a complication. For example, the pursuing creature catches up and grapples the character in the last place of the marching order, or it triggers a trap that makes the obvious escape route dangerous.

• If the guild gets 0 or fewer hits, the guild is cornered by the enemy with no clear path of escape.