Axendende Skurum: a solitaire card game of atavistic horror. The Sleeper is lost in a dark emptiness.

In this space there exist leviathans, monstrous horrors that destroy lost souls. The Sleeper must collect dark elements and create materials to protect itself until it can find the path to the waking world. Set Up: Shuffle the DARK EMEMENTS together to form the MIND deck. Take 4 of those cards to make the VOID deck. Take 3 cards to form the WILL deck. Your hand is referred to as CONCIOUSNESS. It begins empty. Another initially empty deck, called WOE, exists under the IL DORMANT. From the LOST SOULS set of cards remove the Sleeper (IL DORMANT) and place it as in figure 1. The BURDEN deck must now be built. Remove the strength 1 and 2 LOST (VEKIs and SERPIs) and one PORT DE VEKUM. Shuffle these. Remove the strength 3 and 4 LOST (PIKANTIs and DRAKs) and one PORT DE VEKUM. Shuffle these and place below the first cards. Remove the strength 5 LOST (IL FAM) and one PORT DE VEKUM. Shuffle these and place below the other cards. (You may use other methods for constructing the BURDEN deck as you please.) How To Play: The game is played on a virtual 3x3 grid. It is entirely column based; diagonals have no meaning. (Rows are synonymous with columns in this context.) Distance is measured by the number of objects in each column. The game is won when all of the LOST have been destroyed. The game is lost if the WOE deck ever contains more than 4 cards. There are two phases; RISING and FALLING. RISING phase: Remembering: The player moves one card from MIND to CONSCIOUSNESS. If CONSCIOUSNESS has less than 3 cards, then more cards can be moved to bring it up to 3. The player may make two (2) actions. An action is one of CREATION, INTERVENTION, GRIEVE, STRENGTH, REMEMBER and FORGIVE. CREATION: A player may create one mineral (PIK, BEN, MANT, FLOR, KROX, MUR) from the cards in CONCIOUSNESS. This new material may be placed in any empty area of the 3x3 grid. Incomplete minerals may not be created. (i.e. a MANT requires 4 cards. See the Minerals section.) INTERVENTION: Move one card from CONSCIOUSNESS to a mineral. The card must have a matching type and the mineral must never have more than 4 cards. GRIEVE: Move one card from MIND TO VOID (mandatory). Move two cards from MIND to CONSCIOUSNESS. STRENGTH: Move one card from CONSCIOUSNESS to WILL.

Figure 1. Initial placement of cards.

REMEMBER: Move one card from VOID to the bottom of MIND. FORGIVE: Move one card from WOE to VOID (or remove it from the game if it is a LOST). This action may only be done once per turn. Finally, two adjacent mineral may swap their locations. FALLING phase: Draw the top card from BURDEN and place in location E. (Refer to figure 2). Take the appropriate number of cards from the VOID and place them under this card as indicated in its upper left corner. If this card is a LOST (i.e. not a door) then perform the movement action (see LOST Movement). If the card is a door (PORT DE VEKUM), then move 3 cards from VOID to MIND and remove the door from the game. The LOST now attack. A leviathan does damage to the nearest mineral (including IL DORMANT) in its column. Some leviathans (PIKANTU and IL FAM) also do damage in adjacent columns (see explanation on how KRUX attacks). Some leviathans (SERPI, DRAK, and IL FAM) do two points of damage. Damage is done to a mineral by removing cards from that element equal to the damage amount. Damage is done to IL DORMANT by moving cards from VOID to WOE depending on damage; the attacking leviathan then takes equivalent damage. Now, the player activates his minerals to damage the leviathans. Only the closest (adjacent) leviathans may be attacked. One mineral may be activated (caused to attack) at no cost. Additional minerals may be activated at the cost of one WILL (move a WILL card to VOID). If a leviathan takes damage but has no cards, it is destroyed. (I.e. a VERMI requires 2 hits to be destroyed.) If a LOST *ever* does not have a valid target, then it moves towards location K by the shortest route until it again has a target. LOST Movement and Attack: When a LOST comes into play all LOST (including the new one) move either clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW). At the top right of the new card there are at most two symbols to the left and right of the diamond symbol. LOST that match the symbols on the right side move CW. If they match those on the left they move CCW. If two LOST occupy the same column, then the last to move is placed behind (further from IL DORMANT). A LOST never moves from location K. Also on the LOST cards are the symbols for their attacks. Each asterisk indicates one point of damage. Diagonal arrows indicate that damage is also done to adjacent columns. For example in figure 2, if IL FAM is in position F, then it will do 2 damage to PIK and 1 damage to BEN. MINERALS: PIK: (3 cards) This sharp structure damages adjacent leviathans when attacked. This damage is simultaneous to the leviathans attack. It has a range of 1. When activated by WILL, it does 1 damage to all adjacent leviathans. (In Example (see figure 2): PIK does one damage to the first LOST in F and H, both when attacked and when activated.)

MUR: (4 cards) This bubbling tangle of orbs reduces an attacks effectiveness. All attacks in its column are reduced to have a damage of 1. (In Example: MUR protects PIK, MANT and itself from attacks from F, and it protects FLUR, IL DORMANT, and itself from attacks in A and J.) MANT: (4 cards) This powerful crystal focuses energy to damage an enemy. It does 2 damage to one leviathan. It has a range of two and attacks any column. (In Example: MANT can attack B through K. FLUR and IL DORMANT block A.) FLOR: (4 cards) These funnels collect precious Dark Elements from the void. At the beginning of the RISING phase, move one card from VOID to CONSCIOUSNESS for each FLOR. KRUX: (4 cards) This odd structure has ports for shooting many small projectiles. It has a range of 2 and does 1 damage to *all* leviathans in its column and adjacent columns in one direction only. (In Example: The KRUX may damage all leviathans in either B and C, D and E, or H. I and K are out of range.) BEN: (2 cards) These spheres shoot out tendrils that cause attacking leviathans to be unable to attack. It has a range of 1. In order to use its ability, one WILL must be spent (move a WILL card to VOID) per leviathan. (In Example: the BEN may stop any attack from B or E for each WILL spent.)
Figure 2

FAQ: Q: What is this strange language on the cards? A: It is an artificial language similar to Esperanto and Ido. It began as an attempt to maximize the utility of the Roman alphabet. The X, for example, makes a sh sound. All vowels are tense monophthongs (just like Spanish). The E in BEN is pronounced like bet. PIK is PeeK. MANT is like diamant. KROX is KROsh. MUR is like moon. Q: What if the VOID is empty? A: Take cards from the MIND. If the MIND is empty then skip the action. Q: What if more damage is done to a mineral than it has cards remaining. A: The mineral absorbs all the damage and is destroyed. I.e. a SERPI can only destroy one mineral per turn. Q: What is the movement and attacking order for leviathans? A: Leviathans act inside to outside, CW starting from A. Q: What is adjacency? A: Two cards are adjacent if there are no other cards between them and they are on the same column.