So I've started up a Nature's Ire run, and ran into this peril card in between encounters.

The hero furthest from the exit of the current encounter places this card in his play area.

Each time this hero spends movement points, they must be spent to move towards the closest master monster .

If this hero defeats a master monster or is defeated, discard this card.

This card remains active until it is discarded.

It got placed on Quellen, who was the farthest from the exit. Now, my question is, what happens if there are no master monsters on the map? According to RAW, this hero is now completely immobilized and must wait until a master monster appears somewhere on the map before they can travel anywhere, or have a special ability which allows them to "move up to their speed", or "place their figure within X spaces" which is not the same as spending movement points.

This is particularly terrible if the next room or two contains no monster spawns. They will thus be forced to lag multiple rooms behind the rest of the party, twiddling their thumbs.

However, I cannot see any other way to interpret this. There are no clauses which state that if no master monsters are on the map, you may ignore this card's effect.

This seems like a completely devastating effect for a 2-hero group, and a significant annoyance for a 3/4 hero group.

What do you guys think? Oversight, or just a potentially powerful peril card?

I don't think the card has any effect if there are no master monsters, but that's just my opinion.

I would agree with Zaltyre. The key line is:

Each time this hero spends movement points, they must be spent to move towards the closest master monster.

If there is no master monster to which to move towards, I think you are free to spend them however you wish. After all, the whole thing makes no sense if you are forced to have one hero be essentially immobile.

But as with any other rules conflict, if in doubt, send the question to FFG

I agree with Zaltyre and any2cards.

Thanks guys. I'll play it that way for now. It does seem like a gray zone, but the card seems a little excessively cruel otherwise.

If this helps with intent at all, here is the flavor text:

Roots thrust through the dense dirt of the forest floor, grabbing your legs and pulling you towards the enemy.

I guess if we go by this ruling, these magic roots are inert while the master monsters are inactive, rather than simply holding the hero in place until one appears.

Thanks guys. I'll play it that way for now. It does seem like a gray zone, but the card seems a little excessively cruel otherwise.

If this helps with intent at all, here is the flavor text:

Roots thrust through the dense dirt of the forest floor, grabbing your legs and pulling you towards the enemy.

I guess if we go by this ruling, these magic roots are inert while the master monsters are inactive, rather than simply holding the hero in place until one appears.

Or the roots are pulling the hero towards the next encounter, because that s where the next enemy would be ;-)