Among these new colonists would be Arshan’s wife to be, the beautiful Princess Taira. Arshan placed himself and his servants in stasis, knowing that when he awoke after his century-long sleep the ship would be landing, and he and his beloved Taira would be reunited.

But when Arshan awoke, there was no colony ship. There was no Princess Taira. Unbeknownst to him, the craft had suffered a navigational error while approaching the planet, and had careened out of control and crashed on Terrinoth’s surface before a signal could be sent to Green Vale. Unaware of the accident and unable to find any trace of the vessel, Arshan could do nothing but wait. Decades passed, and still Arshan waited for the ship’s arrival. Decades became centuries, and centuries, millennia.

In time, loneliness drove Arshan mad with despair.

Runebound: the Frozen Wastes give you the chance to reunite Arshan with his lost love, the beautiful Princess Taira. Only problem is that she is lost somewhere on the continent of Isheim, and you have only rumor and speculation as to where she might be. The symbols featured on the adventure cards featured earlier, represent two different mechanics. The first is the princess card icon. When an encounter featuring this icon is defeated, the adventurer gains a princess clue card. These cards have various terrain hexes on them, covering all of the terrain features on the map as well as wilds, multi-tiles, and a few other surprises. These cards will eventually spell out where the princess' ship landed. To discover the location, you will need at least seven tiles on your cards. This can be seven different cards or a couple of different cards with multiple tiles on them. The seven spaces must correspond to a space on the board. ie. Karnon has seven cards in his hand. He sees that he can discover the princess, and so plays his cards. Each space around him, and the space he is currently residing in, match a symbol on one of his cards. He plays six of his cards, as one of his cards has two tiles on it that match areas. The seventh card isn't needed. Upon playing the six cards, Karnon has found the princess!

Finding the princess gives you the princess token, and prevents all other heroes from locating her. Be careful, as when you are knocked out, the princess goes missing once again, and can be found by any player. Finding her makes you public enemy number one.

Once you have the princess, you need to get her to Arshan. He can be found at Green Vale. While escorting the princess, she does not gain frost or white death, can not be killed, does not take up an ally spot, and does not count against the hero's ally limit. Upon reuniting Arshan with his beloved, you immediately win the game.

Arshan’s madness comes from loneliness and grief, and any Hero who discovers Arshan’s bride and brings her safely to him heals Arshan’s wounded soul. Husband and wife make short work of Sarscha the Vile, then order their mechanical servants to rebuild Arshan’s craft. After fond farewells all around, the couple return to their home in the stars. The Hero who accomplishes this is revered in song and legend forever.

This brings us to the legendary items and allies. Each of these represent the mighty artifacts and people found across the frigid lands of Isheim. The six Legend cards placed faceup near the map board represent the current Legendary Items and Allies that Heroes may discover using rumor tokens. Rumor tokens are the second symbol featured on the encounter cards. Each Legend card also has a difficulty level, found inside the hexagon-shaped icon on the card. This is the number of collected rumor tokens that a Hero must spend as a discovery set to recover that card. A discovery set consists of rumor tokens the Hero has accumulated over the course of the game.

Each time an encounter with the rumor token icon is defeated, you gain a rumor token. (Yes, if the encounter has both, you get both a princess card and a rumor token.) Rumor tokens, much like princess cards, each feature a terrain element. Some of the tokens are wild, and may be used to represent any terrain. To spend a discovery set (collection of tokens) and discover a Legend card, the Hero must first be on an adventure jewel space that matches the color of the Legend card’s difficulty icon (a red jewel space for a red difficulty icon, a yellow jewel space for a yellow icon, etc.). The Hero must then discard a discovery set consisting of a number of rumor tokens equal to the Legend card’s difficulty level. The terrain type of one of the rumor tokens must match the space the Hero currently occupies. Each of the other rumor tokens in the discovery set must match the terrain type of a different space adjacent to the Hero’s current space. The rumor tokens comprising a spent discovery set are returned to the pool facedown, and shuffled with the other rumor tokens. The player receives the discovered Legend card and places it next to his Hero card.

After a Hero receives a Legend card, he must draw a new card from the top of the Legend deck and place it next to the other available Legend cards.

Legendary Items and Allies, once acquired, follow the same rules as normal Items and Allies do. They can be sold, stolen, lost due to knockout, and count towards weapon, armor, and Ally limits.

A Hero may only spend a discovery set during his Movement step, after the movement dice have been rolled, but before his figure has moved. A Hero may only discover one Legend card during a given turn’s Movement step, even if he has enough rumor tokens to purchase multiple Legend cards. After a Hero discovers a Legendary Item or Ally, he may finish his Movement step as normal.

Remember, a wild rumor token may be used as a rumor token of any terrain type when forming a discovery set.

The cold winds blow, and shoulder deep snows still blanket the lands of Isheim. Next we see into the very eye of the storm.