| Designed by | Richard Skifton |
| Players | 2 |
| Length | 15-30 |
| Extra Material | None |
A deckbuilding, dungeon-crawler using the Decktet to decipher old hieroglyphs.
"There must have been thousands of new hieroglyphs, in each cavern. We only got partly through deciphering them, when by some trap or unseen power, the caverns filled with sand. Only half of us got out. I'm not certain, but the 'glyphs we did decipher talked of crowns imbued with power…" — From the journal of Dr. Gnightly, found near his remains, circa 1856
Theme
You are a pistol-whipping, whipping-pistol archeologist, with a fedora, during the dig of a lifetime. Three ancient tombs have been uncovered! Unfortunately, another has found your prime location and claim they found it first. Rumored to have treasures imbued with power, you must quickly uncover the truth of what lies below by deciphering the writing on the wall before another takes the glory.
Setup
Separate the deck into A-4, 5-7, 8-9,
s, and finally the extended deck. Give each player three A's, and one each of 2, 3, and 4, for a total of 6 cards in their original deck. NOTE: Due to the randomness of the game, it doesn't matter much which As, 2s, etc. you get.
Playing Field:
After the personal decks are formed, shuffle together the extended deck with one from the deck and place this deck face-down on the table. This deck forms Tomb 1 of the game. Next take two s from the deck and shuffle them in with the rank 8-9 deck. This deck forms Tomb 2. Place this deck, face-down, to the right of the first. The remaining cards up to rank 7 are shuffled and placed face-down to a right most off all three decks. This deck is the final Tomb 3. You should now have three face-down decks in the center of the table. The first deck should be the extended deck (i.e. 
, 
, and The Excuse) with a single . The second should be rank 8-9 with two s, and should be a multiple of 2. The final deck should be only rank 7 and below and should be a multiple of 3. Next, take the remaining cards from the deck and place one, face-down, on the top of each deck. Finally, flip over each deck to the face-up position. You should now only see the top card of each deck.
Initial set up of the game with Deck 1, 2, and 3. Individual draw piles, discard piles, and hands are shown.
Game play
The game plays out by taking turns where each player will draw three cards and then play three cards on their turn. You will have a draw pile and a discard pile.
Draw phase
At the start of your turn, draw three cards from your personal draw pile forming your hand. If your draw pile ever comes short of three cards, draw the remaining cards, only then, shuffle your discard to form a new draw pile and finish drawing up to the three-card hand.
Play phase
Play cards from your hand to your discard. Cards can be played one-by-one or in unison with each other.
Card rank
The rank of the card is how many letters you can decipher on one of the three locations in the center of the table. After playing a card, carefully slide down the top card of the chosen deck, revealing letter-by-letter, the name of the card underneath the top card. This will start to reveal the cards' rank, suits, and title. (This sliding of the top card takes practice, however, if the next few cards are revealed by accident, it's just a game. Have fun!) The number of letters revealed will be equal the card's rank you played. You continue playing other cards until your hand is empty. You may decipher other words from other decks during the same turn, but once a card is played you must only try deciphering one location.
Correctly deciphering a phrase
The phrases deciphered follow this pattern:
- In the first tomb (the s, s, and the Excuse) the phrases are only one card each. Meaning, each time you decipher a card you can collect it.
- In the second tomb (rank 8-9 deck) the phrases are two cards long. Set the first "slider" card aside until two cards are able to be deciphered. If two cards are successfully deciphered, then you can collect these two cards into your discard pile.
- In the third tomb (rank A-7 deck), the phrases are three cards long. You must decipher three cards before you can collect. Set each "slider" card aside the deck until three cards are deciphered.
You successfully decipher a card by exposing all the letters of its name, ignoring the article "the" before its name. If you successfully decipher a phrase, you immediately pick up the card(s) you've been sliding and put it in your discard pile. Be careful! If you happen to overshoot the phrase, by any amount, the card(s) immediately go to your opponent's discard, instead. If you run out of cards before a phrase is deciphered, then your turn ends. Leave the cards on the decks as they are, and play continues to your opponent.
Note: It is important to understand that the cards collected are only the ones you have slid down to reveal the word underneath. Once a phrase is completed and collected, leave the next card on the top of the deck.
Example 1:
On Dr. Dayley's first turn of the game, he confidently plays a 4
directed at Tomb 3. After sliding down the top card of the deck he reveals the next cards title by only 4 letters. He begins to see that the word is revealing T, N, E, and T from the card the PENITENT (6
). Knowing he is safe to play the rest of his hand, he then plays an A and the A
all directed at Tomb 3. This marks the end of his turn with Tomb 3 showing "NITENT" only.
Extending your turn
If you decipher a single word exactly to the number of letters in its title (either during a phrase or when a phrase is completed), you get to draw a card from your draw pile. Thus, extending your turn.
Example 2:
Continuing on from Dr. Dayley's first turn, it is now Dr. Twilight's first turn. She knows "PE" is all that is left to fully reveal the PENITENT. She quickly plays two A's from her hand (A
and A) and finished the decipher of the PENITENT by sliding the top card down two more letters. She sets the slider card aside and draws a card as she was able to finish the current word of the phrase on the mark. She draws a 2. She now has two cards in her hand and tries for a card from Tomb 1. Playing it brave, she plays the 4 and luckily starts to reveal E, T, I, and R, deciphering the RITE card () exactly on. She gets to immediately collect this card, putting it in her discard, and even draw another card. She draws her A. She plays both her remaining cards on Tomb 2 revealing the L, L, I of the MILL (8). She ends her turn and passes back to Dr. Dayley.
Rank Modifiers, , , and
The treasures revealed throughout the game allow you to modify the rank of the card played. If the , , or is played in unison with the rank card matches suit(s) then you can modify the rank of the card by up to ±1, ±2, or ±3, respectively. This ability is stackable, even with the same treasure card.
Example 3:
A little later in the game, we join Dr. Dayley having already played a card during this turn. He now has the two cards the MILL (8
) and the WINDOW (). Playing both in conjunction, he is able to modify the rank of the MILL by two and make it a 6, 7 or 9, 10. This is because the MILL shares a with the WINDOW. Tomb 2 currently has A and L revealed from the BETRAYAL card (8), so he plays the MILL as if it were a rank 6 with the court modifier. This completes both the current card being deciphered and the phrase for Tomb 2. He is able to collect the current card on top (the "slider") and the previous card that was set aside from an earlier turn. Since he successfully completed a word from a phrase, he also gets to draw another card, extending his turn.
Crowns
The s have the special ability of modifying cards just by being revealed. If the rank card played matches the suit of the crown that is out on the table, then you can modify the cards' rank. Once collected, then only the player who owns the crown can use its modifier. s on the table are also stackable with s played from the hand.
The Excuse
The Excuse is a powerful card that, when collected and played from the hand, can be declared any rank between 1-9. Simply state what number you are assigning to it and decipher that many letters. The Excuse has no suit, so, naturally, it cannot be modified.
Game End
The game ends immediately when two of the three decks are depleted. Notice the bottom card of each deck has a. When the is the only card left in the deck, the deck is considered depleted, but their power over those suits remain.
Example 4:
In what appears to be the last round of the game, Dr. Twilight tries to grab the very last phrase from Tomb 3. She thinks she has counted the cards correctly and sees there are two more cards to be revealed, the second to last word of the final phrase and the of Tomb 3, or the final word of the final phrase. She thinks the second to last word of the phrase will be the CHANCE MEETING (7). She plays the DIMPLOMAT (8) in conjunction with both the WATCHMAN () and the BARD () that is currently out on the table from Tomb 2 being depleted. This gives her the 13 she is hoping to get in order to reveal the CHANCE MEETING. Unfortunately, as she starts to reveal the next card, it is the MARKET (6) and after revealing all the letters of the MARKET, the SEA () starts to show. This means she has overshot the phrase by 4, and must give all three cards to Dr. Dayley. The game then comes to an end as both Tomb 2 and 3 are depleted.
Scoring
Once the game ends, combine your discard and draw decks into one and remove all the power up cards. Count up the total rank of all cards deciphered. The archeologist with the most points wins. 135 points are up for grabs.
Credits
Play testers: Richard, Ashley, and Mitchell